The Miracle You Wrought
He had screamed, and raged, and drowned in grief—and with every life he lived again, he grew numb.
The comrades he had once laughed and talked with slowly ceased to register as human at all, fading into little more than scenery. Even the enemies who had once driven him into despair no longer stirred any wish for revenge. No matter what he cut down, guilt no longer came. He did not know how to stop.
To protect a single person, he had repeated death and failure thousands of times. When he died, he began again; when he fell, he rose; and he wished for only one ending.
A future in which Odelli was alive.
"……."
Odelli watched that life of his repeat without end.
"Stop now……."
Every memory he had endured crashed over her like a tidal wave. It was a quantity of memory she could not possibly bear. She was still watching his memories, and yet there was so much that she failed to understand most of it. Before a single truth, Odelli simply lost the words to speak, and was overwhelmed.
A man who had lived for her, and died for her.
A man who, at the beginning and the end of every timeline, had looked only at Odelli.
Hundreds of failures. Thousands of deaths. He died and died again, rose and fought again, and even after losing everything, he did not stop.
Again, and again, and again—without fail, again.
The Jewel of Regression, shrinking smaller and smaller. The ring he had never once taken from his hand, no matter how many times he returned.
Her heart cinched until it seemed it could no longer beat, and the world before her eyes slowly went black.
Love, hatred, pity, devotion, regret, fury, madness. Each of those emotions tore Odelli's mind to shreds.
"……Stop!"
Before she knew it, she reached out—toward him, drawing his sword yet again inside memories that had no end.
"Stop now. Please……."
She knew it was a time already gone. She knew better than anyone that he was no longer in this world.
"You've done enough. I'm all right. I am. For my sake…… why go this far……."
But before the hand she extended could reach him, Ludville died.
At last, he truly died.
Having saved Odelli, he sank into eternal rest.
She had thought it strange. Right up to the verge of the divorce, her body had been wasting away, until she was doing little more than waiting for the day she would die. Then, from some moment on, she had felt her strength return, as if she were coming back to life—enough that she could work as a healer in the village where she had newly settled. She had believed a miracle had occurred.
But the truth was…….
What even a god could not do, you carried through to the end in a human body.
She shut her eyes tight and clenched the ring in her fist. The blue light spilling from the Jewel of Regression had faded until it looked ready to go out, as if to announce that Ludville's memories—no, his life—had ended.
"……."
Without thinking, Odelli prayed. If there was a next life—if such a thing truly existed—she hoped he would live for no one but himself.
"……Don't get tangled up with someone like me."
Please, be happy.
In that instant, light erupted from the ring on her hand as if it had exploded.
And then—
Crack—
A fissure split the Jewel of Regression, and it scattered into countless fragments.
"……!"
Shards of blue light stitched the empty air like a river of stars. In a single moment, those lights surged in upon Odelli.
At the same time, everything changed as if caught in a gale. Light bled outward, sound warped, and time turned inside out.
And then, darkness.
"……Haah!"
The next moment, Odelli opened her eyes on a damp floor, gasping for breath.
This place…….
Moisture-slick stone walls. A rough, cold floor of stone beneath her knees. The underground of House Cardel—the secret room.
"Cough……!"
Her insides wrenched. Something climbed back up her throat.
Blood.
Hot, sticky, and rank with iron, the taste filled her mouth. Red blood spilling past her lips soaked the hem of her white dress. It was a familiar pain.
For an instant, the ground trembled faintly. Then detonations cracked one after another, as if fireworks were bursting, and cheers rolled in from far away.
"Long live House Cardel!"
"Scion of the dragon! Blood of heroes! Long live!"
"Glory to the Luminere Empire!"
The signal of that day, repeated year after year.
"……I've come back."
To six years ago—the day Ludville had come to her and proposed a Contract Marriage.
Odelli let out a ragged breath and glanced down at the ring hanging loose on her thumb. It was the ring that had kept Ludville company through all the long years since the Jewel of Regression had been set into it. At its center, the gem that had barely held its shape was gone completely. Not even dust remained.
It had given Odelli one last chance.
"……Why."
She had prayed, clearly, that he would not entangle himself with someone like her, and that he would be happy……. Of all moments, to be returned to this one—what cruel joke of fate was it?
Click—
Then came the sound of a lock turning. Odelli pushed herself halfway up before she realized it.
"You look more intact than I expected. Should I have reinforced the barrier a little further?"
Had she been hoping, without knowing it? The moment she saw his face, the light in her eyes went cold.
Because it was Gawin.
Eldest son of House Cardel and its official heir—Gawin Cardel. He was a brother born of the same parents as Odelli, and yet he had been fortunate enough to be born with no ability at all. Thanks to that, he could be called the Messenger of God and stand as the hero who represented the empire. The lifeblood wrung from Odelli was the stepping-stone of his glory.
"Don't imagine you may rest simply because the rite is finished. This is where it begins. There is a mountain of things left for you to purify."
Odelli scarcely listened. Her eyes stayed on the door. Every nerve in her was fixed on Ludville.
At that, Gawin let out a thin scoff.
"What. Do you think someone is coming to save you?"
"……."
"Don't be selfish. If you alone endure, the entire empire lives. A Purifier is born bearing that heavy duty."
He walked slowly, looking around a room thick with the smell of blood. His tone was perfectly calm, but a cold sneer lay beneath it.
"For the house. For the empire……. Unless you mean to throw away the sacrifices of the dozens of ancestors who have given their lives until now, put those foolish thoughts away."
"……."
"The moment a Purifier fails to do her part, nothing will remain. Not this empire. Not you."
At those words, Odelli laughed outright—a hollow, open laugh.
Gawin's face froze at once.
"What is so amusing?"
Once, she had believed. In the mission House Cardel preached, and in the fate of a Purifier. Not anymore. The Odelli of now held every memory from before the regression, and all of Ludville's memories besides. She could hardly fail to see that they glorified sacrifice and dressed obedience up as duty.
"The empire collapses because of me alone?"
"Yes. Which is why……."
"It sounds very much as though you can do nothing without me. And you, who would call yourself a hero of the empire."
"……."
"You seem to be admitting that you yourself have no ability at all."
Fury sparked in Gawin's eyes. Displeasure, bewilderment, and a wound to his pride blazed up all at once.
"……How dare you."
He ground his teeth and glared at her.
"You dare judge me with that filthy mouth?"
His footsteps struck the floor, heavy. Gawin came close enough that their faces nearly met and whispered, low as a snake.
"Don't delude yourself. You are the most worthless thing in the world. Unlike me, the heir, you are nothing in this house but a tool."
He seized her by the collar and hauled her up.
"A thing like you—kill it, bury it, and that is the end. Then the next Purifier will be born. Just as it has always been……. Do you know what that means?"
He curled the corner of his mouth. It was an arrogant, razor-edged smile, the kind only a man who did not know the word defeat could wear.
"It means God is always on my side."
A thought came to Odelli then. Her life had been taken from her. Her years had been stolen. Even the smallest rights owed to a person had been trampled. All of it had been stripped from her, root and branch, and still she had never once taken revenge upon them.
……So that's it.
At last, a single chance had come—the chance to cut herself free of the shackles of the past and choose with her own hands.
Decided, she tilted her head slowly and asked, quiet.