The 1001st Round Begins
The protagonist has died.
The 1001st round begins.
My dazed voice slipped out before I could stop it. One second I’d been lying in the dormitory bed, and the next I was staring at a glittering chandelier and a long stretch of crimson carpet. On the raised platform stood Adelia in an immaculate uniform, not a single drop of blood on her.
What the hell… is this a dream?
Before I could even begin to process it, a red system window crackled into existence in front of my eyes.
Observer's Eye is replaying pre-regression records.
Loading death log from the previous round.
My vision flashed white. A horrific scene flooded straight into my mind.
4 a.m. A piercing scream tore through the dormitory hallway.
“S-save me! There’s someone—urk!”
The dorm supervisor’s desperate cry didn’t last long. Emergency bells clanged wildly as the area in front of the dormitory turned into pure pandemonium. At the center of the chaos, a girl with platinum-blonde hair arrived barefoot, still in her pajamas, oblivious to the fact that her feet were torn and bleeding.
“Roy…?”
Her pupils shook violently. There he was—Roy—lying in a pool of his own blood with a gaping hole in his abdomen. The body that should still have held warmth was already ice-cold.
“N-no… this can’t be…”
She scooped the blood-soaked corpse into her arms. Howling like a wounded beast, she sprinted toward the infirmary, then the Holy Kingdom’s outpost.
“Fix him! Sob—bring him back, damn it!”
She hurled Roy’s body at Yuriel’s feet and screamed. But the saintess only shook her head with a grief-stricken expression. A soul that had already departed could not be recalled, not even by divine power.
“I’m sorry… I’m too late, Adelia. He’s already—”
“Shut up! Shut your mouth! You’re a saint, aren’t you? Why can’t you do it?!”
Adelia stroked Roy’s cheek. He didn’t move. He wasn’t breathing. Her salvation. Her faith. It had been shattered so easily by someone’s malice.
“Who did this…”
Crimson tears of blood streamed from her eyes.
“Which bastard dared to touch what’s mine?”
She didn’t bother hunting the culprit. That would take too long. Instead she chose the fastest, most certain method.
She plunged the dagger into her own heart without hesitation.
“Wait for me, my Roy.”
Blood bubbled at the corner of her mouth as she smiled.
“I’m coming to see you again.”
Regression complete.
“……Huk!”
I finally gasped, yanked back into reality. My heart was hammering so hard it felt like it would burst. What I had just witnessed wasn’t a simple video. It was the memory of my own death.
Fuck… So I really was murdered.
The memory came rushing back. Last night, in my sleep, someone had slipped into my room. A black silhouette like a shadow had strangled me and driven a dagger into my throat. I had no idea who it was. Kyle’s gang? No, they weren’t nearly skilled enough. This was a professional assassin. Why would anyone send one after an F-class extra like me?
“Miss Adelia! The oath, quickly!”
A thunderous shout snapped me out of my thoughts. When I came to my senses, I was back inside the entrance ceremony hall. An old man with a flowing white beard stood on the platform, roaring. It was Marcus, the academy headmaster and grand sage.
“The entrance ceremony is being delayed! Place your hand on the Holy Grail at once!”
At his bellow, the platinum-haired girl on the platform slowly lifted her head. It was Adelia. But she wasn’t looking at Marcus or the Holy Grail. Her gaze was vacant, staring into empty space.
She had just regressed. After watching my gruesome death, she had thrown her own life away without hesitation to turn back time.
Adelia…
My chest tightened. I’d thought she was insane, but no man alive could remain unmoved by such pure, reckless devotion—someone who would stab herself in the heart for him without a second thought. I instinctively started to call out to her.
That was when it happened.
“……!”
Our eyes met across the platform. Even among thousands of people, she found me instantly. Life flooded back into her previously dead crimson eyes. She clapped a hand over her mouth, tears welling up in disbelief.
“Roy!!”
She let out a scream that threatened to tear her throat apart and kicked off the platform.
Boom—!
The stage she had stepped on shattered. The shockwave was so strong that even Marcus staggered. She moved at a speed beyond human limits, hurtling toward me like a cannonball.
“W-wait, what?” “Get out of the way! It’s an attack!”
Students screamed and parted like the Red Sea. I had no time to dodge.
Crash!
“Waaaaah! Roy! You’re alive! You’re alive!”
She tackled me to the floor. Grabbing my collar, she buried her face in my chest and wailed.
“I couldn’t save you, I’m sorry… sob… there was too much blood already…”
“H-hey, wait a second…”
“Thank god… thank god you’re really here… sob sob…”
She didn’t care about the stares around us. The problem was me. Thousands of new students. Teachers on the platform. Even the imperial family in the VIP seats. Every single eye was pinned on us.
This is bad… really bad…
If I accepted her here, I would be branded as “the Hero’s man” from the very first day of school. That meant becoming the enemy of the entire student body and painting a fresh target on my back for the assassin who had already killed me once. Drawing aggro when I still didn’t know who the culprit was would be suicide.
I have to pretend I don’t know her for now.
With trembling hands I pushed her shoulders away.
“U-um… who are you??”
“……?”
Adelia froze mid-sob. She looked up at me with wet eyes.
“Roy…?”
“How do you know my name? Do we know each other?… This is a bit much for our first meeting…”
I acted as flustered and terrified as I could. Murmurs rose from the crowd.
“What the heck? The hero must have mistaken him.” “Kek, how embarrassing for that F-class loser.”
Adelia’s expression gradually hardened. The tears in her eyes dried up, replaced by deep despair and emptiness.
“Ah… this is fucking awful.”
Strength left her hands.
“Right… of course… you don’t remember… you wouldn’t…”
It was only natural. Memories of previous rounds belonged only to the regressor. But that common sense didn’t apply to her. To Adelia, a world where I couldn’t remember her was a “failed world.”
“Then… this world is unnecessary.”
She staggered to her feet. Her lifeless eyes were chillingly cold. Without looking back, she headed for the auditorium exit.
“Miss Adelia! Stop right there!”
Marcus shouted from the platform. The grand sage’s face flushed with rage as he slammed his staff down.
“This is a sacred entrance ceremony! What kind of disgraceful behavior is this?! Return at once and swear the Hero’s Covenant—”
“Shut your fucking mouth.”
Adelia spat the words without even turning her head.
“……What?”
“Ugh. So annoying. An old man’s nagging, the oath… it’s all making me sick.”
She slowly turned to glare at Marcus. The look in her eyes was pure murderous intent.
“Say one more word and I’ll rip your tongue out.”
“……!”
Even the man called the grand sage stopped breathing. The entire auditorium froze. This wasn’t simple rebellion. It was real. Overwhelming killing intent that could only be emitted by someone who had experienced nine hundred and ninety-nine deaths and massacres.
Marcus’s mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. The guards and other teachers didn’t dare lay a hand on her. She walked out like a ghost, each step heavy. Her back looked so fragile that it seemed she might pull out a blade and kill herself again at any moment.
Shit… damn it…
I broke out in a cold sweat and stood up.
“Ouch… my head…”
I pretended to stagger and clutched my forehead.
“The shock must have… I’ll head to the infirmary for a bit…”
I slipped through the stunned students and ran in the direction Adelia had disappeared.
I found her behind the academy, beneath a secluded zelkova tree—the same place we had first met in the 999th round.
She was sitting with her back against the trunk, face buried in her knees, shoulders shaking as she cried without making a sound.
Just as I thought. My pretending not to know her had pushed her to the brink of turning her back on the world.
Haa… I lost two percent. Sigh…
I let out a long breath and walked toward her. Sensing my presence, she lifted her head. Her unfocused eyes turned in my direction.
“Why… did you come?”
Her voice was hoarse.
“I’m a stranger to you… just leave. Before I kill you.”
A small dagger was already in her hand. She really intended to regress again. I gave her a bitter smile and walked right up to her.
“Adelia.”
“……Don’t say my name.”
“Hey, accomplice. You’re just going to abandon me and go alone?”
She froze like a statue. The hand holding the dagger stopped in midair. Very slowly, she raised her head to look at me.
“……What did you just say?”
“I said accomplice… we made a promise, didn’t we?”
I crouched down so our eyes were level.
“You threatened to cut it off, then said you’d erase the smell and hugged me. After that you jumped out the window, remember?”
“……!”
Her eyes shook as if an earthquake had struck. Disbelief. Suspicion that she might be hearing things.
“You… really… remember?”
“Yeah. Everything.”
“How? Regre—ugh, how can you… Roy’s just an extra, how could you…”
As expected, Adelia still can’t say the word “regression.”
“Who knows? Maybe you liked me so much you dropped a miracle on me.”
I chuckled and held out my hand.
“Nice to meet you again, Adelia. In this life too.”
Clang.
The dagger fell from her fingers. She reached for my hand with trembling fingers, then hesitated, afraid that if she touched me this dream would shatter.
I grabbed her hand first. It was warm.
“Ah……”
A sigh escaped her lips. Still holding my hand, she slowly sank to her knees as if her legs had given out, like a believer receiving her god.
“Ah… ah… Roy… my faith… my god…”
She pressed her lips to the back of my hand and rubbed her cheek against it.
“I’m so glad… I wasn’t alone… you were here too…”
Large teardrops fell from her eyes, soaking my hand. She sniffed me like an animal, confirming my warmth.
Then suddenly she yanked my hand forward.
“Check for yourself.”
“Huh?”
“My heart… my heartbeat…”
She roughly shoved my hand between the buttons of her uniform shirt.
“W-wait! Adelia!”
There was no time to stop her. My hand was pulled inside her shirt, slipping past the thin undergarment until my palm pressed against impossibly soft, supple flesh. Her full breast enveloped my hand as if to swallow it. Warm, tender, dizzying.
But she showed no trace of shame. She pressed my hand firmly against the left side of her chest, right over her heart.
“Can you feel it?”
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Her heartbeat transmitted directly through my palm—wild, frantic, crazily fast.
“This… it’s all yours.”
She looked up at me with hazy eyes and whispered. My hand remained buried against her breast, unable to move. Her body heat, her scent, her pulse flowed into my veins.
“It will only beat for you. If you tell it to stop, it will stop. So…”
“Never die again. Don’t leave me behind.”
“……Got it. I promise.”
I stroked her damp hair as if I had no choice. Only then did relief spread across her face.
But after a moment of blissful daze against my chest, she suddenly looked up. Her eyes narrowed.
“But Roy.”
“Y-yeah?”
“Why did you pretend not to know me earlier?”
The emotion from a moment ago vanished, replaced by a chilling aura. She kept my hand pressed to her breast, eyes flashing.
“I ran to you because I was happy to see you. But you pushed me away in front of everyone. Like I was a stranger.”
Jealousy? No—it was hurt and betrayal. I had to answer carefully. One wrong word and her SAN could plummet back to -99%.
I swallowed hard and put on my most serious expression.
“Haa… well, you see…”
“……?”
“You’re too beautiful.”
“……Pardon?”
Her eyes widened into perfect circles.
“Think about it. You’re the empire’s hero and the prettiest girl in the entire academy. If an F-class nobody like me claimed to know you, what do you think would happen?”
I looked straight into her eyes.
“I’d become the enemy of the entire student body… no, every man in the empire. I’m not strong enough to protect you yet. So I decided it was better to hide our relationship for now.”
“Ah……”
Her mouth fell open in a daze. The murderous aura melted away like snow. It wasn’t rejection; I had been trying to protect her because I treasured her (and because she was beautiful). To a woman mad with love, there could be no more perfect answer.
Her pale cheeks flushed bright red like ripe apples. She squirmed, still holding my hand to her chest.
“Y-you think I’m… pretty?”
“Yeah. The prettiest in the world.”
“Hehe…”
She giggled like an idiot. It was hard to believe this was the same woman who had threatened to rip out the headmaster’s tongue moments ago.
Success. The immediate crisis was averted. More importantly, I could continue my relationship with her in this round as well. In fact, sharing the memories had deepened our bond even further.
Now I just need to find out who killed me.
That was when it happened.
Observer's Eye has activated.
A burning gaze is watching you.
“……?”
I reflexively turned my head and scanned the surroundings. No one was there. Only tree branches swaying in the wind. But the sticky, ominous sensation crawling down my spine was no illusion. The assassin who killed me? Or perhaps…
Yuriel?
The saintess’s voyeuristic gaze from the previous round suddenly flashed through my mind. The 1001st round… this life was going to be far more insane than I had imagined.