From that point on, I was dispatched to kill my father’s enemies—young and old, man and woman, high-born and low.
But as I committed these murders, I was happy. When I was killing people, I felt as though I was truly part of the family.
And after I had carried out all those assassinations for him, my father, having seized control of the Empire of Southenklein, executed me for a string of murders involving nobles.
And so my first life came to a close.
After the curtain fell on my first life, I found myself waking up in bed one day before my match with the knight.
I was stupefied, of course, unable to grasp my situation—but when I gazed on the still-childish face staring back at me in the mirror, I finally realized that I had been sent back in time.
And so, learning from my mistakes, I deliberately let my opponent get the better of me.
Of course, I still had all the assassination skills I had picked up during my first life, so if I really wanted to, I could have killed him at any moment… But I knew that if I did, I would never be accepted as part of the family.
Instead, I dodged the man’s attacks, let him get in a couple of nonlethal blows, and ultimately surrendered. Satisfied by this display, my stepmother stood up from her seat, positively beaming.
Ha-ha… Will she pay a little more attention to me now?
From that point on, I decided to make a name for myself not in swordsmanship but in academics. Perhaps if the others didn’t see me as a powerful swordsman, they wouldn’t be so eager to keep their distance.
I continued my independent studies, mastering a wide range of subjects—history, business management, jurisprudence, and even imperial governance. By the time I had finished, I had committed to memory almost every book in the family’s collection.
All that was left was to obtain my father’s approval, so I decided to enlist my brother’s assistance. To gain his trust, I completed several assignments for him to submit to the Imperial Academy, where he was enrolled as a student.
And as a result—
“Ha-ha! Thanks, Brother! Because of you, I got the highest score in class!”
“I see… That’s great news.”
—my brother finally acknowledged me as his own flesh and blood.
As proof of his regard, from that point on, he turned to me for all his assignments at the Imperial Academy. I even pretended to be him and took exams in his place. Who could have guessed that the disguise techniques I picked up in my first life as an assassin might come in handy here, of all places?
Before long, Louis was even asking me to attend his classes.
I was overjoyed to have won his trust, but more than anything else, I relished the time I spent as him at the academy.
I could study to my heart’s content, and I even found someone I could legitimately call my friend…
And yet…it was all my brother’s life…
I had my misgivings, but I continued living as his stand-in.
And then…when we were both eighteen years old and it came time for us to graduate from the academy—I met my end, poisoned by my own brother.
And so my second life came to a close.
In my third life, I perished at nineteen, when my stepmother set fire to the detached cottage I had grown up in.
My fourth life ended when I was seventeen. I was torn to pieces by a beast my father had purchased illegally to appease my sister’s selfish whims.
In my fifth life, I was mistaken for my brother and assassinated at the age of sixteen.
And then came my sixth life…
“…Hugo. You are to be executed for conspiring to overthrow the government. The sentence will be carried out at noon tomorrow.”
My own father read out my death sentence, impassively announcing my fate before my cell in the Imperial Palace’s deepest dungeon, where only the empire’s most serious criminals were kept.
“You should consider this an honor, Hugo… Though you were useless in life, you can still die for your brother, Louis—no, for all of House Grenville.”
“……”
This time, I had elected to do nothing.
I hadn’t become an assassin and killed at my father’s behest.
I hadn’t stood in for my brother and bolstered his academic reputation.
I had done nothing at all for my stepmother, my sister, my grandfather, my house, or my country.
And as a result of my idle life—I was to die as a scapegoat for my brother, who had allowed himself to get caught up in some stupid plot.
“Hah. Ha-ha…”
“…Hugo?”
Laughter built up inside me…I couldn’t hold it in any longer.
When the man I had always looked up to most, my dear father, appeared before me, I had let myself hope he was there to save me. Or if he wouldn’t save me…I thought perhaps he had come to tell me that he had finally accepted me as his own, as a parting gift before saying farewell.
Ah… I was such an idiot. I couldn’t help laughing at myself.
It was pointless to hope for anything from a man like him. I should’ve known that.
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
“…So you’ve finally lost your mind?”
Lost my mind? Yes, that’s right.
I was broken, beyond repair… I had no need for this family anymore.
And so—
“…?!”
—I plunged the dagger I kept concealed on my person straight into my own chest.
“Ha-ha… Ha… Next time… I’ll make sure…”
“……”
As the man who used to be my father stared back at me, I raised the corners of my mouth into a smirk.
Next time…
You… Louis… Stepmother… Anna… Every member of rotten House Grenville… I’ll make sure all of you suffer.
And so my sixth life came to a close.