This was how it had to be. If Siegfried didn’t leave, my unidentified killer wouldn’t come.
My hands were trembling—not out of fear, but adrenaline. I wasn’t afraid of dying. After all, I’d just come back to life again anyway.
Still, the farther away Siegfried got, the more anxious I felt. Because once he was gone, it would all begin.
“I just hope it won’t hurt too much,” I muttered with a sigh as Siegfried disappeared from view. I clicked my tongue; I hadn’t meant to say that out loud. But if I didn’t go through with this now, it’d be another meaningless death.
This time, I figured if I was going to die anyway, then I wanted to strike back, just a little. I reached behind me and felt for the dagger tucked into my belt. I’d concealed it there for this very moment. I wanted to make the other side feel even a fraction of what I’d suffered.
I turned my back to the entrance, this time with heightened senses. I focused on every little sound I heard.
And before long, there it was—the sound of faint breathing. But no footsteps, which meant they were being cautious. Still, the soft rustle of fabric and quiet breathing told me someone was drawing closer.
Come on already. I gritted my teeth, resisting the urge to spin around, and waited for them to get near me. When I heard them hold their breath, I took it as a signal to turn around, but...
“Kreis!”
I felt a heavy impact and was thrown onto the ground. I whirled around in a panic and saw...
“Ahh! No...! Why?!”
Siegfried lay in a heap on the floor.
Why? What is he doing here?! He should be with the prime minister!
I’d lived through this moment over and over again, so why was Siegfried here this time?
“Siegfried!”
I rushed over and pulled him into my arms, and my hands brushed against something slick on his back—blood. Siegfried’s blood stained me as I held him.
“No... Why? You’re not supposed to be here!”
No... Someone tell me this isn’t real. That it’s just a dream...a nightmare! That’s all I want to hear.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. This was the one thing I couldn’t allow to happen. I’d fought so hard to prevent this. If Siegfried died, then it was all meaningless. I hadn’t thrown my life away for this.
“What’s the point if you’re the one who dies?” Tears blurred my vision. Siegfried had died because of me, again.
“Kreis...”
The warmth of his body was fading fast, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. He’d taken the blow to his back when he shoved me out of the way, and now I could only watch with dread as the life slipped from his body in my arms. I wanted to help him, but I couldn’t. Even though I knew this was all wrong, there was absolutely nothing I could do.
He couldn’t use magic in the throne room. That was why he’d jumped in.
But he didn’t need to protect me. I could just die and come back. I didn’t matter here—I could die a hundred times and it would be fine.
“Why did you protect me?! I was supposed to die, not you!” I cried in a total panic.
He reached out with trembling fingers to touch my cheek. “No... I-I can’t let you die. I can’t...accept that...”
His fingers were so cold. I gripped his bloody hand and pressed it to my cheek, trying to warm it as I begged him. “Siegfried, please don’t talk. Just stay still!”
“Kreis, you’re...”
“Please!”
He was losing so much blood, and there was no way for me to stop it.
“Kreis...”
“Wait, please wait! Please don’t leave me, Siegfried!”
But my prayers were in vain. His eyelids slowly fell, and his body went completely limp. The weight in my arms told me it was over. He was nothing but an empty shell now.
“No, no...”
He died gazing up at me. A single tear had slipped from the corner of his eye, and I scooped it up with a trembling finger.
What was he trying to say at the end? I wondered. And what was going through his mind? Pain? Agony? Hatred?
I bit down on my lip as the memories of my own countless final moments came flooding back. I hadn’t wanted him to experience even a single one of those feelings. But why had it come to this? I still didn’t understand. I didn’t know what went wrong.
But there was one thing I did know.
“My, my... I certainly didn’t expect King Siegfried to die. What a shame... He was a once-in-a-millennium talent.”
The person standing before me now was the one who’d killed Siegfried. I held his body close as I cried out to them.
“Why? Why would you do this?!” I’d considered so many possibilities. I’d even thought it might be Raiden, one of Siegfried’s closest aides, but I’d never once suspected her. “Why, Lady Risthea?!”
Yes, the woman standing before me and looking down at me was Risthea Kahrs: Siegfried’s fiancée, his trusted confidante, and someone who’d always treated me with kindness—or so I’d thought.
Why was she trying to kill me? She’d always smiled so kindly by Siegfried’s side. Why was she still smiling after she’d just killed him?
I didn’t understand. I couldn’t understand how she could smile as if nothing had changed. The Risthea standing before me now was like an entirely different person.
“Oh, I like that face you’re making... It’s the look of someone betrayed by someone they truly trusted. How utterly wonderful,” she said with a quiet chuckle. The sound made it even more unbelievable that she was the same person I’d known.
Who was this? I stood there speechless as Risthea placed a finger against her chin, as if pondering something.
“Your mana isn’t very strong, but I sense divine energy from you. Hmm... This might still work.” Her eyes sparkled with happiness, but I didn’t know why. Siegfried was already gone.
“You have the eyes of someone burning with vengeance. Yes, those eyes are what I want. Maybe even you could do it with that kind of rage. I’ll lend you my power.”
“To do what?”
“It’s true that I killed King Siegfried. But was it really just me? Can you be sure I was the only one who would’ve killed him? It just happened to be me this time. But maybe it’s the world that never truly loved him. Maybe it’s the whole world’s fault,” she said.
“You are the one who killed him! I watched you do it, just now!”
“Ha ha ha. Yes, you’re right. I did kill Siegfried this time. But it’s your fault, you know, because of that little show with Gilles and Claude. If you hadn’t sent them away like that, I wouldn’t have had to step in and get my hands dirty.”
“Are you trying to say you’ve been manipulating Gilles and Claude?”