episode_0039

“Annulment… you say? How could you say such a thing…?”

Looking at Lizley’s dumbfounded expression as she questioned me, I felt a sense of exhilaration.

“Why the surprise? While I was down there, I told Father, and he agreed. Official notice will go out to Gracia by next month.”

“What about my will? What about Gracia’s will? You’re proceeding without asking us a single word?”

Hatred and murderous intent.

Before my regression, I thought these were the chaotic emotions I had neatly put away after taking everything from her and killing her with my own hands.

But judging by this physiological revulsion I still feel, no matter how I look at it, I still dislike Lizley.

I dislike that extravagant and beautiful appearance, yet the subtle slyness it exudes.

I dislike her stubbornness and venom, how she hasn’t offered a single word of apology for her actions toward me – no, not even a thought of admitting her own wrongdoing.

I dislike the chilling way she discards an innocent person who merely stands before her, as if they were an object, all for her own comfort and prosperity.

I am so disillusioned by the fact that I can never change her, not even through a regression that should be impossible in this world.

Dislike, hatred, animosity, and then murderous intent…. The temperament that had stabilized so astonishingly after my regression rears its head once more.

As I faced Lizley, who was still chattering impudently, the two flames within me, Ignorance and Rakshasa, seemed to growl lowly.

Should I just kill her?

If I just reach out my hand like this, no… even without lifting a finger, the current me could burn that woman to ashes and annihilate her.

‘Calm down. If you tear her to death, that won’t be the life you wished for…’

But along with Seolhwa’s cold, low whisper echoing within me, the faces of the precious people I had reconnected with after my regression flashed through my mind.

Rosalie, Irha, Pisces, Marisa, Professor Isera, my family… and the faces of those with whom I would continue to form connections in the future.

In this life, unlike the last, I want to live honorably in the sunlight with my precious people.

Killing trash that can’t even be recycled here would only make me a mere wanted criminal.

Even if I were to kill her, I certainly can’t do it here and now.

“Hoo…”

I composed my heated breath, circulating cold air throughout every corner of my body to soothe the two enraged little flames.

When I get angry, desperately circulating cold air like this… it makes me get used to how to use it right away, doesn’t it?

‘Alright… relax, relax, one is hoo… two is ha…. hoo-ha hoo-ha… Would you like to try?’

‘Stop provoking me…’

It sounds like she’s teasing me with a calm, flat tone, but I know it’s Seolhwa’s effort to calm and soothe me.

“What… say something! Are you mute?”

I disliked the incessant chatter of Lizley’s voice, so I just cut her off.

“Shut your trap. Why do you lack learning ability? You still don’t realize that trying to intimidate me and put on airs like that… doesn’t work anymore?”

“Tr…trap? Did you just curse at me…?”

Well, it’s not like she’s ever properly heard curses in her life… In fact, she should be grateful I even used the word “trap.”

She should consider herself lucky I didn’t say ‘gob,’ tsk.

Come to think of it, Lizley was the one who called me mute first. Ugh, what a hopeless bastard.

“Enough. I didn’t call you here to listen to your unproductive whining. A unilateral annulment notice? Of course it’s possible. Why do you think it wouldn’t be?”

“A contract… isn’t it? And it was a contract between families… you’re breaking it unilaterally? Simply because you don’t like me? Ah… perhaps you’ve found another woman? Rosalie? Is it her?”

Hah, she’s heard a little something and now she’s going on about contracts.

Unfortunately, this is precisely what happens when someone who’s only read one book tries to act smart.

Sadly for Lizley, I was an avid reader in my childhood, having read the best etiquette book, ‘Logic Bro, Get Out!’, ten times over.

While she was learning flashy magic and whatnot in her family, I was learning how to argue.

“It seems you don’t know much, being a legal amateur, but a unilateral annulment notice is perfectly possible. From the time of the engagement, what money has Gracia actually spent, and what strength has it been to Etgard?”

“That’s…”

She might be fumbling for words, but she doesn’t really have anything to say.

Whether she had an affair with Leon or not, Etgard was the one holding the power in this engagement from the start.

Father only overlooked Gracia treating us contemptuously all this time because of me.

“We entered into this engagement for your family’s name and title, and you for debt relief. The engagement ceremony, and the financial support we discretely provided to your family afterward… we unilaterally provided everything.”

“Yes… money…. But what about our family’s honor when we’re annulled? What about me, a woman who has been annulled? Shouldn’t there be compensation?”

I shook my head, scoffing at the foolish woman’s empty-headed logic.

“Honor? Compensation? You were the one who suggested keeping the engagement a secret in the first place. Where is there any honor to be damaged externally when it was never publicly announced? Not just anyone can claim alimony either.”

Lizley’s lips were blue and trembling, but there was truly nothing she could object to.

The fact that Ras Etgard was an extreme pushover allowed me to be free from everything, and I felt anew the vicissitudes of life.

“At least… if I had had some kind of relationship with you, it would be different. There’s magic again, gaining popularity, that can discern whether one is a virgin or not. But… we haven’t even kissed, let alone had a relationship, have we?”

Well, whether Leon and she slept together or not, and whether she’d be caught by the virginity-detection magic, is none of my business, so it doesn’t matter.

“Still, since there’s been some affection between us, I’ve already asked Father to roughly waive the debt. He’ll take 60% of the principal and a little interest. Even this much is practically charity.”

In any case, Gracia is poor right now, so even if they tried to repay only 30% of the borrowed money, their family’s foundation would tremble.

It’s a bittersweet situation where, in reality, I’ve let them off the hook, but due to harsh reality, it doesn’t seem like I have.

It’s a situation where I can recover a reasonable amount while still putting on airs and saying, “We’ve done our duty~”

Not bringing up the affair and cornering her at this timing?

Although scolding her would be satisfying, not bringing it up yields overwhelmingly more benefits.

Why would I purposely provoke a powerful psychopath and draw them into the fray already?

Moreover, if it’s the Leon I know, he won’t help Lizley in this situation unless it directly concerns him.

He’s a guy who, fitting for an Imperial Prince, only acts if there’s at least a superficial justification.

No, in fact, he’d probably threaten Lizley to deal with it herself.

I know all too well that even if Lizley were to say she wanted to break up with me, he’s such an idiot he’d dismiss it with, “Ah, that’s not very interesting… rejected.”

“The annulment will be handled by the family elders anyway, and you at least have to ‘break up’ with me externally. You’re not going to claim alimony for this, are you? For your information, the debt reduction is almost entirely waived here, okay?”

“Suddenly… please explain why you’ve changed so much. Please, Ras, you weren’t like this before.”

Seeing her desperately clinging to me in such a strange way, I roughly caught on.

This girl probably told Leon that I had expressed my intention to break up while I was in Sephir.

But there’s no way that personality-deformed person would have accepted it.

Whether he told her to harm me, or to try to seduce me again to take me back… he must have made some bizarre demand.

Therefore, Lizley’s inability to let go of Leon in this life is nothing short of a punishment for her.

Because she’ll have to throw her humanity, her minimum dignity, conscience, and pride all to the ground and trample them.

Meanwhile, there’s no way I’d put up with it, so she won’t gain anything worthwhile.

“Simply put. You have no charm. You’re not kind, nor are you interesting. You lack consideration, and you can’t make me comfortable. Your only merit as a lover is ‘pretty,’ and I’ve been an idiot all this time.”

And honestly, even her supposedly excellent looks fall far short compared to Semere, as well as Rosalie and Marisa.

Furthermore, even when compared to the cute Pisces, or Irha, who has become drastically more beautiful lately, Lizley has no external comparative advantage whatsoever.

“…..If you had so many complaints, it would have been better if you had told me sooner…”

I cut off her words once more, as she was about to blame me again.

“Enough. And well… more than anything else… isn’t it bizarre to keep feeling affection for someone who doesn’t even love me, no matter how hard I try? That’s enough. I don’t want to argue anymore.”

Look.

Even now, you cannot speak of love to me, not even falsely.

What kind of existence was Ras Etgard to you, exactly?

Lizley’s final moments before the regression, unfolding like a mirage before my eyes, intersected with her current self and passed by.

At that time, when I grabbed her neck, snapped it, and burned her deceased body to nothing but a handful of ashes, scattering them to the wind….

Did Ras Etgard shed tears in the burning Imperial Palace that day?

I don’t precisely remember if I shed tears that day, but if I did, there might have been a bit of lingering attachment and ambivalent feelings.

But both lingering attachment and ambivalent feelings, evaporated with the flames, must have been fleeting emotions that ultimately left no trace.

Love, it is so different from what Semere imprinted on my soul like an indelible mark in her final moments, which remained with me even after my regression.

“And… honestly, thinking about it now, I don’t think I really loved you either.”

“…..!”

I didn’t love you.

My words, “I didn’t love you,” seemed to be quite a shock, as she shut her chattering mouth.

“Love… yes. I’ll make you look at me again, make you love me. Please… just give me one more chance… please…”

Seeing Lizley collapse to her knees ten years earlier in this life…

“Was it this easy?” I thought, and a hollow laugh escaped me.

Yes.

Of course, I know all too well that this is not born from genuine regret or love for me.

If it were an plea born of belated regret, wouldn’t she, even if it killed her, say something like, ‘Actually, I loved you…’?

“Lizley, even a chance isn’t free. Let me tell you beforehand… buying my chance is very expensive. Try clinging on diligently. If you cling on for about a million years, I might consider it?”

Of course, it was immensely enjoyable to see that woman, who was detestable down to her very cells, kneeling and pleading before my eyes.

‘Rasgun, have you perhaps ever read a genre called ‘Hupijip’ novels? I hear it’s a popular genre in the Empire these days…’

‘Hupijip? What’s that… no. It feels as strange as you, Marisa?’

Suddenly, a story about a certain novel genre that Marisa, whom I met on the battlefield before my regression, had told me, came to mind for no reason.

‘Hehe… it’s a novel where the surrounding characters regret their actions towards the protagonist, become devastated, and obsess over them. Usually, the protagonist regresses to the past… and is betrayed by their fiancé or fiancée…’

Marisa, who enjoyed the popular literature circulating in the marketplace, went on at length about ‘Hupijip’ or whatever it was.

‘Anyway, the most important thing is… not to wash and reuse bad people. Otherwise, the readers will revolt. Of course… usually their personalities are so messed up that even if given a chance, they can’t take it.’

‘Wow, that’s really harsh.’

Lizley, kneeling and pretending to repent, looked like an irredeemable villain from one of those cheap novels Marisa had once talked about.