Chapter 8 – Imperfect Me

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I had the Krahen keep an eye on the three protagonists and gathered the criminals of Zeitlitz to form a new force.

The next thing to do was to deal with Lieselotte’s death flags from the original story.

Of course, there was no need to rush.

In the original story, Lieselotte appeared starting from Chapter 2, the Academy arc.

So, I only needed to prepare countermeasures before entering the Academy.

But that didn’t mean I could afford to be complacent.

It was better to deal with it early and not have to worry about it later.

That way, I could have peace of mind.

 

“What should I do?”

“Why are you overthinking it? It’s not that hard.”

Rota responded to my almost rhetorical question.

As he said, the solution was simple.

I had gone through dozens of loops and accumulated enough experience.

I had more than enough ways to avoid the death flags, and it wasn’t difficult.

But that was precisely why I was conflicted.

“It’s boring! There’s nothing to do! Isn’t the content too lacking?”

“That’s because you’ve gone from being a veteran to becoming fossilized oil.”

Rota replied with a tone of pity.

Yeah, in the beginning, I couldn’t find a way and died helplessly.

Sometimes I got lucky and avoided the death flags, but most of the time, I died without being able to do anything.

I learned by dying repeatedly, like in a souls-like game, and eventually found a solution, but the problem came afterward.

Collecting the 21 cards wasn’t easy, and I had to repeat countless loops.

As a result, I became a veteran, and nothing was as boring as a game with no content left.

“What loop is this?”

“79th.”

“Wow, damn, that’s a lot!”

I couldn’t help but curse.

Seriously, had I really done this 78 times already?

No wonder it wasn’t fun anymore.

It wasn’t a new life—I had lived the same life 78 times.

There were no updates or new content added.

I had become a madwoman who had cleared a dead game 78 times.

Ah, not a madman, but a madwoman.

 

“Is there really nothing?”

“Who knows.”

Rota was indifferent.

It wasn’t his first time dealing with this, so it made sense.

Let’s break it down.

During the three years at the Academy, Lieselotte faced three major death crises.

There were many minor incidents, but there were three main events that happened regardless of who the protagonist was.

One per year—it was a bit arbitrary, but it was a game world, so it made sense.

One of them was already taken care of.

The serial disappearances of women in the capital, Königsberg.

An incident that occurred in the second year of the Academy, where 58 women went missing in the imperial capital.

Some of the victims were female students at the Academy, and one of them was me.

The culprits were a criminal organization in the capital.

To be precise, it was a group of devil worshippers behind the organization.

They were trying to sacrifice virgins for some ritual, and the criminals kidnapped them to supply the victims.

In the original story, it was never revealed what kind of ritual they were trying to perform.

The protagonist stopped the ritual before it could be completed.

Of course, I knew what they were trying to do because Rota told me.

They were trying to summon a great demon.

But the problem was that the ritual was flawed and destined to fail.

In the end, only innocent girls died, and the devil worshippers just wasted their time.

Anyway, these guys weren’t a problem anymore.

With the new force I had gathered, I would absorb all the criminal organizations in the empire.

The empire’s criminals would effectively be under my control, and the kidnapping incident in the second year wouldn’t happen.

So, one problem was solved.

The other two weren’t that big of a deal either.

One was an incident that occurred in the first year of the Academy.

During a Halloween event, students gathered for a courage test, and one group accidentally discovered a hidden room.

The hidden room contained ancient artifacts, but it was also filled with traps.

The students who first discovered the room, unaware of the traps, entered out of curiosity and unfortunately all died.

Lieselotte was part of that unfortunate group.

The solution to this incident was simple.

Just don’t enter the hidden room and report it to the Academy’s teachers.

Of course, I could brute-force my way through the traps without any issues, but the artifacts weren’t particularly useful, so it was easier to just report it.

The other incident happened in the third year.

It was a large-scale event that marked the end of the Academy arc.

A terrorist attack targeting the Academy.

It was a horrific incident where half the students died, and several major characters were killed.

I had died so many times because I couldn’t stop this early on—just thinking about it made me sick.

 

Aside from these three events, there were a few other incidents where Lieselotte could die.

But those were uncertain futures that might or might not happen at this point.

However, the three events above were different.

They were fixed futures.

If I didn’t take countermeasures, the incidents would inevitably occur and lead to Lieselotte’s death.

So, I needed to prepare.

Of course, at this point, it wasn’t a problem that could trouble me.

I was just tired of repeating the same methods to solve the same problems.

 

“The hidden room can be dealt with when the time comes, but what about the Academy terrorist attack?”

“Deal with Ophelia first.”

Rota answered indifferently.

His suggestion was the method I had used the most.

By taking out the mastermind behind the incident, the terrorist attack could be prevented.

The methods varied each time, but the approach of eliminating the main culprit remained the same.

“Hmm…”

It was the simplest method.

But since I had solved the incident the same way every time, I was getting bored.

I wanted to try a new method, even if it was a bit risky.

After all, I wasn’t planning to achieve any achievements during this loop, so I didn’t have any specific goals.

As long as I gathered as much information as possible and survived, that was enough.

“What about siding with the reformists?”

“That could be interesting, but what if the protagonist dies?”

“That’s true.”

Rota replied when I asked.

He seemed indifferent.

Seeing his nonchalant attitude, I sighed.

Honestly, it wasn’t a problem that could be solved immediately, so there was no point in worrying about it now.

 

“By the way, what about Konchita?”

Rota changed the subject.

It wasn’t an important topic, so it didn’t matter.

“I sent him to Luciano with a collar.”

The bloodstained old rat, Konchita.

Even after being dragged to the estate, he kept trying to escape, so I placed an ancient curse on him.

It was an old Eastern curse I had stumbled upon a few loops ago.

The curse marked the target’s neck with a red tattoo and was originally created to prevent slaves from running away.

If the target tried to escape or the caster activated the curse, it would strangle them.

It was a simple curse, but its effectiveness was outstanding, and the difficulty of breaking it increased with the caster’s skill, making it very useful.

Especially for a mage like me, who had accumulated decades of experience through loops, it was nearly impossible for most people to break.

Right now, he was just a petty criminal, but if left alone, he could cause major trouble.

In the original game, he didn’t even appear—he wasn’t even an extra.

But after repeating loops, I couldn’t help but notice his existence.

At first, I dismissed him as a petty thief.

But after one incident, I became acutely aware of him.

I don’t remember which loop it was, but he snuck into the Aurich-Wesermünde estate in Zeitlitz and stole confidential documents.

The documents were related to a coup, and because of that, I was in serious trouble.

He sold the documents to the Crown Prince, and I had to work hard to resolve the issue.

Fortunately, I had planted spies in the palace, so I could respond quickly.

But to silence the Crown Prince, I had to assassinate him earlier than planned.

This led to tighter security in the palace, making it difficult to assassinate the Emperor.

Originally, I had planned to assassinate both the Emperor and the Crown Prince simultaneously after all preparations were complete.

In the end, the coup succeeded, but it was a lot of work.

I even considered giving up halfway and trying again in the next loop.

But I didn’t want all my efforts to go to waste, so I pushed through and succeeded.

However, remembering how much I struggled back then, I couldn’t leave this thieving man alone.

So, in every subsequent loop, I made it a priority to find him.

After finding him, I either placed a curse on him and brought him under my control or immediately cut off his head.

I couldn’t risk leaving him alone to cause more trouble.