The Warrior Marigold

A fishy scent of blood permeated the tip of his nose.

The dead man and Marigold.

“Master, I, I…”

“It’s not your fault.”

Lancel quickly took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood off Marigold.

“This person… he’s a noble, Master.”

He knew.

He was a member of the Imperial Knight Order, always sticking close to the Sixth Prince. A man of the Imperial Knight rank, without a doubt. But he was dead from a single strike of Marigold’s sword.

Lancel gritted his teeth as he saw the Blindweed powder clutched in the dead man’s hand.

If things had gone wrong, Marigold could have become blind again. The thought of that made it hard for Lancel to suppress something rising from deep within his chest.

—Just kill him.

It was as if something was whispering.

Kill? Who? The Sixth Prince?

‘Should I?’

Ever since he learned that the Sixth Prince was leading the imperial reinforcements, hadn’t he thought this might happen?

—What am I hesitating for? Just kill him. Isn’t it harder to kill once than twice?

Right. Burning in flames wasn’t so unbearable that he couldn’t endure it.

This was also for Marigold.

The only thing that awaited a commoner who murdered a noble was beheading. If you were unlucky, immediate execution.

—I have to kill him, right?

A decision slowly began to take root in Lancel’s heart.

For him, this life was just one of the countless moments he had repeated.

‘The one who annihilated the command in the train, the culprit is Lancel Dante. Marigold leaves this place and lives far away in hiding… Neat.’

As soon as he finished all the calculations in his head, Lancel moved.

Clang.

He picked up the sword that had fallen to the floor and quietly muttered.

“Don’t come out of this room. In 30 minutes, I’ll make it as if nothing happened.”

He thought it through.

Honestly, it was fucked up.

He was the kind of guy who always called for a sword.

‘Come to think of it, I have nothing to lose?’

Right.

Let’s kill him.

Burning at the stake? So be it.

He could just start over from the beginning.

That’s what he thought.

“Master!”

Until Marigold’s arms embraced Lancel from behind.

“No, Master!”

“What?”

“I, I don’t know, but still, please don’t.”

Lancel read the fear in her trembling voice. He suddenly felt the cheap necklace around her neck, making a clinking sound. She wore it until she fell asleep.

“Let go, Mary.”

“No! I’m afraid something will happen to Master, I don’t want to.”

“What are you talking about? You’re not just making up weird things, are you?”

“I… I wish this was just my imagination too.”

A struggle ensued with a corpse lying on the floor.

Lancel couldn’t hide his bewilderment at Marigold’s stubbornness, which he had never seen before.

‘I’m just going to die anyway?’

But he couldn’t say that out loud. She would think he was crazy. Even though he was so calm and collected.

“Please don’t, Master. I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but please, never do it, please.”

Marigold’s grip was weak today. Her arms, desperately wrapped around Lancel’s waist, trembled incessantly.

He could shake her off easily with a little force. But he didn’t.

Lancel was silent for a while. After a long time, he spoke again.

“Then will you die?”

To be honest. Yes.

He was saying it out of frustration.

“If the train stops now, it’s the western part of the continent. If you go down the river, you’ll find a port city. From there, if you take a boat to the island, you’ll find an archipelago.”

Lancel recited the map of the continent, which he had already clearly drawn in his head in the previous iteration.

“If you take a lump of gold coins, you’ll probably live a life that no one envies. The island has fish, shellfish, and crustaceans that taste really amazing.”

Originally, he wanted to sort everything out and then tell her.

Lancel was laying out that plan in advance, solely to persuade Marigold.

“Anyway, you’re just a commoner, at best a Mercenary, so isn’t that a successful life? Just accept it. You don’t have any other options anyway.”

“I don’t want to. Happiness gained by using Master has no meaning to me.”

“…There’s no other way, you know? Why can’t you understand me today?”

“One day…”

Marigold’s choked voice was transmitted through her back as a vibration.

“One day… the day we were together at the Guild with Master was the last. And one day… walking around the marketplace was the last.”

What was she talking about?

Lancel was speechless for a moment.

“One day, walking through the plaza together was the last, and one day, buying snacks and eating them while walking down the street was the last.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Master, all the moments I’ve seen and heard while being with Master are my last.”

Lancel knew that she was reminiscing about the distant past.

A girl who lost her entire family at the age of ten and was kicked out. A fallen Miss who lost her noble status and wandered the streets in an instant.

It was a feeling felt by a woman who had lived such a life. A person who had lost many precious things.

Lancel vaguely felt it through the skin that was touching.

“Don’t think that I’ll be happy if I survive by using Master. Please let me decide my last moments myself.”

Marigold’s voice trembled violently, but it was full of determination.

“Master is the one who needs to be safe here.”

Lancel rubbed his tired eyelids. Honestly, it was unexpected.

“I’ll go and turn myself in now. Master.”

He briefly thought about what it would be like if the roles were reversed. He didn’t need to think long. If Lancel was in Marigold’s position, he would have bowed deeply and saved his own life.

But Marigold was different. He honestly didn’t expect that her bond with him would be so deeply rooted within her.

Lancel felt his mind grow cold.

At the same time, he had to admit it.

He had been a little heated, unlike himself.

“No. There’s no need for that.”

Lancel put down the sword he was holding.

And he found a dagger from the waist of the corpse lying on the floor. It was for decoration, but it was a sharpened blade.

“Mary. Don’t misunderstand this. I don’t intend to die either.”

“Yes? Master?”

Lancel used the knife to stab his limbs in one swift motion.

“Ma, Master!”

“Be quiet.”

“Master… why, why are you doing this! Master!”

Now that he looked, Marigold’s face was covered in tears.

In her eyes, it must have looked like her Guild Master had gone crazy and was harming himself.

‘This is still okay. I have amazing recovery abilities.’

He caught his breath.

If he was going to do it, he had to do it right. If he did it half-heartedly, he would only get caught.

Lancel stabbed his stomach in one swift motion. The hard blade avoided vital organs and pierced through the peritoneum. This would look like a serious injury to someone who didn’t know.

“Kuhhhhh!”

He felt blood rushing through his body. His teeth chattered. He barely managed to stop his eyes from rolling back.

He was breathless.

“Why, why this…!”

“Ca… call someone, qu, quickly!”

“Yes? Ye-es?”

Marigold didn’t know what to do.

Lancel groaned in pain and squeezed out his voice.

“Wa… wake up everyone who’s sleeping! Some crazy bastard came in and… stabbed me, hurry!”

22.

“…What?”

“Yo, You have to go quickly, Your Highness!”

A commotion in the middle of the night.

The Sixth Prince seemed to wake up completely.

As he moved to the command section, which was used as a party hall, he heard a loud noise.

“Where did all the guards go! Tell me the truth right now!”

“No, we are not… Your Highness…”

“Dare you sell Your Highness’s name?”

The first thing he saw was the guards, who were at a loss for words at the scolding. The Prince had moved them all to another location the night before.

He had intended to kidnap Marigold while no one was watching.

But now the situation was strange.

“Sir Lancel’s condition is not good. Your Highness.”

“Lancel’s condition? Suddenly? What’s wrong?”

“It would be faster to check it yourself.”

As he approached the place where the soldiers were gathered, he saw Lancel, who had bandages wrapped around his body.

The wounds on his arms, legs, and torso were serious at a glance.

“While stopping someone who was trying to kidnap Mary last night, he was stabbed by a sword…”

The Sixth Prince’s expression hardened.

He didn’t notice the injured Lancel. He only saw one body lying next to him.

“He was holding Blindweed. I don’t know where he got such a precious poison. I think it’s strange, so shouldn’t we investigate it?”

“Don’t do anything useless!”

The Sixth Prince felt that the situation was turning strange.

“Sir Lancel’s condition is serious. I think it’s right to send him back to the Imperial Capital as soon as possible for treatment.”

When he heard that Lancel and Mary were urgently returning to the Imperial Capital for treatment.

Only then did the Sixth Prince look around at the remaining troops around him.

The First Imperial Reinforcement Army was about to face the battlefield, but the atmosphere was as chaotic as that of defeated soldiers. They didn’t look like people who were going to war at all.

Only an army with a lot of morale was piled up in front of him.

“Your Highness, it is better to request additional reinforcements now…”

“Shut up.”

The Sixth Prince also came here because he wanted to be honored.

No commander wanted to return empty-handed.

23.

“Tell me, what the hell happened?”

When Lancel was put on a carriage and arrived at the Imperial Capital, people with familiar faces were already out waiting for him.

The Count Palatine, who had received the news by letter first, rushed out first.

He never thought that his family’s son-in-law would be on the verge of dying before he even arrived on the battlefield.

“What is this, a capable knight before he even arrives on the battlefield?”

The Count Palatine was restless and anxious as Lancel was escorted. His daughter becoming a widow was a nightmare to imagine.

Lancel, supported by Marigold, limped out of the carriage.

“Please take me to His Majesty. I have a lot to tell you.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I have to go back. To the battlefield.”

“With that body?”

His face, which had completed a forced march with a body full of holes, had long since lost its color.

But his eyes did not lose their bright light.

“The Sixth Prince’s army will also be annihilated soon. We need to form a new reinforcement army and depart.”

“…Choose your words carefully. Are you serious?”

Lancel’s words were based on evidence.

Why?

Because he had already seen it on his way here.

==========

—Event lost! The route of the Sixth Prince ‘Karin Craig Phrygia’ has been lost.

—Event lost! The route of the Fifth Prince ‘Erwin Cole Phrygia’ has been lost.

==========

Ah, that’s how it happened.

The loss of a route meant one of three things: death, capture, or disappearance.

The Imperial Reinforcement Army was headed to a fierce battlefield, but the probability of being taken hostage was higher than the probability of dying in battle. In order to trade the enormous ransom placed on the Princes’ heads, negotiations would now drag on for at least several years to decades. Naturally, they would have to be out of the route.

‘Tsk. This iteration is ruined.’

He didn’t care if the Sixth Prince died or was captured, but the Fifth Prince was different. Wasn’t this an iteration where he had been running only for that man? To end up without even seeing his face.

Lancel could only sigh as he heard the news of the Fifth Prince with a hollow heart.

Well, still.

“I have to do what I have to do.”

Lancel looked at the side of Marigold’s face as she supported him. He met the expression and eyes of the guy who was full of worry and concern.

For him, this world was an infinite time, a prison of time where he could die at any time. He had rammed into it and reset it more than once or twice if things didn’t go well. Because it was okay to do that. Because he would just open his eyes again even if he died.

But Marigold was different.

—Every moment is my last.

For her, it was always the last.

Today too.

Tomorrow too.

Before too.

Why was that? Lancel felt somehow comforted by that fact.

Perhaps because it reminded him of something he had forgotten.

Hmm.

‘I don’t know.’

Lancel, who had told the Emperor (fake) all the facts that had happened so far, soon gained minor command authority over the Second Imperial Reinforcement Army, along with a total of eight hundred troops.

Wandering around the continent stained with war, Lancel devoted all his days to fighting. Because there was nothing else to do now. Well, he counted it as being filial to his father-in-law, Count Palatine, and his parents.

The Empire’s war hero was his child and son-in-law, so wouldn’t he feel a little better? It was not comparable to the third iteration, where he could see his statue anywhere in the Empire, but this was a great success.

However, he never properly saw his fiancée, the Iceford Heiress. There were countless battlefields where he could play an active role in this land, and she also did not welcome Lancel, so there was no reason for them to see each other at all.

She must be grabbing some strange man and kissing him excitedly by now. Lancel didn’t care whether she did or not.

Only one person.

“Master.”

Only the warrior Marigold was by his side.

Ten years passed like that.

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[Playtime 10 years 0 days]

—Marigold is 25 years old.

—There is no marriage partner.

—There are achievements.

▶First Imperial Palace Wedding +300 points

▷Advanced Swordsmanship Master +10 points

▶Achieved Knight Rank +10 points

▷Goddess of the Battlefield +30 points

—Total score: 350 points.

[Bad Ending 3. Cheap Jewel Necklace and Dark Knight Marigold]

—The ending has been added to the ‘Album of Memories’.

—Open the album.

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Marigold served in the war for 5 years, following her lord, and achieved numerous feats.

Only shining days await you, who have received the title of Honorary Knight from the Imperial Family.

But the sudden death of your lord once again led you to loneliness.

This world without him has no meaning.

‘Don’t cry, we’ll meet again someday.’

Marigold remembered the first lie her lord left behind for the rest of her life.

There is no way to meet the dead again in this world.

Loneliness.

Solitude.

Loss.

You spend your days falling into a swamp-like sadness.

While avenging ‘everything’ that killed him.

Tonight, the Dark Knight with the cheap jewel necklace roams the streets again.

[Cheap Jewel Necklace and Dark Knight Marigold – fin]

—Would you like to restart the game?

※Slaughter penalty: Karma score of 200 points earned.

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What is it.

“Wasn’t this a smooth ending this time?”

Lancel was sweating at the ending, which was full of sadness just by looking at it. Bad ending. Literally a bad ending.

‘What the hell went wrong?’

It was definitely his fault that he couldn’t connect her with the Prince. But it didn’t seem like 10 years to end so damp and soggy? Wasn’t the atmosphere pretty good?

‘Why did I die in the first place?’

He wouldn’t have died for no reason. Why the hell.

Hmm.

When the situation came to this point, Lancel wanted to end her ending with a clean taste no matter what.

It would be best if she could be connected with the Prince this time. At the very least, he wanted to see her have a proper marriage partner. A marriage partner other than Lancel.

What could he do.

His marriage with her did not end well.

“What the hell should I do with this Menhera protagonist?”

That’s how the next iteration came.

From the start, Lancel had to witness a shocking phrase with his own two eyes.

==========

—Permanent Damage: Marigold has lost sight in both eyes.

※Marigold’s Karma has reached 200.

※Permanent damage will continue to occur each time until the Karma is resolved.

“Is this for real?”

[The Aspiring Swordmaster Merigold – End]

[Next – Saintess Marigold]