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Chapter 73: Claire
🕑 Added 2024-05-24 07:24:52 +0000 UTCClaire's POV
I never thought Elidranthia would become my enemy. I always had this power—the power to turn back time. Five years from now, an army comprised of people and demons from the central continents will conquer this land. Everyone will be enslaved. To avoid that fate, a light mage blessed by the sun prayed for intervention. As she sacrificed herself to the comet that shone on that day, she laid a curse upon me. Not a curse, but a blessing. An opportunity to rectify what's wrong.
I was sent back to my childhood into when I was seven years old. My blessing could turn back time by setting a checkpoint, but these checkpoints were predetermined by fate—by the light mage who oversees my work. I conversed with her on a yearly basis in my dreams, and each time I talked with her, I cried. This reincarnation thing was painful.
The first time I died was when I attended school in Lustria. It was when Heracles was poisoned by nobles of the Western nations. He was from Althemer, and many Western nations hated Althemer for supporting Theocracy's dogma. However, in the future, when the Western nations and Theocracy's vassals fell, Althemer would be our last line of defense. If Heracles died in Lustria, I would lose any means of going to Althemer before the invasion.
So, I saved him. After dying and getting killed about five times, I figured out the plot. Heracles would either be assassinated by two families at a banquet. Getting killed was painful. The darkness, the shadow, the despair—it was brutal. It was a curse for disobeying the law of nature. Every time I died, I was cast into a hell-like place filled with darkness. My soul and my body felt like they were torn apart before being returned.
But I persevered. I succeeded in saving Heracles with the money I obtained from gambling. I bribed one family to betray the other, then used the fact that one family betrayed the other to cause infighting. The family I bribed informed me when the assassination would occur. Heracles and I killed the assassin with my light magic that could nullify most poisons used by assassins. Once their power dwindled and the stubborn head of the family died, I saved the family and turned them into my henchmen. Heracles was more than impressed with how smoothly I manipulated the court to my will.
"I love you," he said the night before we left for Althemer, on the rooftop of my villa.
"I know." I nodded. "I love you too."
"You lied."
"Yes. I don't love anyone right now. However, I think you're still at the top of the list. I don't mind spending the rest of my days with you once I've done what I must."
"Thank you for the honesty. What is it that must be done?"
"Uniting the continent."
"I see. That would be wonderful, Claire. I will not wait for you. I will be going with you. Please, let me help you. I, too, abhor the situation in my hometown—the discrimination against mages and commoners."
"I see. Thank you, Heracles." I kissed him on the mouth, then smiled. "You have about five years to make me fall for you, I guess?"
"How did you do it? In just three months, you made those three families into your lapdogs."
"You see, I have some sort of skill that allows me to predict the future." As a sign of commitment to myself and a sign of trust in him, I unveiled my power.
"What a ridiculous skill. So, I have died five times, huh?" Heracles closed his eyes, absorbing the fact.
"Seeing you die was painful. You're a good guy." I laid myself unto him; his arm was muscular, proof that he didn't just laze around but trained. Improved by his skill, he has become the best swordsman in Lustria.
"Thank you for saving me. I need to say this five more times, I guess. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for saving me." He shut his eyes, then chuckled as he looked at me. "That was a mouthful. But I know now that your pain was far greater. I tried to imagine that event happening to me five times."
Then, we headed to Althemer. The reception was better than I expected. When I arrived here as a refugee, it was worse. We were treated like slaves, and the fact that Lustria had killed Prince Heracles didn't go unnoticed by Prince Ludwin and Princess Charlotte. Nevertheless, they accepted us and provided us with minimal living conditions.
A new problem, so different from before, arose when I arrived at Althemer. With Heracles surviving, the inevitable conflict between him and the other prince for the crown looms on the horizon. Ludwin was intelligent and cunning, and Charlotte was with him. However, Ludwin was an ardent believer in mage supremacy. It was fine during the war with the other continents, but now, he was our main enemy.
What I expected from the commoner-mage discrimination didn't happen, at least not to the extent I anticipated. When the war started, Ludwin treated commoners' lives like expendable pawns. Their doctrine of mages making tools and commoners becoming soldiers was enforced further. However, Saint Sistiel, the light mage who sent me to the past, agreed with it. Their doctrine was efficient. But it was too late, and there weren't enough mages and commoners during wartime.
If I could secure peace between Althemer and other nations, we could supply them with mages and commoner soldiers. Then, we would have a chance against the demons. Heracles had supporters within the Althemer kingdom—the Merchant faction headed by Luca. The first step was to contact them. Since they were merchants, their loyalty was to money.
However, I died. I thought it would be easy, but I died three times due to the so-called reapers in the castle. Reapers were so helpful during the war. The reason Althemer could hold on longer than even Theocracy, despite Theocracy being behind them during the war with the demons, was not only their magic technology and doctrines but also the Reapers who acted in the shadow gathering information and excellent scouts.
Having them as my enemy now was the worst outcome. I didn't know they were this powerful. They could even walk inside the castle as they pleased. It was hard to get information out. After some trial and error, I managed to get letters to my spy agent in Lustria through a decoy. I let one of my henchmen die while holding a magic letter. As long as he got out of the castle, the letter would transmit itself to my spies in Althemer. I died three times just to get this information out. I even considered playing nice and not contacting the outside at all. But that was not an option. If I hadn't let this letter out, I would not have had an escape route if worse came to worse. And I couldn't let Althemer win against Elderan either. If they did, the war would intensify for the Western nations, and none of us would have enough time to recuperate for the demon's attack in the future.
The following month, the king declared Elidranthia to be engaged with Ludwin. This was a momentous occasion as she was the least discriminatory against commoners. She had a commoner and low noble mage serving her and a manaless noble she befriended with. I was so happy that the unification of our country finally had smooth sailing. Eli had a magical impression in her eyes. It made everyone she stared at feel a shudder. This has prevented her from making a lot of friends. But such meaningless mental attacks were nothing to me.
But another problem occurred. The reapers switched their targets from me to Dregorn. Dregorn has died four times now. In addition to that, the reapers also employed poison and wouldn't hesitate to poison Princess Charlotte, me, Ludwin, Elidranthia, and Heracles. When I thwarted the poison plot by using my trusted maid to supervise every dish, cookie, and tea made by castle cooks and watched it all the time, they changed their strategy to assault Dregorn directly.
The assassination was carried out by an exceptionally proficient reaper. I confronted this particular reaper four times and lost each time. The reaper was a high-level dark mage with a petite body, like that of a girl. He was very skilled with daggers. In the dark of night, he struck and disappeared quicker than the wind. After dying four times to ensure the certainty of the future, I set a trap for the assassin.
When we cornered him, he shot Prince Heracles. However, before I was killed, I managed to see his... no, her face. It was a glimpse, but I was confident. It was Elidranthia. The sweet and shy girl I met during the tea party with Ludwin was actually a reaper! I felt so betrayed. I died almost twenty times before reaching this point. Almost half of those deaths were because of her!
"Traitor..." I muttered before I snuck up behind her. A surprise attack outright wouldn't work. She dodged it every time I tried. So, I greeted her like usual. Heracles was due to be here any minute. I just needed to endure her assault, maybe making small talk. But her slip of the tongue surprised me.
"What timeline are we in?" she asked. I widened my eyes in horror. She knew about my ability to rewind time.
"You can't be allowed to live!" I panicked and pressed on the attack. She knew about my ability. My ability, while powerful, was not omnipotent. Like playing chess, even if I could rewind one move, I could still get checkmated. If she knew about it, I had to kill her.
Eli was good. Without my experience of being killed by her multiple times, I would have died. Her strikes were fast and fatal. Why did such a good girl choose to be a bloodthirsty assassin? Even now, when I revealed that I knew everything about her being a reaper, she still played dumb. By appearing weak, the enemy usually revealed who or what they worked for. Then, once they killed me, I could use the information in the following timeline.
However, she continued to play dumb. No wonder, if she knew about my ability, she wouldn't leak any information about herself even when she is winning. When Heracles arrived, she fled. She also didn't forget to leave a present—the thing that killed Heracles in the previous timeline. However, somehow, she did it differently this time. She didn't shoot him in the head but in the leg before escaping.
“Claire?” Heracles probed.
"I don't know. She didn't do that before." I ran to him and cast my healing magic. The bullet was slowly squeezed out before his flesh was mended back together.
"Did we do something different this time? Maybe because she said something about Dregorn killing her mother?"
"She didn't say that before. Maybe it's just to confuse me. She knows about my ability. I can't predict her anymore."
"Her eyes didn't seem like those of a liar, though..." Heracles said.
"Let's chase her!"
"Nah. She would have returned to her room. Our trap didn't extend to her friends. If her friends helped her, we would have to kill Alicia, Safira, and Ronya too. You said Safira must survive, right?"
"Yes. Not only does she become a doctor, but her being high-level also helps in making refrigerators in the future. It helps with food and medicine preservation. Ronya is valuable, too. She's the granddaughter of Duke Bron. However, because her siblings all went to war, she is the sole trustworthy connection in the Ministry of Defense. Alicia was important, too. She was the front-line commander; her meteor has killed countless demons." I tried to remember the circumstances of my first timeline.
"Well, I guess we missed our chance then. Let's just greet them normally. Apparently, Ludwin was there too." Heracles shrugged as we walked past Elidranthia. Her eyes were a mix of fear and anger directed at me.
I failed.
Comments
laulau20
yup. the novel was unfinished when Sana was transferred to Eli.
pelya
So Claire is not an isekai otome heroine, and far from saint, but Eli doesn't know that.
