ARTORIA POV

After Clyde and I returned to the venue, I headed straight for the food section. Clyde looked at a loss at my actions. He didn’t pursue me and only gave up. He went to the big table where Diane was seated at. I hadn’t had good food in a long while so it was impossible for me to resist the urges to shove all that food into my mouth. I had eaten stale, nutritious hard meals ever since I arrived at the Sky Fortress.

‘I shouldn’t have gone out of control…’

I regretted what I did.

But…the things he said. The way his body was trembling as if he was afraid of what lies ahead.

I lost control of myself.

There was a voice whispering in my head at that tim.

If you give up on your life then why don’t you give yourself to me, Clyde? I’ll protect you and nurture you….for the restore your life…

If I didn’t stop myself then this life would’ve ended exactly as my previous life.

With Clyde being mine forever in that dark room. His arms cut off. His eyes pulled out. His tongue cut so that he couldn’t scream and hurl insults as me.

I’m trash. How could I have such thoughts about him? He was still a pure boy who knew nothing of hardship.

He wasn’t the Clyde Astley that was by my side in nearly all my lives.

‘Focus Artoria. You can’t lose in to your desires.’

Whenever I look at him, I want to tear off his clothes and devour him. Whenever he smiles, my body is overcome with the desire to make him mine. It was dirty, vulgar and impure thoughts.

If he knew about the things I’d done to the Clyde from my last life…

He would look at me with both hate and disgust. That was something I didn’t want.

‘Maybe keeping my distance was a good idea. I can’t imagine myself being at his side in the state I’m in now.’

I looked at him chatting happily with Diane. Maybe it was my imagination but I could make out a small smile on Diane’s face.

‘I envy you and Arielle, Diane.’

“So the two of you…seem pretty close?” A voice called from behind me. Wondering who was bothering my expenditure of exotic foods, I turned around in a huff.

The other men all avoided me after just glaring at them. This bastard shouldn’t be different.

“…?” It was a face I hadn’t seen in a long time.

Duncan, the crown prince of the Sky Kingdom.

I almost blurted out your highness. However, I knew that he was undercover. His appearance wasn’t his usual look at the moment so no one should recognize him.

Except me, of course. However, something seemed different about him….

Sure, it was his appearance but that wasn’t it. Should I say the air around him?

“How do you do, young miss?” He bowed with his hand across his chest.

I clicked my tongue softly. Although we had met several times during my regressions, I couldn’t get used to his sham behaviour.

His blue hair and eyes seemed to be a rarity in this kingdom. Naturally, the people were surprised when they saw him stand next to me.

There was one other reason why I didn’t like the fact that we were meeting again…

“What do you want?” I spoke roughly. Since I was the one wielding the King’s Sword, that gave me a sort of authority. I was equal to a duke in importance. In comparison, Duncan looked like any young noble brat from a lower class household looking to score with a high ranking noble lady.

“Oops. Pardon me. I am Trijan. I am a nomad in search of a fair maiden to soothe the emptiness I feel in my heart. It turns out I do not need to look any further.” He said with a handsome smile. I could hear a few sighs from the young women.

“Is that so? I hope you succeed in your quest.” I turned around and walked away. No, I tried to.

A quiet whisper stopped me.

“…This is your last chance. Either join us or fall with this nation, Artoria Heavensworth.” He was still smiling but his eyes were looking at me differently.

“….” It was as I expected.

That day wasn’t far off.

◇

“You’re rather bold, aren’t you? Lym.” I said to the prince when we got outside. “And Trijan? Can’t you come up with a more believable name?”

He shrugged.

“So it was true.” He chuckled. His eyes changed from a normal pair of human eyes to that of a monster’s.

“The great lord Atrius’ predictions are never wrong. A regressor has fallen into this world.” With madness in his eyes, he held both his cheeks. “Ahhh~ this one’s loyalty has reached a new height after witnessing the wisdom of my lord!”

“I could blow your head up in one punch. Why have you approached me so brazenly? No, rather….Why have all of you chosen to do that?”

I knew there were more of them scattered around this kingdom. No, rather the entire continent.

He shrugged exaggeratedly.

“Since you have relived this world before, you probably know already. We happened to smell the sign of star energy in this kingdom.”

My eyes widened.

‘This has never happened before…It should be a little longer before that happened.’

With a clenched first, I glared at him.

“Speak. I will decide whether to kill you all after I listen.”

A smile so wide that it reached both his ears appeared on his face. “Thank you very much, young miss.”

“Why have you taken Duncan’s body? I’m sure you can take control of many other people.”

“Ah, you see…My real face must not be seen by others. If any of the Order see it then my life is basically over.” With a troubled sigh, he shook his head.

“Real face? You mean the face you stole from a corpse?”

“Kukuku. She is already dead so I own her face now.” He touched his cheek and twisted his neck around in a full circle. Another face appeared. “Besides, isn’t she gorgeous? Even more than yourself?”

His face was that of a female elf. His hair changed into a pale green.

“You immortals are disgusting.” I wanted to kill him. However, I lost all power whenever I saw that face.

If Iris were to see it then she would probably lose her mind.

“Why, thank you~” A female’s happy chirp came out of his disgusting mouth. He even did a cute clap gesture.

That annoyed me so much. No, the one annoying me was this bastard. Not just in this life, I hated speaking with Lym in general. There was a time when I killed him after appearing before me. That ended up causing the invasion to happen faster.

I had to thread carefully from now on. How important was he to this timeline that everything sped up after his death?

Why was he such an important figure when he was part of the lowest race in their species?

‘Endure it, Tori. Endure it…’

“Anyway, miss Artoria~. I have been assigned to lead the events that will occur in the future.”

“So? Why are you telling me this?”

His playful expression vanished. “You are not to interfere.”

“You little bastard. Threatening me when you’re just a little bug…”

He held up a finger when I moved closer to him. Misteltein was eager to kill him just as much as I was. A sadistic expression appeared on his face.

“If you hurt me then my lord will not idly sit by. You don’t want to mess with Esil’s servants, would you?”

My entire body stiffened.

Esil.

She was a woman I wouldn’t forget about. No, I couldn’t. Out of all the people-good and bad-that I’ve met in my eight lives, she caused the biggest trauma.

That’s right…She…did something to Clyde.

“Tch…” I lowered my hands.

Lym chuckled. “I didn’t expect her name to scare you this much. Does the Immortal Knights’ second strongest member have such an impact on you? Kukuku.”

“Shut up, you bastard.”

“Muu~ You’re so rude~ Lady Esil wanted me to relay that message. You wanna know how she knows?” Lym’s devious smile didn’t match the face he was wearing. “She’s confirmed to be lord Atrius’ concubine! Kyaaah! She can finally achieve her goal! Which is….!”

“To breed with the highest race in this world.” I finished his sentence.

“Specifically, with the strongest being of the highest race. Namely, our magnanimous and mighty lord Atrius!” He shook his head with a crazy expression on his face. “It’ll be so wonderful! The strongest succubus bearing the child of the strongest immortal!”

“Heh…” I couldn’t help but sneer.

“Tch. What?” Lym looked unpleasantly at me.

“Strongest immortal. I wonder if that’s the case. Isn’t Bane the strongest?”

“Do not speak of his name!!! He dared to betray our race to side with the dragons! Blasphemous! He must die!” Lym roared. Since we were covered by a barrier, no one should hear us. “No. No. I cannot decide that. Although he is a traitor, he’s still useful to our lord.”

“The balance of power is messed up, isn’t it? It took three of the elders just to take Bane down.”

That was what he told me and Arielle when we struck him down. It was far into the future so the memory of that day was a little vague.

They are nothing compared to the warriors before me…I am glad to have been felled by your hands.

Those were his last words before he died. Both my and Arielle’s weapons were in his chest.

I still shuddered at his power. All the knowledge I had accumulated throughout my eight lives was useless against raw power. The battle against him was the hardest battle I had in my entire life.

The war would’ve ended if not for him. His power tipped the balance of this world. There was no such thing as normal anymore.

“Why are you telling me not to interfere when I am at my weakest? I can barely take on a cadre rank at my level.”

Lym nodded as if he understood. However, all I heard was sarcasm in his voice. “How pitiful, O great archangel of the upper god realm. Child of the Valkyrie Queen. Do you think we do not know?”

“Know what?”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“We know that the sword the first king wielded wasn’t any ordinary sword. You probably thought we’d ignore it’s existence, am I right?”

I frowned.

“We already know that it is a divine weapon. Only divinity and demon swords can injure Lord Atrius. You and that dragon princess are our biggest threat at the moment.”

The dragon princess, Stella Lugard. She was the wielder of the item known as Garl. It was a weapon that could take the form of any weapon. She was originally a spear user so she rarely used the other forms.

‘It’s a relief that they don’t know about Erica just yet. Let’s play along.’

Lym smiled widely at my expression. I tried my best to look as shocked as possible.

“Kekeke. Lady Albedo was tasked to eliminate you at all costs if you try and interfere.”

“Why take such extreme measures? Is she aware that not all members of the White Order left to go train in the Red Abyss? She will only place her own life in danger.”

Eredhel was actively scouting the continent with Laura. If they sensed anything amiss here then they’d return immediately.

Clark and Iris entered the dungeon first.

Since that was the case, security was increased even further in Colchis. Jasfer, who was one of the strongest of the order was also present in the kingdom. He was taking residence in the first prince’s mansion.

“We have our ways. How else do you think I, and my brothers are able to approach this venue without any problem?”

“Because you’re cowards who hide in a person’s skin, isn’t that so?”

A vein popped in his forehead. His cheeks inflated and he pouted.

“We’re only being extra careful!” He cleared his throat and pointed at me. “Do you understand? Do not interfere.”

“It’s not a choice at this point, now is it? Fine. I’ll stay put.” I held up my hands. It was the smart thing to do.

I was obviously against it, though. There was no way I’d just quietly sit and watch.

“Good. Very good. Do this then your boyfriend won’t get hurt.”

“….” My expression almost faltered. He just had to mention Clyde.

“What is your goal by carrying out this invasion?”

I already knew their goal. However, I wanted to know why they were doing it so early.

“If you must know, things didn’t proceed as we had hoped.”

“What do you mean?”

‘Lets pry some information out of this clown.’

“Chatty, aren’t we?” Lym’s face transformed back to prince Duncan. “Our plans have been interrupted more times than I can count. The seal has been broken and now they were daring to come out at any given moment. It is only by fear that they do not. Lord Zero who demonstrated the fear needed to keep them at bay is currently unavailable.”

“The clones, huh…”

“As expected of a regressor~”

The clones referred to the copies of Sync. Well, they weren’t original copies. However, they only had a fraction of his power.

After struggling for hundreds of years, they finally made a breakthrough in their research to make new soldiers. The immortal race was feared across many worlds. However, they were small in number. That was why they wanted more kin.

And to do that they started cloning the strongest members of their race.

Sync was chosen since he was the first ever experiment to be successful. He was the only one to have been able to walk out of the ruins of the United Empire and pledge his allegiance to Atrius.

“We’ll see if everything works out even with me out of the picture.” I said relaxed. I wasn’t planning on getting involved in the first place. I would only quietly spend my days at the Sky Fortress until my trial was over.

My awakening was still a long ways away.

“You really piss me off. But! I have fulfilled the task given to me by my mistress so I will take my leave—” Lym turned around with a whistle.

“Must be nice licking the sweat off her feet after a long day, huh? You loyal dog.” I said with ridicule.

That woman was the most disgusting person I had ever met in my life. She uses people like they are toilet paper. Just one spell from her charm magic can make anyone fall for her.

Even Clyde…

I lost Clyde to her and that was a memory I would never forget.

“What seems to be the problem, miss Artoria?” A voice came from behind Lym. “Is this man bothering you?”

“…!?” Lym’s entire body was covered by a yellow glow. “Gyaaaah!”

I heard snapping sounds coming from his arm. When I looked, I saw that his flesh was being twisted around his bone.

“Leave her alone or die.” Erica’s eyes was glowing as she coldly looked at Lym. It seemed that she didn’t care for the fact that she was hurting the Sky Kingdom’s prince.

“O-Okay!! P-Please stop!” The light vanished from Lym’s body.

He ran away as if he was being chased by something terrifying. Well, calling Erica terrifying was an understatement.

“Are you okay?” Erica looked at me with a worried expression on her face.

“Yeah...”

“You didn’t look okay to me when the two of you were talking.” She looked into my eyes with a serious and unmoving gaze. “What did he say?”

“….”

‘I can’t tell you, Erica.’

That was what I had to say but couldn’t.

I laughed dryly. “It was nothing, Erica. Just something he said about me. Men are such perverts, huh?” I smiled wryly and tried to walk past her.

However, she grabbed my arm.

“You’re acting weird just because of some pervert, miss Artoria.”

“Haa…”

Despite acting like such a clumsy clutch all the time, Erica was a person who had better insight than myself. Her blue eyes seemed to burn a hole through the back of my head.

“It concerns Clyde.”

“Eh?”

“I need to go.” I took her hand off my arm and walked forward.

“W-Wait! What about him!?”

Erica’s yell went unanswered as I walked over to the gate of the property.

There were lots of carriages parked next to each other. The coachmen were happily chatting with the knights around a big campfire. They were even dancing while drinking ale.

Maybe they wanted to have fun too since the night wouldn’t end for a while.

The starless night was as empty as the void within my mind. The cold breeze caused my dress to flutter.

When I was about to step through the gate, someone’s shadow appeared before me.

“Shouldn’t you be inside?” I spoke to the person standing there.

“No. The party is nearly done. I’m thinking of leaving when the engagement is officially announced.” Brielle’s profile greeted me. “What about you, Arthur?”