The Man’s 101st Bad Ending

Translator: FusionX

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Although I didn’t know what she had seen to make her cry like that, Adriana, who had sobbed in my arms for a long time, fell asleep like that.

After looking at the woman who had collapsed in my arms for a while, I let out a small sigh.

There wasn’t really anything she had to apologize to me for.

What was she feeling guilty about to apologize like this?

Throughout the many lives I had lived, I had never been directly entangled with Adriana even once.

Moreover, there was nothing to apologize for even while spending time together today, so regarding today’s incident… I thought I would have to ask about it later.

Since she was a saint, I thought she might have seen something special.

“…If you sleep like this here, it will be troublesome for me.”

Since she had fallen asleep while being held in my arms, it was difficult to wake Adriana up directly.

In the meantime, she had fallen into a deep sleep, so I carefully lifted Adriana’s body, which had fallen while hugging me.

I thought if Verod saw this, he would explode for various reasons, but I couldn’t just send Adriana back to her room in this state.

I guess I won’t be getting any sleep today.

When I laid her on the bed and covered her with the blanket, the strength of her arm that had been holding me loosened.

Seeing her soon falling into a deep sleep, I slowly brushed away the hair that had fallen on her forehead.

Why did she cry like that?

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t think of a reason for her crying.

Also apologizing to me, suddenly hugging me saying she was cold.

Then suddenly, I noticed the wound on Adriana’s hand.

The wood splinters stuck in it looked quite painful, did she come all the way here with such a wound?

It seemed like a rosary had been stuck in it.

Since the one hanging around her neck had disappeared, when I carefully pulled out the splinters, blood flowed out.

…I think it must have hurt a lot.

Nevertheless, the fact that she came to me meant there must have been an important reason to come this far.

I didn’t know what it was. But I could honestly feel a bit of gratitude.

When was the last time I was held in someone’s arms?

Even when I was Miragen’s lover, it was already decades ago.

It had been a long time since I felt someone’s warmth so close.

For a moment, I could forget about this winter.

Even while disinfecting the wound and wrapping it in a bandage, Adriana still didn’t wake up from her sleep.

She would probably stay in this bed all night.

If I laid on the same bed, there would be various misunderstandings, and spending one night wasn’t that difficult.

I carefully covered the still sleeping Adriana with the blanket.

Blowing out the single remaining candle, I just slowly read Arwen’s letter relying on the remaining moonlight like that.

It had always been a dawn I spent alone, but today there were two of us.

I couldn’t help but feel quite a strange feeling.

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Along with the gradually brightening sky, I was able to read all of Arwen’s letters.

To be precise, it took a bit of time to analyze the codes written in them.

The sentences were written with mana, reorganizing them and interpreting them was probably something only Arwen and I could do.

Writing in this way was necessary to eliminate any potential dangers.

If someone else saw it, it would just be about asking each other’s well-being, but if they interpreted the contents.

Wasn’t it about the connection between the Crown Prince and the Four Dragons?

There wasn’t much written in the letter.

It was probably everything she had investigated while I was staying in the North, but most of it was already known to me.

There aren’t many connections between the Four Dragons and the Crown Prince yet.

Unless you go to the south and come into contact with the relics, it will probably be difficult to grasp what the Four Dragons are.

I also agreed with this statement.

Unless I directly brought the relics in the south to the Crown Prince.

Right now, those two were still unknown variables.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t made assumptions, but this was the first round where it was directly mentioned.

It was probably because I approached it from the perspective of “how” the Crown Prince killed me rather than “why.”

In each round, strange variables appeared.

Some were created in the name of the Crown Prince, but most of them appeared in unexpected places, didn’t they?

If even those were related to the Crown Prince.

Perhaps this problem might not be simply my personal problem.

The Four Dragons, if I ended up fighting them, what would happen?

I had seen the end of the sword, but now I was at the stage of doubting whether it was really the end.

Doubting enlightenment, and touching the next wall, wouldn’t that be right?

However, the problem was that physical growth was still necessary.

If the all-out war with the Crown Prince was still a little over a year away, the extent to which I could raise this body would determine success or failure.

Rustle-

Around the time I was looking at Arwen’s letter for a long time, I turned my head at the sound coming from behind.

The quiet breathing that had been quietly coming from behind was no longer audible.

Perhaps she would soon wake up from her sleep.

Now that the sun had completely risen, it seemed okay to send her back upstairs.

Now was the right time to avoid being caught by Verod.

Trying to recall what tea was good for relieving fatigue, suddenly rosemary came to mind.

I thought I had some of those tea leaves among the ones I possessed.

Boiling water and steeping the tea leaves, a fragrant aroma of tea began to fill the space.

The winter morning wasn’t very cold.

Since it was when the sun that had just risen was most radiant, the warm light shining brightly on the white snow was perfect for waking up.

As the aroma of tea spread and I took out the cookies I had bought before and put them on a plate, a rustling sound was heard from the bed.

“Are you awake?”

I approached the bed and handed her a teacup.

Adriana, who had been rubbing her sleepy eyes, stretched alone and shivered.

Perhaps she wasn’t fully awake yet, she just carefully nodded her head while grasping the teacup I handed her.

Blankly sipping the tea like that, Adriana, who smacked her lips slightly, turned her gaze towards me.

Her eyes, which had always been closed, were narrowly open.

As her transparent eyes turned towards me, her hand that had been raising the teacup trembled.

Little by little like that, a small voice was heard from her lips that were blankly parting.

“…Robert?”

“It seems you’re a little more awake now.”

“Oh, when did you come to my room? Where is Emily-”

“She’s naturally at the top of the Moon Tower. I sent her back when she came looking for you at dawn.”

The expression of that servant who had come to me while I was reading the letter seemed to look at Adriana sleeping in my bed quite curiously.

Didn’t she say she couldn’t easily fall asleep unless it was a place she always slept?

But I thought it was possible because the situation was different.

Didn’t she fall asleep exhausted from crying?

– It’s too late to wake her up like this, since she’s in a deep sleep, so I’ll come up together in the morning.

– That’s a relief. I thought she had disappeared and was about to wake up the paladins. But still… I trust you, but please take good care of her.

– I have no intention of doing anything rude. Moreover, isn’t this the Moon Tower?

Although I knew what they were worried about, I had no intention of laying a hand on Adriana’s body.

It was thanks to me only showing a good side to others since coming here.

At least they seemed to know for sure that I wasn’t the kind of person to do strange things, since they entrusted Adriana to me.

When I said I had sent the servant back, Adriana blushed and wiped her cheek like that.

It took a while for that red color to disappear, and then perhaps recalling the memory of dawn, the tips of her ears turned red as if on fire again.

“Ahh…”

“There was nothing to be embarrassed about. Well, I am a bit curious about the reason you cried yesterday.”

“D-don’t say such things. I know it too…”

When I laughed at her crawling voice, Adriana tapped the bed with her feet.

Now that I think about it, it was quite an embarrassing memory.

She suddenly came to me and hugged me, then apologized for a long time and cried until she fell asleep.

Even I felt my cheeks burning when I thought about it, so the emotions she felt must be even more.

Adriana, who had been hugging her knees and keeping her mouth shut for a while, slowly turned her head towards me.

Her cheeks, which had been completely red, had regained some of their color.

As if ready to explain about yesterday’s incident, her gaze directed at me didn’t leave for a long time.

“You’re still here, right?”

“Of course. Where would I go?”

“…Can you hold my hand for a bit? I’m feeling a little anxious.”

After looking at her shadowed expression, I nodded my head slightly with a small smile.

I didn’t know why she said she got anxious whenever she saw me.

Both Adele and Adriana.

They always said they were anxious that I would disappear.

When I gently grasped her hand after pulling back the blanket, Adriana shuddered but clenched my hand.

Our fingers intertwined between each other, and I quietly looked at her hand that was completely held.

It seemed like she was telling me not to run away.

As if she had foreseen a future where I disappeared somewhere, this attitude of hers was quite difficult to understand.

But I didn’t particularly open my mouth.

Waiting for her to explain herself, I just held hands with her for a long time like that.

The name of a saint seemed to shine in moments like this.

Even though she had just woken up, her appearance wasn’t disheveled at all, and her red lips moving against her pure white skin particularly stood out.

Hesitating, she had an expression full of things she wanted to say to me.

“I will wait until you speak. So you can talk slowly. There’s still plenty of time.”

“I don’t intend to waste a lot of time. It’s just that I don’t know how to explain what I saw.”

I sat next to Adriana and waited for a long time.

Sometimes looking at the window, sometimes looking at Adriana’s face.

It was true that I was captured by a strange feeling just by being by her side, but nevertheless, I didn’t leave my seat.

Wasn’t I her close friend?

If she had something to say, I was willing to wait as long as it took.

How much more time had passed?

The sun that had just risen was rising towards the sky again, and the birds that had been asleep were chirping.

A soft voice flowed into my ears.

“Were you surprised when I suddenly came to you yesterday?”

“I was a bit surprised. I didn’t expect you to come.”

“I’m sorry. I came because I had something I wanted to say. I didn’t think about the time.”

“What did you see? You were crying like that, but there was nothing you had to apologize to me for.”

At my words, Adriana smiled bitterly for a moment, then exhaled slowly and looked at the void.

It seemed like a process of organizing yesterday’s memories.

Since she said she didn’t know how to explain it to me, maybe I could hear that story now.

“I had a dream.”

I turned my gaze at the mention of a dream.

Adriana’s expression was slightly distorted.

As if blaming herself for something, it was a face that looked like she would burst into tears at any moment, just like the expression I had once made.

“…A dream where you died because of me.”

“Is that so.”

“It wasn’t just dying once. Many times. I saw you taking your own life, and sometimes I saw you dying at the hands of a lover you loved. And even when I could have helped you, there were times when I just watched until the end.”

Those words seemed like they were talking about my past.

Each one resembled my deaths, so I thought maybe she had really read the past.

“So I wanted to apologize. For not being able to help you, for just watching you die. For ignoring you, even though I was a saint, for acting in a way unbecoming of a saint. That’s why you died.”

“I see.”

But my voice was still indifferent.

Even if that dream was about reading my past, I had never thought I died because of Adriana.

If I resented anyone, it was myself.

I cursed myself for not being able to do better, for not being smarter.

“You don’t need to apologize to me.”

“…Can you say that even though you died because of me?”

“Yes, it’s just a dream anyway, isn’t it? And even if it were real, I wouldn’t resent you. Because my death would be my own fault.”

I died because I was weak.

I died because I couldn’t see my surroundings.

Because I couldn’t protect the person I loved, because I was caught up in my own madness and died.

Who would I resent for these dozens of deaths?

Killing the Crown Prince was just to mark the end point of this regression, and moreover, I had never once resented Adriana.

There was a woman who looked at me in puzzlement.

As if she was about to shed tears again, I slowly opened my mouth to the woman who was staring at me quietly.

“It wasn’t your fault.”

I thought so even if she had seen my past.

It was just my fault for approaching too hastily.

If I had approached a little more calmly, if I had started from the bottom of the church, the outcome would have been different.

And if it was a dream, it was even more not her fault.

I stroked Adriana’s cheek.

Stroking her soft cheek without a single blemish, I reassured her like that.

The warmth was still being conveyed from the hand I was holding.

It was warm enough to forget about the coldness flowing through the window for a moment.

“Aren’t I still here?”

“…If you die, if my dream becomes reality. I-”

“I probably won’t die.”

I knew that a saint’s dreams were special.

Whether it was foresight or reading the past.

It was the same as seeing reality, not a dream.

That was why she was anxious.

Smiling slightly at her kind heart, I opened my mouth like that.

“I will live forever and come back to the Moon Tower.”

To reassure Adriana, I quietly whispered a lie.

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