“That never happened.”
“Never?”
“No.”
“Really—like, absolutely never?”
“I swear on my life, it never happened. I’ve never dated anyone, either.”
It was a fairly serious question, but Inas responded as if it were the most absurd thing he’d ever heard. From how appalled he looked, it was clear—Inas had never triggered a Flag. Thank god for that.
Up until now, Nigel had been obsessively sabotaging every potential relationship Inas might’ve developed with anyone who seemed even remotely close. When Inas mentioned he had no intention of getting married or starting a family, it had stirred both relief and a deep, quiet ache in Nigel.
He had watched Inas like a starving man watching the world’s most exquisite feast, unable to take a bite. So if it turned out Inas had once been Kay’s lover, Nigel would’ve collapsed in sheer frustration. But now, a heavy weight was lifted off his chest. The sudden surge of hostility he’d felt toward Kay subsided, and rationality returned.
“Hmm… But you said time resets when Kay dies, right?”
“It’s not that urgent. Time only resets if all five main party members die.”
Nigel replayed what Inas had said earlier. On the starting date—April 14—it wouldn’t be possible to kill all five at once. The group would only be complete after recruiting the rest in Selden and Rangini.
He nodded in understanding, but something still felt… off.
“Got it. I have a lot of questions for you… For now, have a seat.”
“Yes, sir.”
He usually ignored Nigel’s commands, but thankfully, he seemed willing to follow minor instructions.
As Inas obediently sat down, Nigel sipped from his now-lukewarm tea. Since Nigel didn’t speak right away, Inas opened his mouth first.
“I have something to ask you, too.”
“What is it?”
“Since when do you remember?”
Nigel hadn’t expected such a direct and casual question. Flustered, he bit his lip and instinctively leaned back, putting some distance between them.
“…You killed me three times.”
“I see.”
The calm, indifferent reply made Nigel’s insides churn. The sheer coldness from someone who had once been so kind and considerate—at least in the original loop—was hard to stomach. He fought the urge to hurl his teacup past Inas’s shoulder.
“Why the hell do you keep killing me?”
“Well, your death is—”
“No. Don’t give me that. This is a matter of necessity and efficiency, right? If time resets anyway, there’s no reason you have to kill me. So why go out of your way to do it?”
Inas’s eyes widened ever so slightly, as if the question had caught him off guard.
“Hard to say.”
He answered vaguely, raising a hand. A teacup materialized midair and filled itself. Nigel blinked. That little trick was impressive enough to surprise even him, but Inas remained completely unfazed, as though summoning cups from the ether was routine business. The delay in his answer only made Nigel more suspicious.
“Wait, don’t tell me you just killed me for no reason? Because you felt like it?”
“Absolutely not.”
Inas responded firmly, taking a light sip of tea.
“I just… didn’t think too hard about it, that’s all.”
“So it was… impulsive?”
“Not exactly.”
What the hell do you mean, not exactly? Nigel almost started chewing his nails without realizing it but caught himself in time.
“I told you before—I repeat the same timeline from April 14 to March 27, right?”
“Yeah, you said that.”
“But that wasn’t always the case. At first, the resets took me back to November 9, Year 272 of the kingdom’s calendar.”
“Year 272?!”
Shocked, Nigel quickly did the math. If this year was 283, then…
“That’s eleven years ago.”
Which meant Inas had lived nearly twelve full years before his first reset.
The weight of that number hit much harder than any abstract guess he’d made before. Repeating a year was one thing. Repeating twelve? That had to be hell. Especially since eleven years ago, Nigel’s father, Ruder, had still been alive.
Ruder had been a perfect father to Nigel—but the same couldn’t be said for Inas. Like every Duke of Magnus before him, Ruder was renowned for being heartless. And toward Inas, he was particularly ruthless. Perhaps he was trying to raise a knight who would never falter, no matter the circumstances. He subjected Inas to inhuman training, forcing him to ingest small amounts of poison to build resistance, or abandoning the boy in monster-infested ruins while he was still just a child.
And Inas had endured all of that—multiple times.
“…That must’ve been hard.”
The indignation Nigel felt moments ago vanished, replaced by a heavy tide of pity. Even as he sympathized, he couldn’t help but hate himself a little. But what could he do? He loved Inas—even after being killed by him multiple times. That feeling wasn’t going away anytime soon.
Inas must’ve noticed the concern in Nigel’s eyes, because his own gaze softened, his expression turning gentle.
“It’s okay. Because now… you know.”
“Inas…”
“Besides, I only had to live out all twelve years at the very beginning of this damned loop. So it’s nothing you need to worry about.”
Like hell it’s nothing.
At the beginning, he said—vaguely enough to suggest it had happened more than once. As Nigel sat there, pale as a sheet, mumbling “November 9, 272,” a realization struck him.
“Wait—November 9, 272… That’s…”
“Yes. The day I first met you.”
Neither of them had ever marked that date or reminisced about it aloud, but Inas responded immediately. Of course, for Nigel, it was the day his long one-sided love began. No wonder it was burned into his memory.
“Why that day, though…?”
“Because that’s the day my life gained meaning, probably.”
“…What?”
“It was the first day I met you. Everything before that didn’t matter.”
Nigel’s face flushed scarlet. He waved his hand to fan himself, trying to cool down, but the heat refused to subside. Coughing awkwardly, he muttered something about the room being hot. Inas, ever obliging, opened a window and conjured a breeze with magic.
“Are you alright?” he asked, and Nigel couldn’t tell if he was being clueless or just shameless.
But none of that mattered anymore.
Even the fact that Inas had once killed him—by stabbing through both his chest and head—felt strangely forgivable.
The meaning of life. That’s how much Nigel meant to him. Who could possibly resent being loved like that?
“May I continue what I was saying?”
“Huh? Oh… yeah.”
Nigel had completely spaced out and nodded dumbly. If he hadn’t been drilled with the duties and responsibilities of the ducal heir from a young age, he might’ve flopped to the floor right then and there, telling Inas to kill him again if he wanted. With a deep breath, he forced himself to focus.
“To be honest, I died a lot before the full twelve years were up. Once I realized time was resetting, I kind of lost it and did a lot of stupid things.”
“Stupid things?”
“Too embarrassing to explain in detail. I was out of my mind—acted like a child, really.”
Inas doing childish things? That was hard to imagine. But of course, he hadn’t always been the terrifyingly composed lunatic he was now. How many years would it take to mature into this kind of crazy? Nigel avoided thinking too hard about the numbers.
“I started killing you pretty much from the beginning.”
“Why the hell?!”
So he just casually started murdering him right off the bat? Nigel was appalled, but Inas didn’t even blink.
“Sure, I died often. But my own death didn’t matter much, since I knew I’d reset.”
“Yeah… I guess.”
Nigel could relate. Knowing he’d come back took most of the sting out of dying.
“But if I suddenly died, I wouldn’t know what might happen to you. Maybe the world resets along with me and you’re fine, but I can’t be sure. So I killed you, quickly and cleanly, to spare you the suffering and send you on to the next round.”
“…That’s your reason?”
“I figured you’d take it the wrong way, which is why I hesitated to tell you. But like I said, your death means nothing. I just prefer things neat and certain.”
“Well I don’t need things to be neat and certain…”
It was an unwelcome and utterly unnecessary gesture, but Inas just smiled. Clearly, he had no intention of listening.
He definitely cared for Nigel—but the way he showed it was… strange. Even if death itself wasn’t scary, the way Inas could kill him so easily was hard to swallow. And since he’d done it more than once, it wasn’t something that would change overnight. Nigel gave up trying to convince him.
“So why did the reset point shift to April 14?”
“I wanted to shorten the loop, but I didn’t choose the exact date. I still don’t know why it’s April 14. My best guess is… it’s when I can first meet Kay.”
That rang a bell—Inas had gone off the grid for a few days recently.
“Did you meet him this time too?”
As expected, Inas nodded.
“Yes. Kay can’t make it to the capital alive unless he meets me.”
“Why?”
“There’s an event battle right before he arrives here. The enemy’s too strong for him to defeat at his current level… In the original storyline, I step in to save him. Later, I join his party and help him through a dungeon.”
Nigel didn’t follow every detail—things like ‘event battle’ were outside his scope—but he got the gist. If Inas didn’t show up, Kay would die. Since he’d said he wanted to see how the original timeline played out, it made sense that he was still following his usual role.
“You didn’t get hurt, did you?”
“As if I ever could.”
Inas smiled lightly.
