After the dazzling light faded, when Nigel slowly opened her eyes, an elegant and beautiful door made of an old tree appeared before her.

As she had no good memories of entering this door, she felt an instinctive aversion.

When she reached out her hand, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling.

Creeak.

Green magical flames burst out from the gap in the door, opening it before Nigel could.

“Please come in.”

“……”

Nigel entered the room with suspicion.

Widrun, sitting on the sofa, lacked his usual sharp demeanor.

“I knew you would come.”

He gestured towards the table across from him, where a steaming hot tea and neatly arranged cookies were placed.

‘What new nonsense is this?’

Nigel sat on the sofa and narrowed her eyes, staring intently at Widrun, but he simply sipped his tea nonchalantly, noticing her gaze.

Despite Widrun’s clean face that made it impossible to gauge his age, his dark eye circles and dry skin clearly showed signs of fatigue.

Feeling a sense of discomfort, Nigel smiled brightly and made a preemptive strike.

“Congratulations. It seems you’ve finally started to age properly, Chancellor.”

“Yes, the academy has been in chaos for the past ten days since Miss Ars disappeared.”

Widrun began to speak in a calm voice without any edge.

“The professors, first-year students, and students from other years were all focused on Miss Ars’s life or death, so I was able to confirm your awareness during this opportunity.”

“……”

Nigel’s head tilted to the right.

Strange.

It was time for sarcastic remarks about wasting time because of Nigel or how it affected other students to come out of that open mouth.

Pff.

A soft breath escaped from Widrun’s lips.

This time too, it wasn’t mixed with the usual tone of criticism, but rather a kind nuance of laughter.

“…I understand that reaction too. Even the professors and students knew what I, the Chancellor of the academy, didn’t know.”

Widrun, who finished speaking these incomprehensible words, looked straight into Nigel’s eyes.

“…A conversation is not done alone, but to make the other person understand.”

“Yes, that’s right. Everything Miss Ars says is correct.”

Slap!

Nigel raised her hand and, without hesitation, slapped her own cheek hard.

“Miss Ars, suddenly what…?”

Widrun’s eyes widened at the clear red mark on Nigel’s cheek.

“…Strange? Why am I not waking up from this dream?”

“That’s because this is not a dream.”

Widrun carefully handed a handkerchief to Nigel. Nigel frowned, looking at Widrun’s hand as if it were a bug, wary.

“Why are you suddenly doing something you’ve never done before? Why, are you making a confession before the Goddess’s birthday?”

“Yes, in a way, that’s correct. Because I’ve done many wrongs to you.”

Nigel’s face, which had been sneering, suddenly hardened.

And again, she raised her hand to slap her other cheek.

Slap!

This time, the sound was even louder.

“Now I know it’s reality.”

With both cheeks bright red, Nigel spoke calmly.

Certain that Nigel would never use his handkerchief, Widrun withdrew his hand.

“For a lesson learned by slapping both cheeks hard, isn’t the value too small?”

“Well, I have holy power to spare.”

As she spoke, Nigel’s face was enveloped in the golden light of holy power.

“……”

Widrun gazed at that light, unable to take his eyes off it, with a strange look.

“That ability… no matter how many times I see it, it’s amazing and beautiful.”

“Enough to send me a threatening letter on graduation day?”

Widrun smiled bitterly as he opened his mouth.

“Because I’ve been watching how your ability to save people could be used… all this time.”

“What do you……”

Nigel’s purple eyes wavered.

“Yes, it really is a confession, as Miss Ars said. It might be a long night, can you listen?”

A drowsy and powerless voice, like diving into a deep, dark sea where no action can be taken. Unable to ignore that voice, Nigel slowly nodded.

“The fact that I came to be called the Sage of the Continent, a name too grand for me, is actually not that long ago.”

“Surely it’s been over 50 years according to the records, hasn’t it?”

“No.”

Widrun answered lightly but firmly. As Nigel slightly furrowed her brow, Widrun gave a faint smile.

Nigel was on the verge of getting goosebumps at the attitude that changed so easily, like a coin being flipped.

“Hmm… I should first define the unit of time. Though you may not believe it, I am repeating my life.”

“…What?”

Nigel, who had been looking at Widrun with a face that said ‘What nonsense is this?’, remembered the fact that she herself had been reincarnated into a novel.

Then, surprisingly, her mind became calm.

“…As expected.”

An unpleasant laugh was heard from across Nigel.

“When I had lived five lives without knowing why I was repeating my life. That’s when the name ‘Sage’ was attached to me. It was natural, of course. For me, life was as easy as reading the same book multiple times.”

Widrun spoke dryly.

“I’ve lived lives where I loved someone regardless of who they were, worried about how to solve daily meals, and worried about how to preserve future assets. Then, it was in my 10th life that I realized that the ability given to me was not a blessing but a curse.”

Widrun closed his eyes and recited quietly, as if reading a fairy tale to a child in bed.

“The day of birth is always the same, but the ending point is always random, in this strange life I was tired of everything, and eventually I started experimenting with my own life.”

“……”

“I entrusted my lifeline to magicians conducting illegal experiments, and sometimes to myself, but the tough lifeline wouldn’t break easily. An anxious and boring life where I didn’t know when or how it would end. The repeating life cycle with only a starting point didn’t end. And then.”

Widrun looked straight into Nigel’s eyes.

“Only after meeting you did my questions get answered.”

Nigel blinked, unable to meet Widrun’s deep gaze directly, as if being sucked into a bottomless cliff.

“You, born as a saint, had all the answers.”

Nigel felt a strange connection between Widrun, who repeated his life, and herself, who had entered someone else’s life.

“I met you directly in my 15th life. Born not in the Arenium Empire but in a humble small country. It was difficult for me, born as a farmer’s son, not even a nobleman, to meet you, the noblest in the world, but the name ‘Sage’ easily gave me many things.”

“……”

“You easily attracted people, and I was also fascinated by you. The commonality that you, sitting on the most beautiful constellation, felt bored with life greatly contributed to our relationship growing closer. But our ways of dealing with boredom were so different.”

“…The mad dog of the temple.”

Nigel murmured with difficulty, the words that represented her.

“…Yes, you knew.”

Widrun raised the corners of his mouth painfully.

“You, who were bored in front of all the precious and beautiful things in the world, only had your eyes filled with hope for life when you saw others falling into suffering and despair.”

Nigel bit her lip, remembering the content of the original work.

“Strong stimuli are easily tired of. You quickly started looking for more extreme things, and eventually got involved with demons. You ended up using the power to save someone to harm others.”

The description in the novel at that time was truly hell on earth.

In the capital of Arenium, said to be the most prosperous and beautiful in over two thousand years of long history, the stench of blood was intense, and instead of children’s laughter, the cries of demons and people’s wails were constantly heard.

“When the miraculously appearing blue-uniformed knights saved the empire, and the imperial sword Beselion executed you… That’s when my cycle started again.”

Nigel’s eyes widened.

“What do you mean…”

“Yes, your death was the key to my cycle.”

It was an unbelievable story, but there was not a hint of wavering in Widrun across from her.

“From then on, I started experimenting with you. But no matter what efforts I made, it was useless, your cause of death didn’t change, and after watching you several times, I gave up and was just playing the role of the Academy Chancellor, which was my original dream.”

When Widrun and Nigel’s eyes finally met, Widrun’s eyes curved gently.

“…It seems luck can come even to someone like me.”

Nigel’s whole body got goosebumps at Widrun’s sweet smile, which she had never seen before.

Widrun slowly stood up without taking his eyes off Nigel, approached her, and knelt before her, looking at her as if seeing something marvelous.

“This is my last confession. I’m sorry for misunderstanding you, Nigel.”