‘It’s just sleep, they will soon wake up.’

Unable to believe the doctor’s words, even the palace doctor was called in, but the answer was the same.

‘They coughed up blood and collapsed, but you say it’s just sleep?’

Ian found it hard to believe those words, but he couldn’t not believe them either.

If they were in pain, they would have frowned or something, but Rosebelia’s face was peaceful as she slept with her eyelids tightly closed.

As the image of Rosebelia’s face momentarily bleeding overlapped with her extremely peaceful face, his chest tightened.

Ian had checked Rosebelia’s breathing and pulse as soon as she lost consciousness in his arms.

His own breath had stopped for a moment until he confirmed she was breathing properly.

He was so shocked that just recalling that moment made his heart sink to the floor again.

‘Have I ever been this shaken by someone else’s situation?’

Ian let out a faint sigh between his teeth and quietly looked down at her. His gaze passed over her disheveled hair on the pillow and settled on her round forehead.

When his gaze flowed like water past her high nose bridge to reach her bright red lips, he unconsciously swallowed.

For a moment, Ian’s Adam’s apple moved violently. Once fixed on her, his gaze could hardly be pulled away.

As he was weakly clenching and unclenching his fist repeatedly, a knock was heard from outside the door.

“Come in.”

The one who appeared was Karl, the captain of the imperial guard. The imperial guard was a unit that only the emperor and crown prince could mobilize.

Although Ian was a prince, the imperial guard could move for Ian anytime according to the secret orders given by Emperor Callisto.

“What should we do with the imperial guard?”

“Have them disband now.”

“Understood.”

As Karl showed no sign of leaving the room, Ian turned around, rubbing his brow.

“Do you have more to say?”

“Your complexion does not look good. Perhaps you should rest a bit…”

A wry laugh burst through his closed lips. To talk about his complexion in front of someone who had just faced a magical beast alone.

“Karl.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“I need you to look into the magical beast that appeared in the village today.”

“I will follow your orders.”

*

‘Can you kill me?’

I opened my eyes at that voice. I thought I had opened my eyes, but nothing had changed.

What was before my eyes was Rosebelia and Ian standing under the dark castle walls.

‘What do you mean, Klein? And who is this person?’

‘This is His Highness the Crown Prince.’

The man standing behind Ian like a shadow approached and said. Rosebelia stared at Ian, unable to close her mouth.

‘The Crown Prince?’

‘I cannot tell you everything, senior, but there is a curse that secretly runs in the imperial family. That curse has manifested in me, and I do not have the confidence to live with this curse.’

‘Even so…’

‘You are the only one who can kill me, senior.’

Ian’s voice was firm and clear. Like his unwavering gaze.

‘How can you ask this of me, Your Highness.’

‘If it’s not a request from a junior knight, but an order from the crown prince, will you follow it?’

Ian’s voice changed in an instant. Rosebelia roughly rubbed her face at his voice that had no perceptible highs or lows.

‘Why are you doing this to me of all people?’

‘Because you are the only swordmaster in this empire besides me. I cannot die by my own will. So you…’

‘I will not kill someone who was once my comrade with my own hands.’

‘I will come back again, so prepare yourself until then. Next time it won’t be a request, but an order.’

I woke up with a start and slowly blinked my eyes.

What came into view was not a dark place, but an unfamiliar room with light coming in.

“Are you coming to your senses now?”

The one supporting me as I tried to sit up was Ian.

“…Klein?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

So what I saw just before I collapsed really was Ian.

“Where is this?”

“An inn near the village.”

“What happened to the magical beast?”

“It’s dead.”

As I stroked my chest in relief, Ian suddenly let out a deep sigh.

“Did you deal with it alone, senior?”

“Huh?”

“None of the guardian knights who gathered late, nor Senior Vanessa or Senior Lucas, claimed to have dealt with the magical beast. Then the one who dealt with it must be you…”

“Yes, I killed it. I encountered it when I was briefly separated from the group during the last subjugation, so others wouldn’t have seen it. I was able to deal with it right away because I had experience fighting it then.”

During the last subjugation, Rosebelia had gone out after hearing a strange sound in her sleep and encountered a red slime.

Unable to cut it with a regular sword, she used aura to kill it, and that scene was witnessed by Captain Gabriel.

Rosebelia did not want it known that she was a swordmaster, and Gabriel respected her wishes and had kept the fact that Rosebelia was a swordmaster a secret until now.

“Even so, you should have requested support immediately.”

“That was… my mistake. I was in too much of a hurry.”

“You coughed up blood and collapsed, I thought something really serious had happened.”

To think I would be caught like that by Ian of all people.

“I’m sorry. You must have been very surprised.”

As I tried to force a smile, Ian asked in a rough voice.

“Why did you cough up blood? Were you attacked by the magical beast?”

“Ah, that’s…”

I wasn’t attacked by the magical beast, actually I’m a swordmaster who can use aura.

But for some reason I cough up blood every time I use aura – it was difficult to honestly confess this because of the conversation I had heard in my dream just now.

What exactly did I see?

‘Because you are the only swordmaster in this empire besides me. I cannot die by my own will. So you…’

I calmly recalled the conversation between Rosebelia and Ian that I had seen in my dream. Then I tried to connect that content with the original work.

The curse, swordmaster, Ian, and Rosebelia.

「”It seems the Winters family has deeply offended His Majesty.”

“The eldest daughter of the Winters family, who was considered the next candidate for captain of the White Knights, emigrated to the Kingdom of Renoir. I heard His Majesty personally visited several times to ask her to be the captain of the White Knights, but she refused and went to the kingdom to become the captain of their knight order…”」

Suddenly that part of the original work came to mind.

If Ian had been looking for Rosebelia since he took the position of crown prince, and continued to look for her even after ascending to the emperor’s seat, he would have been noticed by others at least a few times.

What if someone who witnessed that scene misunderstood it as him going to ask her to be the captain? What if he had actually gone to ask her to kill him?

It wasn’t a completely unreasonable speculation. In the original work, Daisy also clearly said that Ian seemed like a completely different person after his crown prince investiture ceremony, so if that curse manifested around the time of the crown prince investiture…

My head became overloaded, and suddenly my vision blurred.

“Senior? Are you alright?”

Ian immediately placed his hand on my forehead. As the somewhat cool sensation transmitted, I felt my confused mind calm down a bit.

“There’s no fever, but I think I should call the doctor again.”

“No. I think I’ll be fine after resting a bit. What did the doctor say?”

“He said there was nothing wrong with your body.”

I thought as much.

I was worried inside because I had coughed up blood, but fortunately it seems there was nothing wrong with my body.

“If there’s nothing wrong, that’s fine.”

“No, I need to know why you coughed up blood and collapsed, senior.”

“That… Actually, I’m not sure of the reason myself.”

“Pardon?”

Facing Ian’s deeply furrowed brow, I tried to think of an excuse.

“Maybe I sustained some internal injury while fighting the magical beast without realizing it?”

“If it’s an internal injury, the doctor might have failed to detect it. I’ll find a more renowned doctor.”

I hurriedly grabbed Ian’s clothes as he had already risen from his seat.

“There’s no need for that. I know my body better than anyone.”

“But…”

“If there was something wrong with my body, why would I deliberately hide it? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with me.”

*

Returning to the marquis residence late in the afternoon, I headed straight for the study.

“I think I saw a book about the Fonnes Empire around here somewhere…”

Carefully examining the bookshelf, I pulled out a book titled .

I scrutinized it thoroughly to the last page, but couldn’t find any mention of a curse being passed down in the imperial family.

Since he said it was a secretly passed down curse, perhaps others don’t know about it?

If I had to point out anything peculiar, it was that there were quite a few cases where the emperor suddenly abdicated and passed the throne to the crown prince.

It wasn’t that there was any problem with the emperor, nor did the crown prince seize the throne by force.

In all the cases I saw, an emperor who had no problems with ruling suddenly abdicated to the crown prince.

Ian’s case was similar, wasn’t it?

By now, looking out at the dark outside, I soon got up. Returning to my room, I couldn’t fall asleep at all.

The content I saw in the dream I had during the day wouldn’t leave my mind.

If I just close my eyes, sleep will come eventually. Thinking that, I pressed my eyelids down tightly.

‘I do not want to live again.’

This was my voice, no, Rosebelia’s voice.

‘This is the first time I’ve encountered this. Are you saying you don’t want the chance to live again that I’m offering you?’

The voice that followed was the very voice that had reached me when I collapsed on the asphalt.

‘I lived my life to the fullest. I have no regrets.’

‘I have already turned back time, and I can’t undo that. Everything could change depending on how you act, yet you’re rejecting the chance I’ve given you?’

‘Nothing will change. I lived according to my beliefs, and even if I’m given life again, I will make the same choices. So for me, it’s not a chance but just a repetition of my past life.’

I must have fallen asleep without realizing it, as I suddenly woke up.

It seems I had another dream, but what does it mean to be given a chance to live again?

Moreover, turning back time…

“Regression?”

At that word that suddenly popped out between my teeth, my heart started beating rapidly.

So…

“Rosebelia refused to regress?”