Objectively speaking, it was an ideal statement that could help a lone survivor cope with their grief.

However, what Penrel overlooked was that he and Ophelia were far from an ideal relationship.

So Idren corrected the corps commander who was trying to comfort him.

“Your words might be wrong.”

“Your Majesty.”

“Perhaps Ophelia wanted me to be like this.”

The probability of that was low.

Ophelia wouldn’t have had such deep sentiments for him.

Even if it’s true that she took her own life, it would have been due to various circumstances overlapping rather than out of malice towards him.

Hasn’t she been through a lot lately? If only the premise of time going back was certain, Idren could understand her to some extent.

There were more than enough reasons for Ophelia to lose interest in living, so she might have wanted to start over.

And among those reasons, couldn’t there have been even a small part of her that wanted him to be unhappy?

Of course, he wasn’t worth that much. But it was impossible to ignore the possibility when it existed.

Penrel did not try to persuade him further as he attempted to think carefully.

Instead, the knight brought a new person.

Before the evening of the day he had conversed with the knight, Idren met Salode who had come down to the underground tomb.

The man, whose relationship had recently grown distant, did not try to change his mind by comparing it to duty like Penrel did.

What Salode chose was reason and rationality.

“The fact that Her Majesty the Queen has passed away has been confirmed by several doctors taking turns.”

The man’s tone, conveying things as they were, was calm.

“Even if they were all wrong, it’s been over a week since she was placed in the coffin.”

As there was no way someone could be alive after being in a closed space for over seven days, the man’s words had an effect.

Though it did raise another question.

“Then, did I imprison Ophelia while she was alive and kill her?”

It was merely a statement leaving the possibility open, as he had done with Penrel, but Salode seemed to be at a loss for words at his question.

“…I will visit you again later.”

Salode didn’t need to do that.

Before he could come up with new words, Idren left the underground tomb on his own feet. It was after about two days had passed.

The reason was clear.

In any case, Ophelia was dead, and time did not go back.

So he had to look into other methods besides waiting.

Coming outside, Idren thoroughly searched through the royal library of the Sigrasal family. In fact, this was something he should have done long ago.

From the moment he first went back in time, he should have tried to find out why time was turning back.

But because he liked having Ophelia by his side, he had been so intoxicated with it that he kept putting it off day after day, which was delayed even after her death.

And what was likely to be related to the time reversal was already determined.

The Kiss of Sigrasal.

A luxurious golden jewel that hadn’t been in his possession for quite some time.

That sacred object had disappeared from the point when he first returned to a living Ophelia.

After setting up and breaking down several hypotheses focusing on sacred objects and myths, Idren left the most plausible one. The royal well.

There was a red well in the royal garden. A well that had dried up long ago, now only supporting an old tale.

In the past, it was said that humans offered sacrifices to the gods by putting something in there. Crops, or animals. Maybe even people.

As it was a custom that had disappeared in the present, Idren had never put anything into the well.

Except for one thing, the royal ring.

Whether intended or not, if it was true that he had made an offering to the well, then the god must have granted his wish.

Idren thought so, even though he had never once turned his gaze upward in his life.

And what he had said in front of the royal well was……

“…I dislike you now too.”

But that was just an act of defiance.

Idren had never once thought that he could dislike Ophelia.

There were times when he resented her for being so cruel, but wasn’t that because he loved her too much rather than disliking her?

So if the wish had been granted, it should have been something else, not that.

Carefully retracing his memories, Idren recalled what he had most earnestly wished for at that time.

To find out why Ophelia had died.

At that time, he wanted to know why he had been abandoned.

After time went back, Ophelia didn’t tell him, and he had temporarily set aside the question, being too preoccupied with not being abandoned again.

So the wish had not yet been fulfilled, but why wasn’t time going back?

Thinking that perhaps the offering was insufficient, Idren had gone to examine the well late at night.

Just as he was about to look inside, he would have been able to check its contents if someone hadn’t grabbed him by the nape of his neck.

“Your Majesty!”

Idren frowned as he was almost torn away from the well by a rough hand. This was the first time such a thing had happened since his ascension to the throne.

Turning around, he realized who had laid hands on him.

The knight who had inherited the blood of Chesa was breathing heavily.

“Why are you here?”

While it was true that Hael belonged to the Royal Knights, Idren had given the knight freedom after Ophelia’s death.

It was not so much for the other’s sake as there was no reason to keep holding onto them anymore.

The war was over, and the person they were supposed to protect had disappeared.

Anyway, everything would become nonexistent if time went back, so it seemed that Hael could also enjoy a moment of freedom.

In any case, the important thing was that it had been quite a while since Hael had left Sigrasal Castle.

“I hadn’t heard that you were inside the royal castle?”

As Hael, not being the corps commander, belonged to an elder family, they had to leave the castle before sunset.

Even if someone – most likely Salode – had given her permission to stay in the castle, she should not have left her designated place without permission at such a late hour.

But instead of answering his question, the knight asked with a pale face.

“What, what were you trying to do just now?”

Only then did Idren realize that his actions were perfectly suited to cause misunderstanding.

Late at night, lurking around a dry well could look strange.

But he wasn’t trying to do anything worrisome.

“I can see what you’re thinking. But, I just had something to check…”

“What were you trying to check!”

And Hael firmly grasped his shoulder, then almost threw him in the opposite direction of the well.

Although it ended with just being pushed back due to his original build and basic reflexes, it was sufficiently unpleasant. Idren frowned deeply.

“Hael Chesa, what is this behavior? Have you gone mad?”

While it was true that Hael had been one of his close aides along with Penrel all this time, such behavior was hard to tolerate.

But the knight glared at him even after committing an act that should have led straight to the execution grounds according to the law.

She said, breathing heavily.

“Listen well. Her Majesty the Queen was murdered.”

“What?”

Although he asked back because the situation was absurd, Idren had once thought similarly to the knight’s words.

But as time passed, that thought became increasingly shaky.

It was true that Ophelia had said in a soft voice that she had something to say, so he should wait.

It was also true that she had smiled at him, that she didn’t hate him enough to make him face her death from the first day of the new year, and that they had acted like lovers for a brief moment.

But it was also true that he didn’t know her inner thoughts well, so Idren couldn’t help but struggle the longer he was left alone.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t stop the investigation. Because stopping it would mean admitting something he couldn’t handle.

Even he felt that way, but Hael spoke in a voice filled with strength, like someone who really had some certainty.

“So find the culprit.”

And the knight pressed on without giving him a chance to respond.

“Find the culprit and give them a fitting punishment. Whether you cut off their limbs and hang them on the castle walls, rip out their tongue and brand them as a slave, or exterminate their entire family because that alone doesn’t satisfy you, it doesn’t matter.”

Well, that’s only natural. If someone had murdered Ophelia, such punishment should rightfully be carried out.

But hearing such words come from the mouth of the knight glaring at him made him feel strange.

“I will support you in everything.”

And Hael concluded with a distorted face. So please, come to your senses…

Seeing the knight lower her glaring gaze, Idren realized that she was feeling miserable.

The misery of the knight he had kept by his side for a long time weighed heavily on his skin.

With the weight of that life, Idren realized the unchanging truth he had to face.

Hael had thrown out the words that Ophelia had been murdered in order to raise him up.

But the premise of those words was Ophelia’s death.

And he was still alive.

So he had to fulfill the role of the living.

The next day, Idren said he would finish the postponed funeral.

“I’ve been irresponsible all this time. I won’t be like that anymore, so don’t worry.”

When he spoke looking like a proper person after several days, Penrel showed tears again.

The knight who hadn’t cried even when entering his place of death on his own feet in his first life had already pleaded to him with tears several times.

While trying his best to show a decent appearance to the people under him, Idren thought.

Not to kill all of his blood relatives.