She looked wretched, just like a hideous old hag. Raymond rose from his seat and approached Charlotte.

The man she loved so deeply was walking toward her. Yet, Charlotte only stepped backward, trying to distance herself from him.

‘Has he regained his memories?’

The man before her seemed less like Raymond and more like Oblivus.

At last, he had recovered his memories.

She had surely wished for him to awaken to his past life and return to her side.

But now that it had actually happened, she felt no joy at all. Instead, an overwhelming anxiety gripped her, making her entire body tremble.

“Wait, stop. Don’t come any closer.”

She didn’t understand why she felt so afraid. All she knew was that he must not touch her.

The version of herself who once delighted in even a single glance from Raymond no longer existed.

As she continued backing away, her heel caught in a crack of the worn floor, and she tumbled sideways.

“Ugh…!”

Her knees struck the ground with a pain as if they had shattered. Even after a fall, such agony shouldn’t exist.

Before she could even touch her bleeding knee, her lips, parched and trembling, emitted endless groans. The voice escaping them was horribly hoarse.

“What… why does my voice sound like this?”

Charlotte startled, nearly jumping at the grating, unpleasant sound of her own voice.

Once she recognized it, even the sharp pain of her broken kneecap momentarily faded from her mind.

Running her hands over her throat, she was shocked all over again.

Her hands, aged and wrinkled, and her body, emaciated to the point of being skeletal, were repulsive beyond measure.

“No… no, that can’t be.”

She tried hard to ignore the rasping, metallic voice. She must have seen wrong—she quickly ran her hands over her body again.

But the skin that once shimmered like silk, the arms and legs that should have been straight and beautiful, were nowhere to be found—only bones and skin remained, twisted into a grotesque form.

In the grooves of the cracked floor, water droplets that had fallen from a light dragon carrying flowers gathered into a small pool. Reflected in the puddle under the light was Charlotte’s face.

At the sight of the old, hideous crone, Charlotte screamed.

“Aaaiiieek—!”

But even that voice was terrifying, so she clutched her own throat, desperately suppressing the scream.

Charlotte had never, not even once in all her past lives, experienced aging.

Her body had always been beautiful, praised in every lifetime.

Whenever a serious ‘problem’ arose, hadn’t she simply discarded her body and transferred only her soul to another world?

Thus, bodily aging was a phenomenon she had never encountered, and eternal death was something she had never even imagined.

“…Huh?”

Charlotte blinked blankly. She couldn’t recall any major ‘problem’ severe enough to make her abandon her body.

The small gaps in her memory rapidly multiplied, creating large cracks throughout her mind.

Memories flowing through those cracks were ones she didn’t recognize.

‘Something’s wrong.’

She was clearly Elsia. Then why were memories of Laphier flooding her mind?

The face of the Empire’s first king—the murderer of the dragon’s mate—overlapped with her own. The two faces were shockingly identical.

“No… no!”

Charlotte buried her face in her knees.

She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, but closing her eyes couldn’t block the memories now dominating her mind.

Past lives flooded into Charlotte like an unstoppable invasion. Her first denial turned into waves of doubt.

Could it be… that there was some error in her memories?

“No. Absolutely not. Everyone’s deceiving me right now. Isn’t that right, Oblivus?”

Yet Charlotte chose to ignore even her own doubts.

Just as her discarded bodies across multiple lives had failed to mature, her spirit had also remained stunted.

The soul, which should have matured within a body, had been fractured by forced reincarnations—irreparable damage.

Unconsciously realizing this was her final life, Charlotte was utterly terrified.

Yet she kept muttering “no” endlessly, a sight so horrifying it sent chills down one’s spine.

It had to end here. Raymond, watching her with cold eyes, reached out his hand.

“I’ll grant you, my former contractor, one final act of mercy.”

A large hand settled upon her brittle, dry white hair. Charlotte couldn’t push it away.

He was implanting the true memories into her. The voice of the dragon, who was both Raymond and Oblivus, echoed inside Charlotte’s mind.

The final gift he gave his contractor was the truth—named ‘acknowledgment.’

“Ah….”

Charlotte’s sigh echoed hollowly in the empty space. There was no more avoiding it.

She now understood—every memory she had cherished was merely a collection of what she had wished for.

‘Perhaps…’

She might have known all along. The desire for what she wanted had created an intensely powerful belief.

But beneath that belief lay the truth. If she unleashed her divine power upon the current Raymond, it would bring destruction to this world.

‘Ah… now I finally understand.’

So what Charlotte truly desired was the end for everyone.

Under the pretense of restoring Raymond’s memories, she wanted to kill him with her own hands.

So that in this final life, she wouldn’t die alone. Even the final moment of her childhood friend, whom she had erased countless times to claim love for herself.

She hadn’t hated Elsia. She simply wanted what Elsia possessed. She had no regrets.

But she wished that Elsia back then, and Yerpi now, wouldn’t hate her either. There was no answer for such cruel selfishness. And so—

‘I’ll return to the beginning.’

If everything were to vanish, then there would be no beginning or end. And with that, her original sin would also end.

If there were another life after the soul’s annihilation, she hoped the three of them could be together.

But she had thought—she hoped there would be no next chance.

The final destruction—erasing all karmic ties bound to the soul, dissolving everything together—was the most perfect ending Charlotte had ever envisioned.

But the conclusion she dreamed of never came to pass.

Only she—aged and worthless—was riding the carriage racing toward annihilation.

This wasn’t what she had wanted. She had wished to end in the most beautiful way possible. Why?

Charlotte grasped Raymond’s sleeve. Then, she stretched her empty hand toward Yerpi.

“You… you two… don’t leave me.”

Charlotte’s forced smile looked pitiful and degrading. In Yerpi’s eyes, Charlotte’s soul was visible.

Cracked and broken, her soul emitted a dim, lifeless glow.

No, worse—fragments of her fractured soul were floating in midair.

“Yerpi? Sister… Elsia…”

Charlotte called out to Yerpi with multiple names. Then, seeing Yerpi turn her gaze away, she fell into despair.

On Obliviet, remnants of the dragon’s flames from its earlier clash with divine power still lingered. The dragon’s flames consumed and burned the soul fragments drifting from Charlotte.

Gradually, the lingering flames grew larger. Soon, they expanded to fill Obliviet, taking the form of a dragon that now looked down upon Charlotte.

This was not by Raymond’s command. Until now, Charlotte had recklessly taken and used the dragon’s power.

Now, the power had found its true master, regained its self-awareness, and sought to punish her for daring to misuse it.

Under the towering, blazing golden dragon, Charlotte stammered.

“No… wait… I…”

I was wrong. So please…

But Charlotte’s words were cut off by the flames. The dragon’s maw completely swallowed her.

Her fragmented soul burned away. The soul, heading toward eternal annihilation, adorned its end with profound loneliness.

Thud. The body, now empty of soul, collapsed onto the floor.

Charlotte had vanished from this world, leaving behind only the shell of this lifetime on earth.

The karmic chain binding the three souls was severed. Only Raymond and Yerpi remained.

Dante buried his face in Yerpi’s arms. Holding the child, Yerpi approached Raymond.

Raymond’s golden eyes, having regained their memories, now held even deeper depths. The two gazed at each other.

Charlotte’s time had ended.

Conversely, she and Raymond would now begin living their time once more—continuing the future and love that had been stolen from them in their past life.