Chapter 104 - The Way He Loves (2)

As other people managed their daily lives, I managed my deaths.

There was always an easier way for me to die. Wrap my brain in aura. Burst it. I could end my life in an instant, without pain. Easy, simple, convenient.

That was why I never died that way.

'Because it is easy, simple, and convenient.'

Ease. Simplicity. Convenience. Grow accustomed to those three things, and you become careless. However sharp a blade your mind may be, it will rust.

'In the end, carelessness was what let me kill the Flame Emperor, too.'

I chose more painful deaths. I insisted on relying on my dagger, to keep my senses and judgment raw and keen.

That was how it had been.

But today would be different.

"It's all right. It'll be over in an instant."

I slowly sent aura flowing into Lady Silver Lily's hand. Was it because the sensation was unfamiliar? Her eyebrows twitched as she received my redness.

"... It's warm."

"Yes."

"It feels as though warm water is seeping through my veins. If this resembles your body temperature, butler, then you must be a little warmer than I am."

She looked into my eyes.

"I am anxious."

"..."

"Throughout all my regressions, I have never once felt anxious. I believed all would be well so long as I did not lose myself. But... today, I do not want to lose you. If I regress first, and you no longer remember me..."

Was I a son of a bitch if her murmured words pleased me? If I was happy that she felt anxious because of me?

Yes. I probably was a son of a bitch.

"Don't worry."

But I was a son of a bitch for her alone.

"I'll be with you."

Even as we felt each other's warmth, the world was ending.

CRAAACK

The ground split with a crash. Blood erupted from the broken fissures.

The demons that reached up from underground, the creatures that had been Lady Silver Lily's familiars, now rampaged beyond her control. They were as numerous as the drops of water that made up an ocean, and each of those drops was as large as a towering mountain.

"Huh?"

Screams came from far away.

"Demons! Demons have appeared!"

"Unfortunate timing."

People screamed.

The promised ten days. Lady Silver Lily's love, fixed in place by her wish—her love, her eternal love, which a half-formed constellation could no longer possibly restrain—was running wild.

And yet, amid it all, she still looked at me calmly, as though her heart were plated in silver.

"I will tolerate no mistakes."

"Yes."

"If I die even 0.1 seconds before you, or you die even 0.1 seconds before me, I will never forgive you, for all eternity. Engrave what I have just told you deep in your heart. I have granted you only one chance."

"Yes."

"Again."

[The Silver-Plated Heart is looking at you.]

"Take responsibility for making me trust someone again."

"..."

I held my lady's hand just a little tighter.

"Yes."

While demons rampaged on the ground, the sunset sky broke. It shattered like a mirror.

A deluge of blood poured down.

The ground flooded ever redder. The screams that had echoed around us sank beneath bubbling sounds, as though drowning.

Lady Silver Lily's loss of control was not the only thing bringing this world to ruin.

[An apostle of 'The Ox That Harvests Ruins' manifests.]

The apostles of other constellations, whom she had once mentioned.

[An apostle of 'The Warhorse of the Eternal Plains' manifests.]

[An apostle of 'The Immortal Evangelist of Happiness' manifests.]

Beings from other worlds were descending through the rents in the sky.

Lady Silver Lily, this world's half-formed constellation. Seizing the opening left by the collapse of that barrier, they had discarded even the pretense of winning her over and begun a full-scale invasion.

"Really, they are a breed with no sense of romance."

Their forms were as varied as the constellations that must have sent them.

"They certainly are."

That made it easy for me to remember what they looked like.

"I'll have to teach them a lesson."

"What lesson?"

"That you fucking die if you interfere in someone else's love life."

"I like that."

Lady Silver Lily smiled.

"But it need not be now."

She was right. We had no time now anyway.

"My lady."

The sky, its sunset shattered. The endless downpour of blood.

Demons crawling up from underground and invaders descending from the heavens. The person before me had borne all those apocalyptic sights alone.

Until today.

"Butler," Lady Silver Lily said. "Kill me."

The world had turned red. Only she and I, the rowboat carrying us, and the surface of the water within a three-meter radius remained unburied beneath the red paint. Countless tongues and lips rose from the blood-red lake, mocking us.

There, for the first time, I permitted an easy death.

I set ablaze the aura that filled both our bodies.

Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven.

Ninth Move.

Sword of Self-Slaughter.

Without the slightest error. Without even an instant's discrepancy.

[You have died.]

We died.

[You will regress 24 hours into the past.]

When I opened my eyes, I was leaning against a white tree in its shade.

It was evening.

The sky was ripening to yellow.

It was not strange to wake up here. Ever since I had decided to become Lady Silver Lily's personal butler, I had taken her for a walk every evening.

Just as I hurried to get up, a voice whispered right beside me.

"... Have you opened your eyes? Only now do you come to your senses."

I turned to look.

"What a reprehensible butler you are."

Lady Silver Lily stood with the bright sunset at her back. She held a parasol, casting a shadow at her feet. A gust of wind tousled her silver hair, and my breath caught before I knew it.

'Did it work?'

My heart pounded.

'Did I fail?'

I could not tell yet.

Unable to tell, I could only gaze at her.

Her fingers held the parasol handle at an angle. She lightly brushed back the hair the wind had disturbed at the side of her face. Her lips were pressed firmly together as always. Every movement she made sent an immense tremor through me.

"Butler, you told me a small lie," she began.

"You promised we would share the same time. Yet I regressed nine days earlier than you, did I not?"

Ah.

"Even if our romance is a pretense, leaving your beloved alone for nine whole days is utterly reprehensible. A grave offense."

It worked.

"I waited nine days for you, alone. The anxiety of that wait was entirely mine to bear. You swore to stay at my side and failed to keep your word. Is that not negligence and dereliction of duty?"

It worked.

"You will have to work very hard to make amends for this offense."

It worked.

"Hmm. I am thirsty. Butler, the tea you brought—"

She could not finish speaking, because I stood up and wrapped my arms around her.

I could not bear not to hold her.

"..."

The wind blew. The parasol fell from her hand and rolled across the grass.

I was already holding her, but it was not enough. A little more. More. I wanted to hold her tighter still. I realized it was not her body I wanted to embrace, but her heart.

"I'm sorry."

For making you wait nine days alone.

"No."

Lady Silver Lily wrapped her arms around my back.

"It is all right now. I cannot say it was entirely uninteresting to watch the you who had not spent that final day with me."

"That's a lie."

"Yes, it was a lie. It was not particularly interesting. But it is all right. I am very good at waiting."

"I'm sorry."

"I forgive you."

She stroked my neck.

[Your immersion in the character deepens.]

[Your current immersion rate is 71%.]

I want to love her madly.

"Are you crying?"

"No."

"That is a lie."

"Yes."

"I dislike lies. You may joke, but do not lie to me. I will not speak falsely to you either. Nor will I attempt to deceive you with gestures or glances, not merely words."

"Are you crying?"

"..."

"When we don't want to speak, let's exercise our right to remain silent. No prying. No pressing each other, either. I'd like us to wait patiently until the other is ready to tell us."

"Hmm."

I am glad.

Glad I fell in love with her.

Glad I am someone who can love her.

"I have a favor to ask, my lady."

"What is it?"

May I kiss you?

I held it in.

It was also fortunate that she could not see my face.

"I'm truly sorry, but could you wait just a little longer?"

"How rude. How much longer are you asking me to wait?"

"Eight days."

"Why?"

"Seven days."

"Hmm?"

"Six days."

"..."

"I'll shorten it one day at a time."

"..."

"Until we can be together on the first day."

Silence.

"... You insolent thing," she whispered in my ear. "In other words, you intend to kill me nine more times."

"Did it hurt, by any chance?"

"It did not. Just as you said, it lasted only an instant. But you have already taken my life once, and now you mean to take it again. That is a wicked disposition."

"May I kiss you?"

"..."

Sorry.

I could not hold it in.

Lady Silver Lily moved her head and met my eyes.

Red.

The color I would love most from now on was there.

"I shall exercise my right to remain silent."

So I kissed her.

We held each other.

From breath to breath, from lips to lips, I sent my aura flowing, offering the warmth of my heart. I was glad, too, that my aura was red. Our breaths mingled.

And then.

[You have died.]

[You will regress 24 hours into the past.]

When I opened my eyes the next instant, Lady Silver Lily was still at my side. We exchanged no words. Perhaps we had already said a great deal. She took my hand, and I kissed her.

[You have died.]

[You will regress 24 hours into the past.]

To come a little closer to you.

[You have died.]

[You will regress 24 hours into the past.]

I bent my head a little farther toward Lady Silver Lily, who had said we would trace parallel lines forever. I kissed her. Before our times overlapped, our lips met.

In the cool corridor of her residence.

[You have died.]

[You will regress 24 hours into the past.]

In the dark basement.

[You have died.]

[You will regress 24 hours into the past.]

Beneath white magnolia leaves.

"My lady."

I let out a breath.

"You brushed your teeth before coming, didn't you?"

"That seems a question on which I may exercise my right to remain silent."

"It's unfair that only you get to do that."

"There are two occasions in this world when one is forgiven for playing unfairly. One is waging war; the other is making love. Besides..."

When I died, I returned twenty-four hours into the past, but Lady Silver Lily returned to the first day, at the ball.

She had counted the difference between our times.

"You made me wait nine days, then eight, then seven... thirty-nine days in all, did you not? My modest unfairness will actually help ease your guilty conscience. Be grateful."

"So, for all thirty-nine days, kiss..."

"Shut your mouth, you cheeky thing."

[You have died.]

[You will regress 24 hours into the past.]

The next time I opened my eyes, I was in the private room of Lady Golden Silk Blossom, the baron's daughter.

"Death King!"

The Inquisitor, who had not yet become Golden Silk Blossom, beamed. My timeline had continued, but his had not. Thus my immersion rate remained unchanged, while his immersion reset as we drew closer to the first day.

"Lady Silver Lily has come to visit! Aha, what could bring her here so late at night? I hear she stays in a separate residence rather than the dormitory. For her to come all the way here at this hour, something must..."

"Where is she now?"

"Oh, she said she would wait in the garden in front of the dormitory."

I opened the door and ran. The Inquisitor called "Death King?" behind me, but I had no time to answer him. Someone had been waiting for me.

Faster.

Even a little faster. Hurry.

Lady Silver Lily stood beneath a magnolia.

Lotuses blooming white against the night sky.

The budding lotuses looked like hearts drained of red.

"..."

Perhaps people were secretly watching the garden through the dormitory windows. But we drew close, embraced, and kissed.

I whispered.

"Do you know something?"

"I do not. Go on, boast."

"My name is Gongja, and in my language, I call you gongnyeo—a duke's daughter. Put us side by side, and we're gongnyeo and Gongja. Of course, it would sound different in your country's language, but still..."

"Are you saying we are a match made in heaven?"

"That's how I'll think of it."

"How smug you are over a chance resemblance."

"I love you."

Our lips touched.

Our breaths mingled.

Our times overlapped.

[You have died.]

At last.

[You will regress 24 hours into the past.]

When I opened my eyes, I was in a magnificent ballroom.

Chandeliers shimmered overhead, hanging like weeping willows.

Beneath them, dozens of young noblewomen and noblemen danced slowly in pairs.

The place where we first met.

The place where the Inquisitor had been slapped.

The stage where our times first encountered each other.

Day One.

"..."

We stood facing each other in the middle of the ballroom.

I moved my feet.

Lady Silver Lily stepped forward, too.

Neither could have said who moved first. Beneath the white chandeliers, amid dozens of swaying shadows, we pressed our lips together.

Words were unnecessary.

Shocked voices rose around us. We ignored them. The musicians filling the ballroom with music faltered, and the young noblewomen and noblemen stopped dancing to stare at us, but we ignored them.

I was absorbed only in Lady Silver Lily's eyes. Her voice. The contours of her presence.

"Are we..."

I rested my forehead against hers.

"Still on our first day?"

The corners of her lips lifted.

"Now it is our first day. It will be our first day forever."

"Forever?"

"If you and I wish it."

And we kissed again.

We indulged in a single moment as though it were eternity.

Only the soft sounds of our breathing flowed through the vast ballroom.

"Huh...?"