RSHTV 01

← Previous Next →

Chapter 1

Belona had already decided that this life was doomed anyway.

It was her twenty-first regression, and her ill-fated relationship with Deminic seemed to have no end.

As always, Deminic, who had turned to black magic, had become a true villain driven mad by bloodlust.

Belona slowly closed and opened her eyes, taking a deep breath as she gathered up the feelings she couldn’t tell were disappointment in herself or simple resignation.

“Are you giving up this easily?”

Belona had been the only person who wasn’t afraid of him and was willing to confront him as an equal. Seeing her unusually quiet, Deminic seemed almost disappointed.

Across all those lives, Deminic would occasionally look at Belona with an expression filled with some inexplicable lingering attachment.

Belona shook her head, trying to shake off her gloomy mood. For some reason, she was genuinely irritated.

“I won’t lose this pointlessly in my next life.”

Belona took a bottle from her bosom, uncorked it, and swallowed its contents in one gulp.

The colorless, odorless liquid slid down her throat, making her feel as though flames were spreading from within her body.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Belona looked at Deminic, who had belatedly grabbed her wrist. Her expression held nothing but relief.

She actually liked the rare sight of genuine bewilderment filling his eyes.

She had always disliked the arrogant way he looked at everything with an expression of boredom and monotony, as though he intended to keep everything under his control.

“What do you think? I’m running away.”

That sense of relief soon disappeared along with the small satisfaction of having gotten one over on Deminic, and she was swallowed by gloom as pitch-black darkness descended.

And so ended the twenty-first life of Belona Rosentin.

“What exactly was the problem?”

On a peaceful spring day, twenty-one-year-old Belona Rosentin opened her eyes in the garden of the count’s estate.

Once she realized the situation, she grabbed her head and fell deep into thought.

She was truly exhausted now.

From her red hair reflected in the trembling teacup to her face, which looked not merely young but almost childlike, everything about the setting and the point in time to which she returned was exactly the same as always.

“I’ve done this more than ten times.”

When she had first been born into this world, things had been fairly decent.

She had been born as a supporting character—the heroine’s closest friend—and, armed with the confidence of knowing the future, she eventually helped both the heroine and the male lead.

But even the life she had believed to be the most perfect had failed to bring her a complete death.

Just like in her first life, she had grown old and lain in bed, reminiscing about the past. Just when she thought that this time, surely, she would finally find eternal rest, the familiar scenery of the garden had appeared before her eyes.

Her next attempt had been to simply give up.

As a result, she had decided that this would be a break from trying to change the story and had dealt with the original story’s villain, Deminic, half-heartedly.

That had led to the poison ending from just moments ago.

“There isn’t anything left for me to try anymore…”

Twenty-one regressions.

Her twenty-second life.

Even seriously pondering what the problem was while staring up at the clear sky seemed pointless.

Then—

“My lady, is something wrong?”

Belona blankly stared at Rose, the maid who was pouring her tea and asking the question just as she had in every previous life.

“I feel like complaining to God.”

“You must have a lot on your mind. Then why don’t you visit the temple?”

Belona froze at the word temple.

“The temple?”

The moment she heard the word, another person came to mind.

Deminic, the eternal villain of the original story.

The reason he became the villain was ultimately because he turned to black magic.

There is a reason I’ve never paid any attention to Deminic before…

Deminic had been born as the son of a princess, but without knowing that he was a member of the collateral imperial family and the sole heir to a ducal house, he spent an unhappy childhood in an orphanage run by the temple.

Because of his red eyes, people in the temple pointed fingers at him, saying that they carried an ominous, demonic aura.

Eventually, Deminic truly learned how to use black magic.

By the time he had already become an adult, Belona regressed.

And, as it happened, today was the very day he planned to massacre the people at the temple who had abused him during his childhood.

It was already impossible to reform him.

But there was one possibility.

He hadn’t yet surrendered his soul to black magic.

“I might be able to help with the part where he’s going insane because of black magic.”

If she did that, she might not be able to reform him completely, but perhaps she could at least turn him into a relatively normal person.

Besides—

“I’ve died for you like this, so if there is a next life, how about taking my hand? Who knows? Maybe if you stop me, I’ll do fewer crazy things.”

“Who would that benefit? Stop dreaming.”

Why was that conversation coming back to her now?

By coincidence, Deminic’s words from just before her death in her previous life were echoing in her ears.

Of course, even if we did join hands, we’d both have to be prepared to betray each other at any moment.

Still, if Deminic were in a less insane state, even if he were betrayed, wouldn’t he remain within the bounds of common sense?

This was the only choice she had never tried before.

Let’s bring Deminic over to my side and help him. You never know, right? Maybe that’s the true happy ending this world wants me to reach.

Having reached that conclusion with an indifferent expression, Belona abruptly stood up.

“Rose, let’s go.”

If there was even the slightest possibility that she could break free from this endless cycle of regression and finally experience a complete death, Belona was more than willing to take action.

Once she had made up her mind, getting to the temple didn’t take long.

After getting out of the carriage and standing before the brilliantly white temple building, Belona let out a quiet sigh before speaking softly to her maid, Rose.

“Ask them for a private prayer room. I want to be alone. Oh, and I prefer somewhere quiet, so get me the room at the very end.”

Belona watched Rose disappear in quick little steps.

She wondered how far Deminic had gotten by now. He must have already entered the temple.

The sun hadn’t set yet, so there was still plenty of time.

It shouldn’t be difficult to run into him.

“The priest said the room at the end of that corridor is empty, and that you may use it.”

“Really?”

Belona reached the room with a light step, then glanced back at Rose and ordered her:

“Wait here.”

After confirming that the door had completely closed and the surroundings had fallen into silence and darkness, Belona walked forward and pulled back the carpet lying on the floor.

A wooden door leading underground was revealed.

“There was a reason I asked for this room.”

She had heard that the priests who barely survived Deminic’s plan to massacre the temple had escaped through a secret passage.

There was something she absolutely needed to obtain before meeting Deminic.

“It’s a complete dust pit.”

Belona placed a hand against the wall and proceeded down the dark passage.

Before long, she reached the end, grabbed the doorknob within reach, and pulled.

Brilliant light poured down from above.

A magnificent space appeared before her, with dazzling sunlight passing through stained-glass windows and painting the entire area in vivid colors.

In the empty space, which was always kept immaculately clean, the clicking of her shoes echoed clearly.

Without hesitation, Belona walked forward, climbed the stairs, and stepped onto the altar.

“Which one of these was the holy relic again?”

The place she had entered contained a sacred altar and was also where the temple’s ordinary holy relics were stored.

Belona casually picked up the relics arranged on either side of the altar and examined them one after another.

“This cup was a fake with not even a trace of divine power in it, which is why I died. This sword is useful, but…”

She paused.

“Ah, I think it was this necklace.”

Upon seeing the necklace, a transparent gemstone hanging from a thin strand like silver thread, Belona nodded with a satisfied smile.

Creak.

Just then, the sound of the door opening came from behind her, followed by footsteps entering the room.

It seemed she had arrived at exactly the right time.

She could never say that she missed Deminic.

But if someone asked whether she hated him without reservation anymore, she couldn’t honestly say that either.

“…Who are you?”

First came the familiar black hair.

Then she saw those dark crimson eyes that were impossible to forget once you had seen them.

Some called those eyes ominous.

Others called them captivating.

Belona was inclined to vote for the latter.

There was something mesmerizing about Deminic’s shifting red eyes. Sometimes they were so captivating that people found themselves staring at them as though entranced.

When Belona remained silent, Deminic’s wary expression twisted into a familiar shape, with a faint trace of irritation mixed in.

Seeing that, a small smile slowly appeared at the corners of Belona’s lips.

“Someone who can tell you information you don’t know.”

For some reason, it seemed like this was going to be a far more interesting day than she had expected.

Of course, Belona hadn’t come here without a plan.

She was confident that she could pique Deminic’s interest enough to keep him from killing her immediately.

What a tragic fate.

Deminic was the only child born from the marriage between Princess Olivia—the Emperor’s beloved younger sister and his only sister—and Duke Roxelln.

Immediately after Deminic was born, an assassination attempt disguised as an accidental fire occurred.

He lost his parents and barely managed to escape with a maid.

But even that maid, whom Deminic believed to be his mother, died only a few years later.

Deminic was then taken in by the temple’s orphanage without ever knowing his true identity.