Chapter 132
Segleninde hurried to the basement.
He rearranged the structure of the mansion as he rushed there at the fastest speed possible, but it was already too late. Cynthia was already standing in the middle of the basement.
She had witnessed the truth that could not be hidden.
“…What… is all this?”
Her stunned face was pale, looking as if she might cry at any moment.
But Segleninde could not approach her. He sensed that she would not allow it. Cynthia, her face tinged bluish, opened her mouth as if to speak, only to clamp her jaw tight and suck in a breath, then took a step back and turned her head away.
And then she saw it.
Countless versions of ‘herself’.
“All of these… are me.”
Under the faint lights hanging from the ceiling of the basement, dozens of glass coffins were lined up.
Inside those beautiful glass coffins, lying as if they were mere decorations, were all women—Cynthia. Same face, same build, same height. Their hair and eye colors were all different, but like dolls, they stared blankly into space with expressionless faces. They were all ‘Cynthia’.
Seeing them, Cynthia finally remembered everything.
“My memory’s back… Segleninde, I remember everything.”
Segleninde was not the only one who had lost his memory.
It was the same for Cynthia.
“I… I’ve already transmigrated into this game, no, this world, dozens of times.”
The very first Cynthia to transmigrate into this world was the princess lying in the coffin at the far right.
Next, she became the holy knight lying in the second coffin. After that, she was the maid from a poor family, the detective’s assistant at a small agency, the thief who’d grown up on the streets, the king’s secret agent disguised as a lady-in-waiting, the witch’s apprentice living in a small forest.
At one point, she was even the mage who was falsely accused and chased out of the Mage Tower.
Thus, the ones lying in those glass coffins were all Cynthia’s former bodies. Commoner Cynthia, noble Cynthia, royal Cynthia, slave Cynthia—Cynthia, Cynthia, Cynthia.
Countless corpses of Cynthia, preserved like specimens, were displayed.
“…Sia.”
For the first time, Segleninde wore a look of genuine tension and confusion. As he desperately called her name and tried to approach, Cynthia, her face full of confusion and fear, retreated further.
“Don’t come any closer.”
“I can explain everything.”
“Go away.”
“It’s not what you think. Listen to me!”
“I said, go away!”
Cynthia shook off Segleninde’s hand reaching for her and stepped further back.
“Again.”
Segleninde let out a hollow laugh, his face turning cold.
“…You broke your promise again.”
“……”
“Why do you never keep your promises with me? You said you wouldn’t leave. You said you’d stay with me.”
Segleninde had done everything to avoid losing her. Even if his methods were something no human could ever understand or accept.
Cynthia held her breath as she looked at him.
He was crying.
“Why do you keep trying to run away from me? Why, no matter what I do, won’t you stay by my side?”
It wasn’t that he wanted to keep her by his side forever from the very start.
The first Cynthia—Princess Cynthia, second in line to the throne—had tried to escape this place over and over, dying dozens of times. Segleninde, who had only intended to use her as nourishment like any other human, tried to kill her simply because she had stumbled into this world by chance.
But Cynthia came back to life every time she died. Over and over again.
She was betrayed by helpers and killed, or betrayed them herself and was killed. Whenever Segleninde appeared, she cried and ran, wielding whatever weapon she could to resist and fight back.
He found it interesting and kept watching, but each time, he killed her.
Sometimes, he deliberately created conflict between her and her allies so she’d end up alone, or had her killed by other creatures. Yet even then, watching her desperately struggle to avoid madness or despair, he found it all fascinating.
So when she finally saw the ‘ending’ and escaped the mansion, he simply connected the worlds again and made Cynthia reincarnate once more.
But when the holy knight Cynthia, in her second round, realized she’d been pulled into the same world again, she did everything to avoid going to his mansion. She tried to flee abroad, even went into hiding. Segleninde went out of his way to find her.
And she killed herself.
After that, Segleninde established a few rules. Whenever Cynthia woke up in a new body, all her previous memories would be erased.
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