Chapter 43

“Is this the Tarakan Free City?”

With a gentle breeze nudging her hat down a bit, Lilian gazed at the city’s scenery. Her usually icy blue eyes sparkled with excitement. The sunlight caught her shimmering silver hair, fluttering in the wind, drawing the eyes of passersby. Given that only nobles or the wealthy typically frequented this place, it was no wonder that someone as beautiful as Lilian turned heads even among the attractive folk of Tarakan Free City.

Next to her, Yulia smiled softly as she set down her brown bag. The appearance of this contrasting beauty caused people’s gazes to shift towards her, now unabashedly. Yulia, her long blonde hair tied neatly, lightly tapped Lilian’s arm. Her golden eyes held a faint glimmer of expectation.

However, that expectation felt drastically different from Lilian’s own. It was the kind of anticipation one might see in someone who had spotted a fun new toy. Lilian couldn’t comprehend Yulia’s enthusiasm. Was the suggestion they just discussed meant to be a joke?

Seeing the confusion on Lilian’s face, Yulia burst into a hearty laugh. She then slowly calmed her expression.

“Are we heading straight to our lodgings?”

When Yulia asked, Lilian lifted her travel bag. It wasn’t heavy, but carrying it around while sightseeing would be a hassle.

“Well, wouldn’t it be better to drop off our things first?”

“You know the plan, right?”

“Yeah. Not sure why we have to do it like this, though.”

Lilian sighed lightly, clearly reluctant. In response, Yulia beamed and shook her head.

“It wouldn’t be wrong to try another method, but… there’s really not a better option, is there?”

“I mean, if we look hard enough, there might be one.”

Indeed, they could choose not to seek revenge. But that possibility had long vanished from their minds. After seeing Catherine’s injured face, Lilian felt an unquenchable fire burning within her chest. Yulia, observing her, didn’t feel too cheerful either. Even though she hadn’t seen the wounds on Catherine directly, just knowing that Charles Garington, that unruly troublemaker, dared to harm her friend was enough to darken her mood.

“We don’t have time to waste.”

“We could look for options after returning to the Academy….”

As Lilian hesitated, Yulia flashed a bright smile. No, to be exact, her eyes drew arcs of mischief. Feeling a moment of dissonance from Yulia’s expression, Lilian quickly sealed her lips at Yulia’s probing question.

“Don’t you want to get revenge for Catherine?”

….

With a small sigh escaping her, Yulia slowly hardened her expression. Classmates were gradually approaching from behind the two at the forefront. Watching this, Lilian bit her lip slightly and quietly gazed down at Yulia. Her tightly shut lips and coldly settled gaze didn’t erase her beauty, but they cloaked it in a chilling demeanor.

Sensing this, Yulia couldn’t help but tremble, acknowledging it was acting, yet feeling eerily reminded of the Lilian she’d known from previous lives. Of course, she knew the two were the same person, and thus could only be expected to be identical. But the sight of her bore an uncanny resemblance to the version of Lilian who had tormented her.’

In her first life, Yulia had been curious why Lilian was always after her. Even as she found herself crushed under the wheel of death, Lilian continued to torment her, ultimately meeting her end under the prince’s sword. It was poetic justice, but not a crime deserving of death, leaving Yulia with an unsettling feeling. Just as she pondered this, her second life began.

In her second life, Yulia attempted to rebel against Lilian. Outside the Academy, she might have even pulled stunts typically resulting in a swift execution, yet somehow, it was always Lilian who met her demise. As she looked at the corpse of Lilian, who had perished in her own trap, Yulia began to feel a creeping fear.

In her third life, Yulia grew curious about why she kept returning to this timeframe. Setting aside her first life, the second was merely an attempt at a more comfortable existence than her previous one. Yet now she found herself genuinely puzzled.

She might be called slow, but for Yulia, it was simply unavoidable. She scoured numerous places trying to conduct research on her time-travel phenomena. Naturally, this wasn’t something she could do within the Academy, so she dropped out to explore.

But even so, Lilian died. Yulia only learned of this after finishing her research on the concept of return. It was during her third reincarnation that she recognized that Lilian must not die.

Lilian would return exactly three days after her death. In her fourth reincarnation, Yulia finally realized this. It presented a plethora of experiments. What if Yulia died first? What if Lilian didn’t perish at the Academy? Yulia decided to test the former idea first.

It was unavoidable. By her fourth life, Yulia was exhausted. Desperately living through the time allotted to her while trying to figure out why she couldn’t escape this timeframe. But Yulia felt like she was slowly wearing down, like a consumable item.

In her fifth life, Yulia awoke in bed and simply laughed. Laughed and laughed until her stomach hurt, only to break down in tears afterward.

She felt like she could create rivers with her tears. And as dehydration set in from crying ceaselessly, Yulia stared blankly at the ceiling, ignoring her worried parents. What if she didn’t go to the Academy? No, then Lilian would inevitably die, and she would be sent back here again.

What if she prevented Lilian from attending the Academy? A commoner with only divine power to her name had no way of making that happen. Besides, Lilian could just as easily die outside the Academy and still trigger the return.

Thus, Yulia lived her fifth life in a state of helplessness. Doing nothing, just letting Lilian’s torment play out. In this powerless existence, she noticed something odd.

Clearly, Lilian was trying to bully her, yet she found Lilian pitiable nonetheless. A certain black-haired maid, the prince of the duchy, and the indifference of the House of Portus were slowly corrupting her. The black-haired maid, with her world-hating eyes, aimed to make Lilian hate the world just like herself, while the prince wielded power through Lilian that he couldn’t possess himself.

Even as Lilian became increasingly ruined by the indifference of the House of Portus and her parents, no action was taken. On graduation day from the Academy, Lilian disappeared by herself. Three days later, she returned for her sixth life.

…And everything changed. The maid who viewed the world with hatred appeared intimidating at first but turned out to be a harmless lamb once you got to know her. As for Lilian, she behaved entirely differently. Yet at times, she would evoke memories of the old Lilian in certain ways.

What had changed? Yulia pondered this, but realized nothing had. After her fifth life, she had ceased to think deeply. Regardless of her actions, the time returned. So she just enjoyed the moment.

The proposal to Lilian was merely a continuation of that sentiment. Lilian radiated an unmistakable air of reluctance, but from Yulia’s viewpoint, it was the best approach to get close to Charles. It certainly seemed that way after experiencing five lives.

Slap! Her cheek felt scalding hot, as if touched by fire. It seemed Lilian had obediently taken the earlier advice to heart and smacked Yulia good. Yulia instinctively shrank back under Lilian’s fuming glare.

“W-What? What’s going on?”

“Senpai, I would like a private room.”

“What? Now? You said you’d share a room with Yulia!”

“You expect me to share a room with a filthy commoner? That’s a laughable concept!”

Seeing the startled expression of the Student Council senior, Yulia lowered her head. The senior, who was about to declare that sharing was impossible, instead let out a terror-laced squeak upon seeing Lilian’s face.

“…If the Student Council isn’t willing to provide a room, then I have no choice but to buy a hotel.”

“…”.

The name of the House of Portus flashed in the minds of the Academy’s classmates. The richest and most powerful family in the Empire aside from the royal family. And the only cherished jewel of that family was none other than Lilian Beon Portus. Yulia, rubbing her burning cheek, slowly lowered her head in resignation.

And there was Charles Garington, looking at her with a mixture of amusement and disdain.