Chapter 1: A Second Chance

A thick cloud of dust rose before my eyes.

I could not tell if my blurred vision was because of the dust or the tears filling my eyes.

My trembling lips twisted sharply upward.

The man slowly approached me as I lay there, no longer able to resist.

Unlike me, who had exhausted every ounce of strength and couldn’t even wiggle a toe, he was imposing, looking almost serene.

Stopping in front of me, my opponent tightly gripped the hilt of his sword.

Up close, his eyes gleamed brilliantly even amidst the bright light, looking more steadfast than anyone else’s.

Looking into those eyes, I furrowed my brow.

‘To think that the last thing I would see had to be those eyes.’

As I laughed mockingly at my own tragic life, the man frowned, his face twisting into a strangely distorted expression.

His lips parted as if he wanted to say something, but he ultimately gave up and simply looked down at me.

‘What was that expression? What was he trying to say?’

Before I could ponder any further, his sword sliced through the air and pierced my heart.

In that moment, I heard cheers erupt, as if everyone was rejoicing.

Feeling my life fading away, I reached my hand out with great effort.

Only empty air met my fingertips; I could grasp nothing.

“Mariel…”

Tears rolled down from my eyes as they lost their focus.

As the strength drained from my body, my outstretched hand fell limply onto the filthy ground.

My eyes gradually closed.

I wanted to somehow lift my heavy eyelids, but it was impossible.

This wretched life of mine had ended in vain, cut short by the hands of the man I hated the most.

A devil’s voice echoed in my mind.

The devil’s screeching curses rang loudly before gradually fading away.

Now, only darkness filled my vision.

The noisy surroundings lost their sound, growing quieter and quieter.

Death began to strip away all of my senses.

My eyes and ears ceased to function, and even my thoughts grew faint.

It was the beginning of eternal rest.

***

In the pitch-black darkness where nothing could be seen, a question the devil had asked me in the past came to mind.

The devil had asked me, who was seeking a contract, what it was that I craved.

I had cried out in response, saying I wanted everyone to die except for Mariel.

Especially Mikeron Leilight, I wished for that hateful man to die the most miserable and painful death in the world.

Perhaps pleased with my answer, the devil grinned so wide its mouth seemed as if it would tear.

I hated everything about Mikeron Leilight.

The moment I thought of Mikeron, an impossible pain stabbed through my head, and shattered memories cluttered my brain.

It was so excruciating that I wanted to tear my hair out, but I felt only emptiness where my physical body should have been.

As I helplessly endured the agony, a light emerged from the absolute darkness.

The light grew larger and began to draw closer to me.

My mind felt illusionary clear, and my eyelids twitched.

My hands and legs began to move as well.

As I slowly opened my closed eyes, light flooded the dark world, and something came into view.

“Haah…!”

I opened my eyes, escaping the dreamlike darkness.

The surroundings were bright enough to make me frown.

Unable to grasp what was happening, I spent a long moment squinting blankly before slowly looking around.

An incredibly familiar room came into sight.

Perhaps because the sunlight made the surroundings extremely bright, or perhaps because my life’s final moment had been spent in a blood-spattered scene, nothing felt real.

I clenched and unclenched my fists several times, and pinched my tender flesh hard enough to bruise.

“Am I not dead?”

Once I realized the bodily sensations were entirely mine, I immediately checked my condition.

Fortunately, my heart, which had been pierced through, was beating perfectly fine.

I had been so deeply in love with a man named Mariel Esgard that I obsessed over him endlessly, resorting to stalking, kidnapping, and imprisonment, and eventually causing chaos by practicing dark magic—a capital offense in the Empire—before meeting my end at the hands of the Knight of Light, Mikeron Leilight.

Recalling the events up to my death, I patted the area around my heart several times before slowly getting up from the bed.

Strangely, my mind was incredibly clear.

Both my abnormal affection for Mariel and my crazed mind had returned to a normal state.

Why did I feel so light and unburdened?

Even my steps felt as light as if they had grown feathers.

Wondering if I was still myself, I stood before the mirror with a sense of anticipation, only to see the familiar face I saw every day.

Shaggy black curly hair, crimson eyes, a pale face, and deep dark circles hanging beneath my eyes.

Looking closely around the room again, this familiar place was the mansion where I used to live before my assets were seized as punishment for kidnapping and imprisoning Mariel.

Though I couldn’t understand why I was here, I slowly walked around the room I hadn’t seen in so long.

I had never felt comfortable in this room before, but was it because I had spent so much time living as a fugitive?

This dreadful and suffocating room felt somewhat cozy now.

“So, what on earth is going on here?”

Sitting back down on the bed, I racked my brain trying to figure out what was happening.

My heart had definitely been pierced by Mikeron’s sword, yet strangely, I was alive.

The hypothesis that I had been treated and luckily survived was the most plausible, but there was no way the Empire, which executed any dark mage on sight, would have spared me.

Moreover, waking up in my former mansion made no sense to begin with.

Realizing that thinking about it wouldn’t yield any answers, I stepped out of the room.

The familiar layout of the hallway stretched out before me, and I saw a man who appeared to be a servant sweeping with a broom.

I called out to him cautiously.

“Excuse me…”

“Gasp! Yes, Count!”

Count?

My title of Count should have been stripped away a long time ago.

The servant quickly dashed over to me, trembling all over.

He looked like a herbivore standing before a predator.

This entire situation felt oddly familiar.

I asked him.

“How old am I right now?”

“P-Pardon?”

The servant hesitated, pondering his answer.

I hadn’t asked him anything grand—just my age—so what on earth was there to hesitate about?

When I let out a soft sigh, the startled servant flustered and quickly replied.

“Y-You are twenty-three, Count.”

“Twenty-three? You seemed to hesitate; are you sure that’s correct?”

“Of course! The reason I hesitated was to think about what kind of answer you wanted to hear, Count…”

The servant glanced at my expression before dropping his gaze.

Twenty-three?

That couldn’t be.

I bypassed the servant who had answered me and caught another servant to ask.

But no matter how many times I repeated the question, the same answer returned.

‘I am twenty-three?’

Returning to my room, I sank into thought.

At twenty-three, being addressed as Count meant it was a time before I had ever touched dark magic—the age when I was in the middle of stalking Mariel.

I flung the closed window wide open.

The weather outside was extremely cold.

The wind gently blew my hair, and the biting cold air stung my skin.

Feeling the piercing chill throughout my body, this was indeed no dream.

Though the lack of reality made it hard to believe, it seemed my time had somehow rewound to the past.

I closed the window once again.

Although traveling back in time was shocking, I didn’t feel much emotion about it.

Rather, I was just at a loss as to what I should do next.

Before my regression, my only goals had been to win Mariel’s love and to kill Mikeron Leilight and everyone else.

But now that I was capable of rational thought, I realized that I had only committed unforgivable acts against Mariel under the pretext of love.

And as for killing people, after causing all that chaos, I hadn’t actually managed to kill anyone in the end.

‘What kind of absurd, spiteful delusions had I been living in?’

I had no intention of obsessing over Mariel anymore, nor would I harbor such ridiculous goals.

Letting go of everything brought relief, but it also made everything feel incredibly dry and hollow.

Why did God give a bastard like me another chance at life?

Was it to make me repent for my past life?

Indeed, now that my sanity had returned, I could newly realize just how much of a piece of trash I had been.

My love for Mariel had been genuine, but the method was completely wrong.

Sighing, I finished sorting out my current situation.

I felt complicated in many ways, but perhaps because my tension had eased, I realized my stomach was empty.

I stepped out of my room once more.

“C-Count, is there something you need…?”

As soon as I stepped into the hallway, the servant I had first seen approached me flusteredly again.

I quietly stared at him as he trembled pitifully, then muttered softly.

“I would like to have a meal.”

“Ah, yes! I will inform the chef immediately so it can be prepared right away! Will you dine in your room? Or in the dining hall…”

“I’ll eat in the dining hall.”

“Yes, yes. Right away!”

The servant dashed away, vanishing from my sight like an arrow.

His desperate struggle to get away from me was almost painful to watch.

***

After finishing my meal, I returned to my room and sat in the rocking chair in front of the fireplace.

I stared blankly at the roaring red flames.

Leviat Kinesis—that was my full name.

The Kinesis family was blessed by fire magic, but because the vessel of my mana had been small since birth, I had absolutely no talent for magic.

Therefore, dark magic, which did not use mana as a medium for power, was the only way for me to become strong.

But now that I had let go of my obsession with Mariel, I had neither the will nor the reason to learn dark magic again.

Though I had been given a second chance at life, to be honest, I felt no sense of reality, nor did I have the motivation to do anything.

I felt that in this life, I should do nothing and just live an ordinary existence.

My tired eyes grew heavy.

Too many things had happened today.

Just as I thought I should get some sleep because even thinking had become exhausting, there was a knock at the door.

Upon giving permission to enter, the butler, with a benevolent impression and boasting a white mustache, walked in.

Philip the butler.

He was the only servant in this vast mansion whose face and name I actually knew.

He was also the only person in this manor who did not fear me.

Seeing his face after so long made my throat tighten, but I pretended nothing was wrong and asked as naturally as possible.

“What is it?”

“Count, a guest has arrived to see you.”

“…A guest?”

Was there any guest who would visit our mansion, which was plagued by ominous rumors?

No matter how much I thought about it, there was no one who would visit.

I retraced the events of the past, but nothing came to mind.

Thinking it was nothing major, I dealt with it casually.

“Escort them to the garden terrace. I will head down after I get ready.”

“Shall I help you prepare?”

“No, that’s fine.”

“Understood.”

The butler bowed and left the room.

I roughly combed back my hair, opened the wardrobe, and threw on a decent-looking outfit.

Checking my appearance in the mirror, the dark circles under my eyes bothered me this time.

I took a pair of glasses out of the drawer and slipped them over my ears.

This seemed enough to present a somewhat respectable appearance.

“Now that I think about it, I forgot to ask who came.”

No matter who it was, I was far too tired to deal with them.

Hoping to send them away quickly regardless of their reason for coming, I dragged my slow footsteps along.

***

Ah, damn it.

I felt my tired mind snap wide awake.

Annoyance flared up, lighting a fire in my empty heart.

‘If I had known that bastard was the guest, I would have thrown him out immediately.’

I swallowed hard as I stared at the back of Mikeron Leilight, who was sitting proudly at the table.

Seeing Mikeron brought back the memory.

Around this time in the past, Mikeron had taken it upon himself to protect his friend Mariel and visited me to warn me to stop the stalking.

In my past life, I had completely ignored Mikeron’s warning.

Because of that, I suffered quite a lot.

As Mikeron interfered and opposed me at every turn, my hatred for him only grew, and when I saw Mariel kissing Mikeron’s lips, I even felt a murderous intent.

That murderous intent turned me, who was already crazy, into an even worse lunatic.

I wanted to tear apart Mikeron Leilight, who had taken Mariel from me, and kill him in the most brutal way possible.

I had wandered around searching for a way to become a dark mage, barely sleeping at all.

Brushing my bangs back roughly, I slowly approached Mikeron.

With every step I took, my heart pounded three or four times faster.

“You are Duke Mikeron, correct? It is an honor to meet you.”

If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have even greeted him, but I had no choice but to bow my head politely.

Mikeron lifted his head and stared at my face as if observing me.

Perhaps due to his sharp eyes, even his expressionless face made him look displeased.

The moment before my death at his hands flashed before my eyes.

To me, it felt like it had happened only moments ago.

I touched my chest, checking several times if my pierced heart was indeed intact.

As I sat across from him, Mikeron spoke first.

“Are you Leviat Kinesis?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

I replied bluntly.

Mikeron could not take his eyes off my face.

When I realized exactly where his gaze was directed, my mood soured.

He was indeed an unpleasant man.

“What brings the esteemed Duke to such an ominous place?”

“Seeing as you know who I am, I assume you have some idea why I came to find you.”

Mikeron, who had been staring at my face, replied.

How could I not know?

Of course I knew.

There weren’t many reasons why someone as noble as him would come all the way to this shabby place to meet someone like me.

Even though I knew the reason, I didn’t want to give him the answer he wanted, so I tilted my head.

“Well, I have no idea. No matter how much I think about it, I really don’t know.”

As I spoke with mock sarcasm that anyone could see through, his flat, expressionless face crumpled for the first time.

Soon after, a stiff voice pierced my ears.

“Stop stalking Baron Mariel.”

I had already intended to do so, even if he hadn’t gone out of his way to come here and provoke me.

I nodded readily.

“Understood. I will promise on my honor never to do so again.”

When I made my solemn oath, placing a hand over my chest, Mikeron stared at me with a bewildered look.

“Are you serious? This isn’t a lie, is it?”

“Of course.”

Mikeron showed disbelief, yet his face relaxed strangely.

Perhaps my attitude was to his liking.

Seeing his face twisted my insides.

I spoke up to kick him out as quickly as possible.

“If you are finished with what you have to say, would you mind leaving now?”

“Your demeanor is quite different from what I have heard in the rumors.”

Rumors.

He was probably referring to the rumors that Leviat Kinesis was a madman who spent all day stalking Mariel.

I smirked sarcastically.

“I don’t think it’s particularly different. Those rumors are all true, after all.”

It was true that the rumors were factual.

Before my regression, I was worse than the rumors, certainly not better.

Though I won’t be doing anything from now on…

As I swallowed those last words, Mikeron stared at me with a stiffened expression.

Whether he did or not, I just wanted him to leave quickly.

I was tired.

“Count, are you mocking me right now?”

“Who knows.”

The moment I shrugged my shoulders, Mikeron slammed his hand on the table.

I stared blankly at the table.

Perhaps he had controlled his strength, because the terrifying scenario of the table splitting in half or shattering did not occur.

Instead, a terrifying glare was directed at me.

“If you do anything to my friend Mariel, I will not stand idle.”

“…”

“Keep that in mind.”

His voice, trembling with anger, was extremely overbearing.

Even though I didn’t answer, Mikeron unilaterally declared his warning and stood up, as if his business was concluded.

I watched his back as he left the garden terrace.

True to his title as the Knight of Light, his broad back looked incredibly sturdy.

Staring quietly at his back, a shudder ran down my spine.

The moment of my death at his hands had crossed my mind once again.

Come to think of it, Duke Mikeron had a complex and subtle expression on his face right before he killed me.

It wasn’t a look of contempt, nor was it a look of relief that everything was over; it was a truly inexplicable, complex, and subtle expression.

I sat in front of the table, unable to move for quite some time.

Since I truly planned to do nothing and live quietly from now on, there would likely be no reason to face Mikeron like this again.

After all, both before my regression and now, Mikeron and I had almost no reason to cross paths unless Mariel was involved.

I slumped onto the table.

My heart, still remembering the moment of death, was beating furiously.

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