Chapter 2: Rebirth and a Second Chance

Re… reborn?

Lulu gazed at the scene before her with disbelief, where birds sang sweetly and fragrant flowers bloomed amidst lush grass.

The shock she felt from everything around her was no less profound than when she had first transmigrated to this otherworld. It made her question the reality of the present moment, just as she had done back then.

‘Could this be a rapid playback of my life’s final moments? A last flicker of consciousness before death?’

However, as she lifted her head, the sight of a boy being hunted by a crowd by the lake shore immediately brought Lulu back to her senses.

‘Wait a minute, if I’m not mistaken!’

‘That boy surrounded by pursuers—wasn’t that Alexius, the Demon King, from five years ago?’

‘Had she truly returned to five years ago, to the very moment she first transmigrated into this otherworld?’

She distinctly recalled activating her divine artifact’s power during her battle with the Demon King, a clash that had resulted in their mutual destruction. She should have died then.

Yet now, she was back here, at the very place where she and the Demon King had first met.

‘Could it be that the heavens had granted her a second chance?’

After these thoughts, Lulu quickly shifted her gaze towards the lakeside, found a hiding spot, and began to observe the situation.

Indeed… everything was exactly as it had been five years ago.

By the lake, a handsome fifteen-year-old boy was being hunted by a group of unknown assassins. They had cornered him by the forest’s edge; the boy retreated, but there was nowhere left to go.

‘Who would have thought that this very person, whose life hung by a thread at this moment, would be just one step away from ruling the world five years later?’

‘What kind of overpowered protagonist script is this? East of the river for five years, west of the river for five years – don’t bully a young man for being poor, right?’

Lulu crouched in the tall grass, silently commenting on the unfolding scene.

However, she had no intention of simply observing, as her ‘first playthrough’ self had done.

‘The young Demon King is right here. All I need to do is step forward, cut the Gordian knot, and eliminate future troubles. This way, I can alter the timeline and achieve the “Good End” where the world is spared from the Demon King’s future enslavement!’

Lulu chuckled to herself. ‘To think success could be so simple! Heaven has granted me an opportunity, and I must cherish it well!’

‘But I need to act fast. Otherwise, these verbose assassin villains will be wiped out by the arriving Demon King’s army commanders in a moment. Then it’ll be troublesome. My strength five years ago isn’t enough to resist the Demon King’s army commanders; I don’t want to get myself killed too.’

****

Meanwhile, by the lake, Alexius suddenly awoke, gazing at his surroundings with a bewildered expression.

‘Strange… this… where is this…?’

He remembered being in a duel with Luxstina, the Saintess guarding the temple. She had seemingly used the power of a divine artifact, and in a moment of carelessness, his consciousness had gradually blurred, and then…

Upon regaining full awareness, everything before him felt both familiar and alien to Alexius.

It was alien, perhaps because it had all happened five years ago.

Yet it was familiar, for that scene remained firmly etched in his mind, never wavering.

‘In that desperate situation, he had embarked on the path of the Demon King…’

‘And these black-clad figures before him—were they the very pursuers who had driven him to despair back then?!’

‘This…’

“Heh, well, well, if it isn’t the young master. You sure can run; we almost lost you again. But I told you, didn’t I? Even if you run to the ends of the earth, you won’t escape death!”

The men blocking Alexius’s retreat seemed quite pleased. One of the assassin leaders spoke with a sneer, declaring that having finally caught the ‘little brat,’ they couldn’t possibly kill him outright. Of course, a good round of torment was in order.

‘We meet again…’

Alexius let out a cold laugh. He was now gradually piecing together the situation before him.

‘He… seemed to have been reborn five years ago, to the very day he became the Demon King, all thanks to some mysterious power?’

‘Hah, could it be that even the gods found it too great a pity that he was just one step away from ruling the world, thus granting him another chance to restart?’

‘How could that be? Hah.’

Alexius scoffed, a self-deprecating smile on his lips. ‘Don’t those gods always love to proclaim themselves just and righteous? And yet, he was the Demon King!’

The boy disdainfully lifted his head, fixing his gaze on the assassins before him. The black-clad figures were somewhat bewildered by the golden-haired youth’s composure. ‘How could this be? Just moments ago, he was fleeing in panic, yet now he was so calm?’

“Heh, boy, ready to die? Good, I’ll grant you your wish!”

Alexius paid no mind to the assassin leader’s words. In his previous life, these men had been easily cut down by the arriving Demon King’s army commanders. With his strength as the Demon King, dealing with these few…

The boy began to attempt to activate his magic, but the next second, he froze.

‘Wait… my strength, my power didn’t come with me in this rebirth!’

‘Which means, he, he’s just a helpless… little boy right now?!’

The next second, the assassin leader’s short sword swung towards Alexius. The young Demon King hurriedly dodged, and just as panic began to set in, a golden light suddenly flashed from the tall grass.

Several waves of Holy Light immediately shot forth from the magic circle before the white-haired mage’s staff, hurtling directly towards the black-clad figures. Although the assassins had heard the magic being cast, the Holy Light magic itself was of the swift-strike variety, and Lulu’s surprise attack came so unexpectedly that the holy beams quickly pierced through the assassins’ bodies.

‘Wounds on the back are a disgrace for an assassin!’

Perhaps that was their thinking, for when Lulu stepped forward to confirm their deaths, all of them had been struck by Holy Light from the front. Penetrating wounds marred their stomachs or chests, making it look as if they had committed seppuku.

‘Could this be the bottom line that assassins adhered to?’

‘It probably wasn’t because… her magic was too slow, allowing the assassins to turn around and face her, was it?’

‘Ahem…’

‘Truly admirable! Such dedication, befitting an assassin!’

A moment later, Lulu, the white-haired mage, turned her head to look at the stunned Alexius before her.

[Oh dear… it seems I’ve inadvertently saved the young Demon King’s life?]

[Hehehe, taking a closer look, he wasn’t bad-looking as a child, was he? A cute young boy, quite refined~ Uh… he seems to be fifteen already, but he looks so thin and weak, pffthahaha, is this really the powerful, sinister Demon King from the future?]

Lulu couldn’t help but want to laugh as she looked at the young boy. It wasn’t just that; the main thing was that the Demon King, who would one day almost conquer the world, was currently just a cute young boy. Her former enemy had suddenly become a child—that feeling was…

[I really want to laugh! He’s too adorable, hahaha~]

Alexius watched the silent Lulu, his lips twitching involuntarily.

‘He wondered why he kept feeling that something was off ever since his rebirth.’

‘Why could he constantly hear a woman’s voice in his head?! And everything she said was about him, and incredibly rude to boot!!!’

‘Now that he thought about it, could it be that the thoughts of this woman staring at him were being transmitted directly into his mind?!’

‘Wait a minute…’

‘This woman is… Luxstina?!’