TVWD 26

Chapter – 26

The man threatened me, but I blew the whistle and ran.

“Seriously, you’re such a bother.”

“Ugh—!”

Something caught my ankle, and I pitched forward.

“Still, thank you for coming alone, young lady. It makes killing you much easier.”

The voice drew closer. I scrambled to my feet. Whatever had grabbed my ankle was already gone.

“Huff… huff…”

Perhaps the effects of the stimulant that temporarily boosted my physical strength had worn off—my arms were trembling.

I’d been too careless, relying on the fact that I wouldn’t die unless it was at the hands of the male leads.

This time, though, there were far more things that had changed than usual. I should have been more cautious.

“Stop your futile resistance.”

But still—I had never once died midway through a story.

Even when I fell from a twenty-story tower, even when my head hit the ground, I hadn’t died.

As long as it wasn’t the time of death written in the novel—never!

“Huff… haaah…”

I forced my shaking legs to move, but my body swayed, and I had no choice but to lean against a nearby tree.

The man in the robe kept approaching.

“Have you finally given up?”

My vision blurred.

“Yes, a wise decision. I’ll show you respect and grant you an easy death.”

Am I… really going to die?
This life barely just started—am I really dying already?

…Wait.

This is the first time I’ve ever truly faced dying in the middle.

Hope began to bloom deep inside my heart.

If I die this time… could it be that I won’t come back?

My heart started pounding.

If I die now, maybe I really won’t return. This has never happened before!

“You…”

The robed man, who had been closing in like a hunter cornering a rat, stiffened his mouth.

“Why are you smiling?”

I’m smiling?

When I touched my lips, I realized the corners of my mouth were lifted. The man twisted his expression.

“So that’s why ‘He’ told us not to kill you… You’re strange.”

“‘He’?”

“Our master. A man fascinated by all things rare and peculiar in this world. Weak to anything interesting.”

That description sounded familiar…

“He told us to spare you for now. After seeing you, I understand why.”

At the words “spare you for now,” I could roughly guess who he meant.

What… the Master of the Mage Tower?

I thought he was only loosely connected to Blue Bird, but he played such an important role?

“To catch His interest… how irritating.”

The robed man raised his hand and struck my cheek.

Smack.

The sharp sound echoed, yet I felt no pain.

“You’re unforgivable.”

He abandoned magic and applied physical force instead.

At close range, I could see his face—madness gleamed in both eyes.

“Why are you smiling? Why?! Is death funny? Of course you’d laugh—you don’t know His fear. I can’t let Him find out. He mustn’t find out…”

Though he rambled incoherently, his threats never stopped.

Death crept closer, yet laughter spilled from my lips.

An ending outside the ordained time—something that had never happened in any timeline.
Please… let this be the end of the story.

“Rosia!”

As if announcing my impending death, his desperate voice rang out. The pressure on my throat vanished, and I collapsed to the ground.

“Y-you—!”

I thought that voice was a dream. It wasn’t.

The situation shifted. The mage who had been trying to kill me staggered backward.

“It was almost over!”

Pitch-black energy began to boil out of his body. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was—but I knew it was something terrible.

The energy sharpened into thorn-like spikes, and I realized it was magic power condensed to an extreme density.

Grass and flowers touched by the spikes withered into black ash.

Lexian, who had come to save me, sensed the danger and wrapped his sword in sword aura.

“Damn interfering bastard!”

The attack wasn’t aimed at me—it was aimed at Lexian.

My utterly exhausted body moved before I could think, springing up as if pulled by instinct.

“No!”

Forgetting that I might lose my chance at ending the story in a different way than before, I threw myself toward the rampaging mage.

“Y-you—!”

The mage froze in shock at my sudden intrusion, and the black magic hesitated.

In that instant, a blue sword aura swept past me and struck him.

The raging magic dispersed like heat haze, and the mage collapsed—his head severed from his body.

“Are you insane?!”

Lexian rushed over and grabbed my shoulders, shouting. But the strongest emotion in his deep blue eyes was fear.

“That’s my line, Lexian Lisianthus!”

I grabbed him by the collar.

“Why did you do that?! Why?! Why interfere in my business?!”

“R-Rosia?”

“Do you think being a Sword Master means you won’t die? No—you can die too! You can die!”

Already completely drained, having lost the silver fox and nearly strangled to death, my mind was half gone.
The mere thought that Lexian might have died shattered my remaining reason.

I tried to shake him by the collar, but my body wobbled instead.

I was dizzy—but I had to make him understand my will.

“Don’t ever do this again. Don’t interfere in my life and risk your life for me!”

“Then should I just watch?! When you might die?!”

“Yes! Just watch! Watch me die and be happy about it!”

Lexian let out a hollow laugh in disbelief, but I couldn’t stop.

“You mustn’t die for me. Please… don’t die in front of me…”

* * *

“Are you all right?”

From the day Lexian chose my side instead of Merina’s, the world changed.

The Crown Prince and my sister still loved Merina—but Lexian didn’t.

He looked at me.

The gentle man offered me a handkerchief, met my eyes, spoke to me, and stood beside me.

At first, I thought it was a new trap created by the world. I pushed him away again and again, even speaking cruelly to him.

“I don’t intend to burden you or make things difficult for you.”

Yet he didn’t retreat.

“I hate seeing you wronged. I hate seeing you endure suffering alone.”

What filled his deep, ocean-like eyes was sincerity.

“I won’t ask you to accept my feelings. Just allow me to stand on your side when you’re attacked without reason.”

In a world revolving entirely around Merina, Lexian alone stepped outside that frame and faced me.

Was it really okay to accept this affection?

Would something go wrong?

Was this a sign that the story was beginning to warp?

I had never once received wholehearted love from anyone in this world. That terrified me—because I wondered if there was an even lower bottom waiting for me.

For hundreds, thousands of moments, I hesitated.
Through it all, Lexian stayed by my side.

And then, that life ended.

In the next loop, Lexian began siding with me even earlier.
In the one after that, he again turned away from Merina and looked only at me.

And the next. And the next…

After about ten loops, I finally accepted it.

Lexian Lisianthus truly loved me.

In the 23rd loop, we became lovers.

There was no way I could reject that unconditional affection, having lived entirely alone in this world.

Once we became lovers, I lived not just the ten months usually given to me—but over three years with him.

I thought I wouldn’t regress again.

Perhaps the world simply wanted to toy with me more carefully than ever.

The ending was more cruel than any before.

My family was accused of treason. I calmly helped them flee to the duchy, then stayed behind in the empire alone.

I was always captured before I could escape, so this time I planned to stall for time.

The problem was—

“Accusing House Levian of treason—shouldn’t you investigate further? Judging solely by the words of a few families—”

“Step aside, Duke. Everyone already knows that witch deceived the imperial family. Even if you shield her, the outcome won’t change.”

Lexian once again tried to protect me from the Crown Prince.

“If you continue to side with her, you’ll be considered an accomplice to treason!”

No matter how much I told him to leave, Lexian shielded me. He took me and ran—again and again—but we couldn’t escape my fate.

That cruel shackle wrapped around Lexian as well.

“No matter how much of a Sword Master you are, you won’t be able to stop this!”

At the Crown Prince’s gesture, thousands of arrows filled the sky.
Lexian’s sword aura split countless arrows in half.

Still, many more flew toward us.

“Lexian—at least you run.”

A Sword Master could hide himself easily. Please—at least you survive.

I shoved him away and stood proudly, as if welcoming the storm of arrows.

So this time, I’d meet a different ending than before.

This kind of death was new to me. As I smiled bitterly—

Lexian pulled me into his arms.