Chapter 2

Translator and Editor: Effe and Nabi

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Chapter 2

Celine’s pupils widened.

‘This can’t be happening…!’

Even if lightning strikes the dry sky, she wouldn’t be so surprised.

Her hands trembled, and she stepped back. The sound of her chest pounding seemed to ring in her ears.

“As expected, you have something.”

The man’s face contorted badly.

Celine wanted to hit her chest. The moment she saw his face, she should have noticed…

The black hair like a raven’s wings, blue eyes that look like the eyes of a beast, and the pale skin, everything closely resembles Leonhard Bernoulli in the game.

However, because a two-dimensional character became a real person and appeared as a handsome man, who took away the soul of a human being, it couldn’t be easily recognized…!

As she was lost in her thoughts, Leonhard Bernoulli walked towards Celine.

At that point, she didn’t think of anything anymore. Celine just turned her back and ran.

Leonhard was the heroine’s greatest enemy—because forty-eight of the one hundred and nine dead endings came from him. The heroine trembled at the sight of Leonhard’s shadow.

‘The first stage hasn’t even started yet!’

Right now, it’s a tutorial.

Originally, Leonhard was a promising heir to the Grand Duke of the North, but through some kind of incident, he turns into a slayer who enjoys killing.

Nonetheless, five more years had to pass for Leonhard, who had turned black, to come and kill Celine.

‘Why, why did you appear? It’s still a long way from blackening!’

Not a single question Leonhard posed had remained in Celine’s mind.

All she had in her mind was the idea that she had to run away from Leonhard, who pursued her like a wild beast.

“Haaa, haaa…!”

Celine ran up the stairs of the mansion. She didn’t forget to dodge some stairs that would cause her to lose balance and fall to death if she stepped on them.

“Stop, Black Witch!”

She felt embarrassed for a moment, and tears seemed to come out of her eyes.

‘I can’t believe I am called a black witch!’

How nice would it be to be a real black witch? Then, she could turn Leonhardt into a toad right away.

Celine ran down the hallway without hesitation. It was worthwhile scouring this labyrinthine mansion, dying dozens of times searching for money and food.

But, she didn’t know that Leonhard had also experienced this mansion dozens of times.

Right through the dream of her dying.

At that, she felt like her heart was about to explode because of Leonhard following her with a terrifying momentum.

‘You monster, are you sure this is your first time here? Even in hardcore mode, you didn’t follow me that well!’

At the end of the dead-end hallway, a narrow staircase appeared. Now, there was only one place she could go—the attic with access to the roof.

With that thought, Celine licked her lips nervously. Since she became Celine, she hadn’t climbed once.

Because the roof was where death lurks…

‘Still… Better than being caught.’

Unlike the game, even if you die, you do not go back to save points. If she was captured by that atrocious Leonhard, it seemed as if she would die endlessly and be resurrected over and over again.

‘If I confirm that I will be resurrected, I may throw myself into the furnace. As soon as I come back to life, I melt in the fire…’

Celine ran up the stairs with wobbly legs.

When she lifted the door to the attic, the squeaky sound of hinges and the smell of dust hit her. Still, she threw her body into a pit of dust. Celine couldn’t afford to think deeply.

As she jumped up, she saw a window leading to the roof.

“…Uhk!”

The door on the attic floor swung open, and Leonhard’s sculptural face popped out.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Her heart was beating so fast that her whole body trembled. Tears welled up in Celine’s eyes.

She didn’t want to be caught.

She slammed the window open and pulled her body out. The roof was as wide as the palm of her hand, but it looked like it could be walked on.

“What are you doing?!”

Despite Leonhardt’s reluctance, Celine put one foot on the roof.

Her legs were trembling.

There will be less than 1% chance that she will escape through the roof unharmed without dying herself. Nevertheless, she could not be caught by Leonhardt, so she had no choice but to cling to the weak potential.

However, luck was not on her side.

The moment she took a careful step on the roof.

—Bang!

Pain hit Celine’s head.

In that brief moment, tears flowed from her blue-gray eyes.

She really, really didn’t want to die.

Even if she died several times a day, she couldn’t get used to death, and the pain gradually gnawed at her reason.

Celine barely managed to stay sane because she could have died less if she tried.

But, now Leonhard has appeared. Five years earlier than expected.

Now, any effort to die the least will be futile.

…Only endless suffering awaited her.

‘Please, please. May there be a little bit of compassion from Leonhard…’

Finally, Celine’s eyes closed.

* * *

“Crazy…!”

Leonhardt’s cursing echoed through the dusty attic.

What did that witch do…!

Looking down through the window, Celine Hunt had her neck broken on the ground with her neck in an oddly bent position. Her shiny blonde hair was instantly entangled in the blood that flowed from her head.

Leonhard hurriedly ran out of the attic and then exited the mansion. He was able to find the way easily because he had seen the structure in his dreams dozens of times.

Celine Hunt didn’t even move. As he put his hand carefully to her nose, he couldn’t even feel her weak breath.

‘….’

Her blood had cooled.

Celine Hunt has just, actually died because of Leonhard himself.

At the same time, she proved her own innocence. If she was a black witch, she wouldn’t be able to die from a fall this much.

Leonhard buried his face in his hands.

Guilt crept into his chest.

He had no intention of doing any harm. He was only trying to find out the truth about her, though the woman fled as soon as she heard his words.

She’s like someone who wouldn’t want to be caught.

For a moment, he only thought that she might be the Black Witch and that his own nightmares might be for this woman to blame.

Leonhard blinked his eyes nervously. In any case, since someone died because of him, he should report it to the government office and pay the right price for his sins…

“…What?”

Leonhard couldn’t believe his eyes.

Celine Hunt’s strangely broken neck turned and her big blue-grey eyes looked straight at him.

“Wh—what…?”

Leonhard put his hand on his waist to take out his sword, Rashir, which he had not taken out even when pursuing her inside the mansion.

No matter how strong magic is, it cannot revive the dead.

That meant that she could only pretend to be dead by deceiving with black magic.

“Please, please don’t kill me!”

“Black Witch! I, Leonhard Bernoulli, will punish you as the master of Rashir! Be honored!”

Celine wanted to cry.

That stupid man is trying to kill her again.

The pain of falling to death is still vivid, but if she is struck by Rashir, who splits a person into seven pieces, she will go crazy.

As Rashir’s blade burned blue, Celine squeezed her eyes shut and shouted.

“Even if you cut me with Rashir, I will come back to life!”

“What…?”

No pain was felt.

Because of that, she slowly opened her eyes. There, Leonhard was staring at her with sharp eyes, but it wasn’t a bad situation when she saw that he had put Rashir in the sheath.

“No matter how I die, I will live again.”

“…But, Rashir would be different.”

Leonhard’s answer was stubborn, though Celine answered confidently.

“It’s the same. I will die, and I will come back to life.”

Rashir will inflict her with pain she has never felt before. However, it will not end her life forever.

“I can’t believe it. Did you just die? You aren’t pretending to be dead?”

At his words, Celine swallowed a gulp.

‘He has to see me die again and come back to life, for him to believe it completely.’

And so, slowly, she started walking first.

“Follow me.”

Fortunately, instead of threatening Celine to stop, Leonhard followed her.

Then, she stood on the porch and swallowed.

The stuffed head of the deer looked down at her serenely. Pulling the cabinet under the stuffed head of the deer, and venom powder will overtake her.

‘…Well, it wasn’t a very painful death.’

She had to somehow convince Leonhard.

With that thought, Celine reached out her arm to open the cabinet, though she didn’t get what she wanted.

In an instant, her body floated off the ground. Leonhard was screaming and pulling her hard.

“What are you doing!”

“Let me go. I don’t mean to do anything weird.”

Celine answered angrily, but she immediately froze.

It was because words that could never come out of Leonhard’s mouth flowed out.

“Crazy? Do you want to die again?”

Celine clenched her mouth with a bewildered look. She was numb as though she had been hit in the head. She asked him, stuttering.

“How… How?”

“That’s right.”

Leonhard let out a sound that was closer to a groan than a word. His own guess was correct. The woman in front of him was really about to die.

…Like in his dream

‘….!’

In an instant, realization struck him.

He gently shook the woman with a still blank face.

“Snap out of it. When did you get bitten by a viper?”

“…It was yesterday.”

“Not the day before yesterday? No, let me tell you. The rusty chandelier fell and broke your neck, right?”

“….”

“And, you died two more times trying to remove all the chandeliers in the house.”

Still puzzled, Celine managed to answer Leonhard’s words in full.

“…That’s right. That’s right!”

His voice lit up with strange excitement.

“Ha! God, I have finally found rest.”

Celine looked nervously at Leonhard with an overjoyed expression on his face.

“Did you know that you appear in my dreams?”

“What? Me…?”

She was so startled that she almost bit her tongue. Come to think of it, she seems to remember Leonhard saying something similar earlier.

Although she couldn’t hear it at all.

“Yes. Every day… you show up every day and I can’t sleep at all.”

“No way…”

Pondering, Celine’s gaze rested on Leonhard’s dark, dark circles. Only then did she realize why he had come to find her.

“You saw me die in the dream. That’s why you couldn’t sleep and found me…”

“You died endlessly.”

Celine replied bitterly. “Because I really died that way. This is a curse. I die endlessly and come back to life.”

“….”

Leonhard looked down at the woman one head smaller than himself. He didn’t notice when she was running away earlier, though when he looked closely now, she was a very slender woman.

She hadn’t eaten properly. Shivering in a thin dress, her skinny body was unsuitable for the weather.

“…That’s why you died like that.”

“What?”

Leonhard coughed once and made a solemn declaration.

“Celine Hunt, I will not allow you to die in the future.”

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