How to Raise a Victim

“That has never happened.”

“Never?”

“Yes.”

“Really, truly never?”

“I swear it has never happened. I’ve never been in a relationship with anyone.”

It was a rather serious question, but Inas reacted like it was very absurd. Seeing that he hated it, it seemed that Inas had never been flagged. It’s a great relief.

So far, Nigel had persistently sabotaged any relationships with people who might have been deeply in love with Inas. He felt relieved and sad at the same time when Inas said that he had no intention of taking a lover or having a family.

He watched Inas with a feeling of only looking at the best delicacy on earth… If he had ever been in a relationship with Kay, Nigel would have lied down right away in frustration. His heart was more at ease. In an instant, the hostility that was aimed towards Kay subsided, and his reason was restored.

“Um… But you said that if Kay dies, time will rewind.”

“For now, it’s fine. You have to kill all five key party members to turn back time.”

Nigel looked back at what Inas had said. On the 14th of April, the starting point, he couldn’t kill those five people at once. In the future, the party would have to recruit when in Seldom and Langini so that the five of them could gather.

He nodded his head in agreement, but at the same time, it sounded somewhat strange.

“Okay. I have a lot of questions for you… Sit down first.”

“Yes.”

He often ignored Nigel’s words, but fortunately he seemed to listen to minor orders.

As Inas sat quietly in his seat, Nigel wet his throat with the tea which had cooled down. Instead of Nigel, who didn’t open his mouth right away, Inas spoke frist.

“I have something to ask you too.”

“What is it?”

“Nigel-nim, since when do you have retain your memories?”

Nigel, who was flustered because he didn’t think he would say it so directly and casually, bit his lips. Nigel backed away before Inas reached out to him.

“… You killed me three times.”

“I see.”

The way he answered nonchalantly made him feel upset. Inas’ indifference, who would usually have been affectionate and considerate, was often unbearable. Nigel struggled to suppress the urge to throw the teacup behind Inas.

“Why do you keep killing me?”

“In any case, your death…”

“No, not that. It’s a matter of necessity and efficiency. You don’t have to kill me if time goes back anyway, do you? So why did you even come to kill me?”

Inas’ eyes widened slightly, as if he didn’t expect to hear such a question.

“I don’t know.”

Inas waved his hand when he gave that ambiguous answer, and a teacup appeared from the air with tea filled up. This time, Nigel eyes went round at the stunt that had just happened, but Inas was calmly lost in his thoughts. It was embarrassing that he couldn’t say it right away.

“Did you just kill me for no reason? Because you want to kill me?”

“It’s definitely not like that.”

Inas answered firmly, then lightly wet his throat with tea.

“It’s just that I didn’t think deeply and acted.”

“So you killed impulsively?”

“That’s not it.”

What do you mean, no? Nigel almost bit his nails without realizing, but he managed to stop.

“I told you last time that we repeat the dates from April 14th to March 27th.”

“Yes, you did.”

“We didn’t always go back to April 14th. In the beginning, everything returned to November 9th 272 of the kingdom calendar.”

“272?!”

Startled, Nigel immediately counted the numbers. If it was the 272nd year of the kingdom calendar, and right now is the 283rd year… That was 11 years ago. Then, did Inas live for nearly 12 years at first before returning? Realistic numbers came heavier than vaguely imagined numbers.

Not to mention, between repeating one year and repeating 12 years, of course the latter would be much more difficult.

Moreover, 11 years ago was when his father, Luther, was still alive.

Luther was a great father to Nigel. However, just as how the predecessing Dukes of Magnus were called dukes without blood or tears, he had received the same evaluation.

In particular, Luther was particularly harsh on Inas. Was it to make a knight who could assist Nigel without collapsing under any circumstances? He forced Inas to train in inhumane ways. He fed him all kinds of poison bit by bit to develop poison resistance, and even threw Inas, who was still young at the time, into abandoned ruins infested with monsters.

He couldn’t believe he had repeated those years several times.

“… It must have been difficult.”

The emotion that had been choking him up until a while ago disappeared somewhere, and only compassion filled Nigel’s heart. While sympathizing, Nigel considered himself pathetic. But he couldn’t help it. Even after being killed so many times, he still loved Inas, and his heart couldn’t be easily broken.1

As if he fully understood Nigel’s worries, Inas’ eyes softened.

“It’s alright. Now Nigel-nim knows it too.”

“Inas…”

“And living 12 years only happened somewhere in the beginning of this damn regression. You don’t have to worry about it.”

There’s no way it was alright. It’s highly likely that the vague expression of ‘somewhere in the beginning’ meant that the number of times was not small enough for him to accurately remember. As he mumbled November 9th 272, Nigel realized something, paling.

“Wait, November 9, 272… you said.”

“Yes, it was the first day I met Nigel-nim.”

Even though the two didn’t record the day or remember each other, the answer came right away. For Nigel, it was the day when his long unrequited love began, so he had no choice but to remember…

“Why that day, of all days…?”

“Probably because from that day on my life became meaningful.”

“… What?”

“It’s the first day I met Nigel-nim, so anything before that doesn’t mean much.”

Nigel’s face turned red. No matter how much he fanned his hand to cover up his reddened face, the heat didn’t subside. Nigel coughed, muttering that the room was hot. Inas kindly opened the window and made wind with magic. Even asking, “Are you okay?” He didn’t know if he was ignorant or shameless…

No, he didn’t care about the little things now. It was even okay for Inas to kill Nigel by drilling a hole in his chest and head.

Meaning of his life. To hear that he was a person of such significance.

When someone you like said that about you, who wouldn’t like it?

“Can I continue what I was saying?”

“Huh? Oh… Okay.”

Confused, Nigel made a stupid sound and nodded his head late. If the duties and responsibilities as the duke’s successor hadn’t been deeply engraved in his bones, he might have lied down on his back, telling him to do whatever he wanted, whether it was to kill him or not. Nigel barely came to his senses and sat up to listen.

“Actually, in the beginning, there were many times I didn’t finish 12 years and died. I did a lot of strange things because I was shocked to learn that time was going back.”

“Strange things?”

“I’m too ashamed to tell you in detail. I was out of my mind from the shock, so I did a lot of childish things.”

I couldn’t imagine Inas doing childish things. Well, Inas wouldn’t have been that crazy from the start. How many years did it take for the childish person to mature into such a madman? Nigel tried not to imagine specific numbers.

“I started killing Nigel-nim almost from the very beginning.”

“No, but why?”

He wasn’t used to it yet, but he started killing right away? Nigel was shocked, but Inas acted like it was natural.

“I died often, but my death didn’t really matter anyway. I knew I was going to go back.”

“Well, that may be so.”

Nigel also knew that he would be revived, so he didn’t put much weight on death itself.

“But if I die suddenly, I never know what will happen to Nigel-nim for the rest of the time. Well, the world would rewind, so Nigel-nim could go back in time too, but I couldn’t confirm it. So I killed you. I killed you as quickly and swiftly as I could, so that you don’t have to suffer and go to the next round.”

“… Only for that reason?”

“I hesitated to say it because I thought you’d take it that way, but as I said, there is no value to Nigel-nim’s death. I just prefer the cleaner and more definite method.”

“No, there’s no need for a clean and definite method…”

It was a very uncomfortable and unecessary consideration, but Inas only smiled instead of answering. It seemed that he was determined not to listen to Nigel.

He definitely cared about him in a subtle way. Apart from not being afraid of death, it was still difficult to understand Inas, who killed him without any hesitation. He seemed to have killed him every time, and it was unlikely that he would change his mind at once, so Nigel gave up trying to persuade him.

“But how did it change to April 14th?”

“It was my intention to reduce the time that gets rewound, but I didn’t know how much time will actually go back. I still don’t know why April 14th. I’m guessing it’s because I can meet Kay from around that time.”

There was something that came to mind at Inas’ words. The whereabouts of Inas, who disappeared for several days without permission.

“Then, did you meet him again this time?”

As expected, Inas nodded.

“Yes. In the first place, Kay must meet me in order to get to the royal capital safely.”

“Why?”

“There’s an event battle going on before coming here. The battle is more than difficult and Kay’s at the level where he can’t win… In the original story, I appear and help Kay. In the second half, I will personally join the party and go around dungeons together.”

There were words in the middle that he didn’t know regarding events, but he roughly understood them from the context. Inas would deal with an enemy which inevitably had to be defeated, so that meant that Kay would die if he didn’t meet Inas. He said that he wanted to confirm if things would occur as it was2, so he seemed to have moved as usual so as to not deviate from his original fate.

“Did you get hurt?”

“I won’t get hurt.”

Inas smiled lightly.

T/N:
Inas lowkey panicking because Nigel suspected he dated Kay in the past had me ROLLING. But not just Inas, I’m telling you guys Nigel is also down BAD for Inas. One mention of him being Inas’ meaning of life and suddenly he forgave his act of murdering him three times (that he was aware of). He’s hopeless really, there’s no saving him.

1 As in his feelings won’t go away that easily, even if he might sometimes feel hurt at Inas’ actions.
2 Refering to how Nigel wanted to check if the story will actually develop according to what Inas had mentioned before rewinding at the ending.