I Decided to Kidnap the Male Lead

Episode 64: And Then There Were None (VIII)

“Everything won’t be annihilated at once like it happened for the other two. But if left as it is, the seeds of the crops will dry up enough to say it’s a year of poor harvest. If we struggle like this even during the most prosperous time, next year’s spring will be really difficult.”

“We can endure it. I’ll release all the produce the imperial family and each family have stockpiled.”

He’ll be able to withstand it. Ophelia knew that much too, as she stayed by Richard’s side and watched all the reports he received.

But how long could it last? No, did they have to hold out?

Ophelia was not a saint. Even if dozens of people died a day, she would pass it by, saying ‘It’s a pity’.

But she wasn’t such a bad person that she could say ‘It’s like that’ when seeing people mourning in front of her eyes.

That’s why she just wanted to prevent the worst from happening.

“If we regress, you can minimize the damage.” 

“Maybe.”

“If we regress until then, no, Richard knows everything, right?”

It showed in Ophelia’s expression. That she couldn’t understand why Richard was trying to avoid regression this time.

And to her, Richard gave an answer she never thought of.

“That might be the root of the problem rather than the solution.”

Although Ophelia heard it clearly, she couldn’t understand it at once, so she asked again.

“Yes? The root of the problem…?”

Richard slowly got up and approached Ophelia.

With his gold eyes fixed on her, he said,

“I compared before and after you appeared.”

Realizing what his feelings for her were, Richard tried to reconstruct all the past time around Ophelia.

It just started because he didn’t want to forget a single word she said or a single gesture from her.

He wanted to remember everything about the person he held in his heart.

Knowing that it was a terrible obsession to the point of tenacity, he didn’t reveal it.

No, he couldn’t tell.

Whether she turned to him, or not.

Before she kept her mouth shut, he didn’t even know what he was going to do.

She was swift and strong enough to slap an assassin in the back of the head.

However, the problem lies in the fact that he also far surpassed human ability.

If his overflowing sincerity threatened her… 

“…ness. Richard?”

Richard sluggishly reached his hand out at Ophelia’s call, but he couldn’t place the fingertips that had headed towards her face; it just hovered around.

Finally, he took her hand and opened his mouth, saying,

“Things I had overlooked in the past came to my attention.”

When only Richard continued his boring life with the infinite regression, almost the same situation repeated.

However, since the day Ophelia grabbed him by the collar, quite a few things have changed every time he regressed.

Didn’t he revive the empire twice when it was almost destroyed during earthquakes and floods?

Richard, who had gone so far in his thoughts, ruminated on the first sign– the earthquake.

“What you called an ‘earthquake’ was a huge disaster that I had never experienced during that terribly long period of infinite regression.”

“Yes. You said it never happened before.”

“Is it really just a coincidence that such a catastrophe happened after you appeared?”

“What?”

Ophelia asked again, not understanding his words immediately. Then, she felt dizzy as if the back of her head had been hit hard by the continuing words.

“Wouldn’t it cost us nothing to change the future?”

Ophelia simply pursed her lips. Because she didn’t know what to say.

The second she heard those words, things she hadn’t thought of unfolded before her eyes for a moment.

Earthquakes, floods and locusts.

Those were signs she had seen somewhere.

The world… The three of the signs of doom.

“Is there any price to pay when you make the tomorrow that should come come?”

Yes. He was right.

They had been twisting the future all this while by regressing.

Nevertheless, she hadn’t been paying a lot of attention to it. No, it would be more accurate to say that she did not care.

She was absorbed in her current situation and focused only on the part of stopping the regression, like the blind men groping for the defining feature of an elephant.

She had never thought about what kind of repercussions her actions would have during her many regressions.

Richard didn’t know this, but wasn’t she a possessor?

Despite it having become reality, she knew full well that this was a world in a novel.

Taking into account that it was a novel, there would have been a set story and ending.

It wasn’t intentional in such a world, but anyway, a foreign object called a possessor appeared and even changed the development randomly.

Ophelia’s cheeks were paler than the corpse’s.

Wasn’t this a familiar development from movies, dramas, or novels?

A world that had been altered in this way would gradually twist, break, and eventually be destroyed.

It was good enough that this world hadn’t collapsed yet.

A trembling voice escaped from between her parted lips.

“What the hell have I done?”

What had she been doing?

She just wanted to live.

She just wanted to avoid the infinite miserable suffering of death.

But the things she had been doing so far to live, that struggle was killing the world.

‘I don’t know what to do.’

‘…Is there even any way to do it?’ Ophelia struggled in a pit of confusion and muttered with a face of bewilderment.

“…When the earthquake or flood came, was there a way to prevent it besides regressing…”

“None.”

Richard carefully lifted Ophelia’s trembling chin that was slowly but surely sinking down.

“You don’t have to make such a face.”

“Ha, but I tried to change it from the beginning. And now… come on.”

“If you hadn’t changed it, nothing would be here right now.”

Richard whispered as he touched Ophelia’s reddened eyes.

“Until I met you, I didn’t care if this world was destroyed. No, if it was destroyed, all of this damn thing could end, so I might have wished for that.”

Yes. He thought that if everything was over, then he, too, could die.

But Ophelia appeared.

Meeting her, being with her, and repeating that many times with her.

Only then did he realize.

That there was a huge empty space inside him.

And Ophelia was throwing flowers into the hole he didn’t even know about.

No, was it just that? The sunlight-like warmth, the petal-like flutter, and the melting sensation when touching.

She constantly threw everything she had into the bottomless pit.

Finally, things other than the cold wind filled Richard’s empty space.

And the second he realized, she couldn’t be missed or let go.

So, from that point onwards, the doubt of how long she could be hopeful, how long she could endure this ruthless regression, please…

“I can’t help but wish that I could get out of this long hellhole with you, this bloody hole with its endless black jaws open, and break the chains of infinite regression.”

Ophelia looked at him without blinking.

As she felt that if she blinked even once, tears would flow.

She didn’t want to cry in front of him now.

Richard, who had given up on everything in the world and was fed up with it, was unable to die due to dreadful force and boredom.

He said he wanted to break the chain of infinite regression.

Wasn’t it fortunate enough to make one’s heart swell? She should be smiling, not crying.

Richard took a step back from Ophelia as she stubbornly held back her tears.

“Neither you nor I know how broken the world is, how it’s crumbling.”

Nobody knew.

“At this point, there’s probably only one solution.”

—Pujeok.

As soon as Richard finished his words, an assassin that came out of nowhere was slammed into the wall with one gesture of his hand.

Ophelia blinked a few times, and the many assassins, who had been swarming toward Richard like moths into the fire, collapsed to the ground in an instant.

Seeing as the neck turned in a direction it shouldn’t have turned, Ophelia knew without checking that none of them were breathing

But the one who created a pile of assassins’ bodies in an instant did not pay a single glance to them.

He continued speaking as if nothing had happened.

“To stop this regression that could change the future.”

He whispered softly, swiping a finger past the corners of Ophelia’s tear-stained eyes.

“That’s what I meant to do.”

“So you killed the assassin right away this time?”

“For now.”

Richard glanced at the already breathless assassins and added,

“Of course, I must have prevented only this one regression.”

If killing the assassins would end this regression, it should have already ended.

However, if it had been that simple, Richard would not have been able to wither and die alone for such a long time.

“In the list of those who send the assassins, we should look at the one at the top row, Lady Neir. There are already a few things that are likely to come out, so we’ll have to put the pieces together.”

Richard’s voice, referring to Raisa Neir, was extremely calm, but his golden eyes were not at all.

“And Ophelia.”

Ame: Inhale… Exhale… we got this guys, we’re not crying either! …Right? 

Ahem, anyways, proud that we guessed the world collapsing part many chapters back. Now time to speculate on how they can solve it x)

Dea: If it involves any of them having to die forever in order for the regressions to stop, I will be needing more than tissues T^T