Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 137017 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137017 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
A prince with an inferiority complex. What a novel concept.
“He and the Empress conspired to usurp the throne as part of their plan, but you and Kalon were able to stop them before it could happen. Torin and Lillia were forced to divorce, stripped of their titles, and exiled to separate countries while the Empress was imprisoned. Somehow, she was able to contact Torin, and they used black magic to change Lillia’s appearance so she could sneak into the castle during the party.”
I swallowed.
Wow.
“So, Lillia was the one to poison me?”
“Yes.” He sighed again. “Torin wanted to inflict as much pain upon Kalon as he could and killing you and your unborn child was the easiest way for him to do that. He convinced Lillia to do it by saying that your death would mean she could have Kalon, and she fell for it. He knew Kalon would never love anyone but you, so his plan meant he could destroy all the people who’d hurt him in one swoop.”
I closed my eyes for a moment. “That… is unfathomably cruel.”
“It is. Kalon’s anger at having lost you was terrifying, and I cannot be harmed, so to say I feared him is quite something.” His shoulders drooped. “In the end, he was able to enact justice and killed all three of them with his own hands for what they did to you.”
My heart clenched. “How did the world get stuck in a time loop?”
“That was entirely my mistake. There’s a temple within the deepest part of the Imperial Palace reserved for the Imperial Family. He came there to tell me he wasn’t going to repent for his sins but instead begged me to turn back time so he could have another chance at life with you. I knew he wasn’t in his right mind, but after seeing him so broken, I agreed.”
I jerked up to sitting. “You really did that?”
“I did. I fully intended for him to return with his memories of his past life, but something went wrong, and the world regressed to a time before you’d ever met. He had no recollection of your previous time together.” He clenched his jaw. “None of you knew what you’d been through, and I had to watch three more times as one of my most precious souls, a rare one capable of wielding both mana and divine power, was killed in cold blood. The method they used varied; but you died because of the same three people each time. Until I couldn’t take it anymore and I swapped your soul with another.”
No way. “You tried to save my soul?”
“I did. It was selfish, but I was confident you wouldn’t remember your past life, especially after some time in the fountain of reincarnation.”
“That’s where souls go to recover before rebirth, right? You told me that last time.”
“Yes. But because I put you there, I lost track of you. It wasn’t until you showed up in front of me at The Department of Reincarnation that I felt I’d maybe found you again. That was why I gave you a little extra divine power. I hoped it would help you awaken your powers.”
“How did you know for sure?”
He smiled. “You showed up here not long ago after causing a commotion with them.”
“You really aren’t all-knowing, are you?” I shook my head. “What kind of divine being can’t recognise his own child?”
His laugh was warm. “The previous soul in your body was incapable of using your power, and I believe that’s what caused her to change over time, along with the misery she experienced. The version of this world you read must have been one of her lives if Alicia was the antagonist.”
“How do you know that?”
“I know all four of your lives here so far, and it couldn’t be more wrong for you. Even in the face of cruelty, you were always kind.”
Who, me?
He had quite the set of rose-coloured lenses in his glasses.
God sighed. “The timeline you read about must have been after I brought Lillia’s soul here.”
“How did you do that? Were you trying to replace Alicia’s again?”
“I was. I saw her soul tiring and thought to change it, but something went awry, and the soul ended up in Lillia’s body instead. I thought it might not be a bad thing—if she changed the timeline herself and perhaps never fell in love with Kalon, then perhaps you would survive.”
I looked out at the water. “But in the book, she’d read the story of this world already and knew how it would go.”
“Indeed. I don’t quite know how that phenomenon occurred, but not all stories that cross dimensions are truly accurate. Some are almost perfect, but others become the basis of fiction.”
“So, you’re saying the author of the book could have simply been someone who wrote realities of their a past life as a fiction novel without realising it, and that’s why some things were different.”