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The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

Intermission: Eighth Lap

“Father! Mother!!”

Lewis woke up with a jolt, jumping out of bed as if searching for something he had lost, dashing through the mansion’s corridors.

On the way, Miria, who had come to wake him, was so surprised at his sudden burst that she plopped down onto the floor, but Lewis paid no mind to her.

“Oops. Good morning, Lewis.”

“Oh dear. Such a spoiled little one, aren’t you?”

Bursting out of his room, Lewis swung open the door to the room where his parents would presumably be, without even knocking, and leaped into an embrace with the slightly surprised couple.

However, being only twelve years old, his arms were too short to hold them both properly, yet he clung on desperately anyway.

Perhaps finding Lewis’s reaction endearing, Elise gently embraced him back, patting his head, while Edward smiled happily, returning the hug from his long-lost son.

“Father… Mother…”

“Haha. What’s the matter, Lewis? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Hehe. You used to hate my hugs, but I guess you were lonely too after all.”

Lewis didn’t respond with words nor nod; he simply enjoyed the nostalgic voices he had longed to hear, soaking in the warmth of the moment.

Both Edward’s dignified voice and Elise’s warm, love-filled tone were familiar and reassuring, causing Lewis to shed tears unexpectedly.

Though both noticed Lewis was crying, they didn’t pry into the reason but simply embraced him gently until their beloved son calmed down.

After a while, the butler came to inform them that his fiancée Iris and her parents had arrived, but exhausted from crying, Lewis fell asleep right there, and Edward carried him back to his room.

“Ugh. What have I done?”

An hour later.

Waking up in his room, Lewis recalled his previous actions, his ears turning red from embarrassment.

“Even though I wanted to see my parents again after they were killed in my previous world, cuddling up and sobbing to the point of falling asleep? Ugh, I wish I could just disappear. No, rather, I’d like to dig a hole and bury myself.”

Having experienced death seven times before, Lewis’s mind was more mature than his appearance suggested, making this emotional outburst feel particularly mortifying. He couldn’t help but mutter odd things stemming from his embarrassment.

“Ahh, well, it is what it is. More importantly, I need to think about what comes next. I can’t repeat the same ending.”

Quickly regaining his composure from past experiences, he sat up in bed and propped his chin on his hand, reflecting on his past lives.

“First I was killed by the hero, then I was executed for a crime I didn’t commit. Third time I died somehow. I was in a scene where I just happened to die, so I can’t really remember that one. Fourth time was death in prison, fifth was poisoning, sixth was a botched assassination by Iris, and seventh was revenge after my parents died where I ended up being killed by the heroes. Hmmm, all over the place. I wonder if there’s a clue hidden in all this… wait? All over the place?”

Lewis had hoped to discover some sort of breakthrough from his past deaths, but now he realized something important.

“Not a single death was the same. What does that mean?”

While Lewis had certainly taken different actions in each of his past lives, the fact that he had never died the same way across seven cycles felt unnatural, and he began to question that point.

“If I had to say, the first, third, and seventh times I was killed by the hero, but the circumstances to get to that point were completely different. Plus, the events from my past lives don’t occur in the next life. Why is that…”

As Lewis pointed out, it was strange that events that occurred in one life would not recur in the next. For example, the wrongful conviction leading to his execution didn’t happen after the third round.

“Hmmm… this isn’t good. I can’t figure anything out without any information. Hypothetically, is it because my actions change the resulting events? But in the third case, regardless of my behavior, I became a target for divine enemies without doing anything. So what could be the other factor?”

Lewis continued to brainstorm possible scenarios only to dismiss each one, ultimately concluding that at this stage, he had no answers.

After that, in an attempt to fill the void left by losing his parents for the second time in the seventh life, he cherished the time spent with them, creating opportunities to be with them as much as possible while attending Suzette Imperial Academy as usual.

About a year and a half after Lewis had enrolled for the eighth time at Suzette Imperial Academy.

As the academy was approaching winter break, shocking news that shook the Ruzenia Empire reached the capital.

It was that the surrounding small nations had simultaneously declared war on the empire, including even the Magic Kingdom joining in.

The Empire’s territories were being invaded from the east, west, south, and north by simultaneous attacks, leading to a situation where the knights alone could not handle it anymore, forcing even the citizens and students to be drafted into the war.

However, while the sheer numbers of untrained civilians could fill the ranks, they were of little strategic worth, merely slowing the enemy’s invasion.

This was the same for the Valentine Duchy where Lewis’s family resided. Especially against Saramāju, the enemy they faced, even their mere soldiers exhibited an extraordinary strength, requiring multiple knights to fight them off.

Amidst such dire circumstances, hope for the people lay in the hero party led by Shudo, who managed to turn the tide of battle with their might, swiftly repelling the enemy knights.

Seeing Shudo’s power, the citizens of the empire revered him as the true hero, while the enemy soldiers quaked in fear at his overwhelming strength.

However, for some reason, not a single hero, not even reinforcements, arrived at the Valentine Duchy where Lewis was fighting. Before they knew it, the path to the capital was cut off, leaving Lewis and his allies completely isolated.

“Mother…”

“Lewis. That person is?”

“Unfortunately…”

“I see…”

Half a month after the Valentine Duchy had been isolated.

Due to a prolonged war, resources were running low, so Lewis’s father, Edward, along with Knight Commander Zephar and other knights, led an assault on the enemy camp but tragically, they did not return.

“I’m sorry. If only I were stronger, I might have been able to accompany Father and help him.”

“That’s not true, Lewis. You’re not responsible for this, and even if you were much stronger, he would have made the same choice. And so would I. Because you are our precious child, the one we love the most.”

“Mother…”

Elise gently embraced Lewis, who wore a regretful expression, but still, his face didn’t brighten.

(If only I had gathered more information on other nations and stayed vigilant…)

After the eighth life began, Lewis had been diligently gathering every piece of information within the empire to prepare for any eventualities.

However, that was entirely about information from within the empire, and Lewis never imagined there would be an assault from foreign nations, rendering most of the gathered intel and strategies ineffective.

“So, you don’t need to bear everything on your shoulders. It’s all right. We will surely…”

“Enemy attack! Enemy forces are attacking! Saramāju soldiers have broken through the castle gate and are invading the mansion!”

Before Elise could finish her thought, a knight rushed into their room, darting in with Edward’s command to protect Elise and Lewis. The vice captain ordered his subordinates to ensure their safety before rushing off to face the enemy.

“It’s okay, Lewis. I’ll protect you,” Elise said.

“Mother, thank you. But I’ll protect you instead.”

“What?”

Upon hearing of the enemy’s assault, Elise stood in front of Lewis to shield him, but her body trembled with fear.

Gently placing his hand on her shoulder, Lewis pulled her closer, stepping in front of her as he began to walk towards the door.

“Mother. I am not only your son but also the future Valentine Duke. I cannot just sit here waiting for the knights to drive the enemies away.”

“No! Lewis!”

“Mother. Just as Father fulfilled his role and departed, I must also fulfill mine. I really love you… Mother.”

“Wait! Lewis!!!”

Lewis smiled back at Elise, who tried to stop him, then instructed the remaining knights to protect her, using sensing magic to dash toward the enemy’s location.

The path was the same corridor he’d dashed down when he had awakened in this eighth life, searching for his parents, but the once beautiful walls were cracked, and the splendid garden visible outside was ablaze, with the bodies of knights and enemy soldiers strewn across the hall.

“Haha. Looks like I might die before Mother this time.”

Having lost his beloved parents once before, a slight trauma remained in Lewis’s heart at the thought of witnessing their deaths again, and somehow it morphed into a desire to die before them instead.

By the time Lewis reached the enemy soldiers, the vice captain and the other knights were completely wiped out, and several soldiers cloaked in dark, ominous magical energy stood in the center.

“At least, please kill me quickly and without pain.”

With those final words, Lewis grasped a fallen sword and kicked the ground hard.

After that, Lewis put up a fierce fight, killing half of the enemy soldiers single-handedly, but due to his lack of training, he couldn’t manifest his fighting spirit, and as his magic ran dry, he was decapitated by the one leading the enemy soldiers, thus concluding his eighth life.

 

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