IDNJH 04

Chapter 04

With each round, I felt like I was being buried deeper in the mud.

Now I’m used to it, and these things don’t faze me anymore, but back then, with my fragile state of mind, it was all too much to handle.

*’I miss my family……’*

Not these fakes—I missed my real family terribly.

If it had been before I regained my memories, maybe it would’ve been different, but after I remembered, this world was absolutely no place for me to live.

It could never be *my* world.

Even so, not much changed. Only my goal shifted—I still carried out the quests.

The endless cycle of regression had to stop, and besides, there was no other clue that could tell me how to get back.

Of course, I didn’t only do quests. I tried my best to find a way home on my own.

One of those attempts was magic.

I scoured all sorts of books and taught myself, hoping there might be a way to return home. Since regular magic didn’t seem likely, I focused on dark magic, thinking it might be more relevant to this surreal soul-transference.

But all I discovered was the useless information that I had a talent for dark magic.

For reference, I also studied theology, wondering if this was the work of a god, but again I found no similar cases.

I even tried blowing up a temple, but there was no reaction from any god, so it seemed that side had no connection.

Then again, there’s no way a god would do something like this. A demon seems far more likely.

So I even joined a heretical cult that worshipped demons—only to learn that there are far more crazy people in the world than I’d thought. I don’t even want to think about it again.

Anyway, the conclusion was that all of it was fruitless.

In the end, the only answer was the quests.

It might have been a rotten rope, but it was the only rope thrown to me, so I had no choice but to grab it.

After that, I steadily cleared the main affection quests, and ran myself ragged completing various sub-quests.

The synchronization quest was still stuck in place with no clue in sight.

Still, relying on the items the system gave me and the experience from past rounds, after much hardship, I finally reached affection 50 for the first time in the 43rd round.

As a reward for reaching affection 50, I received a feather. It was said to grant good dreams, and giving it as a gift would provide a sense of stability, making affection harder to drop.

“Hmm, not bad.”

This range had quite large fluctuations in affection scores, so I thought it was a fairly satisfying reward.

“But how do I give this?”

Just tossing a single feather would look odd, so I was thinking of making a dreamcatcher and gifting it when—

—

*Ding!*

—

**[Raise your family’s affection to 70]**

If affection drops to 40, it will be automatically considered a failure.

Kallion Barderia: 50/70

Gwyneth Barderia: 51/80

Felix Barderia: 57/80

Kairos Barderia: 59/80

Goal Success: Reward – ‘Embroidery Set Perfect for Confessing Your Feelings’ + First-time success bonus – ‘One Wish Ticket from the System for Your Hard Work! (1 use)’

Goal Failure: Death

—

“……Huh?”

That crazy reward quest had appeared.

After that, as you know, I became completely fixated on this quest.

I tossed aside all other quests and devoted myself entirely to raising the family’s affection.

I was so impatient that I overstepped and died again.

Only then did I come to my senses, and it took three more rounds to get affection back to 50.

In the early rounds, the intervals between deaths were short, but once I died at 50, it took forever to recover—a different kind of ordeal.

Still, it wasn’t as despairing as before. Because I believed that if I used the wish ticket, I could go home.

Even as I died a few more times, I clung stubbornly to that one goal—going home.

That was the only driving force that kept me going.

—

* * *

“……Nadiana!”

“……”

“Nadiana……!”

“……”

“Nadiana!”

I heard a familiar voice, and then it felt like my body was being pulled up from deep underwater, and my vision cleared.

*’……Did I black out for a moment?’*

For some reason, I was standing on the grass a short distance from the garden where the birthday party had been held.

The sun must have been setting, as the surroundings were tinged red.

Occasionally, shadows passed over my head and then disappeared—not from clouds, as I’d thought.

“Hey!”

I turned my head at the same voice that had snapped me awake, and saw a figure with bright red hair tied low to one side.

It was my second sibling, Felix.

His crumpled expression made his already fierce features look even more menacing.

Glancing around, I saw the garden in disarray behind Felix, with people lying on the ground. Most of them were household servants.

Flowers were scattered around them, torn from their places.

Wait, why are they all dead?

And why am I standing here?

“You……!”

Felix stomped on a flower lying at his feet and took a threatening step closer. For some reason, he was glaring at me as if he wanted to kill me.

Wondering why he was so angry, I sluggishly turned my sluggish mind—when I felt a stinging sensation on my inner arm. Looking down, I saw the sleeve of my dress was torn and soaked in blood.

The blood was still flowing, dripping onto the pattern of ancient script drawn at my feet.

*’……Wait. Blood? Ancient script? A pattern?’*

Sensing something ominous, I narrowed my eyes and examined the pattern closely.

It was a dark magic circle for summoning ancient monsters—one I’d seen in an old book I’d obtained in a much earlier round.

The moment I recognized it, a grotesque sound from the sky slammed into my ears.

Snapping back to my senses, I urgently looked up.

Only then did I realize that the intermittent darkness wasn’t from clouds, but from ancient monsters that had emerged through cracks appearing all around the Duke’s estate, filling the sky densely.

……Wait, no. This situation—I didn’t create this, did I?

“Hey, answer me! What were you thinking, doing something like this? Since when could you use magic—no, how can you use dark magic?!”

F*ck. So it’s true.

This insane system had finally gifted me with a huge double middle finger.

“Haha……”

“Have you lost your mind? You’re laughing right now?”

Yeah, I am. Laughter is all that’s coming out.

No, seriously—why use me as the medium? Usually in these cases, wouldn’t the wish-granter drop something like a meteor and cause an apocalypse or something?

Is this my fault for making that wish? How ironic.

*’Are you watching, Dad? Your daughter’s become the final villain who destroys the world or something. Jackpot.’*

Had I lost it along with the situation? Even this felt like just another event.

Since it’s been revealed that I’m the one who caused this mess, the guillotine is guaranteed—no, we’ll all probably be killed by those monsters first.

Then this round will naturally reset and everyone will come back to life, so it’ll be fine, right?

“Did Sister really do this……?”

Ah, he’s here too.

Speaking in a trembling voice, the cherry-colored curly-haired one was the youngest, Kairos.

He was prickly and sensitive, living up to his cold-looking appearance, which made it tough to please him in the early rounds, but compared to the other three, he was relatively easy to handle.

Anyway, it looks like I’ll have to grovel and work hard again to avoid another pointless death.

I’m so tired of this. Would it kill them to open their hearts a little? Do they have any idea how hard it is to keep smiling and playing nice all alone among such cold-hearted people?

“Why…… Why would you……!”

“Kairos, stop.”

Now I saw that my first sibling, Gwyneth, with his reddish-brown hair, was also there.

Even in this chaos, he alone looked flawless—a sight that felt a bit annoying.

But why do they keep appearing one by one like matryoshka dolls instead of all at once?

Ah, maybe my field of vision was narrow and I just didn’t notice them from the start.

Anyway, why are they all here? I’m not one to talk, but shouldn’t they be off subduing the monsters?

“Diya, come here. I’ll hear your explanation later. You can’t stay here. While the Duke is holding back the knights…”

“Wait—who’s holding whom back?”

Gwyneth furrowed his brow.

Probably because I cut him off and because of my tone. Even in this situation, he cares about things like that—he’s truly something else in many ways.

Normally, I’d have tried to smooth things over immediately—no, I wouldn’t have said or done anything to provoke him in the first place—but since this round is clearly already a failure, there was no reason to crawl around worrying about his mood.

Right now, what he’d just said bothered me more than Gwyneth’s feelings.

The Duke is holding back the *knights*—not the monsters?

“……Right. But he won’t be able to hold out for long. Right now, attention is focused on the monsters, but once they’re suppressed, more knights will swarm in. You need to run as far away as possible before that. I’ve already secured an escape route.”

Crazy.