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Chapter 44
There is no guarantee that this life will be stained with blood like the past. Rassian tried to see the future through prophetic dreams, but he could not be certain that the future he saw would come true exactly as it appeared.
Rassian’s dream prophecy was one of the powers of the White Forest, yet it was a difficult ability to prove.
To prove he had foresight, his predictions had to come true. Strangely, however, the chances were always fifty-fifty.
If he made a prophecy and events did not unfold as he said, wouldn’t people just call him a fraud?
‘It was the same in my previous life. And the life before that.’
Even now.
March 31 had already passed. The monster wave that covered the Hezeit territory in his dream showed no sign of happening.
So it was only natural that no one believed him.
Even Glenn Hezeit did not fully trust his prophecy. Though Glenn protected him to the very end, Rassian had never once been a dependable lord to him.
And so he could do nothing. All he could do was blankly watch time flow, rewind, and flow again.
When Rassian lowered his head deeply, Glenn’s eyes grew complicated.
He gently coaxed Arilleti.
“Aril, will you play with Uncle Dunken for a bit? Or you can help Grandfather in the study.”
“……”
“Hmm? I’ll come back in exactly one hour, Teacher.”
Arilleti nodded reluctantly.
Dunken quickly approached and lifted her onto his shoulders.
“Our Teacher Aril is still a baby—and a patient. If you get angry, you’ll get a fever, and if you get a fever, you’ll have to take medicine. Let’s go!”
With Arilleti still sulking, she disappeared up the stairs.
Now only Rassian and Glenn remained in the banquet hall.
“Your Highness.”
“……”
“Rassian.”
At the gentle way his name was spoken, something hot rose in his chest.
Across three lifetimes, the only person who ever called his name was the Margrave of Hezeit. Tears welled up as if he truly were just a nine-year-old boy.
“Come here, you too.”
When Glenn opened his arms, Rassian immediately rushed into them like a tame puppy.
Glenn lifted the boy with ease. Though thin for his age, a nine-year-old boy was still heavy—much heavier than Arilleti, whom he carried often.
“…Hyung, are you planning to throw me away now?”
Rassian mumbled in a nasal voice.
“Throw you away? Your Highness, do you know how much effort it took to bring you to this territory?” Glenn replied, as if the idea were ridiculous.
“Then why did you give her the Hezeit name?”
“Because Arilleti needed a proper identity.”
“…Give me one too.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know how to remove a prince of the empire from the imperial registry.”
Glenn chuckled as if it were a joke.
But his expression froze at Rassian’s next words.
“I’ll ask Father. I’ll ask him to expel me from the imperial family.”
“What?”
“He already refused before, but there’s another way. I just need to kill someone.”
“Wait, Your Highness?”
“If I commit murder, they’ll throw me out of the palace.”
The emperor, his father, had never allowed Rassian to leave the palace. He never explained why. He only said this:
“You need to stay for the game to be interesting, Rassian. Your reason for existing is to entertain me.”
“If one person isn’t enough, then two or three is fine. Should I beat Albert or Lucius until they’re almost dead?”
“That kind of dirty work is for vassals, not for their lord. What’s gotten into you, Your Highness?”
“Don’t use formal speech.”
It felt like someone had stolen his older brother from him.
They were not related by blood, but Glenn was his only family. In both of his previous lives.
“Even if you don’t believe me… you were always with me… cough.”
He shouldn’t say this.
Glenn Hezeit did not remember the two vanished lives.
No one did. Every time Rassian closed his eyes and opened them again, the future he knew would change.
When his prophecies turned out the opposite of what he saw, suffocating self-loathing consumed him.
The most useless power.
A strength that might as well not exist.
A useless sage.
Trash who could help no one.
For Rassian, his power was not a blessing but a curse. That was why he always clung to Glenn Hezeit. In ever-changing time, Glenn alone remained friendly toward him.
“In the life before… and the one before that… it was always just you and me. You said you wouldn’t leave me alone…”
“I never said I would leave you alone, Rassian.”
To Glenn, who had no memories, Rassian was just a weak young prince he met last autumn. Yet the familiar touch and soothing voice held the same kindness Rassian remembered.
“Let’s eat first and get some proper rest. Once you relax, you’ll feel better.”
“…Don’t die, hyung.”
Rassian muttered weakly.
“I’ll try something. Anything…”
“Alright, alright. I absolutely won’t die, so don’t worry.”
“…You promised…”
Glenn patted him for a long time until Rassian finally fell asleep from exhaustion.
He replayed the boy’s scattered words in his mind.
“In the life before… and the one before that… it was always just you and me.”
Before, and before that.
That meant this was the third time.
He had guessed as much, but he never imagined time had turned back twice.
‘So in the end, only these children remember the vanished time. I can never know it.’
And judging by Rassian’s reaction, it seemed Hezeit did not exist in that “vanished time.”
Glenn’s eyes darkened.
Whoooosh.
An ominous wind blew through the front yard of the lord’s castle.
Arilleti clutched Glenn’s pant leg and glared forward. Five steps away, a blond boy glared back at her.
Glenn spoke solemnly.
“Arilleti. Rassian.”
“…Mm.”
“Yeah.”
Their replies overlapped almost exactly, and both children looked horrified.
Glenn forced their hands together.
“You two started fighting the moment you met, so introductions were delayed. That means the first button was fastened wrong.”
“……”
“……”
“If the first meeting goes wrong, even things that might work won’t. So, what is the first thing you do when you meet someone? Arilleti.”
Arilleti mumbled with puffed cheeks.
“Introduce yourself…”
“Correct. I’ll do it for you this time. Rassian, this is Arilleti Cadis, the only daughter of Viscount Cadis and a time mage of the White Forest. She has been registered into the Hezeit branch family and will publicly be known as Arilleti Hezeit.”
“……”
“And Arilleti, this is His Highness Rassian, the Third Prince of the Bertel Empire. Like you, he is a sage who possesses the power of the White Forest.”
Arilleti, who had been staring at the ground, suddenly lifted her head.
What?
“A sage? What kind…?”
“A dream prophet.”
In the White Forest, there are four powers that support the world, and four sages who each hold one of them.
The one who oversees the time of the world.
The one who builds the space of the world.
The one who reads countless futures.
The one who shapes the grave called fate.
Among them, dream prophecy—
‘The one who reads countless futures!’
Dream prophecy.
As the name suggests, the power to see the future of a chosen target within dreams.
‘If he’s the same kind of sage… does that mean he is aware of the time I turned back?’
Goosebumps spread over her body.
Then does that mean Rassian Federka also remembers everything from before the regression…?
