Chapter 96 - Another Possibility (4)

[Translator - Peptobismol]

[Proofreader - Demon God]

Chapter 96 - Another Possibility (4)

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in yet another place.

It wasn’t by my own will.

I would simply lose consciousness, and then wake up somewhere new, just like now, staring blankly.

The concept of “forgotten memories” felt like a distant dream, a haze that clouded my mind each time I regained consciousness.

Beep—

A faint ringing echoed in my ears.

I exhaled sharply, then inhaled, and exhaled again, gasping for a long while before slowly opening my eyes.

I began to recall everything.

The Duchess was dead, and Luna had boldly put her name forward as a candidate for head of the family.

And Isabel...

— You know, I have no one but you.

Yes, that’s right.

She had said something like that to me.

— The moment you drink, you can read forgotten memories of the past.

What on earth could these forgotten memories even be?

Are these bizarre things I’m experiencing now actually part of Kyle Winfred’s past, lost in the depths of memory?

I glanced outside the window.

A vibrant garden and a display of early spring flowers in full bloom.

Yes, it was the familiar scenery of the Winfred Ducal estate.

I was still trapped within this cursed “forgotten past.”

Knock, knock.

A familiar rhythm of knocks.

A moment later, click. The door opened, and the old butler entered the room.

“A letter has arrived for you, Young Master.”

“A letter?”

“Yes, Lady Isabel has sent you a letter.”

He handed me the letter, saying it was from Isabel.

Its contents were about the upcoming wedding.

I immediately asked the butler for the date.

The timing of Kyle and Isabel’s wedding was significantly earlier than I remembered.

And judging by Isabel’s strange attitude toward Kyle, it seemed her claim of them being lovers wasn’t just an empty lie.

I tossed the letter into the fireplace and watched it burn.

A strange sense of exhaustion washed over me.

The single, abstract phrase “forgotten past” wasn’t enough to explain all of this.

It felt as though the entire world was broken.

Kyle Winfred was no longer a villain.

The world’s malice no longer pointed at him.

Isabel, Luna, Rudine—all of them now showed care toward Kyle as if it had always been that way.

It was all so grotesquely unnatural, as if mocking all the pain I’d been through.

There were no perpetrators in this world.

No one to blame.

How could this be?

I remembered everything perfectly.

I had endured every tragedy that was originally supposed to be Kyle’s fate, gritting my teeth without knowing why.

And I alone remembered it all.

In this peaceful world, I alone needed someone to resent.

All the suffering I endured firsthand had now become nothing more than an illusion.

“Ha.”

A hollow laugh, almost like a sigh, escaped my lips.

At the same time, a thought flickered through my mind.

Ah, but in the end, does it even matter?

I’ll be leaving this world soon anyway.

“…Right, I just need to hold on a little longer.”

I murmured to myself, looking at the mirror on the wall.

This face isn’t mine.

My name isn’t Kyle Winfred.

Just before my military discharge, I’d spent countless nights playing a mobile game until I somehow ended up in this world.

Before being thrown into this world… I was…

I was…

What was I doing?

The thought was so absurd it left me speechless.

Strangely enough, the exact moment before I was thrown into this body was clouded, as if shrouded in fog.

“….”

I cut off my deepening thoughts.

I was too exhausted to waste energy on pointless pondering.

****

After that, I repeatedly lost and regained consciousness, over and over.

It felt as if I were watching a summarized version of a story, viewing only the most pivotal memories.

The wedding proceeded as planned, and under countless blessings, Isabel and Kyle became husband and wife, vowing blind love to one another.

Their married life was flawless.

Gone was the Isabel who’d poisoned Kyle, swayed by rumors.

Now, her gaze was full of love and respect whenever she looked at him, and Kyle reciprocated.

They shared a bed at night, ate together when hungry, napped in the sun, chatted over snacks prepared by the maids, and planned their future under the night sky.

It wasn’t some laughable display of romance; they were truly in love.

As if that had always been their fate.

And it wasn’t just them.

Not long after Luna Winfred put her name forward as head of the family, she became the strongest candidate for it.

Free from the Duchess’s interference, she flourished, matching the word “triumphant” in every sense.

With formidable strength and an intellect to match, there was nothing lacking in her.

Even the elders who once opposed her simply for being a woman acknowledged Luna Winfred’s abilities.

Her father, Velzer Winfred, also began to call her the Little Duke.

Above all, she doted on her younger brother with unbounded care.

This woman, usually so self-centered, watched her words and actions carefully in front of Kyle, as if each one were of utmost importance.

The woman who had once started the tragedy of my life, who’d inflicted pain on me more torturous than death to save her brother’s life...

Here, in this world, she genuinely adored him.

Rumor had it that her refusal to marry was due to an affection for her younger brother, Kyle, that went beyond the ordinary.

There were no crises, no threats.

Rudine, who used to relentlessly push Kyle into danger, was now his one and only childhood friend.

And the dark mist that had once been the world’s greatest threat no longer existed.

It was a series of dreamlike days.

In a world like this, even if I couldn’t return to my original one, I felt certain I wouldn’t be unhappy.

It was horrifying.

In this perfect world, I felt I might forget who I truly was.

And that’s when I realized.

This “forgotten past” I was experiencing now was, in fact, an alternate timeline, the life that Kyle should have originally enjoyed.

At the same time, a knife-sharp question tore through my mind.

If that was the case, then why—

Why did I end up suffering in Kyle’s body in this twisted version of the world?

My soul was already shredded and torn beyond repair.

Was showing me this past now meant to offer hope, or was it just another form of torture?

How many memories had I viewed like this?

— Memory playback has concluded.

At last, the relentless playback of these memories came to an end.

But.

— Would you like to replay the memories?

The system asked me again.

As if there were still more memories left to view.

****

The second playback wasn’t much different from the first.

Isabel still loved Kyle, and Luna still cared deeply for him.

Rudine too, unchanged.

But that didn’t mean everything was exactly the same.

“The head of the merchant guild… is named Merlin?”

Merlin Trivia.

In the original timeline, she was supposed to have been called a saint of her time, but here, she was a wealthy merchant running the empire’s largest trade guild.

The strangest thing of all was her actions.

It was as if she’d anticipated future events, sweeping up the empire’s resources in advance.

With her profits, Merlin funded the Papal See, supported countless individuals across the empire, and lived luxuriously in the shadow of the imperial family.

The second playback ended.

The third playback was similar.

Everything was the same, with only one difference: Merlin.

In the fourth playback, and in the fifth, and the sixth.

Only Merlin lived a life that strayed from her predetermined role.

By now, whenever the playback began, I’d formed a habit of ordering the butler to investigate Merlin’s actions first.

The tenth playback began that way.

This round would likely be similar too.

Just as I was starting to grow weary...

“Young Master, I have found information on the individual you requested.”

“Speak.”

The old butler adjusted his monocle and began his report.

The information that followed was shocking.

“She has died.”

“…What?”

“She chose to end her life by hanging herself.”

Merlin had chosen death.

For no apparent reason, she’d given up on life.

In the twelfth playback.

The thirteenth.

The fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth.

In every timeline, without exception, she chose death.

There was never a chance to stop her.

The moment each playback began, she was already a cold corpse.

The playback continued.

Endlessly, I witnessed her death.

Until the point where I couldn’t even remember which playback it was.

“Currently, Merlin Trivia is reported missing.”

For the first time, she hadn’t chosen death.

And then—

“The black mist…”

An unprecedented disaster swallowed the empire whole.

[Translator - Peptobismol]

[Proofreader - Demon God]