"My Liege, the barbarians in the north have gone wild once again. What should we do about them? Even though they aren't worth your precious time, we have no choice but to solve this ourselves. After all, the newly-wed emperor has her hands full with indulging her concubines." The knight puckered his lips in protest and handed the fancily wrapped invitation to the man beside her master.
"My liege?" The knight tilted her head a little when she got no response from her master who was just staring blankly in the pile of papers, seemingly lost in thought.
'Is my liege furious that she must work in the stead of the emperor? Well, who wants to work overtime when my liege could have been spending her time coddling her concubines. I truly admire my liege for being patient instead of barging in the emperor's castle to smack the emperor in the head like she always does!' the knight thought, completely misunderstanding the reason why her master was frozen like a statue.
After a moment of silence, the woman whom the knight referred to as her liege raised her head and stared directly at the knight in front of her.
"Who's your liege?" The woman's voice was firm yet gentle, it was alluring to say the least yet terrifying enough to make it worthy of her prestige and status.
The knight's brows met halfway, furrowing in confusion. "Is that even a question? Of course, it is you, my liege! The one and only noble duke of the southern territory, Duke Ilyana Nerhendale. This humble one does not have any master other than you, this knight does not dare betray her liege!" the knight bowed with her head down, firmly placing her right fist in her chest.
The corner of Ilyana's lips curled in a smile as she looked at the familiar passionate knight in front of her. She was back from the very beginning. This is exactly it. This is the familiar starting point of the novel every time she regressed.
"How lively. Right, you were always this lively Clovis. This only means one thing then." She slowly raised from her seat and smacked herself to make sure that she wasn't dreaming.
"M-my Liege! Are you alright? Why did you do that?!" The poor startled Clovis seemed to be in utter shock as she didn't know what to do.
[A deduction of twenty points has currently been demerited. Dear Host, a quick reminder from this system. Self-harm is strictly prohibited unless it is necessary. Twenty points will be deducted for every self-harm inflicted without proper reasoning.]
There wasn't any more proof she needed that she was indeed back from the very beginning. The annoying voice of the system and the familiar chiming of the system deduction was enough.
"Ah fuck."
The other knight standing near the office doorway tilted his head "My liege, is there anything wrong?"
"Nothing Cladel." Ilyana sat back to her chair and stared at the two identical knights in front of her. They are her twin knights, Clovis and Cladel. Despite being a man and a commoner, she blessed Cladel and his twin sister Clovis, the orphans she saved the title guardians which is the highest privilege bestowed to those knights who are chosen to personally protect the high ranking nobles of the empire.
Ilyana let out a sigh of relief "I am extremely glad that both of you are alive, you must keep it that way." Hearing those words touched their hearts deeply, the knights stared at their master, teary-eyed.
'They must absolutely live because they're uselessly strong, my beloved meat shields, stay alive so I can slack off without worries!' She thought, giving them her infamous money grubbing business smile.
"Master, could it be that you're concerned for us? we are so grateful for this honor my liege!" The twin knights exclaimed in unison while wiping their tears completely misunderstanding their masters intention.
She gave them both a light pat in their heads which made them extremely happy, if they had tails it would have been wagging excitedly now. Ilyana then stared at the man located at the table on her right side. It was her aide who seemed unbothered by all the commotion.
"Nero." After hearing his name, he lifted his head paying full attention to Ilyana. Although men are not allowed to study, she sponsored Nero when he was young and allowed him the opportunity to be literate and become her aide.
Ilyana approached him and gently wiped the blood falling from the blindfold that he always wear. "Your eyes are bleeding once again. Go to the physician and have him examine you. It seems that the medicine have lost its effects."
Nero flinched at the sudden affection shown. He was confused by the whiff of gentleness that his master has bestowed upon him.
The room was filled with an uncomfortable amount of silence before the words "Yes, master." came out of Nero's mouth involuntarily.
"Very well. All of you, leave for now." The three of them bowed to Ilyana before heading towards the door, leaving briefly without questioning their master further.
Ilyana slowly stood up and transferred to the sofa located at the middle of her estate's main office. She placed her palms on her lap before clenching her fists, her nails digging on her flesh, a drop of blood slowly peaking. Suddenly, her heartbeat rose at an irregular level and her entire system was filled with something familiar- rage.
"It seems that I'm back again, why?" She bit her lower lip as her brows met halfway.
[Host's mentality has decreased a lot. There are several potions that might assist the host. The system recommends checking out the vvip potion shop.]
Her lips pulled back as she bared her teeth, her veins emphasizing how furious she is. She grabbed the glass in front of her and smashed it to the wall. The wall is stained by the red wine that was once in the glass. At that moment, there was only one thing in her mind.
She was done.
While it is true that she was mad for suffering several betrayals, deaths, and tragedies, there was something that she deemed more important than those which caused her blood to boil to such extent. It was none other than- her beloved vacation.
You indeed read it right, her well-deserved vacation. Ah, How lovely would it be if only she could bask in the sunlight while rolling around the green grass in her small backyard on the outskirts of the city without the system's plot interfering.
"This is the thirteenth time. Did you hear me you son of a bitches?" She looked up the sky, extremely furious.
She gripped her hair in frustration "Reincarnating again is not the issue here. I don't fucking care no matter how many times I reincarnate. It's probably boring in heaven anyways." She raised her pointer finger towards the sky "but don't you think that you should at least give me a vacation you inhumane beings!" She grinded her teeth, she was way beyond furious.
Ilyana saw the golden statue of the God of War and without any hesitation, she grabbed it and smashed it in the ground. With a loud thud of the ceramic, its pieces shattered on the ground.
"You know what, fuck this! You damned system, you won't give me my vacation? Fine. It's time you burn in hell. Since I can't even reach these damned Gods, let's at least die together."
With that plan in mind she muttered the trigger words to open the system, "Operate system."
[Welcome host! Congratulations for being granted, yet another opportunity to reincarnate. Please press restart to gain automatic 100 points. However, due to excessive internal system overload, all the previous progress was automatically deleted.]
"Delete the system."
[Yes host, commencing the command delete sys- WAIT ARE YOU CRAZY? I KNEW YOU HAD SOME LOSE SCREWS IN THE HEAD, THE MANAGEMENT BETTER COMPENSATE ME. THIS IS MY LAST CHANCE AND MY LIFE IS ON THE LINE. FUCK! I'M COMPLAINING TO THE MANAGE- Ah shit.]
Ilyana's mouth gaped at awe as her eyes shone brightly, like a kid who just found a new toy.
A very exciting toy.
"Complain to who, sweetheart?"
[...]
"Well, It's a little bit too late for the silent treatment when we're not even in a situationship. Alright, you better listen to me before I blow both of our heads off." Ilyana smiled sweetly yet it was so taunting it sent chills down the system's spine, if it had any.
[Bloody hell]
"Bloody hell indeed"