It was still that same quiet village, yet this time Lucien had taken on the form of a small girl with neatly braided blue hair, the same child from the original story who carried the bald puppy in her arms. Though her outward appearance looked harmless, the girl's true identity belonged to a Beast User within the same assassination organization as Elsa, and Lucien wore that disguise flawlessly.
He lingered in the village for an additional day. Despite waiting, Natsuki Subaru and Rem did not arrive. As the sun dipped below the horizon, Lucien stood at the edge of the village and gazed thoughtfully toward Roswaal L. Mathers' mansion. Were it not for the uncertainty surrounding his ability to deal with Roswaal directly, Lucien Graves would have long since walked into that manor and eliminated him.
The night passed quietly. On the third morning, Lucien finally saw Natsuki Subaru and Rem approach. Subaru's expression looked slightly off, but Rem appeared the same as always, calm and composed.
Lucien noticed instantly that the moment Subaru arrived, his eyes locked suspiciously onto the round little boy standing nearby. Subaru stayed tense and alert. What he didn't know was that the chubby boy truly was just a village child; Lucien had already replaced the target he intended.
Subaru found no abnormalities in the boy he eyed so intensely, yet his gaze refused to leave him.
Lucien, already standing before Rem, blinked innocently with his large eyes as she offered him a piece of candy. He reached out, accepted it with childlike sweetness, and whispered softly.
"I'll tell you a secret."
Lucien gestured for Rem to lower herself. Without hesitation, she squatted and leaned forward, ready to listen.
Lucien stepped closer. He pressed his lips near her ear yet spoke no words. Instead, he bit down gently but firmly on Rem's neck.
"Mmph…"
Rem exhaled a soft, trembling sound, tilting her head back. She couldn't decide whether it was pain or something else, but her strength drained rapidly and completely. She tried to resist, but Lucien's small hand clamped around her like iron, and the exhaustion washing over her left her powerless.
Subaru noticed first. His eyes widened, and he charged forward, swinging a fist at Lucien.
A black thorn erupted from Lucien's arm like a serpent of living shadow. It wrapped around Subaru's limb and twisted. A sickening crack echoed, and Subaru screamed, suspended helplessly as pain twisted his features.
Lucien released Rem. Her body slumped forward, then disintegrated into ash in the blink of an eye.
"Rem!"
Subaru roared in anguish.
Lucien lifted the glowing screen before him. No message appeared about defeating Rem. The worst-case scenario had been confirmed.
If Subaru wasn't truly dead, then killing other important characters meant nothing.
Return by Death reset the world. The Rem he killed was simply regenerated with Subaru's restart point.
Damn it.
In the Fate/stay night world, he couldn't kill Heroic Spirits because of their spiritual nature. Here, he might be facing something even worse.
Lucien's amethyst eyes darkened. For the first time, he felt genuine difficulty. Subaru was painfully weak yet impossible to eliminate in any meaningful way.
And that reset ability made everything exponentially worse.
A sharp glint flickered along the edge of the black thorn. It pierced directly into Subaru's chest. His eyes bulged, his mouth fell open in a silent cry, and his body convulsed violently.
In only a few breaths, Natsuki Subaru withered into a dry husk. The corpse collapsed into dust.
Lucien frowned with lingering frustration. He had expected the Witch of Envy to intervene and perhaps allow his golden finger to absorb something, the same way it had absorbed the contents of the Holy Grail in the previous world. But nothing happened.
He had hoped too much.
Lucien blinked once.
The scene shifted instantly.
He was on the familiar bed again. Elsa's warm body rested beside him. Lucien sat up, confused for a heartbeat, walked to the window, lit a cigar, and froze. That feeling of déjà vu washed over him.
Scattered fragments of memory surfaced. Lucien closed his eyes and pieced them together one by one.
"Master?"
Elsa stirred awake, her gemlike amber eyes sparkling with longing and devotion.
Lucien exhaled a slow smoke ring and glanced at the countdown on his screen. More than two days had vanished.
Combined with the fragments of memory growing clearer, the truth settled.
He had killed Natsuki Subaru and Rem twice.
Twice, and yet no reward.
He had repeated the same process, starting with Rem, and the result remained unchanged. If Subaru wasn't dead beyond return, then killing the others was pointless.
This was infuriating.
"No one can Return by Death without limit. There has to be a boundary somewhere."
Lucien rubbed his temple irritably and took another drag from the cigar. Even he couldn't regenerate his own cells forever. If his Ki depleted entirely or if his soul were destroyed, not even his abilities would save him.
Did he need to kill the Witch of Envy first?
But he didn't know where she existed, and even if he did, confronting her head-on would likely be suicidal.
Why had he never watched the anime or read the novel properly?
"I don't believe this."
Lucien crushed the cigar beneath his flip-flops. His patience was thinning.
He would force the limit.
If Return by Death didn't break after one hundred resets, he would push through five hundred. If five hundred failed, then one thousand. Ten thousand. Five years. He would keep killing Subaru until the world itself gave up.
There was no turning back.
If Subaru wasn't dealt with, Lucien couldn't kill others, couldn't trigger random transmigrations, and would be trapped here.
His mental state wavered, frustration gnawing at him.
Meanwhile, in Roswaal's mansion, Subaru sprawled on the floor of Beatrice's Forbidden Library, wearing pajamas and trembling. Beatrice glared at him from her chair, twirling her cream-colored twin-drill curls, annoyed by how he always seemed to locate her door.
Subaru didn't answer. Fear clung to him.
…
Back in the village, Lucien returned once more.
He had replaced Benn this time, disguising himself as a little boy with a red scarf.
The first day passed without incident. On the second day, the group finally appeared, but this time Emilia came as well.
The silver-haired half-elf looked ethereal. Her icy-white skin, shimmering violet-blue eyes, pointed elf ears, and pure white clothing made her appear like a spirit who had walked out of a frozen lake. Even her thigh-high stockings gleamed like fresh snowfall.
She was breathtaking.
The situation had clearly shifted from the previous loops. Subaru stayed close to Rem, guarding her. And perched lightly on Emilia's shoulder was Puck. Bringing Puck along was likely Subaru's attempt to alter whatever fate had traumatized him in the recent loops.
Children around them recoiled.
"Silver hair, pointed ears."
"The Witch of Envy, Satella."
Fear flickered across the villagers' faces. They stepped back, whispering, pulling their children away. Emilia flinched.
"I'm not…"
Her voice wavered as loneliness clouded her eyes.
"Go home!"
Several adults rushed in, taking the children with them.
Rem and Subaru looked helpless, unsure how to console Emilia.
"I think this big sister is very beautiful."
Lucien stepped forward confidently and took Emilia's delicate hand.
She froze. Her dull violet-blue eyes slowly lit up like stars awakening in twilight. Joy flickered across her expression, hesitant yet hopeful.
"Are you… not afraid of me?"
Her voice trembled softly, filled with nervous anticipation.
"Why would I fear someone I adore? But I still need to test something, so I'll have to send you off first and watch what happens afterward."
The first half made her brighten with embarrassed delight, but the second half left her tilting her head, confused and innocent, like she couldn't understand why his tone shifted.
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