Chapter 5: A New Path Emerges

【Siegfried PoV】

I arrived at the outskirts of Eksu’s city at dusk.

The sky was painted in bruised purples and smoldering oranges, a quiet promise of approaching night.

My footsteps echoed against the cobblestone road, each step heavier with the weight of past failures.

For years, I have been stuck in a loop of endless reincarnation.

Every time, I died in the same awful way: under the ruthless assaults of Elizabeth’s frenzied power or Lilith’s obsessive rage.

In this twisted world, I was forced into the role of the protagonist, a role I never wanted.

But fate has a perverse sense of humor.

Despite my best efforts to escape, I was always dragged into the same story.

Elizabeth’s fists.

Lilith’s knives.

Their lethal devotion.

No matter how I struggled, the plot insisted on my demise.

Yet something changed this time.

I spent years spreading rumors, years helping Eksu become famous enough to catch Elizabeth’s attention…

Until finally, finally I got Elizabeth and Eksu to meet…

I finally got them to fight…

Now I’m here…

…

Now I stand mere steps from witnessing the proof.

I ducked behind the jagged bark of a crooked tree at the forest’s edge.

Low-hanging branches swayed in the dying light, casting wavering shadows on the ground.

Even from a distance, I felt the resonant thrum of magic lingering in the air.

There had been a battle here.

I could practically smell the scorched mana.

I pressed myself closer to the tree trunk, breath held in anticipation.

Then I saw him: Eksu.

My future scapegoat… 

cough, cough… 

I mean, my savior.

He stood at the center of a clearing, no older than ten, facing a girl with fiery eyes.

A single glance told me who she was—Elizabeth.

She looked younger, around his age, but I recognized that stance.

I had fallen to that same stance countless times before.

The memories hit me hard.

I recalled an alleyway drenched in rain, my back pinned against a wall as Elizabeth closed in.

Her eyes were wild, her hands trembling with pent-up fury.

No matter how I pleaded, she never relented.

I remembered another scene: a shattered castle corridor, fires raging all around us.

Elizabeth’s blade glowed red-hot with her fury, slashing through my defenses like they were made of paper.

And I died.

Again.

I’d lost track of how many times I drew my last breath in that eternal loop.

But now, in this clearing, the script was flipping.

Elizabeth unleashed a flurry of kicks and punches.

Eksu simply stood there, gaze unwavering.

A faint shimmer danced around him whenever her blows landed.

His 【Absolute Defense】 nullified every hit, each impact sending a gentle ripple through the translucent barrier protecting him.

She threw another punch, pouring all her strength into the attack.

I braced myself, half-expecting Eksu to buckle.

But he didn’t even flinch.

The barrier held firm, repelling her fist with a dazzling burst of magical sparks.

I couldn’t suppress a small gasp.

It was a sight I’d never witnessed in my countless lifetimes.

A fighter who could stand unmoving against Elizabeth’s relentless assault.

My heart pounded in my chest.

I remembered the many times I had wished for even a fraction of that defensive ability.

A shield that would make me immune to Elizabeth’s fury, Lilith’s deadly obsessions, or any disaster conjured by this twisted narrative.

Eksu seemed to embody everything I had ever needed, everything I had begged the fates for, in order to break free from this cycle of suffering.

For a moment, Elizabeth paused to catch her breath.

Her eyes were smoldering, her fists trembling with frustration.

She hurled insults at Eksu, demanding that he fight back.

He just stared at her, calm but annoyed, as if bored by the whole ordeal.

A strange swell of triumph rose in my chest.

I realized I was grinning.

I couldn’t help it.

All those painful memories flickered before my eyes—moments where Elizabeth’s rage ended my life.

Moments where I screamed in agony, pinned under her power.

Yet this boy stood there, untouched, as Elizabeth wore herself out in vain.

My throat felt tight.

Was this relief?

Was I actually seeing someone who could take the title of “unfortunate protagonist” off my weary shoulders?

And was I really eager for him to do so?

Elizabeth roared and kicked at Eksu again.

His barrier flared, deflecting the blow effortlessly.

Her face reddened, not from exertion alone but from the sting of failure.

I almost laughed out loud.

For the first time in my many lifetimes, I wasn’t the one lying in the dirt.

I wasn’t the one bleeding, gasping, or pleading for mercy.

Instead, I stood in the shadows, an unseen observer, watching Elizabeth struggle.

I felt a rush of exhilaration course through me.

I remembered another death from a previous life.

Elizabeth and I had been in a grand auditorium of the magic academy.

Her hair whipped about like a flame, and her eyes glinted with lethal determination.

I raised my shaky staff, mustering what little mana I could.

Her blade shattered my defenses in a single blow.

I recall collapsing, my vision blurring as the floor rushed up to meet me.

When I closed my eyes, the last thing I heard was her triumphant laughter.

But that moment, that memory, it all felt so distant now.

Watching her fling herself at Eksu’s barrier brought a bizarre kind of comfort.

She wasn’t invincible.

Or rather, she had found her match in a boy who refused to fight.

I kept my distance, content to observe this raw display of power that wasn’t mine to command.

A swirl of autumn leaves caught my eye as a gust of wind swept through the clearing.

Elizabeth tried one final, desperate strike.

Her mana burned like a furious sun in her palm, but the barrier held strong.

With a guttural cry, her body gave in to exhaustion.

She collapsed in a heap, passing out before she could drain herself any further.

Eksu simply sighed.

His posture sagged with relief.

I noticed a pair of adults rushing in.

They seemed to be his parents, judging by the concern on their faces.

They gently carried Elizabeth away, scolding Eksu in that exasperated, parental way.

I took a step back into the shadows, my heart still thrumming with adrenaline.

In that moment, the bizarre reality of my life struck me again.

I had spent so many rebirths hiding from Elizabeth, from Lilith, from a narrative that refused to let me escape.

Yet here was a living, breathing solution to my problem.

Eksu could be the new center of this twisted plot.

He could deflect every blow, every lethal obsession, every horrific twist of fate.

A surge of gratitude washed over me.

I felt tears prick at the corners of my eyes, unbidden.

For years, I had cursed the author, Carrara, for abandoning the story and leaving me trapped in this endless loop of carnage and respawn.

Now, I almost wanted to thank him.

If Carrara’s lazy writing was the reason Eksu existed as a hidden bug in the world, then perhaps that laziness was my salvation.

My heartbeat pounded in my ears.

I had spent so long dreading each new dawn, each new script twist.

Maybe now, I could finally step off that stage.

I turned on my heel and walked away from the clearing.

My mind spun with possibilities, each one ending in the same, glorious conclusion: I wouldn’t have to die anymore.

All the time I’d wasted, all the lifetimes lost, they were funneling into this single moment.

A moment of fleeting but potent hope.

As I neared the edge of town, the scents of hearth fires and stewing meats drifted through the air.

I wiped at my eyes with the back of my hand.

For years, I had lived like a man on the run, always glancing over my shoulder, always expecting doom.

But as I glimpsed the silhouette of Eksu’s household through the gathering night, I felt something I hadn’t known in a long time.

A calmness.

An assurance that maybe this cursed cycle could finally be broken.

I paused beneath a lantern post near the cobblestone path.

The light flickered softly, illuminating the faint clouds of my breath in the crisp evening air.

My shoulders shook, not from the cold, but from the overwhelming surge of relief coursing through me.

I let myself laugh—quiet, disbelieving, euphoric.

Then I murmured a prayer to whatever forces governed this world.

“Thank you God, this time… I won’t die, thank you for putting Eksu in my path.”