I Decided to Kidnap the Male Lead

What kind of words did she need to use to tell that story in a normal way that made sense?

“I will return! Until Your Highness doesn’t die!”

Ophelia grabbed her head with both hands. The explanation hadn’t changed from before.

Richard’s low voice fell over the top of her frustrated head.

“I know.”

“So, let me explain what this means again… what?”

“I said I know.”

He wiped his face with one hand.

“Because like you, I am also returning.”

Boredom and resignation were buried beneath the calm voice.

Ophelia was speechless once again.

She wondered if what she had just heard was a hallucination or not. Richard and Ophelia, who blankly opened and closed her mouth, stared at each other for a while.

—Hey… Don’t tell me, you too?

Towards Ophelia who asked with her eyes, Richard answered with unimpressed eyes.

—Yes, me too.

A few seconds after tacit consent. Ophelia groaned.

“Your Highness is also returning? After you die?”

“Didn’t I say so?”

“Oh my gosh.”

Ophelia lost strength in her legs and flopped down next to the bed. Raising her trembling hands, she rubbed her dry face as she dragged Richard away.

“Same… same regression…”

She was puzzled, embarrassed, and glad that she had met someone in the same situation. And all at once, the fear of the fact that this wasn’t happening because she was crazy came rushing in.

Ophelia opened her eyes wide and lifted her head. She, pale enough to be stark white, asked Richard again.

“Three days ago. Do you remember the assassins?”

“Yes. Come to think of it, you were shouting that there were assassins.”

Richard tilted his head slightly, as if realizing now.

“I returned for the first time that day. Although I always died before Your Highness. It doesn’t matter. At what point did you return to that day?”

“Before entering the banquet hall.”

“If you could be more specific…”

“Literally right before entering the banquet hall.”

At the end of his answer, the two shut their mouths. She asked about the timing of his regression to look for any sort of clue to this crazy regression.

However, it was a failure because it was difficult to know whether the time when the crown prince went to the banquet hall and when she was scolded by her mother was the same.

Then another clue… Oh? Ophelia, who had been searching for three days, raised her head.

“Your Highness! Why did you keep doing that when you keep coming back?”

Why was it that every time she regressed, he behaved exactly the same until she did something else?

“Why?”

“Why did you just stay still!”

Richard didn’t answer.

“If Your Highness doesn’t die, the regression is over! No, are your conditions for ending your regression different from mine?”

“Is your condition my survival?”

“Yes! That’s the surest thing I’ve learned from doing this damn regression n times.”

“Then it’s no different.”

“Then why aren’t you doing anything…”

Ophelia no longer spoke. No, she couldn’t.

Much more than the deep resignation in his voice, in Richard’s dark golden eyes…

…Was a deeper and darker fatalism and despair.

How many times was she speechless when she faced him? Ophelia frowned, and then shut her mouth.

She tried to hear the answer to why he was being so stupid, even grabbing him by the collar and shaking him.

“I’m tired.”

His head, which had been tilted down, was raised again. But Richard was not looking at Ophelia.

Staring at somewhere far away, with blurred focus, he spoke in a horribly calm and dry voice.

“I’m tired. Why the hell is death and regression repeating? No, it doesn’t matter. But I can’t figure out how long or how many times I have to repeat it. I can’t finish it…”

As if talking to himself, he let out his true feelings.

His stagnant and rotten heart wrapped around Ophelia’s feet.

After she returned for the first time three days ago, she woke up in a cold sweat while sleeping just from her memories of that day.

She checked her watch several times a day, and she looked anxiously around her, unable to stay calm for a moment.

Enough to kidnap the crown prince because she was unable to bear her mind being shattered.

She wanted to get out of the bondage of that terrible death and regression.

However…

The crown prince was experiencing the same thing as Ophelia, and he had been going through this damn regression for much, much longer.

Ophelia unknowingly took the prince’s hand, which was hanging on the edge of the bed.

It was too big to cover it entirely with her own hands, but she held it tighter because the prince’s hands were colder than hers, which were already quite cold with tension.

Richard’s gaze slowly turned to her.

Ophelia did not say that she sympathized with his suffering. She didn’t even shed a tear for him.

She just said each word firmly with burning blue eyes.

“Two heads are better than one. There’s a saying that it’s better to do anything together. You’re no longer alone.”

The instant she uttered that, a spark of hope did not dramatically ignite in Richard’s eyes.

“So let’s end this damn regression together.”

Even with that said, Richard didn’t raise his eyebrows at all. His mouth was still firmly shut, and the resignation in his eyes did not disappear.

But Ophelia continued speaking unyieldingly.

“I’ll tell you from the beginning of what I’ve been through. If there’s something wrong, please point it out right away.”

Thus, Ophelia’s story went back to before Sahol.

.

— Imperial Calendar Year 588. April 13th. 10:02 in the night.

Three days before she did the crazy thing to kidnap the prince. The beginning of infinite regression.

Of the first infinite regressions, the 0th regression.

“…behave, so don’t do anything bad.”

“Yes.”

Ophelia nodded her head softly, letting the piercing voice pass through one of her ears.

Her mother, with her tongue still, turned her body with the sound of the wind.

Ophelia’s stiff shoulders slumped slightly as she looked at her mother’s back as she moved away.

National Foundation Day. The most glamorous and most important party of the year.

All nobles on the imperial list must attend.

From His Majesty the Emperor at the top of the pyramid of power to the son of the baron at the bottom.

A day when everyone gathered.

It was such a special day, but Ophelia entered the banquet hall wearing clothes that were not very different from her usual clothes.

For Ophelia, it was a place to attend just to match the others anyway.

It was a day when those of marriageable age had to do everything possible to increase one’s own value, regardless of whether one was male or female.

However, Ophelia has already decided on her fiancé and engagement date.

Recalling the eerie gaze of the man called her fiancé, she shook her head.

‘Let’s think on the bright side. I’m ready to run away anyway.’

“Oh, hello? Today… well. Today is really…”

The young girl, who scanned Ophelia up and down, blurred her words.

No matter how much she squeezed her mind, she wouldn’t be able to look at her and say something good.

“It’s just like any other day, but you’re really beautiful today.”

At the words of Ophelia that were said with a broad smile, the lady waved her hand while trying to hide her proud expression.

How many times had she said the same thing? It looked the size of a thumb, but she could see His Majesty the Emperor. Ophelia let out a long sigh.

‘I can go out now.’

She turned her body towards the door.

“Uh?”

Ophelia didn’t even know what had happened. A rush of heat surged from her stomach.

She looked down at body. Blood was dripping from her pale apricot dress.

Ophelia’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. She pulled the sword which had pierced her stomach out roughly.

Her vision spun round and round.

The next moment, it was darkness.

—

“That… I just thought I was dead. No, I didn’t even know I was dead.”

“When I first experienced death, neither did I.”

Surprisingly, Ophelia couldn’t help but laugh at the words of the crown prince who meekly agreed.

She was not equipped with a mind to talk about death and joke around.

Instead, she immediately continued the story.

“I came back right after I died. The second time, I just thought it was just weird. But I said it felt like déjà vu. The result, was but of course.”

“You must have died.”

This time, the crown prince easily added the words she didn’t say.

As if to prove that his words that he had already gone through it all were never nonsense.

Saliva ran down Ophelia’s neck. The tongue in her mouth was dry, but she opened her mouth again.

“The third time, I died while checking if it was a dream… Oh, and come to think of it, on the third time, Your Highness caught me.”

At her words, Richard thought for a moment.

He had already gone through so many deaths and regressions that he barely remembered all of them.

No, he tried to erase it from his memory. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t even be able to stand now, despite having given up everything.

Ophelia then shrugged her shoulders.

“Anyway, the fourth time, I died the moment I realized it was real, and during the fifth, I died struggling to survive.”

The crown prince raised his hand and stopped her story.

“How far does this story go?”

He was expressionless, but boredom was evident in his jewel-like eyes.

“It’s over now. Well, after dying and returning, I got out of it.”

“By saving me?”

“Yes, well, I just screamed and hit some of the assassins who were aiming for Your Highness in the back of the head. As I said before, I’m good at hitting people behind the head. After repeating it dozens of times, I get better on my own.”

Ame: I can’t wait to see how Ophelia and Richard make the days progress, and how their relationship develops!

And is it just me or does their names sound very similar to another pair (Berylia and Rixus) in one of my other projects hahaha readers of that one, please tell me I’m not crazy!