The Romance Fantasy Novel MC is Only Into Me

He dies.
Come to think of it, Ransell has died quite a lot. On battlefields, in cities, on the execution block, in Marigold’s arms. Things most people would find hard to die even once, he has experienced in many different ways.

Especially after ten years passed, in Marigold’s memories, Ransell almost always died — it was nearly certain.
It was enough to make one doubt if he had ever truly lived out a full lifespan.
“I’m going to die.”

“Is that a curse?”
“I already did.”
“...I don’t really... understand what you mean...”

“I said I died!”
“Ugh!”
Marigold cuddled into him again. There was a worrying cracking sound from her back. Ransell calmed her down once more, saying, “Breathe, breathe.”
“If you don’t die, it’s fine. If you don’t die. You just quietly evacuate somewhere safe far away beforehand, right?”

Summarizing what she said, Ransell tried to persuade her.
“Hide out somewhere like on an island...”
He suddenly stopped speaking.

‘But I died even on an island, didn’t I?’
That too, in the previous loop.
Marigold’s expression was still full of tears.

“Then why do you die?”
She was silent for a long time.
She seemed hesitant to speak.

After much hesitation, Marigold finally opened her mouth.
“It’s because of the Demon Lord.”
“...?”

Marigold looked a little embarrassed. She seemed worried that her words would lose credibility.
And rightly so—the word Demon Lord popping out at this moment was too random. Most people would respond, ‘What the hell is that, you nerd?’
But Ransell was different.

He knew.
That the Demon Lord actually existed in this game.
—So, what exactly is the Demon Lord?

—Something like a dark entity.
—...?
Neither he nor even his sister seemed to know exactly what it was. But it was certain that it was real.
Because his sister had stubbornly stuffed the Demon Lord into the game somehow. When asked why she put it in, she gave only one answer:

—Demon Lord, handsome guy, villain, it sounds cool.
Ransell wasn’t expecting a sensible answer either. From then on, he just became certain of his sister’s game philosophy.
“Is the Demon Lord coming to kill me?”

“I-I don’t know that far. It’s what Ransell said. The Ransell from a past life... not me, Ransell!”
“Is it really that important to emphasize?”
Marigold quickly shifted the responsibility for the story back to Ransell.

Demon Lord.
Demon Lord, huh.
What could it possibly mean that he died because of the Demon Lord, even though that guy wasn’t the one killing him?

In dozens of lives, at least as far as Ransell remembered, there had been no Demon Lord.
The idea of a ‘Demon Lord’ only survived as folklore wandering the empire.
“I’ll make sure Ransell survives. There are mountains of things I want to do together, so I won’t forgive him if he dies first. In this life, I will never let him die!”

Marigold said that.
“And I’ll never hand him over to anyone else either.”
She showed a trace of resentment.

Her arms wrapped tighter around Ransell’s body.
“...He’s mine.”
“I’m not an object. Just so you don’t forget, today’s our first meeting, okay?”

“I’m not!”
Ugh, as Ransell felt suffocated again, he quickly stopped Marigold.
“So, Ransell, please come with me on this path.”

This loop.
Walking together with her.
From now on, it was just the beginning.

“What are you doing?”
“You have to do what you have to do.”
Ransell felt his confidence slipping away.

 
“Have you been sleeping poorly lately?”
“Yeah, a bit.”
“Marigold is bright-eyed, but why do you look like you’re dying?”

“Something happened.”
Thursday.
All the Dante family guards and retainers mounted horses and rode out.

Even the ladies-in-waiting, including Lady Dante, climbed into carriages carrying packed lunch boxes.
“A new family member has joined, so we have to show them how good a place our territory is. We’ll stay here overnight, so make sure everything is prepared well!”
Thanks to the marquis saying he would ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) spend the whole day outside, the whole household busily prepared for it.

“What great weather! Ha ha ha!”
“The steward’s already had a drink.”
“He only fills his water bottle with liquor.”

The lush hills and fields of the Dante marquisate in midsummer.
“Ransell!”
Far off, Marigold raised her hand. The horse she was riding galloped across the field under the scorching sun.

Her long tied hair fluttered behind her cloak, and every time the horse’s hooves struck the ground, the sweat on her forehead scattered, reflecting light like crystals.
“I’m here, Ransell!”
Bright smile.

“She’s too good a daughter to be tied down to you. If she were my daughter, I’d never send her to you.”
“How many times have you said that?”
The marquis’s words were sincere.

Ransell didn’t deny it either. Until he met Marigold in this loop, he had lived like a spoiled brat.
Even now, rumors were spreading that he was “the young master who got lucky hooking a decent girl.”
Not long ago, a young tenant farmer seriously asked him, “How do you manage to catch a good woman, young master?”

“Alright, halt!”
At the forest entrance.
By the riverside that fed this area, Marquis Dante halted the procession.

“We’ll set up camp here. Rio, Kyle, Ransell! Get your tools ready! Since we’re out after a long time, we need to do some hunting.”
“Of course, I brought mine.”
Kyle, the second son, raised a sword and a crossbow with a grin.

“That’s good. Recently, there’s been a pack of wolves around here troubling those who herd pigs and sheep. We should drive them out.”
Rio, the eldest son, said as he rode off, patting Ransell on the back.
“Ransell, stick close to Marigold.”

“There’s a spot just beyond the field that’s hard to see from here, so keep that in mind, young master. Hehe!”
“...”
Ransell ignored it, but Marigold strangely took note of the direction the guards pointed to.

No way, right?
“Just borrowing this, Ransell.”
“Hm?”

Marigold took the crossbow from Ransell’s back. After aiming into the distance for a while, she pulled the trigger.
The bolt flew in a gentle arc and pierced the body of a bird mid-flight with a single shot.
“Got it!”

Marigold clenched her fist.
Hunting dogs rushed to the fallen bird in competition. She returned carrying a plump duck.
“Oh.”

“This...!”
“As expected of a knight.”
Marquis Dante approached and patted Marigold’s back.

“Well done, Mary.”
“Am I first now, Marquis?”
“Hm?”

Marigold’s eyes shone.
The marquis soon laughed.
“You fools, are you going to give Mary the first place on our land? Go catch some game immediately!”

.
.
.
“How can knights love hunting so much?”
Lady Dante sat by the river on a mat, raising her teacup.

Men ran around wildly chasing rabbits, wild boars, and deer all over the area.
“I caught it!”
“Nonsense! That’s my arrow!”

“Third one! I’m about to take first place!”
They brought the prey one by one, noisily arguing over rankings.
“They don’t seem drained despite the hot weather.”

“Ah! It’s Mary!”
Lady Dante followed the maids’ gaze.
She saw Marigold and Ransell Dante riding horses by the river.

They were running along the water’s edge, aiming at a deer.
“Ransell!”
Kyle Dante soon came up beside them.

“I’ll take the tired prey you gave up on!”
Just as he swung his sword at the deer.
Kaaang—!

Sparks flew.
Kyle Dante’s blade was easily deflected.
“Ugh!”

His eyes snapped open wide at the recoil that traveled from his hand to his shoulder. The impact was like being hit by a huge rock.
“Sorry, but we’re first.”
Only then did he realize it was Marigold’s blade that blocked him.

Bang—!
Ransell swung his pommel and struck the deer’s head.
The deer collapsed, stopping its run.

“Ransell, did you knock it out?”
“It tastes better if you catch it without injuring it. It’s cleaner, too.”
“So are we eating this?”

“If we’re not going to eat it, why catch it? Deer meat tastes good for a wild animal.”
“Heh.”
Ransell hoisted the deer on his back, laughing lightly as Marigold walked beside him.

Kyle Dante stared blankly at her retreating figure.
His blade that had been deflected so easily, and the shock that had left his palm red.
His fiancée, Ransell’s betrothed, was disappearing in the distance as if nothing had happened.

“Mary Mary... seems more skilled than she looks?”
Kyle Dante, finally coming to his senses, searched for Ransell but for some reason couldn’t find him.
“Hey! Have you seen Ransell?”

“Uh? If you mean the youngest master...”
The hunting retainers all smiled slyly.
“They went off together to wash up earlier, haha.”

“Heh heh heh, what are the betrothed up to sneaking around! I really don’t get it! I could die and still wouldn’t know!”
“Good times!”
Kyle Dante grimaced.

‘Already whining and sucking up just because he has a woman.’
Of course, he also had a fiancée.
Unlike Mary Mary, she was from a count’s family with a proper court noble feeling.

She loved perfume and jewels more than swords.
She enjoyed tea and snacks rather than exercise or riding.
She was a typical court noble lady who would grimace as if about to die if exposed to sunlight.

—“Did you come to see me without a gift? Do you still not understand etiquette among nobles? What if my father finds out? Can you handle that? Go back immediately! Now!”
Kyle Dante sighed deeply recalling his fiancée’s cold glare.
 
Cold water embraced Ransell.

Even in summer, the river running down from the valley through the Dante territory was still cool.
Splash!
Ransell caught Marigold who jumped in after him. Except for her underwear, they were practically naked.

“Phew!”
“Not much experience with swimming?”
“A little, just the basics... ugh!”

Ransell supported Marigold as she sank in the water.
“Try walking slowly. You’ll touch the bottom.”
They had come here to cool off.

What started as a simple idea to just dip their feet turned into playing in the water once they entered.
“Haah...”
Marigold’s expression relaxed as she floated in the cold river.

“Haah... It’s so refreshing, Ransell niiim...”
“Don’t go to the deep part. This way.”
Carefully guiding the floating Marigold, Ransell’s thoughts became tangled.

‘How did I even end up engaged?’
It was the first time in his life.
To start from the beginning as someone’s partner.

Maybe this was quite a rare case.
“Ransell?”
The engagement was entirely her decision.

No matter what Ransell did in previous loops, if it weren’t for her, this relationship would never have formed. He wouldn’t have stepped up first.
After centuries of dulled feelings from living so long, the idea of making a partner who would eventually turn to ashes and disappear was difficult to grasp.
But Marigold was different.

Her thoughts were different.
The returning Marigold willingly chose Ransell. Without a moment’s hesitation.
“Mary.”

Ransell turned Marigold’s body toward himself.
The river and forest reflected in her large eyes. Under the scorching sun, it felt as if only the two of them remained in the world.
‘Marriage to the young noble Ransell Dante’ was certainly a bitter ending. The first ending he saw facing Marigold. Ransell still clearly remembered it.

[Break off the engagement. It’s a bad ending anyway. Just break it off.]
The trauma from that moment whispered in his mind.
Ransell slowly lifted his head.

“Mary.”
“Yes, Ransell...”
Marigold’s trembling eyes met his. Her wet hair was visible. Her throat swallowed nervously.

—I will give my entire life to Ransell.
“If your entire life is what you give me...”
Ransell wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

“...Once I take it, I will never give it back.”
Yeah.
“Never.”

Ransell sincerely decided to become Marigold’s partner.
At least in this loop’s life.