Dawn bit her lips at the princess' words. She was going to have to protect Dusk the best she could. Unfortunately for her, the thoughts of revenge in the princess' mind were completely different from her imagination.
The Princess of Schwarz was wise. Unlike Anatolia, who had to see the world end once before losing her childishness and gaining power, this princess had been holding the reins from the beginning.
She was certain now, that Anatolia was a regressor like herself.
Anatolia had been as rash as ever. She was the type to chop off a weed or cut it out with a knife, someone who only handled things from the surface.
But she was different.
When she plucked weeds, she removed them from the roots.
And the roots here were not Eugene Hall, not him. It was evil itself. So what if he loses his life? Another person would come up.
What she was certain of, was that Eugene Hall had changed.
She remembered well in her previous life when Eugene Hall would take any woman's hand and completely feel them up with his tongue. Unlike that, this one just let her go thinking it uncomfortable.
The Eugene Hall of this timeline was strong too.
And most importantly, at the end.
The blushing face of that person was clear in her mind. To think a serial lech like Eugene Hall could make a face that would leave even the purest of maidens embarrassed was something she had never expected.
He had already changed.
It could all be an act too.
In that case, she didn't have to get rid of Eugene, but of the evil that influenced him. Beyond that, even in her previous life, that lech was capable. And she was happy to use anything that could be used.
He did trick not just them, but all the demons, gods and even the outer gods. Even if it was all done by the 'evil' behind him.
She could get him to her side. She could get rid of the roots. She could get rid of that demon named Dantalian.
And if he was closeby, killing him wouldn't be tough either.
"No matter the case, Dawn. Bring that man there."
"I understand. I'll do it."
She was going to have her revenge.
***
Anatolia sat alone in her room in the palace. The white bandages tied around her head covered her missing eye, but that pain didn't affect her much. Not until today.
Now, she knew that the bitch that had taken her eye away was getting frisky with that Eugene. There were rumors spreading through the kingdom of a forbidden love between them which was spurred on by the Acacia family to lower the reputation of the Imperial Family even further.
She had lost this time. And now, that damned Eugene was being hailed as a hero. It gave her a headache beyond what she could bear.
It wasn't over yet. She could still fight. She had only been removed from her lineage, and maybe she would be turned into a maid for those criminals, but that let her an opportunity to bring her enemies even closer.
For her loved ones, she was willing to bear it.
Right then, the door to her room was knocked on.
The ceremony continuing in full swing outside had made her crave some soup to soothe her headache
"Come in," she said.
The doors swung open and two of her servants carried a service cart over to her. They closed the door behind them and stopped in front of the Princess.
"Should we leave it here, mam?"
"Yeah, get lost."
Anatolia, a beat too late, shifted her gaze up.
No servant dared call her Mam.
Standing in front of her in the clothes of a maid and a butler.
Was a lady with a veil covering her face, and a man with long white hair.
"Ni hao!"
"E-Eugene Hall!" Anatolia stumbled up to her feet. Before she could speak a word, a foot came crashing into her stomach and kicked her down.
"Sit the fuck back down, princess." The veiled lady, Lethe said as she pulled her leg back. "How can mere servants have their master stand to greet them?"
The two broke into a cackle like a pair of cats playing with a mouse.
"Actually, you know what?" Lethe suddenly grabbed Anatolia's hands and pulled her to her feet. She twirled and took the princess' seat in a go. "Go get us a chair."
"You bastards!" In a fit of rage, Anatolia raised her hand and charged up a spell, but it never manifested.
"Childish. You should have trained more. You're barely at the level of a gold-ranked adventurer."
Anatolia was stunned. She turned to her side with widened eyes as she saw the still-injured Eugene Hall nullify her magic.
Magic could be countered, but to hijack someone else's spell required a level of control and knowledge that stood magnitudes above the target.
Gold-ranked? What bullshit. Anatolia herself knew her abilities, the likes of Eugene Hall could never do this to her.
She was completely frozen stiff.
It was only now that realization struck her. This wasn't the Eugene Hall that she knew.
Nightbringer. An epithet given by the living god of adventurers, Kaiser himself. The person who defeated a demon king in his own territory.
He was much more capable, much more powerful... much more evil.
Anatolia started trembling while biting her lips.
"W-what do you want..."
Her heart raced. A cat that played with its prey eventually swallowed it up.
She was the prey.
"Didn't you hear me, get us a chair?"
At Lethe's demands, Anatolia turned away and moved to get a chair. She took in deep breaths to calm herself, but as soon as she saw the two of them start flirting with each other, the fact that she was being played with just grew heavier and heavier.
Whenever they wished, they could kill her.
Even worse, just with a glance of that woman's face, Anatolia could be turned into a living doll.
Fear gripped her throat as she pulled a chair for Eugene. He casually pointed it to her and instead leaned on the armrest of Lethe's seat.
"I... I..." Words failed Anatolia. She thought she was facing the consequences of her actions, but those consequences that she had felt had been arbitrarily decided by someone else. As nobility, no, as the daughter of the greatest Empire on the continent, that was how she had learned these things to be.
She had not known, the rage of wild animals. The instincts of survivalists.
The grip of evil.
"Now, now, one would think we're threatening you, princess," Lethe said. "Did you hate my Eugene that much in your previous life?"
And with those words, the ground was swept away from Anatolia's feet.
They knew.
"How..."
"I know everything, princess," Eugene said. That face. That smile. It was exactly like the one she had seen in her previous life.
In her death. In her defeat.
It had come back to haunt her.
"Now, we're not going to turn you into a maid or a slave," Lethe continued. "Nor are we interested in hurting you."
Anatolia raised her gaze. Even through that veil, she knew that Lethe was smiling a madder smile.
"It all sounds absurd to us, regression and everything. But, well, the Eugene that you knew is not my Eugene. So just lay off."
"Lay... off?"
Anatolia was too shocked to be shocked anymore. She accepted all of Lethe's words as the truth.
"And that's not all," Eugene continued. "You see. I understand you regressors are out to kill me, and I couldn't be happier. But..."
But.
"I don't feel like spilling your blood."
Eugene knew well. The world they were in had already ended, and he was at its center.
"But that doesn't mean I can't. I just don't feel like it."
He knew it wouldn't happen again, but if killing all these regressors was going to be a trigger to it, he'd rather do it when he was strong enough. Before that, he didn't want to risk ending the world by chance.
And so, he decided to use his to-be murderers.
"You're going to convince all the other regressors that I am different now."
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