The Maid In The Reverse Harem Game Wants To Quit - Chapter 106
Translator: Nabi
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Chapter 106
Even objectively, Irene was a strange opponent.
It wasn’t just because she was oddly adept at everything. Rather, it was the fact that she appeared so nonchalant and heartless, though in reality, it wasn’t the case.
Edith had spoken with the maid a few times, even though she couldn’t remember Irene’s name ever since Rodion walked out of the room. Since Irene was in charge of his education and care, it was a natural opportunity for them to talk.
So she asked once.
It was because she wasn’t the type to save questions when they arose.
She turned to Irene, who was carrying a basket full of flowers that Rodion had picked to make a wreath for.
“Are you satisfied with this life? I’ve been watching you, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you express an opinion.”
Irene looked a little surprised when she heard that.
“Am… am I?”
“That’s not surprising since kids are doing things as they please, is it?”
“That’s true, but I’m a mere maid, so I don’t have to give any opinion.”
“Even if you don’t necessarily express your opinion, there are things that you felt, right? Do you have any complaints?”
“I’m already satisfied with the present. Do I have to make a complaint?”
Irene smiled faintly as she said that.
It was a cloudy smile, so perhaps it was just an illusion on Edith’s part. Still, at least it was unusual to see her look like that.
“I like it now, so much so that I’d rather time wouldn’t pass.”
She was smiling as she said that, yet she looked sad at the same time.
Perhaps it was because she knew that time would one day sweep away all these scenes eventually. At the same time, Irene’s gaze was not on Edith. At the end of it was Rodion, Otis, and Ahibalt… and there was the Lavrenti mansion, all the things she loved.
Love.
Yes, it was love… How could such a nonchalant face conceal a love that even a third party like her could clearly recognize?
‘Even at such a young age…’
What was it that made her so enamored by this mansion?
While she had vaguely wondered about her, Edith naturally dropped her interest after learning that Irene wasn’t the heroine of fate in Elios. However, as things turned out like this, the question naturally came to mind again.
…Why did Irene love this mansion so much?
Edith was able to answer that question now.
“She was the answer…”
Irene Casimere… She was the manager of the time.
The mere existence that made time spin just by existing. The one that started it all at the beginning of all this… An unwritten rule created by an error in time.
“Yes. It was her…”
Haha.
A muffled laugh escaped Edith’s lips.
All questions were now answered. It was really something to be thankful for to Ahibalt. After all, he had pointed out the biggest flaw in her hypothesis. It wasn’t Ahibalt, the manager of fate, who had to be killed to stop time from going back…
Irene had to be killed.
Of course, if she just killed her, Ahibalt would try to bring her back to life.
‘I made it for times like this.’
A weapon forged at the cost of tearing one’s flesh.
…Elios.
Certainly, Elios was powerful enough as it was, but in fact, it had a separate actual ability.
It was to erase existence from this world completely.
Since Elios itself was part of the record, if she used that ability to destroy something, it meant that the object would also disappear from Elios’ record as well. In other words, it was possible to create a variable that couldn’t be undone even with Ahibalt’s ability.
It was almost the end.
‘…Rodion, you no longer have to go through the future of dying miserably.’
“My time wasn’t wasted.”
Edith mumbled blankly to herself and closed her eyes. Nonetheless, no matter what she told herself, somehow, there was no way to stop the tears from flowing.
Irene’s familiar face, carrying a basket full of flowers…
“I like it now, so much so that I’d rather time wouldn’t pass.”
The peace on her face as she smiled faintly as she said it.
She couldn’t get it out of her mind.
Irene opened her eyes.
A familiar ceiling and room. And the pain that struck her whole body as if it were natural. Even the cold air blowing across her sweaty face announced her survival.
If it were any other time, the first thing she would’ve thought of was what happened right before she collapsed, but funnily enough, the first thought that came to her mind at that time was this.
‘I’m back again.’
The vague emptiness.
Irene dreamed the whole time she was down of the endings she passed through.
Even there, she clung to Louise the same way, loved the main characters equally, and suffered from the reality of not being able to go back. It would have been better if she had at least realized that it was a dream or at least the awareness of having gone through this process.
As soon as she opened her eyes, Irene buried her face in her hands and cried.
Like the beginning of this life, when she realized she couldn’t get out of the game no matter what, she couldn’t bear the wear the emptiness inside her.
Her dreams only replayed the memories of Irene who knew nothing, and in the rewinding memories, she remembered things she had forgotten, like what happened when she crashed with the bag of flour, or what happened at the last ending.
…There was a person who was common in all moments.
As Irene raised her head at the sound of the door opening, a sickly face stood in the doorway.
At that moment, the tears streaming down her cheeks felt like shadows of the night dragging her away as she turned to look at the person who was approaching her with a wet gaze.
She could feel the eyes that tied her.
At the end of it, a name escaped from the lips of the crumbling Irene.
“…Ahibalt.”
A name she would never have been able to call if she had really been a mere maid.
It was also the name that had been by her side every time she died.
‘Will this be the end of it?’
Irene thought vaguely as she thrust a dagger into the throat of the man who attacked her. Even when the man collapsed with the gurgling sound of blood gushing and the fishy smell of iron tainted her body, she remained silent.
There was a quietness that seemed out of place in the midst of all the death and destruction.
But so be it, for where she stood now was the final ending.
The ending of Ahibalt’s Die route, in which Louise ran away from him, and he, who had gone mad, pursued her and committed suicide together.
It was the ending that she had delayed until the very end.
If the deaths of Ahibalt and Louise stop her from regressing, then that would be the true ending, and a true ending meant the deaths of the two of them.
She held off until the end, hoping that wasn’t the only ending. However, on the sixth regression, she had no choice but to run towards the Die ending of the two.
Towards the suicide of a co-worker who had been with her for a long time and the person she loved, in the end, Irene realized…
‘…There’s no turning back.’
If the deaths of Ahibald and Louise were the true ending, even if this regression stopped and she returned to reality… she would never be the same as before. She had spent too much time, and she’d seen too many deaths.
All those lives weren’t hers… they were for Louise and someone else.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
The cogs of the clock that had been ticking away became worn and dull.
Irene, who shuddered while adjusting to Knox after possessing for the first time, was now unflappable even at the scene of the slaughter, and the time when she made mistakes while adjusting to the mansion was just a past that she couldn’t even remember.
She was even killing people now.
Irene glanced down at her bloodstained suit and the bowler hat that was awkwardly pressed down over her short, manly hair. It was the outfit she had changed to be in this ending because Knox’s uniform was a suit.
At first, she didn’t think this flimsy disguise would work, but somehow it did. It was also due to the fact that once all the game characters were rushing to the ending, from that moment on, they wouldn’t respond to any script that wasn’t written down by the game company.
“Louise.”
In other words, there was no room for her here.
“Ah, Ahibalt…”
Ahibalt devastated the enemy lines with a handful of soldiers. Most of it was his own work. So, the only people still alive in this place were Ahibalt, Louise, and Irene.
‘Ah, I couldn’t count me as a character in the ending.’
So let’s correct it.
This was the space only for Ahibalt and Louise.
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Translator’s Note: Hello, it’s Nabi! I’m the translator of this novel ପ( ๑•ᴗ•๑ )ଓ♡ If you like the novel and would like to support me, please feel free to click the button below to go to my kofi~! Thank you so much for always supporting the novels I work on, even if you don’t buy me a coffee, I really do appreciate it a lot. ❤︎
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lalaela
She still doesn’t remember or realize that shes a variable herself. If she knew that she had to die to stop the loop then I’d think she’d kill herself.