The Maid In The Reverse Harem Game Wants To Quit - Chapter 125
Translator: Nabi
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Chapter 125
After Story — If You Had Loved Me (5)
‘How many times has this been?’
Irene looked down at Otis, who had collapsed in her arms in silence. However, such thoughts quickly dispersed like a hazy fog. It was because she knew well that those thoughts were meaningless reveries.
From the moment she crossed over the number twenty, she stopped counting how many times she regressed. Perhaps she had gone beyond the countable numbers. In other words, it meant that she had killed her lover many times.
The reason was simple.
‘Otis will undoubtedly fall in love with Louise once the game begins.’
When was it?
Amidst countless repetitions that had blurred into a vague memory, she recalled a life where she had dreamt of resigning. It was probably around the seventh iteration, maybe even the eighth. The only certain thing was that before the loop went beyond her ten fingers, she had made the decision to break free from this game.
However, in the end, Irene never left the mansion.
No, it would be more accurate to say she couldn’t leave. Everything she loved was here. Having spent so much time here, she has forgotten how to leave and live elsewhere. Her childhood, her sorrows, her pains, her hopes for happiness—all resided here.
Lavrenti was the water, and she was the fish. She couldn’t leave Lavrenti or this mansion.
However, by deciding to stay in this mansion, all that awaited her was inevitable wear and tear.
‘…If I don’t leave this place, there will eventually be nothing left of me.’
The Irenea here was merely a well-crafted tool, a mere extra in the game that got erased from existence when the game began.
In this place, she held no meaning and no one saw her as a human.
Only relationships that didn’t accumulate and endlessly repeating timelines flow through the gaps of her fingers like illusions. In addition, only she would be consumed as the price of her sins for pouring her heart out to those who were nothing more than players in this game.
She felt a terrible emptiness.
It was a torment she would rather beg to be killed. She no longer wanted to leave the mansion, and she just wanted to escape the nothingness.
‘Anyone is fine. Even if it’s just one person…’
If there was someone who saw me as a person.
Then, even if she wandered eternally, she wouldn’t be tormented and lonely like this anymore…
“Would you like to leave with me? I promise it will never be difficult.”
Did her suppressed scream reach god?
“You said you wanted to leave this mansion. I would do anything for you. I, you…”
Irene gazed silently at the young man confessing awkwardly to her. In her emotionless mind, a million theories raced back and forth.
…What kind of prank was this? Or did Louise reject Otis? No, that wasn’t it. She was on the Rodion route this time, so she wouldn’t be involved with Otis. Could a hidden route she didn’t know about have appeared in the game?
Throughout dozens of regressions, there had never been such a thing, not even once.
It was only when she cleared out all the hypotheses that she saw Otis’s reddened face. The rare appearance of him losing his composure. His lips were trembling, and he couldn’t easily voice his words…
Irene suddenly asked.
“Do you need me, Young Master?”
“…No, I want you.”
Whether that question acted as a detonator or not, Otis’s raw desire poured out of him fully. Even to Irene, who didn’t feel any emotions, his earnestness was palpable.
“And what if I never fall in love with Young Master?”
“Well, I’d be quite sad, I suppose.”
At the end of it all, Otis uttered.
“Still, even then… I’ll continue to love you.”
His desires were clear… to have her by his side. It was one of the things she excelled at, both at the time when she was out of his sight and up until the present.
Irene recalled the memories from the fourth life.
As the game began, she was coldly discarded as if she didn’t even exist back then. When she dwelt on the misery of that time, she used to think she would never make such a choice again, but well, now she wasn’t so sure.
Perhaps now she had just begun to hope for someone’s warmth.
‘He’ll eventually abandon me.’
It was because that was the predetermined fate, and the person he was supposed to love was somewhere else. Still, when she thought about it, within this long timeline, that was just a fleeting moment. The appearance of the heroine only took up about a year or so.
…So, couldn’t the rest of the time be hers to have?
“So, please promise me one thing. No matter what happens, don’t leave me. If you do that, then I’ll love you too.”
“I’ll never leave you, from now on and forever.”
“From now on, and forever…”
As she took his hand, she could see Otis’s face smiling, holding back the swell of excitement.
Even if it disappeared someday like an illusion, at least at this moment, it wasn’t a fabrication. Someone who looked at her directly. Someone who saw her as a person was right in front of her.
‘That’s enough.’
Irene decided to love Otis.
Surprisingly, Otis was sincere. Irene had always been prepared for the possibility that he might leave her at any time, yet he never departed, only attempting to test her feelings. In this manner, she experienced several more timelines as Otis’s lover.
Just like any other time, falling asleep in her lover’s embrace and waking up alone in a fifteen-year-old body had become familiar until now.
At least, until the Otis route began.
“Miss Irene, I… I’ve started liking the Second Young Master. Of course, it’ll never come true, but… it’s my first time liking someone, so I’m excited.”
It was when Irene had missed a branching point.
Perhaps she was too immersed in peace. She forgot to check the route divergence while getting lost in sweet moments with Otis.
The moment she heard Louise’s confession, an uncontrollable rage surged within her. It felt like her internal organs were turning inside out.
She realized how foolish she was to think that the game was only going to last a few moments.
‘I can’t let him be taken away!’
The thought of Otis loving Louise was unbearable for even a second, a fraction of a second… No, it was unbearable, and she couldn’t endure it. This is the solace she had found. How did she find love, but why did she have to experience separation like this?
Irene took the knife and headed straight to Otis’s room.
It was her first murder and the first time she had regressed without seeing an ending.
‘I realized back then that killing only Otis wouldn’t turn back time.’
She had to kill Ahibalt and Rodion, too, to rewind time.
Once she realized this fact, everything went smoothly. It was because now, she’d found a way to be happy without progressing through the game anymore!
“Hahaha.”
Irene smiled brightly before she embraced Otis’s lifeless and cold body.
The poison was slowly spreading through her body as well. Now, when she closed her eyes and opened them again, she would be fifteen once more.
“I love you, Young Master.”
We will be together forever.
With those words, the two bodies on the bed fell lifelessly.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Inside the room, where only the sound of the secondhand ticking echoed, the sound of slow footsteps entered.
The steps halted in front of the bed where the two bodies lay peacefully.
“…This time as well.”
Mumbling, the figure reached out and gently lifted a chestnut-colored lock of hair. His hand trembled slightly as it held the strand of hair that quickly fell down. Before her, the man knelt, or rather, it would be more accurate to say he collapsed to his knees.
It was a sight more fittingly described as falling than kneeling.
Tears slowly streamed down the man’s face, Ahibalt. Fated not to be free even from death, as the manager of this game, he had to repeatedly relive the death of the one he loved every time he became aware of his own existence.
And so, he was left wandering alone in eternity each time… this time and in the times to come.
“Irene, if you had loved me…”
From the tightly clenched lips, a sob escaped as if being struck in the chest.
A sentence without a conclusion, like an unreachable wind.
It was a confession within a tragedy that no one would ever know.
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Translator’s Note: Hello~ It’s Nabi again, the translator of this novel! ❤︎ Finally, the novel ‘The Maid In The Reverse Harem Game Wants To Quit’ has finally come to an end~
…Welp, the after stories are kind of depressing, aren’t they? Haha… (‘﹋’; ) so for my sanity, I’ll just pretend it all ended happily in the last actual chapter… (;・∀・)
It was such a long journey ( the first chapter was out 2021! (っ º – º ς ) ), but the novel has finally come to an end! Please don’t forget to support the author and the manhwa as well! ( the brothers look so good on the manhwa (੭’ ⸝⸝ ᐜ ` ⸝⸝ )੭ ) This is truly one of my favorite books to translate—all the turmoils, twists and turns, and plot twists are truly keeping me on my toes. I’m truly happy that Irene and Ahibalt eventually found their happiness ( even though Louise had to sacrifice herself ˙◠˙ ) I wish the same for the two brothers, Edith and Louise as well.
⸝⸝ See you if you read the other books I translate~! ( ๑ > •̀ ๑ )♡
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Xarxyc
This isn’t what I expected from After Story.
Is it a “What if?” type of plot? Or was Main Story’s ending a fluke?
I don’t quite get it.