“H-haha, ha… Oh, yes. Thank you, Lord Kyle.”
Kyle Grey. A capture target in <The Young Master of the Rose Mansion>. The main keywords are gentle gong, knight gong, pure love gong, etc.
When I decided to seduce him for a peaceful life and actually managed to do so without much trouble, I truly had no idea this proper knight would spring such a reversal on me.
It gives me chills. I smiled awkwardly and took a large step back to create distance.
From my perspective, it was hardly pleasant to have someone who just hours ago couldn’t control himself, hugging Allen and nuzzling his lips, making a scene right before my eyes because he couldn’t give up on someone about to marry another, now shyly calling my name. Honestly.
In this world, dominant Omegas automatically become candidates for the crown prince’s consort.
As someone who had possessed the villain role of a dominant Omega who interferes with the main couple and gets eliminated, I needed to avoid being marked as an “obstacle” by the main character and the crown prince, who was essentially the main male lead.
So despite being a dominant Omega from a noble family, I needed an excuse to naturally withdraw from the crown prince’s consort candidacy. My solution was to find another Alpha who promised to imprint me before the main character appeared.
At first, I considered staying away from the original story as much as possible. Unfortunately, from the moment I was adopted into the Hamilton earldom, I was already destined to be inseparable from the main character.
This was because I, “Noah Hamilton,” was set up as a distant relative adopted into the earldom to replace the main character who had disappeared as a child.
So there was only one way. For a dominant Omega from a noble family to refuse the position of crown prince’s consort candidate without having promised imprinting with another Alpha would be a crime of insulting the royal family, deserving of immediate execution.
I chose my saving Alpha very carefully. He couldn’t be someone so insignificant that the royal family could easily dispose of him, and above all, since it was difficult to go outside without a guardian, he had to be someone I could naturally encounter in daily life.
Only one Alpha satisfied these conditions.
Kyle Grey. A family knight with a gentle personality.
What concerned me was that Kyle, like the crown prince, was one of the capture targets in the original story, but I was in no position to be picky. At that time, Kyle Grey was practically my only option.
I had thought it fortunate that he wasn’t heavily involved in the main story, just a regular knight whose only current advantages were his handsome appearance and kind, gentle personality…
But how many times had this gentle knight who acted like he would give me his heart and soul betrayed me and run away throughout these countless repetitions?
Now I’ve just accepted it. Even love started deliberately out of necessity is still love, but I’m no longer the person who cried over a lover’s betrayal after losing myself in affection. The love and pure feelings that were once as soft as something dried under the sun have long since flown away.
“Noah…?”
He couldn’t hide his confusion at my formal tone. His thick eyelashes trembled slightly.
Oh my. You’re surprised by just this? Just because I called your name a bit stiffly?
Of course, from his perspective, it must be surprising that I, who showed obvious infatuation with him until just yesterday, suddenly drew a line like this. After all, I used to blush intensely whenever Kyle would secretly call me “Noah” instead of “Young Master,” as if I’d heard some great secret signal, and respond with a soft “Kyle…”
But that’s his problem. Those blue eyes clouded with confusion and shaking unsteadily were, to put it crudely, just pathetic.
‘There’s no need to worry about such trivial matters. I understand now. I never loved him. From the moment I first met him, I was already…’
His confusion means nothing. Could he be more shocked than I was when my reliable fiancé—whom I’d been developing a relationship with since I was fifteen, officially dating at eighteen, having an engagement ceremony at nineteen, and waiting for a proposal from, uttered such words after being enchanted by someone he’d known for less than a hundred days?
I was caught up in the system by chance while my head was burning after hearing those words, and experienced my first regression. When I became seventeen again for the first time, I still couldn’t come to my senses and became an even more devoted lover to Kyle, thinking that I would do better this time and hold on to him. And I was dumped even faster, and I returned again pathetically.
The system mocked mercilessly with phrases like ‘I’m impressed that you seem to have a talent for digging your own grave.
There were several more regressions that I don’t even need to recall, and each time, Kyle creatively crushed my youthful pure love with various insults. Thanks to that? In the most recent iteration, ordinary words couldn’t hurt me anymore. What did he say? Something like a corrupt distant relative who doesn’t know his place shouldn’t covet what belongs to a precious person. Is there another such helpfully dedicated bastard in the world?
In the last iteration, after repeating the endless regression, or more precisely, the endless “reset,” I wondered if I could reach the true ending of the original game. If the problem was that I couldn’t abandon my minimal conscience and act like the vile villain from the original, I decided to throw away all conscience.
I framed innocent people and while ordering the assassination of Allen, who did nothing but sit quietly receiving love from the crown prince and others, I was inwardly only thinking about escaping this cycle.
As a result, I was successfully sent to prison as a traitor who attempted to assassinate the protagonist, the crown prince’s prospective consort, and was just waiting to be put on the guillotine… But the system bastard again… truly again, again, again!
System is bored with the uninspiring ending.
System resets the settings.
Returning to the beginning.
Doesn’t it ever get tired? Again, time was turned back.
“Well. I’ll go ahead, Lord Kyle. I have quite a busy schedule today.”
“Ah! I should escort you…!”
“No, it’s fine. I can’t trouble the future captain of the knights for something like this. Well then, goodbye.”
I realized something clearly after several repetitions: the more devotedly I clung to Kyle, the faster he lost interest and turned away. Well, it was just a difference in timing, he would inevitably pour his heart out to Allen eventually.
“Young Master. Are you perhaps not feeling well today? Or did you have bad dreams?”
Nicole, who usually made himself scarce whenever Kyle came looking for me, quickly approached and whispered in my ear. For some reason finding it endearing, I gently stroked his head.
Mrs. Seymour, my nanny, and her son Nicole—those two were the only ones on my side who supported me rather than Allen, even until the very end.
“It’s nothing like that. It’s just… at seventeen, I’m really an adult now. It’s time for me to grow up.”
“Young Master…”
“Is the carriage ready? I’ll depart right away. We’ll be busy preparing for the banquet after returning from the temple.”
“Yes, please return safely! Leave the banquet preparations to me!”
Though younger than me, Nicole nodded vigorously with a moved expression, as if he had raised me himself. If it were anyone else I might not care, but since it was Nicole, this should have been a touching moment for me.
A plausible excuse! ( 〃● ₃● ) ~ﾐ
Speech skill increases by 3.
Ugh. There’s always something to ruin the mood.
After quickly closing the notification window, I hastened my steps. After briefly acknowledging the greetings from the servants I passed, I finally had a moment alone when I boarded the carriage.
Arrrgh! So annoying! So annoying!
After completely covering all sides with curtains, I first indulged in a silent outburst. I flailed my clenched fists wildly in the air and kicked around violently. Though I couldn’t scream out loud, thrashing about like this made me feel a little—just a tiny bit—better.
System applauds your free-spirited movements.
· ₊ ˚✿𓂃 ପ₍ᐢ๑• ֊ •๑ᐢ₎ଓ ⌒☆
Ballroom dancing increases by 0.5.
“Huff, huff, huff… Not even 5 but 0.5? Damn, are you just playing with me right now?”
Perception increases by 0.5.
Too tired to react to each childish taunt, I simply closed the notification window and sprawled across the seat. The clothes that Nicole had meticulously prepared for the baptism ceremony wrinkled carelessly.
“Just… how can I end this?”
… There was no answer from the system that usually interferes with me uninvited. I hopelessly followed floating dust particles with my gaze and spoke again. Please, just end this, please. My teeth clenched involuntarily.
System emphasizes that its advice has been clear from the beginning.
s(・｀ヘ´・；)
“You mean that vague advice about making things entertaining for you?”
Perception increases by 0.5.
“Really, even at times like this…”
Hah. I rubbed my face vigorously with my palms several times. Right. Even if something major happens, I’ll just return to today again anyway.