PT | Chapter 7.4

Realizing this was all a waste, Aubrey decided to leave. He thought that once the priests saw the office in disarray the next day, they would be horrified, and he would feel satisfied with that. He placed one hand on the desk as he prepared to leave, having forgotten in his search how bad his condition had become.

While leaning on the desk, struggling to move, Aubrey accidentally brushed against a small ornament sitting in the corner. The object moved slightly, and immediately a strange sound followed.

‘…’

He had hoped it wasn’t what he thought, but Aubrey rushed back to the desk. His eyes widened when he saw that the floor beneath the desk was open.

My God, there’s no law saying I have to die alone.

Aubrey quickly tried to crawl under the desk, but just then, the door flew open.

‘Who’s there…!!’

‘Wait, you’ve never shown up before, why now?’

Perhaps the secret passage beneath the desk had a trigger mechanism that would alert anyone near it when it was opened. If that passage hid something important, he had to find out what it was. Aubrey quickly threw himself into the passage. The stairs leading down were steeper and deeper than he had imagined.

‘Ugh…!’

He barely managed to scream before he tumbled down noisily. By the time he reached the bottom, the pain shooting through his body made it impossible to focus.

‘Damn it, I’m going to die like this.’

‘He went under the desk! What do we do?!’

‘What do you mean what to do, get him out of there! How dare he think he can just…!!’

Aubrey, still lying on the ground and groaning, came to his senses when he heard the chaotic exchange above. From the sounds of it, this must be an important place after all.

Desperately, he crawled forward, stretching out his hand. He felt a thick book. Just then, someone leapt down the stairs.

‘It’s too dark, I can’t see anything! Where is he?!’

‘Wait, I’ll bring a lamp…!’

Hearing the shout behind him, Aubrey felt his urgency grow.

He grabbed whatever book his hand touched and tore the paper with all his strength. The sound of tearing paper must have helped someone pinpoint his location, and they rushed toward him. Aubrey’s opponent was just as desperate. The one who came running grabbed Aubrey by the neck from behind.

They were trying to lift him up, but unfortunately for them, Aubrey was built solidly. With the arms of an untrained priest, all they could do was struggle in vain.

‘Do you know where you are?! You’re dead today!’

The priest didn’t give up, pulling harder on Aubrey’s neck. But Aubrey didn’t stop either, continuing to tear the paper and push it into his chest. The priest, flustered by Aubrey’s resistance, began to kick him.

‘What the hell are you tearing up?! Do you even know what’s in this place?!’

‘Hey! Bring the lamp down here… Aubrey?’

In the dim light, Aubrey could be seen lying in the small space, desperately tearing up paper and stuffing it into his chest. When his name was called, he froze and looked up. The person calling him was someone Aubrey recognized.

‘…Hello.’

It was one of the priests Aubrey had exchanged polite greetings with. Just as they had called him brother, Aubrey had also addressed him with respect.

But seeing him here like this, in such an awkward position, felt incredibly embarrassing. Aubrey awkwardly raised a corner of his mouth, and just then, the priest yanked Aubrey’s arm.

‘What are you doing here?! Get up right now!’

‘Well, you see, I… wait, just a moment.’

Though he had come here with the intent to die together, seeing someone he knew threw him off guard. Aubrey thought for a moment, wondering if he could escape this uncomfortable situation with a small lie. But the priests’ intimidating presence was too much. If he was dragged upstairs like this, he would probably be beaten senseless, so Aubrey kept repeating, “Wait.”

Then another priest arrived, and together with the others, they grabbed onto Aubrey. With so many of them, Aubrey had no chance to resist. As he struggled, he slammed into the right wall. The cloth hanging from the wall fell, and Aubrey was startled when it landed on his face.

‘Wait, something fell off the wall…’

Wouldn’t there be dust on the cloth if it had been hanging down here in the basement? Aubrey recoiled in disgust, shrinking back as the cloth touched his face. One of the priests quickly removed the cloth, then grabbed Aubrey’s arm and tried to drag him out again. Aubrey turned his head toward the wall. Without thinking, he glanced at the spot where the cloth had fallen and saw something he never could have imagined.

In this life, consumed by the belief that everything was his fault, Aubrey hadn’t expected to run into Lennock. They rarely encountered each other in the spacious mansion, and when he left the marquis’s residence, he thought he’d never see that unfortunate face again. Lennock didn’t exist in this life. Or so he thought. But there, standing in front of him, was Lennock.

What the cloth had been hiding was Lennock.

It was a portrait, seemingly as if his face had been painstakingly painted and nailed into place.

‘This is it. Get him out…!’

Aubrey’s body lost all strength from the unexpected encounter with Lennock. The three priests clung to him and dragged him out, but as they climbed the stairs, Aubrey’s gaze remained fixed on Lennock’s portrait, unable to tear his eyes away.

Why… why is his portrait hanging in a place like this?

Could it be that the place where the head of the great sin was sealed also kept his portrait? No, that couldn’t be. Alman’s priests must have known Lennock would awaken as the great sin. As this thought flashed through his mind, Aubrey began to resist again.

‘Let go! I need to check that again! I need to look at that painting a little more…!!’

He felt something massive at play here.

Aubrey was excited by this entirely new information, something he hadn’t been able to uncover in all his previous regressions. He finally thought he might have a chance to stop his endless regressions, but that was where it ended. In his excitement, Aubrey didn’t even notice someone approaching from behind, grabbing his neck and slicing his throat with a blade.

Thus, Aubrey met the morning of his seventeenth life with a feeling of emptiness.

If he had held on a little longer, maybe he could have uncovered more information. How many more years would he have to waste just to get back to that moment? Aubrey, counting his fingers one by one, groaned and collapsed back onto his bed.

For a while, he lay there staring blankly at the ceiling, lost in thought.

The answer was in Alman. He never imagined he would find traces of Lennock in a place he had never paid attention to. Maybe everything in the underground space was related to the information about the great sin that would awaken Lennock.

‘But, since it’s a temple, could it be that they were trying to stop the world from being destroyed?’

If they had been collecting and researching data about the great sin…

Suddenly, Aubrey thought of the priest who had been wearing women’s underwear and shaking his hips, then firmly closed his mouth. There was no way those vile people had noble goals. Something was definitely going on. To find out what it was, Aubrey decided he would have to visit Alman again.

Aubrey repeated exactly what he had done in his sixteenth life.

The difference this time was in how he persuaded his father. In the past, he would have rambled on about nonsense like, “The beginning and end of my life depend on the gods.” But this time, he was different.

‘If we only figure out how to condense mana, we could make our own batteries. Of course, each country has its own unique geographical features, but we can’t keep relying on Alman to supply us with mana for batteries. It’s time for us to produce finished batteries ourselves.’

If Alman condenses the mana, Toroso provides the iron, Sellanto’s river supplies the electricity, and Zabeer creates the cases. Except for the abandoned northern lands, the east, west, south, and central regions would work together to complete the battery.

With these batteries, trains and cars could run, and airships could take off into the sky. Streetlights could shine brightly at night, all thanks to the batteries. But if countries stole each other’s technology, Toroso could monopolize the production of batteries. That would mean an enormous fortune and power.

On the surface, it might sound absurd, but a marquis, driven by greed for power, might just bite.

Aubrey, now ten years old, looked up at his father. The marquis, who had been looking down at his son, had a thin wrinkle appear between his brows.

‘I was wondering why you suddenly came to me, but this is what…’

‘If we could make a finished battery, Father could get everything he wants.’

Of course, it would all be for nothing the moment the great sin awakened.

‘I hope you can achieve what you desire, Father. I will do everything I can to make it happen. Please send me to Alman. I will gather the information there and bring it back to you.’