Chapter 45

“You must be quite surprised, but I ask you not to be too startled. This magic only works on me—if you react too much, the Duke will notice.”

Ah, so it was an illusion spell.

“A-Ah… Y-Yes?”

I gawked, sneaking glances toward the terrace where Tessarion was watching. If Altair had entered the manor using illusion magic to deceive Tessarion… then… if he got caught, he’d be dead meat?!

He tilted the black parasol he was holding to block Tessarion’s line of sight, then smiled gently and asked,

“Shall I introduce myself properly again?”

W-Whoa.

My heart pounded wildly.

“I am the mage, Altair Oswalley.”

A date with Grand Mage Altair?!

This is absolutely insane!

“Um, I-I’m Roy Dover. It’s an honor to meet you, Altair!”

In every previous life, I had acted awkward and stiff whenever we first met. It gave me such a headache.

This time, I had only dropped a small piece of story bait, saying I was looking into the magic of “falling in love.” And yet… he came to me himself. Unbelievable.

Maybe he wasn’t all that interested in the taboo spacetime magic I had tried to research in defiance of everyone. Even a straight-laced guy like Altair might be a passionate man curious about love.

I was so excited my heels bounced.

There was so much I wanted to ask.

“But how did you find me?”

Altair furrowed his brow and let out a low hum.

“You said you were in serious trouble because of the Duke, didn’t you?”

“A-Ah… yes.”

My face flushed bright red. I remembered now—I’d said I was the one the love magic was for, because I couldn’t admit it was for Tessarion and Verieta.

“I requested multiple times to meet you, but the Duke kept refusing. Since I couldn’t get a clear reason, I assumed your situation must be dire.”

Altair had asked to meet me… and Tessarion refused? Of course he did.

The current Altair hadn’t even entered the academy yet. Even if he was a brilliant mage living on a remote island in the southernmost Ashutari archipelago, no one in the far North would know of him yet.

“It’s a bit embarrassing that my whining sounded serious enough to make you come in person, Altair. Hahaha… Most people say I’m lucky to be at the Duke’s side, that I’m just spoiled and complaining. But still… it’s such an h-honor to meet you like this!”

“An honor? I’m just a stranger who knows a bit of magic.”

Ah. I realized I’d been acting like this was the Altair from past lives.

Altair gave me a faint smile.

Altair… smiled?

I held my head and tried to recall who Altair Oswalley really was.

He rarely smiled. He had trouble expressing emotion and was slow to warm up to others. It took a long time to truly become close to him…

I suddenly stopped walking and looked up at him. He, too, paused and looked at me.

Among the swirl of questions in my head, I couldn’t decide which to ask first. Then he opened his mouth.

“Roy. Do you remember… the previous me?”

“……!”

I couldn’t breathe.

Altair let out a long sigh, as if confirming a suspicion.

“I thought so. You do remember.”

“No way! P-Professor, you—! Mmph!”

As I blurted out a shriek, Altair pressed a finger to my lips.

“Shh,” he whispered, and gestured toward the terrace. Tessarion was glaring down at us with arms crossed, absolutely terrifying.

Unbelievable—having to act calm in such a massive moment!

I covered my mouth and nodded quickly.

Altair led me toward the climbing rose trellis. As we stepped out of Tessarion’s radar range, I kept glancing nervously behind me.

“For some reason, I woke up the day before academy enrollment. At first, I thought I was having a vivid, never-ending dream. But no matter what I tried, I couldn’t wake up.
Then I suspected I was under a powerful suggestion spell, so I studied anti-magic and curse magic in depth. Still, I couldn’t stop the time reversals.”

Anti-magic and curse magic? That sounds like… skills from the apocalyptic dark sorcerer class…

I bit my inner cheek hard.

Altair folded his fingers one by one. After folding all ten, he looked at me.

“I wondered why. What’s different this time? Why does it always go back to a fixed time? After much thinking and research… I reached one conclusion.
The cause of the regression wasn’t me—it was someone else.”

His eyes were filled with me. Roy Dover, reflected in Altair’s gaze, blinked in shock.

“It’s you, Roy Dover. You were the only one who changed each time. When you collapsed in the lab—when you took your last breath in my arms—that was when the sixth regression started.”

My mind went blank.

“Roy, why did you ask me to create a spacetime spell that could cross universes? Is the answer in the place you were trying to reach?”

My dry lips trembled. I rubbed my face with both hands.

Where should I even begin? How could I say this without sounding absolutely insane?

“Haah… Your guess is right, Altair.”

Finally, I spoke the truth I’d been keeping inside for so long.

It wasn’t just me who was regressing.

And the fact that it was Altair… brought both relief and weariness.

When I stripped away all the messy emotions and explained just the core facts, it sounded pitifully simple. I didn’t feel better—in fact, the hollowness made me laugh bitterly.

“When I die, time regresses. And I die four years from now.
I don’t know exactly when or how—it’s different every time. But unless I’m hiding in the forbidden lab beneath the Tower, I never survive past the winter of my 24th year.”

I died. Then died again. And again.

Every time, I died in true Roy Dover fashion—abrupt and tragic.

With each regression, I forgot more and more of who I was before this world. Now, I could count those memories on one hand.

The first time I realized this was during the 4th life.

I’d infiltrated the imperial palace as Tessarion’s shadow to take down the villainous Crown Prince Helliot. One day while preparing for Helliot’s birthday banquet, I suddenly remembered the hot mussel-seaweed soup my mom used to make.

But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t recall when my birthday was.

I remembered the title and plot of the romance fantasy I’d read—“I Thought This Was Just Another Possession Story”—but couldn’t remember when I was born, or how I ended up in this world.

Memories of “me” were fragmented. I told myself it was just fatigue, maybe a little amnesia from working too hard.

But in the 5th round, I forgot my friends. My family. The faces of the people I loved.

It felt like being hit in the head with a hammer.

How could I have known that living carelessly in this world would lead to this?

I didn’t want to die anymore.
I just wanted to go home.

So I decided to become a magician.

Failed on the 5th try. Failed on the 6th. By the 7th, I even forgot my own name.

The more I failed, the more exhausted I became.

“Hhhhk…”

I bit down on my trembling lower lip. My throat tightened, and tears welled up in my eyes. The fear and sorrow I had buried for so long—too afraid to tell anyone for fear of being labeled insane—finally exploded.

I threw my arms around Altair.

“Altair, I don’t want to die anymore. I’m so tired of this.
I just want to go home. Huuuaaaah!”

Altair gasped, sucking in a breath—and then froze stiff in my embrace.