7th Time Loop WN Vol. 6 Fan Translation

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When Prince Arnold was a small child...

What Oliver, his attendant, recounted was about the first time he met Arnold. It was said that Arnold, at the tender age of nine, had bandages stained with blood wrapped around his neck.

(...With so many scars remaining, traces of repeated stabbings...)

Imagining this, Rishe's eyes welled up with tears and trembled. Arnold felt tense talking about his mother. She wanted to understand how such a situation had come about.

But the first words Rishe spoke weren't to inquire about that.

"...It hurt, didn't it?" she said sadly.

"Rishe?"

Even when Arnold was stabbed while protecting Rishe, he didn't change his expression at all. But he couldn't have felt nothing.

(...By his own mother...)

Tracing the scar with her finger, Rishe pursed her lips tightly.

(...What emotions does Arnold harbor?)

"...I hardly remember the pain now."

"Your Highness..." she whimpered.

Arnold seemed to have picked up on the unspoken question Rishe couldn't bring herself to ask.

"...What I vividly remember is killing my mother right after." he said quietly.

While Rishe gasped, Arnold continued to gently stroke her head with his large hand.

"What was your mother like...?"

In a corner of the imperial palace, there remained a tentative gazebo for Arnold's mother. It was a quiet place with no visible signs of being heavily used.

"I don't have the means to determine that." Arnold's blue eyes seemed to gaze into the distance ever so slightly. They were reminiscent of a distant landscape.

"The queen I knew was not a mother; she was like an empty doll."

It was rare for him to use such metaphorical language.

As Rishe quietly stared into his eyes, Arnold's beautifully sculpted fingers brushed through her hair.

"She would become distressed at the mere sight of me, so we never interacted until her death. I have very few memories of hearing her voice, and we only made eye contact a few times."

"Your Highness..."

His emotions were unreadable in his voice.

Arnold calmly continued to address Rishe's inquiries.

"That day, the sight of me covered in blood startled the queen. It seems that was the catalyst."

"Blood...?"

"After killing my newborn sister, I returned to that Tower covered in bloodstains."

Rishe had learned about the actions of the current emperor. Arnold's father, who married princesses from various countries as war hostages, spared only the children who inherited his dark hair and blue eyes. He killed the rest of the infants at birth in front of their mothers..

It seems that a young age, Arnold was obligated to participate in this slaughter as the 'heir.'

"The queen, seemingly calm and composed at first, approached me. Apart from glancing at the sword at my hip, she didn't look at me."

Rishe imagined the scene in her mind. Arnold's mother, a priestess with the blood of the goddess, was said to have had the same pale purple hair as Millia, the girl Rishe once served as a maid. If she resembled Arnold, she must have been remarkably beautiful.

Despite usually being referred to as 'doll-like,' his mother, approached the young Arnold, drenched in blood, of her own volition.

What expression did the young Arnold wear when he was still covered in the blood of his slaughtered sister?

"It happened because I made a wrong judgment..." Arnold quietly lowered his gaze. "She smiled wickedly and repeatedly cursed my birth. Then, she began stabbing me with a dagger."

Rishe stiffened, feeling terribly frightened. Noticing this, Arnold cupped his hands around her cheeks and softly said, "You don't need to look so worried. I'm okay now."

Rishe shook her head and pressed her lips tightly together. 

Arnold looked at Rishe and continued to speak, "The last thing she did was cut her own throat."

Arnold's eyes were as calm as the still sea without waves.

"While drenched in blood, I remember her uttering those cursed words over and over again."

"Your Highness..."

"But she was unable to die. Although her wounds were fatal, the healing power of the goddess's blood kept prolonging her suffering."

Rishe clearly understood what the nine-year-old Arnold had chosen at that moment.

"...Your Highness, to release your mother from suffering..."

That was the reason he gave for killing his mother.

At the same time, Rishe realized the details of the incident where Arnold was said to have killed his newborn siblings.

(Although Arnold was supposed to follow the Emperor's orders; he probably could've refused. Where those killings out of mercy too? In the past wars, Arnold has always felt the need to decisively kill in order to shorten the suffering that would instead happen at the hands of his father.)

Rishe leaned down slightly, wrapping her arms around Arnold's neck as if clinging to him.

As she held him tightly and buried her forehead against Arnold's neck again, he returned the embrace with tenderness.

"...Please don't cry." He whispered softly.

Even such a pleading tone was rare for Arnold.

Despite understanding this, Rishe pressed her forehead against Arnold's and rubbed against him. Arnold then whispered her name as if dropping a kiss on her hair.