"Hew."

Resting her head on her arms, Emma let out a deep sigh.

[Emma, training will start tomorrow at 5:00 A.M. in the morning. Make sure that you're not late.]

Emma caught glimpse of a message sent by her dad.

Ever since she reunited with her father, she had spent most of her time training with him. There was no better teacher for her than him.

"If only there was a way for me to become stronger faster..."

Nowadays, she felt sour just thinking of Kevin. Every time she tried to initiate a conversation with him, he would do everything in his power to avoid it and then quickly flee the scene. Whether it was in Immorra, human domain, Union...he would always dodge her.

"Tsk, what's gotten into him?"

After only a few short years, Emma was unable to fathom how Kevin could have undergone such a dramatic transformation.

During their time together at the academy, she had the impression that their relationship was doing well, and she didn't believe that she had done anything that could have caused tension between them...

"So what exactly is up with him?"

Emma ruffled her hair in annoyance.

"...If only I could be more like Melissa."

For the first time in her life, Emma experienced feelings of envy toward Melissa's seeming apathy toward everything. If she were more like her, then none of the problems that she was currently going through would be a problem for her.

She would just brush them off with a look of annoyance on her face.

'Don't want to talk to me? Cool, me too. Now go. I have other things to do.'

She could already imagine the sort of things Melissa would say had she been in a similar situation to hers.

"Hmph, you know what? Fuck him!"

A determined expression appeared on Emma's face as she smacked the table. She had grown tired of waiting around for Kevin to come back to her and talk to her. She decided that going forward, she would have nothing more to do with Kevin.

historical

She had made up her mind.

"Even if Kevin comes back to me all beat up and injured and begs me to help him, I'll just ignore him! Hmph, see if that will make you regret your decision!"

She made a vow to herself.

One that she planned on keeping, regardless of what was going to happen next!

Crash━!

"Hait!"

Emma was startled when the sudden echoing of a crashing sound occurred, which prompted her to spring from her seat in response and caused her heart to palpitate out of her chest.

Her head snapped immediately back, and she was taken aback to see Kevin kneeling down on the ground with both hands on the ground, his complexion looking very pale.

"Kevin?! What's going on?"

She immediately rushed to him, completely forgetting what she had been thinking moments ago.

"Pfttt.."

"Kevin!"

The sight of Kevin spitting blood out of his mouth caused her facial expression to become even tenser.

It appeared as though he was having trouble focusing his eyes, and he was breathing in a very labored manner.

Raising his head, his eyes met her and he smiled at her.

Thud━!

His body fell to the ground after that, and he passed out.

"Kevin!"

***

It was dark.

Kevin was engulfed in darkness and suffered from multiple bouts of pain as he floated in and out of consciousness.

After regaining consciousness for a split second, he would feel a searing pain that persisted all over his body, which would cause him to fall back into a state of unconsciousness once more.

Before he even realized what was happening, he felt a twitch in his eyelids, and then very slowly, his eyes opened.

"...Where am I?"

Kevin mumbled, adjusting his focus with a few blinks of his eyes and taking in a fuller picture of his surroundings.

It seemed as though he was in a room that was fairly large, with walls that were a faded light pink colour, a large TV screen in the middle of the room, as well as a sizable desk and chair. The room, which was adorned with flowers, exuded the soothing scent of lavender throughout its entirety.

"Hm?"

When Kevin looked down and felt something heavy resting on his legs, he finally realized where he was and his face stiffened.

"Emma..."

Faint recollections of what had transpired a few hours prior resurfaced in Kevin's mind and he let out another groan as he grasped the side of his waist, which was now bandaged.

'Ukh, everything worked out...'

Indeed, his plan had worked... but it wasn't without consequences.

Kevin had sustained serious injuries.

"Ukh."

He let out another groan.

'...Grave isn't even enough to cover the extent of my injuries. Still, it was worth it.'

All along, he had never planned on killing Malik Alshayatin. His goal was to seal off the other Ren.

Kevin knew that he was going to be the biggest thorn in his plan.

He had intentionally lied to Ren about the plan; there was a good chance that the other him would discover the situation through him.

It was a way for him to lure the other Ren, in case he was able to see exactly what Ren was doing.

―●

'Law #3: Conceal Your Intentions. '

Keep those around you uncertain and vague by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no idea what you're planning, they won't be able to prepare the defense. Guide them far enough in another direction, shroud them in a smokescreen, and by the time they discover your designs, it will be too late.

―●

"Cough...Cough..."

Kevin violently coughed, a bitter, iron-like sensation tingling his tastebuds. His chest violently ached, and Kevin felt his arms tremble with pain.

"Hmm...Kevin?"

Kevin's body froze upon hearing the one voice he didn't want to hear.

He slowly lowered his head to see Emma looking back at him with a sleepy face. It was obvious that she had not slept the entire time while she was taking care of him.

All sorts of complicated thoughts flashed across his eyes as he gazed at Emma.

In all honesty, it had never been his intention to go to her.

It's just that at the time, the repercussions of his actions were a lot more powerful than he had initially anticipated, and she was the first person he thought of when he was trying to look for someone to help him.

It had never been his intention to go to her, but the situation had led him to her, and now that he was face to face with her, he wasn't sure what to say.

His silence prompted Emma to furrow her brows as she glared at him.

"Don't you have anything to say to me?"

She inquired while pulling her head away from her arms and rising to her feet. She looked down at Kevin, who was lying on her bed with his back against the wooden frame of the bed.

Raising his head to meet her line of sight, Kevin felt something stuck in his throat.

...There were many things that he wanted to say to her.

A lot of things.

The current her, the previous her, and all the other versions of her. The list was endless, and he hadn't been distancing himself for the reason she was thinking of.

He didn't think of her as a burden, nor did he ever. Be it past, present, or future, Kevin had only ever loved one girl, and it was Emma.

...but be it, past, present, or future, Kevin had only suffered heartbreak, and so had she.

Their story was never meant to be a happy one.

The moment Kevin learned about his past, he knew what he had to do. This was the last ever regression.

The last one.

That was it.

Turning back time was no longer possible.

The Akashic records had reached a point where they could no longer sustain a time renewal, and regardless of what happened next, time reversal was no longer something that this universe could withstand.

It would simply disintegrate together with the records and everything else that existed within the universe.

His passing would no longer cause time to roll back, but that was precisely what Kevin had been hoping to achieve all along.

There was a good explanation for why he was unable to prevail over Jezebeth at any point during the numerous regressions.

It wasn't because he couldn't...but because he wouldn't.

This may have been the last regression, but it was also the one opportunity he had to set everything straight.

Every time renewal would result in the records exhausting a power of their powers.

A single renewal wouldn't have much of an impact on the records, but what if it happened multiple times? What if it occurred tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of times?

By then, wouldn't the records reach a point where they could no longer sustain a regression?

Wouldn't the records reach a point where they became so weak that perhaps a mortal being could actually reach them?

"Kevin, are you even listening to me?"

Emma's voice brought Kevin out of his thoughts, and his head snapped toward her direction.

The sight of her tears streaming down her cheeks immediately startled him, and he extended his hand forward, trying to wipe away her tears.

"Huh? Why are you crying?"

"Don't touch me."

Smack―!

Emma smacked his hand away and turned around, using her arm to wipe away at her tears.

"I don't understand what has suddenly gotten into you...but at the very least, I think I deserve an explanation. If you don't like me anymore, or if you found someone else...then just tell me. Why must you keep me in the dark and m..ake me suffer so much?"

Emma's shoulders trembled, and she started to choke on her words.

"...It hurts, you know?"

Kevin's head lowered when he saw the state that Emma was in, his arms resting over his legs.

He opened his mouth and said, "My ending...it's not going to be a good one."

"Huh?"

Emma turned around. Tears were still streaming down her cheeks, but more than anything, there was a confused look on her face.

"What are you talking about?"

Kevin smiled at her.

He gave her the saddest smile he had ever given her and repeated himself.

"...From the moment I was born, my ending was already set in stone."

He slowly raised himself up and out of the bed. A sharp pain pierced his abdomen area, but he ignored it and got up.

He inched closer to Emma and slowly lifted her chin with his finger.

"I am distancing myself from you not because I find you burdensome or because I have found someone else. Even if I had a million lives, I don't believe I'll ever fall for another person..."

Kevin suddenly laughed.

Even though he laughed normally, there was an underlying sadness contained in his laughter.

"The only reason why I am distancing myself from you is that I know that my ending isn't going to be a happy one."

He slowly brought his head forward and murmured.

"Maybe...this is what I deserve for what I have done, or maybe I was just born this way, but staying with me won't make you happy."

He continued to move his head forward and it wasn't long before his lips touched something soft.

'I am cursed.'