Bihan pulled me out from under his arm and thrust me forward, right in front of Nisrak’s face.
Nisrak’s eyes went wide the moment he saw my face.
Seeing his eyes fill with sheer shock made me start to feel uneasy.
‘What’s wrong with my face?
Is it that hideous?’
Nisrak muttered.
“This is…”
“Right?
I know, right?”
“But…”
“You never know.
Our Lord has all sorts of abilities.”
“Well, yes, but…”
“What’s the Lord doing?”
“He’s bathing.
Surely you aren’t planning to take the child there…”
“Why wouldn’t I?
I want to show him as soon as possible.”
No way.
Interrupting ‘his’ bath?
No.
I don’t want to die!
“The baby is squirming.”
“Yeah, she’s a feisty little one.”
Nisrak reached his hand out toward me.
‘Save me, please.’
With every ounce of strength I could muster, I grabbed Nisrak’s outstretched finger.
In an instant, Nisrak’s eyes softened.
He looked up at Bihan, his face flushed with excitement.
“L-Look.
She’s holding my finger.
With this tiny, maple-leaf hand.”
“Hey, why won’t she hold mine?
I want a turn.”
Bihan thrust his index finger in front of me.
I had absolutely no desire to touch Bihan’s finger, but I would do anything to avoid being dragged to ‘him.’
“Oobyaaa!” (‘I’ll hold it, so just put me back where you found me!’)
Screaming the words in my head, I squeezed Bihan’s index finger.
Bihan stared down at his captured finger with a deeply moved expression, then muttered,
“Did you hear that?
She just called me big brother.”
“…”
* * *
Despite my life-or-death struggles, it was all in vain.
I was ultimately dragged—no, carried—into the mansion’s bathroom.
Bihan, apparently not fearing ‘him’ at all, flung the bathroom door open without even knocking.
Fortunately, the actual bath wasn’t right at the entrance.
A man was standing in the changing area.
The moment I saw his pitch-black hair, my heart plummeted.
Hair as dark as the abyss, violet eyes, bronze skin, and a cold, sharp mouth.
Warren Ulph.
He was ‘his’ right-hand man, and the very person who had ended my life in my previous run.
The sensation of Warren’s sword slicing through my neck was as vivid as if it had happened yesterday.
Actually, it wasn’t yesterday—it had literally been a few hours ago.
No matter how hard I tried to reach ‘him,’ Warren’s sword always blocked my path.
That was why, in my recent lives where I finally gathered enough power to reach ‘him,’ I kept getting killed by Warren instead.
To think I’d run into Warren the moment I regressed.
I swallowed hard, letting out a tiny whimper.
“Hnyoo.”
Warren’s violet eyes turned toward me.
The moment he looked at me, I thought I saw his eyes soften, but surely it was just my imagination.
“What is that?”
“A baby.
Cute, right?”
“…”
“I’m here to show her to the Lord.
Move aside.”
“My Lord is still bathing.”
“Oh, come on, get out of the way.
He needs to see her right now.”
“Wait.”
“Ugh, you stubborn bastard.
Hey, look.
Watch this, she’s holding my hand.”
Bihan held out his hand to me again.
To survive in this incredibly weak body, I had to get on Bihan’s good side first.
If Bihan liked me, he might protect me when ‘he’ tried to kill me on sight.
So, I squeezed Bihan’s index finger as hard as I could.
Bihan’s eyes crinkled with delight.
“See that?
Jealous?”
Warren merely knit his brows slightly, offering no response.
Just then,
Click.
The door behind Warren opened, and a rush of hot steam poured out.
My breath caught at the silhouette of a well-built man standing amidst the thick mist.
As the steam slowly cleared, the naked man was revealed.
Even after regressing over a thousand times, this was the first time I had ever seen ‘him’ naked.
But I was in no position to appreciate the view.
It was ‘him.’
The Duke of the Empire, and the reclusive King of the Demon Realm.
And the source of the apocalypse, who had destroyed this world thousands of times over.
Andrian Lucas Brandt.
Oblivious to my inner turmoil, Bihan lifted me right up to Lucas’s face.
Just having his blood-red eyes lock onto me sent a chill straight to my bones.
Too frozen to even squirm, I simply stared back at Lucas.
Lucas stared right back, refusing to back down.
As we locked eyes in a silent battle of wills, Bihan spoke up.
“My Lord.
Did you have a baby behind my back?”