A Fortress of Memories
Tap. Tap. Tap.>
Inside the carriage that raced without pause, Irene gazed out at the fortress of the Kingdom Alliance visible in the distance.>
The place where purifiers and knights gathered to form their contracts.>
The last place she had thought she would ever see again in this lifetime.>
“But here I am, returning once more.”>
Irene let out a bitter smile.>
“It wasn’t returning at all.”>
In this life, it was her first visit.>
After reopening her eyes, with no knowledge of what had become of anything, Irene simply borrowed from the count just as she had in the past.>
She asked for six months and promised to earn gold by forming a pair.>
As she had remembered, the count glared angrily at her and gave her the first and only opportunity.>
After that, Irene locked herself away in her room for a whole day and thought.>
They said that memories of the past appeared just before death, but this was far beyond mere visions.>
She had waited for the nightmare to end all day long, praying for the images of her death to vanish.>
Just like before, the maids brought meals as if tossing them in.>
The butler tossed down a bag and told her to pack for departure.>
Watching their vivid mockery and contempt, Irene finally understood.>
This was no dream.>
She had truly returned to the past.>
“How?”>
She had no idea why, but she could guess.>
“Is this because of me?”>
Irene pulled a half-melted dark metal shard from her pocket.>
It was undoubtedly the item she had obtained from the “Reward Room” in that dungeon before she died.>
The room at the farthest end of the dungeon, which even monsters could never enter.>
It also held boxes that no one knew when or where they had been created, and inside them were strange items that sometimes appeared alongside gold and jewels.>
Before her death, Irene had opened a rotting wooden box beside her.>
It was clearly the lowest-grade reward box anyone could see.>
Inside such a box, only useless junk would emerge—odd feathers, bizarre pebbles, and so on.>
So when a half-shard of strange metal appeared, Irene had simply accepted it.>
“I must have clutched it tightly as I died.”>
Yet in her hand now, returning to the past, the shard still rested there.>
After staring at the shard for a moment, Irene placed it back in her pocket and turned her gaze to the paper resting on her lap.>
It was the paper where she had written every scrap of information from her past life.>
From the moment she realized she had returned to the past, Irene had recorded everything she remembered with frantic speed.>
Which dungeons had appeared in which dangerous areas, which among them held surprising rewards, what powers they possessed…>
“I couldn’t have forgotten anything.”>
Alone as she had always been, once she grew bored sitting in the room, she began reading from the document storage—first the records of newly generated dungeons, then every entry of past dungeons in order.>
She was interested in the dungeons themselves, but even more so in the items that emerged from them.>
A necklace that never injured monsters when worn, a jewel that glowed without care, a statue that remained intact even in fire.>
These artifacts, items with strange abilities, were the most valuable rewards obtainable in dungeons.>
For example, the necklace worn by the king of Helyen Kingdom had the power to slow aging.>
Thanks to it, the eighty-year-old king still looked in his early thirties.>
An artifact of that caliber could change a life completely and sold for an enormous price.>
“That’s why it caused such a stir whenever it appeared in low-grade dungeons.”>
People had lamented that if they had only known about the item in that place, they would have used every means to obtain it.>
And now Irene knew exactly where what item appeared in which dungeon.>
She had not only remembered the rewards themselves.>
She also clearly remembered which attribute monsters appeared in which dungeon and what they were strong or weak against.>
“If everything remains as I remember… then even a disadvantageous contract could yield favorable results for me.”>
Paying ten thousand gold to the count was nothing.>
Irene recalled the count who had slapped her cheek in the past.>
In the previous life he had seemed so enormous and terrifying, but this time it was different.>
Even his shouting to repay her body price was nothing but contemptuous, carrying no fear.>
Not only him—his maids who had laughed at her and the butler who had joined in were also here.>
They had all frightened her before, but now they merely seemed pitiful.>
“Once I died, everything became amusing.”>
At that moment the coachman shouted loudly.>
“Hey! We’re almost at the fortress! Prepare to get off!”>
In the past he would have been startled by the words, but now it was different.>
Irene calmly placed the paper in her bag and set the luggage bag she had brought from the count beside her.>
After neatly arranging her appearance, she lifted her head.>
“It had been a life that failed once.”>
And a miracle had brought her a chance to start over.>
“So I cannot live as foolishly as before.”>
Through one week of observation she had learned several facts.>
The major events she remembered had indeed occurred exactly as before.>
But there were also differences.>
For instance, in the previous life the cook had given her only hard bread, but now when she had to form a contract he gave her a well-cooked soup and soft bread.>
In the past she had received clothes that were little more than rags, but this time she had received proper clothes in exchange for the contract.>
Anything was possible—past results could differ according to her choices.>
“Then…”>
Irene made her resolve while watching the fortress grow steadily closer.>
The first mistake she must correct in this life.>
It was simply…>
“I will not form a pair with Michael.”>
Irene still remembered clearly the gaze Michael had given her even now.>
His shock and embarrassment when he realized she had slept with him, along with his shame and despair.>
It was only a natural reaction, she thought.>
She felt no resentment toward him for revealing his contempt without hiding it.>
Even if it was only to save her, his faith had been completely shattered.>
“If I had been a strong purifier, he would never have fallen like that.”>
If Princess Cecilia, the strongest purifier of this century, had been Michael’s pair, she might have saved him simply by holding his hand.>
Then he would never have been expelled from the temple.>
Irene recalled her own mistaken choice that had wounded everyone in the past.>
“I cannot repeat my mistake.”>
Therefore, in this life she would find a pair other than him.>
Without fail.>
* * *>
The fortress stood before the dangerous area where dungeons appeared, and while it was indeed a fortress, in reality it differed little from a vast city.>
“With all the gold dungeons produce, of course.”>
Gold and jewels, along with artifacts, could be obtained from the Reward Room at the end of the dungeon.>
Every kingdom had gone mad to obtain them, and so the knights and purifiers entering the dungeon were given maximum convenience and pleasure.>
“Not something that applies to me, a lowest-rank purifier.”>
Irene stood in a corner and watched the purifiers and knights greeting each other as they searched for their pairs.>
A pair was the term used for a purifier and a knight who had agreed to form a contract together.>
Once paired, the purifier would heal only that knight, and the knight would receive healing only from his paired purifier.>
For some unknown reason, healing efficiency rose further when they dealt only with their contracted pair.>
Of course, even if that were true, the sight of unmarried people sharing a bed every time would have been hard to watch.>
So the Kingdom Alliance had attached the name “pair” to the relationship and recognized it as a temporary marriage.>
Though it was merely a play on words, perhaps they had wanted to save face that way.>
Unlike her previous life, Irene calmly surveyed the splendid space, then turned her eyes to the knights.>
“Seeing those who died again feels strange.”>
Then she chuckled softly.>
She herself was also no longer a person who had died once.>
Irene touched the metal shard in her pocket.>
In this life she seemed destined to learn its true nature as well.>
Her eyes then fell on one knight.>
A man laughing casually with his fellow knights.>
“Even if he looks like that, he was quite skilled.”>
Moreover, he was the knight who had never entered a dungeon that was too difficult for him, who cherished his body too much.>
And he was one who had survived until the very end.>
In the past he had approached Irene several times.>
“Honestly, I’m regretting it now. If it had been someone like you, you could have simply abandoned dungeon exploration for a year and enjoyed yourself.”>
He added that if she had not been Michael’s pair, he could have formed one with her and felt sorry for it.>
“A man who would accept even the lowest-rank purifier because of his looks. And yet one with a certain level of skill.”>
That was exactly the condition Irene wanted in a pair.>
And the man before her satisfied it.>
“Honestly… I only wish it were not Michael.”>
Irene approached the knight.>
He then looked her up and down with his eyes and licked his lips.>
Her heart felt at ease with the man’s overt desire.>
If he was so clearly driven by lust, it was better this way—she would simply calculate what to give and receive, with no emotions involved.>
“Could you form a contract with me?”>
“You… I know for certain you are a lowest-rank purifier.”>
“Yes. That is why I am willing to make many concessions in the contract terms. You may take all the rewards from the dungeon. However, you must give me only one reward from a low-grade dungeon once a month.”>
At those words the knight’s eyes sparkled.>
Irene’s proposal was truly radical.>
Normally purifiers demanded a 5:5 ratio.>
Knights disliked the terms but had no choice, since without a purifier they would not even obtain entry, and crossing the purifier could mean no proper healing.>
Yet here he was offering conditions no better than free.>
“In addition, low-grade dungeons are easy to conquer and their rewards are basically trash.”>
No matter how she looked at it, the terms were favorable to him.>
“Really? Is that enough?”>
“Yes. In exchange, the dungeon from which I receive the reward will be the one I designate. There are no other conditions.”>
“Hmm.”>
The knight looked at Irene and quickly calculated in his mind.>
She was the woman who had caught his eye since the corner.>
Tall, slender, with only the necessary parts full, and a calm, composed face that stirred desire.>
If she had not been lowest-rank, many knights would have flocked to her.>
“Good.”>
The knight extended his hand to Irene.>
“Then let us spend the night together for the future.”>
The desire-filled gaze made Irene let out a small sigh.>
Suddenly she remembered the past again.>
Michael, who had asked for nothing from her.>
And the miserable past that resulted because of it.>
“This is better.”>
If both sides knew exactly what they wanted and gave and received, at least she would not have to suffer the guilt of ruining someone.>
The moment Irene reached out to take the knight’s hand…>
Boom!>
With a loud crash the doors of the banquet hall swung open roughly.>
A man drenched in bright red blood entered the hall.>
Irene’s eyes widened in surprise.>
The man who had entered in a terrible state was… Michael.