Chapter – 05
“Luciena, wake up.”
“Mmm…”
Her mother stood over her with both hands on her hips. Luciena slowly pushed herself upright in bed.
It was morning, filled with the cheerful chorus of birdsong.
“It’s your fifteenth birthday today. You can’t be sleeping in this late.”
At those words, Luciena’s half-lidded eyes snapped fully open.
…I died again.
It was the morning after her 100th death.
So this makes the third time I’ve spent my fifteenth birthday… Am I going to be stuck on this day for a while?
After her mother left the room, Luciena decided to organize everything that had happened the previous day.
I remember going to find my sister last night… and then falling down the stairs.
She had tumbled down the staircase and struck her head against a marble ornament, dying instantly.
The important thing is… someone pushed me. Hard.
It hadn’t been an accidental fall.
Someone had deliberately shoved her to her death.
This wasn’t merely Luciena’s suspicion—it was an undeniable fact.
Murder.
The first person who came to mind was the fleeting figure she had glimpsed just before losing consciousness.
Erteo Elus.
Her hands began trembling uncontrollably. Luciena took several deep breaths to calm herself.
It makes sense to put Erteo at the top of the list of suspects.
If she had been the Luciena of the past, she would never have doubted Erteo—the man she had loved most in her previous life, no matter that he had abandoned her.
But after dying a hundred times and being reborn once more, none of those feelings remained.
And if there’s a second suspect… there’s really only one person.
The one person in this house who had the clearest reason to hate Luciena was her biological older sister,
Reshuna Dimtel.
I won’t deny that Sister has disliked me ever since we were children. The malicious novel she wrote… the way she treated me at the party… She’s the most logical suspect.
If Reshuna really was the culprit, then simply defending her in front of their parents wasn’t enough to avoid death.
Wasn’t that exactly what had happened in her last life?
She had defended Reshuna after she broke the porcelain vase and was scolded by Father in front of everyone.
Yet in the end, she had still been shoved down the stairs and died a gruesome death.
If that method doesn’t work… then I’ll have to find another.
Luciena let out a long sigh.
She had to figure out a way to avoid being murdered.
No matter how hard she thought, her mind refused to function properly.
…How did things end up like this?
The man she had loved more than anyone…
The sister she had trusted…
The possibility that those two were the strongest suspects in her murder made her laugh bitterly.
Rising from her seat, Luciena gazed out the window, lost in thought.
Something happened on my birthday this time that never happened originally. That means the new actions I took in this life affected the future… eventually leading someone to murder me. And there’s a high chance it has something to do with Sister.
She couldn’t remember exactly what she had done on her real fifteenth birthday.
But she was certain of one thing.
“What should I do…?”
Her thoughts felt as though they would split her head apart.
Standing by the window, Luciena let the icy winter breeze cool her mind.
She decided to think more rationally about Reshuna—and more calmly about how she should live this new life.
Think carefully, Luciena. I can’t come back to being fifteen only to die over and over again without accomplishing anything.
After pondering for a long time, Luciena suddenly lifted her head, as though she had reached a decision.
“Fioda, I need to ask you to do something important.”
“Yes, Miss. Just tell me.”
Luciena leaned close and whispered her instructions into the maid Fioda’s ear.
Luciena and Fioda stood in front of Reshuna’s bedroom.
Fioda knocked on the door several times.
Knock. Knock.
There was no response.
The room was completely silent, without even the slightest sign of movement.
It seemed Reshuna hadn’t returned home yet.
“…Then we’ll begin, Miss.”
Fioda met Luciena’s eyes with a determined expression.
She inserted a master key into the lock and turned it.
Click.
The bedroom door opened.
“Miss, the moment I signal with a whistle, you must come out immediately. If you can’t, then hide as best you can!”
Leaving those final instructions behind, Fioda remained outside while Luciena carefully stepped into the room.
After agonizing over how to survive today without being murdered, Luciena had concluded that she needed to search Reshuna’s room for clues.
Her highest priority was finding Reshuna’s diary.
A diary always contained a person’s most honest emotions.
Reshuna’s wouldn’t be any different.
Luciena was convinced that it would contain events she herself couldn’t remember—or reasons why Reshuna had come to resent her.
“Phew…”
Taking a deep breath to steel herself, Luciena closed her eyes before opening them again.
Reshuna’s bedroom was located in the far northern corner of the mansion.
Because sunlight never reached it, the room remained dim even during the day unless lamps were lit.
It was nothing like Luciena’s own bedroom, where sunlight poured in all day long.
There was something strangely sinister about the room.
Luciena cautiously surveyed her surroundings.
Perhaps because Reshuna had never changed rooms since childhood, the place was overflowing with belongings.
Everywhere she looked, piles of miscellaneous items had been left scattered about.
“…How am I supposed to find anything in this mess?”
She felt overwhelmed.
The room was so cluttered it was hard to believe it belonged to a noble young lady.
Bookshelves lined both walls from end to end, packed so tightly with books that there wasn’t even the smallest gap between them.
Luciena enjoyed reading herself, but not to this extent.
『Herbology』
『The Fundamentals of Magic』
『The Difference Between Black Magic and White Magic』
『The Duties of a Witch』
Many of the titles were unlike anything Luciena had ever seen before.
Among them, one particular book caught her attention.
『Curses and Their Side Effects』
Luciena pulled it from the shelf and slowly traced the cover with her fingers.
“Witches… curses… I don’t want to believe it, but… Sister really is the one who did this to me, isn’t she?”
She tucked the book under her arm and stood up.
There were simply too many books to search through one by one.
And with no idea when Reshuna might return, she couldn’t afford to waste time.
After searching the top of the desk, Luciena crouched down and began examining the lower shelves.
Then—
A small, locked notebook caught her eye.
“I found it…!”
It was the kind of diary commonly used by noble ladies.
Luciena used the exact same kind, so she knew immediately what it was.
There wasn’t just one.
Several volumes were neatly lined up together, suggesting Reshuna had diligently kept a diary for many years.
I’ll just borrow these for a little while, Sister.
Gathering several of the diaries into her arms, Luciena stood.
She had accomplished her objective more smoothly than expected.
Just as she let out a sigh of relief—
Creak.
The bedroom door began to open.
Already?
Her first priority was hiding somehow.
Panicking, Luciena turned toward the heavy blackout curtains by the window.
Then—
Grab!
A woman’s hand landed on her shoulder.
Thinking she had been caught by Reshuna, Luciena shut her eyes tightly, her heart nearly stopping from fright.
“Miss, hurry! This isn’t the time to stand around!”
“F-Fioda…?”
Standing before her wasn’t Reshuna.
It was the maid, Fioda, wearing an anxious expression.
“Miss Reshuna just arrived on the first floor! I kept whistling, but you never came out! Ah, there’s no time to explain! Hurry! We have to leave right now!”
Thanks to Fioda’s quick thinking, Luciena managed to slip out of Reshuna’s room by the narrowest of margins.
Without even a chance to catch her breath, she rounded the corner of the hallway—
Only to come face-to-face with Reshuna, who was on her way back to her room.
“…Where have you been, Sister?”
Though she had been in complete panic only moments ago, Luciena wore a perfectly composed expression.
She had done nothing more than greet her.
Yet Reshuna glared at her with cold, piercing eyes.
Luciena answered only with a gentle smile.
Ignoring her completely, Reshuna and her personal maid, Chellin, silently walked past.
Only after hearing Reshuna’s bedroom door open and close did Luciena finally release the tension she had been holding onto for what felt like an eternity.
