I...
... Why is this happening to me?
This was the thought of the prince, Corneus Midgar...
What was once a proud, young prince laid down on his bed, with a wholly uncaring look.
Unbefitting of one.
He was only 9 years old, even though in reality it was three hundred and nine years including what was in his past life. How was he that old?
Did you read the summary? He was in a loop that lasted 1.5 years before it restarts.
He was 31 by that time, and he merely died of COVID-19. In such cases he did meet a ROB, or a random omnipotent being.
'... That bastard was silent, and before I could speak he just made me fall into a massive abyss for an hour... that prick.'
Despair began to fill his heart each loop, currently unable to cope with the fact that he really is in a loop.
Why? Why did this happen to him? He's going to be like Touma Kamijou!
At least, what he experienced was incredibly light compared to that person, because after a certain point of the loop, he'll black out and wake up in this same spot.
At least he didn't end up dying horribly, right?
But, maybe...
"Tsk! This is not like me, the prince! Don't compare me to anybody!!" He yelled out, loudly enough as he left the bed he was laying in.
And just in time, a few guards entered the room. They were in a light armor, showing their mob character faces as they were looking quite worried about him.
"My prince! Are you okay?" One of the guards asked, checking upon him.
"Umu..."
'... That was embarrassing.' He thought, as the two guards were assured of his condition, nodding to each other.
After that, everything was normal... Except Corneus was almost always at the state of despair, which Iris, his biological older sister decided to try and find out what was
causing him to be like that.
Alexia also tried to find out what happened to him, to no avail.u
She was in a state of confusion until with a mere white lie, most of their worries were gone.
At this loop, Corneus began to contemplate his choices regarding the future loops. The same events will happen, despite minor (or major) deviations caused by him or the world around him.
Should he still drown himself in despair, or what?
Will he succumb to hopelessness?
The answer is no.
He was hoping otherwise.
He prayed to whatever God that exists, doesn't matter who was who, if he was cursed to life an eternal life in an endless loop, then...
...
...
[ LOOP 300 ]
Corneus didn't do anything, succumbing to despair and hopelessness.
For 300 years.
He fully developed a cold, uncaring personality this time. Though this is temporary, he will remember this as his utterly embarrassing times.
[ LOOP 600 AND ONWARDS ]
Despite the hopelessness of not being able to get out of the loop, Corneus' desire and hope to break it and the hope to witness what was beyond the loop and what his existence will bring.
He saw a new light before this loop in the form of him having people he could trust, despite him needing to meet them and convince them again and again.
It had turned into a habit between a few tens of loops.
Starting by immediately studying magic way, way longer ago.
He took it to interest to study and investigate the Cult Of Diabolos, the whole structure of Midgar Kingdom, even bits and pieces of the Oriana Kingdom and the City State Alliance, neighboring countries behind the borders of this kingdom.
Decidedly his own actions of curiosity had allowed him to obtain so much information that he decided to find out his own kingdom's problems that will be used once he truly broke the loop.
How?
Through magic, of course!
"...?! I feel like exploding-"
He died.
[ LOOP 2000 ]
Boredom filled Corneus' existence.
Despite this, his goal remained unchanged.
At this point, he decided to take a deeper look into girls and women who have been inflicted with the "Demonic Possession".
To his surprise, as he doesn't even know this anime, he found out that it was caused by an immensely fluctuating mana.
Not just that, he actually remembered something similar happening to him in 1200 past loops, something within him started to feel like exploding.
Then he exploded, taking a whole castle with him.
Of course, he failed containing the extreme fluctuation of his mana in almost half of these loops (and died), but he eventually learned extreme mana control.
It wasn't simple, but his search for something meaningful to break his loop began to mold him into an insane person.
He rarely talked to his biological sister, nor at Alexia. It was beginning to feel worthless.
'... Damn that ROB... He sent me to this personal hell for no reason!'
Hopefully that ROB's higher ups notice and kick his ass.
[ Loop 3000 ]
He eventually found a way to extend this loop.
Not just that, he decided to have fun, playing as Demon King Diabolos and even impersonating him.
After all, what should he do now? He had drowned in the shadows of grief, doubt, sadness, despair, hopelessness, and...
"Tell me... where is my hope?" He asked Iris, who took several steps forward, her legs shaky as his mask fell off.
"Why did this happen to you? In these ten years, Alexia died, this kingdom is at a disarray, and you tried to impersonate this Diabolos?! Why!?" She sobbed out, before kneeling forward and grasped her sword.
"... I don't know... This all went too wrong."
'... I don't really know... But I need to do something... Better. Sacrifices are probably needed.'
Corneas sighed, raising his hand just to hold her cheek.
"... Kill me, I can't... hold him much longer. And thanks."
She did.
Yet to him, it went horribly wrong.
So horribly wrong that, he realized he had been using a shitty villain persona.
And then he woke up in his bed, nothing different from the previous loops.
Though in the next loops, he found out a powerful sacrificial ritual, and modified it two thousand times.
[ LOOP 6666 ]
And eventually, he decided to have the greatest and craziest idea he had ever wanted to do: Travel Back In Time.
He did just that, and decided: "How about I replace Diabolos? I've gor a few hundred years left to spare before the loop comes back."
He did just that.
Did he regret it?
Nope, other than leaving a heavily important part of history that will be rewritten by a certain cult.
Another part he didn't regret was that he created a fake Diabolos with his magic before embracing his human self, having three wives until his life's end.
And they were the three heroes that were in the history books, too! Cool.
The most surprising part was, once he died, a bright light covered his vision, before everything became dark.
Strange. It never happened before.
And, for a certain reason, his mind felt very relieved.
Though...
'... Why do I feel so small?'
It was minutes before he realized he had become a baby. So what did he do next?
He cried in relief for two minutes.
'... Does this mean... I've broken the loop?! And it took just... bedding the Three Heroes?! What the fu-'
[ ~ TO • BE • CONTINUED ~ ]