"So, you gonna buy some?"
A young boy with a dazed expression was standing in front of a fruit stall. The owner of said fruit stall was trying to get the boys attention, but couldn't.
"What's wrong, my man? You're staring off into space."
The sharp eyed youngin's gaze finally fell upon the burly owner... or so it looked.
From the owner's perspective, it felt like the boy was staring through him. The boy was acting like he was inconsequential, like he didn't matter.
Naturally, he got angry.
"If you just gonna stand there dazed, go stand somewhere else! You're messing with my business!"
Before he could even finish saying that, the boy already walked off. With a soured mood, the burly owner continued promoting his fruits to the passersby.
Natsuki Subaru was... lost. Not in the directional sense, but in the sense of mentality.
He just sat down at the fountain and stared into nothingness.
'...Again.'
He had come back again.
Even after doing everything right, even after putting Emilia on the throne, even after dying of old age with his grandkids surrounding him in his last moments.
He was back.
Again.
...Where did he go wrong? What did he do wrong?
When...
"When the FUCK WILL THIS HELL END!?"
At his sudden shout, people around him started giving him weird looks, but he didn't care.
'I did EVERYTHING RIGHT! Everyone was alive, everyone was happy, I made sure of it! Why...'
"...Why am I back here?"
This was not his first time dying of old age. This was not his first time putting Emilia in the throne.
To get out of this Odforsaken loop, he had tried everything.
He had even destroyed the world a couple of times.
It didn't work.
He hoped putting another condidate on the throne would be the end of it.
It didn't work.
He hoped saving or killing Satella would be the end of it.
It didn't work.
He hoped falling off the Great Waterfall would be the end of it.
It didn't work.
He hoped getting his soul destroyed would be the end of it.
It didn't work.
He hoped and hoped and hoped, tried and tried and tried.
"...But nothing worked."
He clutched his hair and looked down at the ground.
What was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to continue?
He had already given up once, but this power he had, this curse, didn't allow him to give up.
Even when he became completely impassive and apathetic, he just went back after dying of dehydration. And it continued like that for dozens of loops until he started trying and hoping again.
He wasn't even allowed to give up for fuck's sake!
"I even worked with that bitch Pandora a couple of times. Echidna too. I even... I even went back to earth once."
But he was still sent back. Every. Single. Time.
"And that's... that's not even the worst of it. Because... nothing matters anymore."
Emilia's smile which used to bring him joy, is now nothing more than a statistic that shows he's doing something right.
Death which used to bring him great pain and suffering, is now just a way of going back.
There was no more joy, no sadness, no pain, no anger for him anymore.
All of it... was just stale now.
And when he said all of it, he meant all of it.
Killing people, burning entire countries, torturing slaves.
...None of it really made him feel anything.
...
...
...
"But I ain't giving up."
Rage was burning inside of the boy's heart, a rage so intense that it made him continue trying.
He wanted to destroy whoever gave him this curse. He didn't care if it was God, the Devil himself or some kind of eldritch horror.
He would get his revenge no matter what.
He got up and started weaving strange symbols in the air.
"I've only been to earth once, I should check up on that some more. I should also check up if there are other universes in the world, not just this one and earth. If all else fails... multiverse bullshit it is."
After the boy was done weaving the symbols, an invisible tear in space appeared next to him. Through the tear, he could feel something enter his body, something foreign.
The rage, the wrath inside of him manifested into fire that could burn anything.
"Sirius done, let's get the other ones."
He was all out of mana from that maneuver, but there were a lot of things he could do without it, even with his weak body.
He would continue trying, he would continue getting better, until he got out of this loop. No matter if it takes another ten thousand years, he will do it.
He will win.