Chapter 46: So Much For Peace
Even though the scene in front of him was the kind of thing that would have made almost anyone scream, or even faint, at just the thought of it happening inside their own home, Eric wasn’t worried about it in the slightest, nor was he even disgusted by it.
After all, it wasn’t as if this was the first time he had seen mangled corpses and blood everywhere, as his former self had killed more people than he would like to admit, and besides, if there were this many bodies lying around, this meant that Celeste had done a good job at defending his home.
Of course, it still wasn’t something to simply just scoff at however, and Eric wondered why a massive fight had to take place at his home when all of the other times Celeste was able to shoo away the intruders without having to even fight.
Not only that, but despite how mangled some of the bodies are, Eric was still able to recognize a lot of the people here.
’Mainly because they’re all villains that I have read about in the novel.’
Most were minor villains, some were henchmens working under the villains, and a few were surprisingly even major villains in the story.
But honestly, it just didn’t make any sense to him at all.
Because unlike the groups and organizations that have all came to this safehouse and tried to attack him before due to a distress signal that was sent out about him, the villains that were currently lying dead all over his house right now had no reason to attack him, nor were most of them even affiliated with one another.
In fact, some of them were probably even enemies with each other as well if Eric remembered correctly.
And Eric didn’t think that they had came for Celeste either, since he doubted any of them were stupid enough to pick a fight with her without being fully prepared to take her on, which none of them seemed to be.
So why?
Eric stared at the dozens upon dozens of dead bodies scattered across the living room for a few more seconds before realizing that there was only one person in this entire world right now who could attract this many villains at once.
As such, without any hesitation whatsoever, Eric quickly stepped over the bodies and made his way towards the kitchen.
Once there, he pulled out a kitchen knife from one of the drawers and moved cautiously through the safehouse, checking the first floor and basement for any signs of her.
But aside from a few more corpses scattered around here and there, there wasn’t a trace of her anywhere.
Eric wasn’t entirely convinced yet though, as his house still had a second floor that she could potentially be in, and so he immediately went upstairs and began searching there as well.
And the moment he entered his first room on the second floor of his safehouse, he found her.
Lying down on his bed unconsciously, in a massive pool of blood that even the bed mattress couldn’t absorb... was Aurora herself.
And it was shocking to say the least.
Not because she was currently here at his safehouse or anything like that, since this was actually the same safehouse he had lured and killed her in before, but because her wounds...
They looked horrible.
The worst he had ever seen in this life yet.
Even the injuries he had given her back during their confrontation at the hospital on that day seemed minor compared to this.
From the gaping hole in her chest that was big enough to put his entire fist through, to the long slashes and deep cuts all across her entire body, and the bruises and burn marks that was visible on her skin and wasn’t covered with blood, it was as though she had been to hell itself and came back.
And that wasn’t even the worst part of it.
Oh no, the worst part of all of this was the main fact that...
’I can still barely see her breathing.’
Just as Eric took a step into the room and was about to go up to Aurora to observe her more closely, all of a sudden...
WOOSH!
A sharp gust of wind sliced past Eric, too fast for him to react, and before he even realized what had just happened, the tip of a sword was pressed against his neck.
Luckily, the wielder of the sword didn’t behead him immediately, and after realizing that it was only just Eric, they lowered their blade.
"Woah, that was close Celeste. One more millisecond there and I would’ve been-" Before Eric could finish speaking however...
"Eric, you need to explain to me just what in the world is going on right now. I have the right to know." Celeste, who appeared to be surprisingly somewhat injured herself despite her strength, interrupted him in a furious tone.
"Hmm? What do you mean by that? I should be the one asking that question here. I wasn’t even gone for more than 4 hours and yet my entire house is a mess now." Eric frowned as he replied.
"Please, don’t play dumb with me. Not even 20 minutes after you left, this child shows up at your front door injured, screaming your name, and then collapses right before I can even open the door and get a proper word out of her. Then, not even five minutes after I let her in and bring her upstairs, this entire house gets stormed by people I recognized immediately. Evil people, Eric. God-awful people. And you expect me to believe that you don’t know anything about this? What’s even the point of trying to fool me still?" Celeste narrowed her eyes at Eric.
"There is no point in me trying to fool you, which is exactly why I’m not. But..." Eric trailed off as he continued looking at Aurora from the corner of his eyes.
"But what?" Celeste questioned.
Eric didn’t reply back right away and instead couldn’t help but sigh just thinking about it.
Because truthfully, with everything he knew about Aurora, it didn’t take a detective to figure out what was going on here.
In fact, it was quite simply really.
Aurora, knowing she was likely going to die soon with all these villains coming after her, had decided to try and seek him out in an attempt to get some useful information out of him, hoping that she could make use of it in her next life.
That was most likely why she had shown up here to begin with after not being able to find him at his penthouse, and it was the most reasonable explanation he could think of.
As for the villains themselves, the reason why some of them were chasing her this early on, when most of them shouldn’t have even known about her until after she had regressed thousands upon thousands of times, was just as obvious.
It was because she had gone viral after failing to kill him back at the hospital, and every villain who had shown up at his safehouse today was someone obsessed with her beauty.
Eric had realized this the moment he spotted Aurora in his bedroom, but he didn’t want to tell Celeste about it because explaining the situation to her also meant having to explain Aurora’s ability to regress and how he knows about it to her, and that was just not a can of worms he wanted to open to anyone ever.
Just as Eric was trying to decide on how to reply, or whether he should simply just walk out of the house without saying a word and find somewhere else to stay for the time being however...
"Bas...tard..." Aurora suddenly groaned while opening her eyes slightly.
Upon hearing this, both Eric and Celeste quickly turned their heads towards Aurora, and Celeste quickly rushed over to Aurora’s side in an attempt to try and help her out.
Although she didn’t know who Aurora was, she couldn’t stand to see someone suffer like this.
But as soon as Celeste reached out with her arm and was about to try and relieve Aurora’s pain a bit by using the healing abilities that she’s got, Aurora swatted Celeste’s hand away in a slow and weak manner.
Then without any hesitation whatsoever as she couldn’t afford to waste even a single more second of her time, she glared straight at Eric and spoke up.
"I need... to know... why... why does it always... end like this?" Aurora spoke in a raspy voice as her unfocused eyes trembled uncontrollably.
Eric didn’t answer however and just stared back at her silently.
"You know... don’t you? You seem to know... everything about me in this life... whether it be the present... or my future... so tell me... why?" Aurora muttered while taking in slow and shallow breaths.
Still, Eric gave no response whatsoever.
"ANSWER ME!" Aurora yelled with the last bits of strength she had.
But of course, Eric still chose to remain silent.
It wasn’t until Aurora had said something that he hadn’t expected at all, that he finally responded.
"Am I... the reason why... you won’t answer... my question...?" Aurora whispered as blood slipped down the corner of her mouth, "Because... I’ve killed you... multiple times... in the past... before?"
"No. My past selves had all deserved to die, so you won’t get any complaints from me there. But out of all of the questions you could’ve chosen to ask me in particular, you’ve chosen to ask me a stupid one, Aurora."
"..."
"After all, you already know the answer to that question. You’ve longed had."
"..."
"So go ahead and ask me another question. One that actually matters, and I’ll answer it for you."
"..."
"Aurora?"
Seeing as though Aurora hadn’t spoken up after a couple of seconds, and her eyes weren’t trembling anymore, Eric slowly approached her closely to get a better look at her.
And that’s when he realized it.
That Aurora was finally dead.
Gone.
Just like that.
It felt as though she had died such a quick and meaningless death in this life.
As though she wasn’t the protagonist anymore.
Eric wasn’t sure what or even how he was feeling right now as he stared down at Aurora’s lifeless body, and he was almost tempted to reach out and touch her.
But if there was one thing he was certain of, it was the fact that...
"I don’t feel happy about it for some reason."
But oh well, at least his life was finally going to get much easier from this point on, and as long as he doesn’t do anything majorly stupid just like he had done in the past, then he should be able to live a long and peaceful life.
And Eric couldn’t help but chuckle softly upon thinking that.
"I suppose it was better this way anyways, Celeste. You wouldn’t of been able to save her and there was nothing that I could’ve... Celeste?" While Eric had been talking and was slowly turning his head to Celeste besides him, he realized that Celeste wasn’t next to him anymore.
Even more strangely, the moment Eric couldn’t help but blink in response to this, he suddenly found himself somehow back inside of his penthouse again lying down on his bed.
Furthermore, his penthouse wasn’t in ruins anymore and was intact again.
With that in mind, Eric quickly sat up on his bed and checked the date on his phone.
And this time, the date on his phone read, ’December 1st, 2029.’
The date he had first woken up on after all of his memories of his past lives returned back to him.
’...’
"So much for wanting to live a peaceful life."
It seemed as though fate had other plans in store for him.