When he had woken from his long dream, Jeong-woo thought it was a relief that his suffering had helped his brother. But another thought came to him: if he were back in reality…‘Won’t they be here somewhere?’

* * *

Jeong-woo grinned at the sight of Aether pale with fear. However, it wasn’t a smile of happiness but disbelief. ‘I thought I’d be angry when I saw him again.’ Jeong-woo remembered the lives he’d endured.

Each time he repeated the special benefit, he repeated the bad ending, as well. In the lives where he’d managed to survive past the middle, most of them had ended from his friends’ betrayal. He had to repeat the pain of his heart being split each time.

Although there were times when they didn’t betray him, they were infrequent, and he was always betrayed for the same reasons: greed, desire, hunger for power. The same thing had occurred in reality.

In hindsight, he had been one of the reasons Arthia had splintered. He’d turned a blind eye to his exhausted friends and encouraged them to keep climbing for the elixir. Many clans had grown wary of them, but he always ignored them. Then, things ended badly because...