The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

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The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

Intermission: First Round

This is the story of Lewis Valentine, who lived his first life without knowing about returning from death, the second round when he first experienced it, and the third round leading up to his death.

Lewis Valentine was a spoiled child. With a status just below that of royalty in a ducal family, and having been raised with love by his parents, he gradually became more arrogant as he grew.

Moreover, he had exceptional talent in martial arts and magic, which contributed to others calling him a prodigy.

When he turned twelve, spring came to Lewis. It was the fiancé he met for the first time through his parents’ introduction, named Iris Pestelose.

When Lewis first laid eyes on her, he was captivated and fell in love at that moment.

However, having been raised selfishly until now, Lewis didn’t understand how to treat others kindly, nor did he know how to interact with someone he had a crush on.

As a result, he behaved arrogantly toward Iris as well, treating her as if she were his servant.

“Iris! You’re late!”

“I’m so sorry! Lord Lewis!”

About a year into their engagement, the once blooming smile on Iris’s face had turned into a wearied expression.

Iris considered breaking off the engagement several times, but since Lewis wouldn’t allow it and her parents were pleased that their children were making friends, she couldn’t bring it up.

To make matters worse, Lewis acted normally toward Iris in front of their parents, so neither he nor Iris’s parents noticed the deterioration of their relationship.

This troubled relationship continued for two more years until the time they entered the academy.

On that day, due to Lewis’s whims, Iris visited the Valentine mansion three days before Lewis left and they headed to the academy together.

“Listen, Iris. Don’t embarrass me, okay?”

“Yes.”

By this time, Lewis was under the illusion that this was a normal relationship, and compared to the earlier days when he didn’t know how to deal with his first love, he had changed for the worse.

Iris, having faced constant blame from Lewis for nearly three years, was now left with a somber expression, so dark that her former brightness seemed a distant memory.

Throughout these three years, her self-esteem and self-worth crumbled, turning her into a doll that only followed what Lewis said.

After the entrance ceremony at the academy, as Lewis and Iris were walking around to explore it, the incident occurred.

“Ah…”

Suddenly, Iris stumbled and sat down, clutching her ankle without trying to stand up.

“What are you doing?”

“I-I’m sorry. It seems I’ve sprained my ankle…”

Iris struggled to stand, but the pain in her foot prevented her from doing so.

“Shut up! Get up already! It’s a disgrace for my fiancée to be sitting here! Hurry up and stand!”

“Kyah!!”

Lewis forcibly grabbed Iris’s arm to make her stand and roughly pulled her along.

“Wait!”

Just then, a young man suddenly rushed in, grabbing Lewis’s arm and pulling him away from Iris.

“What do you want!”

“She’s hurt her foot! Trying to drag her off like that is too cruel!”

The young man said this, shielding Iris behind him and glaring at Lewis with determined eyes.

“Ha! Iris is my fiancée! It’s my prerogative how to treat her! Don’t you dare meddle, commoner!”

Lewis stretched out his arm irritably to reclaim Iris, but the young man ruthlessly brushed him off.

“What does it matter if I’m a commoner right now?! What you’re doing is inhumane! I’ll take her to the infirmary!”

“Hey! Wait!”

Supporting Iris, the young man turned his back on Lewis, trying to lead her to the infirmary, but Lewis called after him.

“What is it? We’re in a hurry!”

“Don’t touch my fiancée without permission!”

“This isn’t the time to say stuff like that!”

Lewis couldn’t stand that the girl he liked was touched by another man, and unable to contain his emotions, he violently grabbed the young man’s shoulder.

“Let’s duel! Right now!”

“What are you saying! This isn’t the time for that!”

“Shut up! Or are you saying a commoner will refuse a duel from me?! Look around you!”

Upon hearing that, the young man glanced around to see several nobles watching with interest. It was clear that refusing would make life at the academy difficult for him.

“Crap. Fine… I accept your duel.”

“N-no! Lord Lewis is a genius known as the prodigy. You can’t…”

Iris pleaded for the young man to decline the duel, but he smiled reassuringly at her.

“It’s alright. I can hold my own, so I’ll do my best for you.”

“Ah…”

Feeling warmth for the first time in ages, Iris couldn’t muster any further words.

“Let’s head to the training ground!”

The training ground is a place used for practical lessons, and students practice voluntarily there after classes finish.

Anyone can use this place if an application is submitted, and it can also be used to handle disputes among students.

Upon reaching the training ground, Lewis gripped a dulled sword meant for lending, and stood facing the young man on the stage.

“The rules are simple. The match ends if either of our badges receives a lethal injury or the referee decides one can’t continue. Is that alright?”

“I have no objections.”

The training ground was designed in a special way, with badges on the chest absorbing damage, and if they absorbed too much, they were automatically propelled outside the stage.

“Now then, are both parties ready? Then… begin!”

With the teacher in charge of the training ground as the referee, Lewis dashed toward the young man at the signal to start.

“Seeyaah!”

Lewis’s swordsmanship was undeniably impressive and could be deemed high-level among the nobility.

However, it was only applicable among nobles who wielded swords in a conventional manner, and it didn’t work at all against the young man, who fought with experience and skill honed in real combat.

“Damn! Why can’t I hit him?!”

The young man caught Lewis’s attacks with his eyes and skillfully dodged or deflected his strikes with ease.

Then, when Lewis let his guard down, the young man tripped him, and he embarrassingly fell to the ground.

“That’s enough! The match is over!”

The young man delivered his sword to Lewis’s neck, and the teacher acting as the referee announced the winner.

“Damn it! Damn, damn, damn!!!!”

Frustrated at losing, Lewis struck the ground repeatedly, but the young man immediately rushed to Iris, and the two of them disappeared toward the infirmary.

“I will never forgive this! I can’t believe I was humiliated like this… and he even laid hands on my Iris! I’ll never forgive him!!”

After that, during practical lessons, martial arts tournaments, and dungeon exploration classes, Lewis challenged that young man every time, but he lost all of them, only further deepening the bond between the young man and Iris.

What sealed the deal was when the young man was chosen by the Sacred Sword and recognized as a hero.

A hero is said to be someone chosen by the Sacred Sword, which appears once every few hundred years, and the emergence of a hero signifies an omen of calamity on a national or continental scale.

In past history, numerous SSS-rank monsters emerged, and there have been incidents like SSS-rank dungeon monster rampages, events that could very well lead to the world’s destruction.

It was the past heroes who prevented those calamities, with their companions saving the world alongside them.

Thus, heroes are more important than any king or emperor in the various nations, and the only one who can speak to heroes in this world is the Saintess, who receives divine revelation.

With the young man chosen as such a hero, Lewis’s jealousy spiraled out of control, and by the end of their second year at the academy, he resorted to poisoning the young man’s drink and setting traps in dungeons, among other schemes.

However, nothing worked against the young man protected by the Sacred Sword, and eventually, he could neither kill him nor deepen his bond with Iris and the other companions.

In the final duel he challenged, the gap in abilities between him and the young man widened even further, and Lewis was easily brought to his knees.

“I can’t defeat you. Please give it up.”

“Shut up! You… because of you!”

“What have I done to you?”

“You took Iris from me!”

“Didn’t you hate Iris? That’s why you always bullied her and hurt her, right?”

“No! I liked Iris! Iris! Help me!!”

“…Lord Lewis. Everything you did to me was painful and I hated it. You treated me like a servant and never acknowledged me as a person, leaving my heart in tatters.

But the hero helped me. I love the hero. So, I cannot help you, Lord Lewis. I will no longer obey you!”

“Damn it! You!!”

Lewis couldn’t accept Iris’s words and attempted to kill her with a knife poisoned in secret, but the hero cut off his wrist, preventing him from doing so.

“Ahhh!!!”

As he knelt down again in pain from the severed wrist, the hero looked down at him with contempt in his eyes.

“I will never forgive evil. You attempted to kill Iris. Therefore, you are evil. Atone with your life.

But, let me give you one last piece of advice. You were wrong. If you truly loved her, you should have treated her kindly.”

The hero said this and swung down his sword toward Lewis’s neck, severing it, and his head rolled off the scene.

(Damn. I just wanted to love Iris. Did I make a mistake…?)

In the fading consciousness, Lewis continued to ponder what had gone wrong until the very end, and thus, his short life came to an end.