Him 1

"Lucius..."

While in tear, Eleanor picked up my severely injured body, she lightly placed my head to her shoulder while continiously mumbling my- or Lucius' name.

𝘋𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘺 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘺 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤. I thought to myself, letting out a pained groan, before turning my eyes to look at Eleanor.

I was barely able to say something. After mustering my last bit of strength to talk, I said to her, "Don't worry, we'll meet up again soon..."

"...huh?"

[Time is moving backwards...]

Hearing the robotic voice coming from inside my head, I slowly closed my eyes and calmly let my consciousness fade.

"L-Lucius?!"

This was the last thing I've heard before my vision suddenly blacked out.

[⬛]

...

....

.....

{[ The Forbidden Series # 25 ]}

{[ Title: Before The Shattered Realities ]}

Staring at the screen in front of me, I couldn't help but heaved out a long deep sigh. I suddenly felt uncomfortable, like a prickling feeling from my skin, prompting my body to shiver.

"This should be my 194th time I regressed..." I mumbled under my breath. Slowly, I turned my head to look at my reflection on the mirror.

𝘏𝘮𝘮... 𝘐 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘩𝘶𝘨𝘦 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦... I thought, letting my finger run down to my chest. 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘨𝘭𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘐 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳.

During the time before I found out that I'll regress every time I fail the quest, I was able to last a day after I researched more information about the real owner of this body.

The main reason during my first regression is that I was murdered by the older brother of the original owner of this body.

Lucius' body was originally too weak, that even a light punch that was strengthened by only a small margin with mana can easily penetrate through this body.

His big brother also gave me a hard time while he was killing me. First of all, he cut all of my fingers and forcefully made me eat it by shoving my fingers to mouth; then, he broke all of my limbs; and for the final touch, he stabbed my throat using many needles. I'm not sure why he visited me that day, and all I know is that that bitch was too drunk while doing all of that.

Also, even though I can still use mana to strengthen this body, the only reason I wasn't able to fight back was because I immediately ran out after a few seconds when I tried to enhance my body to become more lighter and agile to dodge his attacks. Like I said, the real owner of this body is far too weak. I firmly believe that he often stay at home doing nothing but search for traumatizing content online... It wasn't P*rn or something like that, the content is just too traumatizing to say even for me.

Sighing, I tried to stand up from the bed, but failed halfway when I was about to get up, making me fall down on my butt.

*Thud-!*

"Ugh..." I groaned, rubbing the sore spot on my butt. Soon after, I reached out for the table as support and mumbled, "I totally forgot that the first day I got in this world is my current save point... Just how long did Lucius had segs with Eleanor!? I'm not even surprised if they lasted a week because of the exhaustion of this body... the energy in this body is goddamn drained!"

I don't know how the real owner of this body lasted this long when he was having segs with Eleanor but, maybe it was because during their segs, Lucius had probably used almost all of his reserved mana just to last that long. Also, considering more about his pride and arrogant nature, not to mention, his hidden 'Traits', he might have thought that if he didn't last longer than Eleanor in bed, his pride as a man will be broken.

Turning my head around, I heard a soft muffled breathes inhaling and exhaling air, as the person who was hidden inside the blanket sat up.

"Mmm..."

Slowly, the blanket that was covering her face fell off, revealing her face.

It was a girl, probably 22 years-old or younger, wearing nothing but the blanket that covers her voluptuous form and lower body. She sat there silently with the blanket that was drenched in sweat. Her hair was a touch of silver and pink giving her a tender look, as she looked at my direction with a shy smile on her face.

It was Eleanor.

"M-morning, Lucius..." Eleanor stuttered as she embarrassingly lowered her head before bitting her lower lips.

I sighed.

Enhancing my body with mana, I stood up and sat back down to bed. "Morning," I said, patting her head with a charming smile.

Eleanor gently lifted her head up to look at me in the eyes, but immediately lowered it once again after she saw my smile. For some unknown reason, her face was flushed red. It was cute, not gonna lie...

"You should hurry up and take a shower." I whispered to her ear. "If you don't, I might end up not being able to hold my urge down and take you to shower myself," I said this to her teasingly, while bitting her neck lightly.

Because of this, her face became more redder than before. She was flustered. "K-kyaaa!" Eleanor squealed as she pulled herself away from me, and promptly stood up from the bed.

She was about to take a step when suddenly, Eleanor felt dizzy and she almost lost her balance. Thankfully, I was there to catch her body on time. She fell right onto my arms as her vision became blurry.

By the time her sight became clear, we were both staring straight into each other's eyes.

"What? Falling for me already?" I joked, while helping her get up. Placing her arms onto my shoulder, I lightly placed my hands to her waist.

Eleanor embarrassedly averted her eyes elsewhere while I was helping her to walk towards the bathroom.

When we finally reached the bathroom, I let go of her waist and got out on the room.

[-Ding!]

[Role Fulfillment : 0.3%]

Seeing the notification popped out from my vision, I breathe out a long deep sigh of relief as I put on my clothes.

Anyway, teasing Eleanor had become my daily dose of excitement. Not in sexually or some sort, but in a normal way. I mean, teasing a cute girl almost everyday had been really helpful for improving my health by lowering my stress down. Although regressing everytime I failed my task had been stressing me out lately, thanks to Eleanor, I was able to manage to let my stress out by teasing her.

Actually, there was one time I got too stressed out that it got out of hand. It was probably my 126th regression, that I had a quick mental breakdown that ended with me killing the other me from this world... Oh, yeah. Totally forgot to mention, there was also another me from this world. Though, like from my previous lives, he doesn't seemed to have any kinds of memories from 'his' past previous lives.

His name is...

"Lucius...!"

I suddenly heard someone called out for me, making me abruptly stopped thinking for a moment to turn my attention towards the direction where the voice came from.

I promptly walked towards my room, and knocked at the door before entering. "Is there something wrong, Ellie?"

Eleanor who saw me entered and pounced me on the shoulder while she teared up. "Sniff... I thought you left because... sniff... you don't want to keep your promise..."

"Uh... You know that I owned this whole apartment building. Why the hell would I try to escape." I lightly lifted her chin to look at her straight in the eyes. "Also, I'm the man who always keep his promise. So, there's nothing to be worried about it."

She nodded when she heard my words, then asked, "Umm... What do you mean by calling me 'Ellie' earlier?" Eleanor innocently tilted her head to the side.

"Nothing much," I replied casually. "I thought that it is a good nicknames to call you. Is there something wrong with it, or perhaps, do you hate it when I call you Ellie?"

She seemed a little bashful upon hearing my words, and stuck her forehead onto my elbow, hiding her face. I didn't know why, but I found her gesture adorable, almost like a puppy, threatening me to pat her head.

After a couple of seconds, Eleanor finally gave me a quick reply.

"No..."

I nodded, not wanting to give more reply.

Soon after, I decided to continue the flow like normal by asking Eleanor to inform the people back from my previous regression for a meeting after 5 days.

I also booked the two of us for a reservation back to deluxe restaurant we visited on my last regression.

And thus, after all of that is done, I decided to prepare myself for tomorrow's event.

Cracking my knuckles, I walked towards the window and looked for a certain someone outside.

It didn't take me long to find her because of how noticeable she was.

The girl's appearance was quite alluring; her face was exquisite and flawless, her eyes were as deep and profound as the starry sky, and her hair was obsidian-black.

I whistled.

"Wow. She's here already? Damn, I thought that she'll be arriving an hour from now on..." I pondered.

Sighing, I mumbled to myself. "Maybe, she's just here to ask him something. Considering that guy is living in the same building as I am, that's probably it."