Then, all of a sudden, I remembered the envelope tucked inside my coat.

It was something the Duke had given me just before I returned home.

“Oh, right. Could you keep this somewhere safe? He said it was an invitation.”

Shasha looked at the envelope I handed her and her expression shifted in surprise.

“The Duke invited me to the Duchy.”

She seemed about to ask where it had come from, so I hurriedly explained. At that, Shasha’s pupils trembled sharply.

“…This is not a mere invitation.”

“Hm? How can you tell?”

“The color of the envelope is different. This is a document granting permission for immigration to a foreign territory.”

“That can’t be. The Duke said it was an invitation.”

Uneasy, I took the envelope back from Shasha and opened it.

“Oh my.”

As she had said, inside the purple envelope was an official migration permit. On the following page, it even specified the residence I would be provided with upon relocating to the Duchy of Balthazar.

“Well, that works out nicely. I should leave tomorrow.”

The estate I was currently staying in had originally belonged to my parents.

This place, which had long been the estate of House Agatha, held precious memories.

“But if I remain here, I’ll only be tormented by the past.”

After the fall of my family—after everyone but me vanished like dew at the execution grounds—it became the Simon estate.

Here, I endured countless regressions and ab*se.

This estate was no longer a portrait of my childhood.

Now that I had divorced and resolved to begin anew, why should I stay? It was better to leave.

“And Louis?”

I lifted my gaze from the document and smiled.

“He’s locked in the storage room.”

The storage room.

The place where, in my seventh life, Louis beat me to death.

The mere recollection erased the smile I had just worn.

“I’ll be back.”

I replied lightly and headed toward the storage room.

Thinking of Louis trembling alone in the dark made my steps feel oddly buoyant. Perhaps that was why I arrived sooner than expected.

Creak.

When I opened the door, I saw Louis in the corner of the storage room, his limbs bound, sobbing uncontrollably.

For a moment, the sight was unpleasant—too much like my own image in a previous life. But the feeling quickly faded.

“Hello, Louis.”

I smiled sweetly and flicked my fingers in greeting.

“If you cry like that, your eyes will swell. They’re unsightly enough as it is.”

“Maaaahhh! Aaaahhh!”

Louis thrashed wildly, struggling with all his strength. But he soon collapsed to the floor with a thud, glaring at me with bloodshot eyes.

“Oh? That’s quite an enthusiastic welcome.”

Rage. Hatred. Resentment. Sorrow.

And fear.

Countless emotions flickered in the eyes that glared at me as though he wished to kill me, tears streaming down his face.

All the things I had felt through countless lives—he seemed to be experiencing them for the first time in this one.

“Learn obedience, Louis.”

I crouched before him and smiled brightly.

“Miaaaa!”

He struggled as though he might lunge at me at any moment, but it was useless. At best, he flopped about like a fish stranded on land.

Only then did I notice the iron chain fastened around his ankle.

“Ugh… Maaa…”

Even now, Louis clutched at his uncooperative body and whimpered.

How pitiful.

Each time you killed me in past lives, you must have looked at me and thought exactly as I do now.

“Louis, be quiet. I don’t want to hear it.”

As he writhed and made incoherent noises, I seized him by the throat.

Beneath my fingertips, I could feel the warmth of his skin and the frantic beat of his pulse.

“Who knows? I might kill you if I’m in a bad enough mood.”

Louis struggled desperately to pry my hand away.

But he could not easily shake me off, managing only to choke and gasp.

It was strange—watching the man who had always overpowered me with brute force now rendered helpless.

“Did you suffer that much? You, who once had nothing but strength to spare—now you can’t even overpower me?”

I let out a small laugh before releasing my grip.

“Ugh… ugh…”

Louis collapsed limply to the floor, groaning.

The sight overlapped with the image of myself in previous lives.

For so long, I had always been the one in that position.

“I’m leaving this estate. You always told me to stay here quietly, but what does it matter now that we’re divorced?”

I had resolved to leave, yet how I was to live from here on—and what goal I ought to pursue…

In truth, I had never thought about it deeply.

At first, I had only intended to remove Louis from my side. I believed that if I did, everything that tormented me would disappear with him.

“You can have this estate. Take it.”

At my words, Louis—who had been sobbing—suddenly lit up with hope.

“Don’t mistake this for pity.”

I rose to my feet, pressing his head down beneath my shoe as though crushing it.

“It’s simply that disposing of it would require too many documents and too much time. I can’t be bothered.”

With that, I left the storage room. Louis shouted after me as though begging me not to go, but I ignored him.

The next day.

After packing lightly, I hurriedly left the estate. I did not want anyone to come seeking me out and complicate matters.

Before departing, I gave the former servants who had worked at the estate reasonable compensation and dismissed them all.

Aside from those who had arrived recently, none had truly worked for my sake—but it did not matter. To them, it was as though they had lost a lifelong place of employment. As their employer, I considered it a form of severance.

Ah, of course—I did not give a single coin to the House Steward.

“Are you certain it is all right to leave him as he is?”

Seated across from me, Shasha looked at me with concern.

She seemed worried about leaving Louis locked in the storage room behind.

“Well, he’s like a weed. He’ll cling to life somehow. But stripped of his honor and authority, what can he possibly do?”

Even as I left the estate, I did not remove the iron chain from Louis’s leg.

“Perhaps the three of them will band together to survive.”

Olivia and the House Steward had been locked in the attic.

The House Steward, weakened from failing to eat properly.

Olivia, already unhinged, muttering to herself and incapable of coherent speech.

Even if Louis managed to use them to stay alive, rebuilding himself would not be easy.

“In any case, with all the assets in my name, he’ll never rise again on his own.”

Literature may sometimes claim that nothing is more valuable than love, but in reality, life without money is filled with hardship.

That was why I had transferred all the gold bars and currency deposited in the Imperial Bank into my own name through the asset transfer document stipulated in the divorce papers.

Not only that, I had exchanged it all into the Duchy’s currency.

At this point, I intended to spend freely and live comfortably until I died.

In any case, the only thing Louis possessed now was that estate.

Even that I had left untouched simply because the process of selling it was tedious.

Who needs imperial authorization just to sell a single estate?

“But the estate is still legally under…”

Shasha seemed unaware of this. She looked troubled, perhaps thinking I should have taken the estate as well.

“Under Imperial law, a noble cannot sell an estate without the Emperor’s permission.”

I began speaking slowly to reassure her.

“An estate is considered part of one’s fief. It is granted by the Emperor along with the title.”

“In simple terms, then, it is a bestowed gift.”

“Yes, exactly. That is why nobles within the Empire leave their main estates untouched even if they relocate elsewhere. It is the reason they purchase separate villas.”

Even if Louis remained the legal owner of the estate, it was nothing more than an empty title.

If he could sell it, he might at least gain a few coins—but how would he ever secure an audience with the Emperor?

In the past, as a “famous playwright,” he might have attended imperial banquets and had the opportunity to speak with him. But now that the truth—that he was a fraud with a shadow writer—had been exposed, every path was closed.

“If you had ordered it, I would have killed him at once.”

Shasha clenched her fist, speaking with unmistakable regret.

Killing him to prevent future trouble would indeed be a clean solution.

But—

“Why would I stain your hands with filthy blood?”

Resting my chin in my hand, I gazed out the carriage window.

The estate had already vanished from sight, replaced by endless green fields.

“I want that wretch, lower than a worm, to cling to life and suffer properly until the end. Death would spare him that.”

“……”

“For him, even death would be too merciful.”

By the way… will these wretched regressions finally end with this?

“I’m leaving for good. I will never return to that pigsty again.”

Though I had lived through countless regressions, this was the first time I had truly escaped the estate.

Perhaps that was why the future stretching before me felt vaguely frightening. Having spent so long confined within those walls, I wondered whether I could truly blend into society again.

“I’ll survive, no matter what.”

With that quiet vow, I closed my eyes.

It would take several days to reach the Duchy. I should get some sleep.