His Breeding Obsession

She stared back at the old woman again. The old woman glowed faintly. Like a white shroud draped over her body.

 

Mirania focused on the old woman’s words rather than her strange appearance.

 “Lord Golddragon. The Dragon of Wisdom?” 

She muttered unconvincingly. Hadn’t she sought her out to find the reason for her regression?

 

The old woman spoke up, annoyed,

“This is my messenger.” “…” 

A being who uses a dragon as a messenger. There could only be one.

 

For a moment, Mirania was speechless.

 “Are you saying that you are the creator of this world?” “…” “Created this world and turned me into this?” 

The old woman clicked her tongue in disbelief and replied in her trademark cackling voice.

 “What exactly do you want to ask me?” “Does this world have a set course, like a novel…” 

Like the question, he had been asking for all along. After a few regressions, she realized something.

 

The world revolves around a few specific people.

 

Most notably, Grecan, Leverianz, and Alice.

 

As the Great Witch, Mirania suspected that she was there to support them.

 

If she was right, the old woman would be able to answer her questions.

 “A world so variable, so complex, so profound, cannot be described in mere fiction.” “…” “That would be too frivolous.” 

Mirania couldn’t help but disagree.

 

Frivolous or not, it was clear that her life had been swung unnaturally from place to place.

 “We record the fate of the creatures.” 

As if that wasn’t enough, the old woman added.

 “Some creatures are more important, some less. I suppose you could put it your way.” “I see.” “…Is that all?” “What more do you need?” 

Shaking her head, Mirania asked grimly.

 “Yes. Then why has my fate repeated itself so many times? If it’s written down, it should be, and why is this life so different in so many ways from the last?” 

For example, in this lifetime, Alice, Grecan, and Leverianz did not love each other.

 

Although Mirania never showed any change in expression, she was slightly dissatisfied.

 

If she added up all of her regressed lives, she had lived a long time in a loop. It was a time she never wanted to return to.

 

The old woman, noticing her dissatisfaction, rolled her eyes.

 “That’s the problem, that it didn’t go as written.” “I don’t know what you mean.” “The world was supposed to flourish after your death. Alice, having overcome death, was supposed to cleanse the world and make it stronger.” “But?” “That’s how it was written, but it didn’t happen.” 

‘Was supposed to,’

she realized and knew she was in a bind. 

 

Mirania waited patiently for the old woman to explain.

 “The world was destroyed, rather.” “…” “Many times. Nine times, yes. Nine times.” 

Mirania raised an eyebrow.

 “Why?” “At first, we couldn’t figure it out, but after experimenting with time, we realized that you were the cause.” 

The old woman glared at her, and Mirania was stunned. At the same time, she felt a surge of displeasure. She had sacrificed herself many times for Alice, whether it had been planned or not.

 

If anything goes wrong, aren’t I the victim?

 “Yes, you are. It might be a little unreasonable of you to place the blame on yourself. To be precise, you were loved by a being outside your limits.” “…” “Exactly, that’s the problem.” 

The old woman shook her head, as if talking to herself.

 

But even though she understood, Mirania couldn’t understand a word of it, and her face frowned in frustration.

 

If she could see her face, that’s what it would look like.

 “You’d better show me.” 

The tongue-in-cheek old woman waved her hand, and something that could be called a landscape finally appeared in the void, but it was hard to call it a landscape.

 

In the scene that emerged, the sky was engulfed in black smoke, the land was devastated as if dug up by a beast, and no living creature lived, and those that did live to slaughter, kill, and destroy each other.

 

Nowhere was the world as Mirania remembered it.

 

The scene ended and a new one began.

 

This one was no different from the last.

 

The only difference was that the world was burning with black flames.

 

The other scenes were no different.

 

In some scenes, mountains of corpses piled up, in others, witches with torn bodies stained the forest with blood.

 

All the scenes were horrifying, but Mirania found it especially hard to keep her composure when it came to the witches.

 

They died just as brutally as the previous scene.

 

Nine gruesome scenes passed.

 “Why are you showing me such a strange thing?” 

Blowing out a long breath, Mirania blinked her eyes to see that the scene hadn’t ended yet.

 “…?” 

There was a lone survivor standing in the desolate land.

 

Upon seeing him, Mirania was puzzled.

 

The scenes rewound.

 

‘Why hadn’t I realized it before?’

 

In the middle of all the horrors, there he was.

 

A man sitting blankly on a mountain, his eyes empty, his tears burning in flames.

 

In another, he wanders the ravaged earth, his body covered in blood.

 

A man slaughtering, tearing, abusing himself, crying, scratching at his chest until it bled, as if trying to pull his heart out.

 

Stop, Mirania muttered to herself, ‘stop, stop, please.’

 

As she muttered this on the inside of her lips, her eyes met the expressionless face staring back at her.

 

The eyes, once as clear as glass, were clouded with fire.

 

‘Enough!’

 “Grecan.” 

Mirania whispered, then her eyes widened and she cried out.

 “It doesn’t make sense!” “Why does it not make sense?” 

The old woman snorted, her face dark in contrast to her voice.

 

Mirania snapped at her, her temper rising,

“Do you mean to say that Grecan is the culprit of all those carnage? Is that what you have shown me?” “Yes.” “That does not make sense.” “Then why?” 

Speechless at the old woman’s expressionless question, Mirania stammered in her defense.

 “Because he’s weak… and she doesn’t have the nature to do such a thing.” 

‘Certainly not.’

 

Mirania’s expression relaxed at the assurance in her voice.

 

It felt ridiculous to speak of his character, considering they had fought like enemies, but it was true.

 

In this life, he was the one person she was closer to than Chera.

 

Mirania thought of the Grecan she knew.

 

The way he’d stood up for her, tiny as he was, to protect her.

 

Running after a toy ball.

 

Chasing after her like a baby bird.

 

‘He was innocent, and not worthy of such an inhuman act.’

 

Convinced, Mirania glared at the old woman.

 “What in the world do you want from me, showing me such nonsense?” “You are mistaken, of course, there is something you want, but that is not a lie.” 

The old woman pointed to the scene, which was billowing black smoke.

 

At her touch, the scene, so vivid and painful, blurred like paint melting and then vanished without a trace.

 

Silence settled over the room.

 

As the old woman stared at her as if waiting for a response, Mirania recalled the scenes that had passed, and realized that there were nine in all.

 

With a thud, her heart dropped.

 “No way.” 

The old woman nodded, her voice wavering with uncertainty.

 “Yes. Those are things that happened after you died.” 

The terse sentence slapped Mirania in the back of the head.

 

Mirania was stunned. If she could see her body, her hands would have trembled.

 

She still didn’t believe it, but it didn’t seem like the old woman was lying.

 

Mirania muttered unconvincingly.

 “But Grecan can’t do that, I know it, his power is not absolute, he lacks the capacity to do such a thing, apart from his character.” 

As the leader of the wolf clan, he had immense power, but it was only slightly less than that of Leverianz or Malandor.

 

So how could he?

 “He messed with our world, that’s for sure. There’s no doubt about that, and how he could…” 

The old woman sighed briefly and spoke in a melancholy tone.

 “Because he stepped outside the limits of his creation.” 

This was easier to understand.

 

Mirania was one of those who understood their limitations better than the rest of them.

 

That she possessed a natural source, that Malandor harbored opposing forces, and that the two could never fuse.

 

The limits were set, and she lived within them, knowing that her powers were not enough to break them.