Chapter 1: Returning For Her
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Riven Hale has lived four miserable lives.
The first one he could remember was when he was on Earth, eighteen years old. Unawakened and pathetically weak, he was still part of a mildly prestigious family. He was a disappointment, a complete dud in a household that measured every person’s worth by talent ranks alone.
He was forced into an arranged marriage to a young and prestigious lady of the Frostbane Family, Elisa Veynar. After having such a promising future, she was left paralyzed from the neck down following an accident inside a Gate, an incident seemingly provoked by her elder sister who had grown jealous of all the attention Elisa received from their family.
Both of them were discarded like broken tools. Their families signed the papers without hesitation, threw them into a quiet house on the edge of the city, and walked away while making a fortune out of their arranged marriage. Through that union they forged new bonds for future commercial endeavors and strengthened their authority over the Gates. In doing so they deprived the population of the only reliable source of power that could allow humanity to fight back against the Monsters, turning that power into an even greater privilege than it should ever have been and subsequently dooming humanity.
Because of what their families and the other prestigious conglomerates had done to these resources, hoarding them all for themselves, humanity was unable to meet the criteria for Ascension. The entire race was pruned from existence alongside their planet by the Cosmic Monarch known as the Abyssal Gaze.
He could still remember those bright red eyes staring at him from the stars. Who would have thought that humanity’s greed would have been its ultimate end?
Then came his second life, one that consumed his heart with guilt. He was a jobless older brother living off his younger sister’s wages. She was an Awakened Climber until the day she collapsed and never got back up. He threw himself into the Tower of Babylon out of pure self-hatred, clawed his way to Floor 50 on stubbornness alone, and died after he was betrayed by his own party the moment he obtained a powerful divine relic, the Divine Eye of Odin.
Then came his third life. Another failure of a man who failed to awaken, talentless and unable to fight against fate even once. It was the life of a sacrificial lamb. Branded defective, he was thrown among the thousands of "offerings" sent into the newest Broken Expanse. He lasted only three days before the Vampires ruling that Expanse found him and tore him apart, feasting on his flesh and blood.
And then came the fourth life. He was not even allowed to remain human. He reincarnated as a mere insect, a bug crawling through the mud, one of the countless monsters tasked with invading a planet full of humans and expanding the territory of the Hive Queen. He tried his best. He survived as long as he could, but he could never bring himself to kill innocents. He died after one of those defending their families stabbed him in the back, never able to accomplish a single thing... again.
Riven did not know why all these memories came to him at once now, even though every previous life had lacked the memories of the ones before it.
But when he opened his eyes and found himself back in his youthful years as Riven Hale once more, with a wedding ring on his finger and someone sitting on a chair next to him expressionlessly watching television, he realized he had returned to his first life.
"What’s happening...?"
Riven fell silent, unable to understand what had taken place. It all somewhat felt like a dream, and yet it was not. He was certain he had lived those lives. He had died four times in agony and despair, unable to change his fate.
He had even reincarnated as a damn alien bug, for Christ’s sake!
And now... what? He was back in his first life? Just like that?
The woman at his side, Elisa Frostbane, was right there, still alive. His hands trembled. Tears filled his eyes and began falling across his face.
He could still recall it so freshly.
How she was attacked by the Monsters that poured from a Gate provoked by the Cosmic Monarch, the Abyssal Gaze.
How he could not save her or himself. She was killed first, unable to fight back despite how proud she had once been.
"Elisa..."
He moved his hands toward her.
His silent wife was someone who barely, if ever, expressed her emotions.
Their first years together had been very quiet and awkward, but Riven never gave up on her. He worked harder in every way he could to make her smile.
And after three years, on a date he had carefully set up for just the two of them, she finally smiled faintly and shed a small tear.
Her words remained etched into his soul.
"Thank you, Riven... for... never giving up on me... I’m sorry... for being so useless..."
They had been two discarded souls, thrown into a world where they could do nothing but hide away and try to find joy in the little things while the powerful took everything from humanity and doomed their race and planet.
"?"
Elisa looked in his direction. Those years they had spent together were gone. Seeing how young they both still were, and noticing the marriage certificate lying close to the table, it seemed that only a few days had passed since their wedding.
"...What?"
Elisa rarely spoke, yet somehow she appeared shocked to see Riven crying out of nowhere. Her eyebrows rose slightly.
"Having second thoughts now? Are you... regretting this?"
"No, I—"
"It’s not like I wanted to marry a useless idiot like you."
"..."
"But can’t you see what I am now?"
She suddenly started crying.
"It’s not like I can do anything on my own... I am pathetic... I..."
"Elisa...!"
Elisa broke down into tears, suddenly opening her heart like never before.
Riven never thought she had been holding everything back all this time. Based only on his reactions, she broke down and was no longer able to maintain her cool demeanor.
Indeed, he had to do everything for her.
He had to wash her. He had to clean her after she used the bathroom. He had to cook for her and feed her. She could not do a single thing alone.
If she were left like this without anyone, Elisa would starve to death and die.
Riven walked toward her and hugged her tightly.
"...Eh?"
Her tears stopped as she felt his embrace and his warmth.
"You’re not useless... what happened to you was your sister’s fault! She set this up!"
"W-What are you saying...? My sister?! Melisa?!"
They only discovered the truth many years later, when Riven led a private investigation into what had happened long ago and learned that Elisa’s sister had paid every member of her party that joined her that day to betray her.
They used a poison-coated knife imbued with a paralyzing venom and stabbed her in the back mercilessly, then made it seem as if one of the poisonous monsters in that dungeon had done it after she was knocked out by the boss.
Riven stood back up and looked into her eyes.
"I know the truth."
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