Death At A Rebirth

"Fuuuuuudge!!"

Annabeth wanted to scream. But all she could produce was a baby's wailing sound.

Her emotional state was a mess, having experienced total decimation just a minute ago. This was now getting out of hand.

She had lived two short lives already, and now fate brought her back to live a third life? Was this a blessing or a curse? Did one of her victims curse her to live a life of constant death at the age of 23? Or maybe she accidentally cast a forbidden spell and bound her soul to travel back in time every time she died?

"Maybe both," she thought.

Annabeth was no stranger to forbidden magic. She could trap human souls and use them as ingredients for her spells… sometimes even absorbing them. She had pillaged, murdered, tortured, imprisoned and experimented on so many innocent people that she was given the title the 'Mistress of Despair.' She loved it.

They say after killing your first innocent person, you develop an obsession for it. You get addicted to having control over someone's life, having them completely at your mercy… and right when their hearts develop a tinge of hope, you take it all away… Watching them die slowly as they spend their last energy to utter curses at you.

"Maybe one of those curses finally got to me," she thought.

Doubt as to why the rebirth had happened again started to develop within her. Seems despair was about to enroll her as its new student, and she had a lot to learn.

Suddenly, someone picked her up and started patting her back. She knew this face all too well and it seemed her crying had gotten the attention of this particular man.

"Huuuusssshhhhh my little angel," he said, while gently rubbing her back trying to stop her crying.

This was her father, Lord Flinn, a wealthy merchant in the northern region of the Alibarnair Kingdom. Unlike what you would expect of a merchant, Flinn had a muscular build and always tried to dress as simply as he could, giving strangers a confusing impression.

One could tell from just a glance that he was not a commoner, but the lack of jewelry and his simple dressing didn't really show any nobility. Well, the northern region had all sorts of characters after all and although it was an unspoken rule, minding your own business was the order of the day.

Lord Flinn was currently trying his best to stop his newly born daughter from crying. He looked depressed and had tears flowing from his eyes. His heart was in turmoil as his wife's condition after delivery had severely deteriorated.

"Do we have anyone who can use any healing magic above tier 5 in here?" asked Ms. Luwi, the head midwife to her two assistants. It was only after asking the question had she realize how dumb the question was. Her assistants were trainees and having worked with them for a month now, she knew they were only capable of magic up to tier 3.

Her assistants shook their heads as if to confirm her thoughts.

She knew that if anyone had to be able to perform tier 6 magic in that room it had to be her. But tier 5 was her upper limit, and it was failing, drastically. She had not mentally prepared for the lady in labor to out of the blues develop severe internal bleeding and partially lose consciousness right after delivery. She ended up panicking to the point of asking a question she already had an answer to.

The patient was bleeding internally and her life force was not sufficient to support the healing process. All healing magic up to tier 5 required the patient's life force as a support to the healing process. From tier 6 and beyond, the healer could share his/her life force while healing the patient.

Ms. Luwi was only left with two choices now, stop the bleeding and deplete the life force of the patient… or let the bleeding continue to buy more time to find a tier 6 healer at the risk of making the patient suffer a slow and agonizing death for several minutes. The nearest tier 6 healer she knew was either at home or at the hospital and it would take more than the available time to find her and bring her here.

The dilemma was intense and time was running out quickly, noise from the crying baby was not helping the case.

Alas, her indecisiveness became a decision.

The woman laying on the bed stopped writhing in pain, her breathing stopping just a second later. She laid on the bed, motionless.

Ms. Luwi ran her magic through the deceased body in vain… She too knew it was in vain, but she tried still. No response. It was too late to do anything at all.

The room fell silent as even the baby had stopped crying now thanks to the efforts of her father.

At that moment Lord Flinn knew his wife was gone. His daughter still in his arms, he fell to his knees and started sobbing. This was a really painful moment for him. She had been his childhood friend, turned girlfriend, wife and for a brief moment the mother of his child.

For Annabeth, this was the second time she had seen this scene. Perhaps third if that time before the rebirths was included but her mind was that of a baby so she was not aware of her environment.

After her rebirth, she had felt a faint aching in her heart seeing this scene, this was the first time she had seen her mother… only to watch her die a few minutes later. After the second rebirth, it still hurt just a little bit even though she knew it was going to happen.

"Seems the only that's changing this time is still me," she thought, taking a deep breath to calm herself.

In the previous rebirth, her father single-handedly raised her until she was six… he smiled very little and looked miserable most of the time. He lost weight and seemed to age faster. He decided to seek love and married another woman and in the same year, he died.

If things were going to go the same way, then her father had 6 more years to live, after which he would be poisoned by the woman he would marry.