8th Loop for the Win! With Seven Lives’ Worth of XP

"Am I...dead?" My voice was small against the pitch-black world. "Again?"

You'd think that by the seventh time I ended up here, like it or not I'd at least be able to see it coming. But...

"So this is it, huh? The seventh time already?"

I could accept dying a seventh time. What I couldn't accept were my friends—or rather, my former friends. "How could they...?" There was some kind of mistake; there had to be. But try as I might, I couldn't escape from the looks on their faces in those last moments. I couldn't escape from those expressions—that tableau of my dying moments.

❖❖❖

"Get it through your thick skull. I told you, we don't need you anymore." Margus, the party leader, leered at me as I cowered there, in the depths of the forest untouched by any except the highest-ranking adventurers. Margus was the fourth son of the Earl of Argus. As a magic swordsman and aspiring hero, he led our party.

Of course, being a fourth son, even of an earl, meant he had to earn his own keep. Through blood, sweat, and tears, he'd pushed himself to excel at both swordsmanship and sorcery, and won his fame as a magic swordsman. He was a man to look up to.

"Look, when it comes down to it, a poor country noble like you was never going to fit in with us," Rui the sorceress chimed in. As the third daughter of Viscount Rutus, she would typically have been nothing but a game piece for a political marriage; strong-willed and unconventional as she was, however, she had made a name for herself as an adventurer. She had poured her determination not to be a pawn to her family's desires into nurturing her magical talent and become a brilliant sorceress, leaving a trail of great victories in her wake.

But all of that strength of will hid a deeply anxious nature. In truth she was a bit of a crybaby, and I'd often found myself in the role of comforting and protecting her.

"All this time you really never realized Pathetic." This came from Aman the lady knight, clad in full armor. She was the fifth daughter of Baron Kyle. Unlike Rui, she wasn't destined for marriage, but rather for the arduous task of service to the realm as a mounted knight. Fearless even in the face of death, she'd carved her path as an adventurer.

The cold brusqueness of her words reflected how strict she always was with herself. That same strictness was sometimes pointed at others as well, but I found her unrelenting standards for herself and refusal to tolerate nonsense appealing.

These were the three people I had come to trust and rely on more than anyone. I couldn't believe they, of all people, were speaking to me like this. It felt like everything I was—everything from all seven of my lives up until this moment—was a lie. I could not, absolutely could not accept it.

Margus leaned in close as I shrank away.

"There's no way we're strong enough to beat that horror, y'know."

That would be the grotesque, evil creature we'd just encountered. A horror truly worthy of the name. A horror of such overwhelming dark power that it would make a giant dragon capable of bringing down a company of fifty royal knights look like a cute puppy.

"Y-Yeah..."

"So. Since you're the most disposable, you'll be the bait. We can make our escape while it eats you."

"What the...? How could...?" I stammered.

I had already died many times.

Somehow or another, right when I was eighteen years old, our party would be caught in some dire dilemma. Every time, I would volunteer to sacrifice myself for the sake of the party.

And every time, I would loop back to that day when I was fifteen, the day we first formed our party.

"We will cast aside our selfishness! We will fight together, become top-ranking adventurers, and with our noble deeds we shall rise above even the houses of our birth!"

"I'm with you...yeah! We can do it! We will rise above, no matter what! We'll show them all!"

"I will make them see... By my own deeds I will make them acknowledge my power!"

I'd gone through that scene seven times so far.

And now, for such vicious words to come from none other than the very comrades with whom I had sworn an oath at fifteen years old to fight together as one...that was even harder to swallow than my imminent death.

"Knights are nobles in name alone. And worse, you're just a third son, good for nothing but supporting your poor family. Did you really think you could be our equal?"

"You really ought to know your place..."

"At least you'll serve some purpose in the end. Be proud."

As I listened to their words I didn't feel angry, or even sad. I was just desperately hoping to wake up from this nightmare.

The horror loomed ever closer.

The first time around, it was a dragon.

Knowing that I wasn't fast enough to keep up with the others, I willingly offered myself as a decoy, and died.

The second time, it was a minotaur that had somehow escaped its dungeon.

The third time it was a cerberus, a three-headed wolf.

And the fourth time—that's when shit started getting really weird. It was like every monster and demon had been fused together into a grotesque and horrifying chimera. With each loop, it gradually gained strength. By this time around, it seemed like after chewing through me, this terrible being would go on to destroy the entire world.

Anyway, the point was: no matter where I went or what I did, in the end I'd always be killed by some unfathomably powerful monster. Every time, I chose to give my life for their sakes.

But this time... "You, you all—"

"We were always planning to dump you at some point. We'll just tell your lowly family you got yourself killed," Margus sneered.

This time, it was their betrayal that had gotten me into this fix.

"Hmm, maybe my family will send them something too, on the occasion of your inevitable death. That's good, right? At least your family will be taken care of," Rui added.

"Ugh..." I couldn't easily fight back, having been conked on the head by the flat of Margus's blade.

To make matters worse, Rui started chanting some spell. There was nothing more I could do. Rui's magic was too strong—I was finished. But at least I could let my companion who'd fought by my side all this time escape. With that thought, I looked around for my companion.

Instead, I was met with a sight beyond my comprehension.

"Oh yeah, just to be totally safe in case the impossible happens, we're gonna kill your useless familiar too."

"No, st-stop..."

I couldn't get the words out.

Stop it.

Please, stop this!

"Honestly, lugging around a gross little monster has got to be the most annoying and pathetic magical art."

"Fitting for someone of such low birth, don'tcha think?"

One last glimpse of my companion. My gentle, fluffy, catlike flying companion. I never even knew the true name of its species... For two whole loops, we...

"STOOOPPPP!!!"

"Oh, shut it. Fine, we'll kill you first."

—Slash.

Fade to black.

And that's how my life ended for the seventh time. And the very last thing I heard...

"Ugh, his stuff is all damp. Well, at least we can sell the familiar's pelt, I guess."

Of everything my ex-friends had said, that was absolutely the most despicable.