7th Time Loop

"RISHE IRMGARD WEITZNER! You are a vile woman! A truly malicious creature unworthy of the crown prince! As of this instant, our engagement is off!"

"As you wish, Your Highness."

"…Huh?"

The prince's declaration echoed throughout the ballroom. Rishe, the duke's daughter, bowed in response, her coral-toned hair swaying gracefully. The assembled guests found themselves captivated by her dignified beauty. Despite having just witnessed a broken engagement, they couldn't bring themselves to pity her.

Slowly, Rishe lifted her head and fixed the prince with a pale-emerald gaze. It caught him off guard, but he quickly recovered.

"Didn't you hear what I just said?! I'm calling off our engagement! Doesn't that trouble you?"

"Not really."

Rishe already knew what happened next: false accusations, exile, and her family severing all ties and leaving her to survive on her own. She turned from the prince. There was no point wasting any time.

This is my seventh loop, after all.

Rishe had done this all before.

The next few hours will be busy. I must hurry and retrieve my things before I'm barred from the family estate. I don't want this to be one of the times I'm too slow and I have to start my new life with nothing.

"Rishe, halt and hear me! I have spent the past week perfecting my recitation of your crimes!"

I should take more than dresses this time—there's plenty of things I could use out in the world. What trade should I take up? In my first life, I was a merchant.

In my second, an apothecary. I've got a few more I want to try out… Augh! If time's just going to keep resetting, I wish I could start at an earlier point. I need more time to prepare!

"Wait! Rishe!"

The crown prince was on the verge of tears, and the spectators struggled to suppress their snickers.

A thought occurred to Rishe, and she stopped. She then turned, her eyes gleaming beneath long lashes as she stared down her ex-fiancé. "Ah, Your Highness, I almost forgot."

"Yes, tell me!" the prince fumed. "Let me guess, you are hurt beyond measure and yet love me still…correct?"

As if. Rishe was grateful to be granted her freedom. In fact, she was smiling as she said, "I hope you and Lady Mary are happy together."

"What?!"

"May we both lead fulfilling lives. Farewell!" Rishe lifted the skirts of her evening gown and turned on her heel, departing as briskly as she could.

"How do you know about Mary? I haven't told you I love her!" The prince was shouting something behind her, but she paid him no mind. She had things to do.

During her first loop, the prince's accusations had shocked her to the core and she—foolishly so—had attempted to defend herself. Now she knew better than to expect the prince to behave reasonably.

How will life unfold this time? I'm excited to find out! Rishe fixed her mind on the future.

This is my seventh "do-over." I've led happy and carefree lives before, but this time—this time, I swear I'll live a long happy and carefree life!

In other words, she needed to avoid getting killed. At any cost.

**************************************

In the first loop, with her engagement broken and her reputation in tatters, Rishe roamed with nothing but the clothes on her back. Fortuitously, she met a merchant caravan willing to buy her jewelry. Finding them a good-natured band, she hitched a ride to a neighboring country.

From the merchant caravan, she learned a trade, studying how to procure stock and balance ledgers. Eventually, she set out on her own to travel the world. Her upbringing as a daughter of the nobility meant that, even at fifteen years old, Rishe possessed a keen sense for beauty.

She collected things that caught her eye and sold them to whoever found delight in her wares. Before she realized it, she had become a major vendor, employing a full staff. She had even done business with the king of a desert nation and the prince of a frozen country up north. She traveled to many distant places, realizing a dream born from her cossetted former life spent doing nothing but preparing to be queen.

Five years passed, and just as she had only one country left to visit, Rishe fell victim to the war sweeping across the continent.

The next thing she knew, she was fifteen years old again and back at that party, with the prince poised to make his pronouncement.

"Rishe Irmgard Weitzner! You are a vile woman! A truly malicious creature unworthy of the crown prince! As of this instant, our engagement is off!"

Naturally, she didn't understand what was going on at first. She looked around. Everything was the same. She stood in the same place wearing the same dress and draped in the same jewelry she'd sold to the caravan.

Was it a dream? Or was everything that had happened up until then the dream? In her confusion, all she could do was stare.

Rishe hurried out of the ballroom, the impending threat of exile hanging over her and the prince's entreaties to halt ringing in her ears.

This is perfect! Now I can get it right! I'll grab everything valuable from my room.

Rishe had enjoyed her life as a merchant, but she had always felt a stirring of regret about this night. If only she'd brought some funds from home, she would've had the capital to establish her business much sooner!

Speaking of this regret always prompted disbelief from her customers, including the king of the desert. "What? That's what you'd want to do over?!"

When she arrived back at home on the night of her second life, Rishe grabbed her jewelry box and as many of the books her late grandmother had left her as she could carry, then made haste to the forest to meet the caravan. But the stop at her house took time, and she missed them completely.

In that moment, Rishe made a stark realization. Different choices meant different mistakes. Opening one door would close another.

And so the easy path to a life in commerce was closed to her.

Sure, she could try to build her business from the ground up, but personal connections were almost as essential to being a merchant as business savvy. It just wasn't realistic without a single acquaintance.

Sorting through her belongings in resignation, she came across a foreign encyclopedia of herbs among her grandmother's books. Taking it as a sign, Rishe sold her jewels elsewhere and used the funds to cross the sea and pursue the study of medicine.

Fortunately, Rishe retained all her knowledge from her previous life. She remembered that certain expensive herbs could be acquired cheaply in other regions. When word spread of a disease running rampant in a neighboring country, she recalled that too. This foreknowledge proved invaluable, as did her wide travel and exposure to many different teachers with many different points of view.

As such, Rishe led a successful life as an apothecary. She saved a feeble prince, synthesized a number of rare medicines with her mercantile knowledge, and thus spent her days in the simple joy of helping those in need.

Unfortunately, all the joy in the world couldn't stand up to an epidemic. Thus ended her second life.

Once again, she found herself in the moment of her broken engagement, the curtain rising on the third loop. Her next four lives proceeded much the same way. As a skilled lady's maid, she helped a young noblewoman to a fortuitous marriage. Once, she even disguised herself as a man and became a knight. Every life was worth living, and she enjoyed them all. She enjoyed living, period.

There was just one problem.

No matter what I do, I will die at twenty.

She enjoyed her lives, but she was not permitted to do so for long. With this time limit always hanging over her, she spent each loop in a state of constant activity.

I would love to take it easy for a while. Is a little leisure time too much to ask?

Obviously I don't want to die either! This time, I'll make as much money as I can in the first five years. Then, when I turn twenty, I'll live a life free of worldly cares. I'll do whatever's necessary to stay alive!

Her mind made up, Rishe began her seventh life in a dead sprint through the palace. Regardless of her future plans, she was in a race against time. She needed to beat the messenger bearing news of her scandal.

As she ran, she yanked off her hair ornaments; she planned to sell them and didn't want to risk losing one. Her hair billowed out behind her, falling in loose waves.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to her, one she hadn't had in any of her previous six lives.

Leaving through the palace gardens would be faster. I can climb down a tree from the balcony.

Rishe had gone to war as a knight in the life just before this last one life. After the punishing battlefield training, climbing trees was nothing.

Seamlessly, she changed direction. She raced for the balcony, where she ran into something at full speed.

"Bwargh!" Rishe let out a very unladylike grunt, staggering a few steps. She looked up to see what she'd bounced off of. "Oh…"

An exceptionally handsome man stood in her path.

He had refined, patrician features and cruel, thin lips. He was slender yet powerful; even through his clothes, Rishe could tell his body was well conditioned. His jet-black hair covered his ears, creeping down to the nape of his neck. The tips of his locks bounced with his movements. They looked to be soft to the touch.

From head to toe, he was a pleasure to look at—but what held Rishe's attention were his eyes. They were long in shape and impossibly blue, but they possessed a blade-sharp intensity. His gaze was clear, beautiful, and cold as ice.

His eyelashes cast shadows on his striking face. He was a work of art.

Currently, this work of art was staring her down with a look that could kill.

He laughed. "You barreled right into me. For a moment, I thought I'd been attacked by a wild boar."

It was an exceedingly rude thing to say to a stranger, but as luck would have it, this man was not a stranger. At least not to Rishe.

"What are you even doing here?" the man went on. "The party is in the—"

Rishe interrupted him with a wordless shout of dismay. The man drew back, reflexively reaching for his sword. He composed himself with visible difficulty.

"Who are you? You look like any noblewoman, but your manner is…"

"Emperor Arnold Hein!"

The man's eyes widened. He didn't mistake her surging contempt. Rishe had crossed swords with this man. Recently. He was the one responsible for ending her sixth life.

He must be a guest at the banquet. It makes sense.

Arnold Hein was the scion of a military nation not far from Rishe's home country of Hermity, the one in which they now stood. Their kingdoms, so recently at war, had brokered an ostensible peace, and the two ruling families met from time to time. Crown Prince Dietrich's engagement party would be one such occasion. He'd gathered elites from far and wide to introduce to his beloved Mary.

The man eyed Rishe with rising curiosity. "You know me? This is my first time in Hermity."

Uh-oh. Rishe pasted on a smile as her mind spun in circles. This man was dangerous. She had to avoid entanglements with him at all costs. Five years from now, Arnold Hein would invade Hermity.

He was an extraordinarily skilled swordsman and, with a powerful military at his back, was destined to conquer kingdom after kingdom. He had done as much in her second, third, fourth, and fifth lives. In her sixth, Rishe had faced him in battle herself and died by his hand.

We never had a chance. That war was lost before it began.

Arnold's brilliance lay not in his swordplay but in his skill as a tactician. He set countries up for conquest and knocked them down, swallowing them one by one.

I know him, but he doesn't know me. We haven't met in this life. I need an excuse fast.

Rishe curtsied slowly. "My name is Rishe Irmgard Weitzner. We've never been introduced, but I've heard of you."

Arnold donned an amused smile. "You plant your weight like a trained swordswoman. Your center of gravity is perfect."

"You exaggerate," Rishe demurred. "That was simply a curtsy to an esteemed guest."

"I must have misheard, but I swear you called me 'emperor' just now."

Rishe froze.

"My father yet lives," Arnold said. "I am simply a crown prince. Why would you call me that?"

"Uh, um…" Rishe floundered for an answer.