2 The past.

Ares sat on the bed in his dark room, he stared at nothing and thought about the past lives he had.

"The voice that spoke to me at that time, it was the first and the last time I heard it. That place before I started the loop, what kind of place was that?" Ares asked as he rubbed his knuckles. "It keeps haunting me in my sleep as if it tries to remind me of the reason why I'm here and keep coming back to the past." Ares sighed as he lay down on the bed.

Ares closed his eyes and went to sleep.

"Hey, commoner!" Alexandria yelled at Ares who was daydreaming.

"Yes, my lady?" Ares replied.

"Ugh! I told you to not speak to me and just do what I told you to do!" Alexandria said as she squinted her eyes and looked at Ares with disgust. "Come here and clean all the mess! Hurry!" Alexandria said as she stood up and pointed at the broken glasses.

Ares clenched his teeth as he closed his eyes to calm himself up.

"Hurry up! Are you deaf?!" Alexandria yelled at Ares again.

Ares walked toward the table but then Alexandria stood up. "Stop! I don't want to get close to you, I want to leave this room first." Alexandria said as she walked away and left the room. Ares took a deep breath and exhaled deeply while he clenched his fist then started to clean up all her mess.

While Ares cleaned up the mess, he heard a scream coming from outside, he immediately got out of the room and looked around. He saw a maid covering her mouth with her eyes wide open, Ares ran and checked what happened but then he saw Alexandria sprawled at the bottom of the stairs with her head twisted and her eyes and mouth wide open.

Ares was dumbfounded and he spontaneously smiled as he couldn't believe what he saw.

"(Wait, does that mean I'm not going to be killed in this life? Am I free now?)" Ares thought to himself.

After the death of Alexandria, Ares was freed from his duty and Khazad didn't need him anymore so he let him go and lived freely. Ares was so scared that he would be framed again but it shocked him that Khazad didn't mention anything about murder and accepted her death as an accident.

Ares lived as any other commoners did, got a job, got a partner in life, and finally grew old. He lived peacefully for 50 years and he finally died of old age on his bed with his wife and children by his side and mourned about his death.

The moment he breathed his last breath, he heard the sound of crackling woods and screams. He opened his eyes and went back to the past again, he scoffed and tears fell from his cheek as he fell to his knees.

"Am I dead? Or am I dreaming?" Ares asked as he held his head while he ignored the old woman that kept telling him to run away.

Ares heard a galloping sound coming toward him and he lifted his eyes and saw the horse's legs in front of him. He looked up and saw the same knight who always hit him whenever he came back, but this time the knight stopped before he hit him with the horse.

"Kid, come with me." The knight said as he stared down at Ares.

Ares stared at the knight, a stare that didn't belong to a 5 years old kid, the knight furrowed his forehead as he felt a bit uncomfortable with Ares's stare.

Ares stood up and accepted his fate to relive his life from the beginning again, he got on the horse as the knight helped him get up.

After his 3rd loop, his personality changed drastically because all the memories he had with her wife, her children, and her friends from his previous life were erased. He was nothing but just a stranger to them, the children he had that he watched as they grew old no longer exist in that world. He couldn't care about anything and just lived his current life with no motivation or will to live.

"Hey, Are you listening?" Alexandria asked with a flat tone and with a disinterested expression.

Ares nodded as he closed his eyes. "Yes, my lady."

"Could you clean this?" Alexandria asked as she pointed at the broken glasses on the floor.

Ares nodded as he walked toward the table but then he stopped and remember that he had been through this before. He looked at Alexandria who was ready to leave the room, he then proceed to clean the mess as fast as he could while Alexandria watched him. Ares looked at Alexandria's feet and noticed that Alexandria treated him differently from the previous life.

Ares looked up and looked at Alexandria. "My lady, could you stay here while I'm going to get you a new one?"

Alexandria glared down at Ares and rolled her eyes as she sighed. "I told you to not speak to me unless I wanted to talk to you," Alexandria said but then she sat down and looked at the mess she made. "Fine, get me something to drink, I'm a bit thirsty," Alexandria said as she crossed her arms.

"Yes, my lady." Ares smiled at her and it took her by surprise because it was the first time she saw Ares smile.

Ares stood up and removed his white gloves because it was wet from cleaning the mess. Alexandria could see the scars all over his hands and fingers because of what she did to him in the past. She looked away because she couldn't handle seeing them and was a bit guilty because of how bad she treated him.

Ares noticed that she couldn't bear to see the scars on his hands, he immediately put the gloves back. "I'm sorry that you have to see them, my lady..." Ares calmly and gently said. Alexandria just hummed and kept looking away with her arms crossed.

Ares left and went to the kitchen to ask the maid to make a cup of tea for Alexandria.

With a cup of tea in his hand, he entered the room. "My lady, here's the tea..." Ares said but then he dropped the glass as he saw Alexandria on the chair with a dagger in her heart. Ares remembered that the windows were closed but then they were open when he entered the room. He ran and checked on Alexandria's condition, she was still alive but she lost a lot of blood already.

"My lady!" Ares screamed as he tried to lay her down on the floor.

Alexandria looked at Ares and gulped. "I'm sorry... for what I did..." She weakly said with trembled voice. "I'm so sorry..." She continued with her eyes filled up with tears.

"No, my lady! You don't need to apologize!" Ares said as he tried to stop the bleeding.

Alexandria's body was so cold and her lips turned purple, and her eyes dimmed. She then closed her eyes and stopped breathing.

Ares panicked and shook her. "My lady?!" Ares said. "My lady!" Ares kept calling her as he kept shaking her body.

Ares finally gave up and put her dead body on the floor gently, he looked at the dagger in her chest. He slowly pulled it out from her chest and held it so tightly. "I will protect you in the next life, my lady," Ares said as he frowned and looked at Alexandria. "I will spend the rest of this life training so something like this won't happen again." Ares continued as he stood up.

Ares ran away from the mansion immediately and left the empire.

Ares kept his promise and trained every day but it wasn't enough because there was no point in training if he had no idea how to wield a weapon. Even if his body and stamina were amazing, if he had the chance to fight a knight, he would die in the first 10 seconds. So he decided to end his life because he had a plan for his next life.

As he expected, he immediately back to the past, he then ran away before the old woman told him to.

While he was running away, he got struck by the horse again and before the knight could pick him up, he grabbed the dagger on the knight's waist and slit his own throat so he could escape from his fate of being a slave.

He tried dozens of times and failed dozens of times as well. He kept killing himself until he could run away from the knight.

"I did it..." Ares caught his breath as he hid in the forest. "I will use this life to become the best mercenary in the empire," Ares said as he took a peek from behind the tree. "I'm sorry, my lady. I will let you die in this life, but I promise you, I will be back and save you." Ares said as he clenched his fists.