The copper taste of blood was becoming a familiar friend.
Clang.
My breath hitched as a branch snapped behind me. I didn't look back. I couldn't.
In my second life, I looked back and a spear took my eye.
In my third life, I tripped over a root and had my throat slit before I could scream.
This was my fourth time living through this hellish night in the Blackwood Forest. I knew every turn.
I knew that at the three-way fork, I had to take the muddy path to the left. I knew that at the hollowed oak, I had to crawl.
"Almost there," I whispered, my chest burning. "Just ten more yards."
In my last two lives, the rogues had jumped me at the clearing. But this time, I had waited. I had detoured. I had outsmarted fate. The edge of the forest was right there, the moonlight hitting the open road like a silver invitation to freedom.
I stepped out onto the gravel. A laugh actually bubbled up in my throat. I had done it. I had survived the exile. I was going to live—
Thwack.
The world tilted. I didn't feel the pain at first, just a sudden, heavy coldness in my chest. I looked down.
Three jagged arrowheads were protruding from my sternum, their fletchings still vibrating from the force of the shot.
"Found her," a gravelly voice grunted from the shadows.
Three men stepped out of the brush, tossing their bows aside.
They didn't look like soldiers. They looked like butchers. One of them walked up to me, his heavy boot pinning my shoulder to the dirt as I gasped for air that wouldn't come.
"The King said dead or alive, princess," the man sneered, twisting the arrow in my chest.
"Dead is just less work for us."
I tried to curse him. I tried to spit. But all that came out was a wet, gurgling sound. My vision began to fray at the edges, turning gray and fuzzy.
Then, it appeared.
[NOTIFICATION: FATAL DAMAGE DETECTED.]
[LIFE 04: FAILED.]
[REMAINING LIVES: 01]
[REBOOTING... PLEASE WAIT...]
"Go to hell," I thought, the darkness finally swallowing me whole.
"Gasp!"
I bolted upright, my hands flying to my chest. I clawed at my skin, searching for the holes, for the blood, for the cold metal.
Nothing.
I wasn't in the mud. I wasn't in the forest. I was on a pile of moth-eaten hay in the corner of a cramped, smelling cabin.
The air was thick with the scent of dried herbs and old goat cheese.
I stared at my hands. They were thin, covered in grime, and shaking violently. I was wearing the same tattered, brown pauper's shift I'd been exiled in.
Ding.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZED: LIFE 05 STARTING.]
[WARNING: This is your FINAL attempt. If the host dies in Life 05, soul erasure will be permanent. There are no more checkpoints.]
I stared at the glowing blue text floating in the air. My heart was thumping so hard I thought it might actually break a rib this time. Life five.
This was it. The end of the line. One more mistake and Elara Aethelgard would be nothing more than a footnote in a history book—the Princess who was too quiet to be loved and too clumsy to stay alive.
But then, I froze.
Wait.
In my second and third lives, the moment I woke up, the System would immediately scream: [MISSION START: ESCAPE THE BLACKWOOD FOREST.]
It was a fixed loop. I was always forced into those woods, always hunted, always killed.
I looked at the window. The sun was up. The forest was nowhere to be seen. I was in a village.
"It changed," I breathed, a slow, hysterical grin spreading across my face. "The loop is broken! I'm not in the forest!"
I stood up, wobbling on my weak legs. I felt like I had just won the lottery. No more rogues. No more arrows.
The Fixed Mission that had killed me three times over was gone.
"YES!" I shouted, throwing my arms up.
"I'M ALIVE! YOU HEAR ME? I'M—"
"WHAT IN THE DEVIL'S NAME IS THAT RACKET?"
A door slammed open. A woman who looked like she could wrestle an ox—and win—stood there holding a heavy wooden rolling pin. Her face was flushed purple with rage.
"Who the hell are you? And why are you screaming in my shed?"
"I—I was just leaving!" I squeaked.
"You're that beggar I found passed out by the well! I gave you a place to sleep, not a stage to perform on! Get out! Before I use your head to tenderize tomorrow's steak!"
She swung the rolling pin. I ducked, scrambled over a pile of firewood, and sprinted out the door.
I didn't stop running until I had turned three corners and dived into a narrow, damp alleyway between a blacksmith and a tailor.
I leaned against the cold stone wall, panting.
"Well," I muttered, wiping soot off my forehead. "There goes my chance at a free breakfast."
I pulled my tattered cloak tight around me. I couldn't be recognized. Even if I looked like a drowned rat, my face was still the face of the Traitor Princess.
My father's knights were everywhere, and they weren't looking for a daughter—they were looking for a corpse.
"System," I whispered. "Open Inventory."
A screen flickered.
[INVENTORY COMPLETED: REWARDS FROM LIFE 04 ACCRUED.]
[ITEM RECEIVED: WEAVING SNAKE'S FANG (DAGGER).]
[Description: A small, concealable blade coated in concentrated venom. One scratch causes total paralysis. Two scratches cause cardiac arrest.]
I reached into the air, and my fingers closed around a cold, leather hilt. I tucked the dagger into my waistband, feeling a sudden surge of confidence. At least this time, I had teeth.
"Now," I said, narrowing my eyes. "How do I stay hidden?"
[COMMENCING AUTO-MODIFICATION: DISGUISE SKILL ACTIVATED.]
A strange, tingling sensation washed over my face. It felt like hundreds of tiny ants were crawling under my skin. I found a dirty puddle on the ground and leaned over it.
The girl staring back wasn't the pale, elegant Princess Elara. Her nose was slightly broader, her jawline softer, and a dusting of freckles now covered her cheeks. Her hair, once a royal gold, was now a dull, mousy brown.
Perfect. Not even my own father would look twice at this commoner girl.
Ding.
A new window popped up. It wasn't blue this time. It was a deep, menacing violet.
[NEW MISSION: THE DECEIT OF FRUTUDE.]
[Objective: Burn down the Frutude Barn at the edge of the merchant district.]
[Context: The 'Merchant Guild' is using the animal barn as a front for the illegal trafficking of Spirit Stones stolen from the Royal Mines. They are starving the animals to hide the glow of the stones in the hay.]
[Reward: +10 Agility, 500 Gold Coins, and Unlock: The Servant's Entry.]
I stared at the screen. Burn down a barn?
This wasn't the kind of thing the system had asked me to do. This was arson. This was dangerous.
But then I thought about the cold arrows in my chest. I thought about the King who had thrown me to the wolves. If I wanted to survive, I couldn't be a Princess anymore. I had to be a ghost.
"Illegal stones, huh?" I gripped the hilt of my new dagger. A cold, hard knot tightened in my stomach.
"If they're stealing from the King, they're doing me a favor. But if the System wants it gone... it stays gone."
I pulled my hood over my head, blending into the shadows of the alley. The sun was setting, casting long, bloody streaks across the sky.
I looked at the Life 05 counter one last time.
"Five lives," I whispered to the empty alley. "But I only need this one to make them regret they ever let me wake up."
I stepped out into the crowded street, bumping shoulder-to-shoulder with the commoners I used to watch from my balcony.
Nobody looked at me. Nobody bowed.
I was nobody. And as a nobody, I could do anything.
I made my way toward the merchant district, my eyes scanning for the tall, thatched roof of the Frutude Barn.
I found it tucked behind a row of stone warehouses. The smell hit me first—rotting hay and the miserable lowing of hungry cattle.
I circled the perimeter, noticing two guards standing by the main doors. They weren't wearing the royal crest. They were mercenaries.
"Alright, System," I muttered, pulling a flint and steel from my pocket that I'd swiped from the cabin earlier.
"Let's see how much heat this final life can handle."
I crept toward a pile of dry refuse near the back wall. Just as I struck the flint, a shadow fell over me.
"Hey! What are you doing back here, girl?"
I froze. A large hand clamped down on my shoulder, spinning me around. It was a guard, his face scarred and his breath smelling of stale ale.
I didn't panic. Not this time. My heart didn't even skip a beat.
I looked him dead in the eye and felt the weight of the venomous dagger against my hip.
"I'm just looking for a warm place to sleep," I said, my voice dropping into a low, husky tone I didn't know I had.
The guard squinted at me, his eyes wandering down my body. He gave a nasty, yellow-toothed grin.
"Is that so? Well, maybe I can find a place for you. But it's gonna cost you."
I smiled back—a sharp, jagged thing that didn't reach my eyes.
"Oh, I'm sure we can settle the debt," I whispered, my hand sliding toward the hilt.
"But I should warn you... I'm a very expensive date."