SPLASH!
A bucket of cold, dirty water hit Haru in the face. He woke up with a start, spitting out wet straw and water that tasted like manure.
"Get up, you little shit! Another day of work! Horses don’t clean themselves!" shouted a thick, hoarse voice.
Haru got up, dizzy. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.
"What the hell was that?"
He had heard that phrase before. Yesterday. No... today? Before the attack. Before that killer mutilated him and everything went black.
A shiver ran down his spine.
"Is this... déjà vu?
It couldn’t be. He had died. He felt the pain. He felt the warm blood running down his stomach. He felt the cold taking over his body until he felt nothing anymore.
And now he was here. Again. In the sa slly place. With the sa dirty water running through his hair.
What are the chances of that?
Haru staggered to the wooden door of the stable and pushed it open. The sunlight hit his eyes hard. He blinked, shielding his face with his hand.
The sa clear blue sky.
The sa courtyard of uneven stones.
Servants sweeping the entrance to the mansion, kicking up dust. Knights training in the left corner, clashing wooden swords together. The sound of the blows echoed in the air.
Haru slowly turned his head. He looked back.
The sa horses in the stable. The brown horse near the entrance chewed hay lazily. The gray one in the back shook its head, just like yesterday.
No. Just like today.
He looked back at the courtyard. He paid attention to the details. A fat servant passed by carrying a sack of grain. Another, thin and hunched over, dragged a bucket of water. A blond-haired knight struck his partner with a side blow, who quickly retreated.
Exactly the sa.
Everything was the sa as yesterday.
Haru raised his hands in front of his face. The sa calluses on his palms. The sa nails dirty with dirt and manure. The sa rough, cracked skin.
He looked down at his own legs. Worn linen pants, patched at the knees. The sa holes. The sa dirt.
He clenched his fists.
"My God... they gave another chance," he whispered. His voice was low but firm.
His eyes flashed. Not with hope, but with indignation.
Haru knelt down. He closed his eyes and concentrated.
"System," he called softly.
Haru opened the skills tab with a ntal movent.
┌── [BLESSINGS]:
♦ None.
└─────────
┌──[CURSES]:
♦ Slave of Chronia (Innate)
◊ Effect: Activated after death. (No additional description available).
└─────────
His eyes widened.
"Chronia’s Curse activated..."
It was the last thing he had seen. After he died. After that blade pierced his neck and everything went dark. And when he woke up, he was here. Again. On the sa day.
Haru brought his hand to his neck, feeling the skin intact. No cuts. No scars.
"Every ti I die... I’ll be coming back to today." His voice trembled. Not from fear. From shock. "It can’t be."
He stood still for a few seconds, processing. Then, slowly, a smile began to appear at the corner of his mouth.
"That ans Isabela will be here this afternoon," he murmured.
The smile grew.
"Hahahaha! And I’ll get to see her looking hot in that skirt again!"
He laughed softly, covering his mouth with his hand. His eyes sparkled with mischief.
"Sweaty, with that shirt stuck to her breasts... hahaha!"
Haru shook his head, still smiling.
"This isn’t a curse," he said to himself. "It’s a blessing."
He looked back at the system screen, focusing on the curse line.
"So Chronia’s Curse is actually my infinite ti cheat code..."
His mind began to work quickly. Haru had always been good with systems. With logic. With finding loopholes. It was the kind of thing he did when he got bored and jerked off too much in his previous life.
"If I die, I’ll co back to today."
"That ans I can try anything."
"Without any permanent consequences."
He got up slowly, brushing the straw stuck to his pants, the smile still there. Haru went back inside the stable. He picked up the straw broom leaning against the wall and got to work.
He swept every corner. He removed the manure from the stalls. He changed the water in the buckets. He brushed the horses carefully, running his hand through their coats to check they were clean. He filled the feeders with fresh hay.
He did everything just right. Without rushing. Without complaining, he was happy.
The curse changed everything. It didn’t matter anymore if the work was shitty. It didn’t matter anymore if he was treated like trash. He had sothing no one else had.
Infinite ti.
In the late afternoon, Haru finished the last stall. He wiped his hands on his pants and left the stable. The sun was low, orange and strong, illuminating the stone courtyard.
He walked to the sa corner as yesterday. Or rather, the day before that he had lived. He sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. From there he could see enough.
Haru crossed his arms and waited. A few minutes later, he heard the sound of hooves approaching.
He turned his head.
It was Isabela crossing the courtyard, coming from the training field. Beside her walked Cedrick, the usual butler, with that serious and stern face that never changed.
Isabela was visibly tired. Her long red hair was ssy, stuck to her forehead and cheeks. Her face was red from exertion. Her breathing was still rapid.
And the sweat... the sweat made her white linen shirt stick to her skin.
Haru’s mouth went dry.
The fabric was almost transparent. The sunlight hit her from behind, and the outline of her breasts was clear, marked against her wet clothes. You could see everything. The moisture revealed the pinkish tone of her nipples pressed against the linen.
She wore the sa training clothes that did not match the demure manner of the nobles at all. A short skirt that rose up her firm thighs. Her thighs were tightened by long white stockings.
Haru stared at the slight pressure the stockings made on the flesh of her thighs.
He bit his lip.
"Damn it, Cedrick!" Isabela complained loudly, her voice full of anger. "That instructor is an imbecile!"
Cedrick just nodded beside her, trying to keep up with her pace.
"He says my movents are too wide!" Isabela continued, her pink lips twisting in pure contempt. "But how does he expect to generate ignition without amplitude? My fire needs space, not museum discipline!"
She gestured as she spoke, irritated, unaware of her surroundings.
She didn’t notice the state of her skirt. Nor how the outfit revealed the curves of her body. The only thing on Isabela’s mind was power. Strength.
Haru, leaning against the wall, watched every detail, a maniacal smile beginning to form on his face. "Hehehehe... heheheh." The laughter ca out low.
"I could see her over and over again today," he thought, his eyes fixed on the line where her white stockings t her thighs.
Isabela prepared to dismount from her horse. She held the reins with one hand and swung her leg over the animal’s back.
The short skirt rose even higher, betrayed by the sudden movent.
Haru was already lying on his side on the floor, propped up on his elbow. He didn’t look away for a second.
For a brief mont, the fabric of her skirt gave way completely. It revealed the lower curve of her right buttock. Firm skin, tanned by the sun from outdoor training. The white, tight line of her stocking marked her flesh, squeezing it lightly.
Haru let out an audible sigh.
Isabela touched the floor with her boots, still talking about the instructor. Then she stopped. She turned her head.
She saw the young slave lying there, looking directly at her.
Haru stared at her with an audacity that did not match the posture of a servant at all. Without lowering his eyes. Without shrinking.
Isabela rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue in boredom.
To her, he was just part of the filthy landscape of the stable. Just another dirty, irrelevant servant.
Cedrick, the butler, stopped beside the horse and looked at Haru with contempt.
"Take good care of Maximus," he said, pointing to the animal. "If he has a single knot in his mane, you’ll pay dearly."
Then he hurried after Isabela, who was already walking away, continuing her monologue of complaints about the training.
Haru stood up and grabbed the horse’s rope, but instead of leading the animal away, he lowered his body almost to the ground. He tilted his head, trying to catch one last glimpse of Isabela’s skirt as she walked away toward the mansion.
His thoughts were purely predatory, as before.
"Damn! That’s the best part of my day... heheheh."
He patted the horse’s neck.
"Don’t you think, Maximus?"
The horse just shook its head.
...
At night, in the stable, Haru was sitting in the corner, leaning against a bale of hay. He looked from side to side. The dim light of an oil lamp flickered on the wall.
He closed his eyes and called up the system.
The translucent screen appeared in front of him, glowing faintly in the dark. Haru opened the status and objectives tab. He scanned the numbers.
┌───►SYSTEM◄───┐
[STATUS WINDOW]
├────
◊ Na: Haru Mizuki.
◊ Race: Human (Cursed)
◊ Rank: None
◊ Class: None
◊ Title: None
◊ XP: 0000 [LVL: -1]
└───────────────♦
┌─ [STATUS WINDOW]
◊ Strength: 0
◊ Agility: 0
◊ Stamina: -1
◊ Intelligence: 1
◊ Luck: 1
◊ Mana: -1
└───────────────♦
┌──[GOALS]
♦ Isabela
◊ Gain her trust, to do that compete in the guard election and win.
◊ Get physically close enough to collect essence. Collect as much as possible.
└────────
An ordinary slave with no power. He looked at the stable door. The old wood creaked softly in the night wind.
It was now. The night he would die again.
"Even if I wanted to defend myself..." he muttered softly. "I couldn’t do anything. My stats are all at zero."
He closed the system screen and crossed his arms.
"But maybe... what if..."
His mind began to work.
Instead of avoiding the killer, he could use the guy as an instructor. If he died a hundred tis, he would have a hundred chances to read the enemy’s movents. A hundred opportunities to observe. To learn.
Haru smiled in the dark.
He wasn’t going to run away from the stable at night. He was going to stay on purpose. Each death was an upload of combat data to his mory.
"Co on, you son of a bitch," he whispered into the void. "Cut off my head again. With each death, my eyes get used to your movents. With each restart, my body adjusts the timing... You have one life. I have infinite iterations."
Haru let out a long sigh.
"Huff..."
He felt a presence behind him.
ZIIIM!
Before he could even think or react, his head rolled across the floor.
His vision spun. The world turned sideways. He saw his own body falling forward, blood gushing from his neck.
Everything went dark.
[CHRONIA’S CURSE: ACTIVATED]
In the last glimr of consciousness, a thought crossed Haru’s mind.
"You son of a bitch... tomorrow, on this day, I’ll get you."
Then everything went black.
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