It was a stormy night. Rain poured down heavily accompanied by strikes of lightning. Inside an empty and dark castle where no sounds could be heard, a shadow walked down the hallway, step by step passing the wall filled with numerous portraits.

A thunderbolt struck down as the shadow walked past the large window, revealing his small body wearing an oversized night shirt. The shadow, or to be more accurate, the boy, only took a slight glance towards the window before he continued walking, until he stopped in front of a large door.

The boy knocked on the door twice, but no sound was heard from behind it. Sighing, he knocked once more and finally decided to barge in when there was still no answer. As he had expected, the room was dark and silent. The only sound of breathing came from the desk where a little girl was sleeping soundly on her seat. Under her folded arms was an opened diary full of scribbles.

"Did she fall asleep when writing again?" the boy sighed while mumbling to himself.

He thought that he would be in the same state as the girl if not for the dream he just had.

Then suddenly, the girl groaned with her brows furrowed. She started to twitch and almost fell down from the chair if not for the boy hurriedly running to catch her body.

"This idiot —!" the boy quickly calmed himself down when he noticed that the girl was sweating cold.

He knew then that she would wake up soon. After all, this was the scene that he had relieved countless times.

3 —2 —1

As soon as he counted down to one, the girl's eyelashes fluttered and she started to writhe in pain. The boy sat down on the cold floor and laid her head on his lap carefully.

"Shhh, it's alright, Fiorentia," the boy hushed her with a gentle voice as his hand started to stroke her head tenderly.

"That life will only be a nightmare you won't remember. You'll forget all the pain you've experienced —even the moments of your death. So just wake up, because you have another chance to start over."

As soon as the boy finished his words, Fiorentia's eyes opened. Tears started to fall down from the corner of her eyes without her knowing why.

"Fe —Felix —" Fiorentia called the boy anxiously. "I —I think I just have a nightmare, but —"

"You can't remember?" Felix asked as his hand kept stroking her head.

Fiorentia nodded. She also often had nightmares that she couldn't remember before this, but never did she feel as anxious as she was now. Felix only smiled bitterly as he helped her get up from the floor.

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"Before that, why don't you read your diary first?" said Felix as he took the book on her desk and opened the last page. "You'll understand after you read this."

Although confused, Fiorentia nodded. For her, what her brother, Felix, suggested was always for her own best, thus she never complained. She took the book from his hand and started to read what was written on the last page of the diary which she had never opened before.

15th of the 7th month, year 543.

To the 8 year old me who may be confused and perhaps anxious with the nightmare you can't remember.

This is the day I've set as the axis for turning back time. I know that you're confused right now, so I'll explain it to you one by one.

First, you possess a blessing related to time that you don't know how to activate or use, correct? That blessing is actually called Chronos which allows you to turn back time after death. Of course, it isn't without restriction.

This blessing's restriction is that you can't retain the memory of the time before you regress. But in exchange, you can set someone and something to be your memory box. The condition is that both have to be who and what is the closest to you. As you may have expected, this last page of the diary is what I choose for the 'something'. As for the 'someone', you may already have a guess of who it is.

My 8 year old self,

Just in case, I remind you, that as long as we don't die from natural death, the regressions will never stop. So whatever number you are, I earnestly wish that you'll do your best to survive. Remember, no matter how sturdy your memory box is, it will eventually wear out and break down. And we both know that that is the last thing that we want.

From

The 'first' Fiorentia.

Fiorentia's eyes shook as she couldn't believe what was written on her diary. The blessing of time travel, if it was true, then how many times she had regressed?

"The memories are kept by someone who serves as my memory box —" Fiorentia whispered. " —my closest person, then —!"

She turned her head towards Felix who was patiently waiting for her to finish reading. Unlike before, he now gave a strange vibe which somehow was very inconsistent with his 8 year old body.

"It's you, right," Fiorentia said. It wasn't a question, because for her, no one could be closer other than her own counterpart, her twin brother who looked very much like her own reflection on the mirror, whether it was their blonde hair, purple eyes, height, face, voice, tone, or even expression. Their only difference was their hair length.

Felix neither affirmed or denied her statement. Instead, he walked towards the window and opened the curtain, letting the sunlight crept inside the room as the dawn arrived. For some reason, in Fiorentia's eyes, Felix's figure which was surrounded by the light looked bigger and more mature, just like the weird feeling he exuded.

"12," he said briefly.

Fiorentia raised her brow as she couldn't understand the meaning of the number.

"It's how many times you regress," Felix added with a chuckle. "Welcome to your 13th life, my dear sister Fiorentia."