Beyond the Eternity

The moment I entered the study, I began to scan the room.

As one would expect from a study, there were multiple shelves filled with books of various sizes and colours. A large mahogany desk dominated the center of the room, with papers, an ink bottle, and a quill resting on top its surface. The faint scent of old paper and polished wood filled the air, mingling with a hint of something more subtle—perhaps lavender or an herbal tea left to cool.

Were it not for the encroaching darkness beyond the single window, this place would have felt utterly tranquil.

I continued my survey of the room.

A dark carpet stretched toward the center, while a small armchair, neatly positioned in the corner, invited quiet reflection. On the side table next to it rested an ornate lamp and an open book, as if someone had been interrupted mid-read.

Shifting my gaze, I noticed a clock mounted above the fireplace on the adjacent wall. Its steady tick echoed through the room, yet the hands remained frozen in place.

It was the same as the one in the parlor on the first floor.

Moon Jiyeon narrowed her eyes.

"There's nothing here."

"Were you expecting to find something?"

"Wasn't the Family Head supposed to be found dead in the study?"

"That's only in the memory. If I remember correctly, the incident occurred sometime in the 1980s, meaning the body would have long since been discovered and decomposed."

"So we have to find another memory fragment."

"Everyone, let's spread out and search around."

The group scattered, searching a different section of the study.

On closer inspection, Reginald's study was neatly divided into four distinct sections: a

study, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen.

As expected, these amenities made it a self-contained sanctuary, leaving Reginald with little reason to venture outside.

But why would he design it this way? Could it be that he didn't trust his own family?

No matter how I tried to reason it, his actions defied logic. I couldn't understand why anyone would choose to confine themselves to a single place.

Perhaps some introverts might relish the solitude, but even they might struggle to fathom the overwhelming silence it brings.

A kind of silence that gnaws at your spirit and mind, reducing you to a lifeless doll trapped in an endless cycle of repetitive actions.

I despise it.

Anyone who has experienced that kind of suffocating silence would loathe such solitude. More importantly, It was incredibly dangerous for someone to be left alone with nothing but their own impulsive thoughts.

It was not uncommon for people to resort to extreme measures to escape such isolation.

Despite knowing the dangers of isolation, Reginald chose to do the opposite, deliberately locking himself away from the outside world in his study.

I couldn't understand his actions.

What could have driven him to make such a choice? Perhaps the answer lay hidden somewhere in this very study.

Surely, he must have left behind a clue before his death.

Moon Jiyeon moved to the bedroom to investigate, Ryu Yeji moved to the bathroom, while Yoo Rin headed into the kitchen to search for anything of note.

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Only Soo Jinyoung, Miyuki Kuroi, and I stayed behind in the study.

The three of us began to quietly comb through the study.

I focused on the bookshelves, pulling out the books one by one. Meanwhile, Miyuki, unable to reach the higher shelves due to her height, remained by the desk, meticulously sorting through the papers and inspecting the drawers for anything out of the ordinary.

Turning my gaze to the left, I noticed Soo Jinyoung standing motionless, as if she were frozen in place.

She stared at the clock above the fireplace with a blank expression. The clock ticked, but its hands stayed frozen as if refusing to move forward.

It occurred to me that her situation wasn't so different.

Unlike the Regressor, who could return to a specific moment in time upon death, the Reincarnator 'regenerates' into a new life, inhabiting a different body but carrying the memories of their past existence.

In the end, she had no choice but to leave everything behind and move forward. Perhaps that was the root of her resentment toward the Regressor.

The Regressor resented the Reincarnator for her ability to move on, while the Reincarnator resented the Regressor for his power to relive the past.

Despite their differences, they shared a fundamental similarity in their stories. Once they realized this truth, their bitter rivalry would seem nothing more than a futile conflict.

Even so, was it really okay for her to be spaced out like that? How long was she going to stay in that state? I could call her name, but I doubted I'd get a response. Well, I suppose it couldn't be helped.

Sighing inwardly, I turned my attention back to the bookshelves.

My fingers trailed over the spines of the books, pausing occasionally to pull one free. Most were dusty volumes on history, philosophy, and literature, but a few titles caught my attention:

Magick in Theory and Practice (By Aleister Crowley)

The Book of the Law (By Aleister Crowley)

Three Books of Occult Philosophy (By Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa)

The Secret Teachings of All Ages (By Manly P. Hall)

777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley (By Aleister Crowley)

Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches

All the books bore ominous titles, and while their contents might differ, they all shared a common theme of the occult. There were also other noteworthy books, but I ignored them and focused on the opened journal on the armtable.

I approached and opened the journal, flipping through its yellowed pages.

The more I read, the more the journal felt like a personal diary.

The Journal read:

Another beautiful morning graces me today. The sky stretches out as a canvas of soft blues, while the rose garden blooms in a riot of vibrant colors, their fragrance carried gently on the breeze.

How long has it been? Fifty years? Indeed, it has been half a century since I built the side branch of the Valoment Family from the bottom and the rose garden is the testament of that success.

Truly, I am blessed to witness such a beautiful scene. But, the bittersweet truth is that I won't enjoy it for much longer.

My days are numbered. A terminal illness has taken hold of my body, and my physician has given me less than six months to live.

To make matters worse, my children circle me like vultures, eagerly awaiting my demise to claim their share of the inheritance, my wealth.

Julian is a fool squanders money as if it were water, carelessly throwing away two gold coins just to gain one!

Elena is a fool, blinded by her obsession with money! She's no different from her older brother, yet she parades herself as if she'd make a better successor! A hypocrite through and through!

Dante is a fool who only wants to mess around with multiple women, and he even blessed the family with an illegitimate child!

Isabella is an utterly incompetent fool, incapable of accomplishing anything on her own! It's a cruel irony that she inherited my late wife's beauty but none of her intelligence or charisma! Even her designer company teeters on the brink of collapse because of her incompetence!

Iris is no better than a disgrace, flitting from one man to another while disparaging money, much like her father!

Victor lacks every ounce of what it means to be a man!! Beatrice is a mute, and her appearance is utterly disgusting!! The only one worthy is Adrian, but, he's an illegitimate child!!

I do not understand. Why must I be cursed with such incompetent descendants?! Why must I be cursed with such misfortune?!

Ah, I see. This must be the curse my dead wife, Minerva left behind! That's right! It has to be that!!

Hahaha! She really is the Black Witch! Is she trying to take revenge against me for taking away her silence?!

I don't understand! No matter how many times I try to make sense of it, I can't! How can I lose to a man who doesn't even exist in this world? How can I be defeated by someone who is nothing but mere fiction?!

If such a perfect man existed, then would Minerva have been taken away from my hands just like that? Would she have ran into the hands of that person and abandoned everything we built together?!

No no no no no! I refuse to accept that reality! Even if that reality is the truth, I would continue to deny it with all my might!! I won't be defeated by fiction!!

You can run all you want, Minerva, you can hate all you want and curse me and my family, but I won't let you go! I won't let you go! I won't let you go! I won't let you go! I won't let you go! I won't let you go! I won't let you go!

You are mine! You are mine alone! I won't let you into the arms of another man! Even if he's fictional, I'll completely obliterate him into nothingness!! I'll lock you up so you won't be taken from me!

Why? Why? Why... won't you smile at me? Not even once....? Why... won't you whisper to me? Why.... are you not in my arms?

Minerva..... Minerva... Ohhhhhhhhhhh..... OHHHHHHHHH..... MinerVVVa.... MINEEEEERRRRVVVVVVAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...

The journal stopped there.

"....."

I blinked.

The contents of the journal were disturbing, to say the least. Reginald's obsession with his late wife, Minerva, seemed to have driven him to the edge of madness. His words were filled with a desperate, almost delusional rage. He fixated on the idea of losing her to an impossible entity, someone who, according to him, did not exist in the real world.

The thought gnawed at me.

Was Minerva really in love with a man that didn't exist?

Could Reginald's paranoia have been a reflection of something deeper? Was it about Minerva's past, something the family had never been privy to? Was this 'fictional man' something she had created in her mind, or was it a symbol of something else entirely? A lost love, a forbidden desire, or perhaps a metaphor for Reginald's own insecurities and the horrors of his own isolation?

The questions that emerged were countless, and the possibilities seemed endless. It would be futile to find the right answer just by reading these texts.

Did I need to flip the game board and examine the situation from an outside perspective? No, that would be pointless. Without the missing pieces of information, I'd only be left with empty speculation.

"Did you find anything useful?"

A voice emerged and snapped me out from my own thoughts.