The Extra's Regressor Wives

Bram never even had the chance to scream.

A long blade of mana pierced through his chest from the right.

The two horses immediately panicked, neighing wildly as they bolted off the main road. The carriage tilted violently to one side.

Lathel’s shoulder slammed into the wall of the compartment.

Before he could regain his balance, the front wheel struck a large rock.

CRACK!

The axle snapped.

The entire carriage overturned.

The crates in the back crashed into one another. Wooden planks shattered, and Lathel was thrown out of the compartment, rolling across the ground several times.

The dark-violet light surrounding his body flickered repeatedly.

By the time he finally stopped moving, the only thing he felt was a slight dizziness.

No broken bones.

Not even torn skin.

"I told you to be careful," Pandora said.

Lathel did not pay attention to her at all.

He lifted his head and immediately searched for the carriage.

"Bram!"

Only a rough, broken sound came from his throat.

Lathel scrambled to his feet and ran over.

Bram lay several meters away from the driver’s seat, his body turned slightly to one side. Blood had already soaked through the front of his clothes.

Lathel dropped to his knees beside him and immediately pressed both hands against the wound.

Warm blood poured between his fingers.

He pressed harder.

It did nothing.

Bram’s eyes had already lost focus.

Lathel hurriedly placed two fingers against his neck.

No pulse.

He checked again.

Then once more.

Still nothing.

His hands began to tremble.

Not long ago, this man had been talking about reaching the Holy City by afternoon.

He had said that if the trip went smoothly, he might make it home in time to have dinner with his wife.

He had talked about his youngest daughter learning how to sew and ruining three shirts already.

Then Bram had laughed and said that no matter how ugly the stitching was, if his daughter made it herself, he would still wear it.

A person who had been talking about such ordinary things only moments ago—

was now dead.

Lathel stared at the blood covering his hands.

His entire body began trembling harder.

’Why...?’

Footsteps sounded behind him.

Then came a familiar voice.

"You still like sticking your nose into other people’s problems."

Lathel stiffened.

Slowly, he turned around.

Aldric stepped out from between the trees beside the road.

His clothes were still spotless. His hair was neatly combed, and there was even a friendly smile on his lips—the same smile Lathel had seen countless times back at the House.

But after everything that had happened, it no longer felt familiar.

It felt cold.

Terrifyingly cold.

Aldric stopped about ten meters away. His gaze passed over the destroyed carriage before settling on Lathel.

"For a moment, I thought I was seeing things."

He laughed.

"Did House Avarenne really throw you out?"

Lathel stared at him.

Aldric slowly walked closer.

"Of course they did. Leviana collapsed again, so a substitute like you naturally became useless. Did you really think saving her once would make you the Duke’s son-in-law?"

Lathel did not react to the mockery.

He only raised his bloodstained hand and pointed toward Bram.

Aldric followed the gesture and frowned slightly.

"What?"

Lathel clenched his teeth and pointed at the driver’s corpse again before staring directly at Aldric.

He wanted to ask why.

He wanted to know what a completely unrelated man had done to deserve death.

But Aldric only watched his hand movements with impatience.

"This again."

Lathel’s hands froze.

He had almost forgotten.

Aldric had never wanted to understand his sign language.

Ever since they were children, whenever Lathel tried communicating with his hands, Aldric would only find it irritating and tell him to find a writing board.

There was no paper or pen nearby now.

In the end, Lathel could only point toward Bram one more time.

This time, Aldric seemed to understand.

"You’re asking about him?"

Lathel nodded.

Aldric glanced at the corpse and shrugged.

"He’s dead."

Lathel’s hand clenched.

Of course he knew Bram was dead.

What he wanted to know was why.

Aldric watched his expression for several seconds before apparently understanding the real question.

The corner of his mouth slowly rose.

"You want to know why I killed him?"

Lathel stared at him.

"Because he was here," Aldric replied casually. "He saw something he shouldn’t have. After I kill you, am I supposed to let some carriage driver run off and report it?"

He looked toward Bram again.

His eyes were no different from those of someone looking at discarded rubbish by the roadside.

"Besides, he’s just a driver."

Aldric laughed.

"There are people like him everywhere. If an animal pulling a cart dies, you replace it with another one. Why are you making that face like your own father just died?"

Something tightened painfully around Lathel’s chest.

An animal?

He slowly turned back toward Bram.

The corner of a blue handkerchief still stuck out from the man’s pocket.

His youngest daughter had sewn it herself.

The stitching was crooked, and the corners were uneven, but Bram always carried it because he was afraid she would be hurt if she found out he never used it.

He had a wife.

Children.

A home waiting for him.

All because he had let Lathel ride along, everything was over.

And in Aldric’s eyes, that life was not even worth mentioning.

’Why?’

Lathel truly did not understand.

Even if Aldric wanted to kill him—

what had Bram done wrong?

Pandora had remained silent ever since Aldric appeared.

Only now did she finally speak.

"I don’t understand those words he keeps using. ’Background character.’ ’Plot.’"

For once, there was no teasing in her voice.

"But I don’t like that attitude either."

Lathel lowered his gaze to his blood-covered hands.

Pandora immediately sensed the turmoil inside his soul.

"Your emotions are a mess."

He knew.

"You’re angry?"

Lathel did not answer.

Aldric had already moved closer.

He stopped only a few steps away and looked down at Lathel with a cold smile.

"To tell you the truth, I only found you mildly annoying before. A useless thing living in my house. As long as you knew your place, I couldn’t even be bothered to care."

The smile on his lips gradually faded.

"But lately, you’ve started becoming extremely irritating."

Lathel slowly raised his head.

Aldric stared at him, his voice becoming colder with every word.

"You’re just an Extra. A character who doesn’t even have his own storyline. You were supposed to die before the real plot even began."

He narrowed his eyes.

"And yet, again and again, you keep appearing in places where you were never supposed to exist."

Lathel remembered the information the System had once shown him.

Aldric was the protagonist.

He knew this world was something like a story.

But there was one thing Lathel still could not understand.

Just because Aldric believed everyone else was a character in some story—

did that give him the right to treat their lives like weeds beneath his feet?

Aldric caught the look in his eyes and laughed softly.

"Don’t look at me like that. Trash should know it’s trash."

He stepped closer and lightly patted Lathel’s cheek as though lecturing an animal.

"Then again, maybe being born human was already too much for you."

Aldric bent lower, the malice in his smile deepening.

"In your next life, try being reborn as a dog."

His gaze slowly dropped to Lathel’s throat.

"At least a dog knows how to bark."

His smile widened.

"Unlike a useless mute like you."

Lathel’s hand clenched.

Bram’s body lying in a pool of blood flashed through his mind.

Then came Leviana.

Her bare feet covered in cuts.

Her body scorched after forcing her way through the barrier before collapsing in his arms.

Everything Lathel had forced down since yesterday seemed to surge up at once.

The guilt he felt toward Leviana.

The helplessness of being unable to save her with his own strength.

The bitterness of watching an innocent man die simply because he had given him a ride.

And finally—

the anger Lathel had swallowed so often that even he had almost forgotten he was capable of feeling it.

He slowly stood up.

Aldric raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?"

Lathel did not give him the chance to say anything else.

His fist flew forward.

THUD!

The punch struck Aldric squarely across the cheek, snapping his head slightly to one side.

Lathel immediately tried to strike again.

This time, Aldric caught his wrist.

The smile disappeared from his face completely.

"You—"

Mana erupted between them.

BOOM!

An invisible force slammed into Lathel’s stomach.

His body flew several meters backward, his back smashing into the road as all the air was forced from his lungs.

Aldric was already walking toward him.

"Trash like you..."

He kicked Lathel directly in the stomach.

THUD!

Lathel’s body slid across the ground.

"You dare hit me?"

A second kick slammed into his ribs.

Lathel gritted his teeth and raised both arms to protect his head and chest, but Aldric showed no intention of stopping.

"You really think being kept around by House Avarenne for a few days suddenly made you a person?"

Aldric bent down, grabbed him by the collar, and hauled him up.

"You should be grateful my family fed an orphan like you for all these years."

A fist smashed into Lathel’s face.

The corner of his mouth split instantly.

"You should thank me for letting you live this long."

The second punch left his head spinning.

Aldric released him.

Lathel collapsed to the ground.

"You were supposed to obediently remain a background character and die somewhere nobody cared about."

Lathel planted one hand against the ground and tried to rise.

Aldric immediately kicked his shoulder, knocking him down again.

"And yet you keep crawling out."

Lathel lay on his side, struggling to breathe.

A drop of blood fell from the corner of his mouth and landed beside his hand.

Bram’s blood was still on his fingers.

The blood of two people mixed together.

Lathel stared at it for a long time.

Pandora sighed softly inside his mind.

"You want to hit him?"

Lathel pressed one hand against the ground.

Aldric was still approaching.

Pandora did not laugh this time.

"I’m asking seriously."

Her voice became quieter.

"Do you want to beat him?"

Lathel did not answer immediately.

He looked toward Bram.

Then toward Aldric.

After a while—

Lathel nodded.

Once.

Clear and unmistakable.

Pandora remained silent for a moment.

Then she laughed.

It was not the laugh she used when teasing him.

It sounded more like she had finally received the answer she had been waiting for.

"Good."

Lathel paused slightly.

Pandora’s voice softened.

"I don’t like him either."

A cold sensation immediately flooded through his soul.

"I’ll lend it to you."

At that moment, Lathel felt something deep inside his body open.

It was completely different from the pitiful amount of mana he had sensed before.

The power was so cold that his bones went numb, yet at the same time, it carried a crushing weight, like a raging river being forced into a vessel far too small to contain it.

His joints began trembling.

For the first few moments, even breathing became difficult.

Aldric had just come within several meters when he suddenly stopped.

"Hm?"

A thin wisp of black mist escaped from Lathel’s arm.

Then another.

Within seconds, the dark energy had wrapped around his entire arm, spreading from his fingertips to his wrist before crawling across his skin like living creatures.

Within the black mist, violet markings began appearing one after another.

They ran beneath his skin like glowing veins, traveling from his arm to his shoulder, spreading across his chest, and continuing upward toward his neck.

Aldric slowly stepped back half a pace.

The smile was gone.

BOOM!

Black-violet mana erupted.

The ground and loose stones around Lathel were blasted outward. Broken pieces of wood from the carriage rolled away beneath the pressure.

Dark mist mixed with violet light and enveloped his body, making the surrounding air heavy enough to make breathing difficult.

Lathel pushed himself upright.

Mana whipped through his hair.

The violet markings had already spread from his neck onto one side of his face.

Even his normally gentle eyes were now covered by a layer of dark-violet light, nearly erasing the harmless expression he usually carried.

Aldric stared at the person standing before him.

For the first time since appearing—

the contempt in his eyes was replaced by genuine shock.

"Impossible..."

He stepped back another half pace, his hand unconsciously tightening around his wand.

Aldric’s gaze swept repeatedly across Lathel as though trying to confirm that the person before him was truly the same man he knew.

"You’re only a side character."

His voice had lost its calm.

"An Extra who doesn’t even exist in the main storyline..."

The dark energy around Lathel erupted again.

Every violet marking beneath his skin lit up at once.

Aldric tightened his grip on his wand.

"How can you possibly have this kind of power?"

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