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[1]Broken Time
In some corner of a merciless night, where candles burned alone and the wind whispered incomprehensible secrets, a voice refused to fade—echoing within the walls of a room sealed long ago.
A room with shuttered windows and black curtains that permitted no light to enter. Its air was thick with the scent of old paper, ink, and decay. In this isolation, the wall clock had stopped working. Its hands were frozen at an unknown time, as if time itself had refused to continue inside this chamber.
He was sitting there—
A man in his middle years, clad in a long robe dyed in shifting spectral hues, glittering now and then as if it danced to an invisible rhythm.
Roswaal L. Mathers.
His pale face, like the moon on a dark night, bore a half-smile, as if he knew the ending of a story that had not yet begun. His slender fingers played idly with a torn page from an ancient book.
"…Hah."
A faint sound—perhaps he was speaking to himself, or to those who had vanished centuries ago.
"The thread has started to tangle… again."
Roswaal stood abruptly, his robe fluttering in silence, as if even it respected the room's stillness.
He walked toward a mirror hanging in the corner—covered by a black veil.
He lifted the veil slowly, looked into the reflection—
No. What he saw… wasn't himself.
His eyes met the gaze of a black-haired boy with Japanese features, staring back at him from the mirror.
That face… wasn't his.
"Oh… Subaru-kun…"
He whispered, touching the glass surface with his gloved hand.
It was now clear:
The mirror wasn't a mirror at all.
It was a gate—or rather, a remnant of some ancient magic, preserved through spectral enchantment, connected to a root that didn't belong to this world.
Roswaal wasn't merely observing—
He was spying on a "timeline."
And for some reason, he had chosen Subaru Natsuki.
But why? And for how long?
---
Four hundred years ago,
before the name "Roswaal" as we know it even existed,
there was a young man—different from the one we know today.
A young man named Roswaal L. Kyn.
Not the aristocratic sorcerer of Emilia's present day, but a mad youth, lost in love with the impossible.
He was the first to ever touch the idea of "immortality" in the world of true magic.
The first to look at time not as an enemy… but as a tool.
"If death means extinction, why not create a cage of time that can imprison every death?"
He once said this—right before burning one of his friends alive to test a spell… that failed.
Since that day, the concept of "Return by Death" became his greatest obsession.
But he lacked the power to achieve it.
Yet… he wasn't alone.
There was a being—something that whispered to him.
A spirit from beyond this world.
A being without name, without form… only a scent.
A foul stench, like rotting corpses.
"A Witch."
That's all he ever knew about it.
---
In that era,
Roswaal visited the Witch of Shadows—
Little Beatrice, who still belonged to someone else.
He asked her about the "Tree of Time,"
About magic that could manipulate the future,
About eyes that could see death.
But Beatrice was afraid.
She told him one thing:
> "Don't tamper with the thread that cannot be seen… some destinies exist only for those who die."
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But Roswaal would not surrender.
In one of the forbidden rituals,
He summoned the strange entity.
It was a moonlit night… and his eyes were bleeding.
"You… from outside time.
I want… a deal."
The entity responded:
"You shall have immortality, and all that you desire.
But you must find 'the vessel.'"
"And who is the vessel?"
"She is not from this time.
She will be a princess… with a face resembling shadows."
---
And so, the pursuit began.
At first, Roswaal thought the vessel was Satella.
She was different… broken… but carried something unique.
And as he grew closer to her, he began hearing voices.
Time around him began to shatter.
Roswaal lived years beyond his natural age.
He began losing his humanity,
And grew increasingly obsessed with "the thread."
Then…
One day—
Subaru Natsuki suddenly appeared in this world.
---
"He has arrived."
Roswaal said, smiling.
He had been watching, waiting, confirming.
It wasn't a coincidence.
It wasn't a mere summoning.
It was the condition of the deal.
If Roswaal wanted "Return by Death,"
He had to provide a human body—
From beyond time.
From a world that doesn't follow the laws of this universe.
> And Subaru?
Was that body.
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But he told no one.
Not even Satella.
He used her—just as she was used by the entity.
Because the vessel wasn't just Satella…
It had to be bound to a human soul—
A soul capable of madness, of loss, of clinging to life even if it burned a thousand times.
And Subaru? He was more suited than anyone.
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In the present—
Roswaal stands in his mansion,
Looking at the mirror that shows Subaru kneeling in the Pleiades Watchtower,
His face bloodied, his eyes pleading for mercy.
"Every step you take, every death you endure…"
Roswaal murmured,
"Is for me—not for you."
---
But he wasn't smiling now.
His face was pale.
Because there was something he still didn't understand:
> Why does he feel pain… every time Subaru dies?
Why does he dream of strange nightmares?
Why does he feel like there's someone else inside his mind—watching from the shadows… and smiling?
---
"…Is that you… 'L'?"
Roswaal whispered—for the first time, calling a name he did not know how he knew.
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