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aurorarose2112 · 1 month ago

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ループ7回目の悪役令嬢は､元敵國で自由気ままな花嫁（人質）生活を満喫する / 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys A Carefree Married Life in a Former Enemy Kingdom (Theory; WARNING: SPOILERS)

This post is regarding Arnold Heinz, his feelings towards Rishe, and a theory of a possible secret not yet revealed in the LN.

When Arnold first proposes to Rishe outside her family estate, right after her foolish ex-fiancé Dietrich annuls his engagement to her for another lady by the name of Marie, his reason for choosing her was because he ‘had fallen in love with her’.

Of course, to Rishe, who has died in her past six lives because of him and the war he started (her first five lives ending in correlation to the war, and him being the direct cause in her sixth), it sounds like a bald-faced lie. Because the image of Arnold Heinz — deeply ingrained in her mind from all her collective knowledge over her past six lives — is a cold heartless killer and tyrant, who eliminated his own father to become the king of Garkain and conquer the world.

Not to mention, she died being stabbed right through the chest by him with his sword, in the previous life right before the one he proposes to her. To any person, it is unfathomable, the height of ludicrousy, truly.

Those who have read the LN and manga, as well as watched the recently released animation, knows well of the scene where, right after bumping into Arnold in her seventh life, Rishe all but rushes down an empty corridor that leads to a balcony and jumps off without any hesitation in her haste to return home. In reaction to this, Arnold watches, wide-eyed and in apparent stupor. Many surmise it is that unusual display from a noble lady itself that tickles Arnold’s fancy and makes him fall for her.

Comedy-wise, that’s cute. But I believe that is not merely the case.

This is merely a thought, but based on the Arnold’s interactions with Rishe throughout the LN series released so far, I suspect that, like Rishe, Arnold has also time-travelled. However, my opinion is that, the trigger to his time loops is not his own death, but hers. In fact, I suspect her death is triggering both their time loops.

Based on the LN, it is revealed that Arnold’s mother was apparently a child of the Goddess of the Krushade Religion (Vol. 3), and thus as her son, he inherits something called the Goddess’ blood (Vol. 6). In the LN volume that explores this topic, it is mentioned that with this blood, things like bleeding from wounds would stop quickly, suggesting that there might indeed be some form of magic involved in all this.

Reading this, naturally the first thought would be, then shouldn’t it be Arnold’s death that triggers time loops, rather than Rishe, who isn’t related to the Goddess at all (mentioned in Vol. 3)? And yes, that would make more sense, except for the fact that Arnold is so damn OP that the idea of him somehow dying or being killed in any of the past six time loops is kind of incomprehensible.

Thus, a theory comes to mind: what if it has something to do with a Goddess’ blessing?

While merely known as a religion, what if the Goddess of Krushade is real? Surely, it is not that much more fantastical than travelling back in time seven times.

At the same time, I suspect a ‘red string of fate’ trope coming into play in this — whereby (in theory) Rishe is his fated partner, decided by the Goddess, and thus her life becomes the trigger for their time loops, and they are destined to continuously go back in time till they meet each other.

Now, as mentioned before, I suspect it is not just Rishe, but also Arnold who going through these time loops. Right before Rishe dies in her sixth life from being stabbed by him, it is repeatedly hinted in the LN and manga that he says something to her right before her seventh loop begins.

I suspect it might have to do with finding out she was his ‘fated partner’ — the very strong impression I get every time I see this particular scene is a “I finally found you/It was you” moment.

Since the seventh loop began as soon as she died, it is likely that he — who is (in theory) consciously aware of these loops as they occur — discovers she is the trigger the moment he killed her.

Going back, I mentioned that he is going through these loops as well, and is aware that something other than himself is triggering it. My reason for suggesting this is, Rishe mentions in the LN that in every life before her current one, Arnold started a war, but it progresses differently each time. And my theory is that the reason why each war he waged differs is due to him taking multiple approaches in search for her, influenced by how she changed in each life.

Rishe mentions in the LN that, with each time loop, she took on a different occupation and thus lived different lives, and it is possible that as a result, it influenced changes in her environment and thus the world each time.

In her first life, she became a merchant and joins Chairman Kain Tully and the Aria Trading Company, opened new trading routes; which were eventually used by Arnold to invade into foreign countries and conquer them, eventually resulting in her death.

In her second life, she becomes an apothecary/herbalist and nursed Kyle, the Crown Prince of Coyolles. A pandemic resulting from Arnold’s war ends her life.

In her third life, she becomes a scholar studying alchemy under Professor Michel, working in Coyolles once more. Food shortage resulted from Arnold’s war becomes the reason for her death.

In her fourth life, she became a maid for a young lady by the name of Millia, who is later revealed (Vol. 3) to be Arnold’s distant relative and a fellow descendent of the Goddess. Arnold’s destruction of the Krushade in the war leads to her death.

In her fifth life, she meets a man named Raoul and becomes a hunter/mercenary, eventually joining his organisation of intelligence agents (basically spies). This organisation gets caught up in the war once again waged by Arnold, and she gets killed in the midst of it.

And in her sixth life, she disguises herself as a man and becomes a royal knight in a foreign kingdom. The kingdom is eventually invaded by Arnold and his army, and her life ends at his hands.

It is seen that with each loop, and each different path she takes, the progress and outcome of the war waged by Arnold changes, along with how her new path in each life gets her involved and eventually killed. It is scripted in the form of coincidence, but reading into it, it is almost as if Arnold is aware of the way her choice in each life influences the world and thus changes his tactics each time, bringing him closer to finding her.

I suspect things for Arnold might have gone like this — perhaps after her first life ends and they are brought back to the past, Arnold remembers everything but assumes it is nothing more than a dream or maybe even a vision, like Rishe did the first time. After the second time, he begins the suspect the possibility of time travel but at the same time may chalk it up to mere coincidence. Then maybe by the third time, he becomes convinced of the existence of the time loop and thus changes tactics here, adopting to bring the war closer to where the changes influenced by Rishe are occurring. Thus, in the fourth and fifth times, he becomes increasingly closer to meeting Rishe. In fact, in the fifth life, the organisation actually encounters Arnold while spying from a distance, and he noticed her watching despite being a long distance away. And finally, in the sixth time, they meet face to face, but he only realises it’s her after he strikes her down.

But then, you might ask, if he remembers having seen her in the sixth loop, why didn’t he seem to recognise her upon bumping into her in the seventh loop? Might I remind you, Rishe was disguised as a guy. Even if their hair and eye colour are the same, it doesn’t mean it is immediately visibly recognisable. Not to mention, they fought briefly in a dimly lit area (anime & manga), and both were (in theory) immediately time looped upon Rishe’s death. No matter how OP, that’s probably not enough time for Arnold to completely take in her appearance. Plus he probably only thought they look alike, but are different people because of their genders.

I believe Arnold begins to suspect they are the same person after seeing Rishe jump off the balcony. In the LN and manga, it is implied that Arnold has a perceptive insight when it comes to people’s movement, like when he first met a young boy named Leo in the seventh loop (Vol. 3) and could immediately surmise Leo’s occupation as an assassin, along with the way he works, simply by watching how he walked from behind. It is likely that, similarly, seeing Rishe’s movements when she throws herself off that balcony — despite her coming back in time and thus her body regressing back to the untrained state it was long before becoming a knight — he instantly recognises that technique of body handling from when he briefly fought her in their previous loop, and comes to the conclusion they might be the same person. It would somewhat explain his amusement to the sight, beyond the fact that it was unusual behaviour for a noble lady.

What further bolsters this opinion of mine is later on, when Rishe uses a knight’s sword to parry Arnold’s as she attempts to get away from Dietrich outside her family estate. He intentionally made his presence known and even swung his sword at her, not only to test her sword skills, but most likely to appraise them himself and thus becomes completely assured she is the same person he had fought in their previous life.

Furthermore, later on in the story, when Rishe decides to join the Garkain apprentice knights while posing as a male in order to undergo physical training to get back into shape, her disguise is seen through instantly by Arnold, who sees her upon visiting the training grounds. Of course, it could just be because he’s that good at seeing through people’s disguises, like he did against Raoul who pretended to be Prince Curtis (Vol. 4) later on in their seventh loop, despite never having met Raoul before. But if my theory about Arnold’s time looping is right, he would have seen her disguise in their previous life and thus be able to instantly recognise it in their current one as well; this reasoning isn’t too far-fetched.

But the biggest reason for my suspicion of his time looping is when, upon meeting Rishe in a chapel late at night due to something of a prank his younger half-brother Theodore pulled, he tells Rishe that sometimes he sees in her the unyielding resolve of one standing in a battlefield, putting her life on the line as she fights for what she believes in, and then confesses that he fears most facing such people and having to end them himself.

Later in the LN, he also begs Rishe not to force his hand against her. Putting these two events together, it is evident he strongly desires against ever having to harm her. Of course, it could merely because, as he confessed multiple times, he is in love with her, but it might be more than that. Perhaps this fear of his that developed from being in the warfront, over multiple time loops, along with the fact that he killed her in their previous life, had given rise to a new fear — her death, be it by his hand or another’s.

He already killed her once, he couldn’t possibly bear to do it again. And (in theory) is aware she has died six times over, and doesn’t want go through the knowledge of it happening again. Because he has truly come to love her despite everything.

So yeah, this is just my speculations. What do you think? :D

#7th time loop #arnold heinz #rishe irmgard weitzner #arnold x rishe #theory #personal opinions #ループ7回目の悪役令嬢は、元敵国で自由気ままな花嫁生活を満喫する #ルプなな #light novel spoilers #spoilers

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