“I understand that you must be quite shocked, and anxious to return to your homes. But please rest assured, with the Amber Inquisitors taking on the task, I am sure that we will receive some information sooner rather than later. Please, have some wine while you wait, we’ve opened an exquisite vintage sent straight from the vineyards on Bolsor Holm.”

Abigail moved between the mumbling nobles with a graceful smile, a handful of servants following her every move as they handed out glasses filled with sparkling wine. She was naturally met with calm smiles and words of assurance wherever she went, her own smile never faltering.

They were whispering amongst themselves, how could they not? The son of a duke was accused of partaking in both treason and illegal slavery, it was a topic anyone would want to talk about, they were probably extremely busy making up various stories and theories. No proof had been produced as of yet, but those in lower positions would relish any chance to tear down those above them.

“Ah, thank you, Crown Princess. I’ve heard many great things of the wine from Bolsor Holm, but I’ve yet to acquire a taste due to my meager position. I will surely savor this great taste.”

Abigail maintained her graceful smile as the Baron in front of her accepted the glass, a wide smile on his face. Her insides churned slightly, she was sure her fingers or eyebrows would twitch if she wasn’t careful enough in maintaining her expression.

Was it just the ducal family they were looking forward to knocking down a peg? Of course not, the Imperial Family who stood a step above even the dukes was most certainly also primed for a good punch.

Sure, the one who may have committed the crime came from a ducal family, but was this not the empire overseen by the Earhart family? Was the Imperial Family really so lazy that they didn’t pay attention when their own citizens started to disappear? Were they really so careless that they allowed someone from one of the four strongest families to conspire with an enemy? Or what if… They actually worked together!

Flimsy reasons and entirely baseless accusations. She knew it, the ones who would spread them knew it. But so what? When people wanted a show, when people wanted to be angry, logic was not something they bothered thinking about. A little spark would be all it took to rouse a bit of anger, the nobles looking to take advantage of the situation would then be more than willing to fuel that anger.

The end-result wouldn’t be something great, it wouldn’t be anywhere close enough to truly harm the Sorin family or the Imperial Family. But it would knock them down a peg, and that alone would be humorous enough.

Abigail slowly but surely made her way through the entire hall and interacted with all the nobles that had to stay behind. Normally it would be the Emperor that did this, but he was currently preoccupied talking with Alice and those who had come from the ducal families so it fell onto her as the Crown Princess to handle it swiftly.

Looking at Alice earnestly chatting with the Emperor and those of the ducal households, the still somewhat out of it Teresa sticking close to her, Abigail felt cold all the way to the pit of her stomach. The world kept twisting more and more, it was as if each day it took another step away from her calculations.

Teresa shouldn’t have started regaining her memories yet, Azuras had been acting strangely for a long time, Alice was different from the previous attempts. Events that shouldn’t have happened yet occurred much earlier than expected, long before she got the time to prepare for them. Everything she did to set up the best possible future was slowly crumbling.

And the worst part was that she had no idea why any of it was happening. Why Azuras was different. Why he changed Alice. Why memories were returning so fast. Azuras, or Gabriel as he had changed his name, had clearly regained his memories, or at least parts of them, from the earlier turns. But why so soon? And why was he acting differently? She didn’t know, and so she felt cold. She did not want more people to die needlessly, she didn’t want to start another attempt just to see more people die again.

She made a promise with Caine when they met up again. This would be it. This attempt would be the last one, they would reach the best possible ending in this turn, no more dead friends and allies. Here, everyone would get to be happy for once, everyone would get to live. But the puzzle she wanted to put together was falling apart, pieces were getting plucked away. So she felt cold. She did not want to start another attempt, she did not want to see Caine sad at them having to break their promise to each other.

She dismissed the servants and strode away from the grand hall, quietly sneaking back to her room. Her thumb naturally made its way to her mouth as she started to nibble on her thumb’s fingernail, a soft silver light floating up from her shoulder.

“Kaisel, I need to ask you for another favor.”

The light on her shoulder solidified and turned into a small woman with flowing silver hair, green eyes, and fluttering wings that looked like stained glass. Kaisel, the spirit Abigail had contracted with.

Abigail was infinitely grateful towards Kaisel. Part of the reason was that Kaisel was one of the main reasons that the loop was formed to begin with, without her everything would have ended with that very first tragedy. But above that… Abigail could only be with Caine thanks to Kaisel. Had it not been for this fairy, this Abigail would never have gotten to be here. It would be the same face, the same body, the same voice, but a different Abigail.

And thus, she was infinitely grateful towards Kaisel and the original Abigail. As such, she had naturally done her best all along, she’d done everything she could to achieve the best result, even before she fell for Caine. But now, now things were starting to fall apart and she was feeling the pressure all over again.

Thus, she naturally had to ask herself; had she really done everything in her power? Had she given everything she could give? And the answer to that… Was no. There was still something she could do, a measure she had yet to take.

“I need to look at the loop and the established flow of time, I need to understand where things went wrong so that I can fix them.”

It was a measure that she didn’t want to take. Even if this body had an exalted bloodline, she was in the end mostly just human. For a mortal to observe the established flow of time, and even gaze upon the loop created by multiple gods? To call it a strain was an understatement, if she only lost 10 or so years of her lifespan then that alone would be enough to be called a miracle.

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“Kaisel… Please.”

But she felt like she was left with no choice, so she didn’t regret her choice. She would not allow her promise with Caine to end in sorrow as they started another loop. Some might think that they had as much time as they wanted, that they could just try again and again as they pleased so there was no need to worry.

But Abigail could feel it within herself. That gnawing unease, that growing worry. How long could she last? What if it didn’t stop at just five or so loops? What if it kept going and she had to see her friends and companions die? How long would she be able to stay herself?

No, the loops had to end as quickly as possible, while she was still able to say that she was herself. And if there was a price to pay… Well, she cared more about Caine and her companions than she did about herself so she’d gladly pay it as many times as it took.

——————————

As Gabriel expected, their group grew rather large after they met up with the Inquisitors from the other families. The other families seemed to match the pace of the Imperial Family so they all sent over a single squad of inquisitors, eight from each family. Since the Sorin family naturally couldn’t send their own inquisitors as this matter related to them, their group ended up 33 strong as they marched upon the eerily quiet mansion that was their first target.

The insides were just as Teresa had described them. The slaves that had perished once their master was slain were scattered about, some leaning against walls or furniture while others had just slumped down. The mansion was as silent as the grave, the subtle and sweet scent of death permeating the air.

“Gather all the corpses, strip them of anything that may serve as evidence.”

Nerissa crinkled her nose as she looked at the hallway, directing the people under her command with a few quick moves of her hand. The bodies were swiftly gathered and carefully lined up on the lawn outside, with anything that served as identification confiscated or noted down. Naturally, if they were carrying anything belonging to the mansion then it was taken away separately just in case it could serve as proof.

They quickly made their way through the mansion, scouring every room and document, investigating every corpse or possible entrance to any secret rooms. It didn’t take long for them to reach the main office, where the corpses of the leaders were naturally gathered.

“… This is the nephew of Duke Vritara’s niece, and this lady has confirmed ties to Duke Sorin’s third son.”

Nerissa, as someone who worked closely with the emperor, knew just about every notable figure in the empire. She could recognize the two leaders at a single glance, even if one of them was just an ‘unconfirmed’ illegitimate daughter. Naturally, their presence here alone was far from enough to serve as evidence, but if there really was a dungeon with child slaves down below then it was something else entirely. The Vritara and Sorin families would be hard-pressed to claim any sort off innocence or ignorance for the dead if that was the case.

“Scour the office. And bring them out with the rest.”

Nerissa spat out her orders after investigating the two corpses. Some of the men looked uncomfortable with placing people who had ties to the ducal families next to the dead slaves and servants, but the cold look in Nerissa’s eyes prevented them from saying anything. This was why Nerissa was the one who became the head of the Amber Inquisitors, she didn’t care about your rank or status, only innocence or guilt.

Once the office was scoured and everything of use had been stripped clean, there was naturally only one place left for them to check. The large group made their way to the secret entrance into the underground chamber, but there would never be space for all of them down there, they were already walking in long lines just to get through the hallways. As such, only the Amber Inquisitors and Gabriel went down the stairs.

The familiar smell of blood tickled Gabriel’s nose. Partly fresh, partly old. A stuffy smell, a filthy smell. It reminded him of some of the prisons he had been in during his old life, on both sides of the bars. And depending on the country, some of them had torture chambers that smelled like this.

At the bottom of the stairs, within the stone room, they found what Teresa had left. Two ruined corpses splayed on the ground while two strange bodies were prostrating by the corpses. They too looked broken, shattered bones and torn skin. But they had white moss-like things growing on their skin and out of their orifices, branch-like mushrooms extending from their heads.

Cordyceps. Teresa had given them something rather nasty.

“Tarung, Arvold, Shijen, take care of the corpses. Langrun, Duvain, Preton, Farang, free the prisoners. Gabriel, follow me to search the walls.”

Nerissa’s lips were tightly pressed as she gave the orders. She saw the cells at the other end of the room, the people huddled closely together in fear. The inquisitors sprang into action while Nerissa started to move along the walls with Gabriel, looking for traces that may hide additional secret entrances.

Gabriel was naturally also looking, but there was something else that tugged at his attention. The four bodies that Teresa had produced, more specifically one of the prostrating ones that had been taken over by the fungus. It required his attention for a very simple reason.

“Grand Inquisitor, this one is still alive.”

One of the inquisitors in charge of the corpses spoke up. Indeed, one of the two infected people still lived, babbling in such a low voice that you had to lean in to hear it. Was it because Teresa ran away, or did their own survival instinct kick in before they could kill themselves properly? Whatever the case was, they still lived, if their state could even be called that.

“Take them in. We’ll pry what we can from them if they haven’t gone insane.”

There was a slight furrow to Nerissa’s brow, she probably couldn’t understand how a person could still be alive in that state. Gabriel was also looking over there, momentarily thinking.

Alice said that they only needed a single mouth, the rest had to lose their heads. That infected person, would they be adequate as the sole mouth? … No, they weren’t good enough. And in their state, it was unknown what they might say about Teresa. They were also the reason that Teresa had come back looking so miserable so they simply weren’t good enough.

Naturally, Gabriel couldn’t just go and kill them right now, that would be foolish. Luckily, he didn’t have to use his own hand to kill them.

His finger slid against the stone wall like he was looking for hidden grooves, his thoughts moving. He wished for ice, and the world listened. The moisture in the air above the bodies gathered and froze, forming a ball of sharp glacial thorns aimed directly at the inquisitors in charge of the corpses.

No spell was cast, no words were uttered. Gabriel wished for ice, and ice was made. This was his first time ‘publicly’ using it ever since he used Akasha (Demon) on the sealed demon they encountered in the north. He’d naturally practiced it several times so he knew it worked, he even knew his limits and just how much he could control. And thus, he also knew that those present wouldn’t be able to sense him do it.

The orb exploded and launched the ice at the inquisitor reaching for the body, tearing through the air with a quiet sound. He was caught off-guard, off course he was. How could anyone present expect that the blabbering the infected person was doing was in fact a spell? Or well, at least that was what it looked like to them.

How did people act when they were caught-off guard? How did soldiers and trained fighters react in dangerous situations where they had no time to think? Simple, they acted on instinct.

The inquisitor drew his weapon, and in a swift motion cut down the spikes and the attacker. It was simply instinct, defend and destroy the attacker, it was what they knew to do. But as a result, the witness they wanted to bring in was dead, so he could only lower his head.

“Forgive me, Grand Inquisitor, I forgot to think!”

Nerissa naturally didn’t look too pleased that the witness had ended up dead, but how could she possibly blame her own men in a situation like that?

“Don’t worry about it, it was not something you could control. We can only say that we are unlucky that their loyalty is deeper than one would expect. Keep gathering them up, we will surely find something.”

She could only drop the matter, her slightly narrowed eyes observing the fresh corpse for a few moments before she returned to the task at hand. And naturally, Gabriel followed along just as she had ordered.