Arianus 11th (loop 5) continued

I continue my day walking about town. According to you, journal, I have been spending my days in the library. I suppose this would be a good change if I could remember it. Unfortunate that, but luckily I have you journal.

Continuing on I made myself familiar with the different places that people like to gossip. There is the flower gardens, the town well, and the stables. Oh, the guards also like to gossip when they take breaks. I know this because I spent some time watching them, curious. I was rather lucky that I was there when they took a break as I learned a nugget of information. The conversation was thus:

"This being Aria's birthday week makes me think of her." says a brown haired knight.

"Ah yes. I remember one of the days that she was training with us. She was so cute as she was talking to us about her birthday and all of the things that she wanted to do." says a blond knight.

"Not the things that she wanted to get?" asks a young knight. Well, he is young enough to be a squire and not a full knight.

"This was back before she was the princess. She spent a lot of time with us. We taught her how to spar, and she brought us soap that she made to help us keep our uniforms looking clean and nice." says the brown haired knight.

"She was so adorable back then. Knowing how she was back then makes me doubt some of the rumors about her. It just seems that she couldn't have changed so much." says an older knight with salt and pepper hair.

"It doesn't matter what you think. Thinking doesn't change public opinion or the things that others say that she has done." says another young knight jumping in to the conversation.

"Money changes people." says the blond knight with a sigh.

"Well I hope that she goes back to the sweet lass that we knew. Maybe getting married and leaving the castle will help her regain herself."

Seeing that the conversation about Aria is over I continue walking about. I end up making my way to the shopping strip. I see something that I wish I hadn't. Aria grabs a child from the middle of the road and launches the two of them out of the way of a speeding carriage. I wait to see the people react positively, their opinions possibly changing.

I am wrong. I am beyond wrong. They are angry that she has laid a hand on this child. They say that she is unclean and what she has done is wrong. Do they really believe that it is worse to let a child die than push him out of the way?

The mob begins to mercilessly beat her. A little black cat comes to her side, seeming to want to protect her. They scream about him being her familiar. I try to rush in to save Aria and the cat but am held back. I want to shout to them, try to get her to stand up but an elbow in my stomach keeps me quiet. I watch her die. I wasn't able to keep her from dying.

Is that my purpose? Am I supposed to keep Princess Aria from dying? Should I provide her information to help keep her safe? Or should I disregard the library and follow her about discreetly, help keep her from death?

I am not sure. I shall have to give this theory more thought.

Arianus 11th (loop 6)

Is it possible that it shall perpetually be the 11th? It is the 11th once again.

I get out of bed and go through my morning rituals. Read, eat, feed Princess Sophianna.

"What do you plan on doing today?" she asks me, curious.

"I am considering stalking the Princess." I tell her. She fluffs her coat up, looking pleased.

"I get your company all day today?" she asks. "I mean, I should. I am the best and most important thing in your life after all." she tells me.

"Oh, umm... I was planning on stalking Princess Aria." I say to clarify. Princess Sophianna seems a bit taken aback.

"Why would you do this?" she asks me, clearly startled.

"Because I think I might be intended to save her." I tell her brightly.

"Save her? Since when did you get a hero complex?" she asks me. I suppose that is a good question. This would probably be confusing to her.

"Well my little Sugar, my sweet Princess, we are supposed to save this world."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Oh?" she asks, twitching her tail back and forth a bit.

"Yes." I tell her. I inform her about the reason that I replaced her original Aiden and read to her my previous journal entries.

"Well her death does appear to be a constant. However, it is possible that there is another constant that you haven't found." she tells me.

"Oh? Any idea what that would be?"

"Not a clue." she says smugly. Why would she feel the need to be smug about that? It really doesn't make sense to me. Is this just a cat thing?

I did have a cat back in my old life. She was also a little white cat. I called her Sugar, after my favorite streamer. It is possible that is the reason that I call Princess Sophianna Sugar as a nickname. She doesn't seem to mind, saying that it is only right she have such a cute nickname as she is such a sweet cat.

"Shall we look about the town together and note the different things happening to see if we find any other patterns?" I ask her.

"I suppose. I do not wish to walk on those filthy streets though. You shall have to carry me." she says as she jumps at me. I manage to catch her and settle her comfortably in my arms.

We walk about the town, noting down the different things that seem interesting. A firebreather accidentally sets a small patch of grass on fire, a man getting flung off of his horse and into a pile of dung. Princess Sophianna also notices a gang of cats that people are yelling at for being too loud.

It takes us a while to gain this information. We had already grabbed lunch a while back and now it is time for dinner. As I make my way to somewhere to eat I hear a rumor.

"Did you hear?" asks a blond woman to the man beside her.

"Hear what?" he asks her, curious.

"The Princess was murdered! Her head was cut off by Taylor the Tailor!"

"No! Why?" he asks her.

"Apparently he was shouting, saying that wasn't the real Princess, that she was a fake, a fraud and that he was doing everyone a favor." she says.

"Wouldn't it be a bigger favor for him to have let her doppelganger take over? Maybe she would have been a kind person, someone the exact opposite of the princess." he comments.

"Funny, but maybe we shouldn't be saying this kind of thing now that she is dead. We don't know how the royal family is going to act." she says.

"Oh! You make a rather good point." he says, as if conceding a point.

I have heard enough. She died again. I don't know how there can be any clearer pattern. I feel as though I should try to find out why she is dying. It seems that a different person is killing her each time. Aside from the first two deaths. Poppy killed her both times, but killed her in a different manner.

"I wish that I was able to figure out who will kill her next." I tell my little Sugar, the sweet girl.

"I suppose you will have to get better at stalking."

Arianus 11th (loop 7)

I will have to stalk her, figure out what she is doing every day. Should I start by waiting outside of the castle? Will that give me the best chance to follow her, or get me into trouble for being suspicious?

I decide to start my day in the library, to see if anyone needed me. I am not expecting them to, since no one has ever needed me before. To be fair though, I haven't asked. Maybe I should?

I sigh and walk into the library. I walk about seeing if anyone needed anything. Maybe this will give her a chance to get ready for the day and leave the palace. After walking a bit on all of the floors I think about grabbing a book and reading some. Women love to take forever getting ready after all.

As I am getting ready to leave the library someone stops me.

"I'm sorry. But I need some help. I need to study up on magics." says a small blond girl.

"I can help find you some books. Why do you need to study?" I ask her, crouching down to be closer to her height.

"It seems that I might be developing some magic and need to learn about the different elements to help figure out what my element is. I hear that the earlier you know the better you can get at it."

"You are a very smart lass." I tell her. I am not sure why I used the word lass, I suppose it sounded fun. "How strong of a reader are you?" I ask her.

"I know my letters, but I can't read too many hard books yet."

"Okay." I tell her. "Go ahead and take a seat at this table and I will bring you some books on magic written for those your age, okay? It might take a little while because I want to get you the best books."

"Okay!" she responds, her voice sounding chipper.

I make my way to the rest area and pull out the book of notes, reviewing it. I look through it and get a good understanding of where the children's books are.

I make my way to them and look through the sections. I end up finding the books that I am looking for thankfully. I pull some out, glance through them to make sure they are indeed what she is looking for, and make my way back to her.

"Thank you for waiting. These books should have the information you are looking for." I tell her.

"Thanks mister!" she says. "Do mind staying here with me for a little while in case I need your help reading these?" she asks, and I can see the hope bloom across her face. I don't mind, it seems like Aria has been dying in the afternoon. Sometime between lunch and dinner? I am not sure of the exact time though, even though I witnessed it. Why didn't I bother writing down the time? Or, do we even keep time the same way in this world?

I do my best not to think about that and continue to help this young girl. It is actually really late by the time she thanks me and leaves the library. Helping people study and learn is one of the reasons that I wanted to become a librarian, so I guess I just got sucked into the role a bit.

When I am done I leave the library and see how late it has gotten. Did I miss my chance at saving her again? I hope not.

As I am walking to the area that she died the last time I catch some voices and my heart sinks.

"Did you hear?" asks a young girl to a young boy.

"I hear a lot of things. What thing are you talking about?" he asks her smugly.

"That Princess Aria died of course!" the girl tells him.

"She did!" the boy exclaims. "How?"

"Someone murdered her! She was poisoned!" the little girl tells him.

"Who would poison a princess? I know that not a lot of people like her, but she is still our princess." the boy says, shocked by her death.

"I think it was Andrew the Alchemist. They brought him to the dungeons to question him" I hear the girl say.

I wonder. If I tried, would I be able to go into the dungeons? I could say that I am visiting someone. Oh! I have a good idea but I will have to ask Princess Sophianna if she is willing to do it. I suppose that I should talk with her tomorrow about it. He isn't likely to die today. Also, I am not sure if they torture them the same day. It is possible they leave them alone for a day, afraid of what is to come. That is what I would do if torture was my job. I am glad it isn't.

I spend the rest of today cleaning the library and putting everything away.

Arianus 11th (loop 8)

I see that it is the 11th again, but I am no longer surprised. Aria died after all. I didn't stop her from dying. I can only assume that her dying is the thing that is starting the day over.

Knowing that I should help the little girl again I go right over to her table. I know her learning speed and the books that she needs from my notes, so it should go faster this time.

My time with her does go faster this time as predicted, and I make my way into town, looking for Aria. I catch a glimpse of her going into the blacksmith's shop. I wait outside, listening to their conversation. I figure that I will hear from their conversation if things go wrong.

I listen to their conversation a bit and everything seems fine. They are arguing a bit but it doesn't seem that she is going to be hurt. I stay where I am, out of eye sight. I set Princess Sophianna down and have her walking around. She already agreed to walk around a bit as though she is exploring. This gives me a reason to be here. I am keeping an eye on my cat.

I hear her telling him goodbye and sigh a breath of relief. It seems that this will not be where she is killed. I stand out of the way when I glimpse something. Something that should not be. The Smith has pulled a sword on her and stabbed her through the back. Why would he stab her in the back like that?

Having been prepared for the possibility of failure, Princess Sophianna and I have a plan. We are going to find our way into the dungeons. We will either hear what he is being asked, or we will ask questions ourselves. I may not have stopped her from dying this time, but I will try to find out the motive for her death.