"Well..." Gaus said with a long-suffering sigh. "It could be possible, but where is it? Who has it? It just doesn't make any sense for a man to keep Rewinding one day for decades. No matter what you want you can get it in a couple of Rewinds. You can argue about it but it just doesn't feel right."

Rachel shrugged. He got the feeling she didn't want to argue about it at all.

"I can see three ways by which this time loop is possible," she said. "First, time is going back for twenty-four hours in a typical Rewind fashion; second, time is not going back rather a new version of ourselves is constantly being created and our current selves are being destroyed or they are being sent to another timeline; third, this is a timeline inconsistency, a temporal abnormality of a sort, between our timeline and other timelines. Imagine there are many timelines with different versions of ourselves going at the same temporal flow with just a day difference. By the time we are done with this day, another timeline is a day behind us and our timeline gets switched by that timeline that's a day behind. Although, that doesn't explain the lack of memories. Of all the three possibilities, I favor the first one. Our world is going back through time like the Rewind and certain people are spared."

"Or maybe," Gaus said with narrowed eyes. "Instead of a Rewind, time and space are wrapping on each other between our timeline and the parallel timeline, sending us back in time to relive this particular day, a repercussion of the very first Rewind that happened hundreds of years ago."

Rachel narrowed her eyes in thought.

"It's possible," she murmured to herself.

They silently stared at the ground for a while. They needed to know more for they had no other option. The only way to escape the prison was to study it.

"How did you get the Rewind?" Rachel finally asked.

"I don't know. It was with me the very second I arrived."

That immediately spiraled another series of questions. Did someone summon him and give him the Rewind? Did he get it by accident? Rachel postulated that whatever was happening at the backstreet the night Gaus arrived was related to the Rewind and Gaus was just lucky to have it when he arrived. It was random, of course. They had no way of knowing the truth with so little information.

Another question they tried to answer was the origin and purpose of the two Rewinds. Did the marines create the two Rewinds but lose one along the way? What happened? How could Gaus have a skill so important?

"If the two Rewinds are the same then I can also rewind for more than a minute, right?" Gaus asked.

"That would require more mana than you have," Rachel said. "And mana is fixed for every mage; you can't increase it. Either the two Rewinds aren't the same, or the marines have found a way to increase their mana reserve against all odds."

Urgh.

"Stop groaning," she said. "There's some good that comes out of all this. I mean, we just found out your only weakness is your magiwatch. No matter how your soul is damaged you will recover in the next loop. Every time they kill you, you will come back stronger. The loop will renew your soul and you'll be whole again. Although, you have to leave the academy to enjoy this boon."

Well, it felt significantly better when she put it that way. He was safer than every other looper in the academy. He would survive even if someone were to blast his soul to pieces. The worst that could happen was to remain in a coma long enough to be erased from the academy and he would be reborn at the beginning of the next loop. He would of course lose any claim to the academy when that happened but he would be alive and in the loop thanks to his magiwatch.

The next series of questions focused on the magiwatch. It was just a hard piece attached to the arm. How vulnerable was it? There was a time when Gaus thought about cutting his arm together with the watch. He wondered what could have happened if he'd succeeded.

"Physical attacks don't work on the watch," Rachel said. "And don't even think about cutting it off, it would just find another place on your body to attach to. Even if you were to explode into pieces, the watch will still be intact. Simple skills don't work on it either. You will be very difficult to kill although you shouldn't think of yourself as invincible. Tyren had found a way to hurt you and others will as well. There's a branch of enchantment called alteration that could very well alter the molecular composition of the watch. I, for example, can just block the mana veins supplying the watch and deprive it of its nourishment."

Alright. The point was clear - he wasn't invincible.

"There's still one thing we didn't talk about," Gaus said. "Is Tyren red or blue? You said the soul bond is attached to both my soul and magiwatch, so I wonder what's keeping him in the loop now. Is it my magiwatch or my soul, or both?"

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"Well, he would still be in the loop even if you leave the academy, so I would say both. As far as the soul bond is concerned, you two are the same. You are just one person with two different bodies."

Damn matters of the soul. Nothing would ever be simple when it came to them.

***

Meanwhile, Tyren stood before the council for the second time. It was time to take care of Minorita.

"You should try to persuade the council," Nadin had said. "Just one more time. Let them do the dirty work for us."

Tyren liked the idea and thus he wanted to try something a little daring. If it didn't work then he could always use the trump card. Yes, it was inconvenient and could easily spiral out of control, but he wanted to try it nonetheless. Besides, it would be worth it just to see Minorita dead.

"What could be so important?" A man from the council asked. Tyren recognized his voice from the last time he visited. Maybe he was the voice of the council.

"It's an honor to stand before the council," Tyren said with a deep bow. "I wouldn't have come here a second time if it wasn't so important."

He stopped and waited for the man to give him the approval nod.

"Did... the council check out the coordinates I have provided?"

"Yes, we have."

"Was she there? She should be. I saw her with my own eyes."

"She was there."

Tyren forced a smile.

"What about the boy? Did you get him? We have a deal that the boy is mine."

"You will have the boy when we take her down."

Tyren looked around the hall. There were fewer people in it than the last time he was there but it was more than enough to take the woman down, he thought. All the council needed was the reason to take the risk.

"But when will that be?" Tyren asked.

"In three loop months, five days," the man answered.

"But..." Tyren said hesitantly. "She would be gone by that time."

"Young man," the man said sharply. He was calm and so was his voice but he somehow managed to sound terrifying. "Why would she move? You speak as if she is aware of the loop."

Tyren bit his lower lip. He could tell every word the council said was calculated. They were old and wise but today that might just play to his advantage.

"She is in the loop," Tyren said.

All the eight people in the room turned in his direction. Most were frowning but oddly enough one black-eyed man was smiling. A woman with a missing ear was nodding at him. Tyren wasn't sure if that was an approving nod or not but, for the first time, he had the council's undivided attention.

"Care to elaborate?" Another man asked. This was the first time a different voice spoke.

"Everyone keeps saying the gate is barred," Tyren said. "That nobody can get into the loop without a proper invitation. That's not true."

"The rumor last year about the archmage joining the loop was sorted out in case you weren't aware," the man said.

"I'm not talking about the archmage," Tyren said. He had it all planned but still, his heart was beating faster than it ever did. He was facing wolves and things were about to get messy. But no matter what happened, he would win. He always did. For he was Tyren. "I'm talking about Minorita. She's in the loop."

"And how will you know that?" The man asked, leaning forward in his direction.

"She recruited someone I know," Tyren said. "I can give you a name but I want something in return."

"Name your price," the earless woman beside the black-eyed man said.

"I just want Gaus," Tyren said. "The boy belongs to me."

"Did she bring this... Gaus into the loop as well?" the black-eyed woman asked.

"No," Tyren said. "He is a fellow temporary looper from the academy."

The black-eyed woman stared at him for several seconds before she nodded.

"Give us the name," the black-eyed man said, his voice no different from any adult man.

"The name's Paker."

The earless woman murmured something to the black-eyed man. It was loud but he somehow couldn't identify a single word from it. The black-eyed man stood up from his seat and he was suddenly standing in front of him. The smell of old age hit him and he couldn't help but take a step back.

"Don't be afraid," the black-eyed said. "Tell me about this Paker. You will be rewarded for it."

"He's different from everyone I know in the loop," Tyren said. "Any damage to his soul will not last to the next loop and yet he retains his memory, making different decisions every time I see him."

Tyren carefully described how the Rewind worked but he didn't call it by name, leaving them no indication he knew about it. He didn't want to implicate himself or Gaus. This was just to kill Minorita and there was no point in involving anyone else.

***

As the loop reset, Gaus faced a frustrated Lilat and a downhearted Abbas. They paced around the room while Gaus silently watched them from the side. Rachel wrote something on a paper and pretended she didn't notice any of it.

He told them about the situation - that they couldn't level up - and their reaction was... exaggerated.

"Did that mean no matter how long or hard we try?" Asked Abbas.

"Can't you share your skill book with us as The Master does with his subjects?" Lilat asked.

"The Master doesn't need the Rewind to add people into the loop," Rachel said without looking at them. "Gaus can't help you. Even he isn't recognized by the loop."

"Then is it possible for us to join the academy as well?" Lilat asked.

"Lilat," Rachel shouted at her. "If you keep this on I'll personally make sure you don't remember any of it by tomorrow."

She shared an uncomfortable look with Gaus.

"Do you think any of you deserve to be here?" She said with the same angry tone. "You don't deserve it. You are just lucky. So why don't you shut up and be grateful."

A contract that would give him control over the people he added to the loop was slowly forming in his head. Leaving the pair to Rachel, he went outside so he could think.

Abbas and Lilat would eventually calm down. But what would happen when they realized they were trapped in not one loop but two? Anyone he welcomed into the loop would know about the second loop as soon as it happened. Was he ready for that? Perhaps, no. He understood the importance of keeping the second loop a secret and he surely wasn't comfortable with divulging it to other people.

"Helloo, friend."