The room held its breath, awaiting my response, the weight of Chase's words sinking in as the gravity of the situation unfolded.

However, I didn't have the slightest damn clue why Queen Yadana Daylan had died. I was at as much of a loss as anyone else.

"As if I know," I responded honestly.

Chase cocked his head to one side and continued to stare at me. The dim light of the dining room reflected off his round shades, making it impossible to discern his true emotions.

"I really don't," I declared, my voice filled with frustration. "You can use that ability of yours if you wish."

"No." Chase waved his hand dismissively, his gaze seemingly shifting away from me towards the table laden with sumptuous food. "I promised I wouldn't use it again on you. And for the sake of our friendship, I don't intend to break my promise so casually."

He picked up a grape and tossed it in his mouth, the sound of its crunch breaking the heavy silence that hung in the room. The tension between us was palpable, like an invisible thread connecting our fates.

Casually? If he really thought I was somehow responsible for his mom dying, this was most certainly not a casual instance. And friendship? I barely knew the lunatic.

"Why did you think I was responsible anyhow?" I asked.

Chase shrugged nonchalantly, his gaze fixed on the table.

"Intuition based on years of experience?" he said. "Plus, my mother was the pinnacle of health. Only an amber sword through her heart could kill her. The temple even made quite the profit selling concoctions, promising the same health benefits to those who drank the stuff—it was obviously a scam, just some ginger root juice, and lemon. I'm rambling, but as I was saying, she was in perfect health, so it makes no sense that she dropped dead a few hours ago from some ailment. Thus, you came to mind first."

I frowned.

The room seemed to grow colder, the atmosphere tinged with a sense of foreboding. I agreed with Chase, it being odd his mother died so early, but I was far away from her and had no need to kill her.

"Your Highness, if I may," my grandmother interjected. "My grandson has been with me since yesterday evening and has had no involvement with the powerful Queen Yadana. And besides, your mother has been absent from several key events since four days ago. There was one, albeit unconfirmed, rumor that she had been infected by the lands' illness and was gravely ill. Perhaps she has succumbed to the infection."

Chase frowned at this.

"But there's no cure for those infected by the dark lands," he said.

I understood his confusion. Afterall, in my original life, she had lived years past today’s date. If she had been infected, she must have been cured in my first life.

"Correct, there is still no known method of curing oneself of the infection. That is why she, unfortunately, has likely passed on," Grandma said. "It's impressive she managed to hold out for five days. I imagine she's consumed the essence of a phoenix feather to last out so long."

The darkness that had polluted the lands was more than a mere nuisance that swallowed up viable farmlands. Getting infected by whatever it was that blackened and mutated the lands usually resulted in death, similar to what Henry experienced in the previous round. Queen Yadana Daylan, one of the wealthiest people on the continent, had the deep pockets to gain the help of the continent's best doctors and experts to help extend her life.

But she died in this and the previous round nonetheless.

"Peep!"

Just what started this infection of the lands? I still can't understand what happened to the beautiful lush lands that my ancestors lived on.

My gaze moved to Leona, the only one at the table that was seemingly unfazed by Chase's disruptive entrance and chilly presence.

Ah, damn it.

There was, perhaps, one cure for the infection. And she was sitting on the table and chewing away on some spinach pie.

My memory wandered to the Daylan servant with the cane. He was also planning to purchase the phoenix egg on the first day. However, in the last two rounds, I had beat him to it and had it hatched, whom I now knew as Leona.

If the Daylan servant intended to feed it to the Daylan Dynasty's queen, then Chase's intuition was actually on target. I had changed something, indeed.

[ Intelligence : +1 ]

[ Intelligence : 67 ]

Tsk.

My eyes moved between Leona and Chase. I couldn't be sure because of his round shades, but he appeared to be observing Leona.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Shit. Did he figure it out as well?

"Cough! Cough!" My grandmother pressed a handkerchief to her mouth, breaking the silence.

"Madame!" Ben rushed over with a Red Poppy Potion in hand.

Grandmother gulped down the liquid from the glass bottle, and her face displayed a mixture of relief and exhaustion upon taking it. However, she looked worse for wear than the other times she consumed the potion. Some of the color to her face was gone, and she looked weary as if carrying a heavy burden.

"Luca dear, I'm afraid I'll need to head to bed." Her gray eyes shifted toward Chase. "As for our guest…."

"It's alright," I responded. "We're friends."

I didn't believe either one of my statements. Still, given that my grandmother was in her last moments, it seemed best to allow her to pass without any additional stressors.

"Very well; I will see you for a chess match tomorrow morning," she said.

I felt a pang, knowing that not to be true.

As Ben guided Grandma out of the dining room, I motioned for the other servant to close the doors behind them, leaving Chase, Duncan, Leona, and myself without any additional eyes and ears. The room grew quieter, the distant sounds of the bustling villa fading away.

"She looks to be on the brink of death herself," Chase noted.

I nodded solemnly. "My grandmother will die tonight," I stated.

"Ah." Chase's words took on a different tone, his previous demeanor softening. "I apologize for my rudeness then, my friend. If I knew, I would have waited to come in tomorrow," he expressed with a touch of remorse.

"Tomorrow would have been worse. It's the funeral," I replied.

"Well, if you had a miraculous cure at your fingertips that could even circumvent the land's infection, I imagine you would have used it for your grandmother. But seeing as she's still dying, I imagine that's not the case," Chase commented.

I laughed awkwardly.

"I am most sorry about your mother's passing," I said, trying to change the topic away from the cure.

"Don't be," Chase replied. He poked his fork into one of the dumplings and brought it to his mouth. "I mean, I was the one that gave my elder sister the amber sword to kill her off in the first place."

I choked on my water.

"You what?" I asked. "But she loved you. Especially you, more than any of her other children."

Chase smirked.

"You bought that bullshit propaganda?" Chase said. "Our mother didn't love us—well, I shouldn't say that, I suppose she felt something towards us, but it was not love in the traditional sense. If she did, do you think my siblings would have been quite at each other's throats like we've been? No, she had so many of us so we could participate and kill one another in our climb for the throne. She pitted us against one another in a true battle royale."

I blinked. I never had an inkling about this.

"But she waged war on countries if any of your siblings were so much as insulted. Heck, she torched those islands to the ground because your oldest brother was poisoned while vacationing there," I said.

"Yes, and you think love and affection had anything to do with that?" Chase asked, waving his fork around. "She is a conqueror and always has been. My siblings and I were just an excuse for her to do as she pleased. It also provided a more acceptable image of her to our people... She wasn't just a war-crazy queen. No—she loved her children so much that she'd topple countries, even though her warring days were long over."

My brows furrowed in confusion.

"Then why did you barge in here if you don't care whether she lived or died?" I asked.

"I mean, she's got her faults, but she's still my mom and the Daylan Dynasty's Queen," Chase said. "Her death has caused the sibling in-fighting to start years early. So if you had anything to do with it, I wanted to know so that perhaps I could work out a deal with you to adjust the timeline of her death to be a bit more beneficial to my goals."

"Ah." Somehow this made me feel a twinge of sympathy for Chase. His family dynamic was so much unlike my own.

"I must say, I'm amazed at how quickly you move," Chase leaned back in his chair. "You've already found another golden-eyed? And a shapeshifter at it too?"

"Who…?" I only knew one Awakened shapeshifter, and it was the lunatic himself.

"Ah, yes." I quickly caught myself, realizing who he was looking at; he had mistaken Leona for one of us. That was a much-preferred misunderstanding of what she actually was.

"Are they Awakened or Dormant…" Chase inquired, trying to verify Leona's state.

"Awakened," I replied.

<>

"Peep!"

Fine. I will act like one of you unremarkable humans.

"It's a pleasure meeting you…" Chase looked up towards me, his gaze shifting from Leona to me.

"Her name is Leona," I introduced her, hoping to steer the conversation away from uncovering Leona's true nature.

"Ah, Leona." Chase nodded and turned toward her again. "It's rare to meet another Awakened. There are so few around that it's always a pleasant surprise to discover another one. You've been Awakened for how long?"

These last two rounds only. Leona responded into both my and Chase's heads.

"Telepathy! How incredible, and you are even younger than Luca here," Chase smiled, finding the revelation intriguing. "Well, it is certainly a delight to meet you."

As the conversation between the two continued, Duncan, who had managed to blend into the wall and was silent until now, leaned over and whispered to me, his gaze fixed above Chase's head. "Luca, just who is he exactly? He's lived... seventy—"

“Nuh-ah-ah!” Chase interrupted, overhearing Duncan with his supernatural ears. "Now, let's not start revealing just how old I am. What bad manners."

"Says the guy who barged in and knocked out all of my dying grandmother's staff," I retorted, unable to resist pointing out the irony.

"Touche," Chase conceded.

"This is Prince Chase Daylan," I explained to Duncan. "He is also an Awakened that remembers previous rounds. However, I've only been acquainted with him these past few days."

I did not mention that he had also been the reason I had died in a prior round.

Duncan nodded.

Chase leaned back in his chair, his gaze fixed on Duncan. With a slight tilt of his head, he seemed to be assessing Duncan, his eyes taking in every detail.

"Now, just who are you exactly?" Chase inquired, his tone laced with curiosity. "I mean, I know you are Duncan Genuiver of one of the three dukedoms of Adovoria. I also know you are not an Awakened, although you are clearly aware of us. And you can't possibly be an old Summon, either. So how is it that you have an ability those Summoned usually have?"

Duncan appeared perplexed by the question. "An old Summon's ability? What do you mean?" he asked, seeking clarification.

I shared Duncan's confusion and was relieved that he voiced the question before I had the chance.

"Oh, you must know." Chase made a sweeping motion with his hand. "The Mass Summoning that occurred a little over two decades ago. A whole bunch of other-realmers appeared then. Did any unusual individuals from that time give you something?"

Duncan and I locked eyes.

He didn't reveal this to me in this round, but I remembered from the prior round that Duncan had a rather eventful exchange with a wizard that had nearly killed him and left him scarred.

Was that perhaps an other-realmer?