"How will I manage the Frey business on my own?" I muttered.

The atmosphere was heavy with grief and uncertainty, and the sky a somber grey. Before me, Mother's and Father's coffins sat, prepared for their final descent into the earth. Their resting places would be beside the tombstones of Micah and Elda.

Jarvis, unfortunately, was not present for the burial ceremony. Something had occurred in the Town of Ascot that required his immediate attention. That was all that the letter said.

I knew he wasn't the sort to miss out on our parents' burial for no reason, but just what could have happened that prevented him from coming?

Thus, I was left alone to oversee the ceremony, with only servants and guards in quiet attendance. There ought to have been friends and acquaintances of my late parents present as well, but Charles had urged me to keep it discreet, given the suspicious circumstances of my parent's death. Thus, a private burial was held instead.

"Do not worry, young master Luca." I felt Charles' two hands grip my shoulders with a strength surprising given his age. "You are not alone. You have me to guide you."

I closed my eyes and threw more water from the running sink on my face, trying to wash away the memory.

To think I had trusted him. I was so relieved to have someone who could help me after my parents had passed that I was completely blindsided. His betrayal was a wound that ran deep, especially given how it extended so far back in time.

I looked up at the mirror before me. Reflected back at me was a slim young man with black hair dripping wet. A pair of golden eyes stared back at me without any of the light and glimmer to them.

No, it wasn't just me who had trusted him. Charles had ingrained himself into the very fabric of our lives, having followed Father from Zarez to Adovoria. Everyone had trusted him.

I took a white towel and rubbed my face dry as if trying to erase the confusion and shock that still clung to me.

Unfortunately, the questions that plagued me were ones that the present Charles was incapable of answering. I needed the Charles from the future, the one that had guided me to ruin while maintaining the guise of a caring guardian.

I walked out of the bathroom of my chambers. Looking out of the bedroom window, it was still bright and sunny outside, but I knew that tomorrow it would rain.

Freida Stran's place will be open for business finally.

However, even my favorite information broker would be unable to provide the answers I longed for regarding Charles. She was exceptional, but I doubted she could gather information from a lifetime lived on another plane of existence.

At least Micah will be able to gather what has occurred till now.

I gazed out of my window and watched one of the Frey carriages return back toward the manor. I frowned, noting the furious speed with which the carriage sped into the courtyard.

Someone certainly is in a rush.

To my surprise, my younger sister and Leo leaped out of the carriage and rushed toward one of the attendants.

I frowned, noting that they were alone. Her guard wasn't with her.

Something has gone wrong.

My unease deepened. Instinctively, I rushed out of my room, with Henry following me.

"Young master Luca, where are we going?" Henry's question echoed as he strode after me with ease.

"Elda returned, but she's…. something is off," I gasped out as I ran down the staircase.

One might have thought I had run a race while Henry was merely going for a light stroll.

But I suppose it's best that my guard be more physically capable than me.

The manor doors swung open with a bang, and the two children moved inside. Elda's red curls were disheveled, and her shirt was stained with blood.

"Elda!" I rushed over to her. "Are you hurt?"

She shook her head, her green eyes meeting mine. "No, the blood isn't mine. It belongs to my guard. She's dead."

I quickly inspected Elda and confirmed that she wasn't hurt indeed. I took in Leo's disheveled appearance, but unlike Elda, he had no blood on him.

"Luca, I'm sorry," Elda said. Her voice strained.

I frowned in confusion. "Sorry for what? You're safe, and that's all that matters."

Elda shook her head, her gaze averted. "No, that's not it. We had gone into town with Fin and that bird of yours."

I gazed about and noted their absence in the crowded entryway. My mouth went dry.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Everything was fine, but then Leo and I went into a store to purchase some materials for a new experiment. Fin was outside inspecting some trinkets, and your bird was with him. I had left my guard with them, so it should have been fine, but when we came out…" Elda's voice trailed off.

Leo's voice joined the explanation. "Someone had taken them."

The weight of his words settled heavily. The implications were clear.

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"Someone took Fin?" The realization hit me like a blow.

Elda nodded, her expression fraught with worry. "Before she died, my guard said a group of men attacked her and had taken Fin."

"And Leona?" I asked.

Elda shook her head. "I don't know, but I think your bird was taken with him."

I clenched my fists.

I told Leona I couldn't take her down into the cellar with me as I worked Charles and to find something else to do. But to think she'd get captured yet again?

"Were there any clues or identification on who it might have been?" Henry interjected with urgency. "What about the carriage driver?"

His demeanor of a carefree young man was replaced by one of authority and concern.

"He wasn't with us when the attack happened," Leo said.

"He was probably taken by one of the mage sellers." Ridley appeared, having clearly overheard enough of the conversation to make his input. His shoes reverberated across the stone floors as he approached us. "There's the Spiders Syndicate, of course, but the city is currently swarming with mage hunters because of the auction in a few days. That's why I told that boy to stay inside the Frey manor for the next few days."

His grey eyes grazed over Elda. My sister shrank back, her green eyes looking down at the floor.

"I'm sorry," Elda whispered.

"Don't be sorry. It's on him," Ridley replied. His demeanor softened slightly. "I told him it was dangerous, but he still went out. That stupid boy."

I frowned.

"How has Fin not been caught in past years?" I asked.

The underground mage auction occurred every year with the Summer Festival. The festivities provided ample cover for visitors attending some of the less socially moral activities. Yet Fin wasn't captured and experimented on in my original life until this year, and even that was by accident. The Spiders Syndicate still had no idea what they had on their hands while Fin was in the orphanage.

"That's because his mana core wasn't activated back then," Ridley replied in a rough voice. He pulled out a flask and took a swing of its contents. "I activated it a couple of days ago for him so that he could begin his mage training, but because of it, it's easier to detect for others that he has an aptitude towards mana. But he's still green and can't protect himself. He's a walking target."

"What now?" I asked. "How can we save him?"

My concern was twofold. There was Fin, but then there was the ambiguous nature of Leona's disappearance.

Someone was capable of capturing her yet again.

Or, another thought occurred to me: she had gone along willingly to help Fin.

But why wouldn't she have done something earlier? A guard was killed, after all. Leona wasn't the sort to sit idly by as someone died before her.

This made me conclude that she had also been captured against her will. Whoever captured Fin had likely also realized what Leona was and knew how to restrain her. Whether it was the same person as the previous round or someone else entirely, I couldn't be sure.

Damn it.

"The auction is in five days, after which everyone will have dispersed from Genise, and it would be easier finding a needle in a haystack than getting Fin back again," Ridley said. "The only hope is to locate who it was that took him before then. Or hope that he's been added to the auction held by the Spiders Syndicate and try to purchase him then."

I mirrored Ridley's scowl. I shared his frustration at the notion of purchasing Fin's freedom, yet I recognized the practicality of it.

"I'll find out where he was taken," I declared. "In three days, I'll know where he is."

I had planned on asking Freida other questions, but getting Fin and Leona back took priority.

Ridley's grey eyes grazed over me. It was a look that relayed that he believed me.

"I'll leave it to you," Ridley patted my shoulder. "Since my idiotic student isn't here and Micah is preoccupied, I'll take my leave then."

His shoes blared across the floor.

I watched him leave and brushed my hands over my damp hair.

Even though the day had been full of unfortunate surprises, I was confident I could navigate the upcoming obstacles. A guard had died, but at least I was optimistic that I could locate Fin and Leona.

And in the worst-case scenario, if I can't retrieve them, I'll just restart the round.

It wasn't the optimal solution, but it was nonetheless a solution that was uniquely available to me.

I just hope there aren't any more surprises on the horizon.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

[ Error: Adovoria's Fall is a Single-Player Game ]

BlueLizard tapped the screen again, but the same error message appeared.

She swiveled in her chair and returned to look at the screens before her.

At least it's different from the one the other Players had been seeing.

A message notification appeared.

DisguisedPigeon: I saw you beat Finding Love in Ethereal Academy. Are you going to play Adovoria's Fall now?

BlueLizard: Yeah. I'm in my matrix's Game Start Waiting Room. But I'm getting a weird error: [ Error: Adovoria's Fall is a Single-Player Game ]

DisguisedPigeon: Is someone in your realm matrix?

BlueLizard: That's not possible. It's a single-player game. I checked just in case, but I don't see any other users in my Realm Matrix.

However, she tapped through the screens to reconfirm.

[Adovoria's Fall Matrix #66: 0 Players ]

It wasn't something anyone ever checked in single-player games because the answer could only be either 0 or 1, but given the error message, she checked again.

DisguisedPigeon: Have you looked into the Player0.4 user? They've been selling items in the Game Store that are obviously from Adovoria's Fall, but no one has been able to contact them. Everyone gets an error message when they try.

"Oh?"

BlueLizard moved through the screens and ran a profile search for Player0.4.

[ Unknown Error. ]

That's weird.

She typed in DisguisedPigeon, and a user profile appeared for him, detailing the games he had completed, his current rank, and various other useless details. It was a pretty standard user profile.

She typed in ghgjsddjsj, and a very different message appeared.

[ User does not exist. ]

This was pretty typical as well.

However, when I searched for Player0.4, there was an error.

She frowned.

DisguisedPigeon: You know, the error message I got when I tried to contact Player0.4 reminds me of the error message I get when you're in a Game.

BlueLizard's eyes lit up. "Maybe…"

[ Adovoria's Fall Matrix #66: 0 Players ]

BlueLizard's pulled up the screen with the number of Players again and moved to look at the source code. It was a skill she had learned unaided after navigating Systems and Games for the past couple of thousand years. She smiled, seeing that the code rounded up the number of Players in a game.

So, if there was someone whom the Game Systems considered as being less than half a Player, they could go undetected.

BlueLizard: I think I have an idea of what's going on. I'm going dark again.

She dived into the backend and turned off message notifications from other Players.

Maybe this Player is like me?

Instead of pausing notifications, BlueLizard preferred to go dark, fully immersing herself in the Game of her choice. The reason was that even when notifications were paused, a persistent number still flashed on her dashboard, representing missed messages. In the past, she could not resist clicking to see what those messages contained. However, she could devote her attention solely to the Game at hand by completely disabling the function, enjoying an uninterrupted gaming experience. The messages would come in afterward anyhow.

Her eyes scoured the code and manually closed off her access to other functions as well, one by one, until the calculated functionality was 60% of what any normal Player had access to.

She felt a surge of excitement within her that she hadn't felt in several thousand years. The idea in itself was insane. What Player would willingly turn off access to Game functions? And given the unique username of Player0.4, it appeared that they had given up all but 40% of their access. The only benefit that BlueLizard could identify was the ability to sneak into a single-player game undetected.

But even that is an insane idea, given how difficult Adovoria's Fall is.

"Here goes…"

BlueLizard clicked to play Adovoria's Fall.

[ Adovoria's Fall Matrix #66: 1 Player ]