Remlend saw the red Arankagul carriage coming up from the bottom of the hill and positioned himself in the courtyard, ready to greet Luca Frey.

The sun had lowered, but it still shone brightly across the Town of Askot. The Summer Festival continued to go strong along the town's perimeters, with sounds of different instruments and people's voices wafting over.

Duncan Genuiver?

Remlend took in the man that stepped out of the carriage after Luca. The man looked like he had rolled around in the dirt, but it was unmistakably the son of the Duke and Duchess of Genuiver.

In his line of work, Remlend was keenly aware of all the key players within Adovoria and how they meshed with one another. It was important to understand the playing board and how the pieces connected if you wished to survive on it.

But the Genuivers were never close to the Arankagul nor the Frey Merchant Guild. And I don't see how Luca would be acquainted with him either. If anything, I recall a rumor that his sister, Anastasia Genuiver, has some bizarre hatred toward Luca, despite never formally meeting him.

"Young master Luca, welcome back." Remlend bowed his head. "How do you plan to spend your evening? It is not yet dinner time."

"I'll rest up in my room," Luca said and walked inside the villa. Ben, Duncan, and Remlend followed after him. "Ah, and how is Jasper? I meant to check on him before I left."

Remlend smiled.

Just as he was watching himself while at the Arankagul villa, Denise had also been going about her business carefully. The rule at the Arankagul residence was 'Kill first. Ask questions after,' so it was prudent to be on one's best behavior within the residence. Jasper was the only visiting servant who trampled over this rule and did as he liked.

"He's been in high spirits. Jasper has emptied the pockets of at least three Arankagul's servants by now," Remlend reported.

"Has he now?" Luca smiled. "I guess the fresh air had done him well after all."

While Remlend didn't feel any connection to the people he worked with, he found Jasper intriguing to some degree. Some saw him as a fool that tagged along for Luca's misadventures, but Remlend saw a young man who was far more intelligent than he let on. Jasper was the sort of person who would clumsily trip and fall, and while everyone laughed at him, would slide an ace up his sleeve.

But even for all his intelligence, he still has his blind spots. Not that I care about him enough to bother getting involved.

"You look pale." Luca turned to Duncan with a concerned expression. "Was the ride up unpleasant?"

"N-no. That's not quite it," Duncan replied. "It's the other thing…."

Unlike the relaxed manners of the young master, Duncan Genuiver had his eyes widening with every step inside the villa. He looked increasingly more frightened the more servants they passed by or whenever his eyes encountered Remlend's.

Remlend was accustomed to not having much attention paid to himself by others. He always blended in with his surroundings and was thus highly amused by Duncan's unusual reaction whenever the man glanced his way.

It's like he's frightened of me. And he still has that strange habit of looking at the top of everyone's heads.

Remlend had seen Duncan on a few occasions from afar when he worked for other wealthy and noble houses in Adovoria. His perception of the Genuiver boy was that he was in a perpetual state of nervousness and severely lacking in the social skills department.

"Ah, that's right." Luca nodded his head as if he understood Duncan. "But don't worry, it's safe here."

"Are you sure?" Duncan whispered.

Luca frowned.

"As long as you don't try anything funny, I don't see why not," he replied. "We'll talk more later. Ben, could you please escort him to his room? And ready some clothes for him to change into after washing up? He'll be joining us for dinner."

"Most certainly. I'll inform Madame Ruth and make the arrangements." Ben motioned Duncan to follow him. "Your highness, if you'll please accompany me."

Remlend watched Duncan follow Ben down one of the hallways.

He agreed with Luca's assessment that Duncan needed to be seriously cleaned up. Had he not been familiar with all the nobles of Adovoria, he might have thought Duncan to be some ordinary traveler.

It's strange. Why was he in this town and in such a poor state? He's one of the Genuivers, after all. Aren't they known for their exuberant wealth? And why was he with Luca Frey?

"Young master Luca, I did not know you were friends with Duncan Genuiver." Remlend walked alongside Luca towards his chambers.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Oh?" Luca smiled. "You managed to recognize him? Strange. Ben didn't. But to call us friends is a few notches off."

"Peep!"

Remlend gazed at the chirping yellow bird atop Luca's head.

"Remlend, I don't need to be attended to right now. I'll be in my room; let me know when either Duncan or dinner is ready."

"Very well, young master Luca." Remlend bowed and watched the bedroom door close behind Luca.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

"Peep!"

Luca, finally, we're alone. What was it about the Misfortune Sisters that had you so stirred up? I have never seen that expression on your face before.

I allowed myself to plop on one of the armchairs beside the fireplace.

"In my original life, Micah died by assassination. Kaiden, his main and most loyal attendant–to the point some say he treated Micah like his own son, one day went and murdered Micah over breakfast."

"Peep!"

That's strange. Why did he do that? And how does it relate to the Misfortune Sisters?

"I never knew the reason in my original life. However, after restarting a few times, I found out that Kaiden saw the Misfortune Sisters that morning that I woke up in each time. Because of whatever misfortune they told him, he attempted to kill Micah."

But Micah is alive and well in this round.

"Of course. I wasn't about to let him die; I prevented Kaiden from murdering Micah this time."

I sighed and leaned my head back against the armchair.

Leona fluttered over to the fireplace and exploded into a ball of fire inside. She lit the placed logs and laid her bright yellow and orange phoenix body down on them.

"That's quite the morning." Her sing-song voice rang out.

"It was," I agreed and leaned into the warmth of the lit fireplace. "I had initially tried to find the Misfortune Sisters, but they had left town before I awoke into my regression round. Unfortunately, my usual information broker hasn't opened shop yet, and Natalia Ashford died in the previous round before she could provide some insight on where they went."

It felt like fate was working against me in finding out more about these Misfortune Sisters.

"But now you know that they went west, towards the Genuiver Duchy," Leona mused. She rolled in the amber flakes, stirring them up like bubbles in a bath. The logs crackled, and a sweet scent of wood and pine emanated from the fireplace.

"But that was days ago." I rubbed my hands through my hair. I felt a few crumbs fall out, likely Leona's fault. "Who knows where they went after having come across Duncan Genuiver."

However, it was a start. I now knew the general direction the Misfortune Sisters had gone and where they were when Duncan had met them on the road.

"Are you going to help Duncan with his request?" Leona asked.

I sighed.

"I suppose so," I said. "Duncan doesn't know the future of how everyone in the Genuiver Duchy will perish, but I know why."

The disasters that shook the region came in three parts.

First was the civil war. When Anastasia took over the Genuiver Duchy, not everyone was entirely pleased, and there was a squabble regarding her ascension to power. However, she and her backers stomped out any resistance in seven days.

Then there was a great famine, which resulted because of Anastasia's mismanagement of her lands. A quarter of a million people starved to death.

And finally, the remaining people were swept up in the Kobar Empire's attacks.

"Henry's family lives in that region, so I would have wanted to help prevent their deaths anyhow," I said.

It was somewhat ironic that Henry himself was already dead in this round.

"However, it's concerning. The same Misfortune Sisters that led Kaiden astray to murder Micah told Duncan to seek me out for help to save his people? What do they want?" I rubbed my temples.

Would helping Duncan be the right thing or play right into their hands?

And then there was Duncan himself. He was the first person I came across who could peer into other people's lives. Was he an exception, or were there many more people like him with similarly troubling abilities?

"Hey, System," I called out. "Duncan Genuiver could see how many people someone has killed, how much time they have left before they die, and he could even see that I'm on Round 7. How can he do that? And are there more people like him?"

[ Intelligence: +1 ]

[ Intelligence: 44 ]

I blinked in surprise at the blue screen. My intelligence had increased by 3 in total since the last time I saw my stats screen. However, in a wholly broken fashion, two of the notifications didn't come in.

[ Hello Luca. None of the Players in The Fall of Adovoria came across Duncan Genuiver, so I cannot comment on him specifically, however, it is correct that other individuals in your world possess what you might call 'abilities.']

"That's a headache. I have the Random Character Checker, but it works at random. And it only works once per day. So I might be walking around past ability holders and am none the wiser."

[ What's the fun of a game without some challenges? And if you continue to improve your Perception, you could enhance the Random Character Checker skill into something more useful. ]

[ You seem to forget this is a game. It's supposed to be fun. Your ability to improve yourself is exponential. ]

I glared at the blue screen with disgust. I forgot now and then how inhuman this System was. For it, this was just a Game. But for me, this was my world. This was my home. People I cared about lived here.

And yet… it is desperate to have me win this game.

I didn't understand the bizarre paradox.

I waved my hand to make the stats screen appear.

I might as well see how everything has changed since the last time I checked.

[ Player: Luca Frey

Age: 19

Title: Observant Ex-NPC

Round: 7 - Day 3 )

Level: 8 ]

"The level went up?" I noted the first difference.

The blue screen expanded.

[ Strength : 4

Dexterity : 35

Perception : 46

Intelligence : 44

Charisma : 13

Mana : 2 ]

"Oh? And several of the stats changed," I commented.

As far as I could recall, Perception used to be 43 and Charisma was 10. I had jumped by 3 points in each section atop the Intelligence boost.

I moved the screen to view my skills, but only the Random Character Checker was there.

"What about the Intelligence skill? Is there any progress on it?" I asked.

[ Unfortunately, the error is still being processed. ]

I sighed and rested my head in one hand.

"Why didn't the notification come in for all these other updates?" I asked. "I moved up so much without being notified."

[ It is because as I focus my efforts on resolving the Intelligence skill error, the performance of other areas in the game are affected. ]

[ I had concluded that providing stat notifications was a low priority and thus diverted some of the Game's power from that function. ]

I rubbed my chin.

Interesting. Can it divert gameplay mechanics temporarily in the future? If I find a need for such a function, perhaps I can work around this 40% access issue.

I smiled, seeing the stat screen change.

The notification didn't appear, but I still had the stats box open in front of me, and I noticed that the Intelligence score increased from 44 to 46.