With Chase gone, I was left alone in the Rose Tea Room with my thoughts. I stared out the window at the gnarly black thorns with giant bright pink roses growing out of them. My mind raced, trying to piece together the Selvine family's plot to harm Micah and his fiancé at the Summer Festival of Lights.

It's too much to be a mere coincidence.

I couldn't shake the feeling of deja vu, remembering how my sister had died in an "accidental" explosion at the same festival in my first life. However, it was a year from now, in the year 781. Back then, the assumption was that one of her creations went off incorrectly, but what if that wasn't it?

Did the Selvine family have something to do with her death too? If so, whatever for?

I looked down at my cup of golden-colored tea.

Elda was a brilliant inventor and tended to get along with everyone. She had inherited Mother's disposition and was also quite the social butterfly. I didn't see why anyone would have wanted her dead.

But then again, Jarvis was killed off in my original life and the previous round, and he had a very noble pursuit in life. He was attempting to eliminate the continent of an infection that devastated much of the land. He was working to invigorate the land and allow more food to be grown. And yet he was killed off nonetheless. Or rather, because he was attempting to pursue such a noble pursuit, he was killed off.

I took a sip of my now cold tea and considered the possible motives behind the Selvine family's actions.

But why would they want to cause the explosion early this time around, with the target being Micah instead? And who are they planning to pin the cause of the blast on? Surely not my sister again?

"Luca?" Elda's voice jolted me out of my thoughts.

If she had knocked, I didn't hear her. Elda had entered the tea room without me even realizing it.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Are you planning to use my workshop for cooking your egg soon?" she asked.

"Yes, I am," I replied.

I glanced at a nearby clock and realized I had been busy mulling over the new insight that Chase provided far longer than I initially intended.

I chugged the remainder of my cold tea and stood up. I didn't have time to waste.

"How long do you need it for?" she asked, following me out of the room. "Jarvis is going to take Fin on a tour of his succulents, and I'd rather be doing something else. Anything else really, but ideally, I'd like to work on two projects I'm running late on finishing."

"I'll return it to you in half an hour," I said.

"Good," Elda said. "I'll show you where everything is then so you don't accidentally blow yourself or my work up."

She followed me to my room to fetch Leona's egg and then led me to her private abode outside.

As soon as we entered through her workshop's heavy metal and black mana stone enforced door, I was hit with the strong scent of smoke.

I wrinkled my nose and gazed at the singed stone floors and walls peppered with more black mana stones. I knew that Elda's workshop housed a lot of explosive material and that she often worked on dangerous projects. However, looking around the space now, I couldn't help but wonder if there was something in here that was the reason why the Selvines wanted her dead.

Spread across shelves were various glass jars with colorful liquids and strange powders. Questionable metal contraptions covered the tables, and parchments outlining new inventions were scattered haphazardly about.

"Make sure you don't touch any of these," Elda pointed at one of the walls of jars. "I have them secured in place, but if you knock one over, it'll be bad news."

"And don't move my creations. Most of them are unfinished," Elda pointed to the widgets spread out. "You won't blow up, but you could break them, and that's just as bad."

I walked around, taking in the sights, this time my eyes wandering about for any clues that could indicate a connection to Selvines' interest in my sister.

"What's this?" I picked up one paper, noticing plans for a fireworks show laid out.

"Ahhhh!" Elda cried out and grabbed the parchment out of my hands.

I stared blankly at her.

Elda sighed. Her face reddened.

"It's for the Summer Festival of Lights. I've been procrastinating on finishing it, and now I'm worried I won't be able to complete it in time," she admitted.

I frowned.

"But it's a year from now," I said. "Why are you so nervous about it already?"

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"No, no. It's for this year's show. But it will be for next year if I don't complete it in time." Elda laughed nervously. "It's my first display of what I've been working on, and I just need to determine a few important details."

"Oh."

It suddenly clicked in place.

That's why the timeline moved up. The explosion was always intended to occur. Its target simply changed. With Micah's death in my original life, Elda likely couldn't concentrate and complete the fireworks show in time. Thus the show and "accident" were moved by a year.

[ Intelligence : +1 ]

[ Intelligence : 64 ]

Tsk.

I inspected the other parchments that outlined the plans for the fireworks show. Elda seemed to regain her confidence with my interest in her work and excitedly began to explain what she had prepared for the Summer Festival of Lights. It involved much more labor than I expected for a show that lasted only half an hour.

This means an "accident" is going to occur again. And one way or another, I had to prevent that, but telling Elda not to do her show at all wasn't a viable option.

I looked at her bright green eyes.

"If you're concerned about finishing in time, you can get help," I said. "I don't know if you've heard, but we've recently taken in two brilliant inventors."

Even if Elda's death in my original life wasn't a mere accident, it didn't hurt to make the introduction again to Leonard. Elda didn't have enough people to share in her interest and understand the intricacies of what she was working on, as it were.

And Leonard might find ways to safeguard her work from being sabotaged and causing harm like last time.

"Two brilliant inventors?" Elda asked. "I know of only Sarka Jarbez, and she's already busy working. Micah and Father saw to that."

"Yes, but she has a son, Leonard," I said.

"Oh?" Elda had a different reaction from the previous round. To my relief, whatever fight they had before did not occur in this round. Not that it was a long-lived fight before either; the kids had made up soon in the previous round and were as tight as thieves.

"He's a brilliant magical inventor," I again recalled the System's Random Character checker information on the boy. "And unlike his mother, he isn't busy. So he can help you with what you're working on."

"Alright, I'll meet with him," she said. "I doubt he'll understand my vision, though."

"You might be pleasantly surprised." I winked.

She shrugged and placed a heating stone, a pot reinforced with black mana stones, and a jug of water before me.

"Do you need my help activating the heating mana stone?" she asked.

"No, I can manage on my own," I said.

"Good, because I didn't want to stick around as you boiled your egg. Watching water boil isn't exactly my interest." Elda waved goodbye and left me alone in her workshop.

If she hadn't left on her own, I was going to kick her out. I had no intention of exposing Leona to anyone in this round, especially not my explosive-obsessed sister.

With the door locked behind her, I carefully took Leona's egg from its crystal box and placed it inside the pot. I covered it with water from the jug as I would have done to boil any regular egg and set the activated heating mana stone inside the pot alongside the egg.

As soon as I did so, the egg seemed to pull the heating mana stone toward itself. Both the egg and the stone gained a glow, and the water began to boil instantaneously.

I instinctively tossed the pot's cover on and moved away behind one of the tables to a safe distance.

A low rumble sounded from the pot, and water spewed out the edges with a hiss.

Hopefully, the black mana stone pots Elda uses are strong enough to handle a phoenix hatching.

I looked on nervously, noticing that even Elda's pot was beginning to glow, much like Fiona's cooking pot which eventually exploded. I grabbed a black mana-enforced lid of another much larger pot and held it out in front of me as a shield, just in case.

BANG!

My hand lifted my makeshift shield before me, but there was no impact.

The boiling pot's lid had flown off, and a crack had formed down its center, but Elda's reinforced pot remained intact without exploding into bits.

Silence filled the air, with only the sound of continued cracks emanating from the pot.

I walked over cautiously and peeked over the pot's edge. Whatever water was inside was now gone, and Leona's egg was stuck to the heating mana stone. It was glowing, and small red cracks were forming throughout its surface.

I smiled.

She's hatching.

This was just like last time. However, I planned to provide Leona with a better life in this round. I would be more careful about exposing her to dangerous situations and always keeping her near me. She may have had the wisdom of her ancestors, but she was still a child that had not experienced it herself, and the world was full of troubles.

Crack.

The first real crack appeared through the egg. Unlike the glowing red ones, it was gray.

And cake. I was going to lavish her with so much delicious cake. I even had an overly enormous one I didn't know what to do with, thanks to Chase Daylan.

Crack. Crack.

More gray cracks formed.

CRACK.

The top part came off, and a familiar fuzzy golden head and beak poked out. Leona chirped softly and looked up at me with her big golden eyes.

I grinned at her.

"LUCAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

However, before I could process what had occurred, the remaining part of the unbroken egg flew off as the phoenix lunged at me. Leona's long wings seemed to wrap around my face and neck.

"Wha—?"

"I WAS SO SCARED!!!" Leona wailed out loud.

"Le-Leona?" I managed to pull her off my face so I could look at her properly.

"WHERE DID YOU GOOOOOO!!" However, Leona continued crying and rewrapping herself around my face and neck again. "It was so scary… and I was alone and trapped, and I couldn't do anything."

"Leona, you remember the previous life?" I managed to get out through her feathers.

"YES! Why wouldn't I?? I'm a fa-fabulous and br-brilliant phoenix after all," Leona sobbed.

I wrapped my hands around her warm and shaking body in a hug.

"It's alright. I'm here now. And you are the most fabulous and most brilliant phoenix of all," I cooed and brushed my hands over her feathers, trying to soothe her.

Just what in the world happened to her?

"You're safe now," I said. "This is a new round."

"Luca..." Leona's voice was small but clear. "I remember... I remember being seized by a strange woman. She put me in a cage and kept me there. She said she was going to sell me to the highest bidder."

The fear in her voice was heartbreaking. Moreover, it was worrying. How was anyone capable of capturing a phoenix, of all things? It wasn't as simple as catching a regular bird. I still didn't know much about Leona or phoenixes, but I knew Leona was a force to be reckoned with.

"It's alright now. You're safe with me. I won't let anyone hurt you." I continued to gently stroke her feathers, trying to comfort her.

Leona snuggled closer to me, still shaking with fear. "I'm scared. What if that woman comes back for me?"

I held her close, rubbing her back soothingly. "I won't let her hurt you, Leona. I promise. You're safe now. It's a new round."

Leona pulled away to look at me. I could see the fear in her large golden eyes.

"Luca, but she knew I was a phoenix. She knew how to capture me, and she knew how to block my magic from working so I couldn't even escape. So what's to stop her from taking me in this round?"