'We are all you.', after the man told me this, I had to think about his words for a while. He meant this as in he was another version of me in the time loop? If what he told me was actually true, it could explain how he knew my name. I already noticed how I always woke up in a different body every time I died. So the only uncertain thing was, whether or not I was actually in a time loop... I couldn't trust him just because of what he told me, but I didn't have much to lose by hearing him out.

I was so busy thinking about all of this while walking, I didn't even realize how our destination wasn't actually the castle, but the marketplace I had passed earlier instead. To be more precise we were going to the corner with all the mercenaries. Now that I was closer than last time, I could see how most of them either looked determined. But many also had a somewhat desperate or mad look on their faces.

"So...", the man who guided me here began after we had arrived at our destination. "This is the rest of us."

Some of the men lifted their hands for a greeting, but most of them simply seemed to ignore me. And even the few who had greeted me quickly went back to their own activities, too.

Except for an older boy, who looked like he just finished puberty and my 'guide'.

"Hello...?", the boy asked. His voice was shaking, uncertainty and disbelief in his gaze. "How is this... possible?"

In response I could only stare back at him. Just as I wanted to answer him, he seemed to stumble backwards a bit and fainted only a second later. At the time I had realized what happened my guide was already in position behind the boy and caught him while he was falling, quickly laying him down on a makeshift mattress.

Questioning, I looked at the man.

"Don't worry about it for now.", he responded. "It's what happens if you want to change something from the past. If you're lucky..."

"What do you mean?", I still couldn't really make sense of the situation.

"It'll take some time to explain everything. How about we sit down for a bit?", he pointed at a small table, I hadn't previously noticed. Now that I thought about it, it was really strange. Looking around us, I couldn't see any other furnishings, except for the makeshift bed, the table and a few chairs. It's like they had planned for this exact situation already... All of the other people were just standing, preparing their weapons or discussing some tactics I didn't understand.

After sitting down at the small table, I looked expectantly at the man who had guided me here. He seemed to be gathering his thoughts for a moment before speaking.

"I know you have many questions," he began, his voice low and serious. "But first, I need you to understand the gravity of our situation. We are caught in a time loop, as you already suspect. Each time we die, we wake up again in a different body, but always on this same day."

He paused, watching my reaction carefully. This whole situation being so absurd I expected as much, but I didn't expect what he told me next:

"But the most important detail is that everything you've experienced until this point was in the past. And since this right here is the past, " he gestured around him, "everything will happen exactly the same way, as you remember it right now. No exceptions."

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I looked at him unbelieving, trying to process his words, but he already continued:

"Kaitlyn getting abducted tomorrow morning, your original body running after her. And her death and your original body going on a mad killing spree in the castle. They are all already set in stone."

'Set in stone'? How? Couldn't I simply change all of that now that I have a new chance?

The man simply smiled bitterly. "I know what you're thinking. And I know that I can't stop you to try and rescue Kaitlyn. That's why we'll still try to help you. However, our goal isn't to save her. It is to seek revenge." A mad expression flickered in his eyes while saying that.

"Right here you're only seeing a fraction of our forces.", he continued, "And I'm the commander of this squad. We're in charge of the first assault tomorrow – our task will be to take out the initial forces, which abducted Kaitlin, giving you a chance to rescue her."

The man's words hung heavy in the air as I tried to process everything he had said. A time loop, predetermined events, and now talk of revenge and assault squads? It was almost too much to take in.

"Wait," I said, holding up a hand. "You're saying we can't change what's already happened... or what will happen... but we're still going to try to rescue Kaitlyn? How does that work?"

"Well, it doesn't." He answered with a grim smile on his face, "But I know you'll still try to do it. Because that's how I remember it, so that's how it's going to happen."

The man's grim smile faded as he leaned back in his chair, his eyes distant. He continued: "I know you still have many questions, but it's getting late. For now, we should head to your home, so we can all sleep until tomorrow."

"My home?", I repeated, even more confused.

"Well, we all came from outside the city today, so we don't have any other place to stay. Besides, it isn't even your home to begin with, right?", he challenged me.

I guess, that was true. And since they knew about my past, I had no real choice but to believe him. There was no way an outsider would know of all the things that had happened to me and I could use every help I got. There was only one problem left:

"I have no idea, where my house even is.", I thought out loud, having never planned to return there in the first place.

The commander smiled in response, while most of his men were already packing up and starting to leave: "But we do. Remember, we've lived through this scenario already many times. And even if we have a different point of view every time, the house never changes its position. Nothing ever changes, to be precise."

As we made our way through the darkening streets of the city, I found myself lost in thought, trying to process everything the commander had told me. I still couldn't wrap my head around how this time loop supposedly worked. And just like the commander said, I just couldn't accept that Kaitlyn was predetermined to die. At this point it would probably be smarter to just let her die and try to escape this world instead. But it just didn't feel right.

As expected, I didn't sleep well sleep at all. After we arrived at 'my' home yesterday, the men quickly prepared for a sleepover. They once again seemed to be way too prepared and had multiple mattresses ready and only god knows where they got them from. After that they all simply lied down and slept. And I was lying all night long in my bed pondering about what had happened again. Somehow every single day since I arrived in this world was crazier than the one before it.

Just before sunrise the captain woke everyone up again with his loud voice: "Get ready everyone! Today is the day for our revenge!"

Even though everyone was still sleeping just seconds ago, after his shout the whole room was filled with men armed to the teeth. It was finally time to save Kaitlyn!

The point where we were going to intercept the abductors of Kaitlyn was right outside of the southern entrance gate, which I had passed when I first got in the capital. The captain even got me a nice sword, so I wouldn't have to fight with my fists.

We didn't have to wait long after getting ourselves into position, and we could already see a group of people with black robes coming closer. One of them holding a girl under their arm.

It was them.