There’s a possibility of another earth human out there. Trajectory, height, direction and distance.
It all led to one window, and I just needed to run in that direction to find the culprit. The way Nora was killed wasn’t normal. Whatever killed her, literally killed her like a bullet and zipped in the air like one too. If there was a possibility that there was another person from earth out there, then I would have to find them now.
But on the off-chance that they weren’t… then I would have to escape or reason with them. Maybe even fight them. I had to tread carefully, and judging by the situation, the assassin had most likely abandoned the building and was probably attempting to run away in the chaos.
I subconsciously counted the seconds going by.
“Avante, time.”
“12:41 sir,” the robotic voice replied. I counted my seconds like a live timer from here on out in the background.
“Thirty seconds since the murder… fifth storey, one stairwell, possibly dressed as a noble, blending in with regulars… Okay,” I quietly went on as I ran.
I dashed through all the crowds and people as guards ran toward the tragic scene.
Left, right, left, left.
“Should be here.”
I was in the middle of the colourful street, analysing all the people on this road. If I had timed it right, I most likely cut off or caught up with the assassin if I followed the logic. If I was a killer from a distance, I would most likely dress up to fit the regulars surrounding me and in this case, this area was full of nobles. In a world with no CCTV, I would just quietly leave the scene, going on with my day and blend in with the chaos. So essentially, be a good actor and you could get away with murder in this world.
It explains why death and murder is so prevalent around this country.
I slowly walked amongst the men and women walking past with my hands in my pockets, scanning each individual's clothes and face.
And that’s when I saw a man just up ahead, walking discreetly on the side road and I latched onto it immediately. I had to follow him, I was sure it was him, but I needed some confirmation before I made an actual move.
I sped up my walking and got side to side with him, matching his pace from the other side of the road. I zoomed in as I squinted my eyes.
“Distressed look, unkept beard, walking away from the general looks of the public. You are not an aristocrat,” I said when I swooped in toward his direction and tailed him from behind.
“Avante, time.”
“12:45 sir.”
I saw no weapon on him, maybe he concealed it. He kept twisting and turning, and it seemed he knew I was on his tail and the further inward he took me into the city, the more messy it could possibly get.
“Wait!” I exclaimed and on that exclamation, he suddenly ran.
No, no I need you.
I ran and ran, keeping him locked in my sights until with no time to react, he suddenly spun around to face me. For a split second, I saw the look of pure dread and fear darkening his eyes. Creases crawling all over his face and gritting teeth were shun toward me. With no time to react.
I died.
Part Two
I counted three minutes. One hundred and eighty four seconds. The time was 12:48.
I’m alive.
I’m going to fucking find you. I understand it now.
“Avante, time.”
“12:08 sir,”
I was set back forty minutes. I have twenty two minutes till assassination.
And here I was, in the middle of this wretched palace floor, standing next to the aristocrat named Jackell. We both looked upon the palace and it seemed I was brought in the middle of a conversation. I remembered this scene, it played exactly how it did when I was first here. This time, it was almost as if my death was painless.
I was shot in the head.
It had to be, those of this world didn’t seem to possess the means of long range attacks unless with a bow and arrow. But with that, even I would see an attack like that no matter how fast and be able to deduce that after coming back to life. All things seemingly pointed to him having a gun of some sort but then again, there was ‘Mylan Arts’ in this world that I still did not yet understand.
Fine. I will find you, and I will find the truth.
For every moment I was brought back to life in this cursed world, I grew an unexplainable drive, an unhealable hatred for the one who may be pulling my strings. I felt more and more like a puppet, and there was something else I understood as well.
The probability that I endlessly come back to life has increased.
It was annoying, but it felt almost self serving to my ego. Considering that the world just so happened to coincidentally fall into political elections and assassinations, just now of all time I was summoned to this world. And in fact, every time I died, I was brought back to life.
Someone or something doesn’t want me to die.
My first lead was to find the earthling that may be hiding amongst the buildings. And now I knew exactly where he was. “Jackell,” I cut into his endless rambling, “Hold my spot, I shall return soon.”
“Oh, does anything seem to be the problem Mr Avante?” He replied, raising a brow.
“I seem to have forgotten my golden watch, I wouldn’t want to be standing before royalty without my favourite timepiece.”
He let out a rich laugh, “Why of course. I understand and I shall keep you space. Although, it’s getting crowded already, you might even struggle to come back to the front.”
“I’m fine with that. I would rather keep my appearances up.”
I left him with those words and slipped through the crowd of nobles and sped walk down the back. It was a good idea to keep up the noble act, it could get me far in certain situations so I planned to keep this persona.
I knew exactly where to go and it wasn’t far. A perfect range to snipe someone but the most suspicious thing about this, was that since we were right next to the royal palace. Every house around was that of aristocracy. As I walked through the side roads to reach the house, I couldn’t help but think.
An assassin for a princess, doing the deed from a window of a noble's house. He either snuck in there, or… was hired by an aristocrat.
It made sense that this could happen, but the reason remained unknown and whether they wanted to kill all of the royal family members, or just Nora, I did not know. I could not tell since Sylvia was immediately guarded after Nora’s ‘death’ so the shot was probably harder.
I had finally arrived at it. A ridiculously large mansion, something you would see a rotten noble from old Britain lying away in, with two large side blocks caving in around a lawn. I had no time to admire the whole view and walked straight to the entrance. I just had to keep my noble act up and investigate first to see if there was a way I could enter.
Knocking on the double front door, I got a quick response from a woman dressed in a maid outfit.
“This is the Smith Household. Our master is currently not home sir,” she said in a light voice.
Smith.
I looked behind her, beyond the gap of the doors and darted my eyes around for confirmation. And there I saw it, hanging in large on the walls of the spiral stairs. The same exact look, painted to show his arrogant face and brown mustache.
“I am Enklien Moriarty, from the Moriarty family,” I said with my hands behind my back, “I’m not sure if a commoner like you would know, but I am from the Moriarty family. And I am a friend of Mr Jackell Smith.”
I watched her throat gulp and her slender fingers raise to her lips as she avoided eye contact with me. “I’m sorry, but my Master told me to deny anyone of access-”
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Watch your mouth commoner,” I shot back, “That means… you know don’t you?”
I moved a step forward so my body was half inside of the entrance, right before her looking up at me with trembling pupils.
“K-know what sir?” She responded in a broken voice again with her eyes looking everywhere but me.
“There’s someone else in here isn’t there?” I came close to her ear and whispered, “I’ll tell the royal force about what is conspiring in here if you don’t let me through. If you deny me again, have fun in prison.”
I felt her tremor when she stepped back in an instant and flung open the door. It all made sense but nothing made sense at the same time. It was obvious the maid knew of Jackell's secrecy, and so it was clear from her reaction that she knew Jackell had hired an assassin to operate from this mansion. And due to the events that occurred in my previous time-loop, I got to know of the assassins location. In a sense, it was unfair, but the universe handed me that knowledge and told me to deduce the rest.
Jackell, who seemed to admire the royal family so much, wanted to get the princess killed. I had genuinely scored points with the lowest probability of meeting him already outside the palace so I used that to my advantage but the next move from here on out, was figuring out if this person was from earth… and surviving if he was not. I was in the lion's mouth, but even a lion had teeth to rip off.
“Avante, time.”
“12:15 sir.”
Sixteen more minutes till the assassination, and if this man I was pursuing didn’t have a gun, then I should look to fight back with my environment.
The maid’s name was Annerose, and she complied with me out of fear of being reported for conspiracy to kill a royal. She knew how grave of a crime it was with the way she hadn’t said a word, letting out only squeaks for responses.
I knew exactly what room the assassin was in, and I had kept Annerose right next to me. I couldn’t have her running off on me and she had told me that in this part of the building, only she was present. So I didn’t really have to worry too much about interference. I crouched near an open doorway of an elegant room as I watched the man stand next to the window. It was the perfect spot for an assassin, positioned right next to the palace’s empty grounds. But time was running out and I couldn’t just wait for the assassination to see him pull out the weapon or else all this would be for naught.
If he held a weapon of technology, then great, but if I waited too long, then either I’d be framed for murder or killed.
And death wasn’t an option.
Just because the probability of being brought back to life increased, I was not certain. Dressed in a dark red suit and a top hat, I watched him clench his fists as he hid behind the wall near the window.
It seemed he was staying out of sight till the princess came along.
“Avante, time.”“12:28 sir.”
Time’s running out, pull out your weapon.
The longer I stayed here, the more I dug myself a hole. A few more minutes, and he’d kill the princess and make a run for it. Either he’d fight me and we’d both get caught, and I’d be dragged into an unexplainable mess, or he was human and we worked together.
If all goes left, I’m not getting dragged into a political mess. I’d rather have him gone.
I balled up my fist and decided to make a move. Grabbing the side of the doorframe, I launched my standing into the room firmly and pulled out my gun to point it at his face.
I wanted to see his reaction, to see if he’d react with surprise of familiarity.
But he didn’t and what I saw was a face of dread and shock. Similar to the one I had seen before he killed me. And this time, I was not letting him get me. From his reaction alone, I had deemed that he was not from earth and from here on, it was my life or his. I did not know his method of killing, but it was of a similar style to a gun and in the last loop, I was off guard enough for him to kill me.
This time, I took the shot first. Annerose screamed as the deafening bang burst throughout the room and so the bullet ripped through the air, piercing his shoulder. I watched the man wail in agony as he grabbed his shoulder but before I could take the next shot, I noticed a ball forming around his struggling finger.
A blood red ball. And blood, as in literally, blood.
I remembered for a split moment, when I had dabbled a little in Old Man Jay’s books, “The Art Of Mylan” and if I remembered correctly, they had different ‘arts’ with one of them being…
Blood arts.
Fuck.
Part Three
Shit. Shit, shit,shit,shit.
I had no time to think, and the only thing I could do was run. In the few seconds I had, I watched the man do the unthinkable when he magically pulled out the blood pouring from his wound. As it floated into the air, I watched it form into a…
A bow and fucking arrow. Are you joking?
I dashed out of the room and grabbed Anneroses’ hand, pulling her along with me. We were in the middle block of the mansion, running down the balcony inside. I couldn’t let her run off and cause me trouble outside of my calculations. I already had enough unknown variables as it was and her running away would have just made things more complicated. I fired my gun backwards as I did so as I ran down the open hallway, reaching the stairwell.
I heard the man's hurried footsteps run out of the room, but it was clear he knew the danger of the gun after losing his shoulder to it.
But the issue was that if I couldn’t kill him in one shot, any form of blood loss, he would just use it to his advantage. As he ran toward us on the open balcony hallway, he tripped over a rope causing two barrels to tip over and spill fluids all over the floor, covering him in an icky mess. He was drenched in it as he struggled back up to his feet with gritting teeth and a nervous face. But the issue was if he just ran away, that would just complicate things so I needed to string him toward me.
“I know who you are and why you’re here!” I roared when he got back up to chase me down, “Hand yourself in or I will call the royal guards!”
I heard a gasp come from his direction. Now he needed to kill me or else he would be in trouble.
I was confident.
I had it all figured out.
And that was how I moved with speed. I didn’t have time for Annerose’s sluggish movements and I couldn’t afford her to leave now so I picked her up in my arms like a cradle, and ran along the ground floor to the kitchen. Like a dog, he panted as he ran behind me, always too late to have me in his line of firing. Every time he reached an opening, I had taken a turn, all until I had run into the kitchen.
It was a dead end.
Or not…
“Where is he!?” The man grabbed Annerose by the collar in fury, sweating in fear at the same time. Pure despair written all over his look as he locked the helpless woman in eyes. She spoke in her distressed broken voice and pointed inside of the kitchen with a rolling down. She stood outside of it, pinned against the wall when she said, “He left me and ran!”
He swung his head to the kitchen and ran inside, letting the woman fall to the ground. He immediately noticed the half opened window, thinking the man he had been chasing had escaped through there.
The rays of the sun cut through the windows, highlighting the dusty mess of the kitchen. Everything was dirty, huge pots were broken, tipped over to the side with flour and all sorts of spices piling out of it. He looked around, as he coughed from the mix of particles running into his lungs. Attempting to escape through the window, I stopped him in his tracks as I stood beside the door frame.
The drenched man, covered in oil, standing in a room full of dust and flour, turned to face me when he heard a splash of liquid trail toward him. And before he realised it, I shot the oil running toward him on the floor and slammed the door shut. For a split second, I saw the trail of fire enter the room and before I knew it, the room burst into a pit of flames with the last scream of the man, protruding through the walls just before he had perished in the explosion.
I fell to my back from the shock and watched Annerose’s eyes widen as she covered her mouth. I felt bad for having to do this to her, because who knows what was going to happen to her from here on with Jackell. Especially since she had helped me so much. And sure, maybe she only helped me because of survival instincts, but when I had asked for where the kitchen was, she had directed me there with pace, leading me to find the storage room. And from there, I had smashed all sorts of huge pots containing flours, all sorts of spices and things I had never seen before. And it was simple, I had fanned it all out, spreading it across the kitchen all in preparation for a dust explosion.
The open window, the two barrels with ropes, my unnecessary screaming, were all to push him into a corner and lead him to this room. Drenched in oil, he had no way of escaping, either he’d be killed by the explosion, or burnt to death.
I had survived another day, and now the next moves would have to come immediately because the Royal Guards would soon leech onto the explosion and come here.
What had I gotten from this? Nothing.
Nothing in hindsight but when I looked far beyond the now, I had seen a chance. A small chance to have an audience with Nora Van Vollaria herself. My greatest connection to hidden secrets, I needed to blitz this world and find out whatever the royal family may be hiding through this princess who supposedly adored the poor.
And I was her exact target demographic just as she was mine and through this ‘crime’, if I could advertise that I had stopped an assassination on the princess, surely I would be praised by the poverty lover herself.
But I had to be careful, any wrong move, anything said wrong, I could catch myself in a dire situation.
“Annerose,” I said, “Don’t worry, I shall take all the blame. Don’t say anything you do not need to or else problems will come your way.”
Annerose was not needed anymore, but if she were taken in as a witness, she would potentially say all sorts of things like I had threatened her, weakening my case in argument making me look like an actual criminal. What I needed from her, was to look like a hidden hero to the princess and what did you know?
They had come already. Of course they had, it was the house of an aristocrat. A dodgy one at that.
“Mr Smith! Mr Smith!” A few voices shouted out his name as they slowly entered the front door of the mansion and like a SWAT team, they all crept in like raptors, holding out their bows as they took aim. They saw me instantly as I raised my arms to show my surrender. I was not going to make the same mistake as I did with Angel and get myself killed. This time I had to raise my arms in surrender for imprisonment.
They clearly did have a prison system here and didn’t just kill a person onsight since the threat on Annerose with prison seemed to shake her core. The question was how rough was it?
I had to appeal to them immediately.
They surrounded me like a hungry pack of wolves with their bows raised in unison, slowly forming a semi circle as they got closer.
“Face on the floor!” One of them exclaimed. This really felt like the police force from back home. Usually, I would be trembling right now and the truth is, I was. My legs were shaking as I tried to keep my composure, hiding it with a stoic mask. But I didn’t lash out because I still had a baseline of a plan that I was following. And my confidence in that was due to its simplicity. Get arrested, prove there was an assassin, prove I had prevented it all and either Nora came to me, or I would ask for her. Either way, due to her personality, it seemed that she would owe me for saving her life.
“Her Majesty was about to be assassinated!” I exclaimed as I fell to my knees, “I had seen it! A man with a use of blood arts-!” And before I had gotten a chance to finish, I ate the soles of a boot, locking me down to the ground while I bit my teeth. “Speak later. We haven't got time for your rambling now, the royal family are entering the palace.”
My ears began to ring upon impact, one from the boot and one from my hand banging the floor. I felt my eyelids lose strength as they tried to shut while my vision blurred. As much as I tried, I knew that it was no use as a black canvas began to cover my vision. I was concussed. And it was very much my bed time.
“Avante… time.”
“12:31 sir.”