Arata slowly opened his eyes, feeling the soft mattress beneath his body.
He sat up with a start, massaging his temples.
When he looked to the side, he immediately found Emma staring at him with a deeply worried expression.
— What happened, Arata?! — she asked, moving closer. — You just fainted out of nowhere... I was genuinely so worried.
Arata scratched the back of his neck, forcing an awkward smile to hide the whirlwind of memories from his recent deaths.
— I... think that yesterday, during the fight, some of the poison from Yumi's innate magic must have grazed me.
I must have suffered some delayed side effects from it today because of that... That's all! But I'm perfectly fine now, seriously!
Emma let out a long sigh of relief, relaxing her shoulders.
— I see... Phew, thank goodness the poison wasn't that strong, right?
— Definitely! It was super weak. It only made me feel that sudden pain and faint on my own — Arata lied shamelessly, maintaining his composure.
Internally, his mind continued working at full speed.
Phew, thank goodness my lie worked...
But I still wonder: what if I force myself to talk about Return, even with that shadow hand squeezing my brain?
Would I actually die? That's way too risky. I need to get more information before trying anything crazy.
— Well, then — Emma said, standing up. — Now that you're perfectly fine, let's go to the meeting hall. Joseph is waiting for us there.
— Sure! — Arata exclaimed, jumping out of bed.
He pointed his finger toward the ceiling and puffed out his chest.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
— LET'S GOOOO!!
In the meeting hall, the conversation with the mansion's owner proceeded exactly as Arata already knew by heart.
Joseph maintained his elegant posture at the head of the table, flanked by the twins, Loiry and Sumire.
Just seeing Loiry made Arata swallow nervously inside, almost trembling with fear as he remembered the moment when she had killed him.
And, as always, she continued giving him a few analytical glances.
— And what would you like as your reward, Arata Ryusei? — Joseph asked, extending his hands generously.
Arata rested his elbows on the table, grinning from ear to ear as he made his decision to change the course of this cycle:
— I... want to be an eternal guest at the mansion!
The silence of absolute shock and surprise that settled over the room was sharply interrupted by the sound of an uninterested yawn from Sumire, who didn't even care about the boy's audacity.
A while later, taking advantage of his free time, Arata silently walked through the polished corridors until he stopped in front of the enormous wooden door of the Library of Knowledge. He slowly pushed it open and entered.
Lia was sitting on her usual little wooden stool, focused on the pages of her ancient book.
Upon hearing the sound of approaching footsteps, she snapped the tome shut and fixed her aqua-green eyes directly on the boy.
— What did you come here for again?! — she grumbled, visibly impatient.
— Hey, Lia-chan! Could you help me out here? — Arata asked, approaching with his hands clasped together in a pleading gesture.
— And what if I can't? — she retorted, looking away.
— Please!!
Lia massaged her temples and let out a heavy sigh of pure irritation.
— You annoy me, I would say. What do you want? Tell me already before I throw you out of here once and for all.
Arata adopted a more serious posture and whispered:
— Could you help me find out more about a specific spirit? A Spirit of Ice named Gabriel.
Upon hearing the name, Lia's expression subtly changed, becoming more rigid.
— Gabriel?... I might know something, I would say.
— Does he happen to look like a short boy with blue hair?
— That's him! Exactly! — Arata exclaimed, surprised. — How do you know that?
— He's wanted throughout the nation of Karakiri for murdering people — Lia explained, her voice dropping a tone due to the gravity of the matter.
— On top of that, in the past, he completely froze his own hometown, condemning all of its residents along with the structures.
Arata swallowed hard, shocked by the cruelty of the enemy who had killed him before.
— Damn... Do you have any idea where he might be right now?
— I don't know. He disappeared years ago without leaving a trace — Lia replied, crossing her arms.
— Perhaps he's operating somewhere in secret.
In some isolated regions, mysterious deaths of completely unknown people have been occurring...
They're individuals who wear very strange clothes, quite similar to yours.
Those are all known victims of his.
Arata's heart leaped in his chest as he processed that crucial information.
What?! So he really does travel between worlds, bring people from Earth here, and then hunt them down and murder them one by one?...
But why?!
— Was that all? If so, get out of here, I would say — Lia cut through his thoughts, pointing toward the exit.
Arata looked at the small entity, feeling a pang of curiosity about the melancholy she tried to hide behind her harshness.
— Hey, Lia... Why do you live here all alone and act so harshly toward everyone?
The little spirit girl's gaze flared with pure irritation, mixed with a painful and melancholic glimmer.
She stood up from the stool, summoning her energy.
— Don't interfere... IN MY LIFE!!
With a wave of her hand, she fired a spiritual blast directly at Arata's chest.
The impact sent him flying backward, launching him out of the library and making him land hard on his back in the hallway as the large doors slammed shut.
Arata groaned in pain, supporting himself on his elbows as he stared at the sealed wooden doors.
Something really serious must have happened in the past for her to end up like this... he reflected, brushing the dust off his clothes.
What an absurdly mysterious place! And to make matters worse, with all that confusion, I completely forgot to ask about Loiry's past and why she hates the Cult of One so much that she decapitated me in the other timeline... What a pain!
He stood up, knowing that he would have to take his next step much more carefully if he wanted to survive the coming days.
End of Chapter 34...
To be continued in Chapter 35...