The dragon's knight. (2)

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The door shut behind Alice with a soft sound, a bit of warm steam greeting her. The bathroom. She was a VIP guest so Arioch had naturally given her one of the best rooms they had, a bathroom attached directly to it so that she could wash herself whenever she felt like it.

"I just put him to sleep again so no loud noises."

She wiped her face as she spoke, sucking in several heavy breaths as a soft red tinge lingered on her cheeks and ears. Three days of silence, three days without a word. And the first thing he tried to do was apologise. Once he rested enough and properly recuperated… She would have to… Well, she would have to take care of him, one way or the other.

"Alright, I'll be quiet."

Teresa, who had been waiting in the bathroom, gave a small bow. Gabriel was out of commission so the usual duties he attended naturally fell on her for now. And one such duty was helping Alice with her baths.

"Haa… Is it ready?"

Alice let out a long breath as she sat down in the bath, Teresa getting to work on her hair. There would be a dinner after this, just her and Arioch 'discussing the relationship of the families' so not even Caine would be there. It was a good time to fulfil her part of the contract.

"Yes. I harvested it yesterday and finished grounding it up this morning. But the effects may be a bit too powerful so I cannot recommend that we put them in a room with unrelated people. If the guards are a bit late then there may well be unwanted casualties."

Alice promised Arioch that she would take care of the spies that Francis and Marion had slipped into his family over the years, but she never specified how she would do it, or make them do it. The answer to this question was Teresa. Years ago, Gabriel told her that she would have to find something she could do if she wanted to help him in his shady work, she had to study and become useful if she wanted to be of help.

And study she had done, and learned she had. Luckily, she wasn't completely magically inept so she received a slight boost that made things easier. Now… Now she had become someone useful for more than just keeping Alice company and being a friend.

"Alright, I'll have Arioch isolate them and keep a guard close by, shouldn't be too hard to find an excuse."

Alice closed her eyes for a moment, but the past few minutes flashed past her eyes as she did so. The wet cloth, the touch of the forehead, breath that was just as hot as hers. She quickly opened her eyes again, a subdued red creeping down her ears.

"Really… I'll have to take good care of that bastard…"

She slapped her cheeks while muttering, the warm water that splashed her face allowing her to stay in control. Her eyes caught a glimpse of the mark on her chest, the cracked octopus that would permanently brand her as his. A finger slid down and traced the mark, a small smile floating up on her face as she failed to notice that the pieces had slid a bit further apart.

———

"You seem to be in a good mood this evening, Alice. I presume that your knight has woken up?"

Arioch greeted Alice as she entered the dining room, the top of her dress covered by a black jacket. Arioch wore a simple blue blazer and loose pants, it was just a friendly meal so there was no need to dress up. The 'friendliness' of the meal was also shown in the venue, they didn't use the large and heavily decorated dining room that could also serve as a lounge during the larger balls. No, this was a relatively small room with a floor—to-ceiling window that gave them a view of the frozen mountains that the Barong duchy was famous for.

"Astute as always, Young Master Arioch, he is indeed showing signs of recuperation. I'll have him personally thank you for the medicines you provided once he is able to walk on his own feet."

Alice naturally brought her own medicines on this trip, and Teresa would be able to make simpler ones if an emergency arose. But Arioch was the master of this house, so even if Gabriel was injured due to his own stupidity he had to send over at least some medicines, he had to maintain the image of house Barong after all. Well, that was the reason the public would believe at least.

"No need, taking care of him is a good way to better our relationship, is it not?"

It was already clear to Arioch after chatting with Alice and observing her over the last few days. Gabriel, that knight of her, he was her weakness. Harming him was equal to harming her, controlling him was equal to controlling her. But Alice had the blood of a dragon flowing through her veins. And the saying that you should never touch a dragon's Reverse Scale wasn't one born out of a joke. If you wanted to control her through that knight then you would first have to weigh the gains and losses.

Alice simply smiled at the statement, but Arioch could only recall that bloody glare she gave him when he saw those slightly exposed canines. Ah, dragon blood really gave birth to dragons, fierce bastards that never bent or settled for anything beneath them. But in that case, what exactly was this dragon raising?

Arioch took the hint in her silence and decided to change the topic, the two still standing at the entrance to the dining room. His gaze slid onto the servant she had brought along, almost definitely intentionally. Long, almost platinum blonde hair that reached down to just past her shoulders, deep brown eyes that were as placid as Alice's knight, and a slightly crooked nose.

She looked a few years older than Alice, a calm air with a slightly sweet scent lingering around her. Arioch provided the lead, so Alice built on it, acting a little embarrassed as she gestured towards the servant.

"Ah, forgive me, I haven't introduced you yet. Young Master Arioch, this is my personal maid and friend, Teresa. She is a bit of a shy person so she hasn't been able to integrate with the others yet. She'd like to remedy this by helping to prepare some of the food for the other servants, but if that doesn't work then just carrying it to them would be enough to at least initiate a conversation. Could you have a guard lead her to the kitchen and then follow her to where the other servants will be having their meal?"

Teresa also played her part, lowering her head as she bowed deeply. Arioch's gaze lingered on Teresa for a moment before it slid back to Alice, the slightly skewed but polite smile on her face causing a similar one to break out on his face.

"Ah, I see. Yes, I don't believe I've seen Miss Teresa mingle with the other servants yet so of course we should help you remedy that. But meeting a lot of new people all at once can be a bit scary, don't you think? Why don't I, or she if she would prefer, select some servants from my estate while she selects some more from your entourage that she is comfortable with, I can provide them with a nice open dining room where they won't be as cramped. A servant or two might walk by at times, but I'm sure it will be better than the cramped servants' hall."

Did he know exactly what was going on? No. Did he know how to play along? Yes. He had already finished his part of the deal, so now it seemed as if Alice was going to do her part. Luckily, the contract they signed removed the thing known as mutual trust from the deal, fulfil your part or lose your own body parts. Nice. Simple. Trustworthy.

"Thank you, Young Master Arioch, we would greatly appreciate it."

Alice's hand landed on Teresa's back, as if to gesture that she too should thank Arioch for being kind enough to consider her situation. Will she was doing that, Arioch snapped his fingers and summoned one of his guards.

"Orson, could you please guide this lady to the kitchen and then bring both her and the people she chooses to the dining room on the first floor? The one by the crossroads between the wings."

The guard, an older man with a few strands of grey hair starting to pop up in his black hair, gave a bow with his hand on the sword at his waist. His blue eyes betrayed not a single one of his emotions, he almost looked to be made of stone with how blank his expression was. Teresa positioned herself behind the guard as he took the lead, Arioch calling out to the guard again before they left.

"And oh, please watch over them as they eat, it would be a shame if a roving servant ended up being rude because they weren't informed that this party was given special leave to eat somewhere else."

———

While Alice and Arioch were starting to share their friendly meal, Caine was sitting by one of the lamps in his room. He technically didn't have anything left to do here in the north, he only came here to scope out the situation in the northern mountains to make sure that the thing sealed there wasn't showing any strange movements after so many other things had changed. It was as quiet as always so technically he should have left before Alice even arrived here.

But now Alice was here, so a problem arose. Publicly it was hard for him to leave because he was part of the Woodime family and leaving before the Vritara family could make others spread rumours that the Vritara family valued their relationship with the Barong family more than the Woodime family did. Personally, it was hard to leave because there was no telling what sort of things about the north Alice would change while here.

Well, rather than Alice, it was probably better to say that 'Gabriel' would change things. Now that they finally met, Caine had become certain. The one changing things in this loop, it wasn't him, it wasn't Azuras, it was the knight known as Gabriel. But the question was… How? Who even was this Gabriel?

Out of habit, Caine's hand drifted to the mark that covered most of his neck, parts of it even stretching down onto his chest. He tapped it with a finger and prodded it with some mana, but as alwa… No, scratch that, he finally got a reaction.

The mark started to bleed. Oil-like liquid gushed out from it like tears, pouring down his body and pooling on the floor. Within mere moments, the pool had grown to cover the entire floor, muddy tentacles stretching out to from the bubbling tar and latching onto the walls. The sticky liquid was dragged up and extended to cover the walls and ceiling, shrouding the entire room in darkness, only Caine left.

A jaw appeared beneath him, rows of circling teeth gnashing around him as they grew larger and larger. In the end, just the very tip of one tooth was enough to fill the entire room, but that too quickly vanished beyond the constraints of the room. Now, Caine was truly in the gullet of the beast.

"Azuras, what the hell is going on with your body?"

Caine didn't allow himself to shiver within the dark swamp, no matter how eerie the sight always was. He maintained his expression and spoke to the darkness, he had to get at least some answers while he could. This guy had ignored him for several years already, there was no telling when he would bother speaking next.

"What do you mean, what? It's just my body."

A buzzing came from the darkness, rippling tentacles rising from the tar. They coiled around each other like worms trying to devour each other, a vaguely humanoid shape rising amidst the buzzing. But there were no normal features on this humanoids face, circling maws had replaced both eyes and the normal mouth.

"Don't beat around the bush, do you think I can't tell that it's not you in there? You said you were tired and wanted to rest, so just what the hell did you put in there?"

Azuras… Whether he wanted to or not, Caine was already very familiar with this… creature was probably the best word for it. And the body he met today, this 'Gabriel' it clearly wasn't Azuras, it wasn't the Azuras of any loop he knew of.

"Kekeke…"

A twisted laugh, distorted by bubbling flies, coming from every inch of the darkness. It was like a creaking, one Caine was far too familiar with. When the loop collapsed it was always accompanied by that creaking.

"Caine, you're a quick fella, a smart fella. In all our runs, in all our little battles across time, how many people do you think died? The first time the duchies burned, the eighth time the country burned, the 20th time the world cracked. The worlds locked in the loop may be a lot smaller than the one you came from, but with so many runs… How many have you failed to save?"

Azuras' voice echoed throughout Caine's body, it was as if it came from every bone in his body. Creaking, nothing but creaking. He was tired, he was done with this battle, this existence. But still, Azuras was Azuras, nasty from start to finish.

"…I stopped counting."

Caine had to grit his teeth. Azuras would not keep talking if he didn't answer, he was cruel like that, even to the one he contracted. The first loop, the second, even all the way through to the 10th, Caine always kept a count of the number of people he failed to save, even when it reached the millions. But after the 20th? The 50th? He couldn't keep counting, the number was so large it kept him awake at night, haunted him when he closed his eyes.

"More than a billion, Caine. More than a billion souls burned and twisted across the loops. Think about that Caine. Even in worlds as small as ours, we drowned over a billion, we crushed millions. So many miserable souls, so many miserable lives, so many sparks to the fire. Just think of the blaze they could cause, can you imagine that radiant light?"

A billion, more than a billion even. It was a number that chilled Caine to the core, especially the sheer rapture with which Azuras spoke of them. He was miserable, so he forced misery onto others. But well, if you asked him then he would say that he brought them peace by freeing them from the misery of existence. Twisted, from start to finish. Looking at Azuras now, Caine could not understand some of the thoughts he had in the past.

"Didn't you always cry for them? The poor, the innocent, the undeserving. You cried even that one time I decided to help you bring peace to this world you had grown so fond of."

Yeah, that was one such thought. Turn 9. It was the third time they decided to change the future by taking in both Azuras and Alice early, changing some things about how they treated them each time to get a different result from the last one. But the end… The help he brought…

"You reduced the Yverial Empire to nothing more than flakes of ice!"

An empire that was just as large as the Earhart empire… Reduced to snowflakes that vanished in the ocean. But Azuras… Azuras didn't even see it like that.

"And in doing so, I stopped them from invading the Earhart empire in the future. Didn't you cry during that war, Caine? Weren't you terribly sad when your soldiers and princess died? I saved you from that, Caine."

Empires were large, and they always wanted to be larger. If the Yverial didn't invade them first then the Earhart empire would invade them. Even now the Earhart empire was quietly building forces while looking for a weakness in Kasarias and Yverial that they could exploit. War was profit, lives lost could always be paid for and regained later.

"Just get to your point."

Caine spat out a heavy breath, he couldn't keep listening to Azuras buzz, like flies gathering around a bloated corpse as they feasted on its final fate. But the answer… The answer he got…

"No matter how bad things got, you and Abigail always got a second chance, the opportunity to do things again, to do them 'right'. But those miserable lives, stacked up over years and years of loops, did they ever get that chance to set things 'right', to live?"

The darkness creaked. The oil bubbled and the flies buzzed like a chorus, a dirge of death. Yeah, Caine and Abigail signed the contract to start the loop, so even after their first deaths they just got to try again and again. But what did that have to do with everyone el…

"…You didn't…"

It struck him. Why Azuras spoke so much of the people lost across the various loops. But he couldn't believe it. Sure, the thing Azuras had become after so many loops may have the power to do something like that after deciding to abandon its existence. But would it really do that? Would it really force something like that into the world?

"I did."

The answer that came from the darkness was sadly affirmative, a creaking laugh echoing through the darkness. Insane. He was insane. Caine should have already realized this long ago, but perhaps a small part of him still hoped that this twisted being would change slightly after deciding on its own end. But no. From start to finish, Azuras was misery.

"I don't need the body, so why not give it away to others? Over a billion miserable lives, over a billion twisted and grieving souls, let them have it! A bit of you, a bit of me, a bit of that dragon girl, a bit of your princess, let's just gather all the miserable souls we made into one and let them decide who gets to be the most miserable and keep living in this fucked world you keep trying to protect. Maybe two of you? Two of your Abigail? Or perhaps this world is just so twisted that it'll just make me once more. Let's make it a nice big ritual of Gu, doesn't that sound fun?"