“Are you even listening?” Volch raised his eye at me, his hands fumbling under the round table. Eight people were seated around the grandiose table draped in silk of royal lineage, something I had seen for the first time in this world. Whether it was the texture of the cloth, the glint, or the reflection of the dangling chandelier, everything made the few loves of bread placed in baskets atop the table appear ethereal.

Of course, the bread was from my lady’s confectionary, but it didn’t stop me from grabbing a few loaves now and then. 

“Just so and so,” I waved my hand, watching my lady intently listening to Terian’s account of the military intelligence the scouts had managed to garner. A war was brewing at the border, and Rynak, as well as the Yvenaught empire, wanted to purge the new form of governance that had emerged in Kingdom Arlikia.

You see, mortals hate change. But little do they know that their stern beliefs are useless when put up against the decaying epochs. Everyone hopes to leave their mark one way or the other, but it only takes a few million years to completely wipe them out of existence. History? It’s horseshit when impending doom is your only concern.

“There’s no way we can face them off as things stand,” Terian rubbed his temples and leaned back on the chair. “Buflat and Parolov are the only royal mages left in the kingdom. The rest are either with the former crown prince or idly roaming the world after being freed from servitude.” 

His face held nonchalance despite the dire state of the kingdom. Was it a republic now? Anyway, I could never ascertain this mortal’s thoughts, and I greatly appreciated the man’s tenacity in not giving away any emotions.

Undead don’t care after they have lived long enough. If we want to laugh, we laugh. If we want to slaughter, we slaughter. There’s no in-between.

“Lady Mylan is with the crown prince, along with Gladiata Xerulin. Spies in Yvenaught have reported her ascendence to the Cognescente tier, so add two more mages to their already existing army. Rugalerin has subdued the Kormak army of Rynak at Wark, but his own has sustained too many injuries. Further, he hasn’t been convinced by my proposition of building a republic for the people, so you never know when he’ll cut ties with us and jump the wagon. A skinking vessel, that’s what we are right now. Lemure is defending the fort at Coln to a bitter death, but Yvenaught isn’t even trying. Two generals, Caymar and Ionark have already died at their hands, so it’s only a matter of time before we are wiped out of existence.”

Silence lingered in the room, and my munching reverberated a tad too much. All eyes fell on me, some held abhorrence, some held pity, and a couple amused. My lady smiled watching my happy mood and turned to look at Terian.

“Send me to Coln,” my lady said, and I coughed out the bread that had almost choked me.

“Tell me you are joking, lady Letitia,” Cainur, Beth’s brother, said. He cared about my lady just as much as he cared about Beth, so it was unlikely he would let her leave. Even otherwise, Beth would chop him to pieces, and my hound would have a good mortal meal.

“Go on, lady Letitia,” Terian ignored Cainur’s aggrieved expression.

“I am a Cognoscente mage myself,” Letitia said casually, and I would have attested to the fact if my mouth hadn’t been stuffed.

Gasps around the room, and everyone looked at my lady with reverence. 

“And I know enough about military strategy not to hold back the general,” she said with a shrug. “Then again, I don’t need strategies to kill some pesky mortals. It’s for the weak.”

I grinned. Of course, strategies were for the weak.

Terians’s eyes scanned past me and I saw him nod his head in approval. “I can think about it. You'll be taking Rudolf with you?”

I saw some reluctance in his voice. Perhaps his plan was to use me as the last wall of defense, but alas, unless my lady wanted to, I couldn't care any less about the survival of the capital.

“He will be my husband soon, so of course, he'll be with me.”

More gasps and more abhorrent stares along my way. Now that my lady was a high-level mage and strikingly beautiful, there were many suitors after her. Today's declaration meant she wouldn't look kindly upon the advances of any families anymore. 

We don't need your seeds. She made that much clear.

Terians's expression flickered before he said, “I can send my son and our private garrison-”

“I don't need any troops. And your son will just hold me back, Lord Terian,” Letitia said with a cold stare, and I heard Cainur chuckle across me. 

The room erupted in suppressed laughter, watching Terian’s dumbfounded expression. No one would openly rebuke a king, and even though Terian was the leader of the Republic, his status was no different from that of a king in this age. But the man knew better than to let his emotions gain control of the situation.

“Very well then,” Terian took a deep breath. “What do you intend to do once you reach Coln?”

Letitia got up from her seat and pulled me up along with her. She walked toward the door, dragging me all the way until I found my footing. The door budged open slightly, and my lady turned around to address the stares directed her way, “Butcher everyone who doesn’t nod when I do.”

I felt the fear of the mortals at this juncture, but it was overridden by my excitement of what Letitia had become. She was losing the last bit of humanity left in her, which meant she would know better than to give herself away to bloodlust should she ever learn [Undead]. The sheer madness of eating the life force of other mortals causes many to lose their sanity. Newborns and old geezers die within seconds of staying around [Undead] caster until epochs of training help them control the spell. 

The end product of the arduous journey is a perfect immortal creature, yours truly.

“Do you want to marry me, Rudolf?” Letitia tugged my sleeve as we walked out of the palace. The imperial gardens surrounded us on all sides, unkept for ages now. Overgrown shrubs masked the beauty of the invaluable flowers underneath, and vines crept up the trees that reached the heights of the palace. 

“Does my decision matter, Letitia?” I smiled as I stared at the clouds gathering in the distance.

“It does!” Letitia said, and her pout held my attention. “I will tie you down even if you reject me, but your words matter to me,” she said my name. “They mean the world to me.”

“Even if I ask you to slaughter all your kins?” I watched her intently.

There was hesitance in her voice, “Even if you ask me to slaughter my kins.”

I ruffled her head and moved forward. She was still a mortal, and I wouldn’t want her to lose her smile.

“Let’s get married,” I said, and Letitia wrapped her hands around me. 

“Bad undead! I thought you’d ask me to kill my family in return.” I felt her smile against my back. 

I turned around, hugged her, and buried my face in the crook of her neck. “You smell good when you are happy.”

“New kink?” she giggled, but I saw her ears turning red.

“Just stating the facts, Letitia,” I sucked her neck and winked at her. “I have some urgent matters to tend to, so you have to wait till the night for more.”

Her face bloomed to a smile, and l left her in the garden with a chuckle.

“I just have to become the happiest woman alive, don’t I?” I heard her shout from behind me. I earned unwarranted stares from the guards at the gates, but my lady held my gaze. “I am already one, Rudolf!”

A [First Step], I was right in front of her. A quick peck and another [First Step] landed me at the gates of the capital. 

I rubbed my cheeks. Did I travel too fast? They felt warmer than usual.

–

The Dry Woods lay southeast of Femor, the capital of Arlikia. Summer would have them dryer than usual, but they were known for their abundant spices. Many quests from the guild were directed toward the woods, but they were all rated A or above. Personally, I thought it was the home of the young undead, until my recent encounter with him, where he had genuflected before me in an attempt to become my pupil. Of course, I had gotten all the answers needed and rejected him.

I jumped down from the battlement of the walls and disappeared into the obscurity with [First Step]. The scenery before me changed from lush green forests around the capital to dry trees, sparsely decorated with leaves. Dry branches draped the passageway around the woods, small shrubs erupting unnaturally every few meters. I was sweating profusely hardly a few minutes into the woods, but it was nothing unbearable. 

I heard a rustle on my right, and I stared in that direction for a good while until a wild boar charged out of the woods, the small horns on its mouth appearing rather cute than deadly. I waved my hand and it stopped right before me, settling down on the ground in fright. It hid its muzzle beneath the dry branches, indicating that it wasn’t intending to fight.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, boar,” I sighed. “Go on, you can attack other mortals.”

With a quick motion, it ran out of my view, leaving poop in its wake. Oh well…

I followed the moisture in the air and walked in the direction of the river. Based on Arabell’s accounts, the mulberry dew was located along the river plains, so I continued onwards in comfortable silence. The scenery didn’t change much, and despite striding along a straight path for almost an hour, I wasn’t able to find River Mead. 

“Stop casting [Roaming Ward], mortal!” I shouted. The birds flocked out of the dry branches, and I heard cries of wolves in the distance.

Should I wait till this bastard falls asleep? 

“Who do we have here?” I saw a silhouette in the distance, his back bent, hand gripping a polished stick. The white hair hid his features underneath, and the dingy tunic masked the wrinkles all over his body. “If it isn’t Rudolf.”

I walked toward him in surprise. Was I really famous? 

“How do you know me, old man?” I asked, pulling his hair. It wasn’t a prop. 

He slapped my hand away and chuckled, interrupted by bouts of coughs.

“Just heard about your legends,” he casually said and motioned for me to follow him. “I have gathered some mulberry dews for you. They are in my hut, so if you don’t mind, we can have a meal before you leave,” he pulled his hair out of his face and tucked it behind his ears, “Can keep a lonely old man company now, can’t you?”

I stopped in my tracks, staring at his face. “How?”

He smiled, and I absently followed him until a small hut came into my view. The vines crept along the sturdy wooden walls, and a thatched roof gently sloped downward, offering shade from the prying sun. The older man opened the door and beckoned me inside. I took my seat on the table as he busied himself over the brick stove, heating something in a pot. He came forth to drop a basket with fresh loaves and sat opposite me.

“This world,” he pushed the basket toward me, and I couldn’t resist my urge to take the bread, “will end when Gladiata ceases to exist. Everything goes back to the beginning, right back to her birth. Except oddities like you and me, of course.”

I munched the bead in silence, taking in his words. 

“I’m not from this iteration. I shouldn’t be alive, and if it wasn’t for you taking over my soul during this iteration, I wouldn’t be here either. I don’t know much about this world, but I know that it revolves around Gladiata Xelurin. Call it the fruit of my research after living through the last iteration.”

“So, I wasn’t wrong,” I said with a sigh. “You are-”

“I am, but not of this iteration,” he walked toward the kitchen and poured some soup into a bowl. He almost stumbled on his stick as he returned, and I moved forth to support him. We walked silently to our seats until he continued, “You will never be happy here. Not with Lady Letitia. Because this world can continue only after her doom. I don’t know what you are or who you are, but if you can, you should take her out of here. That’s the only way she can live. I tried in my own way, but the only thing awaiting her was death. It didn’t matter what I did or how much I struggled.”

I rubbed my temples and chugged a large mouthful of soup. 

“I don’t understand,” I said. “If everything gets recycled in the same world, doesn’t that mean I would be able to meet Letitia over and over again?” 

“I don’t know,” the old man coughed until he was breathless. After a long pause, he continued, “I am as ignorant as you, but I can sometimes see fragments of the future. This encounter, for instance, I knew it would happen. It might be that I already have a few of your memories till you become my age.”

“Does that mean-”

“She dies. I know she will because you will be left alone in this world. Nothing gets recycled, and you will live aimlessly, stuck in this world till 80 years at least.”

I laughed. If I kill Gladiata, I lose Letitia. If I don’t, I lose Letitia.

“Fuck this world,” I got up from my seat. “Give me my mulberry dews, and I’ll be on my way. I don’t need mortals to tell me what I should be doing. I will save her. It doesn’t matter what the world wants.”

I saw him sigh, but he gave me a large pouch anyway.

“Rudolf,” he stopped me at the door, “I don’t have any of your memories about Letitia. It might be the world’s way of sticking to the obvious future, so I don’t know how she dies. But Garlan will die at the hands of the crown prince, Terian’s son will kill Beth, Casey will kill herself in return, and Terian will purge the Arlikia family. A republic? That will never happen because the thirst for power will eat away Terian. I know that you will kill every single mortal in this world soon. It won’t change a thing because everyone will disappear anyway, so don’t bother getting more blood on your hand-”

“Old man,” I stared at him and saw him whimper. “If Letitia dies, everyone else should.”

I walked out of the house and sighed.

If I kill Terian’s son, would that hasten the power-hungry phase of that bastard? If I kill Terian, would the rest of the nobles fight for the throne and crumble the republic from the inside?

I don’t like thinking. I really don’t.