Having completed my breakfast, I made my way toward where I presumed Micah to be. I was curious about the news Father and Micah had on who was responsible for Jarvis's death, but I also needed Micah's help locating Leona.

Perhaps it is nothing, but it is still worrying that she has been away so long.

However, before I turned the hall's corner toward the cellar's entryway, I ran into an unexpected and familiar face in the wide hallway.

"Ah, Luca. We meet again."

Before me stood Kleave, a good foot shorter than me and with eyes that appeared ready to close asleep. He looked exhausted, with darker-than-usual circles beneath his massive hooded blue eyes.

I didn't bother asking to the purpose of his visit. I presumed, given his presence and the direction he was coming from, that he had likely met with Father and Micah.

Is he the party related to Jarvis's death that Father mentioned?

"I meant to speak with you on one matter," he continued. "Kathy had mentioned you had ordered poison needles from her on a cadence of five gold per batch."

"I did."

"I'm afraid she won't be able to make them for you any longer," Kleave said. "But if you wish to continue at the same payment rate, I'm happy to supply you instead. I can't promise you new formulas, however. Only what she has supplied you with before."

I blinked.

"She's dead?" I made a guess.

Kleave nodded.

Damn it. That's yet another person whose death I helped bring on prematurely.

I understood why his dark circles appeared more pronounced than usual. Kleave only seemed calm and collected on the surface, but when something unpleasant struck, a storm brewed inside. A few drinks in him and the storm would surface, taking no prisoners in its wake, so in my original life I learned quickly to keep him dry and away from any substances.

"So, what do you say?" Kleave asked. "Would you like me to supply you in the future?"

I didn't plan to stick around through this round much longer after getting the information I needed from Freida Stran. I had allowed far too many people I cared about to die and hoped to restart soon. However, anything was possible, and having a source of weapons, given my uniquely weak physical state, was prudent.

"Yes, please continue the supply. Can you have the next batch over in three days?" I requested.

I still had plenty of needles in my possession, but I had used up a good number when practicing and improving my Dexterity stat.

"Certainly," Kleave said.

I pulled out five gold from my pocket pouch and handed the payment to him. Kleave accepted the coin and headed out of the manor.

I pivoted around the hall's corner and saw Father leaving the cellar. He turned right and thus didn't see me. I didn't bother calling out; I figured I could ask Micah about the information concerning Jarvis's death.

I entered through one of the doors into the cellar and walked down the stone steps, lit by torches along one of the walls, giving the space a warm glow. Rows of lengthy shelves extending out on my right and left. Large barrels littered the floor, and boxes and glass jars sat on the shelves. The smell of grains, metal, and clay emanated from the area. The manor's cellar was where everything from food supplies and spices to wares and poisons were stored. It was large enough that a small army of two hundred could fit comfortably among the shelves.

"Young master Luca." One of the maids that was restocking supplies bowed, seeing me pass.

I nodded my head toward her and turned down the cellar's hall of shelves. At the far end were heavy metal doors with embedded black-mana stones.

"Young master Luca, how can we help?" one of the two guards in front of the door asked.

"I'm here to see Micah," I replied.

I wasn't sure if I'd be able to see him, though. The last time I came by, Micah and Father had turned me away. I had guessed that they were in the middle of conducting business back then and didn’t wish to taint me.

However, having lived through my original life, I knew what this locked room in the cellar was typically used for. But this and then were different times. The Luca that Micah and Father knew was naive to these things.

One of the guards knocked and called out to Micah of my presence through a red communication stone on the door. The room was constructed to be soundproof, so a red mana stone was needed to convey messages between the cellar and the dungeon.

To my pleasant surprise, Micah didn't turn me away.

I guess there’s no business being conducted at the moment.

The guards unlocked the heavy doors and allowed me to enter.

I gazed about the dungeon. The only person in the dimly lit room was Micah, who sat in a wooden chair at its center. There wasn't anyone else, but an odor emanated from the room, a remnant of those who had been here before and either left with a few limbs short or more than likely, without their lives.

I walked over toward Micah, and my eyes grazed over the familiar instruments hanging against the walls and atop cabinets. The room brought back memories. Hardly good ones at that, but it did feel a bit nostalgic. A few months after Micah's death in my original life, Father had brought me into the fold on some of the more unpleasant aspects of running the Frey Merchant Guild.

My eyes fell on a long thin knife. I refrained from walking over and picking up the familiar tool.

The System changed many of my world's visual details with each reset, but certain aspects remained the same.

"Luca?" Micah called out, bringing me back into the present.

I grabbed one of the wooden chairs and sat beside him.

"What brought you down here?" His green eyes gazed at me.

"Two matters, really," I replied. "The first is my bird. She has been gone since yesterday, and no one seems to know where she is. I'm worried something happened to her. I hoped you could help."

Micah nodded his head in understanding. "I'll look into it."

With Micah's network, I felt confident that Leona would be found soon.

"And then I was curious about what the update into Jarvis's death was," I continued. "Father said someone related to Jarvis's death was at the manor, and I had just run into Kleave, Kathy's boyfriend, on the way here."

Micah reached into his jacket's pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper with his middle and index fingers.

"Here's who is responsible for Jarvis's death," Micah said. He extended his hand out toward me with the paper. "This individual apparently really wanted our brother dead, because he had both the Silver Eels and the Spiders mobilized to take him out."

"That's problematic," I noted and accepted the paper.

Who had connections to two of the most influential syndicates within the Adovorian Kingdom?

I unfolded it and swore immediately upon seeing the name.

Duke Hatis Maudel.

Micah chuckled at my reaction. "Problematic is putting it lightly."

The Adovorian Kingdom had three dukedoms. They were the ancient pillars that helped build the country and bring the existing royal family into power.

There was the abundant and populous Genuiver Duchy, the Ozeryn Duchy with its many mines and natural resources, and then the Maudel Duchy, which lacked in natural resources but made up for it with its political prowess. The Maudel Duchy was the smallest of the three. Still, it produced and placed people into positions of power across Adovoria, securing itself as a major powerhouse.

Its current head, Duke Hatis Maudel, was an exceptionally shrewd man. His greatest accomplishment was placing his younger sister as the new queen of the Adovorian Kingdom after the first queen died. Regrettably, his sister had died during childbirth, but did produce a child, Princess Naomi, upon whom Duke Hatis Maudel doted and visited the capital frequently to see.

In my original life, Princess Naomi had gone on to become Queen of Adovoria upon her father's and Princess Evelyn's deaths. While she was portrayed as a kind and loving ruler to the people, she was but a naive puppet of her advisors and uncle.

I handed the note back to Micah.

My mind turned to what it was about Jarvis's research that caused such immediate and drastic action from Duke Hatis Maudel.

And just what can I do about him when I reset?

 

***

 

Rain gushed heavily atop the glass ceiling and the walls of the greenhouse. I gazed up. The hits of the raindrops came so loudly that I feared they might crack open the glass ceiling and come pouring in. However, I knew this to be impossible; even one of Elda's inventions wouldn't have done the greenhouse any harm. Jarvis had the whole space embedded with black mana stones, making it impenetrable.

But clearly not inaccessible.

I recalled the break-in that led to Jarvis's death.

White and yellow light stones were brought in to provide sufficient light, given how dark and stormy the skies were. There was an earthy smell throughout the greenhouse. It was rich and full of life and served as a reminder of the perpetual cycle of life and death.

Mother, Father, Micah, and Elda stood near me, all dressed in black. For this burial ceremony, there wasn't any body being buried into the ground. Nor did we have a burial minister as there was for Jasper and Denise. Instead, we had a clay urn with Jarvis's ashes that our parents poured into a patch of dirt in the ground that Micah helped mix together with a shovel.

Elda stood beside me, holding a small plant with reddish-brown leaves and soft silver tips. Her eyes were red and puffy, but she wasn't crying. She held the Hazel Willow with her head held high. It was the plant Jarvis specifically requested to be cultivated in the place of his ashes, and Elda treated it as carefully as she would have had it been her twin brother himself.

"Elda," Micah called over.

It was time to put the plant into the small hole Micah had made in the ground.

None of us had a green thumb nor even basic knowledge about growing plants, but Jarvis had left detailed instructions about how to prepare and plant the tree for his ceremony. A parchment paper with the steps and diagrams lay beside Micah.

Elda knelt down and carefully placed the small Hazel Willow into the hole. Micah used his hands to push soft dirt around it, securing the plant. The two of them stood up and gazed at the final product.

"It's so small," Elda commented.

I looked around the greenhouse. Compared to the giant trees that reached up to the ceiling, it was indeed quite small.

"It'll grow," Mother said. "According to what Jarvis wrote, it should grow to your height in just a year."

I wasn't about to watch it grow, though. If Jarvis wanted to live on as a tree after his death, it would only be after I had ensured he lived a very, very long life as a human first.