Aryandor raised his sword.
With a light swing of the sword he held high, Ophillius' head fell to the ground.
"Hmm..."
Aryandor looked down at Ophillius' head on the floor.
After a brief moment, Ophillius' head vanished from his sight, and Aryandor's view changed.
"No matter how much you struggle, you can't escape."
Ophillius said to Aryandor with a calm face.
It was the same situation as ten minutes ago.
Aryandor had killed Ophillius several times now.
He had beheaded Ophillius multiple times and torn his body apart, only to return to this moment.
Aryandor glared at Ophillius and asked, "What are you trying to do to me?"
"Didn't I tell you? I can't die like this."
"So, you plan to suffer in this eternal moment forever?"
"Haha, that wouldn't be so bad."
"Have you finally gone mad?"
Despite being trapped in a loop, what was happening didn't feel like an illusion.
Ophillius had died numerous times, feeling the pain firsthand.
It was pain beyond what a person can bear.
Torture usually involves inflicting pain that doesn't lead to death, but Ophillius was experiencing pain beyond that limit.
Even as time reset, the pain was not forgotten; the situation just repeated.
He kept dying and coming back to life.
No matter how strong someone's will is, staying sane is impossible.
Yet, Ophillius kept his sanity and laughed.
"It's not me who's mad. Aryandor, you're the one who's insane, so everyone else seems mad to you."
"Ha...!"
Ophillius was cornered.
The fight between Aryandor and Ophillius was a battle with no chance of winning.
Despite dozens of battles, Ophillius' head had been swiftly taken every time.
Yet, he mocked Aryandor with ease.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})There was a reason for his confidence.
"Do you think you can keep doing this endlessly?"
"Are you waiting for Rudy Astria and Ian?"
The reason this situation was possible was because Ian and Rudy were away from the capital.
With the two who could use spatial magic away, Aryandor could invade the capital and cause this chaos.
If they returned, they would notice the situation.
He just had to hold out until then.
But that didn't mean things would be easy.
"Do you think I came here without any plan?"
Aryandor had prepared Raven to buy time.
He had pushed Raven into a corner to delay the time it would take for them to reach the capital.
He had never intended to save Raven in the first place.
He had just thrown in a significant piece to buy time.
Ian and Rudy had a high understanding of time magic.
Rudy is compassionate, and Ian seeks the maximum benefit in everything.
Humans judge others based on their own personalities.
Considering all this, they might think the situation is a trap or that Raven is being used to lure them in.
However, Aryandor had no affection for him.
He might have had affection for objects, but not for people.
If there were something more important than saving them, he could abandon them at any time.
And things wouldn't go as Ian thought.
Ian would think that Raven, being one of the leaders, made them important.
That wasn't wrong.
Raven was a talent not easily found.
But if asked whether that was important in the current situation, it was questionable.
He had already served his purpose.
Using Raven to kill Ophillius was more important.
With all these plans in mind, Aryandor took action.
Although Aryandor could no longer see the future, as someone who understood time, he could make such predictions.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"Why bother with all this trouble? How about we just stop now?"
"That would be difficult. I have made a promise. Even in this situation, as the Empire's Chancellor, wouldn't it be shameful not to keep even a small promise?"
Ophillius laughed happily.
"A promise? Don't we have one too? When I become a being that can change the world, you said you'd let me meet my family."
"I said to become a being that can change the world, not one that destroys it."
"Haha... And you picked me up, a person who can see the future?"
"Just because I can see the future doesn't mean I can see all futures. I took care of you, believing in the small futures I could see."
"That's ridiculous. So, if I had been a good person, would I have been able to save my sister?"
Ophillius's expression hardened at Aryandor's words.
"...What are you talking about?"
"Did you think I didn't know?"
Aryandor held his sword and stabbed Ophillius's shoulder.
"Ugh..."
"That my sister became a saint, before the current saint, it was Beatrice."
Despite the pain from the stab wound, Ophillius's confusion did not fade.
Aryandor wasn't supposed to know about her death.
That was the future.
Specifically, all the futures Ophillius saw when he could see the future were like that.
A slight deviation.
A future that deviated from the majority of futures.
The future Ophillius hoped for and believed in had twisted in the worst possible direction.
"And you hid that...!"
With a voice filled with anger, Aryandor beheaded Ophillius.
As Ophillius's head fell to the ground, the situation reset to the beginning.
"Cough..."
Ian looked at Raven, who was exhausted from pain and letting out a hoarse voice.
A day had passed.
They continued to interrogate him approximately every two hours while moving.
Yet, Aryandor didn't come.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Ian started to feel something was off.
Was Aryandor not planning to rescue him?
Judging this in just a day might seem premature, but decisions had to be made quickly and accurately.
Ian realized that the ongoing interrogation and movement were causing significant delays.
The arrival time in the capital was getting pushed back, and the distance to the capital wasn't decreasing.
'There must be a reason he's not coming to rescue him.'
Raven's situation of hiding alone was suspicious from the start.
He wasn't conducting any research there; he was just killing time.
It was clear there was some trap, but what it was, was hard to determine.
Ian stared at the fallen Raven for a moment before standing up.
"Take him. We're moving."
"Understood."
A soldier watching from a distance came over and helped Raven.
'We better keep moving towards the capital.'
Continuing the interrogation seemed pointless.
Raven must know important information, but he showed no signs of talking. If Aryandor was really scared of Raven spilling the beans, he would have come to rescue him by now.
There must be another reason he hasn't come.
That was Ian's conclusion.
Aryandor might have a different location to attack, or perhaps he has an entirely different plan that doesn't involve an attack.
"Over there."
"Did you call?"
"Tell everyone to move faster from now on. We'll reduce the number of interrogations, so don't slow down until I say so."
"Understood."
The soldier took the order and returned to his position.
After making sure the formation was ready, Ian slowly returned to the carriage.
'What are you thinking, Aryandor?'
While Ian was deeply pondering,
There was someone genuinely curious about Aryandor's thoughts.
"Aryand...or..."
A person unable to fully regain consciousness, suffering.
It was Raven.
Having been tortured several times a day, his doubts about Aryandor grew.
'Are you coming? Or... when we arrive at the capital...'
Raven and Aryandor had discussed that he would be rescued upon arrival in the capital.
However, in his current state, he doubted he could last until then.
Ian did cast healing magic to ensure he wouldn't die, but that only made the pain worse.
If he could at least lose consciousness, he might escape the situation momentarily, but the healing magic prevented that.
'I can't bear this any longer, Aryandor.'
The plan was one thing, survival another.
While the plan might be important, enduring this pain made the success of the plan meaningless.
'These bastards are cruel. We might not even head to the capital.'
Aryandor hadn't explained anything to Raven.
Not knowing the plan, his doubts deepened.
'Their schemes could mess up the operation.'
Then Raven would suffer in vain, the operation would fail, and it would all be meaningless.
Raven looked at the handcuffs on his wrists.
Although he had a way to unlock them now, once inside a proper prison, that method would become useless.
'But even so...'
Sabotaging Aryandor's operation would be like turning his back on the rebels.
Of course, Aryandor might admit his mistake and accept it, but that seemed unlikely.
Raven closed his eyes and recalled the past.
The promise with Aryandor.
'If you help me, I'll create a place for you to belong.'
Raven had been satisfied until now.
Life in the cabin with the rebel guys was what he had wanted.
People were truly deceitful.
He couldn't forget those times and thought they were happy, but avoiding the pain right in front of him took precedence over protecting that place.
'I'll run away.'
The convoy transporting Raven moved, and Raven steeled his heart, waiting for the right moment to escape.
