"Brother!" Laurel runs and catches Tobias's slumping body.
"hehe... I am kinda tired..." Tobias mutters.
He starts to close and open his eyes slower and slower. Laurel looks at Imogen, but Imogen shakes her head slowly. There is nothing that she can do to help Tobias. Although she can cast a blessing, it will destroy Tobias than heal him. Ultimately, Tobias is considered dead. His heart stopped the moment Saskia took all his mana away. Then he got revived into a ghoul - a monster who is eternally hungry for flesh. Laurel looks at Tobias silently while tears continued to fall from her eyes. She notices Tobias's moving lips, but he is speaking too softly that she cannot hear him. So, she leans towards Tobias to listen to his last words.
Tobias says, "My cute little sister... I can see that you finally found someone who you took more interest than your obsession with travelling around the world. Make sure that you don't let her get snatched away. You always fight for food, but be sure to eat well every day."
"Why are you telling me this?" Laurel whimpers.
"Listen well, Laurel Ravenswood... Always try to love, but also know to forgive. Don't dwell on the things you can't change. Treat your comrades well. Don't be stubborn on things even if they look like black and white decisions," Tobias coughs, and the black fluid flowed down from his mouth.
Tears started to flood in Tobias's eyes, "I would love to have been at your wedding... Sorry I cannot make it... "
"Don't say that... Please..." Laurel sobs.
"I am sorry that... *cough* I froze when you were getting bullied and did not protect you well... Laurel... my dear sister and comrade, I love you with all my... heart..."
---
In the town's cemetery, Laurel is still seated on the cold cement floor facing Tobias's headstone talking. She sometimes would smile and giggle, recounting funny memories she had with Tobias, but also tear up more while talking about emotional memories. The sun is disappearing at the horizon, and the night is beginning to take back its rule with darkness. The lantern next to her gently lighting up the place to let Kyrie and Imogen know where she is.
"Aren't you going to console her?" asks Kyrie looking at Laurel from far away. Kyrie places down the lantern in his hands to the ground because he got tired of holding it for so long.
"Judging by her personality, she will need some alone time to collect herself. She would want to spend some time with Tobias," says Imogen like she already knew how Laurel will act when this happened.
Love can really change people. The way Imogen looks at Laurel in secret makes Kyrie happy for her. It's like her feelings have coloured her into a human being rather than a frightening killing machine. Imogen never took her eyes away ever since she let Laurel have her time to grieve.
"Tobias died earlier than any other rounds that I remember," says Imogen.
"He dies in all other rounds as well?" asks Kyrie.
"Yeah..." replies Imogen.
"Why did you not save him?" asks Kyrie.
"At first, I tried. However, he always ends up dead as if he had a due date to rush to. Believe it or not, he was harder to save than Laurel," Imogen says.
Although her tone of voice sounds harsh and indifferent, her eyes show something different.
"It must have been fate... Whatever seems to be destined to happen will happen regardless of time or place," murmurs Kyrie.
"heh! Cockroach, for us, fate is only an excuse... We can't rely on fate," Imogen says.
"Right... We will be screwed if that was not the case..." Kyrie agrees.
Imogen lets out a dry laugh and says, "Are you okay leaving that kid with Ian?"
"Although I don't want to, Ian wants that," pouts Kyrie.
Imogen looks at Kyrie intensely. The silence with the piercing stare is making Kyrie's skin crawl.
Kyrie gives up in trying to avoid the topic and says, "Just say what you want to say, Imogen... It is again about Ian, right?"
Imogen asks, "Kyrie, what is Ian to you?"
Kyrie ponders at the question and the reason that question is being asked by Imogen. He thinks it is obvious who Ian is to him. She already saw all that and still asks him these kinds of questions.
"He is a special existence for me... Just like Laurel is to you."
Imogen has been noticing that both of them are going into a path that she has seen herself go many times.
"Your affection is getting dangerous for both of you..." Imogen emphasizes.
"Dangerous?"
"Protection is not the only way to show your affection. You shield him like he cannot protect himself. That is the worse thing you can do to someone who needs to learn to survive by himself," says Imogen.
"I know that..." Kyrie replies while feeling his chest getting crushed under an invisible pressure.
"My body just moves. It is not my intention to make things worse. However, before I can think much about anything, I just move," says Kyrie, "I just don't want him to suffer. I want him to know that he is easy to love."
"You are placing too many expectations on someone who knows nothing..." says Imogen.
Kyrie looks at Imogen, confused and questions, "What expectations are you talking about?"
"Of the ideas that you are in love with... I don't know how you got to know so much about Ian or me, but Ian does not know a single thing that you know. He does not know that you are in love with his future self."
Kyrie's eyes widen as the revelation slowly sinks in.
[In love with my ideas? His future self? I am?]
"How is it different from you?" asks Kyrie.
"It is not. I only understood it after I pushed Laurel until there was no return," Imogen says as she furrows her brows.
"Keep the ideas of the other person to yourself and try not to force it too much. Don't confuse them too much. Get to know them like you have never met them," says Imogen sincerely as she pats on Kyrie's shoulder.
Imogen walks towards Laurel, leaving Kyrie behind.
"Wait... Explain yourself better! Where are you going?"
"Where else?" replies Imogen with a smile, "She had enough time..."
Kyrie looks at Imogen, who seems to understand Laurel's every little detail and can answer anything that Laurel does almost perfectly.
[Is there that much difference between you, who went through many loops, with me who read through a novel?]
Imogen kneels down and talks to Laurel, who then collapses into Imogen's arms. Imogen carries an exhausted Laurel in her arms and walks past Kyrie.
Kyrie crouches down, tousling his hair like he is going to go crazy. Kyrie feels weird. The protagonist that he hated so much just gave him love advice. Now, he is stuck thinking about how he really feels about Ian. The way she shared her past has never been seen before in the novel. Now, Imogen is someone that he cares about. She is a friend. Imogen seems to treat him the same way.
[Everything is getting so complicated... If we fail, would I even be able to take my sword out against her? I got myself foolishly close to people that I should have kept my distance away.]
---
"Here your hot cocoa," Ian places the cup in front of Nate before he returns to his seat.
Nate, back to his original form, is sitting across Ian while taking a sip of hot cocoa.
"Aren't you afraid that I can just jump on you and run away?" teases Nate.
"I have my ways to restrain you, too," Ian says flatly.
Ian extends his hand in front of Nate, and electricity starts to violently zap on his fingers.
"Sorry... Please don't kill me..." says Nate after confirming that Ian has a rare magic attribute.
His hands start to break out in nervous sweat. Who would have thought that someone as quiet and gentle as Ian had such a terrifying side?
"He must have learned it from Kyrie," thought Nate.
"What is your real name?" asks Ian after breaking the silence between them.
"I don't have one. People just call me the Collector," says Nate.
"Collector?"
"Yeah, because I am known through the world to collect a lot of things," replies Nate while examining Ian's face, "Are you upset that I lied to you?"
"Yes, but you had your reasons..." says Ian.
"But, you are still angry..."
Ian takes a sip of coffee pensively. He places it down on the wooden table.
"I..." Ian pauses to organize his thoughts, "I don't like it when I am in the dark."
Nate raises his eyebrow and tries to understand the possible hidden meaning behind Ian's words.
"Is this about me?" Nate asks.
Ian looks at the confused Nate, then down to the table. Ian lets out a defeated smile.
"No," Ian replies.
"Sr. Rowan?" asks Nate.
"Hmm..."
Nate gets flabbergasted, hearing that Ian is trying to look for love advice from a fifth wheeler.
"This youngster is asking a man who is older than him and only has experience singleness throughout his life... Of course, he does not need to know that..." Nate thinks.
Nate goes through his antique space ring that stores all his collections and looks for one of the collections that he got from an old shaman. He pulls out a flask with a strange metallic green fluid with the size of his index finger. It hangs onto a long silver chain like a pendant. Nate hesitates a bit before he puts it in front of Ian and looks at Ian thoughtfully.
"This is a potion of truth," says Nate.