The next day, I didn't wake up early, so Luna and Lumi had to wake me.
"Wake up, you damn Ethan," Lumi tried pulling me out of sleep.
"Come on, Klo, we're going to be late," Luna was pulling me from the other side.
In a simultaneous effort from both of them, I lifted my limbs to stand up from the bed.
"Haaa."
I stared at both of them. Luna truly couldn't see Lumi, yet she stood in the exact same posture, even crossing her arms like her.
"G-Good morning," I smiled foolishly, ignorant of the reason for the frustrated emotions before me.
Or… I think I know why…
I waved my hand to calm the ominous situation; all that crossed my mind was a question I wanted to ask Luna.
"So, Luna?"
She nodded at me.
"Yes?"
"It might be stupid to ask a question like this, but what happened yesterday?"
Luna's cheeks flushed red and she stepped back; I realized she had misunderstood the question.
I felt an itch on my cheek, so I rephrased the question in a muffled tone.
"No, not that incident—I mean, what happened during the whole day?"
She regained her composure, trying to forget the inevitable embarrassment she had at that moment.
"Oh, you mean the day you were in the competition?"
"Yes."
"Didn't you win that competition?"
Wait a moment—I suddenly felt like I was trapped in a time loop.
Weren't we at the beginning, and how did I skip the previous days involving the mental games and tests?
And how did I get to the palace even? At first, I wasn't surprised, but I assumed the system had sent me back to previous days, yet… everything wasn't as it seemed.
Lumi stood beside me and asked,
"Did you experience something scary or something you couldn't live through with us?"
I felt it was hard to move my eyes toward her despite hearing her question. If someone asked me what I hated the most, I would answer without hesitation: drowning in time loops.
I swallowed. ~
I slowly directed my gaze at her and nodded.
"Okay… so you're saying you were on a different path from us?"
"Yes. After I died and my chances ended, I moved to a strange place full of corpses… my corpses and yours."
In a moment of recalling my dark days spent in that world, I began speaking slowly, then started speeding up in describing the events I went through.
"I cried and wailed. I died, was cut, stripped, tortured, regretted, howled, lamented, and—!"
"Stop!"
Lumi grabbed my hand, trying to calm me. Luna stepped forward as well, attempting to console the person who seemed as if death had touched him.
"What's wrong, Klo?! Why did you suddenly turn so pale?"
My jaw trembled, and my teeth clashed, creating a continuous cracking sound. I looked at Luna. I grabbed her by the shoulders, sweat dripping from my head as I tried to separate my lips from each other.
"Call the girls."
---
After Luna gathered them in my room, each of them was in good condition.
I loosened my hands, which I had clasped together, and stared at them. They were worried about me, and the tension in the room made them even more nervous than necessary.
"Ah… I know you're worried about me, especially you, Nevin. Don't pretend to be cold and stop intertwining your fingers behind you."
Nevin did as I instructed, then I returned to the context.
"I really care about you all, and I understand your fear for me, especially since you stood by me in every moment, every sorrow, and every happiness. So I want to give you something today that expresses my gratitude, but—"
I rose from the bed to lower myself and checked underneath it. There were gift boxes I wanted to give them. I knew they would be silly gifts, but they were my way of apologizing for every moment they endured in that hell… even if they were different versions from other worlds.
I took each gift labeled with their names, and when they tried to open them, they refused to do so in front of me, because it would be wrong for me to see their happiness when I was the cause of their suffering.
I left the room, with Lumi following me as she climbed onto my shoulders, playing with my hair.
"What about me?"
"You? Hmm, I'll buy you clothes that suit girls like you."
"Clothes… Ethan, don't forget I'm a legendary fox being, and all you want to offer to a legend in front of you is human clothes."
"Then no gift."
"Alright, I'll accept your gift, human."
I laughed quietly as I brushed past her angry expression from above my head.
As I walked forward, I heard a familiar voice behind me.
"Klo Yuthnir, have you forgotten me?"
I turned around to see the speaker—the girl who killed me.
"What are you doing here?"
I noticed the same emblem from that school that burned, where Luna died.
Rage surged through me as I changed into my icy form. Lumi got off my shoulders and stepped away from the place where I was about to crush her soul.