Fandral stared blankly as Garfield sat at the dining table, devouring what appeared to be enough food for ten Asgardians.
The eleventh plate was already under attack.
"Your Highness," Fandral said anxiously, watching another slab of roasted, unidentified cosmic meat vanish, "Aren't you going to investigate the incident?"
Garfield shoved the meat into his mouth, chewed twice, and only then reluctantly freed his muzzle to reply.
"Why the rush?" He said lazily. "An emperor is always hungry."
"You should know investigations can wait, meals cannot. Now go fetch another bucket of chilled milk."
Fandral's eye twitched.
Seeing the man's barely restrained panic, Garfield sighed and finally tucked the half-finished milk bucket into his pocket.
"Alright, alright. Let's go. Lead this prince to the scene."
Under Fandral's guidance, Garfield floated lazily into the air, a straw dangling from his mouth, sipping as he drifted along.
They arrived at the entrance of the banquet hall, the same place Garfield had been far too excited about the night before.
Fandral pointed at the floor. "It was right here. This is where I was knocked out."
Slurp.
"What time was it?" Garfield asked.
"I… don't remember," Fandral admitted. "I drank too much."
Slurp.
"Move aside," Garfield said. "Let this prince take a look."
With the straw still in his mouth, Garfield activated the Eye of Agamotto embedded in his stomach.
His entire body shifted into a strange, translucent hue, bathed in emerald light. A green ouroboros formed around his paw.
He rotated it.
Time began to flow backward.
The scene rewound smoothly, the banquet hall filling itself, guests walking in reverse, laughter folding back into silence.
Morning.
Dawn.
Late night.
Early morning.
After the banquet, the guests retraced their steps. Garfield watched himself being dragged away by Fran and Angie.
…And noticed, with visible discomfort, that he appeared to have been kissed several times.
"…Tch." Fortunately, there was no lipstick evidence.
The rewind continued.
Fandral dragged Thor also in reverse back to his room.
And then… nothing.
There was no image of Fandral returning to the banquet hall.
Garfield's ears flattened. "That's not right."
Either someone had interfered with time itself… or something had deliberately avoided detection.
Garfield waved his paw, activating the Eye again. He replayed the sequence forward and backward, once, twice, ten times.
Finally, he caught it.
A faint disturbance in space, right after Fandral left.
"So that's it…"
Someone had used a spatial concealment artifact, one capable of temporarily isolating an area from detection systems and time observation.
They had masked the intrusion, then restored the space afterward to make it appear normal.
This wasn't something mortals could afford.
Only powers on the level of Asgard or the elves could possess such an item.
"So… who?" Garfield scratched his chin thoughtfully.
The two elf girls were out, no motive.
The dwarves were also unlikely. They could forge such an artifact, but had no reason to use it.
As for the other factions present at the banquet… too poor, too weak, too chaotic. None had the resources or influence to pull this off.
That left…
Garfield's pupils narrowed.
Two winged figures came to mind.
Amenadiel.
And Angela, the angelic girl.
"…Don't tell me."
Angela, Asgard Assassin.
Garfield's tail stiffened, this was getting troublesome.
He wasn't deeply familiar with the details, only that such a plot existed. So he carefully replayed Fandral's earlier words in his mind.
Asgard's defenses included DNA-based detection systems.
Any non-Asgardian should have triggered alarms the moment they crossed a certain threshold.
But nothing had been reported.
Which meant… Garfield inhaled sharply. "The intruder must have been Asgardian."
And among them, only one fit.
The second daughter of Odin.
"If I get involved." Garfield muttered, "And accidentally interfere with Odin and Angela recognizing each other… and they end up fighting…"
He imagined the consequences.
Odin, furious. A misunderstanding in divine family drama.
"…Would the All-Father hang his godson on the walls of Asgard and let him dry in the wind?"
Garfield shivered.
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
PhantomDream