"Why am I always the one getting sent back?"
A lady on a horse said with a grumpy look all over her face as the wind blew her long ash-black hair back. Her deep green eyes were half-lided as she scanned the area around her.
She was dressed in a high collared dark blue and silver uniform with silver cuffs and black boots. On the left side of her chest was an insignia of a castle with two swords crossed behind it. It was the Cerulean Guardians uniform.
Cyndy Vale.
An Ace-rank officer in the royal guild. The third highest rank in the guild’s power rankings.
She was the type to complain about the most negligible things and always feels like she’s getting overworked whenever sent on a mission or errand.
If she was left alone for a month and then given a job to do right now, she’d probably complain that she hadn’t even finished enjoying the ’small’ one month break.
Right now, she was at it again.
"I mean, look at it. What happened to Bren and Vox? Those two do nothing both gossip about every damn person in the guild, but nooo, Sir Melvin sees only this innocent, adorable girl who did nothing and says..."
She breathed in,
"Cyndy, I need you to take care of this issue that just came up. It shouldn’t be a problem, right?" She imitated Melvin’s voice badly.
Suddenly, she started to hear screams from afar. Her brows furrowed and her expression became serious.
She kicked and the horse ran faster towards the village.
... ...
Meanwhile, the villagers who had abilities were near taking care of demons.
Nolan stood like a statue in place, as he stared at the system screen.
[¹MESSAGE!
- QueenAura_32: Nolan stop!]
After a few seconds, it disappeared.
First it was MrAnonymous, now it was QueenAura_32. It all wasn’t adding up for Nolan, because this was the first time he was seeing stuff like this.
His brain quickly ran various probabilities and he could only come with one answer: Architects or maybe Weavers? No, Architects had a better catch.
Not gods, but Architects.
Maybe they were the ones who put him in the loop and now that things were changing, they were concerned? Or was he subconsciously doing something he didn’t realize? No, it had to be the first.
But things had always changed. He’d killed people who weren’t meant to die in some loops and saved people who were meant to die, he’d ruled and forced everyone under a harsh government, he’d made everywhere a free place without rulers, but a ’message’ never showed up.
Was it because Liana lived? Most likely not. MrAnonymous’s message came right after he woke up.
Nolan sighed and looked up. "What could possibly be leading to this?"
He brought down his head, just in time to catch a demon going for Liana’s blind side.
Her red hair covered the side of her left eye as she swung the pickaxe at one of the demons.
The instant she turned, a demon was already way to close for hear to react.
It was as if time slowed, and the only thing she could hear at the moment was the sound of her heart beating. She was going to die.
That was what she thought, until a certain, silver-white haired man moved in front of her, delivering an uppercut with flaming arms to the demon’s jaw.
The demon flew back and rolled on the floor, unmoving. It had already taken hits from somewhere else, so this was just a final blow.
"Hands off my experiment," Nolan muttered.
Liana clutched her chest and exhaled deeply. "Thank you so much, I—wait what? Experiment?"
Nolan turned to her with a blank look, scratching his head. "You are welcome—wait what? Who said that?"
Liana frowned . "You did. You just said ’hands off my experiment.’"
"Did I? Nah, maybe it’s the demon. I heard some can speak now," he lied. Well, it wasn’t a complete lie, because the demons would suddenly start evolving in the near future and would achieve things like speech, corruption and a super annoying regeneration factor.
Liana squinted, her mind already playing out what she thought of him. ’I know he’s a pervert. He must have been stalking me his whole life. What am I saying? But no, what did he mean by ’experiment’? I know he’s a perv. I just can’t prove it yet.’
She stared at Nolan who was now shooing a fly with the same blank expression.
Nolan turned away and brought up his system.
[User: Nolan Dagmire
• Level: 1
• Exp: 0/100
• Occupation: Pathfinder
• Current Ability Slot (1): Fire Affinity
• Paths found: 1
• Attributes:
STR - 10
AGI - 10
STA - 10
Mana: 100]
[Unassigned stat points: 5]
No wonder the demon seemed a little too fast for him. He had woken up with an insane ability, but he was stupidly weak physically.
He was interrupted by the screech from the demons as they fell to the ground lifeless with ice arrows embedded in their heads.
Liana looked shocked, wondering where the arrows came from. But Nolan was far from surprised—annoyed even. This was happening for the 1047th time.
"She’s here already, tch."
Nolan muttered, his brows twitching as Cyndy entered the village, on her horse, with an ice bow in hand.
He felt the urge to just walk up, bring her down and punch the life out of her face. But he’d done that about 15 times already and it didn’t change the way he felt.
Cyndy wasn’t just a pretty face—pretty annoying precisely—that Nolan was tired of seeing because of her endless nagging, but because she was one of the three people who always betrayed him in the Seraph Spire whenever they went together.
She always had three paths with him. Whenever they were together, one of these was the outcome:
In path 1, she would be a close comrade but end up betraying him out of selfishness. In this scenario, he usually won against the demon king, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t predict when she would attack.
In path 2, she would fall in love with him but end up betraying him when her life was threatened. Happens even before the second Crimson Moon.
And in Path 3, she would reach the Master-rank and order he gets executed, because she secretly started working with the demons. Here he either died to the demon king while she watched or by her hands.
Most times, he just killed everyone who accompanied him so he’d face the demon king alone. Which ends with him dying to it or fighting to his last.
There was literally no life where he had partnered or associated with her and she hadn’t betrayed him.
And right now, just like always, she was going to point at him because she had seen his capabilities from afar.
"You," Cyndy pointed at Nolan. "I have seen your capabilities from afar."
’Wench, shut up. Don’t you have a different set of words for this scene,’ Nolan thought.
But then something played off script.
"The both of you as well," she added pointing at Liana, then Cedric. "I would like to take you three back with me. Join the Cerulean Guardians."