I was at the mouth of gallows just two days before, overlooked by whispering commoners and smirking nobles. My parents and brothers were pushed back due to the crowd as they tried to stop them from executing me. In those final moments of my life, I clearly saw the hard face of Declan and glanced at the pitying eyes of Lisbeth. After all, it was because of her that I was tortured in a dark wet prison and was now dying such a cruel death. King Arthur looked at me with bored eyes, had it not been his advisor maliciously manipulating people against me he would have nothing to do with this.
If one would have asked me if I hated them, I would not be able to tell them my feelings. I hated them for killing me mercilessly over a trifle but not to an extent that I would crave their blood. Revenge for me was as pointless as trying to win over someone who already hated me. Since I live by the concept of accepting any compliments and discarding criticisms I would do the same for my enemies too.
I am not overconfident. I am smart and ruthless because I know that I am better than them. Since the concept of Love has really degraded their brains.
'Who are these people?' a puzzled Cronus asked.
'List of the people who will die or will get exiled in the course of the novel'
'What of them?'
'Lisbeth is strong, intelligent, beautiful, and overall a boss bitch.' I said sipping some more tea.
'Oho…complimenting the enemy!' A clueless Cronus smirked.
'…And these are her greatest flaws. The writer put so much effort into making her strong and independent that they forgot the basis of any war and politics.' My verdant eyes glinted with excitement.
'Lisbeth Morton is a powerful deviant, a knight and both King and advisor's beloved what more she needs to prove herself that she is skilled in almost everything.' Cronus said taking a seat on the chair beside my bed.
'I do not suspect her in her problem-solving ability in fact the novel was laced with how brilliantly she participated in suppressing the Deviant Rebellion and Rakuten uprising but what comes after it? Ever thought about that?' I asked him.
Just like I thought Cronus was not able to answer me.
'The novel only depicted what happened in the unrest, not the aftermath while it killed a more powerful character with finesse making Lisbeth Morton the strongest person. Even if she had done everything to stop the kingdom's doom without powerful allies there is no way in hell her territories would survive a month. Things would go back to where it was as soon as the people start gathering together and their numbers increased. '
'How many powerful people were killed throughout the novel?' Cronus asked.
'Twenty…Ten were deviants and ten were humans. This all happened in the course of seven arcs of war and conflict.' I said casually overlooking the horror from Cronus' face.
'…Six people turned against them at the end of the novel. If you think about just this number, the empire would have ruined within a year of their massive profess of love.'
'So, the only people that survived that novel were the King, advisor, and the heroine?'
'Yes…only the main character made out alive while everything was sacrificed for them. The same thing happened after I died right Cronus?' I smiled at him recalling how foolishly this nincompoop was caught into my trap. Karma is a bitch... they say.
'…Argh…you were the one who staged it and brought me down did you not? Had I not been stuck in that blessed book I would have easily outsmarted you.'
'What are you saying? I did not stage anything, I just sped up the process of the mayday. And I even gave dad a choice, didn't I?' I said in a pretentious voice. I knew what I did …. I was a hypocrite who proudly told him that I don't kill but I was the one who staged all the seven arcs conflicts at once so that I could come back in time. The chaos must have been so hard to control that the end of many empires might seem to be near. Cronus naturally had no choice but to go back in time to protect the numerous lives lost. But hey? I gave father the choice of whether he wanted this or not.
'Tsk…you really are the most pretentious person I have ever come across.'
'I knew that Cronus the guardian of time cannot let so many people die so I just gambled a little.' I tilted my head, my eyes squinting with a mischievous grin. Honesty I hated the idea of killing so many people too but I did it because I knew that the Demon would regress the time. In the end, I did not technically kill anyone.
'So, you knew that I was a guardian originally and not a demon that people tend to make me?' He asked a little surprised by my words.
It was true…the three major clans' grimoire demons were too powerful since they were rare full demons while some were angels rather than half-blooded like the deviants. Non-deviants feared them since they threatened their power and titles. Thus, capturing them in grimoires…It was Ares my ancestor who came up with this solution as he wanted to capture Cronus a guardian of time who had demonic origins.
Looking at Cronus' previous occupation of a guardian I was sure he would turn back time to undo everything. In other words, I just threw tantrums at him and he easily gave in to the pressure. If he would have turned back time a little less than two months before my death, I would have still outsmarted him. Cronus, the demon of time can only manipulate time and not memories. While others on regression of time will feel a déjà vu or deem it as a vague dream and then slowly forget about it. The house Bellhouse would remember each and every detail. The loop would have continued no matter how hard he tried to prevent it.
It was for the same reason that two days ago I was crushed to death by my parents who hugged me as soon as I woke up. Since that day I was treated as some angel sent from the heavens.
'And I can still free you so that you continue your work Cronus but after I am safe from dying again.'
'Whatever…brief me with your plan.'
'I will try to save as many people on this list as possible to reduce the dependency on Lisbeth. If her protagonist halo dies down then there would be no need to sacrifice other people for sake of anyone.'
'How will you do it? You cannot save everyone; the list is too much.'
'Everyone's fate is connected. Due to the novel, we exactly know when and how will the seven conflicts rise. If we try to go in that path, we will save everyone and make them our allies.'
'You cannot depend on Lisbeth or advisor and the king is someone whom you don't even know. Making them your allies seems not only difficult but also your memory of them is not very favorable.'
'I plan on neither making them my enemy nor my ally. But if times come where I have to work with them, I would not run away from it. They might be the enemy of my past but I necessarily do not apply now.'
Cronus seemed to have understood me. The fact that we were facing a similar situation made him trust my words more. We might not be on good terms but we were facing the common crisis…the frightful end of this empire.
'So, you have decided who to save first?' He asked.
I flipped over the document and pointed a name at him.
'Elizabeth…' the name read.
'Arc- 1, the mysterious painter.' I spoke.