—Shattered shattered fragments of memories of what was Shugel kasane were being pieced together, to form something... something significant.
His world which had went flash black was coming back to colours. As his world emerged from the darkness, colors flooded back into his vision. Faintly, he could hear someone's voice, and his blurry eyes gradually regained focus.
That's when he noticed the black haired girl, Celena. What was peculiar was that she was standing mid way through the staircase. Something felt off, when did she—
"I have no objection, for any concerns you are free to treat him however you like, just not harm or kill him. That is the only word I want from your honour."
*wait a minute... what's going on?*
A sense of deja vu engulfed him.
"But still." The king grumbled.
But looking at his wife's concern and considering Celena's opinion. The king decided to break his honour as a king.
Shugel kasane was left utterly silent and overwhelmed by a certain realization. He was sure he had heard of king's death by the queen herself. But the king was alive. Moreover, he had already lived through this exact scene before. He couldn't comprehend how this had occurred, but his memories were too vivid to be dismissed as mere déjà vu. What he was experiencing now far surpassed that. "Fine. If the Mana-Less Chamber can alleviate your concerns, and if Celena has no objections, then..." The king sighed. "TAKE THIS BOY TO THE MANA-LESS CHAMBER AND ENSURE NO HARM COMES TO HIM. HE IS STILL OUR GUEST!"
—Something had sent him back in time.
___
The dark corners of the place where he had already ventured before welcomed Shugel with an eerie embrace. In simple terms, he was thrown in the Mana-less chamber just like he remembered.
There wasn't much Shugel could do to change anything. By the time he had grasped the fact that he had been thrust back in time, his mind was already flooded with a torrent of questions, overwhelming his thoughts and leaving him bewildered.
"Just how hell is this even possible..." Shugel whispered to himself, his voice barely audible in the desolate confines of the prison-like chamber. The dim surroundings only amplified the sense of isolation, as if he were trapped in a forsaken realm with no one to hear his puzzled words.
He strained his mind, attempting to recall every detail from the previous loop. Everything had been normal until he had succumbed to sleep while trying focus on mana inside his body. He replayed the memories, trying to recall any clues or anomalies that could explain the bewildering phenomenon he found himself trapped in.
Beyond the memories he could recall were the memories which didn't even exist, simply the moment when he was not concious.
He remembered seeing everyone's bewildered expression, particularly Celena's, after that everything was engulfed is a sudden darkness. It was as if time had skipped a beat, for when he blinked his eyes open, he found himself witnessing a scene that he had already experienced—a moment he had already lived through .
*Just what did they see?*
For now, until he was trapped in this place, he had no way finding out anything. Then a cascade of thoughts flooded his mind. Celena had visited him in the previous loop probably around this time. She seemed to have had assumed that Shugel was sent here by certain someone—who's name she refused to reveal.
*Just who is 'that' person* Shugel thought.
It didn't seem likely that she would reveal the individual's name even if he tried, it could probably even blow his cover—not that he had put it on himself.
He waited but even after a lot of time had passed, he heard no footsteps echo. It made him wonder if his sense of time had become slower or if something was off. A strange sense of confusion washed over his guts.
*Should I try to break out of here, If am remembering it right the condition for me to get out of here is for all the mana in my body to be observed by this chamber.
Last time I was able to visualise it, and I think it worked. But can I seriously afford losing consciousness!?*
After focusing on expelling the mana out of his body he had lost consciousness.
Focusing on mana was like a state of trance that is quickly achieved but hard to sustain.
*There is no point in staying here... Something is going to happen tonight.*
He sat in a similar position as last time—it was a meditative posture, trying to imitate to the same process, recreate the same sensation as the darkness of his closed eyes blended with a darkness that governed the world.
The tiny crystal like luminous partical slowly became visible—
All of a sudden, there was a sharp pain, jolting him from the trance.
"Akk!"
*just what was that!?*he pushed his hands on his face.
He tried to focus again, and each time, the same stabbing sensation would break him out of it. It was the first time this was happening to him, was he doing something wrong. It didn't seem likely that he was doing something wrong as he was recreating every single thing from his memories.
He tried to change his methods but they all failed.
*Why is this happening? Last time... I am sure...*
He gave up on trying to focus on mana. and went to the bar gate, he looked if there was something that could help him. There was nothing.
He couldn't believe his eyes, there was nothing like a lock or any kind of handle their.
He tried to shook the gate, but it didn't even flinch. As soon as he realized that some unknown force was keeping this place close he knew he had no other option but to wait. He knew he could not afford to sleep.
This time he would not sleep. He sat close to the gate and waited, during that time he also tried to focus on the mana but it was met with sharp resistance.
Was there any reason why no one was coming? He vividly remembered the gaurd reaction when he had asked about Dae Gaur, the gaurd who was standing outside, and was met with a scoff.
The swirling darkness and isolation played with his memories, making everything feel like a fever dream. A cascade of doubt entangling him, and making the dream—
A bolt like 'falling' reflex made him come to senses, he was just about to fall asleep.
"Damn it, that was close..." He murmured to himself as if to remind that he was not dreaming.
Shugel tried to stand up, that's when he noticed a dent in the symmetrical bars.
On closing noticing, it was not a dent but something he had seen before that rang bells in his head.
In previous the world line, he had fallen asleep around this time. Though he could still not trust his sense of time, he had no other basis to guess the time other than instinct.
He peeked out and waited to see if anyone had realized that the Mana-less chamber gate had opened and coming to guide him. Obviously, he felt a bit conflicted about waiting but after seeing that no one was coming he exited the place fully.
He realized that nobody seemed to be aware of his presence or the fact that he had exited the place
A feeling of anticipation and unease whispered to him, it was the sound of silence echoing in the dark underground halls, where many prisoners were supposed to be kept.
He had already experienced being thrown into the prison, and this time he had more clear idea of 'from which path he was brought here'.
He looked at the curvy hallway expanding to his left. As he his steps followed his sight, he glanced back at the right path one last time, who knew what that path led to. Peeling his eyes away from the right path he looked at the line of mashal that were attached the walls of left path, Their flickering dim flames casted dancing shadows.
He had made sure to close the door even though it was not possible to actually lock it.
He was making sure to keep track of the mashal on the wall a he moved forward.
"I might need one of those If there is no source of light."
He had least expected to escape that place, he had no idea about the time but he knew he had only only three options.
*Option 1: escape out of this place.
Option 2: scream that someone is going to kill the king and leave his fate on the hands of unknown gaurds.
Option 3: Find Celena and negotiate with her.*
The first option was most stupid of all with long term danger to his life. Because if he escaped and the true killer never revealed themselves, then he would certainly be painted as the killer of the king and will get hunted his whole life.
The second option simply meant irrationally revealing a valuable information. Not only that, his instincts were screaming at him to avoid doing this, not to forget there was also a chance assassin hears this and changes their plans. One might think what's wrong with that? And the answer would be everything, because Shugel would be treated as a liar and secondly he didn't knew what bad could happen to him.
That was assuming that assassin didn't hear him and decided to kill him first.
Also, he could not ignore the weird feeling he was getting from all this.
Which left only one option—Finding out Celena and negotiating with her on this.
He had already talked with her in previous loop, which meant he was familiar with her, there was information he could leverage on. And last thing she was resistant to killing unless necessary. She was also a human. He certainly felt grateful for what she had done in previous loop even though the mind games were getting annoying.
He could return a favour by sharing this information with her. But all this while a thought had been constantly been bugging him in back of his mind, just what was happening in this palace.
Shugel remembered the king's word about treating him as a guest.
If he met someone he could certainly excuse himself by saying something like, 'No one was coming to take me from there so I just came check! tehe~'.
But by far there was no one. He had encountered no even after coming this far.
After crossing several turns, he took one Mashal as he had reach to the door which was to his left, upward leading staircase lead to the grand door.
The hall continued even further ahead, but there was no point going ahead. Also it seemed their was no light source to light the path ahead. It was pure darkness ahead, the dim mashal in his hand could only radiate to his initiate surroundings.
With a deep breath, he glanced at the door. He would most certainly be greeted by gaurds outside, in that case he would have no choice but to ask them guide him to princess Celena.
As he pointed the mashal at the door, he tried to look for some kind of handle. He pushed the door but it didn't budge, he pulled the door but that was also a failure.
"Can someone hear me! I have broken out of your Mana-less chamber! Please take me to princess Celena!" He screamed at the top of his lung, he continued to scream these words some more time but his voice soon gave out, his throat had dried out from continuous screaming.
Panting, he looked at the door, waiting for someone to open it but he was only meet with disappointed. He waited even more but there was no response.
Suddenly he heard a loud muffled clang sound. He looked towards the source of the sound. No, it was not the gate which had which had produced the sound, rather there was no sound on that side.
The sound came from the the absolute darkness the spread ahead. The path he had not continued on. Shugel walked downstairs, holding his Mashal in his right hand, he squinted his eyes to observe the source of the sound, but it was clear the from the muffled nature of the clang sound, it was pretty far away to be seen.
Shugel gulped audibly. He was anxious of the darkness but the sound also meant possibility of someone being there.
*If that's the case then I can probably ask them to guild me out of hear.*
It was better than nothing. But it could have also been some machine. Shugel shook his head at absolutely absurd idea of machine sound.
A self-deprecating scoff escaped his lips as he started walking towards to darkness ahead, glancing one more time to confirm if no one had come to open the door.
The clang sound resembled the sound of glass or crystal shattering, or perhaps an object striking something with force. Shugel's instincts kicked in, and he focused his senses, trying to discern the distance and direction from which the sound had originated.
Step by step he went deeper into the darkness, the hall was certainly getting wider and walls were becoming less visible due to it. He was walking in absolute darkness. To calm his unease he moved closer to the left side of the hall so the wall was visible.
He noticed the similar mashal attached to wall, but they were not burning. It was as if someone had either snuffed them out or they were never used. Either way Shugel had no way of knowing.
He had come pretty far, he didn't know when he would see someone. Though his throat was already dry and fatigued he still called out loud enough.
"Hey, Is someone here! I heard a sound so I came to check! Someone. If you can—"
He stopped at a front of huge wall. It was a dead end. He looked around there was no turn either. He started moving towards the right corner following the wall in front of him.
The light from mashal was not strong enough to make things visible which were not in close proximity. It had very small radius. As he reached the other corner the reality finally sinked in.
"A dead end huh..."
He noticed there were shards of glass on the ground. He turned around to look from were he had come from, there were no glass shards there, but he noticed a black stain on the ground.
He was certain that the sound came from here only.
*But how? Someone must have been here*
The wall seemed be plain he decided to follow the trails of glass shards. The pieces getting larger and quantity also increasing.
He picked one of those shards, it was very sharp. Careful not to cut himself, he observed it. It was fully transparent.
He dropped it, it made hard sound as it crashed into the other shards on the floor. He took note of his floor at sound when he saw a stain once again, this time it was bigger.
Wait was it a stain? As soon as Shugel bent down to check, his nose was infiltrated by the smell of iron. He touched the stain on the floor and dark dense liquid stucked to his fingers. He tried to guess, but it was already evident by the smell.
"Blood!?..."Shugel exclaimed in shock suppressing his voice.
It had not completely dried yet. Shugel controlled his gag urge to vomit at the realisation.
He followed the trail of blood which lead to a door. He found it strange. Why was a room this far away from the main entrance to underground halls.?
There was huge hole in the door. The door nob had blood on it.
He could have passed through the hole if he made the effort but, gulping down his fear he opened the door.
There could be anything awaiting him ahead. It would've be better if he just ran out of here, but if there was a killer here then he didn't know how far he could run in this world.
It was already too late. But his curiosity overtook his fear for a second and he pushed the door open and entered.
"Akk!?" a grunt sound escaped Shugel's mouth as intense foul stench of blood which had been trapped in this room infiltrated his nostrils.
He covered his mouth. He noticed silhouette of someone's corpse on the ground. The room was empty with no source of light so he could only make out the silhouette from this distance.
He immediately went towards the body. The trail of blood had turned into a pool of blood, in which the drenched body lay cold.
The dress was torn at waist area, something had pierced it as blood clearly flowed from there. He didn't
dare go much closer...
"Are you..." A stupid question. He knew that but his mind could only utter those words.
It was similar. The dress was of dark shade, probably even black, unusual considering how the elves dressed in lighter shades. The long hair... The corpse belonged to a female.
Bells rang in head, screaming at him to not look but as soon as that little doubt even got chance to surface. He closed the distance between him and corpse, he remembered that face...
"How...who...why!?" Shugel's voice trembled.
From the moment he had born in this world he had never seen someone he knew or even interacted with die in front of him. Let alone be killed.
This was first time holding someone's cold limp lifeless body drenched in blood. His mind had lost sense of anything and everything except what was in front of him.
His knees had lost their strength. He held her arms, shook her head trying to wake her up.
There was huge lateral cut on her shoulder and neck almost reaching the spine, the blood from the wound had already dried out after enough blood loss.
*Please wait... Please don't die... someone help her.*
He was powerless. How could someone who he had just met make him feel this? his heart felt heavy, swirl of emotions flooded him. His vision could not even focus properly.
"Celena..." He could not manage to muster anymore words.
It was Celena Hesper. Celena, was dead.
Her black hair drenched in her own blood. Her wounded, lifeless, cold, fragile body being held by Shugel Kasane, who didn't even realise the tears flowing out of his eyes.
His mind protested to accept this, if it did, he had no Idea how long he could maintain his sanity.
He looked around for clue, but there was non. Other than fact that there had been a intense clash of strength, he could not find any clue to who the killer was.
There were so many questions that popped in his mind but he could not maintain his rationality, the moment didn't allow him to, he was completely overwhelmed.
If only he could get someone to heal her.
Could she be saved? It was pointless, his mind already knew, there was no longer a soul in this body.
If someone had killed her. He needed to inform everyone, he needed to escape.
His legs were weak and refused to move.
Shugel took a shard of glass which was drenched in blood and hit his upper thigh, it didn't pierce enough to make him lose his ability to walk but pain was enough to remind him of death.
He forced his way through pain and stood up, and started running towards the entrance.
He had to get away, tell someone about this, and escape from this place. Even though he felt heavy, certain something in his concious forced him to run. To escape.
He run past the entrance. He was out of breath but he didn't stop. He ran past the prison he was kept in, he ran towards the deeper corners—the underground halls. He had lost track of how far he had come, that's when he lost his balance and fell to ground.
He was dizzy, tears had not dried yet, his eyes focused towards place where he had lost balance.
There was nothing; something that was supposed to there
"Princess laya was right about being suspicious of you." A cold cruel voice echoed, the person was standing next to him.
Shugel was suprised to hear that familiar voice.
"Dae....aghaaaaaaah!" Just before he could look at the source of the voice his sight went to his mising right leg.
A sharp throbbing pain shot through his his leg as he screamed in agony unable to complete his words.
"It's pretty much a waste to let you live, but if you would be kind enough to tell me who sent you then I will."
"My legggggggg—!!! My leggg—!!"
"You don't have much pain tolerance do you? I will ask again, tell me who you are? Who sent you?"
"I don't know what you talking about." Shugel forced his words through the throbbing pain.
Blood squirted out of his leg with every heart beat. His heart didn't have enough blood to pump, as it beat slower and slower.
"You won't die from this much." Dae Gaur, sighed and looked even more coldly at Shugel, who was laying on ground struggling to not lose more blood, and continued "it's such a shame I hoped you would know better. But she was wrong too, I suppose, to have trusted you."
Shugel could hardly keep his consciousness with him. Trust?
Who had trusted him? How had he broken someones trust?
"Trust!? Don't mess with me.... Has any one of you trusted me? Do you even have any idea what going on..." after all the emotions had dried, laying on ground bleeding like a dying fish, his thoughts came in form of frustration.
"That doesn't concern me. I am only here to do what I was told, even though it's too late..." There was a ting of sadness in her voice.
What was she told? What didn't concern her? Too late? What... Ah it was too late now. Celena was dead, king would be dead soon.
He didn't care anymore, his body didn't posses anymore strength, there was almost no blood reaching his body.
"Ce-lena is de—" his throat was slit apart.
Dae gaur held the dagger, drenched in blood, as she looked cruelly at his dying body.
His attempt at producing any sound was met with inability to do so. Wind leaked from his ruptured windpipe, which was barely attached to the spine, foam of blood oozing out.
He had lost his ability to speak. His eyes lost colour as his lifeless body was all that was left.
—Shugel Kasane was murdered.