Subaru walked through the same shit-covered streets of the outskirts as the last loop, grinding his teeth slightly as he thought about what just happened. While he thought it possible that Satella, or whatever her actual name was, could have given him a fake name for security, a rational if not slightly paranoid response, the fact that she gave him some sort of obscenity as her name rubbed him all the wrong ways.

His mind quickly ran through all their conversations, finding a new perspective. He was being laughed at. Whatever goodwill he showed, he was being made a peasant fool by the half-elf. While his more rational side told him that such things shouldn't be unusual for such an unequal backwards world, he still couldn't stop the silent rage of humiliation seeping through his mind.

"Well, whatever. When I get that damn insignia back, I'll make sure to double whatever price they offer me." He told himself in a self-satisfied manner. "We'll see who's a damn fool."

He knew it was petty, but at least for now, he wanted to imagine the amount of leverage he would hold over the royal bastards, his hand tightening on the book bag. As he rewatched his memory, something clicked.

"Oh yeah, the lost girl..." He stopped, the rage subsiding a bit.

He scrunched up his eyebrows and looked at the sky. It was still midday.

"Ah well, it's not like they'll get murdered the very instant the kid returns with the insignia," he bargained with himself, "And besides, I'm not that far away from where she's supposed to be lost." He continued, as he slowly turned around, "I mean, what if we weren't around? She'd just get abducted or something, and I mean I know where to go now, so there's no rush like last time." he reluctantly began walking in the opposite direction, back to the city centre.

"Where-" Subaru wandered from one corner of the square to the other, making sure that he didn't simply mistake the layout of the city. "But..." He turned on his heel and scanned the surrounding groups of travellers and residents on their daily business. Not a single sign of the girl.

"But I clearly-" He checked his phone, the time clearly displaying around midnight in Japanese time, which in terms of this world meant around mid-day. He looked around again. 'Should be around this moment that they passed with... whatever her actual name is. And here...'

He took a step in-between a couple of stalls. 'Is where she should have been...'

He slid down the wall, his mind catching up to what this meant. Whether the girl is in danger or not is secondary.

"The looping isn't perfect..." The student mumbled to himself, a heaviness growing within his mind. Whatever advantage he had in this sense, he has lost in a single move... Or even worse...

He stood up, the book bag weighing even heavier on his shoulder than before, the straps pulled down by the questions circling in Subaru's head.

"Or worse, I have miscalculated the amount that the Butterfly effect has on the equation..." Did HER not joining him get the girl in our or out of danger? Could he really be sure of the result? Would he even be able to reproduce the exact situation to see?

He froze up and shook his head. Why was he thinking as if he would have the opportunity to reproduce such a situation? It's not like he was going to die, actually, he'd prefer not to even NEED to reproduce the situation.

"I'll just avoid all of it before it happens." He gave a nervous giggle, the reality of the situation starting to dawn on him, breaking through the strong concentration he kept on the opportunities he saw and used. "I-I mean... statistically... haha... it's quite rare for me to die... right?" He tried to beat back the anxiety slowly creeping into his head. He began to walk, the rhythm of his footsteps calming him.

'1 person dies per second'. That statistic stuck out to him when he browsed the internet. At the time it felt like something curious, something to quote for morbid laughs in the forums or to creep someone out in class.

'1 person dies per second'. But how does each person meet that death? As they bleed out in their crashed car, grab onto their pained ceasing heart, let out their last breath as the unending fever shuts off their organs, silently disappear into their mind as dementia takes over, flatline on the surgical table. Each person, with their love and hate and fear and humanity, simply snuffed out forever.

'1 person dies per second'. Subaru became painfully aware of how actually fragile he was. He could fall under a carriage, get stabbed in a random but unlucky way, breathe the same air as some infected idiot, or simply fall down the stairs in an awkward manner.

BUT FOR HIM, IT WOULD BE ONLY ONE OF MANY TIMES.

He grabbed onto his chest, a sharp pain spreading in his ribcage as his lungs started compressing themselves, the panic of arrival returning to him. He would suffer, but the suffering wouldn't end. He'd come back, over and over and over, until he was a husk, carrying himself forward on mere reflexes.

Subaru stopped and put his free hand over his heart, trying to calm his breathing and the rapid acceleration of his thoughts...

'Why me?'

'Why did you choose me?'

'Out of all people, anyone, what did I do to deserve all this?'

'I never killed anyone, I never stole, I never abused, I just did what was asked of me.'

He felt a bitter rage spread through him, his legs working again, carrying him forward, though this time he didn't seem to see, his eyes clouded by red and searing white.

'What a sick fuck they must be, putting me through this.'

'When I find them...'

He knocked into something with his shoulder, pushing the person backwards as he blindly stumbled in the general direction of his destination.

"Oh dear!" The unfortunate passer-by exclaimed as Subaru reeled himself back into reality.

The student snapped out of his panic and rage, putting on his amiable mask. "Ah pardon me I wa-" His words caught in his throat.

A pair of purple eyes stared back at him, their owner smiling serenely at him. The student felt a jitter pass through him, head to toe, muscle to bone, unconsciously taking a step back.

"Oh dear." The purple-eyed woman repeated. "You don't have to be scared."

"Ah-" Subaru pulled the smile even further up. "Forgive me, you reminded me of someone, a passing resemblance, fortunately..." he gave a small relieved laugh.

The woman smiled back at him. "Hm, forgive me as well, I seemed to have smelt the fear on you, even a little rage. I thought it was directed at me but fortunately, it was just something passing." She laughed back.

"Aha... yes..." Subaru dusted himself off. "Forgive me, I would introduce myself but I really have to go. Urgent matter." He pronounced in an emotionless voice, nodding to her and turning around to leave. "Very nice meeting you, ma-"

"It's not very nice to lie to people." The woman noted, the sweetness in her voice being just a single bit TOO sweet.

"P-pardon?" The student stopped, his back still to the stranger.

"At first, I believed you scared and enraged, however, it seems my nose only took in just the first emotions. The secondary was so strong that at first, I thought that you were simply unwashed." She giggled as if telling a very curious anecdote.

Subaru's hand around the shoulder straps tightened. He stayed quiet.

"You hate me, don't you? I could smell the stench of bloodlust on you from several meters away." It took Subaru to maintain his front, the nails of his hands digging into his palm.

The boy turned around, a wide smile frozen onto his lips, "Forgive me madam, but while you may 'smell' some-such, I believe you are mistaken. After all," He chuckled, a barely contained growl hidden behind his exhale. "we have never met before, have we?"

The woman licked her lips, a bizarrely sensual look spreading over her eyes, but passing nearly instantly, her fingers twitching slightly. She hummed. "Well, I would not wish to start a commotion I have no time for." She closed her eyes and nodded to herself. "But oh well, you are most certainly curious. Unfortunately, we are unlikely to meet again." She gave Subaru the last smile, before disappearing in-between the huts, her pace gracious yet clearly decisive, as if a tiger about to pounce on its prey.

Subaru gave her a minute or so, just in case she was about to turn around before his lips dropped and his eyes, which he was usually able to maintain in a friendly look, turned to their more natural 'evil gaze', his mother's genes talking.

He sighed and dropped his book bag to the ground. "What the hell." Now he couldn't even outsmart people. Whether she was just good at reading people or she really did smell his emotions, now he was even more out of his depth. In a sense, it was a little bit ironic to talk to one's own murderer, but the humour was lost on him.

His mind, just minutes before desperately clawing for a new goal, a clear goal to lock away the fear spreading through him, has finally found it. The insignia for the bitch was just a way of attaining an anchor in this world, but now it mixed in with a genuine goal. Revenge.

A genuine yet crooked grin spread on his lips. His first thoughts had jumped to murder, but he easily deflected that. She clearly would paint the floor with him, no way he would be able to do anything. However, there are ways of getting back at people without ever physically damaging them.

His mind raced as he thought through the murderer's goals, while he slowly went from walk to jog to spring to the thief's hideout. She clearly went for the thief and took her out. There was no way that this wasn't connected to the insignia, considering its importance in whatever bloated corpse of a political system they had in this world. If she wanted the insignia, he could get to the thief first, and buy it out. If the purple-eye hired the thief to steal it, instead of disembowelling Satella by luring her into a dark alley and looting it of a dead body, for example, there was a clear incentive to NOT hurt Satella.

The picture started assembling. What first seemed to be barely strung together now made a bit more sense. A politically motivated steal was the most probable outcome, the plan ingenious in its own simplicity. If the thief got cut down after stealing the insignia, there would be no strings connecting anywhere, and it's not unlikely for pickpockets to get killed for thieving, especially in such poor parts of town. A simple disagreement over the cut of the spoils, or a drunken accident, they could all be put up as what occurred, and it would be unlikely the security here would look into it too much.

While the goal was still unclear, it was not something Subaru was going to delve into, not yet. He finally slowed down as he approached the abandoned tavern, deciding to give himself a second to collect his thoughts.

'Simple, it's simple, I walk in, exchange my...' He fished through his bookbag, looking for something that could come off as a rarity. His gaze stopped on his phone. True, it was a useful tool on mother-world, but here it would just run out of battery soon.

'Might as well.' He tore off the cellphone strap and stuffed it into his bag, the small hourglass on the string clinking slightly as it lay down in-between the books. 'But not this... it's not good to give away gifts.'

He stepped up to the door and did a calming breath. 'Iiiiiiiiin-ooooooouuuut.'

"Godspeed." He knocked and waited, his hand unconsciously tapping on the volume buttons of his flip phone to release the pressure. The slit on the door opened, huge eyes staring back at him.

"Who?" Came a low slurred rumble from behind the door, utterly uninterested in the visitor.

"Heard you were about to pawn off the jewel your little thief br-"

The voice interrupted. "We ain't sellin'." The slit started to close.

"You don't even want to hear my offer?" Subaru asked, still maintaining an air of faux confidence. The slit stopped, the eyes disappearing into the darkness, before reappearing seconds later.

"Ye can come in, but we wait for our original customer, then we see ye offers." The door lock clicked and swung open while a pit formed in Subaru's stomach. Meeting the purple-eye again was very low on his list of terrible ways to spend his time.

He sighed, stepping into the opened door.

'Well, worst-case, I can try again.'

The revolutionary stared onto the burning husk of the exploded ammunition depot as militiamen with buckets ran around trying to put out the building and its surroundings. Several other houses had their windows blown out, the civilians walking out and staring fearfully at the inferno.

"This is sabotage." The first one of the three to cut the silence was Chin. "Clear-fucken'-cut."

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." Hummed Otto as he also looked on at the flames. "While I do not always agree with the President, this is probably one of the few phrases I can attribute some truthfulness to."

Chin gave out a frustrated sigh. "Ye suuuure? What about the red-head fuck. He ain't around." The bandit spit out in a low rage. "Maybe he-"

"I ordered him to secure all the other minor depots within the Guard stations." Subaru finally broke his own silence, his speech cutting off Chin instantly. "Otherwise, he has no benefit to undermining us." He stood up and turned to face the other two. "And for now we have no evidence for either sabotage or mistakes. We should wait until this is put out." He turned to Chin. "Get the militias on the borders on high alert. Be ready for an attack, and get some rest. There is a long day ahead, we may have to get ready for war." The bandit's eyes sparkled at the words, he gave a grin and nodded. Subaru then turned to Otto. "Assess the damage if possible, otherwise also get some shut-eye."

Otto noted something into his pocketbook, as he scanned the disembowelled building with his eyes and also nodded, his movements much more strained and mechanical, scared."I'm going to head back to the Convention. Tomorrow we'll start an investigation, be it sabotage or stupidity. We'll also need to do the usual song and dance with the Convention members." The revolutionary straightened out his jacket. "Good evening gentlemen." He began to walk away from the exploded depot, his mind boiling.

He ran through all the possibilities as he walked (his mind tended to work better when he was travelling, he noted to himself.)

It could have been Royalists, left-over Crusch sympathisers and Royal Knights.

Or the Beast-Men, as they further continued to aggravate the racial tensions that had stayed around even with the arrival of a more 'democratic' government.

Or was it the Vollachians, terrified by how quickly Subaru's ideas spread into their youth, tired of the hyper-militarism of their forefathers?

Or the Kararagi, whose very confidence of the untouchability of the merchant class was shaken by his war on guilds.

Or Gusteko, with its zealots and fear of the Enlightenment (or Corruption, how they called it).

Subaru rubbed the bridge of his nose as he ascended the stairs of the royal palace. This was pointless, he had nothing to go on. Their enemies all wanted to annihilate them and all had the means to do so, if not instantly, then through attrition. He caught himself on the thought that he hasn't considered one outcome: that this was an accident. Uncareful handling, smoking, anything could have set off the powder. He rubbed his eyes.

He couldn't fall into paranoia. He couldn't turn into a tyrant, a Robespierre, throwing all the suspicious under the Razor. And yet... and yet...

He opened the door to his underground office, nothing has changed in his several hours of absence, besides the sounds of Julius's beating seizing. The walls were still stone, the furniture still wood, the papers still strewn around, he noted to himself. No one had tried to get into his documents or find something out. The reflex to make sure he had no sudden visitors never left him, not after all of his intrigues in the Capital before the Revolt.

It had long dawned on him that in all of its complexity, revolutions were much easier to build than governments, but he could never shake the feeling like he was constantly blindsided, constantly grasping at straws. He sat down in the creaking chair and looked over the documents, translated and not, before putting his head into his hands. Was this how Napoleon felt? Was this how he had to battle to build up the French Empire?

His head touched the wood of the table, emitting another creak. He hadn't slept in a bed in weeks, but he seemed to be used to it by this point, the dents in the table feeling familiar. He closed his eyes, allowing his mind to relax, just a little bit. His body lost its weight as he floated off into sleep.

He dreamt of white hair, burning landscapes and his crying mother. Yet again.