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Dissonance

Event XXIX

Paradise Lies

Reika definitely was unlucky. The last thing she remembered was having taken a deep breath of some questionable apparatus that released even more questionable smoke. And waking up now, the room was still spinning slightly and, for the lack of a better term in Reika's language repertoire, all wobbly.

She couldn't quite place how and when she had gotten wherever she was but it was most definitely not the same room as before. There was no sign of Saki, whom she had teamed up with. Assessing her situation, Reika found herself to be in trouble. There were no guards in sight, or really anyone, except a stark naked Akane right next to her, soundly asleep and quite sweaty. She didn't need to make any grand educated guesses what exactly had transpired here.

Her prized intellect wasn't working anywhere near capacity because she was still seeing some things double, or just things in general that weren't quite there, and Reika really wanted to know what in the world had happened. Think slowly, Reika. You are alone with an Akane and I cannot rule out that this is the real one. Yet the thought of having had sex with the real Akane was disturbing her a little bit. She and her were both dating Nao, but that was completely different from sleeping with each other. First, where am I? Looking around, the room was a little unnatural. Large bookshelves everywhere and the air itself was quite dusty, the light bad and only if she intently listened for noise could she hear the party as a distant event. Is it over? It does not sound like there is anything happening.

Slowly trying to get up, Reika spotted a really fancy dress at the end of the bed, together with a golden mask. Deep down, she didn't feel comfortable looking at the mask. Feeling sick the moment she got out of bed, Reika had to sit back down. What is this bed doing here anyway? This appears to be a seldom used library, possibly an archive of some kind. The realization of why there was a bed hit her a few seconds later. So whoever I am impersonating is having an affair with this Akane? Crawling over the foot end of the bed, Reika found a similar dress to her own, strikingly similar even, with an identical golden mask.

Sitting back down, Reika felt every alarm in her body ring at the same time when someone, it could only be the Akane that had been sleeping until now, hugged her from behind, pushing her bare breasts against Reika's back. "Do you not fell well, Sister?" Whispering in Reika's ear, the Akane moved her hands over the girl's body with expert expertise, knowing her every weakness. "It is unlike you to awake before me." She could somehow hear a grin from the Akane. "Is it mother's masquerade? Do not worry, it will not start for a little while and yet more time will pass before we are required to make an entrance. We will have each other all to ourselves until then."

There was a lot of information that Reika needed to process but couldn't work through fast enough because her mind was still hazy. "Do not worry about me, Akane. It appears I didn't take well to something I ate."

Reika realized one thing right away. This isn't the same me as when I was with Bloom. Whether it was by some sort of reality changing mechanism, something akin to whatever had brought them all here in the first place, or something more elaborate like a reversal of time. But that doesn't explain why I still feel the drugs in my system. Reika then quickly, considering her condition at least, assessed who she was. The Akane spoke of Mother's Masquerade which could only refer to the large party that she had actually experienced earlier. Did time rewind? But should I not be back with the thieves in that case? Nevertheless, if it is our mother hosting this event, that means not only are this Akane and I sisters but I must also be a princess. Reika had picked up just a little bit of info about the party before she succumbed to the exhilarating smoke and received a black out in response. The party was hosted by a queen who had several daughters, at least ten of them. That we are sisters and still slept with each other is making me really uncomfortable, Reika thought to herself but she knew she had to play along.

Leaning back in the princess' embrace, Reika wondered what kind of person the princess she played was. Because that much was clear to her by the way this Akane acted. Whoever she was replacing had originally a real personality. "Should we not, for once, show ourselves at the party? I cannot say why, but I do feel like mingling with the nobles could be amusing in it's own right."

"What an unusual thing for you to say." The Akane moved back a little, slowly leading Reika down and making the princess' head rest on her lap. "But you might be right. It has been a long time since we've meddled with our sisters. It could be amusing." Akane put a finger to her cheek. "But beware of Evangeline, Trisjil and Vivilfell. Our sisters they might be but humor they do not possess."

Good to know. I would really have preferred to know which princesses those three are. No amount of great memory could help her recall something she had never known. "I really do not feel well." Reika hoped she at least looked a bit pale to lend credit to her claim. She was in luck, however, as her stomach growled just when Akane was about to say something. "It appears that my stomach is calling for one of the servants." Reika mused and got back up. She really was quite uncomfortable being naked next to Akane. Whatever had culled her inhibitions before, it certainly was not working now.

"If we are going to the masquerade, let us exchange dresses. I simply love the sight on the face of those that realize that we're together." Akane almost jumped off the bed after those words, walked around the piece of furniture and picked up Reika's dress. As she put it on, she realized that she wasn't quite filling it out well enough to walk around in it. "It appears I have been bested by your beautiful breasts once again, dear sister." Akane joked before sliding the dress off again and giving Reika a closer look. "Is it my imagination or do you smell slightly like Dream Pipe?"

That must be the name of whatever I breathed in, Reika assumed. "I might have indulged myself when one of the servants carried some past me."

"When? I don't recall letting you out of my sight." Akane's inquiry was making Reika nervous now.

"That is the mystery, is it not." Reika dodged the question and grinned mischievously. I have no idea how to pretend to be a princess, Reika thought and more over, not to mention how to be this specific princess that is in a relationship with her sister.

But thankfully, Princess Akane didn't seem to be the suspecting type. Thankfully she has no reason to doubt my identity, considering she thinks I've been with her since before the party, meaning there was no way for anyone to impersonate me. And from my experience as a thief, it does not appear as if the doubles are aware of our, the Cures, existence as such.

Her head was getting clearer now but also started to hurt worse. Could this be... a time loop? I've been put back before the party in the role of someone else? But what triggered that to happen? "Akane, has mother anything unusual planned for today?"

"Today being the start of the thousand night banquet, surely you didn't forget?" Akane was not eying Reika with suspicion. "Did the Dream Smoke cloud your memory this badly? I will be more careful the next time I have the servants bring us some."

Finally getting dressed, Reika couldn't feel at home in such a fancy dress whatsoever. Just three minutes later, after having passed through a secret passageway, they emerged inside an empty guest room and left, hand in hand. The servants they came across all smiled at them, some bemused, some simply with gratitude. Reika could tell the difference because of her job as vigilante.

"Where shall we go first?" Akane asked her sister.

"The kitchens." Reika replied. "I would be terribly embarrassed should my stomach grumble in front of important company." The kitchens will be where most of the servants are going to be right now since the party has not yet started. If I am going to find anyone else in this mess, it will be there. I need to know more about what happened between me passing out and now. Maybe that will give us a clue on how to get out.

Reika couldn't say that it was an uncomfortable situation. Of course there were some concerns regarding how openly she was sleeping around right now, but that aside, there was nothing threatening them and there really were much worse situations to be stuck in than an eternal party.

Before the two sisters could head towards the kitchens, Reika was talked to by a passing noble. "Princess Reika Milane and Princess Akane Milane." The blonde bowed deeply. "Could I bother princess Reika to lend me a moment of her time?"

"I don't know. Can you, sister?" Akane jokingly asked. She clearly didn't seem used to a noblewoman having business with either of them.

"Would you wait for me, sister dear?" Reika said and let go of the Akane's hand. "It will be just a moment."

Reika had a hunch that this noblewoman was actually the real deal. The real Sunshine. She didn't know her all that well, really, but she at least recognized her hair and figure. "What would you have of me?"

Itsuki waited until the Akane was out of hearing range, taking Reika all the way to the end of the hallway. "I know you are the real Cure Beauty. I saw that Akane and her sister up close just a little while ago when the queen made her speech. The Reika she was with didn't look nearly as uncomfortable being with her as you do."

She is surprisingly sharp, Reika figured and was really glad that someone had noticed her. "We need to keep this short, relatively speaking. I feel that I shouldn't make my sister too suspicious."

"I suddenly came to as a noble about ten or fifteen minutes ago. I was a guard in the grand hall before that. And now it looks like everything reset to how it was right before the party." Itsuki had her own ideas about what was happening but it would really help to have someone confirm her suspicions. And Beauty seemed like a great candidate for just that.

"I believe we are caught in a time loop. What happened to you right before time rewound?" Reika didn't want to tell Sunshine that she was out cold under drug use.

"The queen held her speech and just as she was finished, at least I believe she was, I felt myself getting pulled away and came to as a noble at the gates of this castle."

"You said you met the original princess Reika just before that. What happened to her after you saw her?"

"All seventeen princesses headed to the top floor of the grand hall, where the queen resides. I was at the far back of the room, as a guard."

"That will give me an excellent chance to witness whether time will rewind again this time."

"Isn't it usually so that everything inside a time loop is reset? I can still feel my back sting a bit from standing around still for hours."

"Reality appears to be indeed stranger than fiction. I was in the role of a thief before this and happened to be exposed to some questionable substances and I can still feel them in my system." Reika felt that masking the truth just a little bit was not going to hurt anyone.

"I'll look for the others and try to find out if they experienced the same thing as we did. In case you come across your sisters, the first princess commands a great amount of respect. The second and third felt very dangerous to me. The seventh felt somewhat welcoming. The last three were not rspected at all."

"Which princesses would be Evangeline, Trisjil and Vivilfell?" Reika perfectly remembered the names from earlier.

"The first, an Muse, the third, a Mint, and sixth, a Rose." Itsuki counted in order. "Be really careful around the Mint one. She made every instinct in my body scream danger."

"We are on our way to the kitchen. It will be difficult for me to ascertain who is a double that plays their role well as I don't know many of you that well yet." Reika felt that this was a really glaring issue with finding others.

"Anyone that saw you two... is last night even an appropriate description of it? At the previous party might be more accurate." Itsuki trailed off. "In either case, whoever saw you two would immediately recognize you as the real Beauty. But to ease up future meetings, we should think of a way to identify each other."

"Excellent idea." Reika quickly glanced towards her sister who was getting a drink from a passing servant girl, who blushed intensely just talking to that Akane. Are these princesses possibly playboys? The servants were blushing around me as well. "But as we are spread out over several groups, it would be difficult to use something like the masks or dresses we wear. It would need to be something that everyone has access to. And given the mass of people that will soon populate the castle, it cannot be a physical signal as that would be impossible to keep up indefinitely."

"A unified signal would be really hard to make out. What about splitting it into categories for each role? The princesses, the nobles, the servants, guards and, you said you were a thief?"

"There are quite a number of thieves hidden inside the castle." Reika couldn't put an exact number to them, but maybe someone who had become a thief this loop around could. "As we are noble and princess right now, we should focus on these signs first."

"I was a guard the last time and I believe it would be easiest for guards to signal that they are a real person by stripping off their left gauntlet. If asked about it, they can simply claim they could not find it when they got ready due to all the hectic of the preparations and nobody should especially care beyond that point."

"Understood." Reika made a mental note. "I believe it will be difficult to identify the princesses as such because surely they attract an immense amount of attention and you, too, should have noticed that there is a subconscious need to fit the role we are given. Talking to you this extensively appears to be well within the confines of my role because you are a noblewoman and there could be possible business you have to discuss with me."

"There are a lot of nobles and only seventeen princesses. I would be surprised if more than one or two of us are princesses at any given time. Seeing you and this Akane together confirmed my suspicion that the princesses are in fact the same as before."

"For now, let us ignore how to identify the princesses. What about the nobles in general?" Reika couldn't immediately think of a unified way all princesses could behave without attracting unwanted attention from the wrong people or outright violating their role.

"Dresses and masks vary too much to be used. How about carrying a glass of wine with a small piece of paper or cloth wrapped around the stem of the glass? If asked about it, simply stating that the coldness of the glass is uncomfortable should be a satisfying explanation."

"It appears you were quite observant of the nobles as a guard." Reika mused.

"Well, there was not much else to do. Being a guard in the grand hall is quite boring." Itsuki felt a yawn coming on and suppressed it. "Something that worries me is that our physical condition carries over from one loop to the next."

Reika only needed a second thinking about that to see why Sunshine was right. "Sleep. Food and drink. Depending on the role, there is little opportunity for any of those, and especially as a guard it will be taxing."

"Even so, I can't say I don't prefer this a hundred times over deadly battles and stuff. I am actually looking forward to hearing the band in the main hall again. I really liked the way they played and sadly they played each tune only once."

"I will be using my status to learn more about the other princesses, just in case. I would like to meet somewhere before the queen makes her speech, just in case time will reset again and we end up with roles that make interacting difficult."

"The queen's speech is at midnight. I'll meet you at the main entrance to the grand hall thirty minutes prior." Itsuki nodded and was glad to have found someone to talk about all this. She hadn't known where to even begin with this whole mess. "I wonder how we got into this mess this time."

"Whatever it was, at least it isn't dangerous. It might even become entertaining once we learn how all of this fits together."

"You might be right. I'd actually love to try my luck as a thief."

"Bloom was one of the thieves last time as well. If you see a Bloom with physical symptoms similar to mine, for she too came into contact with those questionable substances, it is likely the real Bloom."

"You can just admit that you got high, Beauty. Nobody is going to care." Itsuki grinned wide and read between the lines. "There probably aren't any addictive factors or long term issues with these things."

"What makes you think so?" Reika couldn't quite comprehend where Sunshine was getting this idea from.

"Free food and drink. Music and dance. The chance to pursue unrequited love for a few hours. No consequences for doing so and possibly the chance to try your hand at being a real princess. This entire setup here feels like it is designed to give us a good time and not unnecessarily torture us like all the times it did before."

"That might all be coincidence." Reika would have liked some solid proof for this before she believed in it.

"Maybe so. But even though it isn't perfect, I believe in my gut. And my gut tells me that this is indeed a party. Not just for the doubles but also for us." Itsuki saw Reika's sister approach. "Now then, Princess Reika. I shall take my leave. It was a pleasure to talk with you." Waiting until Akane was next to Reika, Itsuki bowed to both of them briefly and greeted the Reika's other half, "Princess Akane.", before taking her leave.

"That was a lengthy conversation. What were you talking about?" Akane inquired and Reika thought about it for long enough to make Akane offer a suggestion, lowering her voice to a whisper. "Was it one of the contacts from the thieves guild?"

What? Reika had no idea why a princess would be talking to contacts from the thieves guild. "No. She was merely asking about whether we, I specifically, would support her presentation of her new kind of wine to the court later this month." We did talk about wine after all.

"Are we still heading towards the kitchens? I haven't set food into those parts of the castle in at least a few weeks."

That isn't particularly long, considering she is a princess. Reika was slowly piecing together what kind of character this Akane was. She was very observant after all. "We are." Reika smiled. "Since it has been so long for you, let me see if you still remember the way." Because I have never seen this part of the castle before.

Down the hallway, Itsuki immediately picked up a glass of wine from one of the servants that were carrying entire trays towards the great hall. A piece of paper was surprisingly hard to come by so she simply requested a handkerchief from one of the servants.

"What to do now?" Itsuki had a wealth of new information at her hands. Everyone must have figured out that the party was happening again at this point and trying to figure out specifically what was happening. It would have helped tremendously to know if there were even any other Cures currently posing as nobles.

Yet, Itsuki's streak of good luck was not about to end. First correctly identifying Reika as the original, now she spotted someone else entirely. She knew right away that the girl she was looking at wasn't really a guard. She looked way too uncomfortable in her armor for that to be the case. She also looked rather tired out despite it being so early in the party.

I suppose having been a guard does pay off. Only the really diligent Cures are going to actually fit the role of a guard. Hibiki certainly isn't the type to endure standing around for hours, Itsuki grinned and walked up to the fake guard. "Hi there, lover." Itsuki casually greeted Hibiki as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"I-Itsuki?!" Hibiki tried to quickly back away but the heavy armor was putting a damper on the quick part of the moving. "You're... really Itsuki, right?" Hibiki immediately panicked, thinking that the guard she was playing was having an affair with a noble.

"Yes. I bet you're thinking something silly like you're a guard having an affair with a noble." Itsuki could see that she hit bulls-eye with that one. "Don't act so surprised, you're not as difficult to read as you like to think." Itsuki took two steps forward, her face awfully close to Hibiki's. "Especially for me."

The guard blushed a little more strongly than she had expected. "Go ahead, make fun of me, I'm just a servant girl that is now stuck as a walking piece of metal after all." Pouting, Hibiki averted her eyes and immediately felt like a stinging headache was coming down on her. Looking back at Itsuki, she felt it go away. Was it because she was being rude to a noble?

"So you were a servant the last time around? I was a guard." Itsuki took a step back and tried to look as disinterested as possible. It didn't really make for a convincing cover if she was seen talking intimately to a guard.

"What is even going on? Everything is happening over." Hibiki wasn't stupid by any account but time loops and the like were a little beyond her area of expertise after all.

"I met Beauty earlier. She is currently one of the princesses and based on what we both witnessed, we're pretty sure that this party is a time loop. You know, time rewinding all the way back to the start of the loop, like a music track that is sitting on repeat setting. Except we're not reset. Just switched around."

"Why couldn't I be a noble? Or at least someone from the band in the main hall!" Hibiki was somewhat upset. "How the heck did we get stuck in this mess to begin with? It better not be that idiot Kanade's fault!"

"Now, now. Didn't we talk about you blaming things on Kanade when there is no other suspect?" Itsuki reminded her partner of that. "Just like the mirror thing, we have no idea. Might not even be anyone's fault, just the system messing with us. It could be a lot worse than this, though."

"Easy for you to say. My legs are killing me. They had me run around the entire night from room to room, serving food and drinks to nobles. I got lost so many times I don't even know how often anymore." Hibiki wished she could stretch her legs, sit down somewhere and enjoy some food but that wasn't exactly an option right now. "I'm so hungry I could eat anything."

Itsuki's expression changed to a lewd one. "Oh? Is that so? Why, I could ask this guard here to escort me and we could just happen to find a secluded room where you could eat..." Itsuki got a lot closer to Hibiki before she uttered the last word. "..me."

Hibiki turned scarlet red over those antics and energetically shook her head. "I meant food! Real food! You pervert! Apparently it's true that all martial arts masters are secretly sex obsessed! So much for clarity of mind!"

"You say that but you really want to come with me now, don't you?" Itsuki put so much emphasis on those two words that Hibiki wanted to march away but couldn't. Itsuki giggled to herself and then became more serious. "It's good that I met you. Beauty and I have decided that it is best that everyone carries a specific kind of signal to tell us other Cures that they are one of us and not just a double."

"It's kinda like being stuck in a video game and they're all really well made Non-player-characters." Hibiki's analogy seemed a little crude but she herself was quite proud of it.

"Something... like that. Maybe." Itsuki wanted to think of something better but sometimes crude was simply the easiest way to make things clear. "Before someone interrupts us, take off your left gauntlet and just lose it somewhere. Having your left hand free is the sign that you're a Cure and not one of the countless doubles."

"So every class has a sign?" Hibiki figured that behind one of the many curtains was as good as any a place to dump a heavy metal glove. "How many of the others know about it?"

"I only parted ways with Beauty a few minutes ago, so right now it is just us tree. I will be taking a closer look at any guards I come across. Any that are overly uncomfortable have a very good chance of being the real deal."

"Just don't look too close at my doubles." Hibiki smiled and knew that Itsuki would never do that.

"Of course not." Itsuki wished the seemingly never ending stream of people passing by would stop just for long enough to kiss Hibiki but alas, she was not given that pleasure.

"I could be your personal guard. I saw lots of nobles have them when I was running around playing servant girl." Hibiki offered and fidgeted a little. "I don't want to spend another night in this place all alone, even if it's not that bad." Hibiki paused for a moment. "The food is phenomenal at least."

"You were sneaking bites from the food you were serving?" Itsuki nearly burst out laughing. "Thank god they're not serving cupcakes or you'd be rolling around now."

"Hey! I'm not that much of a glutton." Hibiki grumbled. "Although if the cupcakes were as good as the rest of the food that might be a real possibility..."

"Are you sure about these personal guards? That they're actually palace guards and not brought in from the outside?"

"They looked completely identical to what I'm wearing right now. I even saw dupes of myself in guard armor two or three times. I saw a whole bunch of you, too, nobles and guards. Don't tell me I walked past the real you!"

"Unless you were serving in the grand hall, I doubt that. I was there all night." Itsuki was actually looking forward to getting to know this huge castle a little better. And possibly have some fun with Hibiki. If they could find a closet with noble's clothing, she'd dress up Hibiki and attend the ball in the grand hall with her.

"It would've been so embarrassing to have not noticed my girlfriend." Hibiki felt relieved. "You met Beauty, what about the others? Did you notice anyone else?"

"Not while I was on guard duty. Whatever this place is, it has a pretty strong effect on making us stay in character, whoever we are playing. Even if you had found me in the grand hall, it wouldn't do for a guard and servant to talk as much as we have just now." Itsuki paused briefly and noticed that some people, mostly servants, were starting to pay attention to her. "Walk me to a room so we can talk. We're drawing too much attention out here."

"You have the bossy nature of a noble down pat." Hibiki said with a smile that would have told anyone she was joking.

"Very funny. You make a terrible guard on the other hand. Keep your back straight!" Itsuki followed after her lover and now there was nobody paying attention to them anymore. She appeared to be one of many nobles that were using one of the guards as their personal security. Judging by the complete lack of interest, Itsuki found that it must happen a lot in whatever this setting was supposed to be.

"This room remains free." They had strayed from the main hallway for a bit and Hibiki actually recalled how this part of the castle was laid out. "I went in here by... mistake." Hibiki was hiding something and Itsuki figured it out right away.

"You were eating." A wide grin. "Don't worry, I'll have some of the servants bring me food and you can have some of it."

"My, how generous of your ladyship to spare something for insignificant me." Hibiki groaned quietly and had to hold in laughing. Opening the door, it was unlocked like almost all doors in the palace, Hibiki stepped in and the very second Itsuki had entered as well, she shut the door and ,right on the spot, sunk to the ground, finally able to sit for once. "How did you endure wearing this for an entire evening?"

"Come on Hibiki, this is nothing compared to the battles we've been in since we got to this place. Well. The place before this. You know what I mean, right?" Itsuki got a little tangled in her own explanation.

"I do, I do." Hibiki held up her hand and smiled. "If we put it in perspective, this isn't even on the level of fighting monsters every week, like when we were teenagers. Sure, I hated the running around but that wasn't really any worse than doing a double shift in a restaurant as a waitress."

"You served customers before? I'll have to visit that store. Do they make you wear a cute uniform?"

"Too~bad." Hibiki stretched the words as far as she could. "I don't work there anymore and they had no uniform at all."

"What a disappointment." Itsuki sat down on a very comfortable chair and gestured for Hibiki to join her. "Don't sit on my lap, the armor weighs a ton."

"Feels like it's not just a figure of speech." Hibiki pulled herself up with some effort and clanked over to the chair and sat down across her partner. Taking a deep breath and planning to peel herself out of the armor in the very near future, Hibiki looked to Itsuki. "But all of this aside, what are we gonna do? Shouldn't we try to find the others?"

"That is easier said than done." Itsuki sighed and leaned back into the chair, resting her elbow on the arm-rest, her hand touching her chin. "We don't know all that much about this place yet."

"I suppose that means no taking it easy in this room for me." Hibiki sighed as well. "I hope I get to be a noble next time around. I'll spend all night eating and then sleeping."

"You could stay behind, but knowing you, you'll just get lonely being on your own all night." Itsuki grinned wide, savoring Hibiki's attempted complaint that got stuck right in her mouth. "Go on, tell me it's not true."

"Fine, geez. It's true! You can be such a bully, Itsuki." Getting up and moving to the window, Hibiki wondered just how far this land actually stretched and how much of it was real.

Itsuki joined her at the window a few seconds later, taking Hibiki's freed hand. "Don't sulk."

"I'm not sulking." Hibiki said with a sulking expression on her face.

"Then what do you call that face?" Poking Hibiki's cheek, Itsuki pointed to their reflection in the window. "You're an advert on how to sulk right now."

"How mean!" Hibiki snapped, growling at Itsuki, who had her usual happy go lucky expression and was clearly still teasing her. "Ogre! Demon! Lord of the Underworld! Char Aznabel!"

"The heck was that last one?" Itsuki laughed, watching her lover slowly turn more and more red.

Trying to run away, ashamed that she had blurted out an anime villain name, Hibiki nearly fell over her own feet, because they were clad in heavy armor, only to have Itsuki catch her, holding her by her hand and back. "Now I believe given our roles, this kinda looks the wrong way." Itsuki grinned.

Hibiki started to pout but let Itsuki save her from a heavy fall, quite literally, and took a deep breath. She was used to this, why did she get so riled up all of a sudden? Was it because this place was screwing with her mind? Or was it even really doing that?

"Hibiki." Itsuki wiped the grin off her face and took a more serious tone. "I would love to mess around all night but I think we'll have ample time for that once we get everyone cleared up on what is going on."

Hibiki felt just a tad disappointed that her partner was now talking business, in a manner of speaking, instead of continuing what they were doing. She kinda wanted to get out of that armor and under Itsuki's dress, too, but there was something in the back of her mind that strictly told her bad idea.

"It's gonna be hard to find everyone. I'll go to the grand hall and look around among the nobles. Can you take a look at any guard you come across? Just pretend you're patrolling on someone's orders. Maybe check if there is a dungeon or something. Beauty mentioned thieves, that would be where they end up."

"The left gauntlet stays off, right? That's the sign to show you're a real Cure." Hibiki thought that was a welcome change since each piece less was definitely an improvement of the situation.

"For the nobles it's paper or cloth around the stem of their glass. We haven't made up any sign for the thieves or servants yet. But if you notice someone behaving oddly, it's worth a closer look. I doubt anything bad can happen here. It'll all reset around midnight anyway."

"Are you really sure about that? My legs don't feel like anything reset." Hibiki sighed. She had excellent stamina but servant work was really hard and the castle was almost absurdly large.

"Looks like our physical condition and memory doesn't but everything else does." Itsuki smiled. "Not like I could ever forget about my beloved Hibiki, memories or not."

Hibiki turned bright red. "You seriously can be brutally honest." She couldn't even look at Itsuki at the time. She felt just as excited as when she had first ended up at the yellow Cure's place.

"Isn't that what you like about me?" Getting really close to her partner, Itsuki cursed that metal armor for covering most of Hibiki's great body. "Among other things, of course." Itsuki licked her lips and pulled Hibiki's face against her chest.

It was as if an alarm went off in Hibiki's head, one that told her that any guard found being intimate with a noble would likely face summary execution after trial. "W-wait." Hibiki had trouble getting through her rather strong desire to just shove Itsuki on the comfortable looking sofa and throw off that stupid armor to have sex with Itsuki right here and now.

Itsuki felt the same alarm but it wasn't quite getting through to her. "Why would I do that?" The noble had nothing to fear from being found, so she wasn't feeling the panic that seemed to rise in Hibiki. Seeing the scared look on her lover's face however knocked her back to reality, strongly enough to suddenly feel sick.

Taking a few steps back and looking at the window, Itsuki took several deep breaths, trying to calm down. "That was... intense. I have no idea what came over me."

"The same thing I felt. But in my head, the sirens went off." Hibiki tried to stop her heart from beating like a jackhammer, with only minor success. "I didn't feel this outside."

"Same here. Maybe it's the rooms? I mean, they are kinda private and... inviting for that sort of thing. I wouldn't be surprised if they were all enchanted in some way."

"You mean like... make you... horny?" Hibiki wasn't blushing anymore, just rattled.

"The way I was thinking about just getting you to sleep with me regardless of what consequences you, as a guard, would face later, possibly, wasn't just being horny. It's like all my inhibitions were wiped right off my mind." Itsuki chuckled. "And I didn't even have anything to drink yet."

"Let's get out of here. We can still get a room when we're in better roles." Considering that she didn't have the chance to actually take a shower after running around as servant all night, Hibiki wasn't too eager to get all hot and sweaty from sex and then possibly have to keep playing roles for days to come.

"Right." Letting Hibiki leave first, Itsuki stepped outside and felt like a gust of cold wind blew in her face for a second. Not unlike going to a bar, having a few drinks and then getting outside in the middle of the night. "That is some strong magic in there. Kinda bizarre though."

"Itsuki." Hibiki briefly got close to her partner, kissed her and then took two steps back before anyone paid attention. "I'll go and patrol. Wanna meet somewhere later or when the next loop starts?"

"We don't know what roles we'll be in. But this gives me a nice idea. Give me your dagger. On the back of your girdle." Itsuki knew that all guards carried a sword and dagger, mostly for imposing measures.

Fumbling about on her back, Hibiki found the small blade, unsheathed it and handed it to her partner. "What are you gonna do?"

"This." Itsuki turned towards the door and carved a large C right in the center of the door. "I want to see if this persists. It's an unnatural change by one of us players, I'll just call us that for now, and that makes me think it might carry over to the next loop."

"A place for all of us to gather?" Hibiki wondered if thirty people would actually fit in there all at once. If some sit on the laps of others and most keep standing, probably, she thought.

"Good idea. I just wanted to test a theory, but that is actually a good idea. Now... where exactly in the castle are we?" Itsuki wasn't bad with directions but the castle was humongous with several wings. From the outside it had looked like a mountain erupting into the night sky.

Hibiki took a quick look around and probed her memory. "Let's see... If you go from the entrance and take the first large hallway to the right, you should get here as long as you keep going straight." All that running around had paid off for Hibiki.

"If we can make it, meet me back here before midnight. Don't get yourself arrested, sweetheart." Itsuki smiled again and would have liked to go ahead and kiss Hibiki, but there was a patrol of two guards walking by, very slowly, and eying the unlikely pair. Raising her voice, Itsuki took a wholly different attitude. "You may go now."

Hibiki took a quick glance over her shoulder, noticed the guards, hastily bowed slightly and then walked off, with just one gauntlet.

=== Dissonance ===

Nao was rolling over the cold prison floor, laughing her heart out so hard that tears were streaming down her cheeks. "I can't! I can't!" Stopping for a second, she looked up and at the annoyed faces of the trio from the Yes 5 group before she broke out in laughter again. "I really can't!"

"You're way overreacting." Rin grumbled and wanted to give Nao a good smack on the back of her head. Maybe a good punch to the front, too, if she kept laughing like an idiot.

"B-But! This is just too funny! To get arrested like that!" Nao was now coughing and felt she was gonna pass out soon if she didn't get a grip. Facing away from the other girls, Nao got up, put her forehead against the cold stone the walls were made of and tried to calm down. There was no way she could both look at those three and be calm.

About ten minutes earlier. "What do you mean you don't know how to pick a lock? Didn't you make jewelry for a while? That's almost the same thing, isn't it?" Kurumi grumbled, leaned against the wall right next to the locked door.

"That is not even remotely related. And at least my skills extend beyond cooking and acting cute with the girl you like but don't have the guts to move on it!" Rin was really annoyed, still trying to break the lock with the lock-picks she had been carrying.

"Don't fight please..." Nozomi was there too, trying to prevent those two from starting a brawl. Thankfully, none of their powers worked in any way here, so at the worst they could give each other a few bruises.

"Working in the kitchen sucked but this is even worse. And how did I get stuck with the only people, probably, among all the thieves that can't pick a lock?" Rin grumbled some more, mostly unintelligible complaints, before she finally gave up and started bashing the door with her foot, making a lot of noise. "If I had my fucking powers, I could burn this damn door down in a second!"

"Any of us could break it then, hothead." Kurumi had gone from princess to thief and she didn't find that particularly pleasing. "I was one of the princesses before this. How the heck did I end up like this?" Kurumi pulled on her clothes, mostly cheap cloth and leather in varying states of being worn out.

"Who are you calling hothead, you NEET!" Rin turned to Kurumi.

"I put that behind me!"

"Don't think I forgot how you were getting all best friends with Karen and sidelining Komachi. I haven't forgiven you for all the bullshit you put her through, not one bit!"

"Look who is talking! You're even worse than I am!"

"I didn't get dumped for being an insufferable leech!"

Nozomi was blabbering in the background, trying to prevent them from fighting, but she was being completely ignored.

"No, you took it upon yourself to shack up with Kanade, who is not only a minor but also as crazy as you are stubborn and aggressive!"

"You fucking leave Kanade alone or I swear to god I will punch your lights out!" Rin was seeing red now.

"Come and try it! You think I can only kick your ass as a Cure? I'll wipe the floor with you and then some!"

"Shut the hell up!" Nozomi screamed at the top of her lungs and that rattled Rin and Kurumi so much that they both looked at her in shock. They hadn't really heard Nozomi use language like that before.

"Fighting is gonna get us nowhere!" Nozomi glared at each of the other two in turn. "And personal insults the moment we're on our own and things don't go our way?! I can't believe you're both adults!" Those words, coming from Nozomi, really strung. Kurumi looked on the ground. She was still seriously mad, but there was some merit to what Nozomi was saying.

"I expect you two to be better than that! We're one of the older teams, so act like it!"

"Nozomi, there is-" Rin pointed behind Nozomi but was cut off.

"I don't care! I am not going to let you do or say anything until you can look at each other and shake hands!"

"No, seriously, you should-" Kurumi was now pointing too.

"Is it so hard for you two to make up? Of course things aren't the same as back then, but you shouldn't be fighting like this! Everyone has things they would have liked to go differently and we can't all always approve of what we're doing, but we can at least accept that everyone has their own life and- Jeez, what is it?" Rin and Kurumi were now making gestures for Nozomi to turn around.

And when she finally did, she was looking at a squad of eight guards, pointing polearms and bows in their direction.

Telling this story to Nao, Nozomi wasn't very good at keeping secrets, had resulted in the green haired girl nearly laughing herself into a coma. "They probably heard you bashing the door." Kurumi mumbled and was immediately glared at by Nozomi.

"How do we get out of here?" Rin didn't want to even acknowledge that incident had ever happened. It was so stupid, she couldn't believe it. It was like she was caught inside a comic book.

"Through the rocks." Nao pointed at the wall. "If this is the same jail cell as I want in the last time. But it's just my luck to be a thief twice in a row. And this time I'm imprisoned all the way from the start!"

"What do you mean by through the rocks?" Kurumi asked, happy to find something to talk about that wasn't going to cause another fight.

"Last time Moonlight, the real one, came to bust us out. I checked out the wall before you three got thrown i-in h-here," Nao covered her mouth and had to try really hard to hold it in. She needed a few seconds to calm down again. "but it looks like there is no way to open it from the inside. That's a serious oversight on construction if you ask me."

"An oversight?" Rin groaned. "Now look here, clearly this place wasn't built but magically created. Just like every goddamn thing ever since we got whisked away to god knows where. Speaking of that, when the hell are we gonna be able to go home?"

"Before we go home we're gonna find a way back to not-home and out of here. And before that, we probably should get out of prison." Kurumi said, earning Rin's spite once again.

Getting up and restlessly walking around the cell, Rin started just kicking the wall to blow off some steam. Grumbling slurs under her breath, nobody quite wanted to know what Rin was saying. After about a minute and a half, Rin was out of breath and leaned against the very same wall she had kicked so much and fell backwards. "The hell?!"

The wall, like a sliding door, turned on the spot and revealed a hidden passageway behind the wall. "That's different from the cell I was in last time." Nao said and didn't look at any of the others.

"It doesn't matter. Let's go. Rin, are you okay?" Nozomi extended her hand to Rin, and to the surprise of everyone present, the hotheaded thief actually took it.

"Dirty as heck but sure, I can walk." Rin was starting to wonder where all these temper issues were coming from. She wasn't usually this quick to blow a fuse. Especially not in front of Nozomi.

Heading down the tunnel, Rin in front, they reached an intersection and as she turned to look into one of the branching off tunnels, Rin bumped heads with someone else. "Shit." Rubbing her forehead, Rin looked in front of her and made out a dupe of White. Or possibly the real one. But there wasn't any easy way to make sure of that. "Are you a Cure?"

"What do you mean?" The woman was rubbing her forehead as well, looking confused by the question. "Did someone get poisoned?"

There was nothing else the dupe could say before Rin's fist connected with her face and soundly knocked her out. Nozomi was immediately behind her friend and was in shock over what had just happened. "Rin!"

"Sorry, I just... I think this place cuts my fuse in half."

"More like ninety per cent." Kurumi said out loud and was happy that Nozomi between them was stopping Rin from punching her as well.

"H-H-Hey..." Nao pointed towards where they had knocked out the Cure White lookalike. It was disintegrating into bright spheres and then those spheres vanished into thin air. Ghosts were absolutely the last thing Nao wanted to meet now.

Before they could react, the white spheres appeared again and almost like out of thin air, the thief Rin had just knocked out appeared and was immediately looking surprised to see them. "Did you just break out?"

"Huh? Er, yeah, that's right." Rin didn't quite grasp what was happening right in front of her eyes.

"I'm on my way to the treasury, any of you good at heavy lifting?"

"No, sorry." Rin immediately rejected the possibility that some dupe would drag them all over the place for some fools errand.

"That's too bad. I'll see you after the party ends to divide up loot." Waving and leaving through another tunnel, the dupe was gone within seconds.

"What the hell was that?" Rin said out loud and spun around, ready to punch someone else, when she heard a voice from where the dupe had come from.

"Reconstruction." Coming out of the shadows, another Honoka showed up, giving off a wholly different aura than the one before. "Only one of the players would punch one of the constructs. And before you ask me if I'm the real Cure White, I am."

"Thank you sherlock, talking about whatever science nonsense is going on totally wasn't tipping me off already." Rin snapped and immediately hid her eyes behind her hand. "Sorry. This place is getting to me." Get a goddamn grip, Rin. You're acting worse than any teenager.

"I noticed that as well. I've been very irritated ever since I was suddenly transported from the grand hall to a large cavern beneath the castle." Honoka looked past Rin and could just about make out who else was there. "I've witnessed what just happened by coincidence but it was rather interesting. I have news from Beauty, but this isn't really a good place to talk. We should retreat to the thief headquarters."

Five minutes later, the five girls were sitting at a large table and Honoka was doing most of the talking. "I met Beauty not but because she violated her role and entered the thief passageways as a noble. All the other thieves treated her as if the plague was approaching, in a manner of speaking. They all retreated into different secret passages or headed simply away from her. I was the only one who stood by, confused by the sudden irrational behavior of the other thieves and then I saw Beauty."

"Reika is a noble? God, that is so unfair!" Nao complained.

"So did Beauty have anything important to say or is there no point to this story?" Rin closed her eyes for a moment and got up, refilling her drink at the large barrel. Why was it that she was suffering so much worse from a short temper than the others in this place?

"She did. Essentially, we are caught in a repeating time loop. Once the clock hits midnight, the queen will address the court in a speech and at the end of this speech, time will rewind to just before the party starts. It also seems to seemingly randomly assign us new roles. Beauty was a thief before. I was a servant in the grand hall."

"Kitchen girl." Rin said before emptying her tankard and going for another drink.

"Thief." Nao grumbled.

Nozomi kept quiet for a few seconds. "Guest of honor, specialist in astrology." Feeling the stares of the other girls on her, Nozomi reacted with sulking. "I know... that is so not me."

"There doesn't seem to be any basis, as of now, to how the roles get assigned."

"Kanade, Beat and Blossom were all in the kitchen with me." Rin added now. "I have no idea where they ended up or in what role as you call it."

"I was a princess. So was Muse. Karen was a servant girl. I don't know about everyone else."

"Beauty proposed something that would make finding each other much easier and less," Honoka looked at Rin. "dangerous for everyone involved."

"And that would be?" Kurumi hoped it wasn't some overly complicated plot.

"Each class of roles will adhere to a specific sign that tells all of us that they're the original. Guards will keep off their left gauntlet. Nobles will use paper or cloth and wrap that around the stem of their glasses. She discussed these with Sunshine, whom she met before me. They did not settle on a rule for servants and thieves yet, so I proposed one to Beauty. One thing all thieves have in common is that they keep their hair tidied up beneath a green bandana. Simply leaving that off will make us easy to recognize. It will be easy to justify to the other thieves as well and does not involve us having to actively do anything."

Rin was the first to pull off her bandana and it actually felt refreshing. "I was getting sick of the damn thing anyway."

Kurumi and Nozomo followed suit. "Thank god we're in our civilian forms. Hiding our Cure form hair beneath those things would be totally impossible."

Nao was the last to take hers off, together with White. "I actually liked it."

"Because your hair looks like it anyway." Rin said and everyone chuckled.

"Furthermore, I am confident that Rouge's earlier actions prove that if we forcibly try to alter the events of the party by force or try to break out by the same means, things will break but simply restore itself. Even if we stormed the grand hall and caused a massacre, they would all indefinitely come back to life, most likely."

"So how do we get out, sherlock?" Rin was still calling her that because she thought it was fitting.

"Honestly, I have no idea. My best guess is that there is something we can do while staying in-role and achieve whatever we're supposed to achieve. Finding that out is probably part of whatever this is."

"At least there are no evil super powered psychopath copies of us that are out to kill us this time." Kurumi snarled and felt Nozomi stiffen up. "You alright, Nozomi?"

"I'm fine." How could I think for a second that the mirrors are a thing of the past now... they're going to remember this for years, possibly forever.

"That our powers are sealed is another indicator that we're supposed to solve this by whatever means we have assigned to us from our role." Honoka sighed. "Honestly, I am not a great fan of role play."

"That makes it sound kinky." Nao said and earned weird glances from everyone. "What?! Come on, it totally did sound like that!" Blushing intensely, Nao really hated this day.

"Moving on." Honoka said and got up. "We should spread out and try to find whoever else is also a thief, possibly a guard. It will be difficult for us to take a close enough look at any servants or nobles, so we should focus on just the hidden passageways and the dungeon for now."

"Speaking of that... Apparently one of the princesses is an Akane. She hired us to rob the palace tonight. I heard one of the thieves say that in the last loop." Nao remembered. "Marine was also a thief, with me."

"Good work remembering that, March. We should all keep our eyes and ears open. Even a seemingly insignificant detail could prove really useful when we start trying to get out of here."

"In that case you should try to find Muse. She is, or was, the first princess and she was talking to all the princesses in the last loop." Kurumi told Honoka and wondered where the girl had ended up now. "There are some really scary people among the princesses." Kurumi didn't really want to share the next bit of information but holding it back would just eventually come full circle and bite her in the ass. "The princess I was, the sixth, Kurumi Vivilfell Escala, is a really cruel and merciless person."

"I would like to write all of this down, but sadly everything I had on me vanished when the loop started over and I fear that will keep happening." Honoka thought that the progress of finding a way out was unnecessarily complex.

"We can always think about that later. First we should focus on getting everyone together before time runs out. Speaking of time, how close are we to midnight?" Rin really wanted to see Kanade.

"The party had been going for a little while when I meat Beauty and some time has passed since then, but we should still have two or three more hours before midnight." Honoka estimated and looked at the numerous tunnels that stretched out from the main cavern. Considering the thieves were hired, it makes no sense for there to be this many tunnels and secret passageways. Is that just part of the setting or is there something to the thieves that we don't know about yet?

"I'm going to look for Kanade." Rin said, stopped, burped, put down her tankard and left. Everyone else thought that she was just going to get herself arrested again.

"I'm going upstairs." Nao said. "Maybe I'll find Reika." Nao walked off without another word.

"Do you want to come with me, Nozomi?" Kurumi offered to her long time friend.

"Sure." Nozomi was happy that she wasn't going to end up alone. Not that anyone can be really alone in this place. There are people everywhere. She had been constantly assaulted with questions, cheap jokes and even cheaper offers when she had been a guest of honor in the grand hall.

Honoka was left on her own and just minutes later, nobody was to be found in the great cavern.

=== Dissonance ===

Michiru had made quite the discovery. It wasn't just that her powers were sealed, there were also certain protective measures in place. While she had spent the entire previous night as a guard protecting the treasury, and eventually falling asleep out of boredom, she was now working as a servant in the kitchens, with less than stellar success. Earlier, she had stepped into a knife someone had dropped. Not only had there been no pain but the knife seemed to pass through her foot, not pierce it. As if it was a ghost knife. Once she pulled her foot back, it dissolved into particles and vanished.

She would have gone crazy from boredom if she had not met two other Cures. Aqua and Muse to be specific, were working in the same kitchen as her and had noticed her completely out of role behavior when she tried to just walk out of the kitchen earlier.

Telling Karen and Ako about it, and exchanging information in general, the three were caught lazing around in a corner by the chief cook and punished, having to go down to the cellar and carry ingredients up to the kitchen for the rest of the night.

Going down for the third time now, Ako lamented her lot. "I think I do prefer being a princess and dealing with politics to this."

"If I see even one more onion I believe my eyes will dry up forever." Karen replied, happy to be actually away from the cooking. She didn't mind cooking for one or two people but she had easily peeled and cut over a hundred onions since she came to in the kitchen and she had just about enough of onions for a long time to come.

"But we are lucky that we found each other. It was really tiring to pretend to be one of them."

"Why do we feel the impulse to act according to our roles? I propose that finding the answer to this will bring us one step closer to removing ourselves from this prison." Michiru said, starting to be a little obsessed with their situation.

"I wouldn't really call it a prison." Ako didn't think it was that bad. Of course some parts were uncomfortable, but wasn't that true for life in general?

"Grand hall servants have it a bit better. And being a noble you could basically retreat to a private room and laze around or sleep. The guards probably aren't much better off than we are, right now." Karen said and they turned around a corner, each of them carrying a heavy sack filled with flour. It was incredible just how much food the kitchens were producing. Or had to produce, it was hard to say what was really the case with things as they were.

They went around another corner and Ako bumped into someone, stumbling backwards, dropping the bag of flour on the ground and falling on her butt. "Watch where you're... going..." Ako turned pale when she realized who she had bumped into. A green haired woman with very large breasts and a golden mask. Holy shit, of all the princesses I had to run into the psychopath.

The princess glared down at Ako and everyone in the vicinity, servants and guards alike, were distancing themselves so they wouldn't get caught in the fallout of the clumsy servant's actions. "I'm so sorry, I-" Ako started her apology but was quickly shut up by the princess.

"Guards!" The Komachi yelled and within a second, as if they had been waiting for it, a Love and Setsuna guard showed up in full armor and with weapons drawn. "Arrest these three numbskulls and take them to the nearest room. I will personally educate them on proper etiquette and the consequences of failing to meet it."

Ako looked at the reactions of everyone around herself and from the way they looked at her, she might as well be dead already. But there was something very off about that princess, Ako felt. She didn't feel nearly as intimidating as when she had dealt with her last time. Is this the real Mint? If so, why would she cause a ruckus?

Ako, Karen and Michiru were pushed into a nearby room that was empty, held in front of the sofa, on the ground. Both guards tried their best to look grim but they didn't do a very good job at it. The second the door closed behind the princess, the guards relaxed and the Love guard even held out her hand towards Ako. "You okay?"

"I thought you were the real Mint. The princess I dealt with before was much more threatening than you." Ako said, knocking some dust off her clothes. "Why the charade?"

"You should know. For one reason or another, there is this nagging feeling in the back of our heads that makes us try to stay in character as much as possible. But why would the princess modeled after me be such a heartless person? It's horrible." Komachi sighed and sat down. "Love, Setsuna, thank you. I would've hated to find an excuse for any real guards to leave me alone with three servants."

"Don't mind it, don't mind it." Love smiled and waved her hand. Sitting in one of the chairs, that creaked dangerously under the weight of Love's armor, she looked towards the three captives.

"How did you three meet up?" Karen wondered out loud and wandered over to Komachi, kissing her in front of everyone else. "I'm so glad to see you."

Komachi blushed a little. "Same here. I don't know how Love and Setsuna met but I found those two flirting with each other while on duty and immediately knew that they couldn't be real guards."

"I don't need any help finding my Setsuna." Love grinned wide. "My Setsuna radar is impeccable!"

"Why do I actually believe you have something like that?" Muse groaned and wasn't surprised when the two guards exchanged loving looks.

"I actually heard you three talking earlier and was waiting for you to make another errand so I could arrange this accident." Komachi smiled to Karen. "You can take it easy for the rest of tonight. Nobody is gonna come looking in here. If they ask, I put you though hell, though, okay?"

"Someone is here." Michiru just blurted out all of a sudden. "I can sense that someone is in here and trying really hard to not make a tone."

A partially armored Erika suddenly jumped out from behind the sofa."What are you, an esper?! That's gotta be against the rules!"

Nobody knew what to say. "If... you heard us talk, you'd know it's us. Why hide?" Ako asked, knowing she wouldn't like the answer at all.

"I've been taking it easy in here, taking a nap. I was hoping you'd just leave and I could go back to sleep." Erika apparently was immune to feeling any shame whatsoever, or so Komachi, Karen and Setsuna thought.

"Blossom would be livid if she knew." Love said with a big grin and Erika suddenly became even shorter than she usually was.

"N-No need to tell Tsubomi, right?" She looked at all of them in turn. "Right?"

"Yes, yes." Ako agreed to finally get going with whatever they needed to actually discuss. "Aqua, about this place-"

Just as she was talking, the bookshelf at the left side of the room, as seen from the door, swung into the room and a rather dusty and dirty looking Honoka thief emerged from it. "I thought I was gonna be stuck behind that wall."

"If a ninja shows up next I am going to assume I'm still sleeping." Erika proclaimed.

"Give it a rest, Marine." Muse was getting a little annoyed. Raising her voice Ako got a little loud. "Any other Cures that want to join our little meeting of uninvited guests?!"

A few seconds of silence passed before Ako sighed and turned to Karen, realizing she had forgotten what she was going to ask. Covering her eyes with her hand, Ako wished she could just go to sleep like Marine had done.

About fifteen minutes later, Honoka had brought everyone up to speed and learned about what Michiru had found out. With the rules for nobles, guards and thieves in place, it only left the servants and it was on Karen, Ako and Michiru to find a suitable sign. "There are too many differences between the way a grand hall servant dresses compared to those who work in the kitchen or are in private employ. Never mind the cooks."

"So clothing based changes like the thieves are impossible." Honoka stated and thought about what else could be used.

"Injuries." Michiru said.

"Didn't you and White just discuss how there is no way to hurt others or ourselves in this place?" Komachi interjected.

"Yes, that is correct. That does not mean we cannot give the illusion of having one. The constructs all follow their given job with great effort, which concludes that they will not injure themselves." Michiru looked around for a moment and then walked to the curtain and ripped it apart at the seam. Taking the cloth and wrapping it around her index finger, it looked like a makeshift bandage. "This."

"That's genius." Love blurted out, not realizing how accurate that was.

"With that we have a sign for every type of role. It should make identifying much easier during the next loop. We should be able to find those that hadn't been told the signals yet and then move on to figuring out a way out of here." Honoka took control of the discussion. "Muse. I heard from Rose that you were the first princess during the last loop and talked to a lot of the princesses."

"I did. And I believe I know what you are getting at, and I agree. I believe there is definitely some ploy against the queen and it is probably going to happen during this masquerade. The first princess is planning something. Although I doubt she is the only one." With those words, Ako looked to Komachi. "The third princess in particular, as well as the sixth, appear to be major players in this court's politics. The second princess has no real interest in politics and aims to be a general when the first princess takes the throne. I cannot speak for the fourth and fifth, I didn't get to talk to them. The seventh is also on my side." Ako realized the slip of her tongue a little late. "I meant the side of the first princess."

"No, I believe your original sentence fits. If we are to somehow bring this plot to fruition before the masquerade ends, we are likely going to have to rush the events forward ourselves." Michiru said.

"Don't tell me we're gonna kill the queen. That doesn't sound like something heroes of justice would do." Erika wasn't really on board with this plan.

"What if the queen is evil? Not to mention, how many heroes of justice fight each other in brutal fights to fix the universe or whatever the hell we're doing?" Ako wasn't really in the mood to deal with Marine right now.

"If she's evil, that's fine then, let's chop off her head." Erika said and giggled. "Off with her head? Alice in Wonderland? Geez, you guys..." And now she was fully on board.

"Either way," Setsuna started. "We need to find a way out of here. Once we identified everyone, we should start trying to figure out what this plot specifically is and then go from there. We're going to need the help of our princesses. Muse would be the most helpful. Mint is probably a close second."

Komachi had been quiet about what her role was planning. "The third princess, Komachi Trisjil Escalia, won't be of much help. Her plan, I gathered at least that much in my conversation with the eight princess, is to turn this kingdom over to their neighbors and long time enemy. She is the first princess' greatest enemy."

"Thank you for telling me, Mint." Ako was truly grateful for that information. "Knowing that much, the next time I become the princess I can put a lot of pressure on the third princess. I'd like to know all the specifics you are aware of."

"It'll take some time." Komachi nodded. "In turn, you can tell me about what you know. It could be useful to pressure your allies into telling me what you are up to." Komachi was starting to like this court politics game a little.

The two cures retreated to a corner of the room and started to go into detail about what they knew. Honoka then turned to Love and Setsuna. "I would like you two to accompany the third princess all the way to the end today. Not all of us have a princess role we can assume and it would be best if everyone at least knew what the queen looked like."

"Will do, sir!" Love saluted and chuckled.

Setsuna saluted as well. "Aye." She blushed a second later. Aye is for the naval forces... "I mean yes, sir."

"What about me?" Erika was leaned over the back of the sofa, still only half in armor.

"Get some rest. That basically goes for everyone that has no chance of seeing the queen and is stuck in a not so useful role. March has been stuck as a thief for both loops. If someone ends up in a role that does not permit them the chance to get some sleep or relax, I can see stress piling up. While we can't be physically injured, I have no doubt that we can become unstable from sleep deprivation or dehydration."

"Bright and I can bring some food from the kitchens. We can say that Muse has been held back by the third princess and is being abused and unless we bring bad food and drinks, she'll be executed. Nobody should ask many questions with an excuse like that." Karen quickly came up with a plan.

"How much longer is it until midnight?" Setsuna asked.

"Not much." Michiru answered. "Eighty minutes and about thirty seconds plus the unknown amount we missed during the last loop compared to this one. I believe we started earlier in this loop."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at Michiru. Love was the first to address the elephant in the room. "How do you know how many minutes are left?"

"I counted the minutes during the last loop. I was, early on, under the impression that I could be under attack and this was a hallucination to trap me in a vegetative state." Michiru looked around. "I believed that to be a valid scenario judging by what happened to everyone until now."

"I want to say something but I can't... she is right actually." Karen said. "In any case, if there is less than ninety minutes left, at least those of us who have nothing else to do and can move freely should go and look for whoever else is remaining without knowledge of the signal."

Everyone agreed.

=== Dissonance ===

Almost two hours later, Reika was walking hand in hand with her sister towards the grand hall, at least that was the role she was assuming. Spending the entire night looking for people, passing on the information about what was going on the signals, she saw several Cures on her way to, and through, the grand hall. There was no way to tell if any of the princesses were a real Cure right now, but it wasn't overly important anyway.

She had been unable to find out much about what her role had been doing prior to the masquerade, even if that knowledge only existed as hearsay, as there likely was not before the masquerade. Being announced made Reika feel slightly uneasy and she tried her best to appear to enjoy being together with Akane. That, of all people, it would be the girl she shared Nao with had to be the one that was in love and relationship with her role was quite unsettling. Almost as if it was that way on purpose.

She spotted two real Cures from the corner of her eye. They stood in the crowd, holding their glasses with a handkerchief and were watching the ceremony rather intensely. Sunshine and Beat. She couldn't give them a signal or anything but she hoped that Sunshine had found more than just Beat. But it was progress either way.

The last princess was finally announced the group and slowly moved upwards. Reika had not seen this part of the castle before and carefully absorbed everything she saw, writing it to memory. Reaching the top-most level, Akane finally separated from her. The princesses, one after another, knelt before the large curtain that covered a small rectangular space containing a throne. As Reika walked up to it, she felt panic. Not the kind one felt from a great adversary or certain death. She had faced those many times and for those, her nerves might as well have been made of tempered steel. But this was the kind of scenario were a faux pax would carry great embarrassment and right now, at the apex of the masquerade, Reika felt panic like she had never felt before.

Kneeling, she felt the eyes from behind the curtain almost drill holes into her but she managed a polite smile anyway. The one second she was kneeling seemed to stretch and stretch until time didn't seem to be following it's own laws anymore, seemingly extending forever.

There was one dominant thought in her head. Don't mess up. Finally, the moment passed and Reika rose, slowly walking to where Akane had taken a seat and sitting right next to her. It wasn't until all the princesses were seated before the queen made her appearance.

Reika paid special attention to the mask the queen was wearing. There were thirty Cures and counting the jewels in the mask, there were exactly thirty as well. The colors matched the Cures, as well. Is that where our powers are stored? Is getting that mask the way to end this masquerade?

As the queen started her speech, Reika paid great attention to that as well, hoping for a hint. But it seemed fairly generic. Thinking that the mask was the real target, Reika focused all her senses on her surroundings.

And just when the queen spoke her last word, time started rewinding at breathtaking speed.

=== End of Chapter XXIX ===