“Charrrrrgeeeeeee…”- a dead philosopher

The three brave souls then charge through the invading army, Walter in the lead with Albi and Alex following closely behind. The first man Walter meets, a soldier dressed in red and gold, is shirking his duty as he is relaxing on the wall. Walter pummels before he has a chance to speak, much less draw his sword. The next moment Walter takes the partially unsheathed weapon and continues his charge.

‘Do we actually have a chance of making it?’

While following closely behind his father, Alex starts to whisper to Albi, “Why do we have to use magic stones, shouldn’t Walter be able to activate it?”

Albi whispers back to Alex, “Well, the main problem with that is you challenging Walter.”

Walter stabs another soldier from behind

Albi looks to Walter for a moment, and then they continue forward.

“Alex, by challenging him to a sacred duel, you’ve challenged his control of the province, and hence the magic beast.”

‘Why didn’t this ever come up in the other loops?’

Alex looks bothered for a moment but then shakes his head.

‘Well, let’s focus on making it to the divine beast first.’

“Alex, Albi,” Walter whispers, “This next intersection has three of them; I need you two to take out the other two.”

Albi nods, and Alex follows suit.

Walter holds up three fingers and starts closing them one after another until his hand is clenched, and he launches towards the one to the right, leaving the two on the left.

Alex quickly follows suit rushing at the soldier before he stumbles, and the soldier brings his sword down onto his neck.

…

Alex hits the soldier only to be stabbed in the chest.

…

Alex leads Walter to a different route just to meet a group of eight soldiers chatting,

‘these guys are really relaxed in enemy territory, aren’t they…’

Alex ended up surviving the battle with several lacerations, but fainted and died by blood loss.

…

‘maybe the problem lies in how I first extract Walter, then maybe…’

“--something good for once is going to come from my father’s cowardice, Alex?”

‘wait, the point I ‘jump’ to moved forward?’

Alex shivers for a moment.

‘what if it moves to after father’s death…’

Alex shakes his head, but the notion won’t leave him.

“Son? You need to go with Albi to the cellar. Now!”

Walter looks at his son sternly while Albi stands by the door, waiting.

“Father, do we even know that escape route is uncompromised, why don’t we just wake the magic beast instead?” Alex asks, with a questioning gaze.

Walter shakes his head, “I’m not sure why you think the escape route is corrupted, but even if I wanted to, the magic beast would not answer my call.”

‘???’

“It has a contract with the duke, who’s still technically my father since I never activated the sacred duel, and he never handed over the title. In fact, I’ve had to replace the old communication devices in this room with ones that don’t require it.”

“but didn’t grandfather willingly step down?” Alex says, wondering how the two things could not be mutually exclusive.

“He did, but if he were to in official capacity, the western duchy would have known. Hence I’ve never had the title, even while I’ve acted in the capacity.”

‘So, in other words, it won’t matter if I challenge him to a duel or not. He still won’t be able to activate the divine beast with the controls here.’

Alex eyes the bench filled with buttons, and Walter follows his gaze, “Yes, in the end, they are pretty much decorative.”

“Alex, now that you know you need to go with Albi. We don’t have the time for you to be fooling around here,” Walter says while approaching Alex.

“You need to go!”

“But what if it’s compromised?” Alex responds to Walter’s tension with calmness.

“It’s the best chance you have, and the future of the duchy as well,” Walter says while grabbing Alex’s collar. Walter then starts dragging Alex to the door.

“But what if it wasn’t?”