Knock Knock Knock

Damian’s eyes instantly shot open at the noisy knocking. He sat up in his bed and felt his body with his hands. No pain. No signs of any wounds. He glanced around and discovered that he was in his room. The rays of sunlight bleeding through the windows signaled that it was daytime.

Knock Knock Knock

Damian jumped out of bed and hurriedly opened the door, revealing the visitor to be Emilia. Her expression, which was annoyed at first, switched to one of concern once she saw his pale, ghastly appearance.

“Geez, how long….Hey, are you alright? You look terrible.”

“I’m fine, just tired.” Damian sighed. “Let me get dressed, I’ll be right with you.”

After Emilia agreed, he shut the door and began to change while deep in thought.

It looks like I succeeded in going back to this morning. My wounds are gone and there are no signs of them despite how badly I was injured. Also Emilia doesn’t seem to know what happened based on how she greeted me. So from what I know so far, I can only use my Blessing of Time Travel when I’m about to die. I’ve only used it to go back to a certain point, this morning. I most likely can change when I come back since I’ve been thinking of this day every time I go back. So most likely all I have to do is think of a different time to change when I “time leap”. Can I go to the future? I would try but it's too risky. If I try to go to the future when I’m about to die and it doesn’t work I could actually die. And anyways going to the future won’t help me with the problem at hand.

Damian snapped on his fanny pack and exited his building, this time not even bothering to grab his brunch.

On the way to the forest, the villagers cheerfully greeted Damian and Emilia as per usual but Damian, who was still deep in thought, unintentionally ignored their greetings as he walked past the confused villagers. They looked to Emilia for an answer but a shrug was all she could show in response.

Once again, in about 14 hours, that ape will attack the village and kill everybody. I know now that it doesn't have a "phone sense" since I was able to easily trick it in the last loop. That means just running away with my phone is a no go since it will just come here anyways. Killing the beast will be extremely difficult seeing as an arrow to the heart wasn't enough to kill it. But there must be a way to kill it. If it was invincible that would just be ridiculous. And then there's Frank. He's gonna be difficult to convince but this time I'm cool headed so I'm sure I'll be able to do it.

Damian and Emilia reached the gates where the same scene was being played out: Frank verbally abusing the elf who was trying to warn him of an incoming danger.

"I saw it with my own eyes! A giant beast is making its way here as we speak! We do not have enough time to be squandering around!"

"Yeah? Well you can take yourself to hell before you convince me that there is no trickery being played here!" Frank retorted.

Like before, the two were locked in an intense argument that was leaning in Frank’s favor. However this time, Damian stepped in to reason with the stubborn chief.

“Frank.” Damian chided. “Even if she may be playing a trick on us we can’t afford to do nothing after what she said.”

“Damian?” Frank growled. “I didn’t ask for your opinion.”

“You didn’t. But your stubbornness could kill us all so I had to speak up. If a beast really does make its way to the village like she says, then we are all dead. As the village chief you bear the responsibility of protecting the village. So make the right choice.”

After a moment of silence, Frank sighed and massaged his nape with his right hand.

“Alright, I get it. But I’m still against evacuating the village in case she’s lying.”

“Evacuating is the only way to keep everyone safe.” The elf interjected. “Any other way would mean leaving the villagers in harm's way. And anyways, how would lying to get you to evacuate the village benefit me?"

"You're probably scheming to rob us once we are out or something. I don't know exactly what but I definitely can't trust you."

The elf opened her mouth to object when Damian cut her off by loudly and intentionally clearing his throat.

“I’ve got an idea that will satisfy both of you.” Damian announced. “The villagers will not have to evacuate and they won’t be put in harm’s way either.”

“Ok, what is it? Spit it out.” Frank demanded.

“I’ll go hire adventurers from the guild in Jackson town. They’ll be able to intercept the beast before it even gets to the village. That way the fight will take place away from the village so the villagers won’t have to evacuate.”

"Hmm. That's not a bad plan." Frank nodded, impressed with Damian's on the spot idea, not knowing that it technically took 2 days from Damian to come up with it.

"I agree with it as well." The elf stated.

Damian clapped his hands together.

"Then it's settled." He announced.

"By the way, the fee to make a request was 5 dollars right?" Damian slowly turned to Frank with a sorry smile. "Can you pay for it?"

Frank reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. A 5 dollar bill was taken out and placed into Damian's hand.

"Here. Now get outta here and make that request. And as for the reward tell them it's $50" Frank waved as he returned to the village.

"I'm gonna head to Jackson Town now, you coming with?" Damian asked Emilia.

"Should I? I've still got to harvest the food." Emilia pondered. "Eh, I can do it when we come back. It shouldn't take us that long."

"Alright." Damian nodded and faced the elf.. "What are you gonna do, uh..?

"Rose." She answered." My name is Rose Pierce. I'll stay in the forest and keep a lookout."

The beast won't come until nightfall but I guess it wouldn't hurt to keep her here.

"Alright Rose. Lets go Emilia."

They waved goodbye to Rose and entered the forest on their way to Jackson Town. As they walked down the path Emilia spoke up about Damian’s unusual assertiveness.

“That was definitely a performance you put on back there.”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“You actually looked kinda cool for once. I mean I’ve never seen you talk back to Frank like that before, ‘you have to protect the village so make the right choice’.” She said while striking a pose and imitating Damian horribly.

“I don’t sound like that.” Damian chuckled.

“Whatever.” She giggled. “My point is that you can man up when you want to, I guess. And you even convinced Frank to work with Rose. Even if I spoke up, which I would’ve if you didn’t, I don’t think I could’ve done that.”

“Yeah well it took a lot out of me. You don’t know how much I had to go through to get the balls to do that.”

“What does that mean?”

“What does what mean?”

“Get the balls to do that.”

“Oh, that's just a saying from where I come from. Um, balls, is like a synonym for confidence.”

“So like, that took a lot of balls! Does that work?”

“Er, yeah.”

“Why is it called balls?”

“I’d rather not explain.” Damian awkwardly laughed.

“Now you’re just making me curious.” Emilia complained.

“Let's just stop talking about balls please, I’m sorry for bringing it up.”

Emilia slightly frowned that made her resemble a child that was about to go on a tantrum and Damian knew what was going to happen next.

“Nope, I’m not letting it go! You have some serious balls! Nice balls! You have a lot of balls! Balls. Balls. Balls. Balls---”