Nirre walked right behind me. More guards than usual were stationed around the mansion. Micah's death must have raised some serious alarms.

"How many guards and servants do we have in the Frey Manor?" I asked Nirre.

"26 guards and 12 servants. That doesn't include other staff like the cooks and gardeners," Nirre replied.

"That many?" I asked.

I stopped and looked out a large window by the staircase. The outside garden was flush with greenery and flowers that Jarvis, my younger brother, had commissioned to be planted.

He certainly had an unusual taste in landscaping. Moreso than beautiful, it looked like a colorful experiment that had exploded on the land. However, our parents were supportive of his interest, even if our gardens looked a tad odd. They supplied him with the funds needed to purchase whatever strange plants or equipment he wanted.

"It takes a lot of people to maintain and protect the Frey Manor," Niree added, looking out into the colorful gardens as well.

"...Apparently not enough." I turned and walked down the stairs.

What was the use of having so many guards if they couldn't protect Micah?

I retraced my steps down the stairs back to the dining room. The room had already been swept clean. There wasn't a shred of evidence that Micah had died here.

"Where is my brother now?" I turned back towards Nirre.

"He was taken to his room," Niree said.

Just like in my first life. Nothing changed except that I woke up in time to see him die three times now.

I walked inside Micah's room. The design looked different from my first life, but it was obviously his room. It had tall ceilings and was extravagant in its own way, but it wasn't quite as ostentatious as my own room. Instead, it was the bedroom of the proper heir to the Frey Merchantry Guild. It was crisp and clean. Nothing out of place. Except for a few random objects atop his dresser.

I picked up one of them and chuckled. It was a frivolous gift I gave Micah for his twenty-fifth birthday.

'What I want? Something that's surprisingly expensive and makes me laugh,' he had said.

I knew Micah found turtles oddly amusing. And there wasn't any other gem quite as expensive as phoenix eyes. Thus, I found a large black pebble on a rare outing to the beach and had commissioned someone to carve it into a turtle's shape. I then had a jeweler embed it with two phoenix eye gemstones for the eyes. It took a bit of convincing; no jeweler wanted to waste rare gems worth more than diamonds on such a piece. I went to twelve jewelers, getting thrown out each time. My reputation hardly helped—on second thought, my reputation was probably the main reason I kept getting turned away. Finally, however, one came through.

The jeweler's face was priceless when I pulled out a knife and scratched in a tiny smile beneath the two golden eyes. Micah laughed for days after getting his gift and hearing the whole story.

It was a stupid gift, even by my standards.

"Micah had it in his pocket when he died." My mother's voice sounded across the room. "He carried that turtle with him everywhere. Said it was a lucky charm."

"He did?"

I didn't know that in my original life. You live and learn. Or, in my case, die and learn.

I turned to face my mother and Micah. She was sitting beside the bed. Atop it lay Micah, cleaned and dressed.

I had avoided looking in his direction this whole time. Still, my eyes had already finished looking at everything else in the room. Only he remained.

"He looks like he's resting," I said.

Memories of his death from my first life returned. He looked now, just like he had before when he had died in my original life. It was the eeriest of deja vu's. It wasn't my mind playing tricks on me. I really was reliving this scene.

I walked over to them.

"He does look like he's resting." Mother caressed his hand. "But he is cold to the touch."

"Where's Father?" I looked around the room.

"Downstairs. He's taking care of some things." Mother's voice was heavy.

"Ah."

I knew what that meant. Father was down in the cellar. That was where Kaiden's body had been taken in my original life. It, along with anything else Kaiden had in his possession, was currently no doubt being taken apart for clues. Not that it mattered. Even in my first life, it had never been found out why Kaiden turned on Micah and killed him.

However, I didn't care for the why. I only cared about how I could prevent Micah's death.

"Why didn't Henry do anything?" I asked.

It had been bothering me for the last two hours.

Mother continued to caress Micah's hand, but her green eyes refocused on me.

Nirre and two other guards were with us in the room but were distanced enough to give us some semblance of privacy.

"I even instructed Henry to toss the dagger at Kaiden. But he did nothing." I added.

"Yes… I heard from Henry that he didn't listen to your order. He is currently being disciplined for that." Mother nodded her head. Her eyebrows pinched together.

"Why didn't he do anything? Micah could have been saved. Is Henry in on the plot?" My thoughts blurted out as words.

My warning wouldn't have made a difference if he was in on the plot. It meant I had told the wrong guard. I should have warned one of the other guards instead.

Mother placed a hand on her forehead and sighed. It was a long and bitter sigh.

"It was wrong of Henry to disobey an order. But even if you had told me and your father… it might not have been taken seriously," she said.

"What?" I blinked.

My own mother wouldn't have believed me. Why?

"It was only last week that you and Elda conspired to play a prank that you had been kidnapped." She let out a deep sigh. "It's a good thing the prank was found out before Micah got a hold of your attendant. It's hard to hire good people."

"Yes… there was that…." I recalled.

I had completely forgotten about that incident. For me, it was something that had happened a good seven years ago, when I was still a reckless teenager. For everyone else, that was a week ago.

"And before that, you had played a prank that Jarvis had his hand chopped off in a duel. I still don't know where in the world you found an actual disembodied hand…."

My eyes wandered to the ceiling. I did recall that one. I was friendly with the local morgue keep, and many kids died on the regular in these parts. It was easy to snatch a helping hand for a prank.

"And before that–"

Mother continued in a defeated voice listing off the various pranks I had pulled off. There were funny ones, but many were in relatively poor taste. I had a genuinely reckless sense of humor at this age.

I felt my stomach churn.

Why did I do all that for? Was my life really so peaceful and lacking in excitement back then?

"...I get it." I stopped her.

She was in the process of recounting the prank I pulled on one of the maids where I faked having been bit by a venomous snake.

Even though I came back in time to save Micah, I had rung the false alarm one too many times by this point in my life.

"By pulling all those pranks, I had destroyed my credibility and trust. And it had to break when that trust was needed most." The words came out of my mouth lifelessly. I understood the situation.

My fists clenched tightly. Because of my past stupidity, no one–not even my parents–would believe me even if I went back in time. I had burned that bridge.

The look my mother gave me made my chest clench.

"It's a painful lesson," she said. "For everyone. But now, people will take your warnings more seriously. And from now on, remember to not break someone's trust in you again."

I would have felt better if she had been angry at me. But her expression was full of anguish and heartbreak. Not just at having lost her son, but towards me. She felt heartbroken for me.

[ Perception has increased by +1 ]

[ Perception: 38 ]

The blue screen overtook the view of Mother and Micah.

[ Your ability to perceive and understand your surroundings has increased. ]

I shooed the screen away.

Great. Hip-hip-hooray. I can better perceive how depressing this all is.

Based on my mother's new expression, I can also perceive that waving my hand in front of me suddenly looked really out of place.

"I'm going to walk around." I excused myself and walked out of Micah's bedroom.

After walking down the hall several steps, I realized that I still had the stone turtle in my hand. I looked down at the uneven scratched-in smile and golden gemstone eyes.

I remembered Micah's words to me when I had given the turtle to him.

'Luca, it looks like you! The eyes are just like yours. Even the smile matches yours.'

I guess there's some similarity.

I didn't pick phoenix eye stones because they looked like my eyes. It was purely because of how stupidly expensive they were and the legend around them.

I cocked my head.

I don't understand what he meant about the smile, though.

"Luca?" Nirre called out, bringing me back to the present.

"Do I have a weird smile?" I asked.

I gave a bright smile to Nirre to provide a real-life example.

"Well-I don't know if it's odd—"

"Forget it." I waved her off.

It was a dumb question. Why did I ask?

"Ah. Right. I want to retrace Micah's steps. Can you show me where he came from before coming to breakfast?" I asked.

I was going to save Micah one way or another.

And then I will make him another one of these dumb turtle pebbles since he liked this first one so much. Damn it. I will commission as many as he wants. I'll even find a phoenix eye gemstone mine if I have to.