Chương 30: The Matter of Killing

"No." I said flatly. The honest answer was no. I didn't think I could kill in cold blood, even knowing the victim would just come back the next cycle. There was no point in lying about it; I couldn't pull off an assassination, and I didn't want Juliette to give me one.

"Of course you can't," Juliette said with a small chuckle.

"Killing is... hard at the beginning. It takes time. But soon enough, you will find yourself in a situation where you must kill an enemy, or your own life will be at risk. I hope you will be able to pull the trigger then." I nodded.

"Next question," she said.

"Have you ridden a horse before?" I huffed.

"You should know I'm a proficient rider, mind you," And no, I hadn't ridden a horse before, but how hard could it be, really? Juliette squinted her eyes at me, like she so often liked to do, and then sighed.

"Oh well, let me show you something." She reached deep into her leather satchel, produced a folded piece of heavy parchment, and handed it to me. When I unfolded it, I saw some kind of highly detailed rifle schematic. It looked like a musket at first glance, but the flintlock and flash pan were entirely missing. Instead of a solid wooden stock, the back was a swollen, iron flask bolted directly to the breech.

The surrounding sketches showed no powder cartridge or ramrods—just strange internal valves, levers, and what looked like a hand-pump. I couldn't understand what I was looking at. How could a musket fire without a flintlock?

"This is the Girandoni Air Rifle," Juliette explained.

"It's a revolutionary, secret pneumatic rifle used by the Austrian military."

"Pnu... pnume..." I tried.

"It uses air pressure compressed in that buttstock," she continued.

"On the side, it has a tubular magazine holding twenty lead balls. When the trigger is pulled, a spring-loaded valve in the breech strikes a pin on the air flask, releasing a controlled burst of compressed air that shoots the bullet forward. It can fire follow-up shots in seconds without the need to reload. No smoke, no flash, total silence. And the bullet power is enough to be lethal at one hundred paces. This is the perfect assassination weapon."

"It uses air instead of fire?" I asked, my mouth twisting in skeptical confusion.

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Pressurized air," she said again.

"And admittedly, it's a hell of a workout to use the pump to load it. But it's a superb piece of technology, and we want it."

"Ok, fine," I said. Admittedly, I got curious. It was like a weapon from the future.

"I can steal it. Make a nice B. M. P too. So where are they kept?"

"There is a small town to the southwest called Valcreuse." Juliette said, "In its center sits the heavily guarded manor of Marquis Louis-Auguste. Girandoni Air Rifles are an extreme rarity—the Austrians built only a thousand, and very few ever reached France. The Marquis owns two of them. He uses them for hunting, and they are his most prized possessions."

"This hardly sounds like royal jewelry in a palace vault," I smirked.

"I can do this without even using the strawberry jam!"

"Oh, don't you get cocky!" Juliette warned.

"You are playing a dangerous game. If you don't take this seriously, you will soon enough find a bullet in that smart-ass brain of yours."

"I… I guess," I said, looking down. I really didn't want a bullet anywhere near my brain.

"Anyway, the town is only twenty-five kilometers southwest of here. You can make it in half a day on horseback." Juliette searched her satchel again and handed me a bunch of crumpled pages.

"Here is the G. U. I. It has the usual—information on the Marquis, his servants and guards, as well as a map of the manor. This time, I expect a better, more professional B. M. P., so don't get cute on me again." I nodded. I would take this seriously. I would be the best time looper.

"Good," said Juliette.

"Now that you are officially a time loop contractor working for our faction, I can tell you a bit more about us."

"Sure," I said, not minding knowing more about the secretive time loopers.

"So, our faction is called Thomas Thomas, named after our leader... Thomas Thomas. We have about thirty small groups including ours spread out, operating mostly across France and England."

"Wait, the leader is an Englishman?" I asked in dismay. Thomas was an English name, was it not?

"And why did you say the name twice?" Juliette rolled her eyes.

"He will say he is Welsh," she said.

"They just didn't use surnames until the authorities insisted on it, and when they decided to, the government chose everyone's father's first name to be their last name. So if a father and son had the same name..." That was really stupid. But at least the leader wasn't a stupid Englishman, but a person from this... exotic Welsh land.

"The largest time looper faction belongs to the Emperor." Juliette continued.

"We are in... business relations with them. They often hire us to help with their missions, mostly related to the war."

"But... the war is with England, and you said..." Things were confusing again!

"That's right. Like I said, we don't care about that. We do jobs for money, lots and lots of money. We can help both sides of the war; we care not." So they only cared about money. Well, to be honest, I like money too.

"There is a smaller time looper group here in France called Julian's," She said.

"We're at odds with them, and they are dangerous, but things have been quiet lately. We've realized that conflict serves no one. It only feeds more souls to the demons."

"There are those who call themselves the Guild, but they are more active in the southern part of France, and in Spain too. They are more into business and less fighting, so we don't have trouble with them. There are also German and Italian factions, and who knows what else in other parts of the globe. But they are not our problem." I nodded.

"And there is the Academy."

"Academy?" This was a first.

"These are old people who care only about magic research and... well, money," Juliette explained.

"They make the time looper keys, some magic keys too, and sell it to us. Time looper factions are their biggest customers."

"Oh, so that's where you get the keys!" I said. Stolen novel; please report.

"Mostly, yes," she said.

"You got yours somehow by a liaison, but this is a really rare occurrence. In the old times, keys were only gifted by high demons. Those true keys are far superior to the ones we use; they last for three or four loops rather than one, and they grant some kind of power which I don't really understand. Today, the Academy produces our keys, but they are just inferior copies. It's the same with magic—the Academy simply sells lesser versions of true demonic power."

"What is that about magic keys?" That was also the first time I had heard about it.

"You may have guessed by now that James's fire bone magic and decay magic were not simple performance tricks." I... actually hadn't thought about it. And the fact that they were demonic magic made them all the creepier.

"How do these keys look, anyway?" I asked.

"Like everything demon-related, it's creepy stuff. A small bone with blood that you need to swallow. Disgusting matter, really." Eww, I thought. But…

"I... I want a time loop key!" I said abruptly.

"I want to participate in the next loop too!" I really had thought about it. I decided I actually liked this thrilling life, and was good at it too. I wanted to become a full-time, professional Time Looper! I didn't want this to just be a one-time thing that ends when the loop is over. And anyway, if I was going to be busy this entire loop doing jobs for Juliette, the time loop might be over before I managed to do other important things, like seduce Bastien for instance!

"You can't get a key. The Academy won't sell it to you," Juliette said.

"And even if they did, it would cost a lot more than the 1000 louis you will maybe get. This stuff is for large organizations, countries even. It's really not something you can wrap your head around; it's a completely different scale."

"But… but I really want a Key…" I said, my shoulders dropping sadly. I almost felt like crying from the disappointment.

"So this is your only option," She said.

"Do your absolute best on your missions in this time loop, and if your heist in the palace wasn't a one-time fluke, and you indeed show promise, we will have a nice chat with the boss. He could decide to accept you as a full member." Oh. I guess that could work. But... what if this Thomas Thomas was a jerk, and just decided he wouldn't have me?

"Isn't there another way?" I asked.

"No," said Juliette.

"Well, unless you plan to kill a fairy and get a high demon to gift you with a key." What now!? I looked intensely at Juliette, my heart skipping a beat.

"Oh no, no," she smiled at me.

"That's not going to happen. No one knows where to find a fairy. They sometimes appear and are very mysterious. A lot of time loop factions invest many resources in looking for them. If one is discovered, it can cause quite a sensation. It sometimes causes a full-on war between factions just to kill a fairy."

"All that just for a key?"

"No, killing a fairy will get you a liaison bringing you a present from a high demon. It could store many valuables. A treasure such as this can turn the tide in entire wars. It's worth more than you can imagine." Oh, but I could imagine quite a lot.

"And… ah, hepopitically, how exactly do you kill a Fairy?" I asked, keeping my voice as casual.

"Oh, why the sudden interest?" Juliette asked with a small chuckle.

"Just curious," I shrugged.

"They have strong healing powers and can vanish into thin air in an instant, so the assault must render them unconscious immediately—usually a shot to the head will do it. When dead, a fairy won't come back in further cycles."

"I see," I said. That was… very interesting. Another eye squint from Juliette.

"Drizella, you shouldn't think about nonsense," she said to me.

"Do good work, and you have a good chance of getting in. Thomas Thomas wants capable time loopers."

"Yes," I said.

"Of course, I'll do a good job." But now I couldn't unthink it. I had something really rare. I knew how to summon a godmother fairy! I could safely guess that that knowledge by itself was worth a fortune. But the secret to summoning the fairy was to cause Cinderella true despair. And I'll never tell the time loopers about that. If I did, they would kidnap her each cycle and do who knows what to torture to her. I wouldn't tell them that, not in a million years. But that didn't mean I couldn't do it myself.

Sure, it wouldn't be nice of me, as the old fairy hadn't done anything wrong to me. It would also mean I'd have to somewhat betray Cinderella. I would need to sneak into her room while she slept right before the cycle ended and steal the journal I had just given her.

Then I would have to play a cycle exactly like before the time loop: I'd have mother drown her in chores, let her believe there was no hope of attending the ball, and then let her experience that soaring, innocent joy when her little critter friends presented her with her mother's fixed dress. Only then, at the height of her happiness, Anastasia and I would cruelly, viciously tear the gown to shreds, ensuring her hopes were utterly crushed.

Then she would hit that true despair feeling, the condition for the fairy godmother to appear. And I knew exactly where the fairy would materialize. It would be on the stone bench Cinderella was crying on. The fairy would be facing the chateau, with a thicket of bushes just behind her. I could hide there, only a few meters away. It would be an easy enough shot. I wondered if she disappeared when she died.

If she didn't, it would leave Cinderella suddenly finding herself crying onto some old lady's lap—a dead lady with a hole in her head. Already deep in despair, it would be a horrific experience for her. Yes, it will all be horrible, but next cycle, Cinderella won't remember any of it. And I will have riches beyond my wildest dreams, and a true demon key. One that will let me participate in many time loops. If this happened, I wouldn't need the Thomas Thomas faction anymore. I wouldn't need anyone.

I'd really have it all. But it was back to Juliette's earlier question. Can I kill in cold blood? No, I don't think I can. Not like this, I truly didn't have it in me. I sighed heavily. I will need to do it the hard way, and, err... actually work for it. But that doesn't mean I can't have some fun while I am working! In fact, I was planning to take Cinderella with me on the air musket theft mission. It will be fun taking a long trip with her. I bet she could ride a horse perfectly too.

And every mission will be a lot easier with her because everyone we meet will fall in love with her. That ought to make things easier. The only issue would be convincing her to cooperate in what was, essentially, a highly illegal theft. But I can just lie to her. It would be a white lie, since it was meant to help her feel better about the theft.

"Well, it's getting late," Juliette said to me.

"Sleep here tonight. Remember the wanted poster. Do you want to head out to the mission tomorrow already?"

"Yea, I think I will," I said, having nothing better to do, really.

"Well, good luck," she said.

"And remember, don't rush and try to complete the mission in one cycle. This would only affect the quality of your B. M. P and add unnecessary risk. Take three or four cycles, make it right and easy."

"Ah yes, why not," I said. Juliette headed out, and I wandered through the dusty, dimly lit safehouse until I found a cramped bedroom. Ugh, the thin bedsheets looked incredibly rough, probably made of cheap, itchy wool. And the entire room smelled faintly of old people and mothballs. And I didn't even have a nice, scandalous Fifi story to read before bed! Whatever, I was emotionally exhausted enough to sleep anywhere.

I lay down on the lumpy mattress, closing my eyes, imagining riding out tomorrow morning on the grand mission with Cinderella. Oh, we could both ride the exact same cute horsy! This way, it won't require any actual riding skill on my part! I will have to hold her waist tight so as not to fall off the horse, of course! And I bet the pastoral scenery along the road will be incredibly pretty. Cinderella would definitely like seeing that, too. I imagined us riding blissfully on a cute pony and drifted away to sleep.

The next day, I woke up really late, I think. My whole body was scratching and itching from the rough sheets. I quickly dressed, walked all the way back up to the Chateau, and opened the heavy front door. Empty… If it was this late, mother and sister must be in their stupid music lesson. I went to the scullery and saw Cinderella cooking something.

"Drizella, I was so worried about you!" Cinderella gasped, rushing over with flour on her apron.

"You didn't come back! After meeting with those dangerous time loopers!"

"Oh, I do apologize!" I guess I had made her worry. It was... just hard to get used to the idea that people actually cared about me.

"But there are... well, silly reasons for that." I said, "I will tell you all about them."

"I'm just glad to see you are ok." Cinderella gave me a warm smile. I smiled back at her. Knock! Knock! Knock! Three heavy knocks echoed from the front door.

"Oh, must be the stupid royal messenger," I sighed.

"I'll get it."

"The... messenger?" Cinderella asked, looking baffled, but I was already heading to the door. When I swung the door open, I didn't find the midget royal messenger waiting on the steps. Instead, a young man stood there, younger even than me. Oh, right! I got my days mixed up! This was the second day of the cycle, not the first! All these repeating days could be awfully confusing.

The young man had blond hair, a cute face, and, now that I looked, a Model IX flintlock cavalry pistol held in his right hand, which he then raised to aim right at my chest. Oh, it was the exact same model I had!

"Thank goodness you are the ugly sort!" he said with a smile.

"I really hate killing them pretty gals." Then the flint struck the steel. A familiar fizz sound, a bright shower of sparks, and then the loud CRACK! But this time, the deafening sound was accompanied by a brutal, crushing blow to my chest.