~Master, that was rather lenient of you.

Apophis's voice hissed into my mind, dry and amused, as I made my way across the blackened farmland. The morning sun had risen high enough to warm my skin, though its light did little to brighten the ruined and mutated cabbage fields.

The snake's cool body lay lazily across my left shoulder. His tone carried that hint of mockery he seemed to savor whenever I made a decision he disagreed with.

~Had a subordinate of mine been caught spying on behalf of another house, I would have made an example of them. Treason should never be met with mercy.

"I'm sure you would have," I muttered, using Illusion magic. My boots crunched against the brittle earth and twisted, corrupted black vines that had sprouted from the black leafy orbs.

"It wasn't leniency," I added after a pause. "It was practicality. I'll deal with him in due time."

~Practicality, Apophis hissed, amused. Such a very human excuse.

I ignored his mocking tone. The plain reality was that my plan for the coming loops required seclusion, and for that, Remlend was indispensable. Sending him away—or causing him any harm—would only rob me of the one person who could discreetly see to my every need and detail while I focused entirely on honing my mastery over Chaos and Illusion magic.

"Without him, I'd be fetching my own meals, drawing my own baths, and scrubbing my own clothes," I argued. "Menial tasks that I could theoretically do, but they'd eat into the time I ironically can't waste."

Having had to survive on the streets of East Genise in my original life, I wasn't exactly spoiled. I knew how to survive without comfort. I had done so before, sleeping on the hard floor, cooking my own unimpressive grub, and doing whatever was needed to survive. But, having once again tasted the luxury of having an attendant do everything for you? After knowing what it was like to have every detail managed with silent perfection? That was not a luxury I was quick to cast aside.

~So, you would trade punishment for convenience.

"Call it efficiency," I countered. "I intended to visit Rana Sol during this loop, and if she is an Awakened, meeting her sooner than later is critical."

Apophis hissed from my shoulder, in evident disdain for her father, Ra Sol.

My contempt for that man was no less; Ra Sol was the nutjob who burned my home to the ground in the previous loop and was the mastermind behind the Guardians of Luminal, who had brought my family to ruin in the original timeline.

However, the sins of her father were not hers.

Or at least I hoped she was a decent enough human being. The last thing I needed was another enemy, and an Awakened one at that.

I did have a reason to be hopeful. Claude's intel from the prior loop suggested that her father was suffocatingly protective. If that was true, she might prove decent. And even if she didn't, it would be foolish to meet her unprepared. Having a couple of tricks up my sleeve was essential to avoid prematurely restarting the loop.

"And besides, Remlend had confessed of his own accord. That counted for something," I added.

I frowned as the farmland ended and I stepped beneath the warped branches of what had once been a cheerful cherry orchard, if I were to believe the leftover documents I'd found in one of the cottages. Now the trees leaned inward, their bark blackened, their twisted branches raking the air like skeletal fingers.

~Curious, isn't it? Apophis mused. In past loops, he never spoke a word of his other allegiance; otherwise, you would have been aware already. Yet here, he bares his throat willingly.

"I've been wondering the same," I admitted, brushing past a thick trunk that I could feel pulsing with dead mana.

What changed in this loop compared to prior ones, where Remlend had never revealed his second employer?

Nonetheless, I appreciated his honesty in this loop. It was knowledge I had now recorded into the System's reminders, so I'd know in every future loop, even if my memory slipped during a sanity wipe.

I walked deeper into the orchard, the air thick with the strange metallic tang of dead mana. The ground was littered with warped fruit, cherries—if you could still call them that—shriveled black and pulsing faintly with corruption.

I was careful to avoid touching the surrounding trees needlessly. I didn't need to fear the infected, as I was capable of channeling the dead mana into a viable source of chaos magic. However, I was not entirely immune, and squandering time to cleanse my body of dead mana spurs was a waste of daylight.

~And as for his employer, didn't you send her daughter those cookies?

I nodded.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

There was also the awkward matter of who Remlend had been working for: the Ozeryn Duchess, Sedna's mother.

I liked Sedna. No, I admired her. Despite her devastating illness, she was angelic in her temperament and generous enough to have directed her family's wealth to bolstering Adovoria's armies. I also appreciated her mother's support.

"Damn politics," I muttered. The words, though spoken with illusion magic, still tasted bitter in my mouth.

The reality of Adovoria's political landscape meant that there were various nuances between the various great families and my own, putting us at odds. The Freys—or rather the descendants of House Arankagul—had always stood apart from the nobility at large. There was no way around it; those of House Arankagul were to protect the crown and kingdom from harm, and that duty often meant drawing blades against threats from within.

Micah's marriage into the royal line had only sharpened tensions. The poisoned champagne at the ball was proof enough that not all were willing to let our blood so close to the throne.

I doubted it would be the last assassination attempt.

So yes, with all the historical nuances, I understood why the Ozeryn Duchess might want eyes on us. It wasn't surprising.

"It's hardly enough of an excuse, though," I added.

~Then what will you do?

I stopped beneath the arching limbs of a tree, with a clearing up ahead where I had trained the previous days.

I sighed and stepped into it, the air thick with the same tang of dead mana, a scent that reminded me of a spoiled plum.

"I'll think of something," I answered. "Some form of reimbursement."

I didn't want to soil my relationship with Sedna, but something had to be done to balance the scales.

~Still, to merely make Remlend go without pay for a month? Apophis hissed, his voice curling with disdain. It's barely more than a slap on the wrist.

I exhaled loudly, my annoyed gaze settling on the faint scars left in the clearing. Most of the obvious signs of my earlier experiments had been concealed, but the fact that such a space existed at all in the middle of this twisted orchard was proof enough of my practice.

"Enough." My tone sharpened. "We're here, and we don't have time to waste. Focus on training me in Chaos."

The benefit of training this far into the infected land was twofold: the abundance of dead mana to draw from, and the comfort of seclusion, well out of reach of any curious eyes.

The black orchard hushed around us, only the faint rustle of warped branches breaking the silence.

~Very well, let's warm up with the basics then. Bring out the usual practice material.

I opened up the Game Store and pulled out five blocks of stone, each the size of a head. The blocks appeared mid-air and hit the ground with heavy thuds, sending up thin puffs of dust. I had an abundance of these, as no one amongst the Players seemed keen to purchase them.

But another's trash was my clay to play with.

~Let's begin with material transformation. The form must remain the same, just the material should change. Try to transform all of them into gold. Pure gold.

"Alright," I muttered, stretching out my hands, one toward the trees, while the other focused on the block.

I drew dead mana from the corrupted orchard around me. I was attuned enough to the black energy that I could feel it trickle like tar through my right hand's veins, cold at first, then warm as I bent it toward the stones. One block shifted immediately, its dull gray surface rippling before hardening into brilliant gold. Sunlight caught its facets, blinding in its brilliance.

However, the other blocks fared worse. Their surfaces flickered and cycled through endless materials: marble, ice, granite, paper, crystal—each flashing into being before collapsing into another. It was like pulling the lever on a slot machine, watching symbols spin and blur, trying desperately to land on the right one. Except here, the options were quite literally endless, and the only real part I was capable of controlling was the speed of the transformations.

~You're grasping too tightly, Apophis hissed. Chaos does not like to be caged. Surrender control, and it will deliver what you desire.

I compelled my jaw to unclench and tried again, with forced relaxation.

Ah!

The second stone shimmered, its surface softening, then hardened into a block of gold.

Progress.

I focused on the remaining three, trying to relinquish control, while at the same time hoping to will the blocks to turn gold.

At last, a third block transformed and gleamed yellow; however, there was no celebration.

~Wrong. That's fool's gold. Try again.

I sighed and thrust out my right hand, drawing more of the corruption from the trees. Their bark pulsed faintly, the darkness evaporating as I drained them. Meanwhile, my left hand held steady in front of me, fingers twitching in time to the changing blocks.

A third stone finally turned true gold.

~Good. Two more.

The last two blocks resisted me stubbornly, twisting into everything except the form I sought. Beads of sweat rolled down my face, stinging my eyes as I pressed harder. However, I persisted. I drained two nearby cherry trees into husks before, at last, both blocks flashed gold.

Exhausted, I collapsed on the dirt ground, which I had already wiped clean of any dead mana spurs days back. My forehead and shirt were damp with sweat, and my hands were trembling slightly from the strain.

"That was supposed to be a warm-up?" I muttered aloud, too drained to bother with Illusion magic. Not that it would have mattered if anyone was nearby; my voice barely counted as a whisper.

~And now you have five blocks of gold you could sell for a handsome profit, Apophis said, coiling tighter around my shoulders with smug satisfaction.

I let out a weak laugh. "So Chaos magic is just Alchemy for masochists?"

~Alchemy, Apophis hissed, has its roots in greed—the human obsession with gold. But it is Order at its core. Alchemy obeys the law of equivalent exchange. To create, you must provide in equal measure.

He flicked his tongue in distaste.

~Chaos bends no knee to such laws. You transformed stone into gold without supplying an ounce of what should have been required.

"Then why would anyone bother with Alchemy at all?" I asked, flopping onto my back, staring up at a bright blue sky, filled with drifting white clouds. The golden stones nearby gleamed in the sunlight, mocking in their brilliance.

Apophis slithered atop my chest, gazing down at me.

~Because, unlike Chaos, Alchemy does not corrupt. Chaos always extracts its toll. On fools, it rots their minds, warps their bodies, and unravels their very souls.

"But I don't have to worry about that," I retorted, but it was also a question on my part.

~Master does not. But take heed: avoid overplaying your hand. The Agency of Order and Game Development typically pays no mind to the use of Chaos magic, given that natural consequences exist. But they are creatures of Order at their core.

That made me stiffen. I gazed at Apophis, feeling my skin prickling beneath the now-cool sweat.

"What," I asked carefully, "is the Agency of Order and Game Development exactly?"

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