Peaceful, it was so peaceful, we passed by so many little villages under our protection, in each village, improvement can be obviously seen, the people's faces that used to be dreary and malnourished seemed to have improved. I am really happy that their conditions and lifestyle are improving. The people who saw our carriage that carried the symbol of Arcadia started kneeling, I am not accustomed to it so it felt weird, the only thing I could do was imagine that it was their way of giving a salute, something I'm more familiar with.

We've arrived sooner than I expected, the gates Arcadia welcomed us, the moment it did, I was greeted with a festive mood. A huge band of bards using different instruments welcomed us to a loud yet harmonious sound, the people kept throwing rose petals as we passed by the streets. Is there an ongoing festival?

I asked myself that question but the cheers from the crowd said otherwise

"The Royal Knight fought off a massive army! with him on our Kingdom, those greedy bastards won't be able to lay their hands on our beloved land anymore!" A man shouted as he energetically threw rose petals from the rooftop of his home

"Long live Arcadia!" Another woman wept as she threw petals

"Oh? Zeno is a Royal Knight? interesting" Astarotia stared at me, I think she's realized something, that's why her eyes were so inquisitive

"Hey cap'n, your guildmates are so overwhelmed!" Melphis grinned as she pointed at Lea and the others' carriage

It is true that the coachmen were a bit shy, even Rick who was usually narcissistic is now hiding his face in embarrassment but there's always someone different, that's right, Lea was standing on top of the carriage and was waving the Aegis flag while advertising our guild

Marcus tried to pull her down but she nagged at him and forced him to advertise along with her

I could only chuckle at the sight of this

This scene kept going until we reached Arcadia castle, the steel gates lowered and formed a bridge across the small lake around the castle, we strode in.

Cynthia was there, waiting for us so I immediately left the carriage and kneeled in front of her, she is the Royal Queen

"Rise my Knight" She spoke out, this really feels different, she's usually acting the way she likes when she's around us but right now she's just covered in the air of royalty, guess I found a new side of her

I stood up, amidst the stares of so many nobles and guards

"Let us give our people a festival, a day to celebrate not only our freedom but also to enjoy the fact that we will never be under their clutches again!" She announced

All of the nobles, fat or thin, tall or small, bearded or not started clapping.

"Tonight, there will be a royal feast! everyone is invited, tell the chefs to start cooking, also call all of the local chefs to help us out so that we can achieve this feat" Cynthia stated

"But my Queen, inviting everyone is a bit..." One of the nobles spoke out

"I did say invite everyone, yes? if you're worried about the space then don't worry, all of the nobles shall feast in the royal castle while everyone will enjoy themselves in the garden" Cynthia explained

"I-I see, I am sorry to have doubted your decision my Queen" The man backed out while rubbing both his hands

"Cynthia... what about the secret ship and Alissa's lab, aren't they located around the Garden?" I whispered

"I've already posted guards there that will stop anyone from entering" She replied with a whisper

"I see, thanks"

"It's alright, go and see Alissa, I'll talk to Guildmaster and the others"

"Alright, see you then"

I walked away without anyone noticing and quickly headed for the lab, the security has gone much more sophisticated than the last time I was here. There was actually a Nikola Death Ray here, although it was hidden and deactivated, once it's turned on, no living thing can enter the lab.

I passed through all security checks such as eye scan and voice analyzers without a hitch and soon arrived at the underground Alissa lab

I went to her room and saw Alissa there, typing something on her laptop

"You're finally here" Alissa stopped what she was doing and closed the laptop

"I'm sorry it took so long" I apologized and hugged her

"No, I'm as long as you're back, everything is fine" I heard her whimper for a bit

"Here, take a look at the stone" From the pockets on my belt, I pulled out the Specter stone

Alissa carefully took it and stared at it before looking at me, I can see tears forming in her eyes

"No, I can't, not yet" She wiped her eyes and looked at me, she's resolved but the question is what? what caused her to have resolve

"I need to show you something"

She pulled out of the room and inside the lab

"Do you see this?" Alissa pointed at a large transparent tube

I looked at it and inside was a weird creature, octopus-ish but it strangely had some exoskeleton on its back, also, instead of suction cups on its tentacles, it had hooks much like of cockroach

"This is a mind-eater, a very rare demon. I've asked Alissa for information concerning the monsters and demons of this world, she searched through their library and used her authority as a queen to open up hidden archives, in the end, she got me this, a demonology book, an incomplete record of demons in the past recorded by warriors and scribes of the Arcadia kingdom"

Alissa showed me a book that had an animal's skin for cover, it was brown, something leathery but there were no words on the cover just plain brown. She flipped it and showed me a drawing of the said creature, I read its name and its description

"A monster of unknown origin, it has appeared time and time again in order to eat the brains of any intelligent creature so that they will know what their prey did, for something that looks like an octopus, they use their spiky tentacles to move swiftly on land, they jump on their unsuspecting prey and wrap their tentacles all over their target's head. After that, a tube-ish spike will protrude from its rear and will stab itself on the target's head. It will suck out the brain before jumping off and hiding in the darkness, digesting the knowledge it has taken before targeting another"

After reading it, I spoke out what I thought was weird

"Unknown origin? how come they haven't discovered its origin?" I asked

"That's because they're not from this world or should I say, Timeline"

"What?" I realized something, the reason that thing looked so familiar but I hoped it wasn't true

"Zeno, we didn't go to another world, we went back in time, that mind eater is the first generation of the Formars" Alissa explained

"And the colony?" If we went back in time... then what about the colony?

"I have a theory for it, listen to this. A monster, most probably a bug class, have come in contact with a radioactive chemical from one of our crashed ships that caused it to mutate" Alissa stated

"And here's the second, my loop theory. Perhaps the queens now are what they call the founders, in the colony, there was a legend that there were queens who fought amongst each other, they ravaged any living creature they came in contact with, their war grew and caused the planet itself to die due to their toxins. The planet exploded and pieces of its land scattered throughout their galaxy, some microbes, frozen in Ice, might've followed their genetic makeup and with Darwin's law of natural selection, started to adapt to whichever hell they landed"

"Which do you think is truer?" I asked

"To be honest, I'm betting my chances on my first theory, the time loop theory is too much for me because if it was true, shouldn't the colony cease to exist? I mean, you can't give birth from the future to the past"

"But... on the slight chance that it really was the 2nd theory... does this mean that everything will just recreate itself in the future?"

"I really hope not... I'm hoping that we are the monkey wrench thrown in this entire loop"

"A monkey wrench huh? I... I really am not good with this sciency stuff" I wracked my head but nothing seemed to make sense anymore

"I know... that's why you should just concentrate on doing what you do best and I'll do my own stuff, your battles are just as equally hard as my struggle to find an answer" Alissa paused for a bit as she leaned her head on my chest and continued

"We support each other our relationship is perfect if you ask me"

"I couldn't agree more"

We both hugged each other, the Specter stone on the table, the first generation of formars in that tube, there's just so much going on yet the woman in front of me, she could grab all of my attention with a single motion while washing away all of my worries with a single loving gesture

Nothing makes sense but at least I'm sure of one thing

There's no way in hell I'm going to allow anyone close to me to face danger