Chapter 211 - 207: Time Loop Broken
"I might not have the accurate numbers, but I believe that over a thousand demons went missing in my land this year from what I hear. Since our population is so high, most people don't even care when someone disappears. There have also been instances when demons kill each other and bury them while keeping it a secret. So, there can be many reasons for them to go missing," The Second Duke explained to Ryder since he was sitting closest to Ryder amongst all the Dukes.
"The number can only be higher in my duchy since it's the most populated in the Realm. I don't know about this year, but last year, around Twenty thousand demons went missing. I know the exact number since I had this curiosity at that point in time, and I told my people to get the answer to this," Another Duke replied.
One after another, all the Dukes gave a number. There was one constant, though. All of them talked about people going missing in their Duchy. None of them said that there was no one that went missing.
The Vampire King didn't interrupt any of them while they were talking, but he was getting impatient.
"See? There are thousands of Demons that go missing here every year. It's not impossible for someone to kidnap the demons and use them to place the blame on us. It might be the Death Domain," Ryder let out with a thoughtful look on his face.
"They have the benefit and the Strength to do something like this. What do you think?" Ryder inquired.
The Vampire King was finally confused as he heard it this way. He knew that there was also a possibility of that.
He looked towards Ryder as his gaze became more intense. He was using his skill to get the truth out of him.
"That Skill won't work on me. You might be forgetting who I am," Ryder replied casually.
If it was a normal situation, he would have just pretended to be affected by his skill and lied that he was innocent, but since he couldn't lie, deflecting was the better option.
"Look, I know how bad it can be to lose a close person. Even though I haven't lost a person close to me, I can still imagine how bad I would feel if a friend or something working for me went missing. Believe me, I am here for you. I don't want to spoil the relationship between the two realms. I can help you if you want, but if you don't trust us, then things can only get worse. I don't want us to have it fight as the Death Domain will be the only one that benefits from it," Ryder replied as he shook his head.
The Vampire King frowned as he looked around the room as if he was trying to see if he could ask someone else his questions since he wasn't getting anything from Ryder.
He looked at a Duke and used his Skill.
"You think..." High Duke Magna was furious as he saw the Vampire King using his skills on the Dukes so arrogantly.
"Let him use the skills he wants. I think he only wants to be certain. He won't harm anyone. Let him have his peace," Ryder stopped High Duke Magna from reacting.
The Vampire King had used the skill, but he didn't ask the question.
Instead, he raised both his hands as he cast an additional spell that filled the whole room.
The High Dukes didn't react since they knew that Ryder didn't want them to act, and they could see that it was just a modification of that truth spell which he had used. It just meant that he could ask questions in more confidence, and he could believe faster.
"Is the Prince scheming against me?! Tell me about it if anyone knows!" The Vampire King declared.
Ryder was pretty confident that no one was going to say anything since the only two people that knew that he had killed the Vampire General were the people that traveled with him to the Demon Realm, and none of them were here at the moment.
Even though Ryder was confident, his confidence was soon shattered as he heard someone speaking.
It was a female voice that had started speaking, and it made his expressions turn grave.
"His Highness did scheme against you. He knew that you were coming for revenge because your general was killed, and he also planned to have you injured with extreme sound. It was so that he could save you and get close to you to win your friendship."
Ryder didn't even need to look back to see who was talking since he knew that it was Felina. He knew that he had failed, and it was impossible to convince the Vampire King now.
What happened next was the same as last time. It was like a repeat telecast. The battle started, and Ryder got the curse of the Vampire King as he died.
Ryder woke up again in his room.
"Failed again, but now I know what I could do to solve it. Without Felina there, everything can work. It seemed like we were able to convince the Vampire King," Ryder muttered as he recounted what happened.
He followed the timeline closely to the last one and did everything the same way.
The only difference was that he didn't play the Friker in the palace of the High Duke, which resulted in Felina not waking up. When he left the room, Felina was not there.
The morning also progressed the same way, but Ryder again changed one thing.
He didn't let the battles between the kids of High Dukes commence. There was not even a single round.
Instead, he told them to leave this place and stay out of their sight until they were called for. He suggested them to stay in the garden of High Duke Oris since that was more of an isolated place.
Even though the High Dukes didn't understand it, they did as he said and sent the kids away.
Since they saved some time this time because of no battles, they went to the Balcony and gave a proper speech.
Ryder talked about how the High Duke was important to the Demon Realm and how he had helped Ryder. He also praised other High Dukes.
The Other High Dukes also said a few words as they congratulated High Duke Oris.
The crowd was told to play the Frikers since Ryder wanted to follow the timeline to the closest other than the few things that he changed to modify the upcoming events.
Ultimately, they were in the same situation as last time.
"Is the Prince scheming against me?! Tell me about it if anyone knows!" The Vampire King asked again.
None of the Demons in the room said anything this time. The ones that knew about anything were not here, and the High Dukes weren't affected by this skill since they were too strong to be affected by such skills.
"You need to listen to me and believe me. Whatever I said to you today, there was not a single lie in that," Ryder declared.
Since everything he said was in the form of assumption, he didn't actually lie about anything, and this was the truth.
"So, you don't have my General here?" The Vampire King asked Ryder.
"No, we don't have your general. We don't have anyone from the Undead Region here as far as I know, other than you," Ryder replied.
"I want to search the Demon Realm," The Vampire King said.
"Sure, you can search the Realm. We treat you as our guest. We can even give you a nice room to stay while you stay here," Ryder replied.
"Thanks for the offer, but I would like to stay free. I hope that none of your people will interfere in my search, though," The Vampire King said.
'He said thanks. That should count,' Ryder thought as he eagerly waited for the system's announcement.
<Mission Completed: The Vampire King said thanks>
<Time Loop is broken>
<Rewards Given, but since the thanks was not a thanks of friendship, some of the rewards might not be as described>
Ryder started hearing Janus' announcement. Even though some of these things were not as he hoped, the mission was over, and that made him extremely happy, but he kept his expressions neutral.
'I can lie now,' he thought.
"Not at all. Feel free to search. We have a lot of respect for you, and we also want to bring the Undead Region And the Demon Realm closer. You can treat that as a token of trust," Ryder replied.
Till now, Ryder was using a friendly tone, but his tone suddenly changed and became more serious as he continued.
"You just need to keep one thing in mind, though. As much as I want the friendship, the safety of my people is above all else. If you harmed even a single demon while you're here, I wouldn't mind waging a war on anyone!" Ryder declared.