The voices were barely audible.
But the sounds continued to drift up the staircase they'd ascended.
"Do you hear that?" Max whispered.
He quietly put down the notes.
Audrey also quietly put away what she was doing. She carefully tilted her head down and perked her ears.
She looked confused.
"Voices? From below? You never mentioned anything about people following us in your previous loops."
"In previous loops, we never lingered this long on the lower levels...!"
Max was struck with a bolt of realization.
"We always kept moving upward."
"Previous loops…You keep saying that. Huh? Where are you...?"
She saw Max silently moving toward the staircase.
"Stay here."
"Absolutely not."
Audrey quickly followed close behind him.
"If you're investigating strange voices in a forbidden tower, I'm not letting you do it alone."
"Fine, but keep your mouth zipped."
With exasperation, he eyed Audrey meaningfully.
"We don't know who, or what, is down there."
They descended the spiral staircase carefully, each step with silence. The voices grew incrementally louder, though still too indistinct to make out words.
There was something familiar about them that made Max's nerves stand on edge.
At a bend in the staircase, Max motioned for Audrey to stop. He crept forward alone to the edge, then peered down cautiously.
He froze.
Two figures were moving through the entrance hall below. They seemed to be in the middle of examining the place.
One was a teenage girl with close-cropped hair. Her hand occasionally ran along the wall as if searching for something. The other was a young man in his late twenties with a gaunt face, a magical whip of green energy coiled at his side.
A chill ran down Max's spine.
The enforcers.
The same ones who had pursued him through the Academy grounds.
The skilled girl who had wall-run to intercept him and broken his ribs.
The Tier 3 Adept mage whose magical whip had scorched the ground where he'd stood.
Seeing them again, Max now felt that the thought he had in the back of his mind rang true.
Their relentless pursuit, their mercenary-like thinking and actions, their daring attitudes… Could these fuckers be from the Huntsmen's Guild?
In the novel, the Huntsmen's Guild operates throughout the Skysus Kingdom as an officially sanctioned organization specializing in tasks requiring force, discretion, and effectiveness where traditional authorities may find inconvenient to act.
Those employed by the guild are called Hunters, professionals who offer services ranging from acquisition and intimidation to specialized combat and problem elimination. Unlike common mercenaries, Hunters possess specific training, possible specialized equipment, and a reputation that grants them access to noble circles.
They were determined to apprehend him.
Even if it meant entering a forbidden area.
"What is it?" Audrey whispered, moving to join him.
Max pulled her back and pressed a finger to his lips.
"Those bastards. The ones sent to capture or kill me before we entered the tower."
Audrey's eyes widened.
"Those people? Inside the forbidden tower?"
She shook her head in disbelief, frowning deeply.
"This is madness. No one would dare—"
She felt disturbed seeing them here.
From their earlier confrontation, Audrey hadn't formed a good opinion of these Hunters, yet she had been reluctant to fully believe they intended to kill Max despite his wounds. She had tried to think more positively of their motives despite their confrontation. But now that they had actually trespassed into the forbidden tower after them...
Even with an Academy Administrator's position backing them, this felt excessive unless ordered by the Headmistress herself. Still, she kept these thoughts to herself. This wasn't the time for debate.
"Oh Audrey—this kind of bunch would dare. With orders from someone powerful enough. Risks are nothing to them. And honestly, we aren't ones to talk."
He watched as the teenage Hunter performed an impressive vertical leap, examining an architectural feature high on the wall before landing silently. Despite her youth, her movements confirmed she was at least a Tier 2 Disciple level aura user.
The mage, meanwhile, was examining the floor near the entrance. Max guessed he was looking for his and Audrey's tracks.
"Great. As if this mess wasn't bad enough, now they're in here too. Which means…"
"They might also be caught in your time loop," Audrey finished his thought, surprising him with her quick understanding.
Max mocked. "But they wouldn't know it. Every reset, they'd just enter the tower for the first time, with no memory of previous loops."
"Just like me," Audrey said quietly, a note of sadness in her voice.
Max turned.
He was now realizing how this situation appeared from her perspective.
Every reset, he had to convince Audrey anew of their situation.
She never remembered their previous conversations, their growing understanding, the tentative trust they'd built.
To her, each loop was the first time they'd entered the tower together.
"My bad."
The mockery in his tone sank away.
"Hearing about things you don't remember doing... that must be unsettling."
Audrey's amber-gold eyes met his.
"If what you say is true… and I'm thinking it might really seem that way. Then yes, it's... unsettling. Like having parts of my life stolen from me."
Max didn't know what to say.
Though his lips still parted open, as if finding the right words to say.
"Audrey..."
Crash!
But the words were not going to be found. The loud sound from below had crashed their deep moment.
The teenage Hunter had knocked over a decorative urn. A large piece of its surface shattered as it hit the marble floor.
"Careless," the mage hissed, his voice now audible from their position. "We don't know what triggers the tower's defenses."
The perpetrator was unfazed for what she had done. She only looked at the broken furniture for a moment before turning back to him in slight annoyance.
"Relax, it's just a stupid vase. Besides, our target is in here somewhere. I can sense him."
Max stiffened.
She can sense me? How?
"The tower dampens aura detection. If you're picking something up, it's likely a residual trace, not a live presence."
"Maybe for your pathetic sensing abilities. I'm telling you, he's here. Above us."
!!
She turned her face upward, her eyes scanning the spiral staircase.
For a heart-stopping moment, Max thought she was looking directly at their hiding spot.
"Time to dip," he whispered to Audrey. "Now."
They backed away from the edge as silently as possible, then turned and quickly ascended the staircase.
The Hunters were in the tower.
The Hunters could potentially find them. But the Chronovryn would appear regardless of where they went, resetting time.
"This could be useful," Max muttered as they closed in the research station landing again.
"Useful? How is being hunted in a time loop useful?" Audrey looked incredulous.
"Because I can study the Hunters' movements each loop. Learn their patterns. And eventually..."
"Use that knowledge against them," Audrey completed his sentence, looking somewhat disturbed by the implications.
She was quickly becoming more accustomed to her situation.
"Exactly. If I can predict what they'll do each time, I gain an advantage they don't have."
Though, there's a limit to how many do-overs I get. But on the bright side, this is my first time running into them. So as long as we stick to the upper floors, we should be fine.
"But what about the time guardian? From what you've told me, it appears inevitably and resets everything."
Max paced the small landing, thinking furiously.
"There has to be a pattern to its appearances too. Maybe it's not just time-based but triggered by specific actions or locations."
"Or perhaps..."
She hesitated, as if uncertain whether to voice her thought.
"What?" Max prompted.
"Perhaps it's responding to you specifically. You said it ignores me, focuses solely on you. Maybe there's something about you it finds... problematic..."
The end of her suggestion trailed off with a hint of hesitation.
Audrey wore an amusing expression on her face. She found the suggestion somewhat rude, but at the same time, quite justifiable given Max's behavior. After all, aside from snooping around and trespassing, they hadn't done anything particularly impudent during this loop.
Max stopped pacing, struck by the possibility.
It made a lot of sense.
In a disturbing way.
The corrupted emergency quest had mentioned him being identified as a "temp███ ████"—temporal something? The Chronovryn was a temporal guardian. And Max was, undeniably, an extra in this world. A transmigrator who didn't belong in the original story.
"I'm telling you I sensed something!"
The teenage girl's voice echoed up the stairwell, sharp with irritation.
"And I'm telling you it's impossible in this tower. The magical interference here would scramble even a Grandmaster's sensing ability," the mage replied in a condescending tone.
Max and Audrey exchanged alarmed glances, pressing themselves against the wall.
"You always do this," the girl snapped. "I admit you have skills with that whip, but you constantly underestimate me."
"I acknowledge your talent. It's impressive that someone your age can sense aura at all. But in a place like this? You're being overconfident."
There was a moment of tense silence.
"Fine. I'll prove it to you."
The sound of rapid footsteps followed.
Someone taking the stairs two at a time, heading directly upward.
"Damn it. Couldn't have picked a worse time. Maybe us being here forced her hand."
Max glanced toward the continuing staircase, calculating their chances of escape.
At their current pace, they couldn't possibly reach the next level before she caught up to them.
"She's going to run right into us," Audrey whispered with her eyes wide.
The footsteps grew louder, echoing off the stone walls.
Closer…
Faster…