“There’s another reason why I came back.” BB leaned in, as the three of them ignored the piles of pirates passed out the floor. Only a handful of them were still going strong, determined to make the innkeeper join in on the celebration. “I was talking more with Jacquotte.”

  “That’s a good sign the relationship is going well.” Despite the well-meaningness of his words, the tone wasn’t pleased. Max was a little annoyed with the sudden attention. Once BB had regained her balance, she and the crew made them participate in their fun. He still had no clue about why Cy was suddenly able to pull people’s names out of thin air. Or, more importantly, why he was suddenly on edge around her.

  “She’s quite a gossip,” BB said, with a wide smile. “You’d never believe what high society is up to.”

  “Hunting Max down?” Cy suggested. There was a bit of irritation in his voice.

  Max fought to roll his eyes, “We saw one wanted poster-”

  “Bingo,” BB took pleasure in seeing them wide-eyed. “Apparently, the nobles are working together to organise a manhunt. You’ve got some enemies out there…” She was having difficulty staying still in her chair. “And one close friend.”

  Max and Cy immediately exchanged a look before BB began shouting in enthusiasm. “You know how Cy had some weird theory about some people being like us but just not remembering? Well, I think I found Ellie!”

  “… I know. Serena, right?” In a second, BB’s ego deflated. “I talked with her while you were running away with Jacquotte, remember?”

  “But you agree? From the way Jacquotte described her, I thought it just had to be her.”

  The smile from earlier in the day crept back onto Max’s lips. “It’s her.”

  “So…? Aren’t you going to go get your girl?”

  “We could probably stay for a couple of days,” Cy finally pitched in. Max was a bit surprised he was encouraging him. “We’ll have to give some during people the slip, but we’re probably going to have to do that anyways.”

  Max’s mind had gone through the option multiple times. Every time, he always came to the same conclusion. He tried to shrug off the suggestion. “BB said it best, one girl for one life.”

  The moment the words spilled out of him; it looked like a light had switched in BB’s mind as her face crumpled slightly in guilt. Her policies towards love had gone unchallenged over the lifetimes. It was difficult to see a reflection of herself.

  Cy didn’t have that problem. “Bullshit. Why not one girl for every lifetime? You said there was always another Cy. But it was just me all along.” Max found it difficult to keep eye contact. “There’s always another Ellie. But why not just be with Ellie again?”

  “It’s not quite the same,” BB said in a quiet voice when Max was slow to reply. “It’s hard being the only one to remember.” Immediately, Max frowned when he realised they were thinking about completely different things. “Life would be so exciting for them when, for us, it’ll be the same thing, again, for the one hundredth time.”

  “That’s not-”

  “Well, at least you’ll be in different worlds, right?” Cy argued back. “That should bring some new experiences.”

  “I think we’re talking about-”

  “Yeah, but how many medieval periods do you think we’ve lived in? There’s only so much variety.”

  “Medieval?”

  “Okay, okay, late medieval.” BB took a sip of beer to relieve the stress. It had gone completely over her head that the term would be unfamiliar to Cy.

  “… Is medieval bad?” There was an innocent feel to his question.

  Max and BB exchanged a look. Max decided to take the plunge. “Well… It’s not great.”

  “It’s not all bad!” BB immediately tried to bring back more positivity. “It shouldn’t be too long before some kind of renaissance will happen.”

  “Renaissance?”

  “A big boom in art, prosperity, and innovation,” BB explained with enthusiasm. “A night and day improvement!”

  “Great, I hope I live long enough to see it,” Cy replied bitterly.

  “Well, technically, you’ve already lived through a renaissance.” Max thought back to the times he encountered him before. “You had a blast.”

  Cy looked at them suspiciously, like a child about to ask a cheeky question. “If I ask questions about the general future, would you tell me about it?”

  “Yes.” There was no hesitation from Max. If anything, he found it strange Cy would even ask. “You’re always telling me and others about our future.”

  “But that’s the relatively close future… historically speaking.”

  “I don’t see why I shouldn’t tell you. Especially since it’s not guaranteed, it’ll just be the general trend of humanity.”

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  “Hmm. We’ll talk more about this later. We’re getting off topic,” Cy declared. “You have another chance to be with Ellie, so-”

  “Maybe, but definitely not yet,” Max made his stance clear with five words, but the meaning was lost on the listeners. “I’m stuck in a six-stars story. The chances of me getting successfully through this is basically impossible. It wouldn’t be fair to drag her into this mess.”

  “And if you get out of this mess?” BB leaned in with curiosity.

  “I don’t know,” Max admitted.

  BB gave him a curious look, before shrugging. “Well, I’ve done my part. Power to you and hope you do it. In the meantime, I’ll keep an eye out on my sister-in-law for you.”

  Max suddenly felt on edge. It was hard to understand the implications of her words. “Don’t interfere with her life.”

  “I wasn’t going to!” She was already too defensive. “I meant just encouraging Jacquotte to send an occasional letter to her with some cash or something. Apparently, their family is having money troubles.”

  “No direct contact?”

  “Absolutely not, unless requested by Serena herself.”

  “Letting her know about us or the system?”

  “Fuck no,” BB snorted at the idea. “Speaking of the system,” she pulled out the picture of Minna and handed it over to Max. “Thank you for this. It made this life a lot more bearable. It’s such a relief to not have to worry about requirements anymore.”

  Cy gave a curious look over at Max. “I don’t have any yet,” he said with his hands raised. “I’ll let you know when the system comes up with one for me.” His answer appeared to have satisfied Cy.

  “So, what’s your plan now? Got another person willing to change their genre?”

  “There are only so many during people we know.” Cy tried to recall, while Max looked distractedly at his empty mug of beer. He was deep in thought. “There’s Edric-”

  “He’s already finished,” Max interrupted.

  “Navy?”

  “Probably part of the gang hunting us right now.”

  “Aldwin?”

  “Missing, and too unknown since I didn’t even pick up on him being one of us.”

  “The mayor?”

  “Finished and suffering from the effects of a stroke.” BB choked on her beer from the serious tone of his voice.

  “Flynn?”

  “Who?”

  “Lux’s friend.”

  “You think Lux’s friend is going to help us?” Max scoffed at the idea. “How about Kurt?”

  “The butcher’s boy, Kurt?” Cy weighed up the idea.

  “No, the sweetshop owner’s son, Kurt,” Max said sarcastically.

  BB leaned next to a focused Cy, “Which one is he really?”

  “Max’s being a dick,” Cy answered back. “Kurt is one of you lot?”

  “Huh?” Max looked confused. “He’s just a normal guy.”

  Now, it was Cy’s turn. “How’s he going to help us then?”

  “Four reasons. One, I know he’s part of a story because I got him to take it on for me.” Cy looked horrified. “Hey, it wasn’t like that! It’s not like the Lux situation where he’s pretty much doomed to fail-”

  “You got his parents divorced!?”

  “… They got divorced? I thought they were still married but both are having affairs?”

  “The butcher is having an affair?” Cy leaned in to get the gossip. BB copied his posture. Everything must’ve been confusing to her, but she was thrilled to be hearing the tea.

  “That’s what Kurt said.” Max took the opportunity to pull up the HUD’s records. It was going to take a while for him to find Kurt’s story in the records of all the missed stories. “Two, his bio dad is the duke of this land. It shouldn’t be hard to find him.”

  “Are you forgetting the king’s men are looking for you too?”

  “Kurt won’t turn us in. We’re from the same village, basically family.”

  “Maybe, but that doesn’t mean his father won’t turn us in.”

  Max paused his scrolling. Even in the records, the mutated prompts had been recorded exactly as he saw them. Meaning he finally saw the first one that he missed.

  REVOLT?

  Oh well, he missed an extra word. Didn’t make much of a difference now. Max kept looking.

  “Three, Kurt will be willing to change his genre. Ah, found it.”

  “It’s a historical fiction,” he began to read aloud causing Cy to freak out before BB gave him a few pats on the back of reassurance. “‘The long-lost son of the duke is found, but can he adjust to his new position?’ The goal is to just make him a duke.”

  “Easy goal,” BB admitted.

  “Two-stars, so it won’t be too hard.” Max felt satisfied with his own decision. “And an easy start, so the challenge must be something either blocking him or threatening to take away his inheritance.”

  “How are we going to change the genre and get Kurt to cooperate?”

  “Easy, introduce future technology to Kurt. If we offer to help him open an empire of butchers, he’ll cooperate.” His two listeners pulled a face from the idea. “And when the time is right, we’ll get his bio dad killed or retired, so Kurt can inherit the dukedom. Easy-peasy.”

  “And the last reason?” BB asked.

  “He’s not one of us. There won’t be a time pressure to get the genre to change.” Although they had been successful in terms of sub-goals, it was a disaster planning wise. BB not being the amazing love guru she claimed to be wasn’t the main point of failure for him. Max got caught up in the moment and forgot the timing of everything, hurting Cy in the process. Something like that couldn’t happen again. “It also means we can be sure the genre has shifted before completing his goal.”

  “You don’t think there won’t be some of us hanging around the duke?”

  “Probably, but there’s some of us everywhere we go.”

  BB finished the last swig of her beer, as she eyed up a member of her crew starting trouble with the uncooperative innkeeper. “Sounds daft, but there’s a chance.” Without prompt, she pulled out a stuffed coin bag. “We’ll be hitting the sea at dawn, so take this. It sounds like you’re going to need it more than I will.” Behind her, a fight was starting to break out. The innkeeper took shelter behind a table while waiting for BB to get her drunken crew in order. “If you ever need some help, spread the word on the docks. Sailors like to run their mouths; I’ll hear about it sooner or later.”