“DAMN.” Aurelius screamed, drawing in a gasp of air for the first time in 14 hours.

  As usual, his ribcage was broken, a feeling that welcomed the horrendously cheerful atmosphere of Tlacualtzin into his lungs.

  His eyes found staring eyes, the bustle of the streets of Tlacualtzin and his nose caught the smells of merchandise that lined the road. All of this was pleasantly garnished with the horrible invasion of the pavement digging into his back.

  The faces that crowded around his sprawled and broken body were familiar and almost… nostalgic.

  And that meant one thing.

  Tiberius.

  Aurelius was… beyond delighted to see his ugly, terrible, worried, annoying face once more.

  He felt the tears well up in his eye, something that his idiotic, braindead, and mentally challenged friend did not deserve in the slightest.

  …The boy was the cause for Aurelius's current predicament after all.

  “Aurelius! Don't go towards the light! I can't go to jail!” Tiberius yelled right over his teary, pained smile, causing several onlookers to step back from his sheer intensity and spraying Aurelius’s face with an unpleasant coating of spit.

  “Don't die! I have such a bright future ahead of me... I suppose you do too! So hold on!” Tiberius continued his desperate rant, getting rather hysterical at the sight of the tears welling up in Aurelius's eyes.

  Aurelius was pretty sure that Tiberius had interpreted his wet, tired and grateful eyes as some sort of ‘pre-death’ response…

  Yet Aurelius could not find the usual compulsion to choke the life out of his dumb and lacking friend in himself. Instead, he could only be thankful for the return of some semblance of sanity to his life.

  The past ‘day’ or even ‘loop’ had been nerve wrecking, mostly because of the last hours of the loop, with divine SHENANIGANS, but also because of the damn commission breathing down his neck at every opportunity!

  Mr. Tona and Sage Yeltz clearly had screws loose in their head, with how much they had tortured him just within the 3 weeks of the previous loop.

  And Aurelius was finally free. The Commission will not be seeing his face for… well, forever.

  If a lich wants to run amok in the Academy, so be it. That was certainly not his problem! In fact, Aurelius saluted Dr. Varian for doing his job at the Academy so… passionately.

  The Commission had been a shackle on his life in the past loop, as stated explicitly by Mr. Tona. He would be resigning himself to the same fate of the horrible regiment of training and reading, if he were to go over to them and repeat his actions in the past loop.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  And leaving a sleeping dragon lie was clearly wise words to live by, given that the Fae Queen had made an appearance at an unacceptable rate of 100% for the past 2 loops.

  Aurelius was now dreaming of a vacation on some exotic beach somewhere, afforded through the reckless spending of his savings.

  He would enjoy a lovely time sunbathing, taking a leisurely dip in the warm ocean waters, and drinking tropical fruit juices to his hearts’ content.

  Of course, he would never pull the trigger on this idea. He could last a very long time in this loop after all, and if he were to become an adult without a single coppet in savings, he would truly have failed as the son of accountants.

  But perhaps a bunch of Southern continent sweets wouldn't hurt… At least for today…

  Tiberius helped Aurelius sit up, as carefully as his bumbling nature would allow. Aurelius grimaced in pain as knives of pain pierced his chest.

  “Young man, drink this. It should help with the pain and keep you going until you reach the nearest church.” The familiar merchant said worriedly, triggering that feeling of déjà vu with him.

  Of course, in this case, déjà vu would not apply, given that he had actually actively been a part of the exact sequence of events that had transpired.

  Taking the potion in his hands, Aurelius savoured the liquid of bliss, and felt the carpet of relief spread through his body.

  However, on top of this alleviation of pain that he felt, Aurelius tasted something much more valuable.

  On this amazing day, right after his last death, he tasted… freedom.

  ???

  “...Crabs.” Tiberius commented.

  “Yes.” Aurelius responded, his mouth stuffed full of buttered heaven.

  The fried soft shell crab available at the Gilded Spoon was likely one of the more reasonably priced items on the menu.

  However, their portions of the crab were criminally unfilling, with the servings coming with a singular crab.

  And while Aurelius enjoyed seafood and shellfish as a luxury meal every now and then, it was not something that he particularly ‘loved’. That was why a dish such as the soft shell crabs were not usually something Aurelius ordered at restaurants.

  But to Aurelius today, that was not as much of a big concern for a simple reason.

  Tiberius was paying.

  “I understand if you bought one of them. But 3 of the exact same dish?” Tiberius asked, munching on a salad with a forced smile.

  Aurelius just stared innocently at his friend, feeling the familiar wave of annoyance towards Tiberius resurface once more.

  Yes. He was definitely approaching normality again…

  “I suppose almost dying makes the taste buds crave the flavour of the seashore.” Aurelius replied sarcastically, smiling cheerfully.

  Tiberius just blinked slowly in caution at Aurelius's lyrical comeback.

  Clearly Aurelius was in a good mood, and not the usual thorny self Tiberius had gotten accustomed to.

  If it were the usual Aurelius, he would have reacted in a completely different manner.

  Tiberius had almost killed him after all, and he did doubt that paying off his lunch was enough to alleviate all the… negativity that Aurelius undoubtedly should have felt.

  However, it seemed that Aurelius was almost… unconcerned with Tiberius’s transgression, opting instead to smile creepily like that…

  In fact, this personality shift was enough to make Tiberius wonder if he should drag Aurelius back to the chapel specifically to get his brain checked up on.

  Brain damage was one of the more tricky medical issues to solve, and this… foreign, smiling Aurelius was… uncanny to say the least.

  Aurelius, on the other hand, was absolutely brimming with positivity.

  He didn’t have to look at Sage Yeltz’s scowling face anymore! And that alone was truly a reason to celebrate.

  And given that he had gotten his insults and jabs at Tiberius in the last 2 loops, Aurelius felt that such acts would not only be redundant but also put a damper on his mood for the day.

  Clearly that wouldn’t do for the festivities that his ‘death’ called for!

  Suddenly, Aurelisu felt a… jab against his heart…

  “Oop.” Aurelius yelped, just as he took another mouthful of crisp, buttery and citrus flavoured crab.

  What was going on?

  Golden chains suddenly materialised around Aurelius's body, knocking the spoon out of his mouth.

  …What.

  The chains tightened around his body, and squeezed hard.

  And once again, after less than 3 hours into his resurrection, he was dead.