She is not an investigator.

"No... I mean, why were you suddenly put in charge of keeping it?"

Igris's actions did seem rather strange, to the point that Olivia began to suspect that Igris was handing over her most valuable possession in order to secretly do something big or something.

However, the most valuable thing on Igris's body is probably her pistol. After all, this thing is so precise that it is unlike any other weapon. The craftsmanship and materials are something Igris has never seen before, not to mention its excellent feel and compatibility, as well as the recoil that even a child could use and the sound that seems to be silent.

This was probably Igris's most precious possession. Although she didn't know what kind of exchange she would get for it with the Tear of the Ocean, she was still quite reluctant to part with it, as she would have to rely on this pistol for her future livelihood.

"I just wanted you to take it for a bit, that's all. Remember to return it to me."

Igris gave Olivia some serious instructions, but this only made Olivia more worried.

"You're not going to do something stupid behind my back, are you? If you need money, you can tell me. There's no need to rob the Noval family's vault."

Was Igris such a dangerous person in her eyes? And what did she have to rob the vault with—a pistol with only four bullets in her hand, or a crowbar?

With her small frame, any adult man could probably knock her out of her predicament with a few punches, except for Nan Ke.

"Stop being so paranoid. Can't you trust your assistant a little more?"

"Ah, that's true."

Trust is the most important thing between people, and Olivia understands this. She also knows that what she said was a bit nonsensical, so she smiled a little embarrassedly.

Igris wasn't too concerned. She had many goals right now, such as going to the pipe floor to catch Rag, going to the basement to find the Mirror Demon, and looking for Nanko, who hadn't lost his memories from last time.

She always has to choose one thing to do first, but contacting Nan Ke is probably the simplest and highest priority.

After all, he is the owner of this castle, so Olivia must greet him on behalf of Igris.

However, they arrived a bit early this time, and there wasn't much of a person in the hall. Buze wasn't there either. Seeing this, Olivia simply told Igris to sit there while she went to find Nanko herself.

It will probably take some time for Nan Ke to understand what happened, but it won't be too long, so Igris doesn't need to worry about having to spend a lot of time explaining things to him.

Not long after Igris sat down, Nanko and Olivia entered the hall and walked towards Igris.

"Let me introduce you. This is Igris, my friend and assistant."

Olivia, with unusual enthusiasm, introduced Iglesias to Nanko, completely oblivious to Nanko's complex expression.

He seemed to understand what had happened.

“Nanco Noval, I know you. Olivia mentioned you to me.”

Igris winked her right eye at Nanko, and Nanko seemed to understand something, his expression becoming very excited.

"Great! Ah, it's a pleasure to meet you..."

Since Olivia was still nearby, Nanko didn't dare to act too strangely. He could only nod as if nothing had happened and greet Igris in return.

But Olivia's observation skills were exceptionally sharp; she noticed their every move, which caused her to furrow her brow deeply.

“Olivia, I'd like to speak with Nan Ke alone for a while, could you…”

"No."

Igris had only spoken halfway when Olivia interrupted Igris's unspoken request without hesitation, crossing her arms and looking very serious.

"...Just chatting."

Iglesias thought Olivia was probably worried that she might do something bad to Nanko, so she looked at Nanko.

Nan Ke nodded in understanding and looked at Olivia as well.

"Um, Olivia."

I said no.

Nan Ke was also stunned for a moment, blinked in confusion, glanced at Igris who seemed completely unaware of what had happened and looked particularly innocent, and then looked at Olivia who had a very serious expression and even seemed a little angry.

"…Why?"

Igris also wanted to know why she would secretly kill him when he was alone in South Carolina, take the vault key, put all the money in her own pocket, and then escape from here.

With the influence of the Mobius strip in place, even if Igris wanted to do it, she probably couldn't. Besides, if she really wanted to, she wouldn't need to kill Nanko; she could just steal it directly.

No, it should be called "Master Thief," "steal" sounds too awful.

"I'm quite curious what you two can talk about."

Olivia looked at Nanko with a scrutinizing gaze, causing the already somewhat timid Nanko to take a half-step back and look to Igris for help.

"Since we're going to make friends, there's nothing wrong with getting to know each other."

Igris stood up from her seat and, mimicking Olivia, crossed her arms somewhat displeased.

"Am I really that embarrassing for you, or do you think I'll embarrass myself, or are you unwilling to give us a chance to talk alone?"

"That's right..."

Nan Ke responded softly, but Olivia glared at him, so he continued to pretend to be mute.

"Igris, you've only just arrived, haven't you? If you're tired, you should go and rest. You don't even know him well, so what's there to talk about?"

"Isn't it because we're not familiar with each other that we need to chat? Olivia, you're acting strange."

Igris sensed that her boss might be having some kind of illness, but she could understand. It was highly likely that the different discrepancies and sense of déjà vu in the pseudo-loop had given her some unpleasant feeling, which was why he was trying to prevent Igris from talking to Nanko alone, to avoid that ominous feeling from becoming a reality.

Just as Igris always saw burning castles, she was extra vigilant about anything inside the castle that might pose a fire hazard.

"I was just worried about you. Didn't you say you were very tired on the way here?"

"I'm not tired now."

Olivia paused, glancing at Igris's slightly raised eyebrows, which showed her displeasure, and finally chose to obediently shut her mouth.

"Then I'll go back to my room to rest."

Olivia said something casually and then headed straight for the second floor, probably because she was in a bad mood but couldn't vent it on Igris.

"Shall we talk here, or find a more secluded place?"

Igris glanced at the servants around her and waved her hand at Nanko, who was still in a daze.

“Let’s…let’s go to the attic, there’s no one else there.”

"As you wish."

The Gods' Fool - The Castle's Invitation: Chapter Thirty-Six, He'll probably never forget me in this lifetime.

This was indeed Igris's first time in the castle's attic. It was a bit messier than she had imagined, but not particularly messy. It just looked like it hadn't been specially tidied up, much like the library. It was probably something left behind by old man Raymond, and no one had come to clean it up.

"It's a bit messy, please don't mind."

"I've seen things that are even more chaotic than this. Whatever, let's talk about it."

Igris sat directly by the window in the attic. Since the window was closed, she didn't have to worry about accidentally falling off.

Looking around, Nan Ke couldn't find a place to sit and could only stand there awkwardly.

"You probably already understand what happened, right?"

Igris rested her hands on the windowsill, her legs dangling in mid-air, swinging aimlessly back and forth.

"If I'm not mistaken, we should be trapped in this period of time, right?"

Sure enough, Nan Ke has a general understanding of the current situation, so explaining it should be much simpler.

"The source of all this is the Tear of the Ocean, the gem you keep in your secret vault. It can grant some wishes, but at a price. If the price is insufficient, the wish itself will be misinterpreted. This cycle is the wish that is granted after the Tear of the Ocean has been misinterpreted. The way to break free from this cycle is simple: make a wish to the Tear of the Ocean, pay a sufficient price, break this cycle from the Mobius strip, and end all of this."

At this point, Igris suddenly stopped swinging her legs and looked at Nanke with a serious expression.

"So, what price are you willing to pay?"

"Eh...Eh? Me?"

Igris jumped off the windowsill as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Otherwise what? We're the only two people here who have memories, right? Do you think I look like I have something of great value?"

"That's...true..."

Nan Ke couldn't refute Igris, but he also didn't know how to measure so-called value.

He was indeed very wealthy, as he was, after all, the head of the Noval family. Such a large and ancient family would not lack savings and assets, so it could be said that the one thing he had in abundance was money.

But can money really be considered valuable? If we are in this cycle, then the value of money will probably be infinitely reduced, and may even become less than a piece of bread, at least bread can be eaten.

Can you eat money? Definitely not.

"Then, what should I... give in return?"

Nan Ke is really an honest kid. He does whatever Igris tells him to do without even considering questioning or refuting her. Perhaps this is why he is often bullied by Olivia.

Igris even felt a little sorry for him.

“I don’t know either, and that’s the answer I’m looking for. But I can tell you for sure that your father, Raymond Noval, caused a similar disaster. He tried to stop the family’s decline with the Tear of the Ocean, so he killed everyone at that collection exhibition and used them as a price to make a wish with the Tear of the Ocean.”

"How is this possible...!"

Igris raised her hand to deflect Nanko's words and continued speaking.

"Listen to me. After he did all this, because the price he paid was insufficient, he fell into an endless loop, constantly repeating the process of killing everyone, sacrificing to the Tear of the Ocean, and failing in the sacrifice. But fortunately, the Mobius strip constructed by the Tear of the Ocean was a fake, which led him to finally make a change in the endless loop. The specific reason was not found, but in terms of the result, he changed the sacrifice that was originally aimed at everyone to a sacrifice aimed at your mother, who was also his only wife and the person he loved most in the world, and successfully broke the loop. You should know what happened after that."

Nan Ke fell into a deep silence. All of this news was too difficult for him to understand and too shocking.

After all, what Igris said was undoubtedly telling him that his mother was killed by his father.

"You may not believe it, or you may not accept it, but the key point is not the truth about your father back then, but the information we can get from it. First of all, according to this statement, the countless people Raymond killed as a price is obviously not enough, but he only killed his own wife, and the wish he made resolved this unstable cycle. So if we calculate it by number, why is one life greater than dozens of lives? So in my opinion, the real price cannot be viewed simply from this perspective. After all, the lives of strangers have no value to me, but the lives of my friends, relatives, and family are extremely precious to me."

Iglesias's reminder was quite obvious; although she had no family, she could now pretend she did.

"You... want me to sacrifice my own family members to break this cycle?"

Nan Ke understood Igris's thoughts at that moment, and took two steps back in a panic, clearly showing his resistance.

“Listen, I don’t want any innocent people to die because of this. If I found another way, I wouldn’t let you do this, but for now, this is the only way.”

"No... I can't do it, I can't kill my brother, but, but you're right, there's another way."

Nan Ke seemed to have thought of something; his expression softened, becoming more resolute instead of flustered.

"Before you do anything stupid, tell me what you're thinking. Someone has already gone crazy once, and I don't want you to be the second."

"what?"

"This is just a warning, telling me what you're thinking."

For Ragnarok, one of those guys is enough; she doesn't want Nanko to become the next cycle terrorist.