"Morning, princess." A pair of legs wearing tall leather boots solidified themselves in my vision, which danced with dark spots.

I swung my heavy head up to take stock of my surroundings. I was seated on a wooden chair in what looked like a warehouse filled with boxes and barrels, and a single narrow window cast a shaft of light on the bare stone floor. 

Judging by the angle of the sunlight, it was still afternoon. Thank goodness I hadn't spent the entire night here.

Roy Tarragon grinned at me from the box he was perched on in front of me, twirling a wickedly sharp knife with two fingers.

I tested the rope that bound my wrists together behind me, and realized it would be easy enough to slip out of. I also had my own knife concealed in one of my boots.

However, escape wasn't necessarily my first priority. This was an opportunity, of sorts. An opportunity to gain information.

Asa would have mentioned if one of the "encounters" involved a kidnapping, so I was guessing this was another twist that was different from the gameplay in Garden of Dreams.

I relaxed and leaned back in my chair. "So, the rats have finally come crawling out of the woodwork."

Roy chuckled. "Normally I would protest you calling me a rat, but I will admit this tactic is not what I would have preferred to have the chance to see you again."

I let my head loll onto the back of the chair. "Someone put you up to this."

"And offered to pay me my weight in gold." Roy stopped twirling the knife and let its spine rest in his palm. "Sorry, princess. I love gold more than anything on this earth." 

"Really?" I asked disinterestedly.

"Yeah. Gold will get you almost anything you want in this world." He smiled, exposing a sharp incisor. "Except for the things that you’re not supposed to want, things that cannot be obtained. And why not focus on the things you can obtain?"

I thought back to what Asa had told me about Roy's backstory. He had been raised by a single mother in the slums. As the eldest son of seven children, the rest being all girls, he did whatever he had to do to keep his sisters off the streets. However, as a child himself he could only do so much. He lost many of his family members to illness and starvation, and the ones who did survive looked for work elsewhere in hopes of a better life.

He never dreamed of a better life. He only focused on what was right in front of him.

But things changed when he met the heroine…or so Asa said. 

"Why kidnap me? It's odd to pay a mercenary to kidnap a person as unimportant as I am. It would be more lucrative to kidnap, say, a royal." As Prince Vel, I had suffered many attempted kidnappings. 

"Oh, princess," Roy shook his head, sending his dangling copper earrings clinking, "You have no idea how important you are."

I frowned at him. "And you do?"

"I have my own opinions. But judging by the attitude of the person who hired me, you are the very thing that stands between them and all the plans they hold dear."

He might as well have told me that the person who hired him was the one planning the rebellion. Either that, or it was my fiancée. 

The thought was unpleasant to me, for some reason. She did not seem the type to hire someone else to do her dirty work.

The gears in my mind shifted as I considered my other options. It made sense that someone would become suspicious of me researching lineage and historical rebellions, but neither Asa or I had done any outright snooping at this point. 

If the rebellion was spearheaded by one of the love interests in the second playthrough of Garden of Dreams, it was possible that that would impact other aspects of the story. For instance, the heroine would have the option to support the rebellion, or ally with one of the other love interests to try and prevent it.

In that case, was it possible that the one planning the rebellion was another reincarnator, like Asa?

If they had knowledge of the game from their previous life, it would make sense that they would target me. Judging by the knowledge of this life alone, I was hardly a major force for change, just a young noble lady being hassled by a throng of overzealous suitors. However, a reincarnator would know that the heroine carried a major role in the events of the “story.”

If they had already decided I would stand in their way, not ally with them, it was likely someone who believed I had already chosen a love interest who would not support the rebellion.

Of course, these musings were all built on theory, and held no real weight.

Maybe I ought to be more like Roy, and focus on what was right in front of me. I looked into Roy’s yellow eyes. Was this all a ruse? Did someone really hire him, or was he the rebellion’s leader?

There was plenty of gold to be had in the royal treasury if he became king.