Chapter Text

The inside of the Muscat Manor wasn’t luxurious at all. While everything did have a bit of the shine of money, it was all rather modest. There were no expensive jars, beautiful paintings or velvet rugs anywhere; everything was designed for practicality and everyday use.

At least it all was clean and well cared for. Asriel and Frisk’s head practically swiveled around, observing everything with a mix of astonishment and admiration. “This place is so big!” Asriel commented, trying to ignore the people who were looking at him from other rooms while he walked by.

“I only use half of the manor. The other half is where my employees live and where some of them work. To be honest this place is too big for my tastes” Ciruel frowned, directing the group to the stairs “I have already prepared rooms for you three. Follow me”

…

…can even the worst person change for the better? I once told Asriel that could be done, and I still believe that. The problem is that sometimes changing for the better isn’t possible, for one reason or another.

The world as a whole got really unlucky I didn’t change quickly enough. While I made a lot of progress in those five days to be a better person, it was too late. I failed the last hurdle and because of that everyone had to pay the price.

Maybe it is because I had too much baggage piled up. The bigger our sins are, the hardest it is to overcome them. Asgore knows that, and he wasn’t able to change in time because of them, letting his sins grow until they were too large to ignore. He…didn’t kill all the humans that fell Underground by himself, but he did create the atmosphere and behaviors in everyone that led to all the children’s deaths.

…he did kill Byssa, though.

Byssa went to Mt. Ebott searching for one thing: answers. She knew Celia disappeared long before Byssa was born. Yeah, instead of cousins in all the other timelines Celia somehow is the sister of one of Byssa’s ancestors. I still don’t understand how it is possible, it goes against all genetics and…well, either way. She fell Underground and stayed with Toriel.

Toriel was very happy to have Byssa with her, and while Byssa was scared of monsters, she was happy to have somebody who treated her nicely, unlike her parents, who were unpleasant in every existing universe. I think of everyone Byssa was the one most attached to Toriel. Her parents I…think she would have been willing to live with Toriel if it weren’t because one day Byssa asked the question she had wanted to ask for a while:

“Mama, do you know if other humans fell in here in the past?”

Toriel didn’t want to lie to Byssa. Not being honest with Cohen was what led him to get out of the Ruins, so maybe the opposite approach would work better? Toriel told Byssa everything she knew. She told her about Cohen, and about the SOUL and the female corpse found in the Ruins. Byssa quickly made the connection between that little girl’s dead body and her missing old relative. Celia had been killed Underground.

Almost despairing Byssa demanded to know why humans were being killed, what had they done wrong? It was true humans had been the ones to lock monsters in the underground, but times had changed! There was no reason for killing humans for something that happened so long ago.

So Byssa blamed Asgore for it all.

Byssa wanted to get out of the Ruins. She promised Toriel she would return and that they would live happily once Byssa completed her mission. All she wanted was to meet Asgore, ask him why he was doing this, and tell him to stop because it was not good for a king to be doing something like that.

But the longer she walked through the Snowdin cold the angrier she got. What right did monsters have to kill humans anymore? It was so unfair! How did they dare! She quickly turned bitter and unfriendly, practically snarling at any monster that approached.

It all ended in a chain reaction. Her rage made her take it out on all monsters encountered. Since it was not long after Cohen’s death, word of her presence spread through all the Underground. Monsters who were willing to try to take her SOUL went to fight her. The more monsters tried to fight her, the angrier she got, to the point where she screamed like a madwoman, demanding to meet Asgore. “Where’s that king?! I want to see him now!”

Many monsters who tried to take her SOUL got killed. Others ran away to tell Asgore of the mad child who wanted to see him. Everyone knew letting her go all the way to New Home was unthinkably dangerous. If she got even more furious the amount of casualties could get much larger.

Unfortunately for Asgore in that moment he wasn’t in his castle, he was in Waterfall. Otherwise he wouldn’t have dared to confront Byssa, instead staying in his throne room and thinking how to try to defuse the situation without taking any huge risks. The Royal Guard soldiers who informed him about Byssa pressured him, soon leading him where the girl would be at after some time.

Byssa didn’t encounter any resistance. The rumor of her blood thirst made everyone in Snowdin stay indoors while she got through the town. To her credit she didn’t direct her anger towards anyone who didn’t bother her, only towards those who made clear intention of killing her or showed explicit support of Asgore’s plan. However this was all different from Ananas, because at least Ananas tried to limit her fury.

Byssa arrived to Waterfall. The monsters led Asgore to where she was going to pass through, so there he had been waiting for her.

…I admit I don’t like watching that part of the timelines. The sheer mix of fright, fury, grief and reminder of Asriel’s own death is all visible in Asgore’s eyes in that moment. It…is painful to watch. Byssa was the perfect example of what he had pictured the humans who had killed his son to look like, and despite that, he couldn’t avoid feeling pity towards her. Asgore wasn’t even willing at first to attack somebody who, until now, had shown no mercy towards many monsters.

“Why are you killing humans? What did we do to you now?!” Byssa cried, dust falling from her clothes every time she moved.

“Please calm down. Why not don’t we go to the castle and-“

“Monsters killed Celia. When she fell here in the Underground she was murdered! What did she do to deserve that, was it just because she was a human?! Was it that?!” Byssa was screaming as loud as she could, almost crying in despair. Now that she had the King of All Monsters right in front of her, the person who was said to have led monsters to kill humans for their SOULs, she was realizing the vastness of her recklessness. She couldn’t back off now, that is what she thought. Asgore may be offering her to stop but she didn’t trust him. She was sure he would kill her as soon as they were alone.

Yes, her opinion was that as long as they were in public Asgore would answer. Unfortunately for her it was going to be the opposite. Being in public is what led to her death. The crowd of monsters got progressively bigger, all of them telling Asgore to do something about the human who had killed so many monsters so far. “The next SOUL we need is right here! It is our chance!” they said over and over. The pressure of Byssa’s piercing questions and of the monsters’ demands for him to do something led Asgore to lose his patience.

He immediately made that trident of his appear, stabbing the ground with it. All monsters went silent. Byssa, although stunned at first, doubled over with bitter laughter. “So that’s how it is going to be. You are now going to kill me, aren’t you? You coward”

The uproar from the monster crowd restarted immediately. How dare she call him a coward? This was unforgivable; Asgore was the one who was going to save them all. Knowing so many monsters were waiting for him to do something and that soon would lose their patience if he didn’t take a decision Asgore sighed and raised his trident from the ground.

“I am so sorry for what I’m going to do”

...

...maybe some would consider an honor to be killed by Asgore. He didn’t consider it a happy moment, as expected. Amidst the monster crowd’s cheers and hopeful celebrations spawned from the gathering of the third human SOUL, Asgore took Byssa’s body and the SOUL and returned to the castle with solemnity.

He regretted having declared war on humanity, but this incident increased his fear of disappointing everyone. He had once again seen the hope his people had, how much monsterkind was relying on him, and without realizing it he sank deeper into his own cowardice. It was too late to make everyone ignore what he had said so long ago, now that there were three SOULs hidden in the castle. If there had been no humans killed it would have been so much easier to do it, but now...

...he truly saw nothing to do but continue forward no matter what his own wishes were.

I think that is what happened to me too. I saw no other solution than what I did, and now I see that was a huge mistake. I acted way too quickly and...ruined the whole timeline. Rebuilding it was easy, mending it together with my own memories was not so easy but it was done quickly, and now I’m working on the hard part: create a new timeline that is truly perfect.

...

Three thousand four hundred seventy nine attempts so far. What can I say? I have almost no control on what happens in them.

Ciruel led the group up a spiral staircase, to an area that seemed to be composed mostly of living quarters. One side was clearly marked ‘for employees only’ and even had a velvet cord crossing the hallway, as if that were enough to stop anyone from trying to go in. “Please don’t ever go over there. My employees value their privacy. Your rooms are over here” Ciruel pointed at three doors at the end of the hallway. Frisk went forward and opened the door, showing the inside. It actually resembled the rooms Graham’s inn had, somehow.

“Nice. Thank you” Patta nodded.

“But before you are free to go in there are a couple matters I’d like to talk about. First, dinner shall be served in a couple hours. It will just be the four of us; tonight most of my employees will eat after us. I’ll come to bring you to the dining room when it’s time”

“What will dinner be?” Asriel asked, actually looking pretty enthusiastic about the perspective of some more food.

“Oh, you will see. I’m already preparing some treats for dinner” the scholar said. Patta had the feeling he was winking impishly, but those glasses of his really made it impossible to know for sure.

“Great. What else do you want to talk about?” Patta inquired. Ciruel stepped back, smiling awkwardly.

“I don’t mean to sound rude or demeaning in any way, but could you two please take a bath?” Ciruel languidly gestured at Patta and Asriel “You two reek. Your rooms have private bathrooms, go use them”

Asriel lowered his gaze to the floor, blushing slightly. Nobody had mentioned such thing so far, neither to him or Patta. The adult didn’t seem to be amused either, but didn’t make any comment about that. “Sure, I suppose. Now that I think about that it must be because of our clothes. Neither Asriel or I have clothes other than these ones”

“I would have lent Asriel some of mine if he wanted” Frisk muttered, earning a grateful look from Asriel “But I don’t have more clothes here. They are back at home”

Ciruel shook his head, practically standing against the wall and far from Patta and Asriel. “Then I suppose neither of you have washed them in a while. That is so gross! You could have bought new ones, you know”

“We have no money for that!” Patta was admittedly ashamed and wanted this to be over as soon as possible so he could retreat into his room and away of Ciruel. The scholar raised his eyebrows, thoughtful.

“That’s a problem. I’ll tell you what, both of you give me your clothing sizes and I’ll get you two some new clothes for tonight. Take it as a gift to celebrate your stay! And hey, why don’t I add some pajamas to the deal too? Yes, that will be good...” Ciruel started mumbling to himself, considering what else could be done for his guests.

Patta had the feeling Ciruel was not going to accept a no as an answer, even if this was definitely unorthodox and a tad disrespectful. If they wanted some peace then yielding would be the quickest way to be done with that.

Once Ciruel had the requested data he bowed slightly. “Excellent! Say, why don’t I ask your old clothes to be washed while you two are asleep tonight? Tomorrow you will have the comfort of having familiar clothes and won’t offend anybody’s sense of smell”

Asriel still didn’t say anything to that. He had stayed silent most of the time, self-conscious and embarrassed. Usually the stuff Ciruel had said and asked wouldn’t have bothered him as much, but somehow after the stressing day he had so far he felt Ciruel was once another unwelcome person in his time over the surface. All had done until now was nod, until that moment. His annoyance started to seep into his voice “If we say yes will you leave us alone?” Ciruel didn’t reply to Asriel’s question, choosing to shrug instead.

It took a while and accepting Ciruel’s continuous request for him to be satisfied and go away. “Over there to the right is my personal study. That’s where I spend most of my time, so if you need anything please don’t be afraid to visit me there” he said while he was walking away.

“Yes, thank you” Asriel muttered, opening the door behind him. Before he went inside he was stopped by Patta. The adult felt they had to say something after Ciruel’s behavior.

“Asriel, don’t take anything he said too personal, okay?”

“That’s not what is bothering me” Asriel replied sullenly.

“Then what is it?”

Asriel waited a moment before answering. He didn’t feel ready to tell Patta the truth, but he couldn’t stay silent, either. “S-Sorry, this just hasn’t been a good day. I need some time alone” he said before closing the door.

Patta and Frisk exchanged a glance, Frisk shrugging with an expression of worry in their face. Something was really bothering Asriel and neither of them was sure what it was, and to be frank neither of them knew very well how to deal with it. Patta had no real experience with children, and Frisk, while easy to talk to, felt this was something Asriel shouldn’t be pressured to reveal.

“It will all be okay. Let’s not force him to talk to us if he isn’t ready to. I think...that is how it is done” Patta said before entering their room, leaving Frisk alone in the hallway. Frisk sighed, now understanding coming to Ciruel’s manor really was a mistake.

Nobody was going to be happy during their stay, at least for that day. That much was obvious now.