I had more or less finished my conversation with Alice, but the real problem was that there were plenty of other people around who could make me just as uneasy.

Even if they didn’t remember every detail of the timeline I had rewound—or rather, even if they didn’t consciously recall it—this situation alone was enough to make things unbearably awkward.

That’s right. I had been so focused on dealing with the immediate crisis that I hadn’t thought about what would come next.

But really, who in that situation would have had the time to think ahead? Even the Emperor had charged in without a second thought, and I had been the one forced to confront him—completely unprepared. How could I have afforded to consider the consequences?

With the fake Alice lying before us, Alice herself had entered a somber mood. I took a few steps back and scanned my surroundings.

That alone was enough to realize that nearly everyone around me had their eyes on me.

Not that I was literally surrounded. It was more of a psychological sensation. Physically, everyone kept a bit of distance—it wasn’t a solid wall, at least not in the literal sense.