Wait, What You Mean I Got Reincarnated As A Heroine In Another World? Chapter 22 - 18 - Future

"No. One thousand years later. Are you dense? Of course now."

What was my fault again? I couldn’t help but wonder.

"We’ve got more than enough ti for training, you know."

Bleh, as if ti even exists in stasis.

There couldn’t possibly be such a thing as ti in a static space, you know.

"Right, enough with the conversation. Ti for the action. Are you read—hm?"

After such a calm, almost sterile environnt, a sudden disturbance shattered the stasis. A piece of dark, glowing material fell from the sky, hitting the ground with a faint hiss. It was pitch-black, pulsing faintly, as if darkness had condensed into a broken void fragnt.

Was this dark matter? Or sothing far more uncanny?

I bent down and picked it up, noticing its weakened pulse—dimming, yet eerily alive.

Selene, who had been composed this whole ti, froze as if reliving a nightmare.

She covered her mouth with her hand, barely stifling a gasp, her pupil dilated—dread written across her face, realizing she’d witnessed the harbinger of her own foresight.

Not long after, the glow of the Mytheia device dimd gradually—slowly, almost reluctantly, reacting to the augury that had just fallen from the shell of stillness.

The shell of stillness began to move—gradually, subtly vibrating against the ground.

Selene, who had montarily lost her composure, hurriedly peered into the device.Her eyes were all over its contents, analyzing every detail. Then, all of a sudden, her hands began to tremble. The subtle vibration nearly had her collapsing to the ground—overwheld by what she had just witnessed.

After such an unfortunate series of events surged to the surface, Selene—still attempting to regain her composure—reluctantly opened her mouth to speak.

"Kairi, it seems we’ve got no ti left. This splinter of Shatterglass from my Void Rifter... You see how it flickers? It implies sothing terrible is about to co—especially when paired with Mytheia’s latest record."

"Shatterglass doesn’t fall unless the interference of Fate."

Wait, your what?!

All of a sudden, these seemingly gobbledygook nonsense terms flooded my brain, brewing a storm in my head like it was about to explode. Like... seriously? Could you not just drop new terms like everyone’s already supposed to know them?! Imagine tossing those—Void Rifter this, Shatterglass that—as if they were common knowledge.

As if responding to my internal rants, Selene let out a deep sigh and shook her head.

"It is what you referred to as ’statis,’ sothing you clearly were so excited about."

"I’m shaking my head after hearing your rants."

Okay, that was too literal.

That response didn’t work like that—it simply didn’t land when you said it.

"First of all, it’s not called statis, but stasis." I sighed.

"Next, what did I tell you before about not tossing away these terms out of curiosity?"

"Uh-huh." She just shrugged, all nonchalant like it was nothing.

Grrr... this arrogant-ass Wicked Witch.

"Anyway, let’s cut these snarky remarks and listen to what I’m about to say."

"The Mytheia caught a glimpse of what’s next. It’s worse than I expected—a sign of the clash between Fate and Destiny. To put it briefly, Professor Helena will have been deceased by the ti you return."

"To be honest, I did notice sothing strange when inspecting the setup of the Void Rifter that interrupted the scene between and Helena. There was instability in the ground a few seconds before you returned by mory. In other words, once the ti elapses, you’ll have to save her—no matter what."

Ah, of course. Here cos the McGuffin right after the explanation.

If you asked , I didn’t feel anything towards Professor Helena. I an, she was nice, but the fact she had deceived into confessing my identity was barely forgivable.

"However, there is another option: I could bring you to a post-accident ti skip, five years after the disaster. aning you’ll lose Professor Helena when this new event takes place. This leaves you with two choices: saving Professor Helena, risking the loss of a golden opportunity for a while... or losing her, and becoming an adult eligible for the Finality Exam imdiately. So—"

"Which path will you choose?"

I knew it. Intriguing.

Is this the so-called plot armor every story seems to need? How typical.

Apparently, temporary stakes like this one wouldn’t have even existed had the plot advanced to its regular tiline—classic MacGuffin placent. Still, I had way too many questions in my head to willingly get along with this kind of pacing.

"First of all, I have so questions."

"Not again..." She already rolled her eyes, fully h-ing my reply.

"Do you understand that your Professor is in trouble, Kairi?"

"No, it doesn’t matter. If you’ve got enough ti to explain, it ans you’re already prepared—delaying the shell of this stasis rifter or whatever that is from breaking itself. So, how much ti is left before that happens?"

"If you refer to ti as in your vessel’s subjective duration—five minutes."

"Good. Next question: how old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"Eighteen?!"

I mimicked it in the sa exaggerated tone from a I’d seen online. It was a joke, sort of. But co to think of it, what if her mature vibe had sothing to do with it?

"So, did you co from what? The future?"

"Yes, I did co from the future."

"And you didn’t tell that earlier?! Why?"

"Because... I wanted to surprise you?"

She tilted her head slightly, feigning innocence, her face glowing with a look so sinless it was almost criminal—no, it’s almost offensive how innocent she tried to look.

I facepald hard, not understanding how she overlooked sothing this crucial.

"Oh, wow—I’m so surprised. Unbelievable."

"Yeah no, you’ve got to be kidding . That was terrible!"

"Uh, how was that even terrible?"

"The fact you still have your own vessel when I expected you to be ghosting around like a poltergeist in the middle of the night kind of gave it away, Selene... muh love."

I blurted out the last part in a teasing tone as if I was auditioning for a telenovela drama—dramatic pause, teasing smirk, the whole act—mocking her total lack of emotional intelligence. Like seriously... being a genius doesn’t give you a pass to be this dense about basic common sense. I rarely touch grass yet my EQ is still better.

"Oh, monologuing about the superiority of your own emotional skills now? You really are that dramatic deep down, aren’t you—sowhere beneath all that scientist persona."

"Irrelevant reply. I bet you didn’t get any of those at all, Selene."

I let out the heaviest sigh I’ve ever made—the kind I reserve for when a nurse forgets to check the chemically prepared substances for pulmonary hygiene surgery after the patient’s already in a coma.

"Anyway, let think about these choices you’re giving . I need more ti to weigh them out. There are only 2–3 minutes left on the clock, right? For , that’s more than enough to figure this out."

Selene raised one eyebrow, her face a mixture of aloofness and curiosity.