The moment Asty opened her eyes, a wave of chilling air washed over all of us momentarily before it faded.

Something about her had changed. Physically that is, she doesn’t seem to have changed all that much mentally by the way she was looking at us.

Speaking of her gaze, one of the other immediately noticeable changes was her pupils had become an iridescent icy blue that glimmered like a gemstone and shined like a full moon with a deep black slit as the iris the middle.

Even her hair seemed to sparkle as if it were filled with gemstone dust. Though, her skin remained quite pale which was somewhat worrying.

Still, aside from that minor concern, she seemed to be fine in all other regards.

She blinked a couple of times and shook her head lightly as she adjusted to the changes within her.

"Woah! This is so cool!" She exclaimed in a joyful manner, raising her hands up and throwing them up into the air.

Ah, I think the slight delay in her reaction was actually looking at her Soul Scroll and seeing what new abilities she got.

The joy on her face right now was probably the happiest I’d ever seen her, and probably the happiest she’ll ever be. Except maybe when she becomes a mother, which I have no doubt will happen.

Either way, now that this was done, it was time to get some sleep. I got into position and laid down on the bed, getting ready to fall asleep when Shirayaa suddenly spoke up.

"Wait, is that it? Is that the whole reason you brought us here? To do that?"

I raised my head to look at her as I proclaimed, "No, I also brought us here to sleep."

"Wha- But- Huh?" She seemed utterly confused an unable to wrap her head around the concept.

Ash and Asty snuggled up together as I addressed Shirayaa’s concerns, "Look, no offence, but I didn’t wanna sleep in the slums, and as I said earlier, booking in at a regular inn would’ve been too troublesome, so this was the next best thing. Now do you wanna keep complaining, or go to sleep?"

She muttered wordlessly for a few seconds before resigning herself to just sleep with us for tonight.

_

_

_

When morning came, I was the first to wake up, followed by Ash, then Shirayaa and finally Asty.

Once they were all up, I gave them all some money, around a thousand gold which should be more than enough for breakfast, and told them that I had somewhere to be right now.

"Where are you going?" Asty asked. She wanted me to stay and help her get a hold of her new power, but there was something I needed to check on first.

"I’m headed to the Institute. There’s something I need to do there." As I told them where I was going, I pulled out my black kimono that with the purple gold trim and put it on. Thankfully I did have one spare in my storage space, as I was quite worried I’d left them all in my room back at the orphanage.

"Wh-What is that? I’ve never seen that kind of uniform before." Shirayaa blurted out in suspicion.

"Oh, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. If I remember correctly, this is representative of someone who’s above a prodigy."

"WHAT?!" Her surprise isn’t all that surprising to me considering I remember Ash having a similarly exaggerated reaction.

"I don’t have time to explain, I’ll be back in a couple of hours or so and hopefully I’ll have found a Chronomancer for you." I waved her concerns away as I turned to leave.

She didn’t interrupt me again as she seemingly didn’t want to upset me on the off chance I change my mind. I then left without anyone else stopping me.

I made my way over to the academy, which was thankfully open today, and headed on in.

As I made my way through, I got several stares from everyone I passed by, wondering who I was since they had all forgotten about me, but the kimono I was wearing looked official so they just didn’t say anything.

I soon found myself in front of the headmaster’s office, where her assistant was currently talking to Miss Amoranaa herself.

When I approached them, the assistant looked at me sceptically, wondering who I was because she’s probably never seen me before. At least in this timeline.

The headmaster herself on the other hand, simply smiled and ushered me into her office, which confused both me and her assistant.

I was sure that Miss Amoranaa would’ve forgotten me. Then again, Cryztia didn’t, so I shouldn’t be too surprised by this.

I entered into Miss Amoranaa’a office, much to the dismay of her assistant, and took a seat on one of the chaise’s.

"You’re probably aware of the changes that’ve occurred by now, correct?" She asked with a knowing smile.

"The orphanage is missing." I stated bluntly.

Her face darkened, when she spoke, her voice was much deeper than what I remembered. "Correct. Which means that someone has tempered with time. Massively."

"I have some insight into why, as well as a couple of theories which I came up with on my way here."

"Let’s hear them then."

"The first thing is actually why the orphanage existed in the first place. Because apparently, it was meant as a trap to hinder, or rather curse someone into not being able to use their full potential."

"That being?"

"Someone by the name of Shirayaa. She passed the entrance exam. Apparently, her soul has a temporal nature or something about it. Which is another reason that I came here, was to hopefully get a Chronomancer to train her in her to use these powers."

"Truly? Such a person existed?" Miss Amoranaa raised both her head and her brows as her tone became more cheerful.

I nodded and explained a little more about what I knew about Shirayaa and her situation to the headmaster, who listened intently.

When I finished, she got up and told me to follow her, leading me to a bookshelf behind her desk. I think I know what this is for.

She took out a ring from within her robes and put it on, presenting it to the bookshelf.

Nothing happened for a few seconds when suddenly the bookshelf split into two, revealing a magic gate of some kind. She then poured her mana into it and a link was formed between here and the Illuminati home base.

We both passed though and I found myself in an identical looking office, minus the bookshelf that hid the portal. I’m guessing this is her office in the Illuminati headquarters.

She then led me through the door that led out into the pristine halls of the Illuminati building, through several long and winding tunnels, until we reached a place that felt somewhat familiar to me.

We entered the room that was unlit, and I could see Miss Amoranaa squint her eyes, meaning she couldn’t see in the dark like I could.

But that didn’t seem to stop her as she suddenly shouted, "Chronos, Avurum, Scepticia."

I had no clue what those words meant, but the moment she finished speaking them, the lights suddenly turned on and I could feel someone behind us.

I turned around, a bit nervous as to who it was and why they would appear behind us of all places. Miss Amoranaa was prompted to do the same.

But upon realising who it was, we both relaxed.

"Welcome, didn’t expect to see the two of you here together." It was Thalor, the head of the Illuminati and if I had to hazard a guess, probably the most adept and powerful Chronomancer in the world.

"I assume that you’re here about the recent temporal mishap that happened recently?" He asked, raising a brow beneath his cloaked robes. Not sure how I could tell that.

"Uh, yes. How did yo- Oh right." I forgot, he’s probably got something set up in case this kind of thing happens.

"Unfortunately, I have no clue what happened or what changed other than something did, so if you came here looking for answers, then you’ve come to the wrong place I’m afraid." He said shaking his head.

"That’s actually why we’re here. We believe we know why this happened, as well as to ask for a favour." Miss Amoranaa suddenly spoke up.

"Oh? Then by all means, explain."

The Institute’s branch headmaster wanted to explain, but because I was the one that was actually dealing with this, and it was me who wanted the favour, I thought it best if I explain everything.

And I decided to start from the failed exam I had in that spatial realm with Eric, all the way to thawing out my friends and finally to Shirayaa’s temporal soul thingy and the God I have to Asty.

Thalor was a little confused at first when I mentioned Eric, but soon remembered him. Apparently the two are good friend, and Eric is some kind of honorary member of the Illuminati whilst not being one officially.

Which just means that he doesn’t have to listen to them but gets to rely on them in sticky situations. Either way, the moment Thalor heard about Shirayaa’s situation he was immensely intrigued.

"I think I’d like to meet this ’Shirayaa’ of yours for myself."