Wait, What You Mean I Got Reincarnated As A Heroine In Another World?-Chapter 17: Future

"No. 1000 years later. Are you dense? Of course now."

What is my fault again? I wonder.

"We've got more than enough time for training, you know."

Bleh, as if time ever exists in stasis.

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

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

After such a calm, almost sterile environment, 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 fragment.

Was this a dark matter? Or something 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 time, froze as if relieving a nightmare.

Her hand covered her mouth, barely stifling a gasp as her pupil dilated—dread written across her face, realizing she was witnessing the harbinger of her own foresight.

Not long after, the glow of the Mytheia device dimmed 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 momentarily 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—overwhelmed 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 time left. This splinter of Shatterglass from my Void Rifter implies something terrible is about to come—especially when paired with Mytheia's latest record."

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, something you clearly were so excited about."

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

Okay, that was too literal.

Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com.

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

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

"Uh-huh." She just shrugged, all nonchalant as if was nothing.

Grrr... this arrogant-ass Wicked Witch.

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

"Mytheia device just recorded the future of what is to come next, and it's something terrible, the sign of clash between Fate and Destiny. To put it briefly, Professor Helena is about to decease by the time you returned. I did notice something strange when inspecting the setup of Void Rifter to interrupt the scene between you and Helena, which is the instability of the ground a few seconds before you returned by memory. In other words, momentarily after the time elapses, you will have to save her, no matter what."

Right, here comes the McGuffin after this.

"However, there is another option, which is me bringing you to a post-accident time skip, or 5 years later after the disaster. Meaning that you will lose Professor Helena when this new event taking place. Therefore, this leaves you with two choices: Saving Professor Helena, with the risk of you not getting this golden opportunity for a time or losing her but becoming an adult to get into the Finality Exam immediately. So, which path will you choose?"

I knew it. Intriguing, is this the so-called plot armor of any story? How typical.

Apparently, such temporary stakes like this would've been created hadn't the plot advanced to its supposed regular timeline, similar to a McGuffin. However, I have had so many questions in my head before holding onto this kind of pacing willingly.

"First of all, I have some questions."

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

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

"No, it doesn't matter. If you have got enough time to explain, it means that you already are prepared for all of these—delaying the shell of this statis rifter, or what ever that is, from breaking itself. So, how many 'times' left before that happen?"

"If you refer to time as in your vessel's subjective duration, 5 minutes."

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

"Eighteen."

"Eighteen?!"

I mimicked it in the same exaggerated tone from a meme I'd seen online. It was a joke, sort of. But come to think of it, what if her mature vibe had something to do with it?

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

"Yes, I did come from the future."

"And you didn't tell me that earlier?! Why?"

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

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

I facepalmed hard, not understanding why she'd overlooked something this crucial.

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

"Yeah no, you've got to be kidding me. 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 night somewhat gave it away, Selene muh love."

I blurted out the last part in a teasing tone, practically insulting 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 the grass yet my EQ is still better.

"You really are emotional deep down."

"I bet you didn't get any of those at all."

I let out the heaviest sigh I've ever made—the one I let out when a nurse forgot to check the chemically prepared substances for the pulmonary hygiene surgery right after the patient had been put into a comatose state.

"Anyway, let me think about these choices you're giving to me. I need more time to weight out these decisions. There are only 2-3 minutes left on the clock, right? For me, that should be more than enough to figure this out."

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