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Chapter 13
I used my ability without saving the current point in time and said goodbye to her.
“It was nice seeing you again after so long, Rosemary. I’ll send my regards to your real older brother. I’ll come rescue you soon too, so don’t cry over there—be brave and hang in there, okay?”
Just as I was about to activate my ability—
In an instant, without any warning, the door to the sitting room flew open.
“Tania!”
The one who burst in was Elysion, who had supposedly rushed out of the Papiope ducal estate earlier that morning.
He suddenly appeared, looking unmistakably furious, and strode straight toward me.
“You—just what the hell…!”
Huh? What reason would Elysion have to be angry at me?
When I’d visited him separately earlier that day, he’d seemed the same as usual.
In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of me and grabbed my wrist.
Startled, I reflexively used the ability I’d already been preparing.
Ah—damn it.
[Moving to Point in Time 1.]
As my field of vision dropped and I felt my hands and feet grow smaller, I frowned.
What was that about? Why had Elysion been angry with me?
Before I could think further, Laspi’s cold voice snapped me back to reality.
“You’ll need to explain what you just said.”
Not knowing that I’d gone to meet Rosemary in a future timeline, his face was filled with wariness.
I blinked slowly.
“…What was the last thing I said?”
“Didn’t you ask why Rosemary left me alone?!”
Ah. So that’s where it had cut off.
“I saw in a prophecy that something bad would happen to you. So I was just wondering why Rosemary—who’s alive and well even in the future—would leave you alone.”
“How am I supposed to believe that?”
Whether he believed me or not didn’t really matter. But still…
“I foresaw a future where your sister is alive, so you should be hoping that I’m right.”
Laspi, who desperately wanted his sister to be alive, parted his lips slightly, then closed them again in silence.
“Rosemary is definitely alive in the future. But while saving your sister, it looks like something might happen to you…”
“I don’t care. I still have to go save her.”
Tsk.
He didn’t even know what would happen to him, yet he was stubborn to a fault.
Then again, how could I stop someone who was determined to go despite knowing full well it’d be dangerous?
I let out a small sigh and spoke.
“Then let’s go together.”
Fortunately, Laspi’s ability—monster control—was absurdly overpowered, so I probably wouldn’t need to rewind time all that much.
But at the suggestion of going together, Laspi’s eyes twisted sharply.
“I don’t need that kind of help. I still can’t trust you, and taking you along would only be a burden.”
“Oh? And you know where to go to find your sister?”
“……”
Just as I expected. I shrugged lightly and smiled brightly.
“Then we’re going together, right?”
✦ ✦ ✦
First, I calmed Laspi down, who looked like he might bolt at any moment.
Then I forced him to eat a meal he insisted he didn’t need, and made him sleep.
The next day—
I served Laspi the stew and bread that the lady next door had brought over for breakfast.
He argued with me, saying he didn’t have time to eat, but when I said we wouldn’t leave unless he did, he finally put food in his mouth.
He’d resisted more yesterday, but it seemed he’d gotten a bit more comfortable with me overnight.
Watching him eat with quiet satisfaction, I asked what I’d been curious about.
“By the way, why were you collapsed near that cigar shop yesterday?”
“…While searching for Rosemary, I heard information that ability-user trades were happening at that cigar shop, so I went there.”
“And then?”
“I didn’t even realize how exhausted I was while searching, but the moment I saw the shop was completely empty, all my strength drained away…”
Laspi had plenty of minor injuries, but nothing severe enough to make him collapse from pain.
Which meant, most likely…
“Laspi, have you even been eating properly lately?”
He slowly shook his head.
Well, just looking at how scrawny he was, it was obvious.
As an orphan, he probably hadn’t been well-fed to begin with, and while searching for his sister, he wouldn’t even have had time to beg.
Just as I was inspecting his poor growth with dissatisfaction, he set down his utensils—apparently finished eating—and asked with a full look on his face,
“By the way, Tania, is it really okay for you to do something so dangerous without your parents’ permission?”
“Huh? I think you’re misunderstanding something—I don’t have parents.”
“…What?”
“I mean I’m an orphan. And strictly speaking, this isn’t even my house. I’m just staying here temporarily thanks to the kindness of someone else.”
I lifted my skinny arms as if they were proof and showed them to him.
Rarely flustered, he stared at the now-empty plate.
“Then the food you gave up for me yesterday and today…”
“That’s enough. If you’re done eating, get up. We need to hurry and rescue Rosemary, who must be terrified.”
I cut him off as if it were nothing and changed the subject. He bit down on his lower lip.
His expression looked complicated in more ways than one.
“…Do you have a rescue plan?”
“You cause a commotion by dragging monsters around and drawing attention, and while that’s happening, I rescue Rosemary. Something like that?”
“How is an abiliter like you, with no combat power, supposed to rescue Rosemary? It’s not that simple.”
“It’s fine. I saw myself rescuing Rosemary in a prophecy.”
At that, he let out a small sigh, left with nothing to say.
“…I don’t know if I can trust you.”
I was just about to say it was already too late for regrets.
“But I do know for certain that you harbor no malicious intent.”
The eyes that had wavered anxiously at the mention of having no plan were now clearly focused on me.
“…So?”
“I will follow you.”
Saying that, Laspi kissed the back of my hand, as if pledging loyalty to his liege.
I stared at him blankly and thought,
Where did this kid, whose blood hasn’t even dried yet, learn something like that?
✦ ✦ ✦
A dark underground space, lined with room after room of densely packed iron cages.
Every breath brought with it the sharp metallic stench of iron and the reek of mold.
An abiliter auction house.
To rescue Rosemary, I deliberately allowed myself to be captured and brought here as bait.
After scanning my surroundings through the narrow bars, I sat down on the spot.
“So this is an abiliter auction house… but there seem to be way more ordinary people than ability users.”
Then again, capturing abiliter users was extremely difficult to begin with, so having so many would’ve been stranger.
To keep an auction house this large running, they’d need ordinary people too.
“Trash, the lot of them.”
In the previous timeline, Elysion and I had destroyed this place together.
I’d come here on purpose this time, but being on the captured side still felt strange.
As I was dragged in, I’d spotted Rosemary crouched in a corner through the bars of a cage I passed.
In a place this big, they didn’t put people up for auction immediately after kidnapping them. They ran various inspections for weeks and set a minimum price.
Fortunately, it seemed Rosemary hadn’t been auctioned yet.
Now that I knew her location, all that remained was to rescue her.
“I wonder if Laspi is behaving himself and waiting patiently outside…”
Just then—
Amid the noisy voices of the captives, the slow, deliberate sound of someone’s footsteps echoed through the underground space.
Click. Click.
An old man with a cane was walking along, scanning the people inside the cages.
His distinctive, imposing build and presence.
Though he wore a mask that covered his entire face, I recognized him instantly.
“…I didn’t know this gentleman’s hobby was shopping for people.”
VIPs at the auction house inspected items before the auction itself, and it seemed the old man had come to look in advance.
I’d thought rather well of him in the future timeline, so it was disappointing to see him set foot in a place like this.
The old man, who’d only been observing the inside of the cages without taking any action, stopped in front of me.
Probably because I’d been staring at him so openly.
“You don’t avert your eyes.”
His gaze gleamed with interest.
“Aren’t you afraid?”
I tilted my head slightly, as if I didn’t understand.
“Are you asking if I’m afraid of you, sir? Or of the situation I’m in right now?”
“…Hm. Let’s say both.”
“Well, an old man with the strange hobby of buying people is a little scary. But my situation is… not so bad.”
