Chapter 311 : Let Me Be Your XXX For A While [2]

The girl didn’t know how to respond. Her eyes traveled from his face down to the hand he had brought toward her.

And instead of holding it, instead of saying she wanted this too, she charged at him. Her tiny body slammed into his leg and her arms wrapped around it with every ounce of strength she had.

Jax got on his knees but that didn’t change a thing. She tried to climb onto his chest because she didn’t know how to express what was happening inside her. Didn’t have the words. Didn’t have the experience. All she had was a body that was telling her to hold on and not let go.

Her voice came out muffled against his coat. Trembling. Small. "Mister... can I... can I cry now?"

Jax pressed her head gently against his chest and said. "You never need to ask permission for your own feelings. Stupid girl."

"But yes, you can. Just make sure you don’t cry for the same reason ever again."

She let it all out. Each tear carried the pain she had accumulated across lifetimes. The loneliness. The betrayals. The experiments. The regressions. The dying and waking up to the same nightmare on repeat. And now, for the first time in all those lives, the feeling of someone choosing to protect her without wanting anything in return.

She didn’t know how long this would last. But she was happy that it happened at all.

Everyone else watched the scene in silence. A cold, chaos-seeking, mass-murdering professor on his knees in a forest, completely bowed to a child’s tears. Still chaotic in his own way through the teachings he had just given her. But undeniably, unmistakably human.

Even the fifth woman watching this scene, Echidna, was shocked. But genuinely happy. She thought to herself. ’So that’s how you met him, Tempris. It isn’t the grand romantic destined encounter I was expecting. Too bad he just see you as a daughter figure.’

Then a thought horrified her. ’Wait. Did she feel the same way? Don’t tell me you used your powers to meet him in other timelines, you witch.’

—x—X—x—

Some time had passed. Jax and the others were walking toward the nearby city.

The girls followed him at a distance. All except Lavinia who was walking right beside Jax and constantly pestering the child who had been holding Jax’s finger and walking alongside him in silence.

Lavinia leaned down with a grin that could charm birds out of trees. "Oh come on, little cupcake! Why won’t you tell your Big Sis what our scary professor whispered to you?"

No response.

"Are you really going to ignore me? You’re keeping a secret from me already? My heart! Your big sister is going to be so sad!" She clutched her chest dramatically. "I might even start crying right here! Look at my eyes!"

She fluttered her eyelashes and faked a tragic sniffle.

"Just a tiny hint? Pretty please? I promise I won’t tell the other grumpy girls! If you tell me, I’ll even share my snacks with you!"

The girl turned her face away with a sharp humph. "How many times do I have to tell you? It’s top secret! And for your information, my name is not ’little cupcake’!"

Lavinia gasped in mock offense. "Oh! Well, now that you mention it, my bad! What is your name then?"

The girl tried hard to think. Her tiny brow furrowed in concentration. "Um... if I remember right, it was Tira? No wait, it was Tia. Nah, it was the one before that..." She counted something invisible on her fingers. "And Tara was the one before that..."

She looked up at Lavinia with genuine confusion. "Big Sis, I don’t recall. But it definitely started with T. In our fourth year the priests tell us what letter a name should start with and mine was always T. But in every regression my name changes so I don’t even know which one is real anymore."

Lavinia tapped her chin and said. "That explains it. But why not just go for a brand new one? You could ask the professor to name you if you want."

The girl’s eyes lit up at the idea. But she didn’t know how to ask Jax, who was looking straight ahead and seemingly ignoring their entire conversation.

Meanwhile Jax was hearing every word. And was panicking internally because dozens of names were already revolving in his head and none of them felt right.

Then the girl’s voice reached his ear, small and hesitant. "Mister, can you—"

Jax interrupted before she could finish. "How about Tempris?"

The girl blinked.

"It means ’the one who owns her time.’ Up until today, the world and your regressions controlled your clock. They forced you to live the same awful days over and over again. But not anymore."

He kept his eyes on the road ahead. Expressionless.

"I picked Tempris because from this second forward, you are the boss of your own clock. Your time is yours to spend however you want."

His face showed nothing. But his side eyes were scanning her expression with the nervousness of a man who had just picked a name from a video game and was praying a child would accept it.

The smile that appeared on her face told him everything he needed to know.

She murmured the name to herself, tasting it. "Tempris." Again. "Tempris." Then she turned to Lavinia with sparkling eyes. "Big Sis, you can call me Tempris from now on!"

She turned back to Jax and said with a brightness her face hadn’t carried in centuries. "Thank you, Mister. For giving me a name. I promise I won’t forget it this time."

Jax’s heart started pounding. Not the way it pounded when he saw Astrid. Or Nerith. Or Beatrix. Or even Adelina. Something entirely different. Something that made his chest tighten in a way he had never prepared for and was trying very hard not to let show on his face.

Then Delphine, who had been walking ahead of the group in stubborn silence, froze in her tracks. "Impossible."

Evangeline followed her gaze. They had reached a low cliff overlooking a city. And at its gates stood two massive statues of figures she recognized instantly.

She froze as well. Her voice came out in disbelief. "What is happening? Where are we? Those two are our ancestors from six hundred years ago. The rulers of the Heutria Empire."

Her eyes were wide. "The same one that was split into what we now call Veldora and Meridax."

-x-X-x-

[A/N: Shoutout to eric_rowse, justdont, Ultimahsseum, Outsxder and Leo_Muhammad for the golden tickets ❤️🔥

(👍🏻ᴗ _ᴗ)👍🏻]