Vol. 6 Ch. 2

After calming down slightly, Mevis accepted the tissue that Noa handed her, gently wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes and sniffing softly.

She paused for a moment, then bent down to pick up Noa, placing her on her lap.

Noa froze. "Mevis, Teacher… What are you doing?"

Mevis gently pinched Noa’s cheek. "I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to hold my younger self."

Noa: "…"

Oh my god, am I really going to grow into someone this eccentric? What about my dignity? What about my pride as a person? It’s all gone!

Instead of avoiding the situation, Noa sighed deeply and quipped, "I think I still prefer the cool and collected version of you, Mevis."

"Ah, that. At the time, I couldn’t get too close to you. Otherwise, Elizabeth might have discovered something, and I wouldn’t have been able to stay undercover near Shadow."

Hearing this, Noa raised an eyebrow. "Elizabeth? Discovered what? What do you mean?"

"In the same cohort as Mes and I, there was a student named Sally. She was actually Elizabeth, sent to the academy by Shadow."

Mevis spoke as she hugged Noa like a giant teddy bear, holding her on her lap and casually pinching her cheeks as she continued.

"In the original timeline, the four of us sisters, along with Hefei, nearly fell victim to Elizabeth’s schemes."

"Fortunately, that woman was pretty dim-witted. Little Aurora ran circles around her until she failed so completely that she ended up writing articles about us."

Rosvisser’s eyes moved slightly as she contemplated the situation before asking, "You mentioned being undercover near Shadow for many years. Why didn’t you try to contact us earlier? That way, we might’ve been able to avoid so many troubles."

Since it was already confirmed that Mevis was Noa from the future, she should be well aware of everything that was about to happen in this timeline.

If she had reached out earlier, perhaps the decisive battle at Sky City could have been avoided altogether.

To this question, Mevis provided her explanation.

"Because of the event anchors."

Rosvisser frowned. "Event anchors… What are those?"

"If the existence of Mevis as a person were erased, then this timeline would develop into the same future as my original one."

"That is, I would become the Child of Shadow, and Shadow would obtain the power of the Dragon God. We would lose, and Shadow would unite the entire Samael continent."

"And the victory I achieved after gaining the Dragon God’s power became the event anchor between the two timelines."

"As someone who doesn’t belong to this timeline, I can only forcibly interfere with the event anchor to change its trajectory. I cannot excessively interfere in major events."

"Little Aurora once told me that if I meddled in too many other major events, it would create an even more unpredictable future."

"That future could be better… or far worse. We didn’t dare take that gamble, so for the past few years, I’ve only been infiltrating Shadow’s side to monitor his movements. I avoided contacting you or stepping in to help."

After listening to Mevis’s explanation, both Rosvisser and Noa nodded thoughtfully.

"I see…"

As if remembering something, Noa asked, "Now that we’ve defeated Shadow, does that mean the future has changed?"

"Exactly. The moment we defeated Shadow, everything in the future… began to develop in a more stable direction."

At this, Mevis’s originally calm expression turned slightly somber.

Rosvisser quietly observed her, guessing that she was once again recalling the events of that tragic future.

The Mevis from before, living in a world shrouded in shadow, had only shared the tip of the iceberg when describing the tragedies she had experienced.

Realizing this, Rosvisser softly said, "If you want to talk more about the future, you can share it with me. I’ll bear it with you—"

"No."

Mevis quickly adjusted herself, raising her head with a cheerful smile.

"Little Aurora told me that, as a traveler across timelines, I would retain all memories of every timeline. But the people from the altered future wouldn’t remember what happened."

"And I don’t want to burden you all with that pain."

Saying this, she turned her head, glancing at the dazed Leon nearby.

"Let me bear all these shadows alone." She said it so lightly, as if she were making a casual promise among friends.

Rosvisser looked at her profile, a mixture of pride and heartache filling her chest.

But she knew her daughter well.

Even though her personality had grown more cheerful, the stubborn streak in her soul would never change.

She possessed a relentless "hero complex," just like her father.

Rosvisser lowered her eyes, clenching the fabric of her dress tightly, and replied in a low voice, "Alright."

After a moment of silence, Noa asked, "What about you, Mevis? Do you already have memories of what happens many years into the future?"

Mevis shook her head. "No, Little Aurora said I would only recover those memories after returning to my own timeline. It’s a kind of protection mechanism for the brain."

"Oh, I see."

"By the way, you mentioned not interfering in major events. Does that mean you’ve done some things that wouldn’t impact the future significantly?" Rosvisser asked.

This time, Mevis smiled with a touch of pride.

"Of course."

Noa leaned forward eagerly. "Like what? Tell me!"

Mevis hugged Noa, gently swaying side to side while her tail flicked playfully behind her. She stared at the ceiling in thought before saying, "For example… do you know about the Blue Jade Lingzhi?"

Noa nodded. "Of course. Teacher helped extend my Primordial Mode’s duration, but that thing has only recently been cultivated successfully. It’ll take years to fully mature."

"Well, when I came to this timeline, I brought some Blue Jade Lingzhi from the future for you."

Noa blinked her wide eyes in astonishment, staring at Mevis. "No wonder I suddenly felt like my Primordial Mode lasted longer that one day…"

"Yup."

Mevis playfully nuzzled Noa’s cheek and smiled.

"Consider it a gift for the younger me, who never had the chance to enjoy Blue Jade Lingzhi."

"This is outrageous!"

"Nope, it’s real."

"And what else?" Noa asked.

"Well… I’ve protected you and your sisters countless times. Even though Elizabeth didn’t succeed in the original timeline, I was still worried you might get hurt, so I interfered whenever I could."

Mevis continued, "And during the outdoor exam collaboration, I secretly rigged the draw to pair me with Dad."

She grinned mischievously, as if savoring the memory.

"After all these years, I finally got to do something with my dad again."

When Mevis said this, her face still radiated reverence and longing.

Rosvisser knew that since childhood, Mevis (or Noa) had always admired Leon, aspiring to become a warrior as strong as him.

"And now, you’ve done it, Noa."

"This… me? Noa?"

Mevis pointed to the little bear patch on her jacket for Noa to see.

Noa’s eyes widened in realization. "Mom, Mom, you just reminded me! That patch—it looks exactly like the little bear plush Dad won when he played ball at Young Dragon Paradise years ago!"

Mevis smiled softly. "That’s right. Before I left, Thorne sewed it on for me because…"

She bit her lip and steadied her emotions before continuing.

"Because none of us knew how long it would be before we’d meet again."

"Whenever I felt hopeless, I would look at this little bear patch."

"It was the only thing that kept me going before I could meet all of you again."

"They were waiting for me to return. Everyone was waiting for me to come back."

"I absolutely couldn’t… collapse before the dawn."

Thirty years, holding on alone in a world that didn’t belong to her.

She knew where her home was, and she knew how to find them.

But because of the constraints of the event anchor, she couldn’t meet them under the pretense of "reunion."

During those cold and lonely nights, her only companion was the bear patch her sister had sewn.

No wonder she said she would bear all this pain alone. These experiences, too heavy to put into words, were not something everyone could endure.

Rosvisser didn’t probe further—not because she didn’t want to talk more with her daughter, but because she feared she wouldn’t be able to control her emotions.

There was still so much more she wanted to hear.

Mevis continued to share stories about the little things she had done over the years.

Indeed, they were all actions that wouldn’t significantly impact the future.

"How did you manage to come back to this timeline?" Noa asked. "Did you use the same reversal magic Dad used back then?"

Mevis shook her head.

"No, it wasn’t reversal magic."

She thought for a moment, carefully choosing her words before explaining.

"Actually, we didn’t have any record of Dad’s existence as Leon Casmod beyond ten years into the future. All we knew was that Dad accidentally traveled twenty years forward in time and, with the help of us three sisters, managed to return here."

"In simple terms, what you know about the thirty-year future is the same as what I know."

"So, as for reversal magic… Little Aurora never had the chance to research it."

"But she did find another method to send me back to the past."

As she spoke, Mevis tapped her temple with her finger. "She only transmitted my soul and consciousness."

Hearing this, Rosvisser and Noa were both stunned.

"Soul and consciousness only? Is that… even possible?"

"I remember Dad saying that people can travel to the future through spatial rifts but can’t return to the past because time cannot flow backward."

"That’s true, but that limitation only applies to living beings," Mevis said.

"Little Aurora conducted numerous experiments and found that any living entity sent to the past would experience a phenomenon called ‘temporal resonance collapse.’"

"In other words, if a living entity from a different time coexisted with its past self, both bodies would simultaneously disintegrate."

"So, the real reason time cannot flow backward is that no living being can withstand temporal resonance collapse. This is a law of the Samael Continent, one that not even the Dragon God can override."

"But—souls can."

"After countless failures, Little Aurora discovered that souls could escape the constraints of time, and temporal resonance collapse wouldn’t affect them."

"Once we realized this, we began discussing who should undertake this difficult mission tied to the future."

"Last time, it was Dad. But after being severely injured by Shadow, he spent years recovering, so it had to be me."

"Besides, at that time, my soul had already fully merged with Noa’s. Sending us back together made the most sense."

Mevis held Noa’s slightly cool hand and paused before continuing.

"And for a soul that crosses time, it requires a compatible host to operate in this timeline."

"The conditions for a suitable host are strict. First, the host’s magical attribute must match mine—lightning."

"Second, the host’s soul must be in an extremely weakened state, near death."

"Finally, we needed the host’s permission before their death to borrow their body."

Noa pursed her lips and asked, "Then how did you and Noa choose Mevis?"

"We found Mevis in a cave, already on the brink of death," she explained.

"Mevis had the same lightning attribute as me. Due to the war, she was trapped in that cave, gravely wounded and barely hanging on."

"We tried to communicate with her, and she agreed to lend us her body, but on one condition—"

"Protect her family," Rosvisser finished for her.

Mevis blinked in surprise. "Mom, how did you know?"

"Leon and I visited the Black Moon Dragon Clan," Rosvisser said softly. "The entire clan had been reduced to ruins by the war. But we were fortunate enough to find the home of the Mirroro family, where we read a diary written by Mevis’s sister, Kate."

"She had a loving family—parents and a sister who adored her. So, I thought, if she had a chance, her greatest wish would be to protect them."

"That’s right. The condition for borrowing her body was to ensure her family’s safety. And we did it. Her parents have been placed somewhere safe, and once I’m ready to return, I’ll reunite them."

Mevis paused before adding, "But the Black Moon Dragon Clan has already been destroyed… And rebuilding Sky City will take a long time. I don’t know where they can settle."

"I’ll take care of it," Rosvisser said. "Leave this matter to me."

Mevis’s eyes lit up. "Okay, thank you."

That morning, they talked for a long, long time.

After all, thirty years of bottled-up thoughts couldn’t be shared in a single breath.