Chapter 2542: Unforeseen Variable

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Central Region, Central Academic City, Morningstar University District, Morningstar University Campus, Garden of Beginning, Time Vestige, Morningstar University 2nd Campus

I waited for Lucine to respond, but she only stared back at me with an empty expression. When her face finally shifted, it was thoughtful. That alone told me she was using her Future Finding time rule meaning to figure out how to answer my question. But judging from her troubled look, she must have realized it was one of those situations where revealing the answer might ruin the outcome—like sharing a birthday wish or a wish made on a falling star.

Understanding that, I let out a quiet sigh and spared her the trouble.

"You don’t have to push yourself," I said gently. "If you can’t answer, it’s fine. I understand."

"Huh?" Lucine looked genuinely surprised to see me take it so calmly—almost too calmly. She clearly hadn’t expected me to be this understanding, especially not when she had just used her ability in a way that could easily be seen as manipulating me.

But to be honest, I didn’t think she was manipulating me. Ever since we met, everything she’d done was consistent: welcoming me as a guest of Morningstar University, trying to rescue me, trying to convince me to enroll, fighting Slay beside me, taking me hostage inside the time vestige, and now putting herself in my hands for treatment.

Through all of that, I made my choices because they felt right at the time. Was she steering things so I’d react the way she wanted? Maybe. I wouldn’t know. And as long as her actions didn’t harm me or my people, I didn’t really care.

Besides, I could afford to be casual about it. My resistance to time rules gave me the confidence not to worry about whatever little influence she might exert.

"It’s not that telling you would ruin my chances of creating the future I want for all of us," she said, struggling to find the right words, "but your existence is an unexpected variable in that future. How do I explain this... ah, okay."

"Imagine a long transparent tube with water flowing through it. The flow represents the timeline, and every droplet in that stream represents us. Now, at a certain point in the tube—let’s call it point A—you take out a single droplet of water. Let’s name that droplet B. You add red ink to B and then place it back into the tube at point A."

"As that droplet B moves along with the flowing water, the red ink starts to spread, coloring the droplets around it. Gradually, the entire stream turns red. The clear water becomes something entirely different." "You’re like that droplet B after it’s been injected with red ink," she continued. "Anyone you come into contact with has their future tinted red, and anyone they contact ends up the same. Little by little, the entire future turns red, i.e. shifts in a completely different direction. To be clear, when I say ’future turns red,’ I mean future changes into something entirely unlike what the future would have been."

She let out a slow breath, her expression earnest. "That’s why it’s so hard for me to talk to you normally while using my Future Finding time rule. Every time I try to look ahead, your influence keeps altering everything. But... seeing how understanding you’ve been about me using my ability to guide our conversation toward a future I think is best, I felt I should be honest with you."

"So you’re telling me I’m an unforeseen variable in the timeline—and instead of resisting me, the timeline is adjusting around me? Is that what you mean?" I asked, the pieces finally starting to come together. A faint suspicion about the origin of my time rule immunity took shape in my mind. If I’m correct, I might not be able to enjoy it for long.

"That’s narcissistic of you. But yes, that’s one way to put it," Lucine admitted after a brief moment of thought. "Ever since I met you, even my own future has been thrown off. Using Future Finding has become harder. It’s not that I can’t use it anymore—it just takes much longer and drains a lot more time rule power. But when you are directly involved, it’s even worse. My Future Finding just... buffers."

She sighed. "I wait and wait, and when nothing comes through, I eventually give up and act on instinct instead. I have been relying on Future Finding for so long that I’ve started feeling socially awkward around you. Thankfully, my intuition still works well enough, even after getting ignored by the future for all these years."

The corner of my lips lifted when I realized my timeline resistance hadn’t failed me. Lucine still couldn’t use her Future Finding time rule on me. The more the situation shifted in my favor, the harder she tried—but no matter what she did, her ability simply refused to work where I was concerned. In the end, she had no choice but to talk to me the old-fashioned way.

I also began to feel a quiet dread toward whatever being or event was responsible for my transmigration in the Myriad Realms. It had to be unimaginably powerful—powerful enough that an entire timeline was bending over backward just to accommodate my existence.

Now that was some almighty-level stuff. It made me rethink my entire stance on the higher power that might be watching over all of us. I shook my head, not wanting to dwell on this topic further.

"Are you sure your instincts are working correctly?" I teased, raising a brow. "Because according to you, I’m supposedly trying to kill you while pretending to treat you."

I couldn’t resist mocking her a little—especially after she’d accused me of going insane and trying to murder her. Yet somehow, in the middle of all that, she had basically handed me the good boy card without realizing it.

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