Wait, What You Mean I Got Reincarnated As A Heroine In Another World?-Chapter 18 - Future

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

What was my fault again? I couldn't help but wonder.

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

Bleh, as if time even 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 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 reliving a nightmare.

She covered her mouth with her hand, barely stifling a gasp, her pupil dilated—dread written across her face, realizing she'd witnessed 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... You see how it flickers? It implies something terrible is about to come—especially when paired with Mytheia's latest record."

"Shatterglass doesn't fall unless the interference of Fate."

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.

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

"First of all, it's not called statis, but stasis." I sighed.

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

"Uh-huh." She just shrugged, all nonchalant like it was nothing.

Grrr... this arrogant-ass Wicked Witch.

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

"The Mytheia caught a glimpse of what's next. It's worse than I expected—a sign of the clash between Fate and Destiny. To put it briefly, Professor Helena will have been deceased by the time you return."

"To be honest, I did notice something strange when inspecting the setup of the Void Rifter that interrupted the scene between me and Helena. There was instability in the ground a few seconds before you returned by memory. In other words, once the time elapses, you'll have to save her—no matter what."

New novel 𝓬hapters are published on ƒreewebɳovel.com.

Ah, of course. Here comes the McGuffin right after the explanation.

If you asked me, I didn't feel anything towards Professor Helena. I mean, she was nice, but the fact she had deceived me into confessing my identity was barely forgivable.

"However, there is another option: I could bring you to a post-accident time skip, five years after the disaster. Meaning you'll lose Professor Helena when this new event takes place. This leaves you with two choices: saving Professor Helena, risking the loss of a golden opportunity for a while... or losing her, and becoming an adult eligible for the Finality Exam immediately. So—"

"Which path will you choose?"

I knew it. Intriguing.

Is this the so-called plot armor every story seems to need? How typical.

Apparently, temporary stakes like this one wouldn't have even existed had the plot advanced to its regular timeline—classic MacGuffin placement. Still, I had way too many questions in my head to willingly get along with this kind of pacing.

"First of all, I have some questions."

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

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

"No, it doesn't matter. If you've got enough time to explain, it means you're already prepared—delaying the shell of this stasis rifter or whatever that is from breaking itself. So, how much time is left before that happens?"

"If you refer to time as in your vessel's subjective duration—five 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 innocence, her face glowing with a look so sinless it was almost criminal—no, it's almost offensive how innocent she tried to look.

I facepalmed hard, not understanding how she 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 the night kind of gave it away, Selene... muh love."

I blurted out the last part in a teasing tone as if I was auditioning for a telenovela drama—dramatic pause, teasing smirk, the whole act—mocking 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 grass yet my EQ is still better.

"Oh, monologuing about the superiority of your own emotional skills now? You really are that dramatic deep down, aren't you—somewhere beneath all that scientist persona."

"Irrelevant reply. I bet you didn't get any of those at all, Selene."

I let out the heaviest sigh I've ever made—the kind I reserve for when a nurse forgets to check the chemically prepared substances for pulmonary hygiene surgery after the patient's already in a coma.

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

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