Staying by the side as Kara and Rin continued to talk, I quietly listened to their conversations.

Eventually, after talking for a long while, Kara left through the elevator and I took the opportunity to speak up… While I could wait for Rin to go down the elevator and it’s slightly embarrassing to let her know I’ve been here this entire time, it felt better to talk to her now.

Rin sat upon a chair, deep in thought with furrowed brows.

“Hey, Rin?” I interrupted her train of thought.

Rin tensed up, her wolf-ears perking and gaze slowly turning toward me. “… you’re here?”

“Yep.” I rolled my eyes and sat down on a chair across from her.

“How long?” Rin asked, averting her gaze.

I quietly replied, “Followed you and Kara from the center room.”

Without responding, Rin twitched and fumbled her hands together on the chair. Her cheeks had flushed red, while her expression barely stayed stoic.

“I suppose you believe I’m real now?” I asked in a joking manner, despite it not actually being a joke.

Instead of answering the question, Rin calmed down and asked her own. “What message did you give Kara?”

“Only gave her warning for her to be careful using her ability. Thought it might be possible to avoid her death by stopping the fate beforehand.” I explained, watching her expression.

Rin quietly asked, “The result?”

“Waited too long to deliver the message, apparently.” I shook my head.

A good opportunity was completely wasted, but there not much I can do about it now.

Nodding her head in acknowledgement, Rin tilted her head and asked. “How are you here?”

“If I had to guess, the gift that Stanley gave me. I’m guessing it protected me from the time reversal.” I stated, taking out the time shard and showcasing it to her.

Gazing toward the time shard, Rin concentrated on the shard and her gaze turned intense. “Can I have that?”

“Err…” I didn’t know how to respond.

Rin’s gaze was penetrating, her expression was the product of a mix of emotions that I couldn’t comprehend.

“Sorry… I’ll probably disappear or die, if I’m not touching it for any period of time.” I awkwardly replied, while enunciating my words with hand motion.

She didn’t reply or speak.

Rin’s gaze was intensely locked onto the shard, eyes following the shard as I slowly moved it side-to-side to confirm the object of her gaze.

“Right… uhhh, you want to explain your plan to save Kara?” I asked with curiosity. “Is the plan going well?”

When I had last talked with her, Rin implied she was dealing with the situation. It has already been a year, she must have made some progress.

“I can’t save her yet.” Rin kept staring at the time shard.

My lips twitched into a frown, before I could only sigh in regret. “What’s your plan?”

Rin finally averted her gaze from the shard and calmly stated. “Study the laws of time until I can save her.”

“Huh?” Raising an eyebrow, I couldn’t help but wonder if I heard her correctly. “That’s your grand plan? Study the laws of time.”

Rin nodded.

Upon watching her silent nod, my eyes twitched in annoyance. “I’m an idiot for thinking you had a plan.”

How is that a plan?

That’s basically saying, I’ll win by growing stronger.

That isn’t even the outline of a plan.

Even though it was technically possible, understanding the laws of time basically requires enlightenment and could take hundreds of thousands of years. Trying to forceful comprehend the laws of the universe was almost impossible. She’s basically brute forcing the situation by trying to understand them manually.

“It will work.” Rin stated.

“Maybe in a couple hundred thousand years.” I rolled my eyes and decided to think of another plan myself.

Even if Rin is the protagonist, it’s not that easy to study the laws of time.

I sighed, thinking of the situation. “Reminds me of the story of shepherd boy.”

Rin tilted her head in confusion, “Hmm?”

“It’s a fairytale. Back on earth.” I explained and began telling the story, “There was a shepherd boy, whom could answer all the world’s questions with his unparalleled wisdom. As the boy correctly answered questions, rumors of his wisdom spread throughout the kingdom.”

“Eventually, the king heard of these rumors that were calling this shepherd boy the wisest man in the kingdom and was furious. As the king, it was important the people respected him and the title of wisest man in the kingdom naturally should be his. He sent for the shepherd boy whilst devising three impossible questions to disprove the boy’s wisdom.”

“When the boy arrived, the king told him if he was unable to answer a question correctly, he would be executed.

The shepherd boy nodded and agreed as he had little choice in the matter.”

“The king soon asked his first question. ‘How many drops of water are in the ocean?’

The boy thought for awhile before replying, ‘Block every river and pond flowing into the ocean, and I shall count.’ The king found himself stumped, for the task was as impossible as the question yet truly was necessary for an accurate count.”

“Forced to accept the answer, the king asked the next question. ‘How many stars are in the sky?’

The boy fell into thought again. Taking a piece of paper, the shepherd boy began to poke fine holes into the paper until there were so many the number was impossible to count and the shepherd boy answered, ‘There are as many stars in the sky as holes on this paper.’ ”

“The king stared at the paper with countless holes and shook his head, for he was unable to tell the number and couldn’t count the stars to confirm the accuracy of the statement. Asking the next question, the king inquired. ‘How long many seconds in an eternity?’

And the shepherd boy said, ‘In the western highlands, there is a mountain of pure diamond. It takes an hour to climb it and an hour to go around it.

Every hundred years, a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on the diamond mountain… when the entire mountain is chiseled away, the first second of eternity will have passed.’

Hearing shepherd boy’s wisdom, the king’s anger dissipated for the boy truly was wise. The king had thought the questions were impossible to answer and dismissed the shepherd boy giving him gold and riches for outwitting him.”

After hearing the story of the shepherd’s boy, Rin remained lost in thought.

A smirk appeared on my face.

While Earth was certainly weak in term of power level, our culture and entertainment industries were unsurpassed. Within those stories is understanding and wisdom that is difficult to find in other civilizations.

If planets were summarized by expertise and specialty, Earth’s would be entertainment and wisdom. Other civilization tended to hoard knowledge and wisdom; while it was spread relatively freely on Earth.

There were countless stories and collections of entertainment. Earth has had countless peerless geniuses like Albert Einstein with the Theory of Relativity, Sun Tzu writing the Art of War, Mozart composing his music.

Waking up from her thoughts, Rin relaxed in her chair and smiled. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” I waved my hand, “That’s one of my favorite stories. It’s an important story of perseverance.”

“Perseverance? Isn’t it about the laws of time and the shepherd boy’s wisdom?” Rin tilted her head in a quizzical manner.

Laughing, I gave her a hint. “You’re underestimating the little bird.”

A single bird managed to chiseled away an entire diamond mountain over countless years. If that isn’t a story of perseverance, I don’t know what is.

That’s why her attempt to study the laws of time reminded me of the story.

The sheer perseverance such a feat requires is unimaginable.

“I see…” Rin closed her eyes, upon opening them her eyes were sharper than before. A light seemed to shine in them.

Taking out a fruit from her bag, Rin placed it on the table.

As Rin waved her hand beside it, the fruit grew moldy. The fruit looks as though it was aging quickly and withered into gunk.

Watching as the fruit turn rotten in a matter of seconds and eventually disappear, a dumbfounded expression appeared on my face.

How… What? Seriously?

Did Rin comprehend the laws of time from a fairytale? Am I too incompetent for not understanding or is she an unparalleled genius?

Time is supposed to be one of the hardest of the universe’s laws to study and a simple fairytale allowed her to get started in understanding it...

I didn’t understand exactly what she’d done, so I could only sigh in amazement.

Rin truly is the protagonist.

Whilst I remained speechless from this development, Rin’s expression was peaceful and relaxed… as though a heavy weight had been taken from her shoulders.

She turned her gaze toward me with glistening eyes, “Another story.”

“Sorry, I try and remember another tomorrow.” I laughed and apologized, while shaking my head.

Technically, I could think of the tortoise and the rabbit and other simple fairytales… but I don’t think those are the stories she wants.

Plus… I need time to arrange my thoughts.

“Let me look at that stone then.” Rin avoided protesting and simply turned her gaze toward the stone in my hand. She didn’t take it from me and merely gaze at it.

“Look all you like.” I shrugged.

If it weren’t for the life and death crisis that I felt the last time I dropped the time shard, I would’ve already given it to her.

Leaning forward and reaching out, Rin’s fingers wrapped around mine and touched the stone. “Hmmm… I think I can…”

The surroundings suddenly changed, a dizzy feeling overtook me.

Suddenly, the two of us were sitting next to each other in a stairwell.

“Wh-” I looked around and tried to figure out what was going on, but Rin covered my mouth with her hand and signaled for me to be silent.

After I’d calmed down, Rin slowly removed her hand from around my mouth and pointed toward a figure down the stairs.

Following her gesture toward the figure… uhh? That cannot be right?

I looked between the younger Rin next to me, and then the slightly older Rin walking down the stairs.

The older Rin had her sword out and was walking down the stairs.

Pulling a badge of temporary invisibility out of my bag, I activated it and put on younger Rin and watched her turn invisible. While the artifact was technically one time use and only lasted for twenty minutes, I could always engrave the mana circuits back onto the same metal.

While I didn’t understand what was going on, I could infer that letting the other Rin see us was a bad idea.

I recognized this place.

Isn’t this where Rin got angry and we fought? Which ended up with me asleep in the basement trapped in the wristband’s illusionary realm?

That dusty old bar?

Gesturing for Rin to follow, we retreated up the staircase to the rooftop.

“What’s going on?” I asked with confusion.

“When I touched the stone, an old save file opened up in a new file. I tried loading it.” Rin stated as an explanation.

“Let me know before you randomly experiment.” I lightly smacked the top of her head.

Rin rubbed her head, glaring momentarily toward me but didn’t protest.

Rolling my eyes, I quickly arrived at the main question. “Why are there two of you?”

“I don’t know.” Rin quietly muttered with confusion. “That’s never happened before.”

“Great.” I found myself muttering in frustration, “Another problem to deal with. I hadn’t even managed to solve the current one.”