When Kara stated her agreement with Rin’s decision to promote her bloodline, I felt dumbfounded and the only thoughts in my mind were in disbelief.

How could Kara be supportive of such a deadly method of advancing in strength?

Despite my astonishment, I quickly understood the problem.

This was a simple difference of perspective.

As far as Kara was concerned, Rin would take a lifetime to properly understand the laws of time and still only have the small potential chance to promote her bloodline. Even if Rin died, she’ll naturally have already lived a full life by that time and can naturally make a decision for herself.

While that might be true that she’ll have lived a lifetime at that point, I’m worried about the implications of Rin focusing entirely on promoting her bloodline.

Frowning, I began pacing back and forth. I found myself turning my gaze toward Kara, who had crossed her arms and stared in my direction with a raised eyebrow.

Swallowing my saliva, I tried to convince her. “You know the dangers of bloodline promotion.”

“Danger exists everywhere in life. It’s only a matter of risk and reward.” Kara rolled her eyes, and turned back toward Rin. “Don’t block another path out of selfishness.”

“Everyone’s selfish.” I snorted.

Kara ignored my response and began quietly whispering to Rin.

On Kara’s insistence, Rin was forced to display her freshly acquired ability to ruin food. Promptly withering another fruit to nothingness and completely wasting the editable fruit.

I ignored their actions and thought about Kara’s earlier words about selfishness. Although I comprehended Kara meaning, I didn’t agree with her conclusion.

True, it was selfish to demand that Rin didn’t take massive risks due to my own personal fear of losing her.

But… Selfishness is merely valuing your own desires over other peoples. I refuse to believe that valuing your own desires over others is an inherently wrong.

To begin with, selfishness and altruism are nonsensical words designed to elicit strong emotional responses.

Mastering the usage of words with connotations attached to them to a certain degree is a necessity to survive and thrive on the peaceful Earth. Saying the wrong word at the wrong time can result in countless problems.

More importantly, on a world without supernatural powers like Earth, the only remaining power is influence over others.

Somewhat ironically, that caused entire fields of study to spawn into existence. Marketing, politics, and even the media will each study the best way to influence others and they had gotten extremely efficient at it.

Growing up in the information age of such a world will make force anyone to doubt everything people say. There are countless false quotes and incorrect statements, lies that would take mere seconds to disprove and yet spread like wildfire from laziness.

It even reached the point that politicians can simply spread lies about their opponents and discredit them, instead of stating their own policies and agendas.

When the majority are docile sheep, the wolves among them will run rampant... but when the majority are wolves, everyone will starve.

It’s important to know, the specific words utilize while explaining any situation can entirely alter how someone understands that situation.

To provide an example of this phenomena– let’s explain an occasion when a group of people work together to destroyed several steel production factories at night.

This situation can be write in a positive light… By the clever utilization of the element of surprise and guerrilla tactics, the revolutionaries won the battle with minimal causalities and crippled the empire’s steel production lines.

The same exact situation can also be written in a negative manner… the cowardly terrorists organized a sneak attack on the city, they slaughtered innocent civilians and ruined key portions of the city steel production infrastructure resulting in a depression whilst many people lost their jobs.

Regardless of the truth, simply changing the wording describing a situation can change someone’s perception of that situation.

Truth is subjective and history books are written by the victors. The worst atrocities are glossed over and horrible acts turn into heroic deeds with time and success.

Ah, sorry… I’m back to ranting about nonsense.

Old habits die hard.

Shaking my head and dismissing my pointless thoughts, I refocused on Rin.

Rin had never stopped practicing archery whilst the previous conversation had been going on. Even as Kara whispered to her a short distance away, Rin continued practicing and only briefly responding whilst reloading.

“Tsk, this is annoying.” I muttered to myself.

To be honest, I wanted to inform Kara of the time-travel phenomena. That should be enough to push her over the edge and understand the dangers of Rin’s path.

Unfortunately, there was an eye in the sky (or perhaps, more accurately, a holographic cat) watching our every move. Even if the lame cat didn’t show his appearance, Schrodinger must have the ability to see everything that happens in the facility.

While I was remained unable to deal with Rin’s ability, who knows what countermeasures the holographic cat might be able to take? I certainly don’t want to test it. When another party knows of save/loads existence, the value drops significantly.

“What is the problem?” Rin turned her head toward me and asked.

“Doesn’t matter… I just have no idea how to solve our current dilemma.” I sighed in annoyance. Whether it was Schrödinger’s existence that blocked my mouth or Kara upcoming fate of death, neither would be easily dealt with.

“You previous idea has merit.” Rin suddenly stated, nodded to herself. “We can begin by warning beforehand to prevent the situation from occurring to begin with.”

Clearly, Rin was referring to saving Kara by warning her beforehand and preventing her from utilizing her ability.

Rolled my eyes, I huffed and shook my head. “Too late for that.”

“That’s easily solved.” Rin shrugged and continued her archery.

Her response caused me to scowl.

Giving up on the current timeline whether you ran into a difficult situation wasn’t an answer. Keeping that sort of philosophy would always cause more troubles than it solved.

“What are you talking about?” Kara suspiciously gazed between the two of us.

“Nothing a kid like yourself should worry about.” I smiled brightly as I achieved petty revenge by calling her a kid for our earlier grievances.

No way, even if Kara said the truth from her perspective. If I didn’t get revenge through petty means, I wouldn’t be human.

Sparks flew out of Kara’s eyes as they were narrowed in my direction. “This 'Kid' is extremely willing to beat you up for your comment.”

“Beat me up? A little brat like yourself…” I burst into laughter, unable to control myself.

While I normally treated Kara like a mature adult, she was only in her early teens. The word ‘Kid’ truly was an appropriate term for her. I respected her words because of Rin’s influence and my past friendship with her.

Even with that, Kara’s size and appearance made it difficult to take her threat seriously.

“Rin, he’s bullying me! Beat him up for me.” Kara turned to her sister and repeatedly pulled on her shirt.

My laughter ceased immediately upon hearing her words and I stared at Kara, grumbling in disbelief. “When you lose the argument, you bring in Rin to avenge you?”

“Tobias, don’t bully my sister.” Rin scolded me while comforting her sister by stroking her head.

Sticking out her tongue playful in my direction, Kara playfully said. “Rin, avenge me!”

“Did you have to get her worked up?” Rin asked, while turned toward me with a helpless expression.

Looking at Kara’s eagerness and childlike playfulness, my mouth twitched as I replied. “I didn’t even know she had a childish side.”

“Beat him up!” Kara continued to incited violence from the sidelines.

“You know, bringing Rin into this only proves you’re a brat?” I calmly returned to taunting Kara.

“Tobias-” Rin reprimanded, before getting interrupted by her sister.

“Bring it on!” Kara shouted, sounding extremely heroic… however her following actions were anything but brave. Kara maneuvered behind Rin, pushing her forward in my direction and repeated her fighting gesture in indication for Rin to beat me up.

It’s obvious that Kara understood that she had no chance of winning against me… but remained unable to give up on the idea of beating me up. Whether it was a desire to end my relationship with Rin or some primordial desire that require me to get beaten, Kara had no intention on my comments slide without punishment.

Unfortunately for her, Rin had no plan of cooperating with her charade.

“Kara, stop making trouble.” Rin reprimanded her sister, before turning toward me with an unhappy frown. “That goes for you too.”

Coughing awkwardly, before agreeing with a nod and quietly muttering. “Kara started it.”

Rin forcefully grabbed my arm, and pulled me off to the side of the room. I didn’t resist, mainly because I felt there was little point in resisting.

When we were out of earshot, Rin softly demanded an answer. “Why are you suddenly causing trouble?”

Her intimate and soft voice, suddenly cause me to feel ashamed with my previous actions. While I didn’t regret my petty vengeance for Kara’s earlier harsh words, I did feel bad for involving Rin.

“That-” I started before realizing, I really didn’t have that valid an explanation. Unless you count suddenly feeling extremely petty and wanted to tease her Kara. “…Sorry.”

“I understand that you are stressing yourself out trying to figure out a perfect solution to save Kara, but trust me… I’ve tried almost everything.” Rin softly spoke while slightly shaking her head.

Hearing her softly spoken words, I calmed down dramatically.

Rushing to find a solution to this problem is extremely difficult. Rin must’ve already tried every method she could think of to save Kara and considering she has focused on this bloodline method, she must believe it is the method with the highest chance of working.

“I will save her eventually and everything will return to the way it’s supposed to be.” Rin spoke calmly and confidently, as though the will of the world was enveloped into her sentence and agreed with it.

While Rin’s words conveyed her unwavering confidence, instead of sounding comforting they brought an unparalleled sense of internal crisis.

At first, I didn’t understand why Rin’s words caused me to feel a sense of crisis… everything returning to the way it’s supposed to be is obviously a good thing.

Until I had a sudden realization… What exactly is the way the world is supposed to be in Rin’s mind? Does that include me, or another version of Tobias that has entirely different memories and experiences?

If I had to guess, based on the way Rin treated me…

The thought caused me to unconsciously gulp.

Clenching my teeth together, I quickly realized that if I didn’t get my act together I might be replaced by a younger version of myself.

If I was dying or Rin was in danger, I could accept that fate… but simply because Rin wanted the world to return to a supposedly correct timeline?

The very thought filled me with anger... while I knew it wasn’t rational to get angry based on an assumption… A series of angry thoughts appeared in my brain.

Am I not worthy of you? Why do you need another version of me? Am I not standing in front of you?

Can…can you even see me?

A wave of powerlessness and depression spread throughout my body upon the emergence of that idea.

Rin tilted her head quizzically because of my silence, but I finally understood why her actions felt different from before. Why it felt that Rin has never truly noticed my existence since returning.

While she might be talking with me and interacting with me, that doesn’t mean Rin saw me and noticed my existence.

You don’t have to ignore someone to not notice their existence. That was something I was all too familiar with. Despite Rin looking straight at me with a tender expression, a part of her completely looked through me as if I didn’t exist.

…and it hurt.

In my heart, I must’ve subconsciously already known the answer to this question and although the thought brought soul crushing pain, I internally accepted it and felt no surprise. The knowledge had subconsciously existed within me.

At the same time, subconsciously, the purpose behind my earlier outburst toward Kara… might’ve been to attract Rin’s attention.

Before interacting with Kara and changing my mindset… even if I had the idea to tease Kara for her age before, I would never have implemented it.

No way! Who told her to be Rin’s sister? Purposefully messing with Rin’s sister took guts that I didn’t have before.