Fading out of existence was a strange feeling.
Before Richard and Anna could destroy the sealed document and turn around, Simon vanished, melting into thin air.
’I wanted to see their faces one last time.’
In an instant, his vision was washed in gold.
The dizzying sound of a ticking clock filled his ears. His head spun with vertigo. He felt like he was losing his mind. Just as he thought he couldn’t hold on any longer—
He gasped, his eyes snapping open.
A cool breeze blew past. His breathing steadied, strength returned to his body, and his mind cleared. Lying in the grass, he stared blankly at the night sky before raising his hands, clenching and unclenching his fists. They moved perfectly fine.
Sitting up, Simon looked around and realized he was in Leshill. Everything that had happened felt like a midsummer night’s dream. He suddenly snapped to his senses and looked down. A girl lay there like a painting, her white hair spread out over the grass like a fan.
"Lethe! Lethe!" Simon urgently shook her awake.
With a soft groan, her eyelids fluttered, and she slowly opened her eyes.
"Oh." Seeing Simon’s face, Lethe spoke in a bewildered voice. "We have returned."
"Yeah."
Simon supported her shoulders and helped her sit up. Lethe rubbed her sleep-filled eyes.
"Hiya!"
Nephthys’s face suddenly popped out of nowhere. Startled, Simon gasped.
"Lady Nephthys!"
"Did you have a good trip?" Nephthys pretended to wipe her forehead with the back of her hand. "Phew! That was close! You barely made it back before fading away completely!"
Still lacking a sense of reality, Simon looked around blankly. It wasn’t the horribly polluted Leshill. Though the grass and trees were a bit messy from the heavy rain, it was still the beautiful hometown he knew.
"How much time has passed in the present?" Simon asked.
Nephthys folded her small fingers as she thought, then let out a little laugh. "About five or six minutes since you entered the portal? I was counting, but I forgot!"
"Did anything in history—" Simon jumped to his feet. "Did anything change?"
They had just time-traveled. If there were any changes, it was highly likely due to the interference of Simon, Lethe, and the Secret Society.
Nephthys frowned in thought before speaking. "I don’t think so?"
"Are you absolutely certain?" Lethe narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
Nephthys smiled brightly. "When you stick your finger into a flowing stream, the water splits, right?" She mimed dipping her finger down. "If you look at it right then, it seems like my finger is splitting the current, creating strange ripples, and causing a massive change."
"But what happens when you take your finger out of the water? The split fills back in, and it returns to normal. Just as it has flowed in that spot for hundreds of years."
She lifted her finger again and hid it behind her back. "It’s like that! The people you met in the past probably won’t even properly remember your existence. Time travelers are beings that violate the laws of this world, and the entire world works to correct it."
"Ah, seriously." Lethe made a sour face. "Does that mean history would have flowed as it originally did, even without us going through all that trouble?"
"Nobody knows that." Nephthys shrugged. "It’s a matter involving ’time,’ after all. The variables in temporal events are countless. The Secret Society, in particular, was probably planning to drop a boulder into the flowing stream, not just a finger."
They remained silent.
"Anyway! The fact that nothing happened is all thanks to you two doing a great job! Well done!"
Nephthys then briefly asked about what had happened in the past. After hearing that the Legion of Betrayal incident had occurred exactly as it should have, and that Bleta, who had crossed over from the future, had vanished as the price for existing too long, Nephthys nodded in relief.
"Thank you so much, Lady Nephthys," Simon said, bowing his head in gratitude. "For sending us to the past so my father and mother could be reunited. I will definitely repay this favor."
Simon had witnessed Richard and Anna’s love there. Setting aside the preservation of his own existence, he was more grateful and relieved than anything that the two of them had found each other again.
"Hehe, I should be the one thanking you!" Nephthys smiled broadly. "An era of peace has opened, and I got back my student council president who almost disappeared... Huh?"
Black blood trickled from Nephthys’s nose. With a sharp gasp, she stepped back and covered her face.
"Lady Nephthys!"
"Ah, haha! Did I overdo it a bit? Time travel really is..."
Covering her face, she collapsed onto the grass. Simon hurriedly rushed to her side.
"P-Please, rest for now! Do you want to go to my house?"
"No, no. I already contacted Jane. It’s better for me to rest on Roc Island, where they have recovery facilities." She winked. "It’s a small amount, but I’ll quickly send over the mission commission fee. It’s late, so you two should hurry back."
When Simon hesitated out of concern, she added with a smile. "Aren’t you curious? About what happened to Richard and Anna after you changed the past."
Simon and Lethe headed back to his house. Every step felt heavy. Simon kept swallowing dryly. Lethe also looked extremely tense, clearly feeling the same way.
Although only five or six minutes had passed in the present, the two of them had just spent time with the Richard and Anna of the past and had even experienced the Legion of Betrayal incident. And now, it was time to meet those two people twenty-two years later. ’This doesn’t feel real at all.’
Nephthys had compared it to dipping a finger into a flowing stream, but hadn’t she also said that since it involved time, anything could happen? They hadn’t done it intentionally, but there had been so many variables in the past. They had influenced so many things that he couldn’t help but worry. ’Please.’
Standing in front of the door, Simon stopped in his tracks. ’Please let everything be okay!’
Just as his fingertips hesitated over the doorknob, a voice rang out from beyond the door.
"Are you back already, Simon?"
It was Anna. Her voice wasn’t the somewhat sharp tone from her days as a Saintess, but soft and benevolent. The moment he heard her, Simon’s hesitation vanished. He put strength into his trembling hand, grabbed the doorknob, and threw the door open.
Simon froze in place. ’Ah.’ Those two people. The 7th Legion Commander, the troublemaker Yona, and the Miracle Saintess, Anna.
Standing side by side with gentle smiles, they looked exactly like the middle-aged couple they had become twenty-two years later.
"Come on in, Simon."
"Lady Nephthys didn’t scold you too much, did she?"
The moment he heard their voices, a wave of relief washed over him, and tears streamed down his face.
"Father! Mother!" Simon shouted, running forward to pull them both into a tight embrace.
"S-Simon?"
"Thank goodness! Thank goodness!" Simon cried out in a hoarse voice. "I’m so glad you’re both exactly the same... I’m really so glad..."
Richard and Anna blinked in confusion.
"What are you talking about, Simon? It hasn’t even been that long."
Unable to answer, Simon just held them and cried. Then, Anna turned her head.
"Oh my."
Lethe, who had followed him inside, was fighting back tears with reddened eyes. But when she met Anna’s gaze, she couldn’t hold back anymore and let out a hiccup. She had promised herself she absolutely wouldn’t cry when she came in, but...
"Lethe?"
That was an impossible task.
"Teacher Anna!" Lethe rushed in and hugged Anna tightly, unable to endure it any longer.
Holding the bawling Simon and Lethe, Richard and Anna exchanged bewildered glances.
"Honey, why are the kids suddenly acting like this?"
"Maybe Lady Nephthys scolded them a little too harshly."
"Oh, please! Would the kids cry this much over something like that?"
And so, for a while, a tearful reunion continued, leaving only Richard and Anna thoroughly perplexed.
With sleep completely chased away, the four of them decided to have a late-night party. Anna quickly whipped up some snacks, and Richard brought out a cherished bottle of wine from the cellar. They enjoyed themselves, chatting about this and that.
Simon and Lethe begged them to tell the story of their first love from the beginning, and Richard and Anna began to speak with slightly embarrassed expressions.
"Well, I met your mother while volunteering at an orphanage in the neutral zone. I can still clearly picture the face of that strict director."
"I remember your first impression being quite terrible. You were fighting with another volunteer and everything."
"Ahem, that punk started it."
Simon and Lethe burst into laughter. Unbelievable. It was a small change, but the past really had been altered. The two of them were reminiscing and telling the story as if it were from the distant past, even though Simon and Lethe had personally experienced it just a short while ago.
"I took your mother to the ocean on a spirit. You two really should have seen the look on her face."
Listening to the story, Lethe quickly chimed in. "Who confessed first?"
"Well, I was the one who confessed much later, but Anna was the one who seduced me first..."
"Richard!" Anna jumped up, her face flushed red. "If you’re going to spout nonsense like that in front of the kids, go to bed! I know exactly what you did, so what are you..."
Richard chuckled, his face flushed from the alcohol. "I told you to do whatever you wanted, and who was it that kissed me first? And then did it again when we parted."
"Richard!"
Simon and Lethe burst into loud laughter. Leaning back against his chair, Simon felt a profound sense of happiness and relief. At the same time, he realized just how precious this everyday life was.
Richard and Anna had fought against the world to secure this ordinary life in this small mountain village. They hadn’t broken in the face of countless prejudices and malice.
Even though they were his parents, he felt a genuine sense of respect for them.
"Oh, are you crying again?" Lethe asked playfully, nudging Simon’s shoulder.
Anna, who had been scolding Richard, looked at Simon in surprise. "Son, did something happen outside?"
"It’s nothing."
Just in case, he had discussed it with Nephthys and decided not to tell Richard and Anna directly about the temporal incident. Hearing it would only confuse them, anyway. Instead, Simon answered with a smile.
"I’m just happy."
At those words from her son, as if tears were contagious, Anna’s eyes also grew red. Only the tipsy Richard bared his teeth in a grin, teasing them to stop crying on such a good occasion. Slowly, the atmosphere of the gathering ripened.
"Teacher Anna, by the way," Lethe said, resting her chin in her hands, her cheeks also flushed. "Do you happen to remember if there was anyone by your side while you were volunteering?"
"Huh?"
"Someone like...a messenger of love!"
Anna smiled wryly. "Well?"
The commonality in the stories Richard and Anna told was that the existence of Simon and Lethe had been completely omitted. On one hand, it was a relief, but on the other, it was a bit disappointing.
Richard, who had drunk the most wine, scratched the back of his neck and spoke. "I don’t know about a messenger of love, but I do remember being stressed out because someone was watching me back then."
Hearing those words, Simon’s face brightened as he broke into a wide smile. Looking at his son, Richard let out a chuckle and ruffled his hair.
"Hmm, now that you mention it, I feel like there was someone around that time," Anna said, placing a hand to her lips. "I can’t recall them even when I try to think about it, but it leaves a ticklish feeling. It’s frustrating, not being able to remember someone precious."
"It’s fine!"
’Someone precious.’
At those words, Lethe embraced Anna with an expression that looked like she had the whole world.
’We’re parting now, but we will meet again someday.’
She smiled radiantly and cried out, "We’ve met again, just like this!"
Holy Federation, Sky Island.
A young priest wearing an officer’s uniform stopped in front of a door. Looking at her reflection in the marble, she straightened her attire and took a deep breath. Then, with a nervous face, she knocked.
"Saintess Israphel. It is Penelope. I have come to deliver the report from the western region."
"Come in."
At Israphel’s voice, the priest entered. In the quietly designed office, a woman with sea-colored hair had her eyes closed as she signed documents with a quill pen.
"Welcome."
"Ah, yes!"
Being in the same room as Israphel, the admired symbol of peace in the Holy Federation, was an experience one did not often get. With a pounding heart, the young priest politely set down the report and discussed various matters. Israphel listened to her with a kind smile, despite being busy.
"Good work, Penelope."
"Thank you! Oh..."
Just then, her gaze drifted to a framed picture in the center of Israphel’s office. A carefully crafted large frame held a certain phrase.
"Is there anything else you wish to say?"
"That phrase..." The priest pointed at the frame. "You move your office frequently, but you always carry that with you. Does it hold a special meaning?"
"Ah, that?" Israphel covered her mouth and smiled shyly. "It is a phrase that has always supported my heart. If those words hadn’t comforted me, I might have collapsed under the weight of my trials by now."
"That’s wonderful. Who told you that?"
"Well." Israphel tilted her head, keeping her eyes closed. "I feel like someone told it to me? Or maybe I just thought of it myself? It’s a bit of a mystery."
Israphel smiled warmly. "I don’t remember clearly, but what does it matter?"
"Yes! If you are happy with it, Lady Israphel!"
Israphel looked back at the frame with a proud expression.
’Anna may open the new era, but you are the one who will maintain it.’
It felt new every time she looked at it. Her heart grew warm every time she saw it.
"For some reason," she spoke in a wistful voice. "I miss our Lethe’s face."

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