Finn and Darwin threw themselves onto the sofa in the reception room. They were completely exhausted after the long routine Cristel had given them. Finn could barely lift his aching arms, and Darwin couldn't slouch because of the pain in his abdomen.
"That was a really good routine, wasn't it, my loves?" Cristel asked, sitting down in a small armchair.
"Good routine? You almost killed me, you crazy bitch!" Darwin exclaimed, making Cristel laugh.
"No pain, no gain" Cristel replied.
"I understand that... But why does it have to be all damn day?" Finn asked, tired. "We were there from 7 in the morning until now!" Finn said, looking at the clock on the wall and realizing it was 7:30 of the evening.
"You're going to destroy our bodies before our own magic does…" Darwin said.
"Don't worry about that. Since you're adventurers, your bodies can handle this without any problem. Just make sure you eat well, sleep comfortably, and by tomorrow you'll be as good as new!" Cristel exclaimed. "You should take advantage of every day you have before traveling with Rodrick, or you'll suffer greatly during your trials."
"Do these idiots still not understand?" Amelia asked, arriving at the reception room.
Amelia stroked Finn's sweaty hair and then pulled on it, forcing him to get up from the couch. Seeing this, Darwin completely forgot about the pain in his abdomen and sat down on the couch as well.
"You're all sweaty, you're going to stain the couch!" Amelia scolded them.
"Ouch… you just had to ask nicely" Finn said, rubbing his head.
"Still no news from Sir Rodrick?" Cristel asked, watching Amelia sit next to Finn.
"No, Damian told me that Mr. Rodrick would take at least three weeks to return due to the complexity of his mission" Amelia stated.
"That gives us some time to work…" Cristel said, starting to think about what routines to give Finn and Darwin to help them progress more quickly.
"Don't you have missions to do?" Finn asked, looking at Cristel.
"Not really. As long as there aren't missions specifically for me or my class, then I don't have to do missions, although I try to do missions at least once a week" Cristel revealed.
"What about money? Does the Master support you?" Darwin asked.
"Of course not. I haven't lived with Grandpa in five years, but I usually spend the holidays with him. As for money, class B and C missions make a lot of money, especially if you do them alone" Cristel said.
"Don't you have any companions?" Finn asked, confused, since Amelia had told them that it was mandatory to have companions to do missions.
"Nor friends either" Amelia replied mockingly.
"Shut up, you fat bitch!" Cristel said, embarrassed.
'Amelia touched a nerve' Finn thought, seeing Cristel's change of attitude.
"Poor thing…" Darwin thought, wanting to mock her as well.
"Um… we're getting off topic" Cristel said, composing herself. "We should focus on making them stronger as quickly as possible."
"I agree. I heard that Mr. Rodrick has made many C-class adventurers cry with his trials" Amelia said, scaring Finn and Darwin away.
"What do you mean, he's made adventurers cry?" Finn asked.
"Sir Rodrick's training and trials are very difficult and grueling. Not many can endure them without breaking a bone in the process. Even I had a hard time" Cristel said.
"Ahhh, why did I have to be an adventurer… I want to become a farmer" Finn complained.
"Come on, come on, it's not that bad. You just have to start taking advantage of all the benefits you have" Cristel said, making Finn sigh again.
"I don't know if these benefits are enough to risk my life…" Finn said, knowing very well what benefits Cristel was referring to.
'Rejecting the benefits of being an adventurer again… What should I do to make him behave more like one?' Cristel thought, watching Finn leaning back on the couch. 'The worst thing is, I don't know if he's just denying his desires or just doesn't like human women… I have to find out soon before something bad happens and his anima went damaged. It's not good for an adventurer to repress his instincts and desires too much.'
Darwin, despite having listened to the entire conversation and finding it odd that Finn didn't want the benefits of being an adventurer, simply shrugged, thinking it was something Finn simply didn't like doing, just as he doesn't do it because he doesn't like humans.
'Maybe he doesn't like human women either... he's probably noticed the superiority of mytt and elf women' Darwin thought confidently.
Amelia, who also didn't say anything, was thinking the same thing as Cristel. Before Finn and Darwin left on their mission, she had already told him that he could count on her for that kind of thing, but Finn never went to her and even seemed to avoid the subject whenever she or someone else mentioned it.
Everyone was immersed in their thoughts and ideas. Finn turned to look at one of the windows, watching the rain that had just started, when a strange feeling flooded everyone, a feeling that Finn found very familiar. Straightening up in his seat, Finn scanned the entire guild with his eyes, feeling the cold take over his body, and this sensation turned into a feeling, power. Finn could clearly feel the enormous power circulating throughout the guild.
"Finn, are you feeling okay?" Darwin asked, seeing Finn's state.
"Can't you feel it?" Finn asked. "This sensation, this enormous power?"
"Feel it? Well, a moment ago, I felt a chill and my skin crawled. Is that what you mean?" Amelia asked, confused. Both Darwin and Cristel nodded, knowing they had felt it too.
Finn shook his head, standing up from his seat. He knew very well that he had felt this before. Before they could even say a word, a familiar voice spoke from the room behind the reception desk.
"We've only met once, but that's enough for you to recognize my anima's magic, even though I was hiding it" Merlin said, arriving alongside the Master and Albert.
"YOU!" Finn shouted, recognizing Merlin from the bus station before he was sent here.
"Merlin?" Darwin asked.
"Do you know him, Finn?" Amelia asked, knowing that Finn had never seen Merlin since he gained consciousness and must have had no knowledge of him at all.
"Of course we know each other. I brought him to the guild, after all" Merlin said, slowly approaching Finn and examining him with his eyes. "We have a lot to catch up on, don't we, Finn?"
Merlin glanced quickly at the other three seated members, then smiled slightly and turned to look at Finn again, nodding for him to follow him. Darwin, seeing that Finn was going with Merlin, didn't hesitate to stand up and follow them, but was stopped by Master Rohan, who simply shook his head, causing him to sit back down.
"This is a private conversation between them. You shouldn't interfere" ordered the Master before escorting Albert to the guild door.
"I thought Finn didn't have any memory from before he became conscious" said Cristel, watching Merlin and Finn walk toward the guild library.
"He doesn't..." Amelia simply replied, also watching Finn walk away in confusion.
"—
Finn entered the library, following Merlin closely through the corridors until he reached a corner. Merlin sat down on a chair, indicating that Finn should sit on the other before waving his hand, and the shelves around him began to move, covering the area where the two were standing.
"I suppose you have some questions…" Merlin said, smiling warmly, but Finn's serious face didn't fade.
"Many" Finn replied, sitting across from Merlin. "Why did you bring me here?"
"I didn't bring you here. I simply sped up the process of your transmigration back to this world" Merlin clarified, confusing Finn even more.
"Back? I'm from here?" Finn asked, confused, since he had grown up his entire life in the other world.
"I know this is a little confusing, but yes. You were born here, but due to some problems, I had to send your soul away from this world, to a world where you could grow up and live a normal life with a friend of mine" Merlin revealed.
"A friend of yours… my grandmother was a friend of yours" Finn asked, since she was the only person related to him in the other world. She raised him and educated him since he was a baby, since his parents had died in a car accident.
"She's still a great friend of mine. Her real name is Morganna, and she agreed to take care of you in that world. We both believed you could grow up there peacefully, but as the years went by, we realized that wouldn't happen" Merlin revealed.
"Morganna…" Finn said, since that wasn't the name he knew from his grandmother. "Is that why she never told me the truth? because you did not plan to sent me back here"
Merlin nodded waving his hand again causing two small figures identical to Finn to appear in front of them.
"When I sent you to that world, I didn't plan on you ever coming back here, so there was no need to reveal anything to you. But as the years went by, your original body began to claim your soul back. Now, at 15, it's actively started pulling your soul back. That's why, when you turned 13, I decided to send information to Morganna about this world and what was happening so she could publish it as a novel, casting a spell on one of your friends so you'd end up reading it" Merlin said, surprising Finn.
"Wait, you said that until I was 15, my body started pulling my soul back. How did you know two years before it happened?" Finn asked.
"Just like I knew all the information from the novels and about what's going to happen in this world" Merlin said, making Finn realize something. The novels are written far into the future, as the last published part, Cristel, was already 28 years old, 10 or more years in the future from now.
"How?" Finn asked.
"Time regression" Merlin replied, amused at Finn's face.
"Time regression? Is it even possible?!" Finn asked, amazed.
"It is. However, it's not something I can use at my leisure, as it could cause a lot of problems" Merlin said. "That's how I knew everything that was going to happen and how I knew you had to come back before your body could bring you back of its own accord. I've gone back in time a total of 187 times, seeing a great number of changes in the world with each regression, but always returning to the same point at the end."
"Doesn't that cause problems with the timeline? I mean, I'm no expert or anything, but many movies claim that changing the past can lead to worse things" Finn said, making Merlin laugh.
"It would, if time were confined to just one place, which it isn't" Merlin explained, taking his staff and making a small planet appear in front of them. "You see, reality is somewhat complicated to explain, but to put it simply for you, it's almost like the multiverse theory that existed in the other world."
'Like the one in the comics?' Finn thought.
"Exactly like the one in the comics" Merlin replied, surprising Finn because he hadn't spoken. "Each universe has its own timeline that doesn't affect the other universes even if it's altered. However, with each change in this timeline, we create an alternate universe where that change never happened. I like to call this universe a twin universe since they share a timeline with us until it splits when the change happens, for example you."
As Merlin explained, Finn saw how there were different types of earths, or universes with their respective timelines. But every time Merlin traveled to the past, his universe's timeline generated a second timeline where the change Merlin mades when traveling in time had never happened.
"So in our own universe, you created an alternate timeline by traveling to the past where that change you made never happened, while we're still in this new timeline?" Finn asked, understanding what Merlin meant. 'Blessed are the comics.'
"Yes. When I brought you into this world before your body did, I created a new timeline where I never brought you. That timeline continues as if you'd never arrived, while we, the original timeline, can continue changing things without any problem. And every time I go back in time, this happens again, always generating only two timelines" Merlin explained.
"Sigh, I think I got it… So that's why everything's so different from the novels? I mean, in the novels things were a little darker. Cristel was very depressed, serious, and had no friends, but here is Amelia. Darwin was dead, but he's alive now. Amelia never appeared in the novels, but here she is, and she's someone very important to Cristel" Finn said, and Merlin nodded. "So you didn't just change my arrival, you changed something else, didn't you? Something else in the past."
Finn truly believed that Merlin had changed something in the past that ended up leading Cristel to meet Amelia, changing her attitude. Merlin, hearing the question, understood the confusion, smiling slightly and shaking his head.
"No… just you" Merlin replied.
"But what about Amelia, Roger, and his most recent invention, plus the new ancestral murals? What about all that?" Finn asked.
"That's all because of you, Finn" Merlin revealed, surprising Finn. "Amelia was always Cristel's friend, just as you and Darwin were Amelia's friends. The only difference is that you arrived earlier than you should have."
"I don't understand… how can my arrival change so much in such a short time? We're supposed to be at the beginning of the novel, and by now Cristel shouldn't have any friends. She should even be mourning Vana…" Finn said, but he thought for a few seconds. 'Wait, at the end of the novel, it was revealed that Cristel wasn't mourning Vana, so for whom?'
"Amelia" Merlin answered, bringing Finn out of his thoughts. "Like I said, you're the reason everything changed. Amelia was supposed to have died two weeks ago, just before the novel began, but when you arrived, you became Darwin's partner, allowing him to live on his mission in the cave. Not only that, but you also stayed alive this whole time. This caused the big change and the reason why Amelia didn't die" Merlin revealed, leaving Finn stunned.
"I should have died!?" Finn wondered, alarmed. "Wait, are you saying that the fact that Darwin and I are still alive is what kept Amelia alive?" Finn asked. Merlin nodded. "How? Or why?"
"People are very complicated beings, Finn. We tend to form attachments to anything or anyone, just like Amelia did with you two. When Darwin died in the cave, only you remained. You served as Amelia's consolation and kept her alive. But just two weeks later, you, or at least the previous Finn, died at the hands of an ogre on a mission with your previous team" Merlin revealed. "This caused Amelia to sink deeper into sadness, and she ended up taking her own life, which led Cristel to mourn, turning her into the Cristel you met in the novel."
"Oh…" Finn said, leaning back in his chair. "So what about me? You said I had to come back, but I die too. How does that work?"
"Yes, like I said, your body was in the process of bringing you back. In many of my regressions, where we wanted you to stay in that world, you didn't die because I changed that, but you arrived here too late. By then, you were 25 or 26 years old, and you ended up dying because of the war. However, in other regressions, you died the same way I just explained you. Your previous group ended up using you as a shield against an ogre, and you were devoured by them."
'What a shitty team' Finn thought.
Finn didn't expect both he and Darwin to be so important to Amelia, to the point of committing suicide over their deaths. Just as he didn't expect that he could change the history of this world so much with his mere presence.
"Finn," Merlin called seriously, "I'm not asking you to become some kind of savior or to show you the future of this world so you can save it. No, that's what I'm here for. I'll take care of that. I just want you to do what you've been doing until now."
"But I didn't do anything; I just survived. That's what I've been doing, trying to live a good life" Finn said, and Merlin nodded pleased.
"Then live, fight against this cruel world so you can have the life you want. That's what Morganna wants you to do, too" Merlin said, extending his hand. A letter appeared with the name Morganna/Anna on it. "She sent it to you."
Finn looked at the letter in his grandmother's unmistakable handwriting, taking it without the slightest hesitation and putting it away to read later in his room.
"Well, I think that clears everything up, doesn't it?" Merlin asked with a warm smile.
Finn sighed and scratched his head before speaking.
"I think so" Finn said.
"Good, then let's go. I'm sure your friends must be wondering about you" Merlin said, standing up from his seat.
The two walked back through the library corridors, while Merlin told Finn that he had written over 70% of the books in this and every other library in all the kingdoms.
Leaving the library, the two walked to the reception desk where the three of them were still sitting, only this time the Master was also with them, chatting animatedly with Darwin.
"Right!? There's nothing better than a mytt or elf!" Darwin exclaimed, and the Master nodded.
"I understand you, son. Mytts are very fierce and fiery women in bed, but if you ask me, there's nothing better than enjoying the company of an elf; they're very loving" the Master said, causing Darwin to nod quickly.
'Finally, someone understands me!' Darwin thought happily.
Amelia rolled her eyes at this, while Cristel looked serious at the mention of elves, having lost to the beauty of an elf in a magazine and modeling contest a while back.
"They're no big deal" Cristel said.
"I see you're having a very animated conversation," Merlin said, announcing his arrival with Finn.
"I see you've already caught up" the Master said happily.
"That's right. I examined him, and we talked a lot about how he felt about his recent attainment of consciousness" Merlin explained, though not all of this was false, as he had indeed examined Finn during their conversation.
"Then you must have found the reason why Finn isn't acting normal!" Cristel said happily, believing the problem had been solved.
"Not acting normal?" Finn asked, confused.
Merlin, hearing the question and sensing the emotions and feelings of Cristel and the others, was able to figure out what she was referring to.
'Of course, how could I have let that slip?' Merlin wondered.
"As you know, Sir Merlin, hiding one's desire too much and repressing oneself is very bad for adventurers!" Cristel said, confusing Finn, but Merlin nodded at her words.
"It is, young Cristel. And as you say, it is very bad for adventurers to repress their feelings and actions, as their animas can be seriously damaged" Merlin said, confusing Finn even more. "However, Finn's problem is much deeper than you thought due to the demon attack at such a young age. It will be very difficult for Finn to fully express himself as you all do, since it is something almost completely instilled in him, so I ask that you please help young Finn in any way you can."
"I knew it!" Cristel said, "Don't worry, Sir Merlin. I'll take care of helping him as much as I can!"
"You're joking, aren't you? Am I going to damage my anima just because I don't express myself or do what I want?" Finn asked incredulously, thinking he was being played a joke.
"It's not just about expressing yourself or not, Finn. Of course, there are many adventurers who hold back on certain things, but your case is beyond that. Animas are very important to adventurers or people, and if you don't let them grow freely, then they will begin to fluctuate, trying to show your heart's desires. This can reach the point where it becomes permanently damaged or even breaks" Merlin said seriously.
"And what happens if it breaks?" Finn asked fearfully.
"Damage to the anima can cause your magic to spiral out of control to the point where you can't use it again, even damaging your body and leaving you paralyzed. But if your anima breaks… it's certain death" Merlin said very seriously, placing his hand on Finn's shoulder. 'Relax, I'm speaking to you telepathically. I know this is difficult for you because of the world you grew up in, but you'll also have to do your part if we don't want this to escalate even more… you can die, finn.' Merlin said telepathically to Finn.
"Sigh, I suppose I understand… and I'll do everything possible to fix this as well," Finn said resignedly. 'If Grandma finds out about this, she'll surely kill me…'