Xin Yu stood outside the window, looking at the rare fine weather in this icy plain. He said, "Nice weather."
Inside the house, accompanied by the cry of a newborn baby, a small life came into this world. And her mother, who was originally supposed to die, was still weak but had not lost her life.
"Is this... a miracle?"
The woman named Misteln Schariac suddenly lifted her head and looked towards the window, only to find no one there.
She went to the spot where Xin Yu had been standing and found nothing out of place, not even a footprint left in the snow.
She returned indoors and looked at Alexandra, who was holding her child, her face full of love for her baby. Misteln felt this was a miracle, a salvation she couldn't perceive.
"Alexandra, perhaps, your love truly brought about a miracle."
In the future, at St. Freya Academy...
Bronya sat dazedly in her room. With trembling hands, she took out her phone. In her contact list, she saw a name pinned to the very top. The contact was labeled...
Mother.
Du...
"Hello! Is my adorable daughter calling her mother for something?"
A voice full of life and energy came from the other end of the phone.
"...It's nothing."
Bronya's voice was a little choked up.
"Hm? That doesn't sound like nothing. Bronya, were you wronged in some way?"
The person on the other end immediately picked up on the change in Bronya's tone and asked with concern.
"I just... missed you a little."
"Oh my! It seems Bronya has really run into some trouble. It's okay, Mom is always here. Tell me what's wrong, and Mom will help you. I've already booked a flight, I'll be at your school right away!"
"Mom..."
"I'm here."
"I... love you."
"Mm! Mom loves Bronya too. Mom has always loved you."
The call ended. Bronya could no longer suppress her emotions. Tears streamed down her face, her beautiful little face contorting slightly as she began to sob her heart out.
She wasn't an orphan anymore! She had her own mother! A mother who loved her, a mother who belonged only to her.
At the same time, she was... no longer a killing machine with hands stained by blood!
"Xin Yu."
Bronya murmured the name.
"Achoo!"
Xin Yu, wrapped in a blanket, sat before a fireplace, looking listless and ill, his face a little pale.
"Hey kid, I know there's a lot of pressure in a school that's basically all female, but you don't have to jump into a river to cool off, do you? Are you suppressing a bit too much?"
Holding a mug, a skinny young man with messy black hair and a white lab coat looked at Xin Yu, exasperated.
He had been busy with his project at the research institute and had just come out. He was originally going to grab a bottle of milk from the nearby vending machine before heading back to sleep. But just as he bent down to retrieve the milk from the slot, he heard a splash.
Then he saw Xin Yu, floating in the water after his fall, face down.
The sight scared his drowsiness right out of him. He quickly shed his coat and jumped into the water to drag the motionless Xin Yu out.
When he pulled the boy ashore, his body temperature was frighteningly low, making him think the kid was already dead. Just as he was about to perform artificial respiration, he saw Xin Yu open his eyes and look at him with a helpless expression.
"It was an accident, really an accident."
Previously, when Xin Yu was rewriting the past, he had also included changing a series of stories from Bronya's childhood, such as her meeting with Seele, and some people she was originally supposed to meet.
And Seele's parents, by the way, and the parents of some of her friends from the orphanage. In short, by the time Xin Yu came to his senses, he realized he had already changed the life trajectories of far too many people.
He couldn't help it. If he didn't see the tragedy, he wouldn't meddle. But when the tragedy was right in front of him, and it was just a matter of lifting a finger, he went ahead and did it.
After returning to the present time, Xin Yu directly suffered the temporal backlash of losing nearly forty thousand years of lifespan. Although this was nothing to someone with a lifespan in the tens of millions, the familiar bodily paralysis still robbed him of his strength, and he fell straight into the water.
It wasn't a big deal, really. It wasn't like he needed to breathe like a human, so soaking in the water for a while was completely fine. Xin Yu was even starting to observe the fish that had been scared away by his fall. He was experienced with this, after all. Based on his body's condition, he would probably regain his mobility in about two minutes.
But then he was dragged ashore by someone.
The young man looked at Xin Yu and suddenly realized, wasn't this the same boy he'd seen before, the one who looked familiar? The one he'd seen when he was chatting with that woman, Murata Himeko.
"You're that new student, right? I think you're Kiana Kaslana and Raiden Mei's boyfriend. No, wait, you have two girlfriends, and you're still stressed enough to jump in a river?"
"It was an accident, really an accident."
"An accident means you float face down in the middle of the river without even struggling? When I pulled you ashore your body was freezing. If you weren't doing it on purpose, I'll go wash my hair while doing a handstand."
The young man rolled his eyes.
"Ahaha."
Xin Yu shrank back awkwardly. The way the other guy put it, it really did sound like that.
"Life has its ups and downs. Don't dwell on things when you're young. Look forward, life is still long."
"Since we've met by fate, let's get acquainted. My name is Ōno Nao."
"I'm Xin Yu."
Both of them froze for a moment. For some unknown reason, they both had a strange sense of déjà vu, as if this wasn't the first time they had introduced themselves to each other.
Ōno Nao ruffled his messy hair, chalking up the sudden feeling of déjà vu to his own fatigue. He then said, "I'll make you a bowl of hot soup. Drink some to warm up, then get yourself together and go back. I won't tell your teachers or your friends. Men don't like familiar people seeing them in a sorry state."
With that, Ōno Nao left the room to get the soup from the kitchen.
He didn't look like someone who could cook, but his culinary skills were surprisingly good, and it was even Shenzhou cuisine.
"I've always liked eating Shenzhou food. When I was studying abroad in my early years, I even specifically found a master chef from Shenzhou to learn from. Although I'm not at the level of a head chef, I'd say I'm decent."
"You could say I was lucky. The orphanage I grew up in received a large donation from a kind person right after I was taken in. Otherwise, I might not have been able to go to school, and I wouldn't be who I am today."
"If I had given up on my studies, who knows where I'd be now? Maybe I'd be a delinquent at the bottom rungs of society."
For some reason, Ōno Nao felt he had become much more talkative in front of this young man, as if... he were in front of an elder.
After Xin Yu had rested, Ōno Nao kicked him out. For some reason, Xin Yu felt the expression on the other man's face was extremely awkward.