At those words, not only did I freeze, but the entire atmosphere seemed to plummet into an Arctic chill. Time itself felt like it had ground to a halt.
...Wait, whose daughter did she just say Selene was?
If I hadn't misheard her—and I desperately hoped I had—she definitely claimed Selene was the daughter of my future self.
Haha. I don't know what it is about today, but I seem to be hearing a lot of things that make absolutely zero sense.
So, you're saying Selene isn't my daughter right now, but she is the daughter of the future 'Me'?
"That's right. Selene is your daughter from the future."
"...Did I say that out loud just now?"
"No. But I've known you for years. I can read your thoughts just by looking at your face."
As Bianca spoke with such unwavering certainty, I glanced toward my wife. Bronya merely wore a troubled expression, looking away as if the subject was too delicate to touch.
The fact that she didn't immediately deny it left me utterly stunned. I felt the color draining from my face.
Are you serious? For a man who holds the title of Captain, I always thought my poker face was one of my strongest assets.
Maybe I need to go back to training and level up my composure again.
"So... what exactly does 'my daughter from the future' mean in this context?"
"It means exactly what the words imply."
Even if it means exactly what it implies, Bianca...
To be perfectly honest, I had no idea how Bianca could have met a future version of me, let alone established the kind of relationship that leads to a child.
Time travel itself is a fascinating field of study, but while the past is one thing, the future is entirely unpredictable.
Much like a butterfly flapping its wings can trigger a typhoon, a single action of mine in the present could fundamentally rewrite the future. It's common sense.
Well, unless we're talking about fixed points or events that are destined to happen regardless of interference.
"...Whew. Honestly, Bianca, that explanation isn't enough to go on. I need more details. Please."
"...It's a long story. Are you sure you're ready?"
"I don't think there's anything more important than this right now. Don't you all agree?"
At my question, everyone except Cecilia and Senior Mei nodded in agreement.
Wait a minute... Senior Mei, you really did know everything, didn't you?
When I looked her way, Mei nodded back at me, as if she had peeked directly into my mind.
Seeing her reaction, I couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh followed by a heavy sigh.
Is it just my imagination, or have things been spiraling out of control ever since that incident with Kiana and the apron? No, I wish it were just my imagination.
Bombshell after bombshell... and every single one of them is a nuclear-grade crisis involving my personal life. It's getting hard to breathe.
"First off, you said Selene is my child from the future, correct?"
"Yes."
"Then is she a child born between you and me in that future?"
"No. Selene is, without a shadow of a doubt, a child I personally carried and gave birth to in the present."
...What?
My brain immediately hit a buffering wall. That sentence made no logical sense.
It wasn't just me; everyone else in the room froze like statues. Let me get this straight... Selene is my future child, but the one who carried and delivered her was the Bianca standing right here in the present?
"...Wait, that's impossible."
Like I said before, while we managed to develop technology that allows travel from the present to the past, moving toward the future was another matter entirely. In fact, it should be fundamentally impossible.
The past consists of events already recorded upon the Imaginary Tree, making it a destination we can navigate toward. However, changing the past creates a new branch on that Tree.
Essentially, it creates a new future.
That was what Otto Apocalypse achieved. But even in that scenario, it results in a completely parallel world; even if you change the past, the time traveler eventually returns to their original world. I knew this from the data I gathered during my own experiments—experiments I conducted after Otto's success, in a desperate attempt to save Major Himeko.
But the future is a different story.
You can follow the records on the Imaginary Tree to a specific point in the past, but the future has no record yet. Even if you had a Divine Key as powerful as Fenghuang Down—the Deus Ex Machina of the Honkai world—it shouldn't be possible.
Actually, Fenghuang Down is irrelevant here since it just manipulates brain waves to create illusions. It has nothing to do with physical time travel.
Even with 'Everyday Fenghuang Down' shenanigans, this shouldn't be doable. Unless, of course, someone was using the Divine Key right now to tell me: 'Psych! This was all just a massive hallucination!'
"It seems no one believes me," Bianca remarked coolly.
"Of course not. Traveling to the future, meeting a future version of me, and... having a relationship? It's logically unsound."
Because the future is constantly shifting based on every tiny action in the present, any attempt to travel forward usually just results in the traveler snapping back to the 'Now.' I know this because I personally used my own body as a test subject for these theories.
Everyone around me knew about those experiments, so they all nodded in somber agreement.
"...Huh? What are you talking about?" Bianca looked puzzled.
"What? I'm speaking in plain terms."
Thinking I might have said something wrong, I looked at Bianca. She went quiet for a moment, lost in thought, before turning back to me with a curious gaze.
"Let me clarify. You think it's impossible for me to have met a future version of you because the future can't be predicted from this point in time?"
"Exactly. Because the future hasn't been written yet."
"...I see. But have you considered this?"
"Considered what?"
"That you're thinking about this in a very linear, one-way direction. That's not like you at all."
One-way direction?
What was she trying to say? She said it wasn't 'like me'... and she's right. When I'm solving a problem, I usually try to look at it from every conceivable angle. If she's saying that, she's challenging me to pivot my perspective.
So, what was the angle I was missing? I had to find it.
To be honest, there was a much faster way to figure this out than just guessing. I could use an acquired ability to peer into Bianca's mind and read her thoughts and memories directly.
Specifically, an 'Innovator' ability—one that echoed the mental resonance found in a certain famous mecha universe.
But I had sealed that power away after the Honkai war ended. Using it felt like a betrayal of the trust between people. Unless everyone eventually awakened as an Innovator through the refined Honkai particles used in the Honkai Drives, me being the only one with such a unilateral ability would only breed suspicion and fear, even among friends.
Coincidentally—or perhaps tragically—Bronie was born with the innate potential of an Innovator. Was it because she inherited my blood? Or perhaps the latent Honkai energy in our family line?
Because of that, she always wears the Neuro-Linker I designed for her. It looks like a high-tech neckband with Bluetooth-style earbuds, but it's actually a micro-computer and augmented reality interface.
Yes, for those in the know, the motif was exactly like the one from *Accel World. It houses a brainwave dampener to help the poor girl control an ability that still fires off uncontrollably.
I wear one too, though mine is a prototype I built for experimental data collection before I finalized her version. As such, mine doesn't have the AR or micro-PC bells and whistles.
Still, between my own logs and the real-time data I get from Bronie's development, the Neuro-Linker technology is advancing rapidly. My ultimate goal is to make it a self-guided learning system that evolves to suit its user's needs.
Right now, Bronie is still at that age where she clings to her 'Papa' and loves me unconditionally. But I know that as she grows up, those displays of affection will fade. I have to prepare for the day we might drift apart, or a time when I might not be there to maintain her device myself.
Since it's an early-stage product, I have to update the information once a week or once a month at the latest, but—
Wait, I'm getting sidetracked. The most important thing right now is to parse Bianca's words. She said I was thinking too linearly. In this case, 'linear' refers to the flow of time travel.
Bianca claims she had a relationship with a future version of me, and that Selene was born from that.
So, exactly when* did this supposed relationship with my future self occur?
"February 29th."
"...What?"
"That's my hint. A man like you should be able to figure it out now, shouldn't you?"
...Actually, no. That just makes it even more confusing, mostly because it triggers memories of a very different, very dark history of mine.
========================
The website for reading paid chapters is available on my Patreon. The number of chapters on Patreon: 65
Link: patreon.com/UltraMagnus_T