Chapter 272: Mystery of the Original Timeline

Igor admitted that, back then, he had probably lost sight of even the most basic question: what was he supposed to protect?

"But this time, things are different. I know this country is currently facing a crisis. I know where things are, what’s happening, and what’s about to happen. That’s why I’m going to try again..."

"Didn’t you just say that Ignis is not you? Even if you recreate the same circumstances, there’s no guarantee you’ll be sent back to the past again."

"I know! But I can’t just sit back and do nothing!"

"After telling me all of that, do you honestly expect me to cooperate with you? To think that I’ve merely been used by you for years without ever realizing it... Honestly, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I trusted you, you know."

"I’m sorry. I have no excuse for what I’ve done."

Igor placed his hands on the table and bowed his head without hesitation.

Watching him, Viktor let out an exasperated sigh.

"Enough. In any case, there’s a good chance I would never have met Nuoya if it weren’t for you. When I think about it that way, your actions changed the course of my life as well. Perhaps I should be thanking you instead."

He gave a wry smile.

So, a time loop, huh...?

Qiu Nuoya could more or less understand how Igor and Viktor, who had originally belonged to this world, might have ended up in such a situation. But what about Qiu Nuoya himself, Xiao Tao, and Shangguan Wan’er? How did they fit into all of this?

Perhaps even the person Qiu Nuoya thought of as "himself" was only one among countless versions of himself existing across an infinite number of timelines. The thought gave him a strange, almost surreal feeling.

Since Qiu Nuoya already had some basic knowledge of alternate timelines from games and manga, he could more or less grasp the theory. But if someone suddenly confronted an ordinary person with something like this, wouldn’t they be completely bewildered?

Still, more than any of that, Qiu Nuoya couldn’t stop wondering whether he and the others had existed in Igor’s original timeline, before everything repeated itself.

If it were simply a matter of different points in time within the same world, it would be relatively easy to understand. But with another dimension, an entirely different world, thrown into the mix, the whole situation seemed far more complicated than he could begin to imagine.

"Okay, Igor! Can I ask you something?"

"Hm? What is it?"

"Before your time loop, what happened to Xiao Tao and Shangguan Wan’er?"

"Time... loop?"

Igor tilted his head, looking confused as he tried to make sense of Qiu Nuoya’s words.

"Is this phenomenon Igor is experiencing called a ’time loop’ in Nuoya’s original world? Are phenomena like this common in your world?"

"Huh!? No, not exactly... How should I explain this?"

Qiu Nuoya explained to Igor and Viktor that there were several stories about such phenomena, and that while the term itself was fairly common in his world, time loops were generally considered fictional events that could not happen in reality.

"I see. So, a ’time loop’ is a common fictional premise in your world, but it doesn’t actually exist in reality?"

"Well, more or less. But I don’t think we can say for certain that it’s completely impossible. After all, if someone told the people around them that something like this had happened, they’d probably just think that person was crazy."

"Which is exactly what I’m going through right now."

That was certainly true...

Still, this world was one where magic could make the impossible a reality. From Qiu Nuoya’s perspective, a time loop didn’t seem entirely implausible either.

"Then why are you concerned about what Xiao Tao and Shangguan Wan’er were doing before the time loop?"

"Huh? Oh, well, stories like these tend to follow a certain rule. If you change too much of the past, it can have a huge impact on the future, so you’re usually supposed to keep changes to a minimum. I guess I’m just curious about how much the past and future have diverged from each other. Either way, I don’t think I existed before the time loop, but I was wondering what happened to Shangguan Wan’er and Xiao Tao."

"An impact on the future?"

"Um, for example, suppose someone who was supposed to get married in the future ended up marrying someone else in the past. Then the child who was originally supposed to be born might never exist, right? Small discrepancies like that can accumulate and end up changing the future drastically... Wait, Igor, what’s wrong?"

Igor’s expression changed as he fell into deep thought. Had Qiu Nuoya said something strange?

"I never thought about that... I was so caught up in my own affairs that I never considered what was happening around me."

"Ah, um... But it’s not necessarily true that everything has changed for the worse! I think you don’t need to worry about that too much! Anyway, what about Xiao Tao and Shangguan Wan’er...?"

"I haven’t heard anything about the prince’s engagement being annulled. I never heard anything about the Saint being replaced, either. But back then, I was so focused on myself that I barely paid attention to what was happening around me, so I can’t say for certain that they weren’t there. Still, I never heard anything about a Hero, either. And as far as I remember, there wasn’t even a search request for the Divine Sword Velikorya."

Huh? Really?

Xiao Tao aside, Qiu Nuoya had assumed that someone as attention seeking as Shangguan Wan’er would definitely have taken part in the battles.

Or was it possible that Shangguan Wan’er and Xiao Tao had not even existed in this world before the time loop?

Qiu Nuoya himself was an outsider who had come to this world from another dimension. Could it be that, before the time loop, he had not existed in this world either, along with Xiao Tao and Shangguan Wan’er?