"I never left my hometown—I just can't go back?
"What separates me from my hometown isn't space, but… time?!"
Repeating the "shocking" news Ebner had just revealed, Klein heard the sound of his own heartbeat. It wasn't actually real, but something produced along with the fluctuations of his emotions—after all, he was only a spirit body right now.
At the same time, one piece after another of common knowledge about the current world suddenly surfaced in his mind:
"A year has twelve months, three hundred and sixty-five days, with leap years…
"Each day has twenty-four hours, each hour sixty minutes, each minute sixty seconds…
"Confirmed to be a planet…
"There is one and only one sun and one moon in the sky…"
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Klein felt that the "heartbeat" manifested by his spirit body was growing faster and faster, while countless details that had never drawn his attention before erupted in his mind like a volcano:
"At the easternmost edge of the Sonia Sea, before entering the ruins of the divine war, there were decayed and collapsed steel buildings around that deep-sea ancient well… those seemed to be left behind by humans…
"The overall terrain of the Northern and Southern Continents looks very much like North and South America, except that the huge area where the two should connect seems to have been directly erased by some kind of power, forming the stormy sea with its complex and winding shipping routes… Also, Sonia Island looks like it was formed by the northern great island drifting south as a whole… The Midsea feels like an expanded, interconnected version of the Great Lakes, as if it had suffered a massive meteor impact…
"On the Northern Continent, mountain ranges and rivers have changed a lot, but the overall shape is still barely recognizable…
"If that's the case… then the Western Continent, homeland of the elves, and the Eastern Continent where the 'Forsaken Land of the Gods' lies, become obvious!
"Also, among the treasure legends of the sea, there's a lost civilization called Newins, sunken somewhere in the Sea of Fog…
"And Mr. 'Tower' once revealed that the origins of humanoid races like giants, sanguines, and elves are actually humans…
"Finally, why Sefirah Castle captured 'transmigrators' from Earth, and why all of them belonged to the era I lived in, can also be explained…"
In just two or three seconds, it felt as though thunderclaps were continuously exploding in Klein's mind. His lips trembled slightly, yet he instinctively resisted accepting this conclusion, even though he knew Ebner would never deceive him about something like this.
"But… the moon in this world is crimson… and the starry sky is also somewhat different from Earth's… I'm not an astronomy enthusiast, so I don't remember clearly, but Old Huang consumed potions from the 'Reader' pathway. If the starry sky were exactly the same, he would have noticed long ago…" Klein sounded as though he were questioning, yet also as though he were seeking evidence to deny what Ebner had said.
"You've heard that line before, haven't you.
"When the stars return to their proper positions, chaos will rise from beneath the earth, and the great Primordial will awaken…" Ebner said, recalling the original text.
"The stars returning to their positions… wasn't that just an internet meme? Don't tell me it wasn't made up… but a real doomsday prophecy?
"Because the stars returned to their positions, the starry sky changed?" Klein murmured, his face turning pale. "Our civilization was destroyed because it encountered the apocalypse?"
"More or less… But the changes to the moon and the starry sky have other causes as well. It's just that you can't know too much right now… At the very least, only angels are qualified to know," Ebner replied vaguely.
"What difference does it make whether I know or not… I can't go back anyway…" Klein's emotions sank for a moment, and he looked utterly dejected, as if he were about to just "lie flat."
Simply put, he had lost his motivation.
Although Ebner knew this was only temporary—Klein was, after all, someone with a very strong sense of responsibility, and even if only for the sake of those who trusted him, he would force himself to keep going—at this moment, Ebner still decided to give him a goal, to spur him on:
"Fifth Epoch, Year 1368."
"What?" Klein lifted his head blankly, not understanding what Ebner meant by mentioning this date.
"Fifth Epoch, Year 1368!" Ebner repeated, then said solemnly, "Anyone with prophetic abilities more or less knows that the apocalypse will arrive in that year!"
"The apocalypse?!" Hearing that word, Klein immediately perked up.
"Yes—the apocalypse… It has never been far away, and it is about to arrive!
"Even for Miss 'Temperance,' for the sake of your brother and sister in this era, for the captain and Leonard, you should pull yourself together and do your utmost to advance your Sequence, to fight for a chance of survival in the apocalypse." Ebner deliberately mentioned familiar people, using emotional bonds to strengthen Klein's sense of belonging to this era.
Hearing this, Klein fell silent for a long while. In the end, he sighed and asked, "What exactly is the apocalypse?"
"For now, I can only tell you that the root of the apocalypse lies in the starry sky, and also in that original Creator."
…
Inside the captain's cabin of the Black Death, Ebner—who had just returned from Sefirah Castle—sat up from the bed. He carefully recalled everything he had just said to Klein. Only after confirming that he hadn't revealed any "out-of-bounds" knowledge did he finally let out a sigh of relief.
After briefly discussing the issues of the "starry sky" and the "apocalypse," they had shifted the topic to the Western Continent, and to "Sefirot."
Although Ebner still couldn't reveal too much regarding "Sefirot," lest Klein be exposed to unnecessary danger, he nevertheless gave him a simple rundown of the names of each "Sefirot" and the corresponding pathway "domains."
This also allowed Klein to faintly realize that above true gods, one might need "Sefirot" in order to continue advancing.
In short, this round of "popular science" from Ebner was extremely intense. He even revealed a great deal of knowledge that Klein only learned very late in the original story… such as the Sequence names and rough ability descriptions of all twenty-two pathways.
It could be said that if Klein were to drink the "Scholar of Yore" potion now, it would probably melt the moment it entered his mouth.
Unfortunately, even so, Klein still did not proactively confess that he was "The Fool," although the two of them already understood this tacitly.
As for the conspiracy of the Loen royal family, he did not mention it either. It was unclear whether he had forgotten, or had other plans.
While Ebner was pondering this, Tracy suddenly hugged him from behind and asked intimately, "What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing… just some small matters." Ebner calmly broke free from this "Demoness of Affliction," then straightened his clothes. Only then did he turn back and say, "I'm leaving. If your mother comes looking for you again, remember to recite my honorific name and pray to me."
After saying this, without waiting for Tracy's reply, he pushed open the door to the captain's cabin, strolled around the deck in front of the sailors, accepted a baptism of envious and jealous gazes, and only then tore open a door in the void and stepped inside.
…
Loen Kingdom, inside a Church of Evernight in Winter County.
After handing over the corpse of the "Black Blade" who had suddenly appeared beside her to the sanctuary, the wine-red-haired "Red Glove," Cindy, finally let out a sigh of relief.
Then she turned back and carefully sized up Leonard, whom she had run into midway the day before, and fell into deep thought.
Being stared at like that made Leonard feel a little uneasy, and he couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong? Is there something on my face?"
Cindy rubbed her chin and said uncertainly, "I don't know if it's just my imagination…
"But I feel like yesterday's you was better-looking than today's!"
(End of chapter)