The so-called "Future Experience Backtracking to Accelerate Comprehension of Laws" involved pulling out a version of yourself from one month in the future and then exchanging experiences on comprehending Laws, to hasten your understanding of them.

Why one month? Firstly, comprehending Laws is a gradual process, like when you're reading the first chapter of a book, you need a teacher who has just finished the first chapter, not someone who has read the entire book.

Admittedly, if the teacher had finished the whole book and gained a holistic understanding, they would be able to teach with greater ease.

The problem is that comprehending Laws is different from reading; it involves something called "unique personal understanding."

Just as a thousand readers have a thousand interpretations of Hamlet, individual experiences of understanding the same Law can't be shared. If the "teacher" brought from the future is too far removed in time, and their understanding of the Law has become unique (creating a "knowledge isolate" compared to the current self), then communication could actually slow down.

Therefore, people from one month into the future are probably the most suitable candidates for exchange; they are ahead in the understanding of Laws but not so far ahead that communication becomes impossible.

"But if we frequently communicate with our future selves, won't that create a problem of 'spoilers'?" Nora asked worriedly.

Spoilers? We're not characters in a novel, what's there to fear about spoilers? Aske was momentarily stunned before he realized what Nora meant.

The future Mia from the last Spiritual Essence Tree mutation didn't seem to be particularly strong in combat, but her words about "Eleanor, Nora, and Thira betraying" were terrifyingly lethal—Eleanor had even knelt on the spot.

Aske, of course, didn't believe it. Or rather, that was only one possible future. Even if he did nothing, the future might not unfold in that direction.

However, such a thing could truly shake the morale of his forces, and Nora's concerns were not unreasonable. An old topic that used to be popular on Earth was, if you could know the duration of your life, would you want to know?

Many chose not to know because such knowledge could torment a person, especially in the last few years of life when psychological pressure could be crushing.

With this in mind, Aske then asked Miel:

"Miel, is there a way..."

"Yes, there is." Miel answered, as if she had anticipated his question, "I don't have to bring back people from the future, I can just extract their experiences with the Laws and attach that state to everyone else."

"Oh, like last time!" Sigrdrifa immediately caught on, recalling the time Miel had attached a few years forward version of herself to her during the Otwell Family fight.

Of course, she was still herself, except her memories, personality, and strength had temporarily become what they were years later.

When the attached state ended, most of these elements would disappear from Sigrdrifa, but the feelings of using them would remain—mainly small fragments of memory, emotions, and cognition.

Digesting them would undoubtedly increase her Inspiration regarding the Laws.

"Great!" Aske slapped the table and declared with gusto, "Let's do it. Accelerate!"

The girls looked at one another.

"Aske…" Mia suddenly spoke up, "If everyone accelerates their growth, does that mean you'll be leaving us sooner?"

…

"Ah, why talk about that? Come on, everyone, let's eat cake," Aske quickly said as he saw the server bring over a plate.

"Aske, you don't think your 'changing the subject' technique is always going to work, do you?" Medea asked somberly.

Aske: …

"We have an old saying back home," he said after a moment of Silence, "All good things must come to an end."

Everyone: …

"Yeah, that's true," Nora was the first to speak, picking up her own plate, "Let's eat for now, the cream is melting."

The cream how could it possibly be melting… Medea also took a plate, the gloom in her eyes deepening.

"Eleanor." Thira looked speechlessly across the table where Eleanor was absentmindedly messing with her cake, "Your cake is almost mush."

"Ah, oh." Eleanor snapped back to reality and dug up a big spoonful of pure cream, unabashedly swallowing it down.

"I need to go to the bathroom!" Medea suddenly stood up.

The girl beside her quickly made room for her, and Medea left her seat, turning to say:

"Miel?"

"I'll go, too." Miel also got up.

Inside the coffee shop's bathroom, Medea ran water to wash her face and then lifted her head, looking at herself in the mirror.

Her face looked terrifyingly grim, droplets of water trickling down from her damp red bangs.

Miel leaned against the bathroom door frame, silently activating her Destiny Ability, ensuring that no one would come to the ladies' room in the next few minutes.

"Miel," Medea asked in a low voice, "what's his method of returning? Defeating and subduing the Bronze Dragon? Or killing it?"

"You want to stop him," Miel said.

"Of course," Medea squinted her eyes, gazing at Miel in the mirror, "don't you want to?"

"I wish he could stay," Miel sighed, "but on the condition that it's not against his will."

"Naive," Medea said coldly, "if he leaves, we all lose!"

Miel fell into silence.

"So it's true?" Medea turned around sharply, "You're not denying it, so that means once he goes back, he really won't come back again?"

"I can only see his Fate Line in this world," Miel spoke softly, "From the future point where he returns, his line just breaks off... Maybe he will come back and create a new Fate Line, but that line won't be connected to the old one that's already broken. I can't locate the corresponding outcome."

"So even you can't guarantee he will come back, right?" Medea took a deep breath, "We must stop him from going back."

"Even if it means becoming enemies with him?" Miel asked.

"Even if it means becoming enemies with him," Medea said through gritted teeth, "as long as he stays here, there is still a chance for redemption; if he goes, whether he will return or not is left to Fate!"

"And I," her pupils suddenly dilated, flaming with an intense, heart-stopping radiance, "will absolutely not leave my lifelong happiness to an ephemeral fate!"

"What if I tell you that all the World Lines I have observed have no possibility of stopping him from returning?" Miel asked quietly.

"Then I will prove you wrong," Medea left the bathroom without looking back.

For a long time.

"Am I wrong?" Miel, leaning on the door frame, seemed to murmur to herself.

She once again deployed the "Destiny" Skill, setting the outcome to "Aske staying in this world."

In that instant, her Spiritual Essence began to be crazily drained by the Fate Law. One-half, one-quarter, one-eighth... As her delicate face grew paler, her Sanity, deprived of the support of Spiritual Essence, began to crumble.

Suddenly, the Radiance of the Eden Fruit burst forth, severing her Law Skills.

"Messiah..." a low voice sounded, "do not blindly place all your bets on a wish you cannot fulfill."

"Raphael," Miel steadied herself on the door frame with difficulty, standing unsteadily, "I... Can I not do it? Are my observations wrong?"

"Your observations are completely accurate," said the voice from the Eden Fruit, "Based on current observations, Aske is present in some futures on the diverging World Lines and absent in others. But before that, all World Lines will converge at a specific point in time, meaning Aske will eventually leave this world, and whether he returns after that remains uncertain."

"So even the future shown to me by Rasul (that is, everyone vying for the returned Squad Leader) is just one of the possibilities," Miel fell silent for a few moments before leaning her forehead tiredly against the back of her hand on the door frame, "As long as he leaves this world, there's a risk that he'll 'never come back'. Worse still, his departure is a highly probable event that can't be changed."

"But... I still hope so much..." her eyes wide open, tears streaming endlessly from her emerald eyes.

"...At least, at least in this matter, let there be... a black swan event..."

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