To become a king and a magician

"Aunt Aoko often works outside Chaldea City. Although magic incidents are concentrated in Chaldea City, there are actually quite a few outside as well. Aunt Aoko is busy with these things, and Aunt Siel and Aunt Ayaka accompany her."

"As I mentioned before, Aunt Ritsuka and Aunt Mashu are the people who directly contact Aunt Aoko and the others. They are arguably the busiest people in Chaldea City."

"Aunt Morgan and Aunt Caster work at the Technology Development Bureau in Chaldea City, with Aunt Morgan serving as the top technical advisor. They are in charge of matters related to the development of the Machine God."

"The others either retire and live in seclusion, or work as teachers in the Academy City that my father founded."

Academy City?

Okita Souji asked, "What is that?"

"In an area in the eastern part of Chaldea City, roughly the size of half of Tokyo, as the name suggests, it is an area consisting of a large number of schools and is also the talent training center of Chaldea City. It was specially developed by my father to cultivate the next generation of magicians and scientists. The current chairperson is Aunt Merry."

Chairwoman Meryl?!

"That's it, we're doomed."

"I don't even want to think about what kind of people would be trained under Meryl's management."

"The future tiger made a wrong decision..."

......

Upon hearing this, Meryl's lips twitched slightly: "Does everyone have some misunderstanding about him...? You know, he trained two kings! After all, since the future tiger became so powerful, it's because he was properly taught him in the beginning, right?"

"All I know is that you make fun of him every day," Lydia bluntly exposed the truth. "What about the future Tiger? Our situation is somewhat within expectations, but what about his?"

“Dad…” Xia Chuanyue paused, “He left Earth five years ago.”

"Huh?"

Leave Earth?

"You will definitely travel to the universe in the future, and you will encounter all sorts of difficulties and dangers in the process of exploration. In order to avoid a huge crisis at that time, I will go ahead to scout the way for you." - Five years ago, Dad said this before leaving Earth for the universe.

"That guy can actually travel through space all by himself?! Five years?! And he hasn't come back?"

"No, Daddy has come back, about once a year. Also, Aunt Rei and Aunt Grey went together to take care of Daddy, while Mom and Aunt Shiki took over the overall operation of Chaldea."

"........"

I'm at a loss for words.

Everything that happened in the future has exceeded the imagination of everyone present. Now, even if they wanted to say something, they couldn't organize their thoughts properly.

(Is this... the future that the tiger, who is about to return, will bring?)

Thinking of that person who would definitely come back this year, the corners of Mary's mouth turned up slightly.

(Yes, if this is such an interesting future, then I really will never leave you, Tiger.)

————————————————————————————————————————

At the same time.

parallel world.

Moon.

Standing on the desolate land, gazing at the distant blue planet, the man who had lived here for decades silently calculated his own time.

[Time's up, contact the person]

Such a sound came from the void.

The man nodded and stood up.

"We've arrived... Fourteen thousand and twenty-two years, that's how long I've stayed here..."

Even though they should have been on the moon in a vacuum, the man's voice came out naturally.

You can go home now, contact person. I hope you can keep your promise to us.

"Yes, I will, Chaos."

The man spoke these words to the void and the vacuum.

By the way, do you remember my name?

【Natsukawa Torato】

The voice from the void spoke thus.

[The planet's first hero and savior, the Star Sword wielder who shattered stars and the sky, the primordial spirit who witnessed the progress of human history, and the eternal guardian of human reason—Natsukawa Torato]

"That's quite a long prefix. I had forgotten I had so many titles."

"But it doesn't matter. Anyway, these titles will be gone from me forever starting today. In that world, I will only have one identity."

The man—Natsukawa Tora—raised his hand and lifted his long hair, which he hadn't cut in twenty-two years, trimming it to the style that best suited his appearance in his memory. Then he pulled out the holy sword that had been stuck in his hand for more than twenty years.

"Then, let's go back."

"In the capacity of Natsukawa Torato, the operations director of Chaldea."

The holy sword cleaved through space, and a dimensional rift unfolded before Natsukawa Torato.

After taking one last look at the planet he had protected and journeyed alongside for over 14,000 years, Xia Chuanhu smiled gently, turned around, and took his first step back towards another world he had been away from for over 14,000 years.

13. From the Past to the Future

night.

Inside the guest rooms arranged by the Ryougi family for Mei and the others.

"Here it is?"

Xia Chuanyue had just sat down when a familiar voice came from the doorway.

Holding a can of beer, Mei knocked on the doorframe in a mock manner before entering the room: "If it's convenient, could I ask you a few more questions, Xiaoyue?"

"Is there anything else you want to ask?"

Xia Chuanyue was somewhat surprised.

She should have answered everyone's questions during the day, so did Meryl still have any questions she hadn't asked?

(Why do they have to keep this kind of place so secret? No wonder he's always scheming and acting all mysterious.)

"Well... rather than a question, I'm more curious about what will happen next—can I sit next to you?"

"Yes, please go ahead, Auntie—"

"I already told you to call me 'older sister'~~~"

After giving Xia Chuanyue's cheek a good rub, Mei Li sat down next to her and asked, "How long are you planning to stay here?"

"Hmm... I haven't thought about that in detail. I think I'll stay until Aunt Ritsuka sends me the order to return, right?" Natsukawa Tsuki said after thinking for a moment. "But based on past experience, I'll probably go back in the next couple of days, since I've already been here for ten days."

"We'll be back soon...that's good."

Mary smiled and took a sip of beer.

"If you continue to stay here, you'll be the one causing us trouble."

"Haha~~~ I will try to keep a low profile and not cause any trouble for you aunties."

Recalling the commotion she caused when she first arrived in this era, and the fight she had with all the aunties and even her own mother, Xia Chuanyue smiled awkwardly.

But Mary shook her head.

"No, that's not what I mean. If it were just that, it would be fine. The problem is the impact you'll have—it's not good for people of our time to know about things related to the future too early."

The future is not fixed; it will be affected by the current situation.

Humanity in this era will decide what kind of future it can lead to.

That is unknown.

However, Natsukawa Tsuki's arrival allowed a small group of people to know the future, which turned the unknown into the known. While this could provide some reassurance, it could also have a negative impact in some ways.

For example, limitations in thinking, restrictions on actions...

"After you leave, I will work with everyone to seal away everything that happened during this time, including the things we met and what you told us."

"Huh? Sealing memories?" Natsukawa Tsuki frowned. "Why? Wouldn't knowing the future in advance be more advantageous for one's actions? Among my classmates from school, some had future vision, which helped them avoid danger several times."

Meryl smiled and said, "Haha, that's certainly nice. But if we're limited to this era, then future vision is definitely a good thing. However, you're telling us about the future thirty years from now. That's a bit too far in time. Knowing more isn't always a good thing, is it?"

"I prefer moving towards the unknown rather than towards a future that is already determined. That's more interesting."

[Moon, you need to know, that girl Meryl is an incurable hedonist. She'll do anything to make herself feel good.]

Several years ago, when she was about to enter high school and move to Academy City, her father's words echoed in Natsukawa Tsuki's mind.

(Oh yeah... Aunt Meryl was just like that; I was often driven to the brink of madness by her when I was in school.)

Some past memories made Natsukawa Yue smile involuntarily.

"What are you laughing at?"

"No, it just reminded me of some things from my student days. Ah, you would often plan some events in Academy City and then have me handle them, calling it a 'trial for the children'."

A rampaging, out-of-control artificial monster, a vicious magic criminal, a mutated artificial life form... It seems that once she was asked to deal with one of the Twenty-Seven Ancestors.

Even when she was preparing for her graduation exams in her senior year of high school, Merry asked her to stop a major disaster that could have caused the collapse of the magic world at the time—only after she had risked her life to deal with it did she realize that there was only half a day left before the final exams.

That's absolutely inhuman!

If she weren't a vampire, she would have been dead countless times by now. Throughout her three years of high school, she had to deal with something almost every few days, and sometimes several things would happen at once, forcing her to run all over Academy City and even the world, leaving her exhausted.

“Sister Meryl, sometimes I really wonder if Dad was able to fall for you back then because he was a masochist.”

"Isn't it because of her world-class beauty and her meticulous care for him?" Melly puffed out her chest smugly. "Well, that's all I wanted to say. I should go back to sleep now. I need to think carefully about whose dreams I should disturb tonight... Oh, right."

As she reached the door, Mary stopped, turned around, and smiled, "Remember to let us know if you're going back. We'll all see you off. Also, say hello to your future self when you get back."

"Yes, I understand, Sister Meryl."

"That's all for now, bye-bye~~~"

After waving goodbye, Meryl left Natsukawa Tsuki's room.

then--

"Beep beep!"