Time was not just a backdrop in the fabric of reality, it's a dimension as real as space itself. The measure of change, the thread of causality, the rhythm that gave rise to cause and effect. To control it was to hold dominion over more than moments: it meant reshaping consequence, rewriting memory, and bending existence itself.
Ludwig first grasped the absurdity of this part of his power when he stopped the world around him cold while he alone walked on as if nothing were amiss. It was not long, only one or two seconds. Yet, he was still sure It was a dream many secretly nursed.
Ever since then, Ludwig decided to hone that ability. That precise ability to tamper with the current that pushed people into the fraction of the future. Before long, he commanded it like time was his. It was his bread and butter throughout his journey as adventurer.
But after meeting Imelda—The Archmage of the Hero's Party—and getting lectured by her, he realized just how versatile time manipulation was.
You did well on using your time manipulation to stop your enemy from moving to avoid their attack or to attack them. But, have you thought about any other thing time manipulation could do? Let me give you an example, reattaching arms that had been cut by reversing the time or accelerating your enemy's aging process. She said so back then with her aura of a teacher that reminded her of a certain animagus professor.
That lecture opened Ludwig's eyes into the true power of time manipulation. However, doing that was easier said than done. After all, mana reigned absolute in Ortus. Mana which had been manipulated by a person, in other words a spell, was something that others couldn't be easily manipulated by others. Thankfully, he had quite a good chunk of mana pool. Making it easier for him to wrestle the control of mana from anyone who dared to fight him.
So they experiment. And now, Ludwig once again wanted to experiment on one of the techniques he learnt from Imelda as back then, one that took too much of his mana.
He let his mana leave his body and enveloped the ninja in his hand. A blue glow illuminated the interior of the restaurant again. His mana pool got smaller and smaller as every second passed. By the time 30% of his mana was gone, the body of the man in front of him had become smaller.
But Ludwig didn't stop. He kept manipulating the time to reverse the aging of the man in front of him. His body wasn't the only one which got smaller, his chakra reserves were also affected by the reverse aging. Once more than 70% of his mana was gone, the man's limbs were covered by loose clothes The sword's sheathe behind him also became longer than his own body.
Ludwig dropped the kid to the floor and chucked another potion. A cold and refreshing feeling coursed through his body while a floral tint of taste assaulted his tongue. Seeing the man's mana also get affected by the time manipulation was quite amusing. It's not the first time he saw this effect, but back in Ortus, most of the people who called him for this treatment were already old. So rather than decreasing their mana pool, reversing their aging only made their mana pool returning.
Ludwig moved his hands as his mana pool was finally replenished. His target was the leader of the group. Once he summoned him to his hand, he did the same thing as what he did to the kid. But this time, he manipulated the time to move forward. The effect came faster than reversing the aging. The man's hand became more and more like the bark of a tree the more his mana decreased.
Moreover, just like any other person who aged past their peak, the power inside the man also gets smaller and smaller. Once Ludwig was done, the man's hair had become completely grey. He also couldn't stand up straight anymore, the aging probably hit his waist hard.
The experiment was quite fruitful. The amount of mana needed for both reversing the aging of someone and fast forwarding their aging was reduced significantly thanks to the blessing. But, there's a caveat. The amount of decrease for reversing the aging was smaller than the decrease of advancing the age.
Ludwig knew about the reason behind this disparity. Reversing someone's aging or manipulating someone's time backwards was not just sending their body back to its state in the past. It's also deleting all the experiences that their body had undergone, unlike fast forwarding their aging which just lets the time do its job to their body.
He looked at the two byproducts of his experiment. One ninja had become a kid that looked like a ninja from the Ninja Academy while the other one had become even older than Hiruzen as well as Danzo. His logical reasoning told him to kill them here, stopping any problems from arising.
But his mischievous side…
Giving Danzo an elder and a kid to take care of should be fun. Ludwig chuckled as he thought so. Of course it would bring him more trouble than he wanted as Danzo was someone who was afraid of death deep down. But at the end of the day, he could just turn everybody who dared to step inside his restaurant into an old man, making Root a retirement house rather than the darkest black ops group of Konoha.
Once his thoughts reached that point, Ludwig gathered the men scattered all around his restaurant. Without a word, he opened the door towards Konoha and threw them all out in one swing before closing the door.
Quite an eventful night. Though, the fight is boring. Ludwig popped away to the living quarters on the second floor and lay back down in his bed. Sunrise was still hours away, it's enough time for him to get some sleep.
* * *
Ludwig stood before a familiar wooden hut inside a forest. The crisp and cool morning air caressed his skin as the residual smell of the dew wetting the earth wafted into his nose. The wood under him creaked as he stepped into the porch, then he knocked on the door.
Heavy footsteps could be heard coming closer and closer to the door, making Ludwig unknowingly smirked. When the door slung opened, he could see the same minotaur who had helped him build his restaurant scowling at him. "What are you doing here? Bored with your restaurant already?"
Ludwig let out a laugh at his gruff greeting. The minotaur in front of him was always like this whenever he knocked on his door. He suspected that it's some kind of persona he made, a gruff and reclusive good as fuck blacksmith. "Can't I just come here to meet a friend?"
The minotaur scoffed before walking into his hut. Knowing very well that was his way to say 'come in' Ludwig stepped into the house. Once he sat across the minotaur, the guy opened his mouth again. "Did you destroy your knives already?"
"Of course not." Ludwig chuckled. "You know as well as me that I can just reverse the time and make any knives I have to be like the day when it's made if it's broken."
"So, why did you come here? You got metal from another world already?"
Ludwig mused as he looked at the minotaur. It seemed like he was really looking forward to any metal from another world. Unfortunately for him, he hadn't asked any of his patrons about any metal yet as he thought it was not the time yet. "Sorry, no metal for you today. It hasn't been a month since I opened the restaurant, so I don't think it's polite to ask."
The minotaur's brows creased. "I know you well enough, Ludwig. By this time, you should have befriended most of your customers, if not all, thanks to your food."
"Can't argue with that." Ludwig chuckled and took a dish he had prepared for the minotaur out. "That's how I won you over too, isn't it?"
"Damn right!" The minotaur reached to the plates he took out and devoured the food on it. Ludwig watched him with a coffee in hand, waiting for him to finish.
Once the minotaur let out a satisfied sigh, Ludwig opened his mouth. "Do you know someone in the Demon Community who needs work?" His tone was not playful at all as he said it to let the minotaur know that he's serious.
The minotaur crossed his hands in front of his chest, face also serious. "You have to be more specific. You know everyone in the demon community will welcome the opportunity to work."
"Well…" Ludwig started. "They don't have to be good at anything. As long as they can move their body just fine and can sign a Blood Contract, I'm fine with anything."
"For the waitress position I assume?"
"Yeah." Ludwig nodded. "Ah, I also need someone to wash the dishes, I don't find it fun."
"How many demons do you think you can take?" The minotaur asked.
"Four or five should be good." Ludwig shrugged.
"You get that many customers already?"
"No… At least not yet. But I would rather be prepared than looking for another worker later."
"Fair point." The minotaur nodded. "You don't mind your workers being kids, do you?"
Ludwig's brows furrowed as he heard the minotaur's question. "Kids? How old are they? As long as they are not too young, I'm fine with it."
"Good." The minotaur stood to his feet. "Let's go then."
With a nod, Ludwig popped beside the minotaur. In the next moment, they stood in the middle of some kind of village. Demons in many shapes could be seen walking around the village. Some looked at them with curious eyes, but when they saw Greito, they nodded before returning to whatever they were doing before looking at them.
"Seems like you've been busy." Ludwig muttered as he looked around the village. Wooden buildings stood tall everywhere, its outside was clean and shiny. Paths of rock stretched out around the village, making it easier for anything with a wheel to travel. He could also see lines of racks with some kind of leather sitting on top of it, probably one of the village's ways to make money.
"It is the least I can do for this community." Greito said before he started walking. As he walked behind Greito, he could see every demon had clothes on them. It's not the best clothes, but it works. However, with just a casual glance he knew. Only the appearance of this village was good. Their inner situation seemed like it hadn't been fixed at all.
"Is food still a problem?" Ludwig asked.
"It is." Greito nodded dimly. "We can't expand the village for farm plots because of the illusion warding. But buying it from the outside through the merchant you introduced to us is also not an option."
Ludwig just nodded at the explanation. The core of the problem for the village was money. They had too many mouths to feed but not enough source to get them. Hunting was the solution they came up with to at least not letting anyone starve to death, but since they were demon living Ortus, the danger level they faced was far higher than any other races native to the world. Moreover, the amount of game they could hunt was limited, after all if they over-hunted, they would be left with a place with no monsters to hunt, forcing them to move further from the village just to hunt.
As Ludwig thought about that, they finally arrived in front of a big wooden house. Probably the biggest house in the village. Before long, they stepped onto its porch and knocked on the door.
When the door was opened, a woman with purple hair and red eyes came into his view. Behind her, he could see her wings and tail flickered around. "Greito, a surprise to see you here."
"I brought a guest with me." Greito huffed.
"I see that." The woman smiled and looked at Ludwig. "Welcome back to this village, Hero."