"Munch, munch, munch..." Lin held his bowl and shoveled food into his mouth. He was about one body-length away from Bianka—close enough for the aroma to reach her, but far enough that she couldn't lunge and bite him.
"You say I'm from fifty thousand years ago. Why? Are you from fifty thousand years in the future? Did Fire-Moth vanish after fifty thousand years? And you..."
Lin bit through a needle mushroom and swallowed, his gaze freezing onto Bianka.
"...have actually seen people who survived from fifty thousand years ago."
Bianka felt a jolt of alarm. He deduced all of that just from a few fragmented sentences?
More importantly, he was emphasizing "fifty thousand years later," and he was using questions. Could it be...
"Are you... not a Pioneer?"
"What is a Pioneer? And who is the Pioneer you saw?"
"Then this is... no, is this the very heart of the problem with this World Bubble? The true form of that quantum distortion?" Bianka muttered to herself. The scattered thoughts in her mind finally connected into a single line.
It was incredible. Even in the Sea of Quanta, such an occurrence was an absolute miracle.
With the World Bubble they occupied serving as the intersection, Lin from fifty thousand years ago and Bianka from fifty thousand years in the future had crossed the scales of time to meet here.
This wasn't merely a case of different time flows between worlds. Bianka had been able to locate this World Bubble specifically because it was a fragment of the Mu continent from her world. Her arrival was made possible by the power of the Holy Sword Durandal—a crystalline achievement of Previous Era technology within her body.
It was as if destiny itself had guided her to this bubble that drifted outside of time.
Lin lowered his brow. "Answer my question."
"I have met a man who claimed to be a Pioneer from the Previous Era fifty thousand years ago. His name is Su. He told me he used the Second Divine Key to observe parallel worlds to find a way to defeat the Houkai," Bianka said after organizing her thoughts. "And another—a man named Kevin, whom they call the Lord."
Lin froze in place.
Gathering dark clouds began to shed droplets of rain.
Su... Kevin...
...
Never did he imagine that the vast river of fifty thousand years would be crossed through a strange phenomenon in the Sea of Quanta, allowing people separated by an entire civilization to meet.
And Lin certainly never expected that after hearing from Bianka about Fire-Moth's failure and the total annihilation of the Previous Era, he would learn that Kevin and the others survived into the next civilization, still fighting for humanity.
It was as if he had found a book that told the future, and it was filled with their defeats.
But at the very bottom of Pandora's box, what remained was hope.
Humanity had not ended. Even after failing once, a new civilization was born fifty thousand years later. Kevin and the others had not completely failed; they were still searching for a new turning point.
A wave of sorrow surged through his heart, yet what it left behind was a sense of relief.
Perhaps he was getting old, to have such thoughts.
As for the ending... they lost in the end anyway? Lin had only this one thought regarding that outcome.
"Open up."
Lin walked silently to Bianka holding the bowl, picking up a thick, white scallion mushroom with his chopsticks and holding it to her lips.
"I can eat by myse—Mmph!"
Lin timed it perfectly as she opened her mouth and stuffed the mushroom in. The mushroom was plump and soft, and because Lin pushed firmly, it instantly filled her entire mouth with its savory, delicious flavor.
"Mmph, mmph, mmph!"
Having silenced Bianka, Lin ignored her protesting eyes and returned to the campfire to sit and stare into the crackling flames.
Her dazzling golden hair draped over the crevice of her chest. Bianka felt the chains were bound too tightly—especially in certain areas. Was he really not doing that on purpose? She stole a glance at the indifferent Lin, struggled to chew through the mushroom, and swallowed. The marvelous texture instantly conquered her taste buds, and the discomfort of having her mouth stuffed vanished.
The spicy, savory juice from the mushroom made her throat feel hot. Her face flushed as she ate this delicacy she had never tasted before. Some of the red liquid, mixed with saliva, leaked from the corner of her mouth and trickled down into the soft valley of her chest.
The scene was becoming a bit... unsightly.
Lin sighed. In a way, she was his junior.
He stood up again, took his chopsticks, and amidst Bianka non-stop muffled protests, walked over to her and fished out the half-chewed end of the mushroom she couldn't finish.
"You..." Bianka looked down at the translucent red liquid on her chest.
Even for someone who usually disregarded such matters, she felt a surge of girlish bashfulness at this moment.
"Let me go. I'll eat by myself." Bianka bit her reddened lower lip, looking at the stone-faced Lin.
"No." Lin picked up a large clump of needle mushrooms and wiped the edge of the bowl. "If I let you out, you'll retaliate."
"..."
Should she call him self-aware? Or a willful offender?
"Then can you... loosen it just a little?" Bianka lowered her head, her cheeks tinged with red. "It's crushing my... my chest."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because," Lin said, bringing the needle mushroom to her lips, his voice flat, "it's pleasing to the eye."
"Shameless!" Bianka glared at him, gritting her teeth. "Now that Rita and Einstein aren't here, you've exposed your true nature!"
She bit down on the mushrooms, eating while grumbling muffled complaints.
Lin calmly picked up another mushroom. "Isn't this exactly what you expected? If I did nothing, I'd still just be a hypocritical scumbag in your eyes."
"Fine! So now you're just an unashamed scumbag," Bianka huffed while chewing the mushroom she took from the chopsticks. "A warrior fighting the Houkai fifty thousand years ago, yet your private life is so... unprincipled."
Lin didn't bother explaining further. He fed the girl bite by bite, like someone feeding a baby bird. Without realizing it, Bianka finished the entire pot of food.
Only when she saw Lin taking the empty pot to be washed did she realize she had eaten so much.
She usually ate a lot due to her high level of physical activity, but today the food tasted exceptionally good. She had to admit Lin cooking was superb; even a simple rustic stew could be made so delicious.
What was also surprising was that Lin was quite patient while feeding her. He would wait for her to finish chewing and swallow before offering the next bite. Each portion was just the right size, and he occasionally tucked her long hair back behind her ear. Simply put... he was very good at taking care of people.
He was far more patient than he had seemed before. Even though the meal took a full half-hour, he didn't say a word the entire time, showing no hint of annoyance.
Lin took a tissue and carefully wiped the corners of her mouth. Bianka stared at him silently. It wasn't until he stopped and stared back at her that she finally snapped out of it and blinked.
His gaze drifted downward. Bianka realized something, her expression changing drastically as her eyes followed his gaze.
The stain on her chest was glaringly obvious.
Bianka looked at the tissue in his hand, then at her own soft chest.
He said it was 'pleasing to the eye' earlier—is he going to please his hands now?!
Then, she was proven wrong.
Lin stuffed the tissue into her mouth.
"Your chest is so big, you can reach it with your own mouth."
With that, he returned to his tent, unzipped the flap, and crawled inside.
He left her there, completely ignored.