A World Bubble isn't a complete world, yet it still has starry nights with a hanging moon. Each star emitted a faint light, like eyes of longing in the night sky.
Lin poured sauce over mashed potatoes. The steaming black pepper mashed potatoes were ready—simple, nutritious, and delicious.
He held up the plate and asked sideways—
"Want some?"
The golden-haired girl turned her head away expressionlessly, ignoring him completely.
It was likely... no, it was definitely his "delinquent act" yesterday that had completely enraged Bianka. Lin felt innocent; if he had actually done something, he could understand, but he clearly hadn't done anything. Maybe the values of people fifty thousand years in the future were different.
After eating a set amount, he put the lid on the pot and hugged his knees, looking at the sky.
"Want to talk?" he asked.
Bianka squeezed out a single word from between her teeth: "No."
"Then let's talk."
"I said, no."
"There's a Rita fifty thousand years in the future too. Are you on good terms with her?"
Lin might be slow in some areas, but he rarely missed information in speech. Bianka had said Rita wasn't the Rita she knew, and her eyes held no hostility, which meant the Rita she knew wasn't Bianka enemy. Furthermore, he believed Bianka would be interested in this topic.
His guess proved correct.
"...She is my friend."
"Do you eat together? Play games together? Does she cook for you? Live next door?"
Bianka looked at Lin in surprise. He hadn't said a single thing wrong. Rita lived right next door to her; they often trained together and tended the garden together. Occasionally they played games, and Rita was in charge of the meals.
"I have a friend too," Lin sighed. "His name is Kevin."
"...That's truly surprising."
Kevin had become a different person fifty thousand years later... that was what Bianka said, but Lin didn't think so. From beginning to end, he would always be Kevin. Even after another fifty thousand years, that wouldn't change.
Perhaps because Lin didn't say anything shocking this time and spoke of something Bianka hadn't expected, the atmosphere between them softened slightly.
"Haven't you considered the possibility that you've just been in this World Bubble for too long? Time flows differently in the Sea of Quanta. The Previous Era has long since perished, and you've simply lived until now." Bianka finished and then immediately dismissed the thought. "No... the Oath of Judah is indeed in your hands..."
"This weapon isn't a product of my world. It was given to me by... someone else."
Lin words stunned Bianka. She quickly said, "That means... there might be two Oath of Judahs."
Two people from different points in time meeting due to a quantum phenomenon—was that more likely than a Urashima Taro-style event caused by the Sea of Quanta?
Bianka suddenly realized that for Lin, only two possibilities existed.
The first was returning to his original world only to face the unchangeable annihilation. Even if he fought with all his might, he would only become the fragments of text regarding the Previous Era that Bianka had seen.
The second was returning to his world only to find that fifty thousand years had passed. Everything he had fought for—his friends, family, and lover—had all become phantoms that existed only in his memory.
Whichever it was, it was an absolute, cruel reality for him.
Lin said he would fight with everything he had to change the future, and Bianka believed she would do the same. But upon reflection, her future was uncertain; she was merely saying something seemingly reasonable from her own position. Like someone with a "God's eye view," dropping a word of pity for a helpless person in a history book.
Has he... not thought of that?
Bianka shook her head. She believed Lin must have. Yet he remained so calm, even having the heart to tease her.
"What if your time has truly passed?"
"...Then I'll just keep fighting, until the Honkai can no longer destroy the next 'time'."
"..."
An unusual emotion stirred in Bianka heart. Looking at Lin calm face, she felt for the first time that his lack of expression wasn't due to a twisted sense of humor, but a suffocating, suppressed rationality. He had experienced it, faced it, and thus become numb.
The intermittent rain began to fall again. Lin ducked into the tent, brought out an umbrella, and scooped a bowl of mashed potatoes from the pot.
He opened the umbrella and wedged it into the gaps of the chains bound to the lance, blocking the rain. Then he took a spoonful of the warm mashed potatoes and held it to Bianka lips.
She looked silently at the sweet, fragrant potatoes, then at his dull face in the rain.
"Eat. You're still growing," Lin said indifferently.
"...I'd prefer you untie me and let me eat by myself."
"I know someone who wishes she could lie in bed all day and have me serve her meals."
"Surely that's a problem with that person! Don't assume everyone likes being served!"
"Aren't you usually served by Rita?"
Bianka was speechless. She took a fierce bite of the mashed potatoes, looking as if she wanted to bite through the spoon. The rich, sweet flavor melted in her mouth—delicious beyond words.
Lin said nothing, scooping a second spoonful.
One person feeding, one person eating, just like last time. Lin was meticulous in a way that was completely different from when he was bickering and acting out. After she finished eating, he helped wipe her mouth and tucked her hair back.
Bianka watched Lin back as he cleaned the leftover dishes. She suddenly spoke up: "Hey... Scumbag-Mushroom, do you usually trick girls this way?"
He had a peerless skill for cooking and was incredibly attentive when taking care of someone. It made one sense the warmth beneath his cold exterior, and... something else she couldn't put into words. A mix of pity and admiration.
"If your private life weren't so terrible, you'd probably be a good man, right?"
"..."
"Come to think of it, you have so many close female friends, and you're a warrior who holds a Divine Key—you must have left descendants, right? Maybe I can find them when I go back."
"Descendants..."
Lin reached out to catch the rain. He couldn't feel the cold at all, as if he were separated from this world. He had never thought about what his child would be like; he couldn't even imagine it. Perhaps it was because he had no concept of what it meant to have a "childhood" or a "youth."
Lin squeezed the water droplet in his palm. "Maybe nothing was left behind."
"Nothing at all?"
"...Maybe the Divine Keys I used were left behind. I remember you said the Divine Keys still exist fifty thousand years later."
"The Oath of Judah? But that was given to you by someone else."
"It's the Abyss Flower (Black Abyss White Flower)."
The rain seemed to pause for an instant. In the gaps of the rain, in the angle of time, Bianka stared blankly at the man's back as he looked up.