Chapter Summaries

After leaving the Offen Mountains, Galan and the caravan traveled toward Äußerst, where they found a village reduced to ruins and its inhabitants slaughtered. Galan recognized the signs of a powerful Demon attack.

• Frog complained about the caravan's expenses and cursed the nobles of Weise, prompting Galan to ask Lancelot whether Galan had remembered anything about the city.
• Galan felt increasingly uneasy as the caravan traveled toward Äußerst, though nothing happened during the journey or lunch stop.
• Lancelot noticed Galan's tension and tried to reassure him that they would soon reach Äußerst and might restore his memories there.
• Frog stopped the caravan when they reached a village filled with mutilated corpses, including the remains of the guards they knew.
• Galan examined the bodies and the lingering mana, then concluded that a powerful Demon had attacked the village.

Nolz slaughtered an elven settlement and killed Lia’s father, then moved to kill Lia as she attacked him with uncontrolled mana. Galan intervened at the last moment and carried Lia to safety, facing Nolz with his sword drawn.

• Nolz defeated the elven warrior and approached Lia after the wounded man urged her to run.
• Nolz killed Lia’s father, and Lia erupted with powerful but uncontrolled mana.
• Lia’s attacks failed to harm Nolz, who revealed he had abandoned his plan to conquer Äußerst after sensing Serie’s pressure.
• Nolz raised his sword to kill Lia, but Galan deflected the blow and carried her away.
• Galan stood between Lia and Nolz, holding his Alchemy Longsword ready.

Galan sensed Lia’s mana and rushed into the forest, arriving in time to save her from Nolz. He comforted the shaken elf and faced the Demon, who had slaughtered Lia’s people.

• As the caravan approached Äußerst, Galan sensed distant mana and feared Demons might be nearby.
• A powerful surge of mana came from the forest, and Galan recognized it as Lia’s; he rushed toward her despite Lancelot and Frog calling after him.
• Galan reached Lia just before Nolz could kill her and held her safely in his arms.
• Galan told Nolz that Lia was his partner, though Lia did not recognize him.
• Galan saw the scattered elven corpses, understood that Nolz had destroyed Lia’s home and people, and comforted her as she wondered who he was.

Galan faced Nolz, a general-level Demon serving Rivale, and fought to give Lia a chance to escape. After Nolz unleashed a powerful black sword qi, Galan braced himself for the attack, leaving the duel unresolved.

• Nolz revealed that Lord Demon King had ordered every elf killed and refused to spare Lia, so Galan prepared to fight him.
• Nolz attacked with overwhelming speed and strength, and Galan blocked his greatsword before pushing Lia toward the woods.
• Galan noticed Nolz's unhealed wounds and inferred that Nolz had been injured in an earlier fight; Lia escaped into the woods while Nolz turned back to Galan.
• Galan and Nolz exchanged fierce attacks, and Galan used his Mountain-Splitting Strike and a stronger sword qi technique.
• Nolz ignored Galan's attack and unleashed black sword qi, forcing Galan to brace for it with his longsword.

Galan and Nolz traded devastating blows, and Galan used his last healing potion to recover before charging back into the fight. Their clash continued as Nolz threw his greatsword and rushed at Galan with a fist, leaving Galan preparing to strike while avoiding the punch.

• Galan and Nolz exchanged sword qi, badly injuring each other before Nolz healed his arm with magic.
• Galan considered fleeing but stayed to stall Nolz and protect the caravan and Lia.
• Galan drank his last potion, rapidly healing his wounds and broken bones.
• Galan charged Nolz, and they fought at close range as Galan deflected attacks rather than meeting Nolz's strength head-on.
• Nolz threw his greatsword and charged with a raised fist, while Galan spun his saber to conceal his attack angle.

Galan survived Nolz’s crushing attack and sword strike through the potion’s rapid regenerative effects, then resumed fighting despite its weakening power. Just as the two reached a standoff, a silver sword flew from the woods and gave Galan the opening to stab Nolz in the heart, though Nolz immediately counterattacked.

• Nolz recalled his magically controlled greatsword and trapped Galan between it and a powerful punch.
• Nolz’s punch caved in Galan’s chest, and the returning greatsword pierced his abdomen.
• Galan rapidly regenerated, pulled the sword from his body, and threw it at Nolz, who questioned his unusual healing.
• Galan recovered enough to fight again, and he and Nolz circled each other in a tense standoff.
• A silver sword flew from the woods and forced Nolz to defend himself, allowing Galan to stab him in the heart and retreat.
• Nolz turned and swung his blade past Galan’s face, narrowly missing his head.

Lancelot joined Galan against Nolz after learning that the demon had destroyed a village and killed its people. The two attacked together, but Nolz remained dangerous despite his injuries and caught Galan’s blade before it could reach his neck.

• Lancelot arrived in the clearing and joined Galan, who warned him that Nolz was likely responsible for destroying the village.
• Nolz admitted that he had killed people in a village, saying that demons killed for amusement and instinct.
• Lancelot and Galan coordinated an attack on Nolz, who used Final Enlightenment Sword to charge at Lancelot.
• Lancelot dodged Nolz’s strike, though the blade’s residual force cut his right arm.
• Galan attacked Nolz from behind, but Nolz caught his long blade between two fingers.

Galan and Lancelot fought Nolz, who refused to retreat despite his severe wounds and gained the upper hand by breaking Lancelot’s sword. Lia saved Galan from Nolz’s killing blow, allowing Galan to destroy him before collapsing from exhaustion.

• Galan and Lancelot attacked Nolz together, but he continued fighting despite his injuries and declared that he would finish them both.
• Nolz broke Lancelot’s silver sword and met Galan’s blade with enough force to injure Galan’s hand.
• Nolz exploited Galan’s retreat and charged at him while ignoring Lancelot.
• Lia cast Holy Wind Wall to block Nolz’s greatsword long enough for Galan to strike his neck and destroy him.
• Galan watched Nolz dissolve into mana particles, then collapsed and passed out.

Galan woke in an inn with Lia beside him and struggled to explain how he knew her name. After learning that Lia had nowhere to go, he was left facing the question of what she would do next.

• Galan woke and found Lia sitting beside his bed, then accidentally touched her arm.
• Lia asked how Galan knew her name, and he made up an obscure folk magic to explain it.
• Galan and Lia sat quietly together in the inn before he asked whether she had been hurt during the attack.
• Lia thanked Galan for saving her and said her father and people had protected her from the Demons.
• Galan asked whether Lia could go somewhere with other elves, and she said her branch had lost contact with them over a hundred years earlier.

Galan offered to take Lia with him after she lost her family and had nowhere to go. Though Lia questioned whether an elf and a human could become partners when their lifespans differed so greatly, Galan resolved to teach her what love meant, and Lia felt an unfamiliar flutter in her heart.

• Galan suggested that Lia come with him, and she asked why he wanted to help her.
• Galan jokingly claimed he liked Lia at first sight, and Lia connected his explanation to the time he had called her his partner.
• Lia questioned how an elf and a human could become partners when a human's lifetime was only a brief moment to an elf.
• Galan reflected on the pain Lia might face after he died and decided that she should find the strength to live on even when alone.
• Galan promised to make Lia understand love and to make her his partner, while Lia wondered whether the unfamiliar feeling in her heart was love.

After waking, Galan shared bread from the best restaurant in town with Frog and Lia, and discovered it was far better than he expected. He left off by asking Frog what they would do next, while Frog scolded him for licking his fingers in front of Lia.

• Frog entered Galan's room carrying a bag of food and told him the bag held a specialty from Äußerst.
• Frog revealed that the food was bread from the best restaurant in town and offered some to Lia.
• Lia eagerly tasted the bread and praised it, then Galan tried a croissant and found it delicious.
• Galan, Lia, and Frog finished the assorted breads, and Galan asked Frog what they would do next.
• Frog told Galan to finish licking his fingers before speaking.

Galan refused Frog’s invitation to join his business travels, claiming he needed to stay and keep his appointment with Serie. Frog suggested bringing Lia to Serie for protection, leaving Galan uneasy about how Lia might react if she learned Serie could have prevented the tragedy that befell her community.

• Frog described how fighting and blocked sea routes had made his northern trading business riskier and less profitable, then began to invite Galan to join him.
• Galan refused, saying he had an appointment with Serie and needed to cooperate with her efforts to recover his supposed lost memories.
• When Frog questioned why Serie was helping him, Galan claimed his unusual condition had sparked her interest in studying it, and Frog accepted the explanation.
• Frog suggested that Galan take Lia to Serie so she could find a safe place to stay under Serie’s protection.
• Galan doubted the idea because he feared Lia might learn that Serie could have prevented the tragedy that destroyed her community.

Galan visited Serie's Palace in Äußerst after arranging for Lia to wait for him at the inn. At the Palace, Serie's guard recognized him, and an elderly man who claimed to be Serie's disciple appeared by the audience chamber door.

• After Frog left, Galan told Lia he would be away for a while and promised to take her to dinner at Frog's recommended restaurant.
• Galan reached Serie's Palace, where a guard recognized him because Serie had just sent word that he was coming.
• The guard escorted Galan through the Palace to a large gilded door and then departed.
• An elderly man appeared beside Galan and said he was Serie's disciple, there to greet her guest.
• Galan relaxed after hearing the old man's explanation and began looking him over.

Galan entered Serie’s hall and learned that she had found no records directly explaining his Goddess Magic, but had uncovered a reference to Return Magic in the Mythical Era’s Blank Chapter. The chapter left him waiting to hear what the account revealed.

• An elderly mage welcomed Galan and opened the gilded doors, then left him alone with Serie.
• Galan found Serie examining a small orange flower in a hall filled with flowers and asked whether she liked plants.
• Serie explained that she had consulted Holy Scripture transcriptions, annotations, and monastery copies of ancient texts to investigate his situation.
• Serie told Galan that her research had found no direct cases like his, but the Blank Chapter mentioned Return Magic.

Serie explained that Return Magic could send memories into the past, though changing events was difficult because a mage could not imagine all the consequences for others. After hearing Galan had not yet been born in this world’s past, Serie considered his situation and proposed another possibility.

• Serie explained that Return Magic included a spell that could send memories into the past, but few mages could use it successfully.
• Serie asked Galan to imagine how changes would affect other people, and he realized he could not predict the consequences.
• Serie recalled a story in the Goddess Myth Collection about a mage sending his future consciousness into the past after probing a Goddess's Stone Monument.
• Serie asked Galan about his original situation in this world, and Galan said he had not been born yet at this point in time.
• Serie pondered Galan’s circumstances and told him she had another possibility in mind.

Serie concluded that Galan had traveled back in time after Lia’s Unicorn-core Staff resonated with the Goddess’s Stone Monument. She theorized that his growing ties to people in the past could eventually send him back to his original time, though Galan still did not know how to return.

• Serie reconsidered whether Galan’s arrival in the past could affect his future through its influence on others.
• Galan recalled that Lia’s Staff had begun glowing near the Goddess’s Stone Monument shortly before he touched it and traveled back.
• Galan connected the Staff’s Unicorn Core to Oris’s account of Unicorns and the Goddess.
• Serie explained that Unicorn-made items could resonate with magic devices connected to the Goddess, and concluded that the Staff had likely activated the monument.
• Serie theorized that the more people Galan became entangled with in the past, the sooner the world might send him back to his original time.

Serie told Galan that he would likely return to the future when the world rejected his existence, and warned him against changing too much in the past. Galan realized Lia’s feelings for him had roots in this time, then confronted Serie about an elven settlement massacred by Demons and was thrown out of the Palace.

• Serie told Galan that he might have to wait up to a little over twenty years to return, though his involvement with people could hasten the world’s correction.
• Galan said he planned to travel with Lia, and Serie warned that closeness to people in the past could affect his future.
• Galan realized that his present connection with Lia explained her trust, knowledge of his preferences, and affection for him in the future.
• Galan asked Serie why she had not intervened when Demons massacred an elven settlement near Äußerst.
• Serie ordered Galan to get out and used her magic to throw him from the Palace.

After Galan left the Palace, Serie explained to her disciple why Galan’s return through time could not be replicated. The old man realized that Galan’s existence depended on a unique, unknowable relationship between cause and effect.

• Galan left the Palace after Serie threw him out, wondering why she had not intervened in the past.
• Serie reflected that she had intended to intervene but had felt compelled to stand aside, and suspected Galan was causally entangled with the lost elven community.
• Serie’s old disciple admitted he had researched Return Magic and asked whether the Goddess's Stone Monument could let him travel to the past.
• Serie explained that Galan remained in the present because the world contained a cause belonging to him, making his future an inevitable effect.
• The old man asked why his own present could not serve as a future effect, and Serie compared Galan’s unrepeatable circumstances to the chicken-and-egg question.

Galan returned to the inn and found Lia asleep in his room, then took her out for dinner after she woke. He wondered whether his return to the past was part of a chain of cause and effect connecting Lia’s past and future, and the chapter ended with them arriving at the restaurant.

• Galan returned to the inn and found Lia asleep on his bed, apparently waiting for him.
• Galan gently woke Lia, and she complained that he had taken so long before asking when they could eat.
• Galan considered whether he needed to create a cause in the past to reach the future Lia he knew, possibly through the Return Magic on the stone tablet.
• Lia asked to go out immediately, and Galan agreed to take her to dinner.
• Frog declined to join them, teased Galan about the outing, and Galan and Lia headed to the restaurant he had recommended.

Galan took Lia to a restaurant, where she eagerly chose dish after dish while he watched his money dwindle. He agreed to pay for her meal and resolved to make Frog cover his losses later.

• Galan led Lia into a restaurant and sat with her to look over the menu.
• Lake, the chef, introduced himself and proudly showed off his enormous family-heirloom cleaver.
• Lia asked Galan for Mercury pudding, and he told her she could order anything she wanted.
• Lia pointed out so many dishes that Galan realized his bulging pouch had already lost much of its contents.
• Galan accepted that he would have to pay and planned to take Frog for his money afterward.