At this moment, although Iluna Bayes felt the world spinning around her, her mind was incomparably clear.
Although Iluna usually followed Shade and Luvia's arrangements when making plans, she was not lacking in wisdom. Otherwise, after the Pantanal War, she would not have gained the thaumaturgy performed using the "Wise Man's Gleaming Stone":
"Why isn't the future you simulated an extension of the present?"
She demanded an answer. Although the future in which Shade did not exist was merely a game, it still filled her with terror. That terror even overcame the fear she felt because he was an Unknown Level Relic:
"Are you really 'If'? Tell me, why doesn't Shade exist!"
As the young lady sternly questioned him, the light of the Scales behind her became more restrained and profound.
The man slowly rolled up the parchment scroll and inconspicuously took a small step back:
"I am indeed If, and this indeed is not a simulation of the 'future.' Protagonist of the stage, even if you can examine different versions of the script, how could any of those scripts possibly include the audience beneath the stage?"
Iluna frowned tightly. After pondering for only a moment, she completely understood what he meant:
"There is no Shade. The audience beneath the stage... different versions of the script. Shade once asked me, and he asked others too, whether this is currently the Sixth."
The Dark Gold Scales behind her swayed once, then became even more stable. At that moment, the seventeen-year-old girl stood in the alley as though she could see the river of time flowing around her, and the question was immediately resolved. The truth Shade had pursued for more than half a year had been completely pieced together by her in only a few minutes.
The Scales briefly transformed into