Time travel had never been a simple matter. Although Shade had already experienced time travel many times in Vesta Woodland, all of those instances had relied on the power of the "Distorted Tree Hole."
But if used correctly, the tree hole's power could only send its user from the "present" to the "past." The process of returning, meanwhile, could be considered repatriation.
Thus, Shade, who was in 1821, had no way to use the Distorted Tree Hole's power to return from 1821 to 1854. Of course, he could improperly use the tree hole's power like a Time Curse User, but that would only worsen the local temporal instability, and even opening the tree hole depended on luck.
As for the Thaumaturgy "Return of Time," unfortunately, it could only affect targets other than Shade himself. Just as the basic spell "Move Object" alone had no effect on its caster, Shade could not push himself back to 1854. More importantly, his current Timestamp was 1821. At this moment, he was not even considered a person from 1854.
While riding the Flying Carpet back to Helena Carter's woodland residence, Shade also told the woman, who had been worrying about him, of his experiences on Wednesday night, the fifteenth day of the Month of Withered Leaves in 1854.
He concealed the fact that Doctor had also used demonic power, saying only that he had found helpers. He explained everything else in full detail.
He had initially worried that discussing that evil thing directly in this forest might be too risky. But then he considered that his abrupt appearance, bearing such obvious traces of a curse, had not provoked any reaction at all. Simply talking about it should not be a problem either.
Shade told his story all the way until the two landed on