In that instant, as if he had placed the Youthful Immortality Leaf before his eyes, information flooded from the slab into his mind. But there was very little of it, and all of it consisted of fragmented sentences.
"So that's how it is. It really is one-third."
Not only was Shade not disappointed, he was even more excited. Though the information was fragmented, those broken sentences were enough for him to confirm that the knowledge within the slab was definitely related to strengthening Time Perception.
"Mia, I didn't pick the wrong target. This is exactly what I wanted—the means to strengthen Time Perception and learn the truest information about time!"
Excited, he picked up the clearly unwilling cat. His heart began to race, blood rushing to his brain.
His thoughts immediately scattered as countless possibilities were proposed and discarded. Whether the Sixth Epoch truly was the Sixth Epoch, whether the present truly was the present—perhaps none of that mattered to others. But to Shade, who could travel through the past, it mattered immensely.
With a light tap of his finger, the slab drifted slightly backward, then quickly stopped and hovered level with Shade's eyes.
Little Mia, who had long been waiting for an opportunity, swiftly escaped Shade's hands. After landing on his lap, she sprang upward onto his shoulder, then leaped fiercely into the air. She actually "caught" the flying slab and, with astonishing balance, stood on it.
"Meow~"
The orange cat looked smugly at Shade, and Shade smiled back at Mia. When he reached out toward the slab again, Little Mia jumped back down his arm and onto his lap.
Stroking Little Mia, Shade looked again at the slab floating in the air:
"I thought the slab would turn to ashes after giving me the knowledge. I can't believe