Chapter 57: Im all yours (1/2)
The first thing that Layn heard when his consciousness returned, was the sound of a material rubbing against other material. This gentle scratching coming from right above his head was similar to the sound treatment that some of the higher-class brothels offered for those too tired to actively pursue other goals.
Bit by bit, the archmage was returning to his senses. The next thing he felt, was the soft warmth underneath his chin, keeping the entire side of his head cozy. With his eyes slowly opening up, the peaceful sight of Irea's hands continuing to carefully wrap the twig against the core filled his vision.
Absorbed in her word, the girl failed to realize that Layn returned to his senses. Focusing all of her attention on covering the ever-growing ball of twig with more and more layers of it, Irea's face turned solemn as if she reached some sort of enlightenment.
'How cute…' Staring at the adorable expression of the focused girl above him, Layn decided to enjoy his treatment for a little longer. Moving his eyelids down, he left his eyes only slightly open, with the gap of the squint covered by his eyelashes. Sneaking a constant glance at the girl's peaceful face, Layn soaked the atmosphere of the moment.
And for the second time since he arrived in this time, he found some time to do some thinking.
He was in an unprecedented situation. 'It was never my intention to go back so far. From today's perspective, it matters not what I will do here at all…' While that was the main line of thought that formed the foundation of Layn's perception of his current life, his pragmatical nature made it hard to actually accept such a solution.
The only good thing about the entire situation was how the return mechanism of his spell wasn't perfectly in line with the part of the runes responsible for how far back in time was his gran arcana originally supposed to bring him. While the distance that this magnificent spell could traverse depended on the linear scale of the mana supplied, the 'calling back' function was more of a logarithmic function.
While still bound to the amount of mana infused into the arcana, given how it grew at a way slower pace, Layn estimated that he had between a single year and a century in his current timeline before the calling back would activate.
'And that's another reason to be wary of what I'm leaving for the ancients to learn from.' Given how he was the very first pioneer attempting to conquer the time itself with magic, Layn had no one to consult his doubts with. But ultimately, there were only two options.
His actions could elder influence the future, or not. In the first case, every single action he would do right now would later reflect in the changes to the future he knew of, turning it into something entirely else. Given how the pace of technology and magic development only accelerated at a greater pace the higher it reached, if he were to push the events of the history he knew forward just fifty years, the world he would potentially return to would have nothing to do with the future he knew about.
On the other hand, there was a chance that his actions would prove completely futile, leaving the world exactly as it was. As unlikely as this theory was for the archmage, given how it would mean that the entire history as he knew it already incorporated his influence before he was even born, the archmage had no choice but to assume it as a possibility as well.