"Oh," my little sister exclaimed from my right. "It's really here!"

We entered a clearing in the mid of the Cackling Mushroom Forest after two hours of walking. Despite a rather ominous name, the forest was completely safe for travelers as long as they had a map—and ours was the most accurate out there. Of course, it was, it was created by an actual Magus. 

An imposing tomb-like building covered in flashy inscriptions stood at the center of the clearing, proving that the map was genuine. Of course, I'd already expected it, but Jasmine had been doubting me throughout our way here. Now she knew that her Big Bro wasn't someone easily scammed with fake treasure maps! As if it wasn't obvious enough.

After watching nothing but giant—some reached hundreds of feet in height—bright-colored mushrooms for so long, the marble building shining in golden colors sure was a respite to my eyes. The blue summer sky and the fresh scent of the grass made me feel that we were on a picnic. Of course, it wasn't exactly the case.

"It definitely looks like a vault of a mighty magus," Jasmine said as she scuttled towards the building, "I've never seen such advanced Formations before!" 

I nodded to her words with a knowing look. Though my knowledge of Essence Formations was limited to what I'd learned in the Academy, it was still leagues beyond my fifteen years old little sister's. The magus vault was genuine, and so were the treasures inside. And we even knew how to enter it. 

I approached the vault's entrance—a large sliding gate that was seamlessly integrated with the rest of the building. There was no way for me to open it with brute force—heck, even the strongest people in our Lucidus Kingdom wouldn't be quite up for the task. 

With a quick motion of my hand, I took the map from my sister's backpack while she was ogling the inscriptions on the walls, bending down a sensuous pose. Thankfully, there was no one around to ogle at her, otherwise, I'd need to interfere. She had an unnaturally mature body that attracted all sorts of attention—of course, I was the one forced to deal with all those lechers. I could only hope that she'd find a boyfriend who'd take this responsibility from me. Of course, I was the one who'd scared away all potential candidates so far, but still. . .

I read the words written on the backside of the map, "Akete Kudasai." Surprisingly, I'd recognized them as the words from the Hidden Language. 

With a loud noise, the gate opened up, allowing me to see the hallway inside. Just as I'd expected, knowing the entrance password wasn't enough—the merchant had said as much, after all. This was the reason why I'd gotten the map dirt cheap—it was only a part of the so-called inheritance. Without the second part—which, according to rumors, had been lost—it was as good as useless. At least to most people. 

"Kya!" Jasmine cried from behind me. "Y-you startled me, Chibi Bro! You should've at least warned me before opening the door!" 

I glared at Sis as she sped towards me with an obvious intention to enter the vault. For a moment, I even considered not stopping her from going straight into the deadly traps that awaited inside, but of course, there was no way I'd do something like this to my dear sister. Even if she was really cheeky and annoying sometimes. 

"Stop it, Baka Sis." I made a stop sign with my hand. "I haven't disarmed the Defensive Formations yet." 

"Don't call me that!" She pouted.

I shrugged. "You started it." 

Our nicknames were based on what people called the Hidden Language of the Goddess. Of course, if the crazy stories of Dad were to be believed, it was called Japanese, a language that originated from his true home, a so-called Earth. I still had some serious doubts about his sanity. His claims would be way more believable if he didn't also say that our Creator Goddess, Lady Patricia Johnson, was his ex-girlfriend. Just why had I been born as a son to such a blasphemous man? Of course, his story would explain why our Goddess had such a lame-sounding name and why I, of all people, had such an insane Attribute. 

"At least my nickname for you is well fit!" Jasmine said with a smug look as she towered a whole four inches above my 5'6'' stature. Despite me being two years older, she'd outgrow me for a couple of years already. I couldn't help but feel like blaming Mom for being such a shorty. Of course, it wasn't her fault that Dad had taken two women of opposite stature as his wives and then had two children with them. I still hoped for a sudden growth spurt, but my optimism was getting weaker with each passing day.

"Aren't those are Master-Tier Formations?" Jasmine asked rhetorically as she scrutinized the shining inscriptions inside the hallway while still standing outside. "There's no way you can disarm such advanced traps!" 

"Haven't I said it already?" I smirked. "I can create miracles." 

Baka Sis rolled her eyes at me. "Yeah, yeah. . .I know that you have some secret power you've discovered that suddenly made you all smug, but this is something on a different level from lessons at the Academy." 

Of course, I knew as much. Our whole country had only five Master Realm people. Only one of them was a Magus, but he wasn't proficient in Formations. Me? I'd just completed my first year at the Invictus Academy, nothing but a small fry. Her doubts were perfectly logical. 

"Do you want to have a bet with me?" I asked with a taunting grin. "In less than half an hour, I'll make this vault completely safe to enter and get my hands on the treasures inside."

Sis gave me a look full of doubt. "Do you, perhaps, secretly have the second part of the inheritance?" 

I shook my head in denial. "Nope. I think it's really got lost. Now, I'm probably the only person in our Kingdom who can clear this vault of its valuables." 

"Really?" Her freckled face got uncomfortably close as she asked. 

"Really," I calmly replied, meeting her orange, almost crimson eyes. 

"Okay then!" Jasmine smiled. "If I win, your allowance for the rest of the summer is mine!"

With our Dad being filthy rich—as you'd expected from the number one writer in the whole Kingdom—the pocket money we'd received each month would be enough to feed an average commoner family for ten years. In other words, a lot. 

"If I win, then you give me that thing." My grin got wider as I thought about, at last, taking it from her. 

"N-no way!" Sis obviously refused.

"If I lose, all my pocket money is yours until the next year," like a devil, I whispered in her ear. 

Jasmine's expression distorted, and, for a minute, she seemed to be seriously torn inside between her greed and pride. In the end, though, her confidence in my failure prevailed. Just as I'd hoped. 

"Okay then!" Sis said with a bright smile. "But don't you dare go back on your word!"

"My words exactly." I extended my hand to her. Sis shook it enthusiastically without even realizing that she'd already fallen for my trap. If she'd thought things through, she'd have realized that I'd never fight a battle I couldn't win. 

At that point, the gate automatically closed already. They were programmed to be open only for a few minutes, it seemed. Not a problem for me—on the contrary, this would make it easier for me to hide the true nature of my power from Sis. I'd like to tell her everything, but with how much of a blabbermouth she was, it would be a really, really bad idea. 

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"So, what are you gonna do?" Jasmine asked curiously. 

"You'll see," I lied. Of course, she would have no way to know what I actually did. For her, my solution would look like a miracle or just dumb luck. 

I sat down on the soft green grass in a lotus pose and closed my eyes. I had limited time to solve the problem before me. Thankfully, I'd planned everything beforehand already. 

Like most other Treasure Vaults, this one was designed by a Formation Specialist with the intent to leave his riches to his inheritors. For this reason, he hid the vault and filled it with all sorts of traps, making it impossible for anyone to rob it. Another Master-tier Formation Specialist could probably break through the vault's defenses if given enough time, but they would be condemned for doing this, and the result wouldn't necessarily be worth the candle. Wasting months, if not years, to get their hands on something that was meant as a gift for younger generations? It would be beneath most Formation Masters. The base old me didn't care about such useless things as pride, though. Money was money! Wealth was wealth! Power was power!

All complex Formations had two methods to be controlled by people other than their creator. The first was a Formation Key—it was the second part of the inheritance, in our case. The second method was to use the Formation Core, but there was a tiny problem with that—just as could be assumed from the name, the Core was always at the center of a Formation. In other words, you'd need to first get inside. This was something people used to change Formations, not to break them. After all, people had no way to get inside while the Formation was active. Well, I was an exception to this rule, though. 

The only thing I needed to do was walk to the center of the Formation where the Core was and then use my Trump Card. Wait a minute, how could I get there in the first place without removing the traps first? The right question was not how, but when.

The name of my secret weapon was simple and to the point—Leap To The Past. It allowed me to send my body to the past—at my current Realm, I could get twenty minutes back. More than enough for my needs. 

After using my Trump Card, I'd appear at the same time but in the past. Then the only thing I'd need to do was using the Formation Core to turn off the defenses. Which would make it possible for me to reach the center where the Core was in the first place, and then sent myself to the past. . . Wasn't this crazy? Wasn't this an even looped onto itself, an event without a real origin? I would be able to reach the Core only because I'd already disarmed it after leaping back to the past. So if I entered the vault now and the Formations were inactive, it would mean that I'd already disarmed them. But. . .what if after seeing this, I just turned back and did nothing? It wouldn't work because my intentions had already changed my present, Shaping my Fate. The World itself would impose Fate Shackles to force me to implement my plan. It was the danger of my power. In a way, I was a toy in the hands of the World. In another way, though, I was the one in control. In the end, we both blackmailed each other like two accomplices at a crime. 

As soon as I decided on my plan, as soon as my intent to turn off the vault's defenses became clear, I felt a vague but familiar sense of oppression. I needed to do what I should before the World started forcing me. I stood up and approached the gate.

"Oh, you decided to start doing something after just sitting there for ten minutes!" Baka Sis gave me a thumbs up with a smug look. Perhaps to her, I had already lost our little bet. 

"Start?" I raised my brow at her. "I already turned off the traps, though." 

"No way, no way!" She followed me cheerfully. 

"Akete Kudasai," I said the magic words to open the entrance. Of course, it worked perfectly. 

"Ah!" Jasmine gasped as soon as she saw that the Formations inside the hallway all dimmed out. They no longer prevented anyone from entering and didn't threaten to destroy intruders with a barrage of Essence-powered attacks. 

"H-how?" She asked me. 

"It's a secret." I put my finger to my lips with a grin. "Maybe I'll tell you when you find yourself a decent boyfriend." 

"Hmph!" Sis snorted. She then proceeded to ignore me on our way through the passages of the vault. I knew where the center of the building and of the Formation was. It was also the place where the treasures were kept. My dear, lovely treasures. 

I frowned when Sis and I entered a large chamber filled with lights of the active Formations. This was strange. If my plan was successful, then all traps should have been disarmed. If my plan failed, we shouldn't have been able to enter in the first place. And yet, the sight before us defied this simple logic. 

"Tee-hee," I heard a giggle from my side. Baka Sis gave me a smug look as if she'd already won. Again. 

With a sigh, I inspected the chamber. It was around fifty years in width and seventy in length. At the end of it, large, exquisitely decorated gates stood as if telling everyone where the treasure room was. Something else caught my attention, though. The floor at the center of the room had eye-catching patterns like that of a chessboard. From one wall to another, nine rows of nine lines of large squares covered each spot of the floor. This pattern formed a large square with fifty yards at each side, and, for better or worse, I'd already guessed what exactly it was. 

"A Coded Passage, huh. . ." 

Some Formation Specialists loved to use secret codes to hide their secrets. In this case, the code would be nine numbers which should be entered by stepping on the right square in each horizontal row. And, according to both my knowledge and intuition, stepping on the wrong square would mean being punished with some kind of trap. More than this—there was a chance that the code was programmed to change after each mistake. So you couldn't just send expendable people or animals to figure out the right combination. You should get everything right on your first attempt. Or know the secret equation behind the code. Of course, the Formation only used the squares on the floor to guide, and it could detect a living being's presence even if they didn't touch the ground, so flying wouldn't help, either. 

So the merchant still didn't tell me the entire truth. . .I thought with a wry smile. This inheritance has three parts, not two. 

In this case, it would make sense for the Magus who'd created this vault not to add the option to turn this part of the entire Formation off. I looked at the beautiful gates in the hope of spotting a clue left behind by my future self but found nothing. 

What the Abyss, my future self? I cursed. I don't have much time to play riddles, you know?! 

Obviously, someone with access to the Core could change the code. But which code would I choose? My birthday? Birthday of Mom or Sis? The day when I'd received the first pages of the Paradox Code? Nah, in the first place, a typical date only has eight numbers, not nine. 

"Tee-hee-hee, la-la-la, I'll be rich, and Chibi Bro is going to get broke!" I tried to ignore the annoying noises Sis produced. I was sure that there was a solution, as otherwise we wouldn't reach so far in the first place. 

And then, the realization hit me like a proverbial locomotive. Whatever my choice would be, my future self already knew. After all, he was me, just later! Suddenly, I felt like such a fool for wasting almost five minutes contemplating a problem that didn't exist in the first place. 

"Aha-ha-ha-ha!" I laughed as crazy as I fearlessly approached the Coded Passage. "I choose the path of King! No, the path of Sovereign! I can't be stopped!"

I didn't feel the Shackles of Fate, which only proved my conjecture. If I triggered a trap, it would create a Paradox that would be too hard for the World to solve. This just wouldn't be worth it. 

"W-wait, Big Bro!" I ignored the pleading voice of my little sister that called to me from behind. "I-it's really dangerous! I won't call you Chibi again, I won't take your money from you, I'll cancel our bet, so d-don't kill yourself, please!" 

What nonsense is she spouting? I thought without looking back at her. Does she think I went crazy because of a few months' worth of pocket money? 

Without slowing down for a moment, I stepped to the fifth square in a horizontal row. It lighted up, signifying that I had chosen right. The other squares on this row turned off, meaning that they were safe to enter. 

Then I continued my way forward, walking through the center of the Passage without changing direction—each time, I chose the central square. After all, I knew that my future self would alter the Formation to encompass any choice I made. In a way, my choice had already been predetermined, but I didn't think too deeply about this disturbing revelation. 

After lighting on all nine of the squares, I walked towards the gates that were already in the process of opening up as if welcoming the true owner of the vault. I turned my head back only to see Jasmine still standing at the entrance to this chamber and watching me absentmindedly. I waved my hand at her with a smile, but it didn't change her expression in the slightest. Was I doing the normally impossible too much of a shock for her? 

I went through the gates, which closed right behind me. I hoped that Sis wouldn't do anything stupid while I was away. Anyway, only the last part of my plan remained. 

Standing in the treasury of the vault, I held back my desire from looking around. My future self was currently hiding somewhere her, and trying to find him now would make things difficult for me later. 

I approached a pure white sphere five feet in diameter that floated at the center of the room. What else could it be if not the Formation Core? 

I closed my eyes and activated my Trump Card. When I opened my eyes, I was twenty minutes ago. How could I know it for sure? Well, for once, I was completely naked. Just as usual, my clothes hadn't traveled with me. 

Now that I'd already gotten all the benefits, it was time for me to do all the hard work. You know, the usual stuff.