Before Nolan could even form a question in his mind, the white scene surrounding him vanished completely, plunging him into deep darkness.

The soft voice of a woman began to echo as everything around him disintegrated.

Suddenly, a shiver ran through his body.

In front of him, like a powerless spectator, for a few seconds... he saw himself.

But he wasn’t alive, he wasn’t breathing.

His body lay on the ground, cold, motionless, with a dagger embedded in his neck.

Blood stained the floor a deep red, and the sight left him paralyzed for a second that felt eternal.

But soon, his appearance shifted and took on a strange form.

What was happening?

The female voice continued, and the image of his dead body faded, replaced by a new scene.

◇◆◇

Once upon a time, there was a girl who, after her master's death, found herself caught in a political conflict she couldn’t escape from.

Her master had been a celebrated hero, respected by all the princes and princesses of the court, but his death changed everything.

The internal disputes began to escalate, and the master’s apprentice was left in a precarious position.

The decisions on how to react to the mage’s death were numerous.

One prince, full of hatred and thirst for revenge, proposed declaring war immediately, convinced that those responsible were the people of Bravka.

Another, more calculating prince, suggested keeping the master’s death a secret and quietly eliminating all potential threats, executing anyone who could pose a danger and avoiding war as much as possible.

A princess, for her part, suggested using the master’s body for study, to uncover the secrets of the powerful magic he had mastered.

And finally, another princess advocated for neutrality, arguing that it would be best to investigate before taking any action.

In the midst of these proposals, the girl, unsure of who to trust, remained silent, watching as chaos enveloped the court.

The pressure on her increased by the day.

Everyone wanted to know which side she would take, as her connection to the late master made her a key figure.

It was obvious they were talking about him, Emily, and even the royalty of this kingdom, but... why didn’t any of these people resemble anyone he had known so far?

It was as if... he was in another world.

"Tell me, Nolan," the female voice echoed, curious, "what decision do you think the girl made?"

Nolan tried to answer, but his voice got stuck in his throat.

Before he could utter a single word, the story continued unfolding before his eyes.

◇◆◇

The girl isolated herself in her master’s mansion, the only place that still felt familiar and safe to her.

There, surrounded by her mentor’s vast library, she buried herself in the study of magic, just as he had taught her.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

She disappeared from the public eye, avoiding the eager gazes of the princes who wanted to use her for their own ends.

In time, the servants of the mansion began to leave one by one, as they received neither pay nor clear instructions.

The place, which had once been a prestigious symbol, began to deteriorate.

Slowly, dust started to cover the shelves, the windows accumulated grime, and the once-lush garden wilted.

But she didn’t care.

Her focus was fixed on a single goal.

Mastering magic.

Among her studies, she discovered the magic of time, a rare and extremely difficult art, even tedious, but over the months and years, she began to master it with surprising skill.

First, she managed to turn back time by 7 seconds, then... over the months, it became 15. A speed of growth even Nolan hadn't achieved, and this girl also practiced fire and wind magic.

The political conflict the girl had ignored for years exploded into a devastating war.

The princes and princesses, each with their own army and ambitions, fought for control of the kingdom.

The apprentice was eventually dragged onto the battlefield, not by her will, but because of her connection to her deceased master. She had become a legendary figure in the court, and though she didn’t want to participate in the war, she had no other choice.

To the surprise of many, the girl displayed overwhelming talent in the magical arts of wind and fire.

In each battle, she used her magic with lethal precision, defeating her enemies and protecting her allies with what she considered decent strategies.

Or at least she thought so because, unfortunately…

She couldn’t save everyone.

The princes and princesses, impressed and some terrified by her power, tried to lure her to their respective sides.

They offered her riches, land, and titles, but she rejected them, always staying out of politics.

After all, that had been her master’s stance in the past.

At the end of each battle, she always remained apart, perfecting her magic in secret, distrusting everyone after what had happened to her master.

But not everything went well for her.

In one of the most difficult battles, the girl made a mistake that cost her dearly.

Despite her ability to rewind time by 27 seconds, she was unable to avoid losing her forearm when facing a relentless enemy mage.

His speed of calculation and precision far exceeded hers, as she had only been a mage for a few years.

Her forearm was a small price to pay to win a duel that pushed her magical skills to the limit.

The scene shifted again, showing the moment she was betrayed.

This confused Nolan greatly, but soon the world gave him the explanation.

A prince, in whom the girl had placed her limited trust, sold her out to the enemy with an ambush where no matter how many times she rewound time... she couldn’t defeat them all.

This reminded Nolan of what had happened when he had left in that carriage, only he had been lucky... those archers had saved him.

Seeing the girl being captured and taken to a secret place, where she spent weeks as the subject of terrible experiments, made Nolan feel terrible.

The enemy, fascinated by her ability to repeat the same abnormal patterns as her master, as if she could read their strategies in advance, desperately tried to understand her, to extract her essence.

But they couldn’t.

Despite the constant interrogations and tortures, the girl revealed nothing. The mana concealment technique she had developed to keep her secret proved effective, even as her spirit began to break.

‘Why doesn’t she give up?’ Nolan wondered.

He simply couldn’t understand the girl’s determination.

In much of this story, she had been alone, and despite all the success she had gained from her time in isolation, she just kept going and going, studying, only to end up like this...

One day, due to an enemy’s mistake during an external attack, the girl managed to escape.

This scene gave Nolan a sense of relief, but when he saw that, during the girl’s escape, she came face-to-face with a swordsman she had never been able to defeat before…

‘No…’ was Nolan's immediate thought, as it was clear the girl was going to die there.

The exhaustion was written all over her face. Nolan had seen how she hadn’t been able to sleep properly due to the torturers; she even had several wounds that hadn’t healed...

However, despite everything being against her...

No matter how many times that swordsman was about to strike her down, she coldly rewound time, dodged the attack, and countered flawlessly.

It wasn’t an easy duel, because there were some attacks that, no matter how hard she pushed herself, she couldn’t avoid.

Her body simply couldn’t take any more.

And maybe out of sheer pride, or just the swordsman’s carelessness, the girl won.

On the verge of death from her wounds, she won.

Exhausted and injured, the girl found refuge in a secluded place, far from the chaos of the war, to see if she could tend to her wounds.

But in that isolation, it was when the two entities—the male and female voices—appeared before her, just as they were now with Nolan.

They offered her immense power, the same power now being offered to Nolan.

A power that could undoubtedly save her life and even be used to bring peace back to the kingdom with the absolute control it provided.

But the words that girl spoke left Nolan frozen.

The girl chose to go back to the day her master was still alive, to give that power to him.