The first thing Livia did was turn the squad back toward safer lands. They didn't know how many more magic beasts might be around, the bear Livia spotted earlier was apparently harmless unless provoked and cornered, the lads recognised it as a sunbear, but other dangers could still find them here.
Moving fast was impossible. Livia was not used to hiking and the lads were all injured, although Harold was healing quickly. When they finally reached the ruins where they had apparently found safe harbor twice already in the past week, they set up their camp again.
Livia almost went to keep up the planning, her mind wouldn't stop racing, but she noticed none of the boys were up for it tonight. She went to sleep with fears and ambitions and mundane hopes of not being alone slowly churning.
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After a very small breakfast the lads all finally reached a point where things started to feel normal again.
Everything but their new companion. She had on strange clothes, spoke in too fast a cadence and with a strange accent on top, and then on top of that, she had that strange looking hammer that Oscar swore had killed the Mosswolf alpha with a single strike.
Kalle spoke up. "Uhm so, Livia Beltaine right, are you from Dormata?" Who even has a last name any more, is it some new fashion in the capital?
The moment of truth. She needed to decide how much to tell them, but how could she ever expect to be believed?
The thing was this. Livia was still traumatized from the past days' events.
Sure, she hadn't been attacked by magic wolves. But being ripped from your world took a mental toll all of its own, and killing huge beasts and handling corpses was way too far from Livia's usual day to day, even if she'd read about the stuff a million times.
She had somehow found herself able to act in the moment, with Kalle screaming for help, but now it felt like her grip on reality was slipping, the events had been that sudden, she could barely trust her senses from one moment to the next, and she had such a task at hand.
The situation felt impossible.
Keeping up a charade on top of it all, having to hide knowledge and keep track of her lies... She couldn't do it, she was not built for it, having never been more than an average liar, and this was a task for the best of the best.
Without anybody to trust she was sure her mind would slip further into panic with every passing day. And I just saved the lives of these boys, what better start to take a gamble on than this? The risk of betrayal can only be reduced, and I can't afford to wait for a better shot. Not to mention there could be more of these creatures, we need each other. And I don't even have any food of my own.
She started ranting. "I'm from the future," No reaction. "I mean I'm from the past," Raised eyebrows. "I mean I read all about your future, back in my world," All three of them leaned their heads to the side. Livia's voice cracked and she gave them a hysterical laugh.
When she was able to calm down she said this. "I am your ancestor. One of your future children gained a Class called [Temporal Magi] and they sent me here to make something for them." They actually nodded at this.
Oscar piped up. "Is that why you started talking about nations and stuff last night? I'm pretty sure we didn't really get it."
"Sure, but the point is I'm going to make something. And you should help out if you want to," This they could all understand. That was why they'd left home after all, to make something, something new that wasn't around back home; even if they'd mostly been thinking maybe something cool they might find in Dormata.
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"This world is young, I take it you've all seen the ocean, I arrived there and let me tell you. Your ocean's are barely salty. Do you understand?"
They did not, at all. This seemed like she was losing her track.
"It's how you can tell how old a planet is, if it's teeming with life, by how salty the seas are. If a world has been corroding the planet's salt deposits for longer, then more salt has been released. I don’t mean that it’s an accurate measurement, but enough to tell if a world is millions rather than billions of years old, you know?” Luckily they did, math at least was still important to Humans. “And this world is merely in the millions."
"So what?" Asked Harold.
The boy's all knew about planets, it was impossible not to, on planet Ross. Looking at the sky you didn't just see a moon, depending on the season you saw different planets passing by, some of them scarily close when you were a kid.
"So it means we, us humans, come from a place much older. My home," This really put the journey she must have been through into perspective for them.
The past was one thing, magic did do strange things after all. A different world altogether made them realize how different it must have been.
"It’s a place where humanity didn't have Classes and didn't have magic," It seemed too strange to picture. "That's apparently why I'm needed, you've all become like the rest of this world's races, fighting in constant wars and only using the System to train soldiers and magicians." Yes, she was repeating the words of Mr Beard, but she didn't care.
If he's right, he's right.
Kalle was still looking perplexed, which meant the brother’s were not likely to be doing any better, so he tried to clarify. "Alright, I can see that. But how does that matter to building something new, you don't sound like you mean a new school of warfare?"
"I guess it means we have lost something; we shouldn't be on par with these other peoples, despite them having strengths of their own. Humanity is a much older race. We've had to learn from them to survive here, but we learned too much, or lost too much of what we knew before anyway.” It was hard to even picture what she meant, their minds all went straight to strange magics.
“Your champions always build pinnacles, and then have their people cultivate their strengths in those same footsteps." Livia felt almost like she was speaking in front of all the remaining collective humanity, and she was acting like it.
"But that pinnacle often reached so high because of some personal circumstance or timing of the paradigm that was then shifted. Meaning that the followers reaching as high or even higher than the original champion become exceedingly rare. Humanity must be different, we can overcome them all if we find ways for everyone, or at least as many as possible, to achieve their true potential. Their personal and unique potential. Each generation." She finally stopped long enough for a proper breath.
I wish I had an apple drink. Thought Harold.
"Why do you really need us though, do you actually have all this planned out?" Oscar had to ask.
"Because I know I can count on you to at least say no. I saved you, your food is saving me, that's 1-1. But if you're all with me then we're going to begin as soon as possible,"
"Doing what, exactly?"
"We need to build an institution. We're making a [Guild]."