Reincarnated User Manual

Chapter 303: Door Of The Future (3)

A clear day in Rien.

Lucia, Seira, and Yoru were browsing the department store, buying supplies for their journey.

For reference, Siriel and Shiron did not come along.

Siriel requested to excuse herself from the trip, saying she wanted to focus on her soon-to-be-born child, and Shiron was also busy with other matters.

“Yoru, do you have a toothbrush and a towel?”

“Yes.”

“Underwear? Do you have enough to change into?”

“I have some…”

“The Empire-made underwear is fantastic, you know? It’s super soft, and thanks to the 24-hour freshness magic, it stays dry even if you sweat!”

They were a mix of black and red… something sexy.

Shiron would probably like it.

‘Better grab some for myself too.’

One for me, one for my dark-skinned friend. She swiftly paid for the pile of lingerie with the card Siriel had given her.

“……Sigh.”

Seira watched Lucia from behind and let out a sigh of exasperation.

Lately, she seemed sleep-deprived, with dark circles under her eyes, and her skin looked rough, showing she was not in the best condition.

‘Kyrie would kill the kid? When she loves him so much?’

The reason for her fatigue was, without a doubt, Shiron’s cryptic remark from ‘that night.’

From what Seira had observed, Lucia was not the kind of friend who would ever kill Shiron. Even in her past life, she hated killing and would weep in secret for a week if any of her comrades died, such was her gentle heart.

Trusting Shiron’s words entirely was hard since she knew Lucia so well, almost to the point of boredom. Yet, dismissing Shiron’s warning made her uneasy.

As fatigue and worries weighed down her eyelids, a head of red hair caught her attention.

“Seira. Where exactly are we headed again?”

“…Even after the suppression campaign, the mist hasn’t lifted. According to the kid, it’s because of the door to the future.”

“That’s not what I mean!”

Lucia, her arms filled with shopping bags, raised her hands in excitement, her eyes gleaming.

“We’re going to the future! So, how far into the future? Ten years? Twenty years? Could it be a hundred years?”

Even though this journey was to subdue the apostles, Lucia was as thrilled as a child going on a picnic.

In terms of stakes, their failure could mean not only their lives but also the potential end of the world. Lucia was aware of that.

“I wonder how people live in the future?”

But still, the very word “future” was enough to make anyone’s heart race.

“Hey, Seira?” I took a class called [Future Studies] at the academy, you know?“

Lucia’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.

“In the future, they say people don’t need to read books anymore! And people can wander freely without being bound to any nation!”

If the world were to fall, books would be nothing more than firewood, and nations would collapse, erasing borders.

“And food will become so simplified that you won’t have to go through the hassle of cooking!”

If the world fell, you’d be lucky to find even monster meat to gnaw on raw.

“And also… people will live in houses floating in the sky, or on the sea…”

“It’s not that far in the future.”

“Then how far?”

“…Ten to twenty years. Roughly, that’s what we were told.”

“Wow, does that mean I could meet my future self?”

“…”

“Now that I think about it, we could meet future Siriel and Victor too. Shiron will probably be a dashing older man by then. But if he lets himself go and ends up with a potbelly… Ah! And we might even see the babies currently in the womb!”

Maybe even Lucia’s child.

And perhaps a world where the Demon God has been completely erased, a world truly at peace.

At the hopeful thought of the future, Lucia let out a squeal.

“But, if it’s ten years, fine, but twenty years means everyone will be over forty, right?”

Yoru, munching on her ice cream nonchalantly, commented.

“I wouldn’t like it if everyone just got flabby and out of shape.”

“…”

“Honestly, if they have subtle wrinkles on their faces, it would be a turn-off. Oh, and don’t tell me they’ll start graying!”

“Hey, dark one, I was in a good mood, but you just spoiled it. You’ll be forty too, you know?”

“Elves have it nice~ Even after a hundred years, they have smooth, wrinkle-free skin.”

Yoru, now chewing on her cone, looked at Seira. It had been a while since their last outing, so Seira had dressed up, looking tall and elegant with a noble air.

“Must be nice~ Seira, not aging~”

Lucia came over and poked Seira’s side.

“Never aging even after a hundred years, huh?”

Poke, poke, poke.

“Even after two hundred, maybe a thousand years, you’ll still get to see the world?”

Poke, poke, poke.

“Stop it! You’re wrinkling my clothes! And elves get wrinkles too if they live to two thousand, okay? Are you trying to make racial comments here?”

“…Sigh. I wish I had some elf blood too! Gracie is so lucky~! She’s half-elf!”

“…Ugh. Let’s hurry up and get going if we’re done shopping. The kid is waiting.”

Seira left the store with Lucia, who was carrying numerous shopping bags, and Yoru. Outside, there were two grand carriages waiting to greet the trio.

The carriages, bearing the Prient crest, had two brothers ready to receive Shiron.

“If it’s a daughter, Shuri; if it’s a son, Carl. That’s my request.”

“Shiron, why do you speak as if you’re heading off to die?”

“Besides, Shiron, didn’t we agree on Huey if it’s a boy? Hmm?”

“Why are you all so concerned with naming my child?”

“But I’ll be the grandfather, won’t I?”

“Glen, act your age, will you?”

Hugo lightly pushed Glen aside, who moved easily due to his lack of core strength.

Hugo, gently patting Shiron on the back, spoke with a serious tone.

“Shiron, don’t think about the child. Focus on keeping yourself alive. Children can always be born, but there is only one of you in this world.”

“You sound just like Emperor Franz.”

“…Perhaps I’ve been influenced after spending so much time there. Come, children. I’ll take you directly to the station.”

Hugo personally opened the carriage door and climbed up to the coachman’s seat.

Clatter-clatter-

In the special compartment of the train bound for the Arwen Plateau, Shiron was deep in thought about the ‘future’ he was about to face.

[The Door to the Future]

[Victor: The fog that appears once a year on the Arwen Plateau is a major problem for the Empire and the entire continent. For now, we're using a so-called festival to fend off the wave of monsters, but it doesn't mean there are no casualties.]

[Victor: There have been many ancestors who tried to solve this problem since ancient times. Among them, a subjugation team was formed, led by Sir Jack Hindar, the strongest knight of that time.]

[Victor: Of course, they failed. If it weren’t for the hero they met there, they wouldn’t have even known that entering that place was forbidden, and no one would have survived to tell.]

[Lucia (Shiron): And who was this hero?]

[Victor: I heard it was Lucia Prient... Strangely, it’s the same name as yours (your half-sister). The document found in the ancient library is at least 300 years old.]

Thus, the secret of the subjugation festival, which had been a nuisance for centuries, began to unfold.

It was quite a surprising foreshadowing, and he could still recall the dialogue.

While other users were thrilled at the thought of meeting the protagonist and companions of the future, Cha Hyeon-jun couldn’t feel the same way.

Though future Lucia, who would save the exploration team coming from the past, was a hero who looked as if she had been painted onto a canvas, there was a twisted quality to that place, as it was a world created by the apostles borrowing the powers of the Demon God.

When playing as Shiron Prient, meeting future Lucia meant death.

Not an entirely surprising fact.

If we followed the original story, Lucia and Shiron were on the brink of killing each other in this time period, and even in the future, it would be no different. Having already killed Shiron once, future Lucia would see Shiron Prient as an enemy to kill on sight.

Fighting Lucia alone was tough enough, but facing a Lucia filled with bitterness after the world had fallen made things even harder.

Instant deaths upon passing through the Door to the Future were common.

So much so that more than half of the hundreds of retries took place here; it was Shiron Prient’s most frequent death spot.

‘…You piece of shit.’

Shiron felt his insides twist with sudden anger.

‘Damn you, pathetic girl…! No matter how much you hate me, do you have to drag me through hell worldwide?’

If he really met her, it’d be five hundred flicks to the forehead, you little…

As he held the water cup to calm his rising frustration,

Crack-

[Hero! You have the Blessing of Wrath…! No, you need treatment first!]

“Sh-Shiron! Your hand?”

“Damn…”

Muttering curses, Shiron pulled out the glass shards embedded in his hand. Watching him, Lucia quickly rummaged through her bag and took out a bandage. It was a brightly colored, polka-dotted bandage.

“Hold out your hand! I’ll put it on for you!”

Lucia carefully applied the bandage to his bleeding finger. Her thoughtful action soothed his anger, and Shiron smiled slightly as he looked at his hand covered in bandages.

“Hey, did you forget my job? I’m a priest. I could heal myself in no time with a bit of holy power.”

“Oh… right? Then I’ll take it off.”

As Lucia reached to remove it, Shiron pulled his hand back.

“Leave it. Since it’s already on, I’ll keep it until it’s worn out.”

“O-okay…”

Lucia scratched the back of her head, blushing awkwardly.

It was a shame that future Lucia couldn’t be as endearing as this Lucia.

‘Yura, you bastard.’

Sssssss!

Was this their arrival? Along with the sound of escaping steam, the train shook greatly. The sign reading “Arwen Plateau Station” came into view. Lucia woke up Seira and Yoru, adjusted her bag, and followed Shiron.

Though this was her second time at the Arwen Plateau, the atmosphere was quite different from ten years ago.

Gone were the revelers, replaced by knights with serious faces patrolling the mist.

“Sir Shiron Prient, welcome.”

A knight who appeared to be in charge greeted them. Shiron gave him a light nod and looked towards a specific spot.

A woman in platinum armor and clerical robes, Cardinal Iris, stood there.

‘She really told them to follow openly, and they’re really doing it.’

Deviale would never neglect his duties. Surely, the order came from his superiors.

‘Live or die, do as you please.’

Muttering to himself, Shiron turned his attention away from Iris.

“We’re heading out immediately.”

“Already? So soon?”

“Staying one more day won’t change anything. We won’t even be able to rest properly, so let’s finish it quickly and return.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“…Understood.”

With a serious nod, the knight had his men clear the path.

“Everyone, prepare for battle. We don’t know what might happen the moment we enter.”

“Will something really happen?”

“We could fall at the feet of a giant monster or end up in a battlefield. We might even encounter the apostle right away.”

As soon as Shiron finished speaking, Lucia and Yoru gripped their swords.

“Shiron,”

“Yes?”

“I’ll give it my all since Siriel isn’t here.”

“Good. You’re so enthusiastic; it’s nice to see.”

Shiron smiled faintly as he held Lucia’s other hand. Seira and Yoru also held hands.

Thus, the four entered the mist, as if being sucked into it. There was no floating sensation like with teleportation.

They simply kept walking through the mist, continuing as if moving to the other side, with no end in sight.

‘…’

However, they knew they weren’t heading to the other side. Lucia could feel countless presences of knights disappearing from her sharpened senses…

And she felt the emergence of an enormous presence.

An unmistakable enemy.

Lucia drew Sirius.

She let go of Shiron’s hand and rushed in front of him. Her core pulsed with heat, and brilliant energy filled her golden eyes. The approaching enemy was closing in with astonishing speed, and she swung her sword with all her might.

BOOM!

A clash of massive power. Lucia swept away the dust with a gust.

“Who the hell just rushes in with a sword…?”

Her eyes widened.

A flash of golden eyes.

Flowing red hair.

And the unyielding Sirius that met hers in combat.

“Oh.”

The damned enemy… was her.