"I see... so I was the one who welcomed Jin."
Sion spoke, her cheeks slightly flushed.
It was only natural that she would be flustered to suddenly be told she had a great-great-grandchild.
"Yeah. You really saved me back then. Thank you, Sion."
"I would like to offer my thanks as well... Thank you, Sion."
Following Jin's lead, Elsa bowed her head as well.
"Even if you say that... while it may be in the past for Jin, it's the future for us. It's an event that hasn't even happened yet."
"I suppose that's true."
"But I guess this means that, because I've heard Jin's story now, I'll remember it and give the proper instructions to my descendants, right?"
"That's how it would work."
"...That is a heavy responsibility. I wonder if I can really remember it all correctly for four hundred years."
"I trust you because you are Sion of the All-Creation."
The All-Creation Jin Family as a whole possessed the racial characteristic of having excellent memories.
"Ugh, it really is a huge responsibility..."
Sion scowled once more.
"Still, it sounds like it was even harder than I imagined."
Reinhard said, shaking his head slightly in admiration.
"It was exactly as they say: fighting a lonely battle, or being completely isolated and helpless. To think you managed to pull through in such a situation..."
But Jin shook his head at Reinhard's words.
"Isolated and helpless... Well, it wasn't quite like that once I met Lordtoss."
Jin thought of the "bonds" that connected the current era to the future.
"Knowing that what I've done until now wasn't just redundancy... even if only for the fact that it saved me, it makes me happy."
"That is certainly true."
"U-Um, what about me? What was I doing in that future?"
Marikka asked Jin hesitantly. She was clearly curious.
"Oh, I met you too, Marikka."
Jin told her he would talk about that later and took a sip of citran juice.
"Still... how should I put it? It's the past for Jin, but the future for us. The more I think about it, the more I lose track of everything."
Reinhard muttered, his words sounding almost like a complaint.
"True enough... Jin, in the world you originally came from, time travel hadn't been realized either, had it?"
This time it was Goose who spoke.
"No, it hadn't. Though there were many stories that dealt with the concept."
"Oh? That sounds fascinating."
"Well, I'll tell you about them if we have the chance."
"Right. For now, I want to hear more of your own story, Jin."
"Yeah."
Jin took another sip of citran juice.
"Hey, Jin, what's going to happen to our futures?"
Beena asked, but Jin shook his head.
"I'm torn on whether I should talk about that..."
"What do you mean?"
"This is also from fictional stories, but there's a theory that if you know the outcome beforehand, you might lose your motivation or fail to take the actions you otherwise would have, which could end up changing the future."
"Is that so?"
Jin then offered an example.
"For instance, let's say you're told that on a certain day at a certain time, you'll bump into someone and fall down. So, you decide not to go outside that day."
"Mm-hm."
"Then you'd avoid bumping into that 'someone,' but as a result, you might end up getting run over by a carriage later on."
"Why would it turn out like that?"
"Because you didn't bump into anyone and fall, you'd end up walking further ahead by several seconds or dozens of seconds than you otherwise would have, right?"
"Ah, I see."
In such a case, there was a possibility of an even worse outcome, Jin explained.
"So you don't bump into a person, but you bump into a carriage instead."
If that resulted in death, their descendants wouldn't be born, and it was easy to see how the future would shift in various ways.
"Well, in that case, it's possible that a completely different person would end up fulfilling that role."
In the end, the discussion settled on the fact that it was impossible to know for sure.
"That's why I've been trying to avoid gathering that kind of information as much as possible."
"Hmm, it really is complicated."
"That's why there's a theory that it's better not to know the future recklessly."
Conversely, Jin added, there was also a theory that fate could not be changed no matter what.
"But even I've ended up knowing some 'results' in the future."
He mentioned that recreating the Calorie Friends was one of them.
"The same goes for Reiko and Laojun..."
"Father, you haven't mentioned us in your stories so far. Is there a specific reason for that?"
『My Lord, as Reiko-san said, there must be a clear reason, correct? Could you tell us about it?』
"Yeah, I plan to talk about that now. But there are things even I don't quite understand, or things I've intentionally avoided asking about."
"Like what?"
"Future Sion told me: 'It's fine to know the results, but you should avoid trying to learn the process.'"
"Eh?"
Sion let out a dazed sound.
"M-Me?"
"Yeah."
Jin nodded.
"She said that if you know the process, you'll lose the drive to improve."
"Is that so?"
"It's highly likely she said that because she's heard these very words from me right now, though."
"...True. I mean, time is just way too complicated!"
"Don't look at me..."
That spiritual lifeform probably understood it to some extent, but they hadn't taught Jin. He wouldn't have understood even if they had explained it, anyway.
"Time paradoxes are difficult, aren't they, Onii-chan?"
Hanna also looked like she was deep in thought.
"If we don't know the right answer, I guess we just have to avoid doing anything reckless or impossible."
"I suppose so..."
"It's easier if you think of it with Onii-chan as the center."
"What do you mean by that, Hanna?"
"Well, for Onii-chan's timeline, everything flows in a single sequence."
In short, it meant there were no contradictions like Jin meeting himself.
"It's the future for us, but for Onii-chan, it's already a past event in terms of time."
"I guess there's that way of looking at it too."
Since the correct answer was unknown, such an idea couldn't be dismissed outright.
Jin simply muttered to himself.
"...I have a lot of things I need to do from now on."
Outside the window, dusk had fallen before he knew it.