Before Non could even form a question in his mind, the white se surrounding him vanished pletely, plunging him into deep darkness.

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

  Suddenly, a shiver ran through his body.

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

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

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

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

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

  What was happening?

  The female voice tinued, and the image of his dead body faded, repced by a new se.

  ◇◆◇

  Once upon a time, there was a girl who, after her master's death, found herself caught in a political flict 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 ged everything.

  The internal disputes began to escate, 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 deg war immediately, vihat those responsible were the people of Bravka.

  Another, more calg prince, suggested keeping the master’s death a secret and quietly eliminating all potential threats, exeg 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 uhe secrets of the powerful magic he had mastered.

  And finally, another princess advocated for rality, arguing that it would be best to iigate before taking any a.

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

  The pressure on her increased by the day.

  Everyone wao know which side she would take, as her e to the te 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, Non," the female voice echoed, curious, "what decision do you think the girl made?"

  Non tried to answer, but his voice got stu his throat.

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

  ◇◆◇

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

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

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

  In time, the servants of the mansion began to leave one by one, as they received her pay nor clear instrus.

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

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

  But she didn’t care.

  Her focus was fixed on a single goal.

  Mastering magic.

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

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

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

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

  The apprentice was eventually dragged onto the battlefield, not by her will, but because of her e to her deceased master. She had bee 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 dispyed overwhelming talent in the magical arts of wind and fire.

  In each battle, she used her magic with lethal precisioing her enemies and proteg her allies with what she sidered det 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, nd, and titles, but she rejected them, always staying out of politics.

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

  At the end of each battle, she always remained apart, perfeg her magi secret, distrusting everyoer what had happeo her master.

  But not everythi 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 seds, she was uo avoid losing her forearm when fag a relentless enemy mage.

  His speed of calcution 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 se shifted again, showing the moment she was betrayed.

  This fused Noly, but soon the wave him the expnation.

  A prince, in whom the girl had pced 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 Non 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 pce, where she spent weeks as the subject of terrible experiments, made Noerrible.

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

  But they couldn’t.

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

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

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

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

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

  This se gave Non 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 Non's immediate thought, as it was clear the girl was going to die there.

  The exhaustion was written all over her faon 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 tered fwlessly.

  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 ihe girl found refuge in a secluded pce, far from the chaos of the war, to see if she could tend to her wounds.

  But in that isotion, it was whewo entities—the male and female voices—appeared before her, just as they were now with Non.

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

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

  But the words that girl spoke left Non frozen.

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