I breathed heavily for a couple of seconds before calming down. I also apologised for my sudden outburst.

"Sorry, that was uncalled for. I didn’t mean to snap at you like that."

"I-It’s okay. I shouldn’t have compared you to the Goddess like that. Sorry." She gave one back.

"Right, so now that I’ve gotten my story out of the way, it’s time for you to continue explaining things." I said after a brief moment.

"What more needs to be said? The orphanage used to trap me is gone. What more could you need to know?" Shirayaa grumbled, turning her head with a frown.

"Wuh?" I sounded out in pure disbelief as my anger returned once more, this time with a reason for me to lash out. "Because we need to know who did this so we can stop them from doing it again!"

That seemed to get into that seemingly thick skull of hers as I saw some kind of light shine in her eyes.

"You don’t think I fucking know that! I want to stop them but I don’t know anything! I can’t even use these fucking powers because I don’t know how!" She cried out in frustration at her own incompetence after rising up off the floor.

It was clear that this was something that had been bothering her for a long time. And not being able to do anything about it was getting to her.

And I could somewhat relate to that. Not being able to do anything despite having immense power and potential. I could almost sympathise with her, except for the fact that my situation in that regard was much different to hers.

Whereas she had nothing and nobody to rely on to help her reach her full potential, I had people to help me reach those heights, but it never felt like it was enough to achieve what I desired.

So, although I still wasn’t particularly fond of Shirayaa, I would try and help her out by getting her in contact with someone who could help her.

Which is why I offered to aid her in this endeavour, "I... I happen to know a couple of Chronomancer’s that might be willing to train you." I was still a little unsure about helping her, but if I did help her, then maybe she’d help me out.

I scratch her back, she scratches mine. That sort of thing.

Anyways, the moment she heard what I said, her eyes lit up like a rising sun and she got up close and personal to me.

"Really?!"

For some reason her scent wafted over to me and smelt somewhat familiar, though I couldn’t quite put my nose as to why that was.

"Y-Yeah, though whether they train you or not is up to them. I’ll ask, but I can’t guarantee anything." I said somewhat sheepishly due to how close her face was to mine, even leaning back slightly and turning my head. I could feel her breath on my face as well.

She realised this and pulled back embarrassed as she tried to regain some decorum.

"Th-Thank you, I’d greatly appreciate it." Now she was the one smiling sheepishly as she expressed her gratitude with a lightly flushed face.

"Mm, good. Now, we still need to know what exactly is going on here, because the three of us don’t really know what’s happening right now in the city. Hopefully we can now get thtrough this in a more civil manner."

"Y-Yes, lets hope. S-So, how do we do that then?"

"Well..."

_

_

_

We spent the next couple of hours getting everything straight between us. With Shirayaa telling us the current events as well as us telling her what it was like before this apparent undoing of the orphanage.

In that time, we found out a lot. Turns out that this city is actually the city that shuns orphans the most anywhere in the entire kingdom. Which is weird considering the orphanage used to be here.

Also, apparently the auction that happened not too long after I got here originally never happened, which is strange, but then again, nothing about this situation is anything but.

Either way, we also learned that the Gilded Ophidian Institute did still accept people of such low status provided they had some level of talent and got a letter of recommendation from someone of high station. But that was apparently a rare occurrence in the kingdom as a whole.

I could probably pull some strings knowing who actually owns the Institute. Actually, I wonder if I’m even still registered as a student there? Same goes for Asty also.

When we asked about our friend David, Shirayaa unfortunately said she didn’t know anything, even after we gave her a description. Which meant that we’d have to go looking for him later then.

Is what I would say if not for the bucket of ice poured all over us when Shirayaa grimly reminded us that he probably wouldn’t remember us.

To her, it was a miracle that all of us even remembered anything at all, let alone all three of us.

Which raise a good question. Why did we remember? I could speculate as to a couple of reasons as to why, but then the question of how comes up.

I must’ve remembered because I was in some sort of spatial realm that wasn’t connected to the world properly thanks to the incursion I caused, which separated it from the real world to some extent. Just enough for the time manipulation to not affect me.

As for Ash and Asty... Something to do with the cocoon they were trapped in, I don’t know, that one’s even harder to figure or try and reason out.

Anyways, it was getting late and everyone else was starting to get pretty hungry. I wasn’t but I wouldn’t say no to food.

And that’s how we ended up leaving together with myself leading everyone out to a restaurant. One Ash, Asty and I had been to before. One with private booths.

We got stares everywhere we went when not in the slums. Well, I say we, but it was mainly Shirayaa who took the brunt of them. Me, Ash and Asty only got stares likely because we were with her.

It was weird to receive these kinds of stares so much after so long, but none of use were bothered by it since they weren’t openly hostile or anything. Even Shirayaa seemed unfazed. Probably because this was likely a memory that wasn’t as blurred because it happened in nearly every timeline or something.

When we got to the restaurant though, things took a turn for the worst as the staff immediately tried to kick us out, with even the owner, who was the head chef, personally coming out to throw us out.

All it took however was a simple low and aggressive hiss from me and everyone in the room shuddered in absolute terror that came from the core of their very souls.

Nobody tried to stop us after that, but their attitude didn’t get much better. It still took us a long time to be served our drinks and our food.

Still, we were all just glad to have something to eat after today. I didn’t actually eat much because I had eaten over a hundred behemoths yesterday, but everyone else was far more famished.

Shirayaa was a homeless orphan living in the slums, so obviously she wouldn’t have eaten at all most days. As for Ash and Asty, I had a feeling that although the cocoon protected them from whatever temporal shenanigans happened here, they still hadn’t eaten in a few days. Also, they were frozen mid sex which probably didn’t help in that regard.

Still, I let them eat their fill and paid for everything. Though, when the bill came, I noticed something was off about it. The prices were extremely high.

I realised immediately that they had charged me double for everything. Obviously, I wasn’t going to let that slide so I paid what it’s actually worth, which ended up costing twenty-three gold and fourteen and a half large silver coils.

They tried to scam me out of forty-six gold and thirty-five large silver coils. They even tried to stop me but a simple menacing glance made them stop in their tracks, allowing the four of us to leave without any hassle.

As for where we were going to spend the night, I decided that we could spend the night in the red-light district.

It might seem weird at first, but it was actually the perfect place to settle down for the night. Not because I wanted to have sex, but because this was the best place to help drown out the probable noises that would come from what I wanted to do.

And that would be finally, FINALLY giving Asty the God I promised her ages ago.

But first, we needed to decide which building we would be staying at. And I had just the place in mind.