After figuring out who destroyed the Kingdom, the strange explosion that once "sent off" other rebels resounded again. The middle-aged man lying on the vegetable vendor woman shuddered violently, regaining his consciousness.
*Was I... temporarily replaced by my past self?*
Having understood what had just happened, the middle-aged man's expression changed. He quickly reached into his coat and pulled out a leather booklet.
After carefully checking the booklet and finding no signs of it being flipped through, his past self hadn't seen the contents. The middle-aged man's face changed again and again. He then grabbed the shoulders of the woman below him, shaking her frantically as he shouted with urgency in his eyes,
"Tell me quickly! What did I do? What did I just do?"
*This madman... he seems even crazier than before?*
Looking at his eyes like he wanted to devour someone, the vegetable vendor woman clenched her vegetable basket tightly, wanting to bash it against the back of his head. But she worried her strength wasn't enough and might provoke him further instead of knocking him out. Shakily, she answered,
"You just... just asked me who destroyed the Kingdom..."
"What did you say? What exactly did you say?"
"I... I... I just told the truth..."
Frightened out of her mind by the man's increasingly frenzied expression, the vegetable vendor woman answered tearfully,
"Wasn't it Prince Lyon who ended the Kingdom? He announced it himself five years ago."
"And then? What did I say after hearing that?"
"You... after hearing that, you gritted your teeth and repeated Prince Lyon's name, then looked up and howled strangely, and then... then you just collapsed on me without moving..."
Imagining the scene the vendor woman described, the middle-aged man broke out in a cold sweat, realizing his past self probably misunderstood something. The sweat drenched through the back of his shirt.
His past self repeatedly borrowed the anomalous object to observe the future, but the results only got worse each time. Despite continuing to struggle, he was almost in despair deep down inside.
Given his past mental state, upon emerging from the door this time and hearing the Kingdom had completely disappeared, his first instinct naturally wouldn't lean positive. Instead, he would focus on worse outcomes like the country's early downfall and complete occupation.
With his obsessive and mad nature back then, once he returned to his original timeline's body, the first thing he'd likely do was find a way to take out Prince Lyon!
*I'm such an idiot! I'm such an idiot! At least read what I wrote in the booklet before you leave!*
After swatting himself hard across the face twice, to prevent this world—one of the only decent outcomes—from being altered, the middle-aged man shot up from the ground, aiming to find others with time-based abilities to try and stop his past self from doing something foolish.
Unfortunately, as soon as he got up, the middle-aged man was hit in the back of the head by a vegetable basket thrown from behind, full to the brim.
It was a hard hit, knocking the middle-aged man flat on the spot. Even the two radishes in the basket, each bigger than a human head, shattered upon the violent impact.
Just as the vegetable vendor woman began to pick up the basket to see if the radishes were still edible, the middle-aged man, knocked down by the basket, began crawling forward, yelling hoarsely at the crowd, even as he crawled.
"Quick... send me... send me to the Purification Bureau! This world... needs me to save it..."
After swinging the basket and hitting him again, the vegetable vendor woman watched the middle-aged man collapse onto the ground, out cold. She pursed her lips disdainfully,
"This madman... save the world? Does he really think he's Prince Lyon or something? Oh? By the way, who is Prince Lyon again?"
*Eliminate him! Leon Laine! The one who ended the Kingdom must be removed!*
Returning to his own body, the middle-aged man, who had been "napping" on a long table, suddenly opened his eyes. He took a deep breath, filled with murderous intent, ready to summon all the rebels with abnormal abilities back and draft a new assassination plan.
As he lifted his hand, intending to activate the anomalous object again, he heard a strange, almost imperceptible knocking on the door.
Hearing the intermittent knocking outside, the middle-aged man shuddered, a deep wariness flashing in his eyes.
His anomalous object, the "Gate of the Other World," besides granting brief access to the future, could keep shifting behind every door in the Capital City. Only certain doors recognized by him could lead stably into the world beyond.
For someone to successfully knock on the "Gate of the Other World" without him noticing meant they knew which doors were "real," possessing the ability to directly track him down.
As the middle-aged man hesitated between immediately fleeing or rallying everyone to fight, a voice as cold as ice shards came from outside.
Opening the door that was no longer twisting weirdly and had become completely stable, a black-robed elder walked in, raising his hand to remove the hood and revealing a naturally sorrowful face.
"It's getting harder and harder to find where you place your door. I rode around in a carriage for ages in the Capital City before barely finding a 'real door' that was about to disappear."
"There's no choice. That Rat guy from the Purification Bureau is too troublesome; he has spies all over the Capital City. If I'm not cautious, I would've been caught long ago."
Seeing it wasn't someone from the Virgin Sanitation Bureau but the black-robed elder he had collaborated with, the middle-aged man relaxed slightly, then frowned and asked,
"Didn't you say last time that we were all scraps, myself included, and none of us met your requirements, and that you wouldn't contact us anymore? Why have you suddenly come looking for me?"
"I need your help, of course."
Seemingly indifferent to the middle-aged man's disgruntled tone, the black-robed elder's long and drooping eyebrows lifted slightly, speaking coldly,
"Just a few hours ago, I found something that might meet my requirements. It should be a photo, kept in the drawer of the Virgin Branch Commander's office in the Purification Bureau.
Nathan, you should've seen firsthand how strong that Virgin woman is in some future. I'm not confident I can retrieve what I want without alerting her, so I need to borrow your power."
Upon hearing this, the middle-aged man raised an eyebrow slightly, immediately understanding the black-robed elder's implication.
"You want me to move the 'Gate of the Other World' to the office door so you can sneak in directly through it?"
"Okay, but in exchange, you need to do something for me too."
After pondering briefly, the middle-aged man narrowed his eyes and proposed,
"Temporarily strengthen Phoebe's ability for me, so that anyone she touches vanishes from everyone's memory. Can you do that?"