And so, the tutorial ended for this promising time mage (Lv. 1). After that, while continuing to test things out to also grind some time magic EXP, a minor incident occurred.

My mother hugged me and cried.

If I just say that out of the blue, you probably won’t get it.

I mentioned Time Leap briefly last time—well, while I happened to be using it while lying on my bed in my room, Mom must’ve come in for some reason—probably to drop off laundry.

When she entered the room, there was no reaction from me, so she must’ve thought I wasn’t there. But then she saw me lying on the bed and assumed I was just sleeping normally. However, sensing something off about my lack of presence, she got suspicious and came closer. She noticed I wasn’t breathing. When she touched me to check my pulse, before even feeling for it, she noticed my body was slightly cold and oddly stiff.

Thinking I had died, she apparently broke down sobbing while holding me.

Right at that moment, my Time Leap ended, and I regained consciousness—only to find my mother hugging me while crying hysterically. For a second, I had no idea what was going on and was completely confused. But I played it off like I’d just woken up, and as I listened to her tearful explanation, I gradually pieced together what happened. I played it down, telling her it was just her imagination—

“I’ll make sure to sleep under the covers from now on, so I won’t get cold like that again.”

—and forcibly brushed it off.

Mom didn’t seem entirely convinced, but in the face of the fact that I was alive, it must’ve felt like a minor issue, so she eventually accepted it?

Then, looking a little embarrassed about her outburst, she left my room.

Including the fact that dinner that night was ridiculously lavish despite it not being any special occasion, I couldn’t help but feel guilty.

Guess I can’t use Time Leap carelessly, huh.

Hmm…

Even without that incident, I was starting to feel the limits of experimenting alone. Maybe it’d be okay to tell Yōji about my time magic. I can trust him, and I don’t know if anyone more trustworthy than him will ever come along. Plus, Yōji might come up with some cool ways to use it—and even if he doesn’t, just sharing it with him sounds fun.

There’s a reason I haven’t told anyone—not even Yōji—until now. Personally, I think my time magic is pretty useless as it is, but from an outsider’s perspective, it might seem pretty threatening. If some minor crime happened (like, say, someone’s lunch money going missing) and the culprit wasn’t found, I’d be worried people might suspect me. That’s the biggest reason I couldn’t tell anyone.

So, the next day after club activities, while eating fries at McDonald’s, I broached the topic with Yōji like this:

“I’m thinking of quitting the baseball club.”

Huh? You thought I was gonna confess about time magic first?

Well, experimenting with time magic has been so fun that I’ve gradually lost interest in baseball. My high school’s pretty academically focused, so unlike middle school, I can’t afford to slack off on studying. On top of that, splitting my time between baseball club and time magic research feels like too much. Kinda ironic for a time mage to run out of time, huh?

That said, right now, I wanna focus more on time magic.

“Oh, hmm. Didn’t see that coming. Well, sure, why not? Guess I’ll quit baseball too, then.”

“Wait, seriously? You’re quitting too?”

“Yeah. Lately, I kinda felt like you weren’t really focused during practice. It reminded me of when you quit soccer.

But knowing you, you’re not just quitting baseball—you’ve got something else in mind, right? Tagging along with that sounds more fun.”

“Huh… yeah, I guess. Wait, how’d you know?”

“We’ve known each other a long time.

Besides, baseball was fun, but like how you feel, I’ve kinda seen the limits after the last tournament. Even when we went all out against powerhouse schools, I couldn’t really see a path to victory. I was starting to think aiming higher in something else might not be a bad idea.

That said, if you’d kept playing baseball, I would’ve stuck with it. Playing baseball with you was pretty fun, after all.”

Ah, this is exactly why. Yōji’s the kind of guy who pays attention to things I don’t even notice. He’s way too good for someone like me.

Which is exactly why I can trust him enough to tell him the truth.