I was so utterly and despicably powerless.
I’d finally understood my role in this world and, after a long process of trial and error, I even realized that by taking knowledge from the future and leaving it in the present, I could change the course of the world. By my hand alone, the future could branch into countless possibilities and tread down a different path.
But leaving behind future knowledge meant little if the people of the present failed to comprehend it. And if they finally comprehended it at the wrong time, then the future would branch off into a different direction than what I had planned.
Among these futures was one in which the world ended even before Eluria Caldwin was born—yet still her fate remained unchanged. Humanity may decline and civilization may return to its roots, but without fail Eluria Caldwin would eventually create magic and lead the world to its end.
I had the power to change the future...but none to save her.
I could do naught but watch her live out her life in solitude. I couldn’t even rush to her side, for my flesh was mortal and we were parted by a millennium of time. All I could do was listen to her lonely tune from a time in which she had yet to even exist. I could hold my hand out, but it would never reach her.
The people hailed me as the Sage, but I was truly so helpless. It felt like fate itself had rendered me powerless to save her, just as it had condemned her to be the lone custodian of the world’s end.
Could I have been mistaken to believe that it was my job to save her?
Perhaps.
But even then...I refused to give up.
If all paths led to a future of ruin, then I simply had to create a new path. If fate had condemned her to the end of this world, then I would bestow upon her a new role. If I couldn’t save her myself, then I could just entrust the task to someone else.
The moment I came to that realization, I abandoned my plan to change the future. Instead, I used all the knowledge at my disposal to create a new future.
May this new future be the kind and beautiful world she envisioned. May it be one in which the girl who earnestly strove for everyone’s happiness was hailed as the Sage, instead of a powerless plagiarist like me.
Now then, to whom shall I entrust the task of saving her?
To save Eluria Caldwin was to save the world itself. Hence, this role would have to be shouldered by my polar opposite—someone strong, someone mighty, someone who possessed the power to save her and all the people in this world, to grasp the future that remained so helplessly out of my reach.
And so, with my hands, I decided to create a Hero.