Let’s Make Saving a Habit - Chapter 13

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 13
I activated my ability without saving the current point in time and bid her farewell.
“It was wonderful to see you after so long, Rosemary. I’ll pass along my regards to your older brother. I’ll come rescue you soon, so don’t cry there—be brave and stay strong, alright?”
That was when I was about to activate my ability.
In an instant, the Reception Room door burst open without warning.
“Tania!”
The one who entered through the door was Elysion, who had supposedly rushed out of Duke Papiope’s Mansion in haste this morning.
He appeared suddenly, his face flushed with unmistakable anger as he approached me swiftly.
“You, exactly what—!”
Wait. What could Elysion possibly be angry with me about?
Surely when I’d sought him out earlier today, he’d been his usual self.
He closed the distance between us in the blink of an eye and seized my wrist.
In my panic, I inadvertently activated the ability I’d been holding in readiness.
Oh no.
[Moving to Point 1.]
Noticing my vision lowering and my limbs shrinking, I furrowed my brow.
What was that about? Why had Elysion been angry with me?
Such thoughts were fleeting—Raspi’s frigid voice snapped me back to attention.
“You need to explain what you just said.”
Wariness emanated from his face, unaware that I had just met Rosemary from a future point in time.
I blinked slowly.
“What was the last thing I said?”
“Didn’t you ask why Rosemary didn’t stop me!”
Ah, so that’s where it had ended.
“I saw through foresight that you would come to harm. So I was simply curious why Rosemary, who is alive and well in the future, didn’t stop you.”
“How am I supposed to believe that?”
It didn’t really matter whether he believed me or not. However…
“I foresaw the future where your sister is alive, so you should be hoping I’m right.”
Raspi, who had desperately wished for his sister to be alive, parted his lips momentarily before closing them quietly.
“Rosemary is definitely alive in the future too. However, it seems something will happen to you while you’re rescuing your sister…”
“It doesn’t matter. I still have to go rescue her.”
Tsk.
He didn’t even know what would happen to himself, yet he stubbornly insisted on going anyway.
Still, how could I stop someone who was determined to go despite knowing the danger?
I exhaled softly and parted my lips.
“Then come with me.”
Fortunately, since Raspi’s ability was monster control—an utterly broken ability—I wouldn’t need to rewind time too many times.
But at my suggestion to go together, Raspi’s expression twisted sharply.
“I don’t need that kind of help. I still can’t trust you, and having you come along would only be a burden.”
“Oh really? So you actually know where your sister is?”
“….”
I shrugged lightly as if I’d expected as much, then smiled brightly with a glimmer in my eyes.
“So we’re going together?”

✦ ✦ ✦
First, I calmed Raspi down before he could bolt out the door.
After that, I forced him to eat the rice he claimed he wouldn’t touch, and made him sleep by sheer insistence.
And the next morning.
The Neighbor Woman brought stew and bread for breakfast, which I offered to Raspi.
He argued with me about not having time to eat, but when I said we wouldn’t leave unless he did, he finally put food in his mouth.
He’d held out a bit longer yesterday, but it seemed I’d made some progress with him in just a day.
I watched with satisfaction as food entered his mouth, then asked what was on my mind.
“By the way, why were you collapsed near the Black Market Shop yesterday?”
“…I was searching for Rosemary. I heard information at the Black Market Shop that ability users were being traded there, so I went to investigate.”
“And?”
“Until then, I was too focused on searching to notice my condition, but the moment I saw the empty shop, all my strength drained away….”
Raspi’s body bore many minor scars, but not enough to cause him to collapse from pain alone.
If that were the case, then with high probability….
“Raspi, have you eaten anything recently?”
He slowly shook his head.
Looking at his gaunt frame, it was obvious enough.
As an orphan, he’d never eaten well to begin with, and while searching for his sister, he probably couldn’t afford to beg or do anything else.
I was examining Raspi’s poor physical condition with dissatisfaction.
By then, he’d finished all the food and set down his plate with a satisfied expression, asking a question.
“But Tania, don’t your parents mind you doing such dangerous things?”
“Huh? I think there’s a misunderstanding—I don’t have parents.”
“…What?”
“I’m an orphan. And strictly speaking, this place isn’t even my home either. I’m just staying here temporarily with the help of a kind person.”
I lifted my thin arm as if it were evidence and showed it to him.
He looked at the empty plate with a rare expression of shock.
“Then the food you gave up to me yesterday and today….”
“Never mind that. Come on, get up. We need to hurry and rescue Rosemary, who must be terrified.”
I cut off the conversation dismissively, and he bit his lower lip with his teeth.
His expression was complicated in many ways.
“…Do you have a rescue plan?”
“You bring a monster and cause a commotion to draw their attention, and I rescue Rosemary in the meantime. Something like that?”
“How is an Abiliter without combat ability like you supposed to rescue Rosemary? It’s not that simple.”
“It’s fine. I saw myself rescuing Rosemary through foresight.”
At my statement that left him speechless, he let out a small sigh.
“…I’m not sure if I can trust you.”
I was about to say it was already too late to regret.
“But I can now say with certainty that you harbor no malice whatsoever.”
The eyes that had wavered uncertainly at my words about having no plan suddenly came into sharp focus, fixed upon me.
“…And so?”
“I will follow you.”
With those words, Raspi brought his lips to the back of my hand as if swearing an oath of fealty to his liege.
I stared at the gesture in a daze, thinking to myself.
‘Where did this barely-grown child learn such things?’

✦ ✦ ✦
A dark basement, a room crammed with rows of densely packed iron cages.
With each breath, the acrid stench of metal and mold assailed my senses.
The Ability Auction House.
I had deliberately allowed myself to be captured and brought here as bait to rescue Rosemary.
Peering around through the narrow gaps between the cages, I sank down onto the floor.
“So this is the Ability Auction House—there seem to be far more ordinary people than I expected.”
Then again, capturing Abiliter itself was an extraordinarily difficult task, so having so many seemed odd.
To maintain an auction house of this scale, they would need ordinary people to make it viable.
“Worthless bastards.”
In my previous timeline, I’d destroyed this place alongside Elysion.
Though I’d come here deliberately, being in the position of a captive felt strange.
As I was dragged through here, I spotted Rosemary huddled in a corner between the iron bars.
In large-scale operations like this, they don’t put captives up for auction immediately after abduction—they conduct various examinations over several weeks to set a minimum price.
Fortunately, it seemed Rosemary hadn’t been put up for auction yet.
Now that I’d located her, all that remained was to rescue her.
“I hope Raspi is waiting quietly outside…”
That was when it happened.
Among the cacophony of voices from the captives, the slow, deliberate footsteps of someone echoed through the basement.
Tap, tap.
An elderly man leaning on a cane came into view, his gaze sweeping across the people in the cages as he walked.
An unmistakable commanding presence and aura.
Though he wore a mask that concealed his entire face, I recognized his identity at once.
“…I never knew shopping for people was a hobby of yours.”
VIPs at the auction house examine merchandise before the auction and purchase items in advance, and this old man seemed to have come for a preview as well.
He was someone I’d regarded rather favorably in the future timeline, but I was disappointed to see him setting foot in such a place.
The old man, who had only been examining the inside of the cages without taking any action, stopped before me.
It seemed my persistent stare had caught his attention.
“You do not avert your gaze from me.”
The old man’s eyes gleamed with amusement.
“Are you not afraid?”
I tilted my head with a puzzled expression, feigning ignorance. “Are you referring to Grandfather when you say frightening? Or are you speaking of my current situation?”
“…Hmm, let’s say both.”
“Grandfather does have rather peculiar tastes—buying people with money is admittedly a bit frightening. But my situation is manageable enough.”
“My grandfather has this strange hobby of buying people with money, which is a bit scary. But my situation is pretty okay.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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