The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

Chapter 150

It had been a week since the second semester started.

Thankfully, nothing particularly troublesome had happened. The Masked Woman had disappeared again, my abilities had returned to normal, and I didn’t face any major issues while attending classes. As usual, I rewound time to study and understand, and since the lessons contained a lot of common knowledge useful for living in this world, it wasn’t bad to simply understand and move on.

"So, turning back time is impossible, even for the Goddess. This world is strictly physical. There are magic and other things, but in the end, the results they produce cannot escape the laws of physics," explained Ada, the physics and mechanical engineering teacher.

I listened to her explanation with a nonchalant attitude. I would have thought the same if I were in her position. Even if the physics of this world isn’t as advanced as the 21st century in the world I came from, or even if there’s no logical basis or common sense to the idea that changing time would cause a parallel world to form or something like that, it made sense that most people would think that way.

In this world or the other world, no one had been able to reverse time. Not a single person. Just as the heliocentric theory replaced the geocentric theory as science advanced, if my ability couldn’t be scientifically proven, there would be no way to explain it to others.

So, I had no intention of debating her point.

But there was one person who disagreed.

"Um, Teacher?"

Johannes.

He wasn’t an important character in the original story, and he seemed the same here. He didn’t even interact with me, and since we were in the same class, I only remembered him because I’d memorized the names of the original named NPCs.

But I still remembered the basics about him. He was a devout follower of the Goddess Church.

"It doesn’t make sense that a divine being can’t do something," he said.

"Really?"

Ada didn’t seem to find his question particularly interesting.

Had she been working here for ten years, or had it been longer? She started working in her early twenties, and even after getting married and becoming "Lady Strange," she continued to teach, so she must have received such questions countless times.

"Yes, that’s right. For example, the scriptures of the Goddess Church—"

"Does it say something about reversing time? Like winding a clock?"

Ada interrupted him, stopping him from speaking and shrugging her shoulders.

"Let me ask you something. Do you think winding a clock is the same as turning back time?"

"U-Um... No, not exactly, but..."

"I think the same. Even if the world is like a clockwork mechanism, and the Goddess rewinds it, time itself still moves forward. The clock hands may move backward, but in the Goddess’s view, time continues to flow in one direction. It’s a reversal of the situation, but not a return along the timeline itself."

"Uh..."

Johannes looked around, uncertain, before speaking again.

"But doesn’t that make it no different from reversing time?"

"From our perspective, yes. But from the Goddess’s perspective, it’s different. The positions of the stars, the places where sand has fallen, the locations of flowing water—they would all return to their original state. But absolute time would still keep moving forward. The Goddess who rewound the clock would feel time flowing outside the clock."

Johannes tilted his head.

Honestly, I somewhat agreed with Johannes’s point.

---

**Mia Crowfield and I were slowly starting to speak more.**

But...

"Sylvia."

She kept trying to act friendly, and it made me extremely uncomfortable.

If she had started as an enemy like in the game, I could have just openly shown my dislike for her—but...

"Let’s have a meal together."

"Do you have plans after class?"

"Oh, are you going to the café? Can I join you?"

She boldly approached, and I was left with no way to act. At least, Mia Crowfield had initially shown discomfort toward me, so I could be rude in return, but this wasn’t the case with her.

"Sophia."

The one good thing was that I wasn’t the only one feeling uncomfortable.

Alice, seeing Sophia sitting with us in the café, spoke.

"Isn’t she from Belbur?"

"Yes, she’s from Lutetia," I replied.

"Really?"

Hearing that, Charlotte stared at Sophia Bianchi.

"But I’ve never seen you before."

An exchange student from another country who had received the Empire's approval to transfer, especially to the noble class. Charlotte, being well-connected, should have seen this character before, but...

"I’m somewhat clumsy in social circles. And my family only holds a knight’s title, so I never had the chance to meet the princess directly."

After that explanation, Charlotte seemed convinced.

"...Really?"

Charlotte tilted her head but eventually stepped back.

"Bianchi-sama."

"Please call me Sophia."

She responded with that answer.

"Bianchi-sama, have we met before?"

Ignoring my earlier words, I directly asked her.

When Sophia Bianchi heard my question, her eyes curved again into crescent shapes.

"No, not at all."

...What a bold response.