Chapter 2523: Morningstar University’s Second Campus

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Central Region, Central Academic City, Morningstar University District, Morningstar University Campus, Garden of Beginning

"I don’t have time to argue with you. I’m heading back," Lucine said curtly, rolling her eyes as she turned toward the Time Vestige. She knew better than to waste her breath — debating with me was pointless when I clearly understood far more about the situation than she did.

Still, countless questions swirled in her mind. Everything she had seen and heard in this past unsettled her. How had I managed to defy the Card Celestial? And why had Slay kept calling me Hybrid Celestial?

She wanted to ask me directly, but she already knew how that would go — I would never give her a straight answer. So, instead, she tried to piece it together on her own, replaying every word and every sign she had witnessed.

But Lucine’s understanding of the myriad realms was too limited. She had glimpsed too little and grasped even less. Her reasoning, confined by her shallow world view, couldn’t possibly lead her anywhere near the truth. Even if she had somehow understood everything she’d seen and heard, she still lacked the perspective to interpret it correctly — much less uncover the reality hidden behind it.

Lucine’s understanding — her entire worldview — was confined within the boundaries of the Card World. She was like a frog trapped at the bottom of a well, staring up at a narrow circle of sky, while the answers she sought lay far beyond the boundaries of the well. On some level, she knew this too. That was why she didn’t bother arguing any further about who owed whom in this entire Time Vestige ordeal.

Yes, I had saved her life — but she was only here because she had come to save mine. It evened out in the grand scheme of things. Unless, of course, Lucine was foolish enough to feel grateful to the very person who’d dragged her into danger in the first place. She seemed like the type, but something told me that this time, she wouldn’t.

She was still stewing in quiet embarrassment, after all. The realization that she had revealed too much — that she had gone so far as to recruit me into Morningstar University without understanding the full extent of what I was — weighed heavily on her. Now that she did know, she was desperate to shift the blame, convincing herself that I had deliberately manipulated her into exposing the university’s core secrets.

Well, perhaps I had nudged her along a little — but in truth, she had done most of the work herself. She was the one who kept talking, sharing things she never should have, all on her own in hopes of tempting me into enrolling into Morningstar University.

Had Lucine known my history with Morningstar University — especially their conspiracy with the Central Government to have me kidnapped — she would have never dared to tempt me into enrolling there using such means. The very thought would have frozen in her throat.

Shaking my head, I followed her into the Time Vestige that hovered above the lightning-struck stump. The vestige was a kind of subspace. Within it, Morningstar University had constructed an entire campus — towering spires and intricate structures veiled beneath an SSS-rank Kaleidoscopic Maze Array Formation.

It turned out that the formation Henricks once mentioned wasn’t merely a defense mechanism. It was capable of traveling in time along with the time vestige, and even moving in and out of time vestige entirely. All along, while I was within the Garden of Beginning, the maze formation had been residing here, hidden in plain sight.

The Time Vestige itself served as the core of this colossal array — and, like the vestige, it was utterly unique across all timelines of the Card World.

What truly caught me off guard, however, was what awaited inside. Morningstar University’s campus within the Time Vestige was teeming with life. Card apprentices moved about in quiet focus — some immersed in research and experimentation, others lost in comprehension of the elusive time rule. Then there were those that maintained the records on various timelines of the card world and the time prisons their founders had created. The air thrummed with a strange, solemn energy — the pulse of knowledge and ambition suspended between centuries just like the original Morningstar Campus.

I hadn’t expected to see so many people living within the Time Vestige. It made me wonder if this place was the true final sanctuary the founders of Morningstar University had once spoken of—a haven meant to preserve the card apprentice community should the demons ever conquer the world. And not the ’Garden of Beginning.’

Whatever the case, card apprentices living here and working made sense. As long as these apprentices gathered the ingredients and materials they needed from any timeline, they could continue their experiments here indefinitely, without worrying about breaking the time taboos and regardless of where the time vestige was anchored in time. It would only be a concern if they ever wished to return to their original timeline. Even then they would just return to the original timeline.

What truly astonished me, though, was that Lucine had chosen to reveal this hidden campus to me at all. The Time Vestige I stood in now was nothing like the one Morningstar University presented to the five regions. That one was a carefully constructed illusion—a controlled image meant for display. But this... this was the real Time Vestige, a secret realm where Morningstar’s true research and ambitions were cultivated unknown to the outside world.

They had deceived the five regions about nearly everything—the number of people who could access the Time Vestige at once, the sheer amount of resources required to sustain it, even the true nature of its operation. If the five regions ever learned the truth about the Time Vestige, let alone the Labyrinth of Myriad Pasts, chaos would erupt. A war wouldn’t just be likely—it would be inevitable.

So why wasn’t Lucine worried about revealing it to me? Did she truly trust me not to use this knowledge against her or Morningstar University? Or perhaps she believed I already knew enough to deal them irreversible damage, and that revealing more would change nothing—only make the inevitable worse.

"Wyatt, you can comprehend the Time Rule here. We have chambers equipped with arrays that enhance focus and induce a state of calm. If you wish, you’re free to use them," Lucine said, her tone composed yet unexpectedly open.

Her words caught me off guard. For someone as cautious and calculating as her, this level of transparency was rare. Maybe she no longer felt the need to conceal anything—perhaps she believed I already knew too much. Or maybe, on some instinctive level, she understood that hiding humanity’s final sanctuary from me was pointless.

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