Claire nodded with a squinty smile.
"This is a mission only I can accomplish?"
"That's right~"
Ian stared at her for a few seconds, then his eyes widened slightly: "Because I can interfere with fate?"
Claire's smile deepened, a hint of approval appearing in her eyes. She clapped lightly. "Smart! As expected of the student of my senile old Teacher Raven."
At this point it wasn't just a personal attack.
It was a spiritual medal.
Ian was silent for a while, then looked up, gaze blazing.
"Are you going to teach me Time Magic?"
He was a bit shocked at the methods of the Female Titan Claire.
"Nope."
Hearing that, Claire just shook her head, her tone still relaxed. "I'll build you a Time Machine."
Obviously.
She really did possess power that could interfere with time. Maybe the reason the Titans no longer had this power was because she took it away, so the Gods created later on don't have that kind of ability?
"..."
Ian's expression froze for a moment.
"...Huh?" Ian almost thought he'd misheard. "You said 'build'? You mean you're going to make it yourself, with your own hands?"
"Yeah." Claire shrugged. "I'm pretty free anyway."
Her words were still the kind that left people speechless.
Ian opened his mouth.
In the end he didn't get stuck on that topic, but instead asked another question that was bothering him.
"Doesn't that mean I can just use the Time Machine to go back to my own era?" His tone held a bit of probing, eyes locked on Claire, wanting to see her reaction.
Claire couldn't help laughing at that. She reached out and ruffled Ian's hair; Ian tried to dodge but failed, and the three-meter-tall Giant spoke lightly.
"My power has limits. The Time Machine I make can't run that far~" She paused, then added, "And besides, you're not the kind of person who'd just abandon your principal, are you?"
"..."
Ian was rendered speechless.
This woman… understood him way too well.
He sighed and spread his hands, resigning himself.
"Fine, bring it on, show me."
He wanted to learn a bit about the Female Titan's Alchemy methods.
However.
Claire's eyes lit up. She immediately skipped over to the table in the room; with her three-meter-tall frame, the movement made the whole room shake.
And then.
This big loli pulled open a drawer.
"???????"
Ian's eyes went wide.
"The Time Machine's been ready for ages~"
Claire proudly showed off what was inside her drawer: in the pitch-black space was something Ian knew all too well, a strangely shaped miniature Time Machine covered in runes.
It looked exactly like the Time Machine from a certain anime.
"..."
Ian stared at the "Time Machine" that was obviously based on Doraemon's design.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
"You even had to rip off Doraemon?"
His tone was filled with pure speechless disbelief.
"Art comes from life~"
Claire said it with righteous confidence.
"Besides, don't all time travel devices look like this?"
She had the authority to define that.
Ian was still completely at a loss for words.
He lowered his head to look at the Time Machine, emotions churning.
He'd thought he was just a regular Magic student, yet now he was somehow about to rely on a "drawer Time Machine" made for him by a Female Titan to travel through time collecting Alchemy Materials.
He suddenly felt he might no longer be just an ordinary student. He was taking part in a journey far grander and more profound than he'd imagined.
And the starting point of this journey was actually a pot of Phoenix Soup—he'd had more than ten minutes to digest this information, yet it still felt downright absurd.
"What the hell am I even doing."
Ian took the list and crawled inside.
The room fell quiet again, with only the soup pot still bubbling away.