When I Woke Up… The Future?

“Ugh… mmm… huh! What time is it!?”

I, Seyi Falt, woke up. I was inside my house.

The wall clock pointed to nine.

“Oh no I overslept…! What do I do, get dressed, makeup… ah geez! If I’m late the old hag director will bully me again!”

I hurriedly got ready and grabbed the wooden door.

Crack…!

“Craack…?”

The doorknob broke!? Why!?

The wooden door collapsed as it was…

“Eh, what… is this…?”

In front of me spread ruins.

“What happened to the Royal Capital…? Why did it become ruins overnight… how did this happen…?”

Yesterday was… right.

After suffering the director’s harassment, just as I was heading home.

A massive horde of monsters attacked the Royal Capital.

It was a phenomenon called a stampede. I had heard about it from my master.

When monster food sources decreased for some reason, they descended upon human settlements in a large swarm.

The swarm of monsters attacking the Royal Capital.

I shut myself inside my workshop and stayed indoors.

…I barely had any power to fight. I couldn’t go out and bravely battle monsters.

My life was most important. So I improvised monster-repelling potions, splashed them around my house, and hid inside.

Sadly, I lacked materials and, more importantly, time to make enough potions to protect everyone in the Royal Capital.

Call it cruel if you want, but I prioritized my own survival.

However, I had almost no food at home. After some days the food ran out. Yet the monsters showed no sign of leaving the Royal Capital.

So I thought of something. Before starving, I would enter suspended animation.

My master Nicholas Flamel taught me how to make potions with various effects.

One of them was the [Suspended Animation Potion]. A magic medicine that put the drinker into suspended animation for a certain period.

Upon drinking it, the body instantly froze, cells preserved while maintaining nutrients, entering a deathlike state.

Thinking the stampede would end eventually, I drank the suspended animation potion…

“And now is when I woke up, huh.”

I was alone in the ruined town.

The storm had probably passed.

“…First I need to understand the situation.”

I didn’t know how much time had passed between entering suspended animation and waking now.

It didn’t look like just one or two months.

“The thriving Royal Capital wouldn’t fall apart this badly… and the moss is insane…”

The building deterioration suggested years had passed. What exactly were the effects of the suspended animation elixir again…?

It was my first time actually drinking something my master taught me to make.

“…………”

Facing the ruins, what crossed my chest was… guilt, maybe. The feeling that I alone survived.

What happened to everyone else? Did they survive…?

“Ah—yeah! Stop! No overthinking! There were knights in the Royal Capital, they must’ve defeated the monsters! Everyone probably abandoned the wrecked town and lives somewhere new!”

Let’s go with that. Yeah… no heavy drama allowed.

Even if I lamented the past here, I couldn’t change the result!

“For now I’ll head toward a town while gathering information. If I meet someone, I’ll know how long I was in suspended animation.”

Once decided, time to move.

Though I couldn’t wander outside without preparation.

At minimum I needed monster-repellent and healing potions. I’d rather not die from monsters during travel.

I returned to my workshop once to search for materials.

“Yeah… basically nothing!”

There were dried herbs, but almost all materials had deteriorated. Ugh, the worst…

“Well, I’ll just make potions at least.”

I took a ring from my pocket.

I put it on my right hand and held my palm forward.

“Alchemy Workshop… deploy!”

A cube about the size of a human face appeared.

This was the Alchemy Workshop.

Inside this small box, tools necessary for alchemy were magically reproduced.

Flasks, grinders, and so on.

Time flowed differently inside the box than outside.

Meaning the time needed for alchemy could be greatly compressed.

“When I shove herbs into the box…”

Synthesis occurred inside the cube.

The herbs decomposed, were extracted, and mixed with water…

When I put my hand into the box, a potion bottle came out.

This was the Flamel-style alchemy.

By combining spatial magic and alchemy, fast high-quality potions could be made.

…That said, without materials, no potions could be made.

And this magic box only skipped procedures.

It merely shortened time, so potion quality depended on the maker’s skill.

In short, if the maker was lousy, the potion would still be low quality.

“I’ll turn all dried herbs into healing potions. And I’ll need to make repellent potions along the way.”