[You are 15 years old. The great general summoned you one morning and spread a map before you. The borders of your plot of land had been drawn in red ink, but those borders were considerably wider than you had known them to be. He had likely transferred a portion of his own territory to you as well. When you looked carefully you noticed that the added section contained a gold mine. The great general placed his finger on the map and spoke: this is yours now. You will learn to govern it.][The great general began with the city's economy, the balance of income and expenditure, the tax collection system, the importance of trade routes. Then he moved to military defense, where the city's walls should run, where towers should be built, how the water sources should be protected. Then he addressed the governance of the people, how complaints should be heard, how disputes should be resolved, how the trust of the public should be earned. Each lesson began early in the morning and ran until midd

The great general looked at the old man.The man turned to Leo and opened the box. Inside was a small, dark blue stone with fine runes engraved across its surface."As long as you carry this stone with you, your consciousness won't drift off the same way again," the man said. "Whenever your consciousness begins to wander, the stone will warm and bring you back to yourself."Leo looked at the stone. Then at the great general.The great general was still looking at the wall. Leo felt a flicker of genuine surprise when he realized that the man had noticed the pattern and gone to the trouble of finding an unfamiliar sorcerer to address it. Apparently the great general truly thought of him as a son."How long have you been preparing this?""Since the second time."And there was the proof.Leo took the stone and held it in his palm.It warmed immediately. It warmed so intensely that Leo dropped it.The sound of the stone hitting the floor echoed through the room.Everyone present heard it.

Leo stared at the door for a while.Then he fixed his eyes on the ceiling and thought. The princess was eighteen, he was seventeen. One year between them. But that one year had determined the structure of this marriage, and the structure was clear. During the day the man was king, at night the woman was queen, apparently.Leo undid the top two buttons of his shirt and let himself cool down.He turned back to the letters.This time he could read without difficulty.Though while he read, one corner of his mind was occupied with something else.The time skip hour.The people around him had noticed the pattern, that much was clear now. The hour needed to change. Evening, while everyone was asleep, after getting into bed — that was the most sensible option.But now, before he got into bed, something else was waiting for him.Leo thought about it for a moment.After every time skip, when he opened his eyes, the body picked up exactly where it had left off. From the point where the system con

"Even if you failed, using this spell created a small effect in the past. Like a butterfly flapping its wings. That's why I met you much earlier than in the original timeline. And now think about it." The man stopped. "If I start training you immediately, without wasting any time, perhaps before I die your future self will manage to use my spell. In its completed form. And you'll send it back to the past. Then you'll pass the message from the future on to me. This way both of us will have come to possess this spell."The room went quiet.Leo had listened to the man, every word, every connection. The logic was consistent, at least internally. But something was missing.If what the man said was correct, the moment he decided to take Leo on as a student, memories from the future should have arrived in Leo's mind.At least as someone who had watched dozens of time-related series and films, Leo considered himself to have a better grasp of time than this old man.Actually, looking at it from

[You are 20 years old. Your wife was waiting for you in the study early one morning. On the map spread before her, an area running along the eastern border had been marked. Sandstorms were the problem. Families who had newly settled on your lands were filing complaints, some structures had been damaged, and the mine workers' output had fallen. Your wife had tried different solutions for weeks, walls, ditches, windbreaks, but none were permanent, and each required high cost.][While you were looking at the map, Maren teleported into the room without any warning. He asked what was happening and why you still hadn't come to the lesson. When you explained, he said simply that the answer was hidden in the forests, that you should order some tree seeds, and teleported away. Hearing what he said, you assumed he would perform some magnificent spell and turn the entire desert into a forest.][The following morning, you placed orders for seed pouches to be brought from foreign countries. The fi