After that sequence, the story of Sugawara no Michizane naturally experienced a time skip.
There’s not a lot to do as a baby when you’re not fighting time itself for the survival of your newfound self-sacrificing mother, after all.
I wish I could say the same for myself and have my own damn timeskip, but the world remained as unfair as it has always been.
[Year 1: As your mother had already long died from having given birth to you, the only family you had were your father and a couple of particularly sympathetic servants]
[You indeed had two older brothers as well.
Unlike your father and your personal caretakers, they didn’t see you as the unlucky infant that you were, but as the freak responsible for their mother’s death]
[Their distaste and animosity grew over the course of the year once they discovered that a famous Onmyoji had actually decided to take you in as his personal disciple]
[Just what exactly made a freak like you so extraordinary?]
[Faced with such relentless bullying, you didn’t consider them family at all]
My gaze fell over the scene before me as I found myself within another chamber of the Sugawara estate.
Inside was Michizane, who now stood upon his own two legs, rapidly relearning how to walk much to the amazement of his caretakers.
“How can this be?
Why, he’s learning so quickly!” One woman said as another, a younger woman, soon interjected.
“—But isn’t it normal for infants to start learning how to walk by now?”
“That might be so, but we haven’t even urged him to try.
He’s doing all of this by himself and his progress is astonishing!
Oh, how I wish my own son had been this intuitive when he was little…”
Suddenly, a voice broke through the room’s serenity, high-pitched and petty.
“Oh, please!”
That voiced belonged to a dark-haired petulant child, a little boy of around 4 years of age.
Quickly, I deduced him to be one of those previously mentioned older brothers.
“I walked earlier than that, why does that little freak get all the praise?” He said, a scowl framing his features before he smirked.
“With four arms, he’d surely be better suited to crawl like a beast!”
The boy went over and promptly shoved Michizane to the ground as the two servants were left helpless, unable to prevent his assault.
It couldn’t be helped, they didn’t have the corresponding authority to try and speak up against a noble young master.
I shook my head at this sight.
Did this little kid really consider that tough, was he stupid?
Instead of trying to solidify a strong relation with a guaranteed future Onmyoji, he actually just bullied him.
Kids were really damn stupid sometimes.
The scene ended there, so I pressed the arrow to allow the Simulation Gu to proceed.
[Year 2: It was during this point that you were completely weaned off of breast milk]
[Although you were without a mother, the Sugawara Clan was not without its funds.
Their wet nurses supplied you with nourishment and your comparatively huge body fed upon their milk with gluttonous intent]
[Year 3: Despite already being familiar with the Japanese language, you still had to adjust to the ancient dialect of the Heian era]
[Cleverly, you intentionally made it appear as though you were still learning.
You spoke in broken sentences and only after turning 3 did you fully adopt a fully respectable way of speaking]
‘Ah, that’s right…
the dialect should be way different here.
Thankfully, Simulation Gu is kind enough to translate it all for me.’ I mused internally with a satisfied smile.
In my past life, my native language had been English.
This was to be expected since my family moved to the US when I was a toddler.
I unfortunately never even got the opportunity of learning my actual ethnic language.
I was indeed bilingual though as I had learned Japanese later in life from my desire to get the authentic anime-watching experience.
Otherwise, I would have been left clueless regarding Shina and Zouken’s deal.
The Simulation Gu translated every word spoken so far in the simulated dream into English, yet I suspected that it may gradually change to Japanese by the time I got into highschool again, provided I lived that long.
By then, I’d probably have a closer relationship with this language from having been exposed to it so much.
I wonder if there were any Magecraft spells that allowed one to translate all spoken languages into one the caster understood the most.
There probably was.
As for me, if the refinement of more Gu Worms in the future was possible, I should be able to refine a Wisdom Path Gu with such an ability.
Whether I, a Gu Master, could utilize Magecraft was unknown.
This was one thing I was banking on for this simulated dream.
By observing Michizane’s Onmyodo practice, I could try and replicate it in real life, and even if it didn’t work out due to my lack of working Magic Circuits, just the knowledge itself would be immensely useful once I awakened them.
In the Unlimited Blade Works route, Shinji had his Magic Circuits awakened, allowing him to become a proper Magus after the ending.
Considering I had those same Magic Circuits, they should be able to be awakened in the same or at least, similar manner.
Just because I had special access to another world’s power system didn’t mean I would neglect or ignore the one from this world.
Rather, I would adopt and use both in conjunction with one another if it was possible.
This was my unique strength.
My mind returned to the scene before me, which was that of Michizane politely asking a caretaker what today’s dinner would be.
She smiled brightly and answered, “Young Master, we’ve prepared a…”
Her eyes visibly widened to saucers.
“Oh, my Kami—you just spoke so clearly!”
“Hm, yeah.
Is that a problem?” The little boy asked in turn as he tilted his head.
“N-No, not at all.
This is wonderful.
Everyone, the Young Master has learned how to speak fluently!” She shouted to the other servants to witness this memorable scene with a bright smile.
[Year 4: You spent most of your time learning and reading.
With your adult mind, you excelled at this greatly and much to everyone’s amazement, you even composed complicated poetry]
[Of course, you actually just plagiarized most of them, but it’s not like anyone can call you out for doing so in this era, right?
You made sure to plagiarize only poems composed after the Heian era so as to avoid this possibility]
The next displayed Michizane hunched over a few sheets of paper as he wrote—skip.
Did the Simulation Gu really think I wanted to see every little detail of his childhood?
Hell no, that’s boring!
Get me to the hype moments and interesting Magecraft spells already!
I was running against the clock here.
I wasn’t sure how long this simulated dream would last, but I had a feeling it would end when I woke up regardless if the story met its conclusion or not.
In that case, it was better to skip all this fluff and filler to maximize my potential gains.
[Year 5: You found a new hobby to amuse yourself with around this time; bug catching]
[Actually, it would be more accurate to say that what you were doing was specifically catching all sorts of venomous and poisonous creatures, not necessarily insects]
[Whether it be a frog, a scorpion, or even a deadly snake, you were willing to catch them all!]
[Of course, you revealed only the bug catching aspect to the Sugawara retainers so that they’d regard your hobby as an eccentric phase rather than something potentially life-threatening]
[The reason you were interested in catching so many toxic creatures was because you intended to refine a Gu!]
I was immediately left startled.
‘What the…
where the hell did this come from!?’
Unlike me, who had a mysterious otherworldly butterfly deus-ex-machina me an Aperture, there had been no explanation as to how Michizane received his.
Assuming he had one, of course, which he must.
Michizane wouldn’t have thought to create a Gu without having one, after all…
‘Wait, don’t tell me it was actually explained in the scene I just skipped!’ I cursed myself for that stupid act.
Couldn’t I have just waited for the scene to play out?
Since when did I have such a low attention span!?
Thankfully, another arrow appeared in that instant that allowed me to go back to a previous scene up to the last time I made a choice, clearly displaying the ever changing nature of the simulated dream that was different from a rigid, ordered System.
However, when I checked the past scenes, I was left disapointed as they were the filler I suspected them to be.
There really was no explanation on how Michizane had forged his Aperture.
At least, not at this point of the simulated dream.
Nevertheless, my hope began to swell.
Before this, I had started to think that saving Shina would be a lost cause.
What Onmyodo that Michizane could learn wouldn’t be available to me in my current state, but if I could see how he refined a Gu and replicate it in real life, that would change everything!