Travel, Beginning, and End

After that interesting spring outing and exploration, Rosaline set out on a solo trip around the island in the autumn of the same year, sometime in September or October.

As for whether it was September or October, no one knew. After all, in a post-apocalyptic world with only two people, time could only be recorded according to the changing seasons.

She felt that her teacher was capable of measuring time more precisely, perhaps even down to the date, but was simply too lazy to do so.

Of course, swordsmanship lessons should have been an obstacle to this trip. But recently, her teacher had required her to practice the basics alone and no longer allowed Rosaline to watch from the side, claiming it was to "free up her time." Rosaline felt that her slow learning progress had probably wounded her teacher's pride, prompting her to make such a decision.

Indeed, even a teacher who made excuses was still adorable.

But if she went traveling on her own, what would her teacher eat and drink?

Rosaline still had some concerns about that, but her teacher confidently stated that it was not something Rosaline needed to worry about, so she was reassured.

Right. Her teacher had lived alone for hundreds of years. Why would Rosaline need to worry about her? Besides, many dishes in the kitchen had begun with ideas from her teacher before Rosaline completed them. The reason her teacher rarely cooked herself was only because she wanted to give her student the chance to serve her proactively and repay her teacher's kindness.

When she set off, Rosaline packed her luggage, watered the little vegetable garden in the manor, then went to greet the rabbits and deer kept in the animal pens. After leaving, she also did not forget to visit several other farming areas to check on the wheat's growth and collect the bodies of animals or Mutants tangled in the Electric Net.

Then, passing through a long arcade street covered in wisteria vines and filled with the classical aesthetic of ruins, she went to take a look beneath the shadow of the elevated highway ruins where Lady Chicken had lived.

However, the whereabouts of the first Lady Chicken had become a mystery, and this place had become a stronghold where her descendants lived and multiplied.

When Rosaline arrived, the second generation was flapping about as they toyed with an ugly giant centipede over a meter long, covered in numerous humanoid eyes. Perhaps it had recently eaten the flesh and blood of some Mutants and had only just mutated. Its movements in battle were extremely clumsy, and it was actually being played with by a flock of wild chickens. Rosaline was utterly captivated for more than half an hour. Only when she saw one of the second generation about to lose her life did she finally intervene and save her.

Before leaving, she solemnly placed her right hand over her chest and bowed to the second generation, expressing her respect for their brave deeds in defending their home to the death.

—When Father had gone to the front lines to fight the Demon race, her eldest brother and the others had made that same gesture before he left. Back then, she had not known what it meant and had only watched silently. Now that she understood, it was a little too late.

Still, after spending so many years in the Land of Finale, whether there would ever be a day when she could return was truly a slim hope. The book recording the legends of the Filth Demons said that the Aurora Belt was a rare celestial phenomenon that appeared once every hundred years. Perhaps going home had always been nothing more than a beautiful fantasy.

Rosaline's trip around the island lasted half a year. Her main route took her around the island once, without visiting the Ish Mountains.

The trip had three main purposes. First, to relieve the tedium of repetitive post-apocalyptic life. Second, to continuously train her ability to survive independently. Third, to inspect the places along the way for Mother Nests or Third Stage Mutants and prevent certain past crises before they could happen again.

She crossed the center of Grayport City and saw the enormous pit once occupied by a Mother Nest. Below it lay the city's sewer system, though it was more appropriate now to call it an underground river.

It was covered in lush green moss. Occasionally, where sunlight fell, she could see maidenhair ferns that had somehow grown there. Perhaps because the waterways were too narrow, there were few Mutants in the underground river. There were, however, many lively fish. Small animals rarely seen on the surface also gathered here in clusters, playing happily as if this were some secluded paradise.

Later, she passed through abandoned towns and reached the ruins of Luya City.

Luya City's former Mother Nest had been on the shoals, creating many mutated jellyfish and Fish Monsters that had been especially evil and unsettling. But when she returned now, waves gently lapped against the white beach, washing up stranded starfish and sea anemones. Beneath the coconut trees, groups of unknown crabs crawled leisurely by. If one ignored the ruined, weed-covered streets nearby, it truly had the relaxed comfort of a seaside vacation.

Then she left Luya City as well. At the end of winter in the following year, she followed the long eastern ring road, braving frost and snow, stopping and starting along the way, until she finally returned to Ish City.

In the industrial outskirts beyond the city, she saw the half-mechanical Mutant that had once attacked teacher and student alike: the Mechanical Giant Turtle.

After her teacher had obtained the Pale Tentacle last year, she had launched a large-scale purge of high-level Mutants across the island. The Mechanical Giant Turtle had not escaped. The mutated flesh on its body was gone now, though its main body had been preserved relatively intact. The reason was that, when her teacher had dealt with it, she had deliberately held back because she thought it might be repairable someday.

As Rosaline passed beneath the Mechanical Giant Turtle's dust-covered head, she looked up at it for a while. The turtle's eyes, which should have been inanimate, seemed unexpectedly lively. In particular, the angle of the camera beneath the glass layer seemed as though it had been adjusted, aimed directly at where she stood, as if quietly watching something.

Rosaline thought of the theory of All Things Have Spirits that her teacher had introduced to her. She guessed that although the Mechanical Giant Turtle was already dead, quite a few Soul Runes remained within its body, which was why it gave her such a strange sense of liveliness.

Thus, as someone who was not afraid of Mutants but was afraid of ghosts, she left this place nervously and decided never to go near it again.

She had departed in autumn last year, and by the time she returned to the Central District of Ish City, it was already the spring equinox.

A fine rain fell that day. The endless spring drizzle made the ruins of the Black Tower Building in the distance resemble a lighthouse standing amid misty rain. Though it did not shine, it could still guide the way.

Before returning to the manor, worried about the second generation and the farms in the Central District, she did not go straight home. Instead, she held an umbrella and first went beneath the shadow of the elevated highway ruins to visit the chicks there.

Clearly, while she had been away, the chicken nest had suffered a fierce attack. The number of second-generation chickens was about half what it had been last autumn, which saddened her greatly, and she could not help observing a moment of silence for the fallen warriors. But she soon discovered that there were quite a few eggs in the nest, more than ten in all. She immediately brightened, grabbed three, and fled the area at once amid angry clucking.

Then she went to inspect the wheat fields on the farms.

But how should she put it? The wheat had been planted, but the surrounding environment was a complete mess. Weeds ran rampant, not only stealing the wheat's nutrients, while the damaged Electric Net had not been repaired or replaced in time. The leftover wheat stalks had been piled to one side without being dealt with, as if no one feared pests like aphids or corn borers breeding there.

This made her puff out her cheeks. Teacher is far too relaxed. Can this even count as taking care of it?

But she soon grew worried again, suspecting that her teacher was living a famine-stricken life where one meal did not lead to the next, so hungry that her chest clung to her back. She hurriedly rode the wind into the air, abandoned her umbrella, and flew back to the manor in one breath.

The manor beneath the spring rain remained as quiet and peaceful as ever. Tubes of light hanging from the trees gave off a warm glow, dyeing the rainwater around them into an orange mist.

Seeing the familiar scene, Rosaline relaxed. She was preparing to surprise her teacher when she noticed several pieces of clothing hanging on the drying rack outside the second floor. They had been forgotten and were futilely dripping in the rain.

She could not help taking a deep breath. Pushing open the door, she found her teacher hugging a book and sleeping on the sofa beside the floor-to-ceiling windows.

If one set aside the untended wheat fields, the clothes forgotten in the rain, and the table piled with clutter, the scene was still beautiful. In harmony with the melody of the spring rain, her teacher looked like a sleeping beauty detached from the world.

Rosaline let out a breath, softened her footsteps, and went upstairs to collect the clothes.

She had finally confirmed it. Sure enough, her teacher could not do without her.

After Rosaline's half-year journey around the island ended, life at the manor returned to normal. The weeds were gone, someone cleaned the dust, someone put away and organized the clutter, and there was no longer any need to worry about laundry or cooking.

However, Ivette felt that she was still quite innocent. She was not actually that lazy. She had forgotten to bring in the clothes when it rained because she had fallen asleep and did not know. The wheat field had been poorly tended because she could go without food, lacked that practical necessity, and did not know when her student would return. As for the clutter on the table, she was simply used to waiting until it reached a certain threshold before cleaning it all up at once...

It was like how some single guys would stuff their dirty clothes basket full before throwing everything into the washing machine at once. When living alone, why make things so refined?

And setting everything else aside, she really had been diligently practicing her cold-weapon skills. She could now avoid developing the same dependence on large-scale spell bombardment as before. That was solid proof of her efforts.

But she decided not to explain any of this to Rosaline.

Because it did not fit her persona.

Mm, this really was not stubbornness.

Time flew, and another year passed.

That year, Rosaline turned nineteen. She was completely a grown young woman now. Using her handicraft skills, Ivette made her a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, adding greatly to her intellectual, scholarly air.

Rosaline did not understand why she had to wear glasses when she was not nearsighted. But since her teacher liked them, she did as she was told. They also made her increasingly feel, whenever she looked in the mirror, that compared with her teacher, she seemed more like a teacher herself.

Of course, considering that she really was giving her teacher martial arts guidance, perhaps that feeling was not wrong.

Compared with previous years, this year was especially peaceful. Through an underground seed bank at the ruins of an agricultural college, the two began growing rice, and the days when they could eat steamed rice were just around the corner.

The following year, after improving their meals, the two went to Luya City in the far north and built a small seaside villa primarily of wood. Then, when summer became too hot, they could go north together to escape the heat and stroll along the white beach.

In the third year, Rosaline proposed the Ocean Upgrade Method: turning the sea into a super training ground for her teacher to absorb Mutation Factors. But because Ivette lacked the ability to adapt to underwater activities, they spent most of their time in shallow waters and did not dare venture too far out.

The efficiency did improve considerably, and both of them were certain that through constant devouring and digestion, those White Tentacles would surely evolve as well. It was only unknown how long that process would take.

On a summer night, the Milky Way hung low.

Countless stars intertwined across the deep blue canopy of the sky, like crushed mirror fragments scattered across it, reflecting specks of silver light on the distant lake. Insect calls drifted through the grass, and Firefly occasionally flitted past, trailing short, luminous arcs.

Riding the Magic Skateboard across the lake, Rosaline, dressed in a blue mage robe, elegantly stepped onto the metal platform of the Abyss Base.

This was the twelfth year since she had crossed over. At twenty-two, she had finally shed the girlish air of someone sheltered by her teacher and gained a sufficiently intellectual, mature, and voluptuous side instead. In her teacher's words, "You're already a qualified mature beauty."

Rosaline found that baffling, but her teacher did not explain, so she did not ask further.

Adjusting the gold-rimmed glasses on her nose, she opened the door and descended the stairs. The crisp sound of her heels striking the metal steps continued all the way down into the darkness below.

But she was not here to explore. Her teacher needed some soft furnishings for the newly built seaside villa in Luya City, so Rosaline had come to cut some Magic Light Vine and take it away.

Brushing her excess golden hair behind her ear, she got to work, cutting down the Magic Light Vine one strand at a time, bundling it up, and carrying it out to the metal platform.

It was undoubtedly a tedious and boring process, but she worked with great enthusiasm. Who did not enjoy gradually making their little home warmer and more beautiful?

As for returning home, she had completely given up on it two or three years ago. Crossing the Aurora and meeting her teacher had already been an unbelievable stroke of luck. How could a celestial phenomenon that appeared only once every hundred years appear again, sending her—now accomplished in her studies—back to reunite with her family? There was no such good fortune. Even daydreams did not work like that.

Just like that, after more than half an hour, she had bundled several bunches of Magic Light Vine. With her task complete, Rosaline could finally leave. She walked onto the metal platform, lazily stretched her waist, and looked up at the starry sky.

She saw a dazzling Aurora spanning the night sky, like a melting river of stars pouring down toward her gaze.