A Small Wish

Outside the seaside villa in Luya City, Ivette stood on the white beach, expressionlessly watching the seawater before her.

The clear, pristine sea was like a giant mirror. Amid the rippling reflections, it mirrored the entire starry sky—and naturally, that dazzling Aurora that had suddenly appeared could be seen within it as well.

Directly overhead.

Something was wrong, she thought.

Very wrong.

She had heard Rosaline speak about the Aurora Belt and Remnant Abyss. The key point was that this phenomenon appeared only once every hundred years. For most ordinary people on the Radiant Continent, seeing it even once in their lifetime was no easy feat. So why had it appeared again on a place like Ish Island after merely twelve years?

A coincidence?

Was it really just a coincidence?

She watched the Aurora overhead, the brilliant river of stars, the bright full moon, and the translucent vortex that flickered in and out of sight above the shallows. For a very, very long time, she did not move.

Whether it had been a few minutes or the compression of several dozen centuries, the low roar of a Magitech Motorcycle engine tore through the cloying silence and dragged Ivette back from the depths of her thoughts. She tilted her head slightly and saw Rosaline leap from the motorcycle before it had even come to a full stop, her breathing somewhat unsteady. "Master, I..."

Ivette did not let her finish. "Did you bring everything?"

Behind her gold-rimmed glasses, Rosaline's eyes reddened for an instant. She fell silent for several seconds before answering in a low voice, "It's all at the manor..."

Though the chance of going back was slim, she had actually prepared to return home many years ago. There were two large suitcases in her room, filled with clothes, novels and magazines, professional books on rune knowledge, pillows and bedsheets, useless little wasteland trinkets, plant seeds, and small notebooks recording daily life, study reflections, and cooking experience.

But upon seeing the Aurora, she had immediately rushed to the seaside villa in the north of the island. Naturally, there had been no time to retrieve any of those things.

"Did you bring the ring and the blade?" her master asked.

"...Yes."

"What about the Flying Board?"

"It's on the motorcycle."

"Good."

The air suddenly fell quiet. Rosaline watched her master climb onto the Magitech Motorcycle, point toward an almost imperceptible translucent vortex on the distant horizon, and say calmly, "I'll take you there."

After a pause, seeing Rosaline still standing where she was, Ivette added, "Get on first. We can talk on the way."

This time, Rosaline did not refuse again.

The Magitech Motorcycle sped through the air, while the fierce sea wind tugged at their long hair and robes. Sitting in the passenger seat, Rosaline turned her face with effort and stared at her master's puppet-like, emotionless profile. Her master's silver hair danced constantly in the wind, like some terrifying Evil God. The instant countless monsters burst from the water, they were pierced through by those strands of hair and fell back down.

But if her master was an Evil God, then she herself was the fallen angel at the Evil God's side, she thought.

Perhaps because the tentacles were simply too terrifying, the sea monsters' attacks gradually subsided after they had flown four or five kilometers.

Everything returned to silence. Only the Aurora continued to pulse, unfurling and churning through the vast starry night as it draped its hazy veil of light over the two of them.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" her master suddenly asked as she drove.

"You're not even going to try to keep me," Rosaline said, lowering her head gloomily. "I was ready for it. If you wanted me to stay, I could stay."

"Being able to go home is a good thing. Some people want to go home but can't." Her master did not say who she meant, though her words seemed to carry another meaning.

"I have a home here too..."

"You do. I know." Her master's tone remained as calm as ever, with not the slightest trace of sorrow at parting. "So I hope that after reuniting with your family, after doing everything you want to do, one day in the future, you can return here again. Return here with no attachments holding you back."

Rosaline froze. It felt as though something had lodged in her throat. She nodded firmly. "I will."

"That's good." A gentle smile appeared on her master's face, like an icebound river thawing in spring.

As the hovering Magitech Motorcycle raced onward, the mirage-like translucent vortex finally grew clearer and clearer. Like a door right before them, it waited silently for its destined passenger.

But having crossed a Remnant Abyss before, Rosaline knew this was not like the portals she had imagined. Its entrance might remain for several dozen seconds or several hours. The descent process lasted more than ten seconds, but the exit existed for only an instant.

In other words, it was a one-way passage. Once she landed, if she wanted to return, she would have to quickly find other Remnant Abysses nearby. Without question, that was extremely risky.

After all, the mysterious Aurora Belt itself only existed for a few hours. Wasting any amount of time was fraught with danger.

And no one knew whether, if someone stuck a hand inside at the very instant the Remnant Abyss vanished and failed to pull it back in time, their arm would be severed by the Remnant Abyss.

More than ten minutes later, the Magitech Motorcycle stopped at the entrance to the Remnant Abyss. It was a vortex over fifty meters above sea level, and wide enough that, in theory, a vehicle could pass through.

Although she had been devastated just moments ago, the thought of seeing her father, mother, eldest brother, and second brother again after a full twelve years—and even returning home in glory as the pillar of the family—immediately filled her with complicated emotions. There was both excitement and sorrow.

"Here." Standing on the motorcycle, Ivette suddenly took a small blue ornament from inside her clothes.

Rosaline took it and glanced at it, immediately revealing a surprised expression.

It was a small brooch made from a flower called the Magic Light Orchid, which bloomed from a Magic Light Vine, dried, and then preserved in a material similar to amber.

Magic Light Vines bloomed only once every hundred years, and their flowering period lasted just half a month, making this an exceptionally precious item. In the Ish City from her dreams, its market price likely would not have been inferior to the copy of Elemental Decay Completion Technology her master had bought.

She had cut down so many Magic Light Vines at Abyss Base over the years to use as little night lights, yet she had never seen one of these flowers in person. She had only ever seen pictures.

She solemnly pinned the flower to the chest of her mage robe and promised, "I'll never take it off for the rest of my life."

Her master nodded, then suddenly fell silent for several seconds before saying, "Actually, it's not that I can't..."

"No, Master. You can't." Rosaline hurriedly shook her head. "Master, it's far too dangerous for you."

She knew what her master wanted to say. Just like the "it's not that I can't" from when Rosaline had first asked to become her student, her master was actually someone deeply restrained and softhearted. It was merely hidden beneath a cold exterior, making it difficult to notice.

But she could not let her master go with her to the Radiant Continent.

To her, the Radiant Continent was home. But to her master, it was an exceedingly dangerous forbidden land.

After all, the Radiant Continent was a high-magic world. Giant Dragons truly existed there, and so did gods.

For instance, the Kingdom of Eton, where the Shien Family resided, worshipped the True God of the Church of Three Saints, the Lord of Unity. This True God was not fictional. He possessed a genuine Landborne Divine Kingdom, the paradise all believers dreamed of.

Even the Human-Demon War between the Eastern and Western Continents concealed the struggle between Demon Gods and True Gods.

If someone like her master were exposed, she would certainly be mistaken for the legendary Evil God, the Witch of Finale. By then, it would not merely be a matter of being hunted by the church or becoming the enemy of the whole world. If things grew serious enough, it might even bring about Divine Descent.

Once her master fell silent, Rosaline wiped the corners of her eyes. She picked up a Magic Light Vine from the motorcycle and, along with the ring, brooch, and war blade, took them as her only belongings. Then she rode the wind upward, inching closer to the Remnant Abyss.

"Master." Standing at the edge of the semitransparent vortex, she said word by word, "I will definitely, definitely come back."

After saying that, she gave Ivette one long, deep look, as if she wanted to carve her master's appearance into her soul. Then, stepping upon azure wind, she entered the Remnant Abyss and vanished without a trace.

Above the sea, after waiting in place for several minutes and seeing the Remnant Abyss suddenly disappear, Ivette returned to the driver's seat without joy or sorrow and headed home.

She felt it was not really a big deal. Looking across her nearly three hundred years of long life, twelve years was no more than the flick of a finger. Rosaline, however, was a twenty-two-year-old young woman. To her, twelve years had already surpassed most of her life, longer even than the time she had spent with her parents. It was perfectly normal for her to get tearful about it.

But as someone who had once been male and was now an ageless Witch, Ivette was certainly not such an emotional creature.

After driving back to the seaside villa and looking at the bundles of Magic Light Vines Rosaline had tied up in the back seat, she thought for a moment and decided to throw them all into the villa's storage room.

Those furnishings had been prepared for two people to live there. Now that she was alone, she could simply make do. What was the point of keeping them?

Then, for no reason at all, she became somewhat irritated. She drove back to Ish City, back to the familiar manor, back to her room on the top floor. Then she lay on the bed, closed her eyes, suffered through several hours of insomnia, and finally fell asleep with difficulty.

After having a night of chaotic dreams for the first time in a long while, she opened her eyes wearily the next morning. But she quickly closed them again for a brief rest. It was nearly noon before no one had brought up breakfast, and only then did she belatedly remember something. She sat up in bed and stared blankly for a while.

She thought that while twelve years was not long, it was not that short either. Some habits, once formed, truly could not be changed so quickly.

So, in the days that followed, she began forcing herself to forget and adapt to this life again—to days without anyone serving her tea and water, without anyone waking her up or cooking for her, without anyone washing clothes or tending the manor, without anyone surrounding her with all sorts of boring questions or happily dragging her off on excursions and adventures.

The effort proved remarkably effective. Layer by layer, the sands of time covered everything. She felt that she was gradually beginning to forget the blond girl she had watched grow up little by little, returning to the life from many years ago, when she had wandered alone through the apocalypse.

Until three months later, one quiet afternoon, on a whim, she cleaned a bedroom on the second floor and found a letter in a desk drawer.

She immediately began to read it—

"Master, I was worried that if I had to leave, it would happen too suddenly, and there would be many things I would not have time to tell you. So I left this letter behind. But I suspect that, with how relaxed you are, Master, you probably won't find this letter until quite a long time later, right? One month after I leave, two months, or even longer?"

"When I was by your side, I felt that it did not matter. I enjoyed every little part of taking care of you. But now that I am gone, I think you will definitely need a few reminders from me—details about maintaining the wheat fields, ways to remove mold, where to find wild chicken eggs, and so on. I wrote all of that in the notebooks placed in the suitcase. Of course, there are also my practical swordsmanship notes."

"By now, I must have returned home. Perhaps I am fighting for the survival of humanity, or perhaps I am raising money to build a school. You know, I have always wanted to do that. Thank you as well for allowing and supporting me..."

"My feelings toward you are actually very complicated. In my heart, you are my master and my idol, my guardian and my older sister. But sometimes, I also feel that you act like a younger sister who needs me to take care of you all the time... Well, I only dare write something so disrespectful at a time like this. Haha, I hope you won't be angry."

"But please believe me, my respect for you will always come first. It far surpasses even the god I believe in, and even my father. So sometimes, I become troubled as well. If one day, you told me that you were actually an Evil God and intended to destroy the world, should I stand behind you or not? I used to think the answer to that question was simple, but now it is becoming harder and harder to face."

"Oh, right. There are many more letters like this in the lower drawer. They are all letters I prepared before, and many were written long ago. They are not very timely, and the writing is not very good, so I hope you will not read them. But if you insist on reading them, then read only one every few years."

"This is my small wish."

"Because only then can I remain in your long, long, long memories for a little longer."

"—Your forever student, Rosalyn Shien."

Sunlight passed through the gap in the curtains, filtering through a layer of dust and falling upon the yellowed letter paper like a scattering of gold powder.

Ivette took a deep breath, then opened the second drawer. Sure enough, she saw countless envelopes.

They were labeled, respectively, "Open in the second year," "Open in the fifth year," "This time it's the tenth year, please be a little more patient," and even—"The hundredth year, Master, I'm sorry, but please don't forget me."

She closed the drawer again, took the first letter she had opened, and went to the lounge chair in the manor grounds. Beneath the bright daylight, she began reading it a second time.

And so, the wind of time brushed through the courtyard, carrying away several newly fallen leaves.

Before she knew it.

Five years, ten years, twenty years, fifty years... one hundred years.

Spring departed and autumn returned. The winds and frosts of the four seasons turned without cease, blowing countless dawns and dusks to the ground. Yet Ivette had never thought of moving out of the manor or leaving the island.

She often sat quietly against that old lounge chair, looking up at the sky. Then she would pick up the letter she had read countless times and read it once more.

She thought that she would probably keep waiting here, keep waiting here, until the day her only student returned.

(End of Volume One)