The End of "Law Breaks the Sky"

Shadows swayed across the walls in the oil lamp's flickering light.

Annan held his hands beneath the wine barrel as if helping to carry it and followed Tasia into the cellar. He hurried to the corner where the barrels were stacked, circled Soluman Copperbeard twice as she crouched on straw spread over the stone floor, then returned to Tasia's side and helped her lower the barrel.

Annan let out a breath, wiped nonexistent sweat from his brow, and asked Tasia, "Aren't you going upstairs to take a look?"

"There's no hurry. The sun will rise tomorrow, just as it always does."

Soluman Copperbeard stepped out for a while to give them some time alone. Annan picked up the oil lamp resting on a wooden crate, returned to Tasia, and handed her his notebook.

"You're the first person to read the ending of 'Law Breaks the Sky.'"

Tasia opened the notebook, tiny in her rough hands, and turned to the last page.

The ending Annan had written went like this: Three years later, Sean arrived at Roland Academy and discovered that its head was none other than Cici, whom he had met in the Monster Mountains. But with everyone watching, he had no choice but to see their three-year agreement through. He defeated Nanlan and successfully broke off their engagement. As he was leaving, however, the former head of the academy tried to stop him. Gravely wounded, Sean reached out to the Fire Elemental Plane and summoned a giant Fire Elemental, reducing Roland Academy to ruins.

Just as Sean and the former head were about to kill each other, Cici pulled them apart and ended their feud.

In the end, Cici settled the grudge between Sean and Nanlan, and together they rebuilt Roland Academy. Sean continued his research into magic and transformed his teacher Yalao into a Lich.

[From then on, Sean lived happily in Wutan City with Hill, Medusa, and Cici.]

Thank goodness this world allowed a husband to have multiple wives, or a wife to have multiple husbands. Otherwise, the ending Annan had copied would have drawn criticism.

"It feels like it isn't finished."

Tasia had a sensitivity that belied her appearance.

Annan admitted she was right. Continuing would only make the story long-winded and less convincing. As it stood, it was just the right length for a novel: neither bloated nor rushed.

Tasia flipped back to the middle and pointed to the part where Sean performed a combat technique with the Fine-Steel Greatsword. "Sean starts out as a mage, then uses combat techniques like a warrior, and later learns to fly. What class is he?"

Annan remembered a mage joke from Mages to the Left, Warlocks to the Right. "What casts spells, inspires awe, likes fighting up close, can fly, loves money, and spends long stretches of time in one place?"

"A Dragon?"

"A mage."

Mages to the Left, Warlocks to the Right had changed many of Annan's preconceptions about mages—and reinforced plenty of others.

He told Tasia the joke, but unfortunately, he did not get to see her smile.

It was almost time for the tavern to open. Annan waved goodbye to Tasia, went back upstairs, tossed his notebook to the bard who had just arrived, and slipped into the kitchen to put on an apron.

Martin sidled up to him with a mysterious air. "Cousin, I want to write a novel too."

"That's not out of the question..."

Annan did not mind helping Martin. He wanted kind Aunt Susan and her family to have good lives.

Martin launched into an enthusiastic explanation. "I watched how the customers reacted when the bard told the story. You know when they reacted most strongly? When Sean was with women. They even listened to those parts over and over. After that, it was the bit where Sean devel—devel—"

"Developed."

"Lots of people listened when Sean developed magic in the carriage, too. They really like those two parts, so I thought maybe I could write a romance novel..."

While Annan was still stunned by Martin's keen observation and sudden inspiration, Martin began recounting the story he had spent all day coming up with:

"The hero and heroine are in a big bed in a big room in a big manor. Then they leave the big bed, leave the big room, leave the big manor, and get into a carriage. Just as they're about to set off, the hero suddenly tells the heroine to get out. She leaves the carriage in a huff, but the next day, the townspeople tell her there was an accident at the manor yesterday: the carriage crashed into a wall, and the hero died. It turns out he'd noticed something was wrong with the carriage. To protect the woman he loved, he had no choice but to make her get out and sacrifice himself..."

"It has love and a carriage. What do you think?"

Annan opened his mouth, then fell silent. He glanced toward the main room beyond the kitchen and said tactfully, "I think the bard could give you a more professional opinion than I can."

Martin eagerly took his story to the bard.

Annan finished tying his apron, left the kitchen, and carried the drinks from the counter to the table Evelyn pointed out.

The bard had only reached the part of "Law Breaks the Sky" where Sean left Medusa's territory. Progress was a little slow. The customers particularly loved the parts where Sean nurtured Hill and met Cici in the Monster Mountains, and now Medusa's bath had joined the list.

He had to tell each of those three scenes once a day.

After delivering the drinks, Annan went over to Martin.

"How did it go?" he asked.

"The bard said my parallelism was pretty good..." Martin knew it was praise, but not what he was being praised for. "What's parallelism?"

"The 'leave the big bed... leave the big room... leave the big manor...' part."

Wisely, Annan did not linger on the subject. He said to Evelyn, "I left the things I prepared for you in the kitchen."

Evelyn glanced shyly at Faster, then ran to the kitchen when he gave her permission.

Martin forgot about his terrible novel, too, and stared at the doorway in anticipation.

A little while later, Evelyn peeked out from behind the door and edged into view.

The tavern's dim oil lamps cast their glow over her slender, lovely figure. Her rabbit-ear headband swayed gently. Evelyn looked a little self-conscious, and the whole sight was fresh and charming.

Gentle music suddenly filled the room as the bard began playing his Lute to suit the scene.

Evelyn had indeed touched the softest place in the hearts of the drinkers and women in the tavern. Even their voices grew gentler—but before long, everyone grew used to her new outfit, and the tavern returned to its usual bustle.

Late that night, Annan collected his pay for the new week. He no longer had to use his looks to draw in customers, but his weekly wages had also dropped back to around five silver coins.

It would take three months to save enough for the aptitude test—still within a range Annan could accept.

After all, there was still much he needed to understand about this world.

On the one hand, Annan knew the details of everyday life inside out. On the other, he did not even know the town mayor's name.

And while Annan knew plenty about grand historical events and legendary figures, his understanding of the class system was clearly lacking.

For proof, he knew that Mr. Fast was an elite-level warrior, but had no idea how much damage an elite-level warrior could do.

These days, he spent time every day sorting the library's books into popular fiction, biographies, and books on geography and plants.

Of every ten books, nearly six were popular fiction, three and a half were biographies, and only half a book dealt with geography and historical facts.

Knowledge was expensive, without a doubt.

These days, Annan sorted books at the library by day and earned money at the tavern by night.

Every day felt full.