"Sir, how is Ilena doing? When can I visit her?"
"When she is ready."
"Ready?"
"I can say with complete responsibility that, besides oxygen, love, and hope, there are other, more important things in this world that make us willing to go on living. Such as waiting."
"Waiting is a virtue. It is also what allows love and hope to grow richer with time. You are only eighteen..."
"Nineteen, sir." The young scholarship student had to interrupt softly. "I am already nineteen."
"Close enough." The teacher waved a hand, unconcerned with the detail. "To me, eighteen or eighty, you are both still children. There is no difference."
The teacher could always say things Zheng Qing had no way to refute.
"...You are both still young, and there is a long road ahead. A vibrant world awaits your exploration. You can become great wizards and meet at the end of time... All you need is a little patience and waiting."
That is two things, Zheng Qing muttered inwardly. At the same time, he gloomily thought, hmm, meeting at the end of time sounds difficult. Is that another way of saying love even after death?
As they spoke, the two continued onward through the thick fog.
Zheng Qing did not know where the teacher was taking him, nor did he object to wandering around with him for a while longer. But he did not like walks that were too quiet. They made him feel as though awkwardness hung in the air.
When they had met last week, the young wizard had already poured out a report of everything that had recently happened at school. So during this meeting, it was difficult for him to chatter on as endlessly as he had last time.
After racking his brains for quite a while, Zheng