Chapter 17 Things Change, People Change
1194words
【System Notification: You are in free fall at high speed, estimated impact damage: 9999+ (Fatal).】
"Help! I don't want to die again right after being revived!" I screamed internally like a terrified marmot.
Just when I thought I was certainly doomed, a survival instinct, or rather, the innate talent belonging to the "Moonlight Flower Sprite" race, was finally triggered.
【System Notification: Racial Talent 【Root Entanglement】has been activated!】
From my fingertips, several flexible green vines extended involuntarily, like living ropes, precisely wrapping around an ancient tree stubbornly growing on the steep cliff face.
The downward momentum suddenly halted, and the immense pulling force nearly dislocated my arm. I was like a cheap ornament hanging on a Christmas tree, dangling precariously in midair.
【System Notification: HP-20 (pulling damage).】
"I'm saved..." I gasped for breath, still in shock, looked down at the ground dozens of meters below me, and felt a wave of fear afterward.
Holding onto the vine, I slowly descended to the ground. The moment my feet touched the solid earth, I was so moved I almost cried. Having survived this ordeal, I plopped down on the ground, deciding to take a moment to calm my nerves.
But when I thought about Frederick who had knocked me off the mountain with a single move, my anger flared up again in an instant!
"You little punk, haven't seen you for ten years, and now you've got skills! Your wings have hardened, and you dare to raise your hand against your mentor!" I picked up a tree branch and whipped the ground fiercely, venting my dissatisfaction, "All my care for you back then was wasted! Those candies I fed you were wasted! The lotus soup I made was also wasted! You ungrateful, cold-hearted wolf!"
【System notification: Your anger value +100.】
After venting, I had to face a cruel reality: I had to climb that damn mountain again.
This time, it took me longer. Due to anger, and also the aftereffects of just escaping death, my legs were shaking like a sieve. I used the tree branch I had picked up as a cane, gasping for breath with every step, stopping after every two steps to curse "Frederick, you bastard," only then finding the motivation to continue climbing.
When I once again, yes, once again, stood limping in front of the magnificent gate of the academy, the sky had already turned completely dark. I was tired as a dog, and I felt like hugging the cold marble pillar at the entrance and having a good cry.
The gate was empty, without even a ghost in sight. The vigilant knight guards from daytime had long disappeared. Only the howling night wind blew through the surrounding trees, making a "rustle rustle" sound, adding a sense of desolation.
I noticed that on the huge emblem sculpture in the center of the gate, which symbolized the glory of the royal family and the academy, there was a distinct large footprint. The hard relief stone slab had been forcibly kicked into two halves.
"Such destructive power... tsk tsk," I shook my head, already having a guess in mind, "This place used to have guards every three steps and sentries every five steps, but now there's not even a patrolling bird. Seems like Frederick has been causing quite a bit of trouble here."
I gripped the "weapon" in my hand vigilantly—that fragile tree branch—and walked into the academy with extreme caution.
Following my memory, I passed through the empty plaza and corridors, finding the small independent courtyard that I once lived in, located in the deepest and quietest corner of the academy.
However, when I pushed open that nearly collapsing gate, the scene before me left me completely stunned.
This place... had become ruins.
No, it couldn't even be called ruins; it was more like a barren ground hit by meteorites. The ground only had several huge and hideous deep pits, pitch black, as if they were entrances to hell.
"Where... where is my entire courtyard? Where are those rose bushes I planted with my own hands? Where is my house with the small attic?"
My beautiful and elegant two-story building had been razed to the ground, without even a single intact brick remaining!
I stood blankly on the ruins of what was once "my home," my mind completely empty. Just then, I heard several students conversing in hushed voices outside the courtyard. With a start, I quickly hid behind one of the few remaining walls.
"...This is truly outrageous! Frederick, that evil wizard, how dare he demolish our academy's building!" a young voice said angrily.
"Shh, keep your voice down! Do you want to be captured and used as target practice for his spells?" another voice filled with fear replied, "They say this courtyard was where that evil wizard lived as a child. He's returned now, specifically looking to cause trouble for Dean Arthur."
"What for?"
"What else? Revenge! Have you forgotten how Instructor Winifred died ten years ago? He's so cruel. Last time, he forced Dean Arthur to hand over his wife Anais, and now he's even abducted Archmage Marcus, who had retired for many years!"
The voices of the students gradually faded into the distance.
I, however, stood frozen in place as if struck by lightning.
Archmage Marcus... wasn't he the mentor of "Winifred"? Which would make him my... grand-master?
I slowly emerged from behind the wall, looking again at the flat ground before me, my heart filled with mixed emotions. In this moment, all the clues connected together.
"If his character in the game hasn't broken, did he do all this because of me?"
The classic binary choice was because years ago, the Academy Head and Arthur chose to abandon me in order to save all the townspeople.
Uprooting the courtyard entirely was because within this courtyard were the few warm memories of our life together.
And the Archmage he kidnapped was, in name, my mentor...
"Frederick, you fool... is this your way of avenging me?"
An indescribable emotion welled up in my heart, both bitter and warm. I suddenly felt that I couldn't let him continue this madness. No matter what, I had to find him.
With this thought, I took a deep breath, gripped my walking stick firmly, and turned to head down the mountain.
"I must go to the demon realm to find him!"
However, just as I took my first step with boundless ambition and high spirits, that treacherous guidebook in my mind automatically opened, most inopportunely displaying the map to the demon realm.
"Wait..."
As I looked at the clearly marked [Wailing Mountains], [Glacier of Despair]... and the [Death Volcano] that stood three times taller and more treacherous than the mountain where the Royal Magic Academy was located, leading to the entrance of the demon realm, my legs began to shake uncontrollably.
My heroic spirit instantly deflated completely.
"No... no way? I have to climb again?!"
