A few withered green leaves spun silently as they drifted down onto Haierjia’s pale purple hair.
She stood before the slightly worn notice board in White Stone Town, her fingers tracing over the curled edges of the wanted and missing person notices, brows tightly furrowed.
The wind carried the town’s unique dust mixed faintly with the scent of alchemical potions, rustling her simple travel cloak. By her side were two knightly guards dispatched by Erin, the three of them asking around the town for any news about Teacher Haierjia.
“Teacher Yuno.”
The name slipped from her lips once again, tinged with exhaustion and growing disappointment.
She and the two guards had nearly asked everyone in town who might know the whereabouts of the mage: the potion shop, the blacksmith, the adventurer’s guild front desk, even the elderly men squatting on street corners soaking up the sun with clouded eyes.
Without exception, the responses were blank shakes of the head or blunt “never heard of her.”
It was as if the mentor who once opened the doors of the magical world for her with clear logic and wondrous theories had evaporated completely from this frontier town, along with her name.
If the teacher were still here, with her knowledge, she wouldn’t be completely unknown.
“Could she have moved away? How am I supposed to explain this to Erin…” Haierjia muttered, leaning dejectedly against the rough, cold stone wall.
One of the guards thoughtfully handed her a flask of water. Haierjia tilted her head back and drained it in one gulp.
Just as she was about to be overwhelmed by frustration, a deliberately lowered argument floated over on the wind, carrying with it a familiar, heart-tightening sense of embarrassment.
“… P-Please, Captain! We agreed… agreed to pay once this gathering mission was done! Half… even half is fine!”
A woman’s voice begged, trembling with desperate restraint and humility.
“Payment?” A gruff male voice sneered, dripping with undisguised contempt. “You? With your pathetic magic, you can’t even hold up a proper shield. You’re just dead weight! Want money? Dream on!”
“B-But… but the contract…”
“Contract?” Another sharp voice full of malice cut in. “That’s for ‘useful’ adventurers! Who do you think you are? A novice mage who can’t even control her magic? Get lost! Don’t block our drinking!”
A harsh burst of raucous laughter erupted from the crowd.
That laughter was like cold needles piercing sharply into Haierjia’s deepest memories.
Years ago, before she met Erin, those same cruel jeers and disdainful gazes that almost crushed her came flooding back vividly, as if yesterday had repeated itself.
She clenched her fists tightly, nails digging deep into her palms. Her body moved faster than her thoughts. Following the direction of the voices, she strode determinedly through the gathering crowd.
In the center, surrounded by three reasonably well-equipped adventurers, stood a woman wearing a faded, patched-up old mage’s robe.
Her figure was frail, deep brown hair messily pinned up, a few strands clinging to her pale cheeks. She hung her head low, shoulders trembling slightly with humiliation and helplessness.
Her staff was the cheapest kind, the magic stone embedded at the top dull and lifeless, exuding the same fallen aura as she did. She still tried futilely to argue, but her voice grew ever smaller.
“Give her what you owe.” Haierjia’s voice was calm and low, almost flat, yet like a block of ice thrown into a noisy pond, it instantly froze the laughter of the three adventurers.
The leader, a burly warrior with a face full of scars and carrying a giant axe, turned in shock to see a young girl standing before that useless mage.
He appraised Haierjia from head to toe — no flashy robes, no dazzling wand, only simple, clean travel clothes.
“Huh? Another busybody? Little girl, be sensible and get lost! Don’t piss us off!”
“I said,” Haierjia lifted her head, her pale purple eyes devoid of any emotion, only a bottomless coldness, “give her the money you owe. Now.”
“Looking for death, huh!”
The tall, thin rogue beside the warrior flashed a vicious gleam in his eyes, swiftly drawing a poisoned dagger from his waist. In a blur, he lunged toward Haierjia’s ribs with ruthless speed.
Just as the cold blade was about to pierce the fabric, an invisible force exploded outward from Haierjia!
No chanting, no gestures.
Only a slight movement of thought, a vast magic power stemming from deep within her soul — the vast power of an S-rank adventurer — like an ancient slumbering beast opening one eye.
A pure and terrifying pressure, wrapped in overwhelming might that seemed to choke the very air, instantly filled the narrow street.
The air thickened as if solidified into heavy lead, pounding hard on everyone’s chest.
The rogue’s cruel smile instantly froze into sheer terror.
He felt as though he had crashed into an invisible wall of bronze and iron, his whole body flying backward with even greater speed. He slammed into a wall across the street with a muffled grunt, collapsing to the ground limp, the dagger flying far away from his hand.
The giant-axe warrior’s scarred face trembled wildly. His knees buckled uncontrollably and slammed onto the hard ground with a thud, sweat pouring down his forehead in cold beads.
Another mage preparing to cast a fireball saw the spell fizzle out halfway, trembling like a leaf. His eyes staring at Haierjia were as if a demon had crawled out of the abyss.
The onlookers around them were as if an invisible giant hand had clamped down on their throats — absolute silence.
In the eye of the storm, Haierjia didn’t even so much as flutter her cloak. She stood calmly, her gaze sweeping over the adventurers who had just turned into weaklings in an instant.
“Money.” She said only one word.
“G-Give! We’ll give!”
The warrior’s teeth chattered as he shook, using all his strength to tear a heavy pouch of coins from his waist. Without daring to look, he crawled and threw it at Yuno’s feet, then quickly emptied his own and his companions’ coin pouches, tossing them down as well. Like fleeing from a plague, they dragged the groaning rogue up from the ground and scrambled out of sight around the street corner, not daring to look back.
The abyssal pressure of magic receded like a tide, so quickly it felt as if it had been an illusion.
Sunlight returned to the street, but the dead silence of fear still lingered in the hearts of every bystander.
Haierjia exhaled softly, her heart filled with emotion.
Erin…
Yes, she had grown stronger. After several late-night lessons from Erin, her magic was worlds apart from before.
If she had to retrace the steps through Endymion City and face the Shadow King again, she wouldn’t be so beaten down.
She turned around, her gaze falling on the fallen mage who still bowed her head, seemingly unable to recover from the immense shock.
That humility, the outline worn down by life until almost unrecognizable, strangely overlapped with the gentle image from her memories — the figure in the humble hut drawing intricate magic circles on the ground with a stick.
“Teacher?” Haierjia’s voice trembled with disbelief. She cautiously reached out, gently grasping the woman’s thin arm to raise her head. “Yuno Vien, Teacher?”
T/L note: The original novel is missing Chapter 79. But here is Chapter 80, enjoy reading.
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