I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha.

Chapter 18: Fern Forest, Apprentice Trial

The carriage drove straight through the town. People on both sides of the street, upon seeing the "terrifying troll (Gnar)" in the procession, fled in fear. Fortunately, the knights cleared the way, otherwise a riot might have occurred.

In fact, Baron Hall has repeatedly stated that the missing people have nothing to do with the wizard's troll pet. The real culprit is a "Cyclops" wandering from the north.

This morning, the castle gate still hung the giant head of a Cyclops. The soldier guarding the head told onlookers that the giant was killed by the wizard's trolls and brought to the castle.

However, this incident only increased the residents' fear of Gnar. The logic was obvious: if Gnar could defeat the Cyclops, he must be scarier than the Cyclops! And if he was scarier than the Cyclops, he must be a cannibal! And since he was a cannibal, the ballad in "Cat Wizard" must be true.

Catherine and Nar were indifferent to all this. She asked Nar to deal with the giant only because she needed its blood to make a potion.

The townspeople hid in their houses, secretly watching the carriage through the cracks in their windows. Many people recognized Roland and secretly discussed the fate of this poor boy, feeling very sorry for him.

The instructor withdrew her gaze from the window, resting her chin lazily on her hand as she looked at the students who were still diligently practicing magic: "Everyone seems very worried about you - this should be where you grew up, right, Roland?"

Teacher Catherine asked curiously, "You don't seem to be reluctant to leave this place. After you leave this time, you may never come back."

"You're never coming back?"

Roland looked up at the familiar yet strange town outside the window and said, "If you don't want to come back, then don't come back. I don't have anyone to miss here anymore."

He looked toward the crossroads in the center of town. To the north, he saw the castle perched on a hill. That was indeed where he had grown up, but Roland didn't feel at home there.

He couldn't help but ask himself - is this really his hometown? Is his past in the parallel world still his past? Which world is he from?
The carriage drove out of town amid the horrified gazes of the townspeople. Roland withdrew his gaze. Suddenly, a young voice shouted in the distance.

It was a white horse - a young girl was riding on the white horse, galloping down the hill where the castle was located towards the town.

She shouted towards the carriage:

"Brother Roland~~~I see you, Brother Roland!~~~You must live well!~~Don't get eaten by the cat wizard!~~"

These cries seemed to evoke certain memories in Roland's heart. He couldn't help but look out the window.

The girl ultimately failed to catch up with the carriage because her horse was far less brave than she was. Before the horse even got close to the carriage, it was frightened by the tall figure of Lull and collapsed to the ground, throwing its master to the ground.

The girl knocked her hands and knees, and she fell to the ground crying loudly: "Waaaaa, Brother Roland, you must live well, waaaaa!"

Roland looked at the girl crying loudly on the hillside, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"I will, Alice," Roland whispered. "I will live well."

He drew the curtains.

"What about now?" The instructor looked at Roland with amusement. "Our Mr. Roland, who has no attachment to his hometown and likes to act cool?"

"Hmm," Roland pondered for a moment, "I feel a bit like I'm leaving my hometown."

Roland couldn't help but think of that question again.

Is the me in the parallel world still me?

Are the memories in the parallel world considered my memories?

Perhaps, there is no need to worry about this issue anymore.

Zhuangzi dreamed of a butterfly; both the butterfly and the person were himself. He looked out the window and thought to himself, "Goodbye, Valeria. World, here I come."

"The journey ahead will be incredibly exciting, but also full of danger. I will definitely stay away from all dangers and live well."

"Oh, right, we might pass by that weird place called the Yellow-Brown Fern Forest soon. I have to remind the instructor not to let the carriage get close to that area."

He paused, looked at his mentor, and said, "By the way, mentor, you are not a local, so you may not understand the situation here. In fact, the area around Valeria is not as peaceful as it seems."

The instructor quietly flipped through her magic book without saying anything.

Roland continued, "Actually, at the next fork in the road, I suggest taking the left. Although it's a bit of a detour, it will avoid the 'Tawny Outpost'. A few kilometers east of the Tawny Outpost is the Tawny Fern Forest. It's very strange and dangerous there."

The instructor was still looking at the magic book very attentively.

Roland scratched his head, thinking his mentor must have understood what he meant. Although he didn't know why he was so afraid of the yellow-brown fern forest in the parallel world, his subconscious kept telling him to stay away from it.

"Ahem." Roland asked cautiously, "By the way, Instructor, I haven't asked yet. Where should we gather with the team that's also returning to the academy?"

The female instructor turned a page and said calmly, "Yellow-brown fern forest."

Roland's face was ashen.

The carriage drove happily towards the tawny fern forest at the next fork in the road.

Under a towering tree at the entrance of the fern forest, a man in his twenties, wearing a light black robe, was chatting happily with Baron Hall.

This man is a counselor at Black Abyss Academy, a high-level apprentice, and his name is Leonard.

Behind him were three wizard apprentices in grey robes. The oldest, named Wallace, looked to be in his sixties or seventies. He was an intermediate apprentice and a janitor at the Black Abyss Academy.

The other two wizard apprentices were very young, about the same age as Roland, and were both at the lower level.

These two young men are both new students recruited by Instructor Leonard for the academy this time.

Although Instructor Leonard is only a senior apprentice, he has a wide network of contacts in the secular world.

In order to bring back more outstanding students to the academy, he traveled to many places, and the lords and small kings from various places recommended many outstanding people to him.

He ultimately selected ten from a thousand people, and from these ten, he finally chose two. Therefore, these two new students were both wizards chosen from thousands of people.

The two of them also had good backgrounds. Their parents were both pure-blood wizards, belonging to the minor nobility among wizards.

The two new students had received a very good magical education since childhood. Before following Leonard, they had already received ten years of magical education.

However, because their families had declined and they could not afford the potions needed for apprentices to advance to lower-level apprentices, their realm had been stuck at the bottleneck of apprentices before they followed Leonard.

A few months ago, their parents sent them to Instructor Reynard. Reynard gave the two new students a potion. With the help of the potion, the two successfully entered the threshold of low-level apprenticeship.

They have been following Reynard for five or six months now, and have learned a lot under his careful guidance.

(End of this chapter)