Cornflower Witch

Chapter 339 The Mystery of the Everlasting White Bird

(The previous chapter has been significantly revised. If you see the chapter titled 'The Path to the Mage Alliance', please refresh the page. The revised chapter title is 'Yellowed Memories'.)
Two days later, Madame Medisa brought Siltiah to the foot of a high cliff on the west side of the port, where a white lighthouse stood at the edge of the cliff.

At the foot of the tower, Madame Medici gently knocked on the cast-iron door knocker, the sound echoing hollowly within the tower, giving a sense of ethereal tranquility.

After a long while, the door slowly opened, and Hiltiya stood behind Madame Medisa, looking inside curiously. She saw a white-clad figure sitting in a wheelchair, his eyebrows slightly weathered, with a faint scholarly air about him.

"Oh, it's Medisa. What brings you here?" He asked indifferently, his face devoid of emotion.

"I'm here to ask you to tutor my student, the girl next to me. She's preparing to study at the Mage Alliance and needs to learn some basic knowledge."

“Go back. This isn’t a nursery; it’s not a place for taking care of children,” he replied calmly.

"Think about it again. I don't remember you being a formal apprentice. You've been in this tower for almost twenty years. If you don't talk to someone soon, you might not even be able to maintain your basic language skills," Medisa advised, feigning concern.

"You know I won't agree for that reason." The other party remained unmoved.

"Okay, okay, you're still so hard to talk to, even though we've been neighbors for ages."

“Hedra, come forward.” Medisa turned around and gestured for the girl to step forward.

Slightly puzzled, Hilti stepped forward, and then Medisa gently placed her hands on her shoulders.

"See that? Such a beautiful, intelligent girl with clear eyes and a love for learning. If she joined the Mage Alliance, she would definitely achieve more than you did back then, get more resources, and fulfill the dreams you could never have in your entire life." That's quite a direct statement.

Surprisingly, the other party did not get angry, but instead quietly observed and scrutinized the girl.

"You say she's very smart, then I'll test her." The other person replied casually.

“No problem, I’ve already checked it out these past two days.” Medisa gave Siltiah a reassuring gesture.

The scholar in white then asked many questions, including those about mathematics, customs and traditions of the mainland, practical social issues, interpersonal relationships, and even details about cleaning.

Seeing that Hilti could answer them, he paused for a moment and then posed several more challenging purely academic questions in mathematics and physics.

After a moment's thought, Hiltiya answered them one by one.

"See? I told you so."

"That's right." The other person nodded.

He didn't speak further, his figure sitting quietly in the slanting sunlight inside the tower, dust slowly floating around him.

“Yes, it’s time.” He suddenly muttered to himself.

"Come here, I will teach you everything I have learned."

"Alright, Hedra, go on. Although your teacher has a strange temper, he's a good person, hehe."

Hiltiya carefully walked up the steps to the corner on the second floor, approaching the somewhat weathered scholar, or rather, the 'mage'.

His clothes and face were neat, but his fingers looked very withered as they rested on the armrests of his wheelchair.

"My name is von Knox. You can call me Professor Knox from now on."

"Yes, Professor Knox."

"Metisa, I'll take this student. You can go back now."

"Okay, but remember to bring Hedra back before dark, or her family will worry." With that, Medisa waved to Hilti and left the bottom of the tower.

Under the teacher's instructions, Hilti pushed his wheelchair to the study on the fourth floor, where bookshelves and various scrolls were arranged. What caught Hilti's attention was an unfurled yellowed sheepskin painting, on which a bird was outlined with very fine lines.

This bird seems larger than the island, with a beautiful and swift body. Its outstretched feathers have extremely fine patterns that converge inside its body. The painting also details the various structures inside the bird's body, as well as the lines and patterns that are so exquisite they resemble works of art.

“This is the ‘Eternal Day White Bird,’ a legendary bird that chases the sun and is forever bathed in light,” Rox explained briefly, then picked up a book and handed it to Hilti.

"Read the book. Finish this book in three days, and I will teach you the next stage of knowledge." After saying that, he left Xilutiya in the study and pushed her wheelchair up to the fifth floor.

Hiltiya took the thick book, which weighed about two kilograms. Opening the thick hard cover, she found the book titled "A Compendium of a Thousand Birds".

Holding the thick book, Hilti looked around the study, found a spot by the window, moved a table and chair over, leaned against the stone window, opened the book, and slowly browsed through it.

The book begins with the most common domestic fowl, then moves on to various common birds, and gradually delves deeper, introducing the differences between various birds, their classifications, habits, characteristics, and so on.

The content progressed from simple to complex, with a touch of fun, which captivated Hiltiya.

And so, bathed in the sea breeze, the girl's hair cascading in the bright sunlight, she slowly turned the pages of the book until the sun began to set and the distant sea was enveloped in an orange-red sunset, at which point she slowly came back to her senses.

Then she heard the sound of a wheelchair going downstairs again, and soon after, Rox appeared in the study.

"Your time is up. You can go back today. Come to Tali at 8 o'clock tomorrow."

“Yes, teacher.” Hedra stood up, placed the book on the table beside him, then said goodbye and slowly walked down the steps.

After the girl left, Rox's gaze lingered on the thick book, staring at it intently. "You've already read half of it?"

The next morning, Hilti arrived on time, knocked on the door at the bottom of the tower, and then, at Rox's instruction, continued to peruse the book.

At noon, someone delivered some simple food from the bakery in the city. Hilti gave one portion to Rox, ate the other herself, and then continued reading the book "A Thousand Birds Atlas".

Around 3 p.m., she finished the last page of the book, still feeling unsatisfied, as if she had discovered a completely new world.

Just then, she heard a sound coming from upstairs.

"Hedra, take the books and come to the sixth floor."

"Okay." The girl, carrying her books, went up the steps.

The fifth floor is the living room, with a simple kitchen and bathroom. The sixth floor is the top of the tower, where a tall Fresnel lens stands in the center, illuminating a bright beam of light when lit at night.

Standing atop the tower, the winds swept in from all directions, instantly rousing Hiltiya to her senses. The distant cries of seabirds filled her ears, and beneath the azure sky, the sea shimmered with white waves, stretching out into the vast expanse.

"Hedra, have you finished reading that book?"

"Yes."

Do you like it?

"like."

"Okay." He said, then stopped talking.

Hiltia stood behind Knox, watching his figure, as still as a rock in the sea breeze, and felt a little curious.

"That book..." Before Hilti could even ask, she heard the other person's reply.

“I wrote that book,” the other person continued.

"I don't know if you've heard of the 'White Bird School,' it's a school of thought in the southern part of the mainland, and it has many scholars."

“I’ve heard a little about it.” Hiltiya remembered seeing many members of the ‘White Bird School’ when the town of Lantern was being built.

“I used to be a member of the ‘Shiratori School’. After writing that book, I advanced to ‘Fourth-Order Secret Words’ and was highly regarded by many seniors in the school, who believed that I would become a pillar of the school in the future.”

"But I eventually grew tired of simply observing and recording, and wanted to do something, such as transforming my years of observations and learning into something more practical that could change the world."

"It might be an exaggeration to say that I can change the world, but if I can change it even a little bit and bring about some impact, I will be satisfied. Unfortunately, the atmosphere of the White Bird School does not support this. They call themselves the gatekeepers of the Swan King, that is, the guardians of civilization and the transmitters of knowledge."

"For members of the school, recording, protecting, and maintaining are the priorities, rather than exploration and change."

"So I left the 'White Bird School' and went to the Mage Alliance, where I worked while using my expertise in ornithology to learn about the various aspects of mage knowledge. Compared to the 'White Bird School,' they were much more open, and the different schools often held debates and exchanges."

"There, I gradually found my own path and, together with several mage friends, developed a new type of bird-shaped flying machine, as well as several bird-shaped mechanical golems."

"However, although my work has been recognized by many people, it cannot be widely promoted because the weight of mechanical golems is not suitable for the concept of lightness and agility of birds, resulting in golems that are far less practical than those of the elephant and lion types."

"In addition, several years later, the technology of the Xufeng airship matured. Although they were not fast, their structural strength and stability were far superior to those of bird-shaped aircraft. As a result, another of my achievements suffered setbacks and gradually fell out of attention."

"I had to find a way out, and then I made a series of attempts, but almost all of them ended in failure."

"Finally, I took a desperate gamble and set my sights on the legendary 'Eternal Day White Bird,' hoping to use existing technology to recreate that mythical bird."

"For this reason, I spent several years searching for various information about the 'Eternal Day White Bird' and tracing it in the incomplete ancient books of wizards. When they studied the bloodline of the 'Eternal Day White Bird', they should have recorded the innate vein runes of the divine bird in ancient times."

“I searched for these materials bit by bit, like looking for a puzzle piece, and based on my observation of the natural markings of many birds, I kept guessing and filling in the gaps, slowly sketching out the picture of the ‘Eternal Day White Bird’.”

"However, humans are ultimately limited. My imagination and ability to construct are still insufficient to create miracles out of thin air. The core of the 'Eternal Day White Bird' remains a mystery. Why can it fly forever without fatigue? How does it operate the entire power cycle to allow its body to fly quietly and unaffected under the scorching sun? I still cannot figure it out."

"After ten years, I was finally disheartened and came to the shore of Meteor Lake, where I built this white tower."

“At the top of the tower is the ‘Sky-Gazing Mirror’ that I installed. It can observe the sky by using the reflection of the entire sea surface. If one day, the ‘Eternal Day White Bird’ flies over the Fourth Continent and leaves its shadow on the sea, it will be detected by the Mirror.”

"This is my last effort. If I can see the legendary 'Eternal White Bird' with my own eyes, I will understand the secret of its eternal flight, and then all my learning and research in my life will have meaning."

"Hedra, this is my dream, and perhaps I will never achieve it."

"However, I hope you will pass on this distant wish, even if it is just to tell your future students, I will be content."

“I will, Mr. Knox.”

"Now I am at peace." He sighed deeply, looking up at the distant horizon, watching the white clouds drift and the red sunset obscure the sky.

"This scenery is wonderful..."

"We'll continue tomorrow. I'll teach you everything about getting to the Mage Alliance."

(End of this chapter)