Wizard's Journey

Chapter 260 Once

After a day and a night of flying, Green hurriedly left the range of the Seven Rings Holy Tower's defensive shield.

On the airship.

Wearing a wide wizard's robe and the Mask of Truth, shrouded in elemental mist, Green stood at the very front of the airship's deck, letting the biting wind whip his body as layers of mist swept past.

Think back, the last time I rode a balloon airship was two hundred years ago when my mentor Peranos was naively looking at the seven-ringed holy tower ahead of him.

Looking back now, it feels like a dream.

In the blink of an eye, more than two hundred years have passed. For ordinary people, it is the passage of three generations of their family and the life of most wizard apprentices. But for witch hunter wizards, it is just a small mission cycle, just like the mandatory missions that are held every two years during their apprenticeship.

Inside the Seven Rings Tower, wizards are a common sight, nothing unusual. But on the vast and boundless Wizarding Continent outside, every wizard is undoubtedly mysterious and noble.

In the eyes of ordinary people, they are the masters of this world, secretly controlling everything in it.

"My lord wizard, here's your fried dough cake and milk bud honey tea."

A cute little boy, about 1.5 meters tall, hopped over carrying a tray, his big, blue eyes looking up at Green expectantly.

For the common people in the heart of the Holy Tower, although wizards are great, they lack the reverence that the common people in the wizarding world have for wizards.

Even a wizard's casual reward can be a huge opportunity for ordinary people, so many are willing to try their luck by contacting wizards who seem easy to talk to.

The little boy interrupted Green's train of thought, sighed, turned around, and reached out his hands to take the tea tray.

"ah!"

Suddenly, the little boy screamed, his legs trembling as he stared at Green's outstretched hands, his eyes wide and his teeth chattering.

On Green's hands, ribbon-like bruises and bizarre claw marks intertwined and moved about, so lifelike that they seemed ready to burst out of Green's body at any moment.

Such a horrifying scene naturally terrified the little boy, just as Green had been when he first saw his mentor Peranos's stitched-up face.

In the eyes of ordinary people, wizards are always mysterious, unknown, and frightening.

With a frown, Green's mood soured. He casually tossed half a magic stone to the little boy and then picked up his teacup to savor it.

The little boy was so frightened that he ran away in a panic.

Overall, the little boy's attempt to approach the wizard was a complete failure.

"Giggle, that little guy was so scared you almost peed his pants. I'm sure he'll never forget your hands for the rest of his life," the myna bird chirped gloatingly as it watched the fleeing boy.

His whole life?

It's only been a few decades, what's there to be concerned about...

Green ignored the myna bird and simply stood at the front of the balloon airship deck, quietly sipping tea and eating fried cakes.

Seeing that there was no fun to be had, the myna stopped talking about it and tore off a small piece of oil cake from Green's plate to eat. As it ate, it said, "That guy Anglie didn't advance to the second level wizard. Dawn Wisdom just absorbed him at the headquarters of the Seventh Ring Holy Tower. What a lucky guy."

Green also yearned for the wisdom of dawn, but it did not accept low-level dark wizards.

"It was never luck; he earned Dawn Wisdom's recognition through his own wisdom and hard work," Green said calmly, taking a sip of hot tea.

The myna swallowed the oily cake in its mouth, then unceremoniously tore off another piece and smacked its lips, mumbling, "Let's not talk about that guy. Let's talk about us, quack quack. Besides going to the Blacksota Wizard Academy to see your mentor Peranos and request the Blacksota Saint Mark Wizard to seal the Nightmare Shadow, what else do we have to do this time?"

Green thought for a moment.

"I'll go to the Tomb of Words Wizarding Academy, spend all the rewards from a hundred years of wizarding labor, and even add some more wizard spirits to hire a large number of arcane wizards to complete the numerous base components for the 'Eternal Annihilation Energy Observation Device.' This will save a lot of time for annihilation energy research. Also, I'll go see some of my old... friends."

Green's voice grew softer and softer, filled with an indescribable melancholy and unease.

"Friends? Haha, I remember now, didn't you mention your spouse, that witch apprentice named Raffi?" The myna bird was as excited as if it had been injected with chicken blood, its feathers standing on end. It stood on Green's shoulder and stared intently at Green, as if hoping to find three of them.

Green tapped the myna bird on the head and said fiercely, "It's your lover!"

"Caw caw, caw caw caw, yes, yes, it's my lover, it's my lover." The myna covered its head with its wings and said awkwardly, but still looked at Green excitedly, observing him.

Although Green appeared nonchalant, as if he, as a formal wizard, had long since come to terms with the passage of time, deep in his heart at this moment, the image of his "escape" from the Black Tower Wizarding Academy seemed to be vividly before his eyes.

The fear was as if Green could see that after advancing to become a formal wizard, the qualitative change in his life could not alter the objective development of the world, and that his sincere friends, and even the love of his life, would "quickly" die before his eyes, washed away by the passage of time.

This kind of training and suffering is a necessary experience for a formal wizard to mature psychologically.

There's no escaping it, no matter what.

At this moment, Green even began to silently pray to fate. This seemingly weak and foolish behavior of a wizard was something he couldn't help but exhibit because of his deep love.

Ordinary people's ignorant emotions are placed on a hope for an uncontrollable fate.

At this moment, in Green's heart, this weakness had even overcome the wizard's rationality, and he only hoped to fight as best he could to avoid tragedy.

This deepest, most vulnerable emotion is what Peranos refers to as a wizard who has not experienced all of this being merely a wizarding apprentice with wizarding abilities.

Green gazed into the distance.

"My dearest Raffi, have you truly become a full-fledged wizard? My dearest friend Binghamson, have you and your Moon Robin fulfilled your vows of love? Yorkriana, in the years since Yorkris left, you must have learned to be strong..."

After a pause, scenes from his time as a wizard apprentice began to resurface in Green's eyes.

The image of the fat man who provided me with perfume magic stones every month, lounging comfortably in his rocking chair with his big belly and squinting eyes in the lobby of Black Tower, is still unforgettable.

Varo, the second senior brother, works part-time guarding valuable experimental equipment rental certificates on the seventh floor of the Black Tower. His sorcery combat ability is abysmal, but he enjoys collecting strange and unusual artifacts from other worlds and possesses extensive academic knowledge.

Gahei, the soulmate of mentor Peranos, is that damned black cat sneaking around with his mentor again?

And then there's Leona, the girl with a sweet smile as fiery as the summer sun, short black hair, healthy buckwheat skin, and straight legs. She often teases him by hugging his neck and wants to learn witchcraft in the tutor's library.

Amrund, the founder of the Bloodsail Alliance, always dressed like a nobleman, and his ambiguous relationship with his extremely popular lover, Belle.

Is the Bloodsail Alliance still in existence?

And then there were the wizards who had some dealings with Grimm.

The beautiful female instructor, Yi Lian, who ate a centipede raw in the first class, later sought out Green to purchase Venus Fragrance through the fat man, thus initiating the cooperation between Green and the Purple Gold Fragrance family.

The short, old wizard, Sinruu, the little goatee, who once sold him the Pale Mask and the Blood Bat Kiss artifact, often chuckled at how he had given him a good beating.

The mysterious sonic wizard, Nilmazar, who once kidnapped Hailun, who was on her way to Lilith Wizarding Academy, took Solem as her disciple, and changed his own destiny, is the Maskless Nilmazar.

More than two hundred years later, how are you all doing now?

(End of this chapter)