Chapter 178: Rast, Long Time No See (^▽^)
According to Rast’s comparison on the map—
That paradise from the Old Era was situated within the present-day territory of the Granwell Kingdom, approximately four hundred kilometers from the Imperial Capital, in a region called the Emerald Wind Domain.
And the former capital city of a nation had now been entirely replaced by a lush and silent forest.
Within a radius of several dozen kilometers, there was barely a trace of human habitation, save for a few hunters and herb gatherers who lived by the mountains. Nothing remained of the splendor of the former Royal City.
Only the towering mountain range stood in silent testimony to the once-existent Kingdom of the Underworld of the Sixth Era.
...
By the time Rast took the high-speed railway from Starfall University and arrived at the border of the Emerald Wind Domain, then spent over an hour making his way to the foot of the mountains near the ruins of that paradise, it was already near dusk.
Through the dense forest, a winding and rugged path leading up the mountain was faintly visible.
It was a trail used by nearby hunters and herb gatherers; after being trodden for years, it had become a path.
But with the rapid development of industrial technology in the Western Continent, such professions had become rare, and so too had the path fallen into semi-abandonment, hidden under wildly overgrown weeds, waiting who knew how long for the next visitor to pass.
Halfway up the mountain, Rast suddenly halted his steps.
He slightly raised his eyes and looked upward toward the sky, veiled by the dense canopy, where only a fragment of blue could be seen.
"If I remember correctly, the Granwell Kingdom should have laws concerning personal privacy."
He spoke calmly to a certain spot in the empty, dusky sky that appeared devoid of anything.
"So, Dean Silver, please wait here for me and stop tailing me."
Rast’s voice echoed through the empty mountains, but the sky remained quiet and gave no response.
Seeing this, Rast sighed softly, and a mysterious silver-white hue suddenly flowed through his pitch-black eyes.
Then, he reached his hand directly into the void.
As Rast moved, in the direction he grasped, distorted ripples began to spread.
In that seemingly empty air, a distinct rift suddenly split open...
Within the rift, a snow ferret lying leisurely on a sofa and munching on dried fish looked utterly dumbfounded, staring wide-eyed at Rast through the torn space.
"You gotta be kidding me! Isn’t that Barbalossa’s Insulated Claw—no, wait... is that 'Silent Disqualification'?"
"You’ve gotten this good at stealing techniques? You can even disrupt my space-folding?"
"And how did you discover me hiding in the sub-dimension? Was it thanks to that little one Ishta’s 'Eye of Secret Insight'?"
Dean Silver and her dried fish were both stunned, her face full of disbelief.
Sure, she had witnessed Rast’s heroic presence during the Nightworld battles through Ophelia’s livestream screen... but at that time, Rast had relied on external forces like the 'Holy Grenade,' the 'Sword of Zenith,' and even the Death-God Star Cup to achieve his feats.
With the aid of these items, Rast could indeed temporarily contend with the Legendary tier, but those means were ultimately unsustainable—like the Death-God Star Cup and the domain advantage of the Nether Abyss... once the Echo of History ended, they would be gone, and none of them were truly Rast’s own power.
Subconsciously, Dean Silver had still considered Rast as the second-tier student he was when he first entered Starfall University—though talented and full of potential, ultimately still a newbie in the Extraordinary domain, someone she could toy with as she pleased.
But that notion was now ruthlessly shattered. 'Space Folding' and 'Sub-Dimensional' abilities that once enabled her to dominate had now been cracked by Rast.
Only now did Dean Silver suddenly realize that the black-haired, black-eyed boy before her was no longer the newbie she could squash and mold at will.
Just as she had seen in the livestream, Rast—heir to that legendary Shoreguard, and now past the Fifth Tier, wielder of the Night Blade 'The Fool’s Library'—while still far from the Legendary Realm...
Within the pre-Legendary tiers, Rast had already matured, beginning to realize his immense potential and truly walk his own path toward legend.
Before Dean Silver could recover from the shock and emotion of “My little Rast has grown up,” she felt her fate's scruff being seized by a hand.
That hand was long and well-defined, lifting her straight out from the folded, hidden sub-dimension and suspending her in mid-air.
"As the honorable dean of the Magical Beasts Research Institute..."
"Dean Silver, you wouldn’t want your students to find out that you’re actually a perverted ferret who likes to hide in sub-dimensions and secretly stalk them, would you?"
Rast’s calm voice fell into Dean Silver’s ears like the whisper of a demon.
"You’ve changed, little Rast..."
"You weren’t like this before. Back then, you were just a tiny, adorable little thing, nothing like the cold and merciless person you are now."
"Do you know how much damage those words can cause to a ferret?"
Dean Silver cried pitifully with a soft "wuwuwu," wrapping her fluffy tail around herself to wipe away nonexistent tears.
"I’m just your professor and teacher at the academy, and I thought it necessary to observe the emotional issues between two of my students..."
"Just like those parents who secretly read their adolescent kids’ diaries, though I did secretly trail and spy on you and Little Shiya, it was all for your own good. These actions are proof of my love for you two."
"But fine, Little Rast, you really have grown up. You're no longer that child who needed to be closely watched by adults at every moment..."
She wiped the corners of her eyes with a tiny paw. "My boy has grown up. A daughter past a certain age cannot be kept at home. Though reluctant as a parent, I suppose the time has come for me to let go."
"Go ahead. I won’t follow you anymore. It’s time you and Little Shiya had your own private space, your own world of two."
Dean Silver swished her fluffy tail and turned her back, truly resembling a mother watching her child grow up—reluctant yet gratified, her expression filled with melancholic warmth.
Not far away, Rast cast a glance at the small snow ferret who had turned away with such emotional sincerity, and said nothing more.
He simply continued walking up the mountain trail alone and soon disappeared into the forest.
Upon seeing Rast’s figure vanish from the trail, Dean Silver immediately brightened up.
That sorrowful and gratified motherly look vanished.
In its place was the eager excitement of a fan waiting for a match to start, a concert to open, or an anime episode to air.
What a joke. How could Dean Silver possibly miss the follow-up between Akxia and Rast?
It wasn’t that she, as a ferret, lacked understanding of human decency when it came to tailing and spying—it’s just that the developments were far too intriguing to ignore.
She had followed the story between the Queen of the Underworld and Rast from beginning to end in the livestream from the Arcane Tower, episode by episode, and was a true fan—practically the head of the fan circle.
If she couldn’t witness firsthand the conclusion of Rast and Little Shiya’s story, if her curiosity couldn’t be satisfied, then she feared even her favorite dried fish might lose its flavor.
As for the method of watching... Though Rast had caught her spying from the sub-dimension using space folding, there was always rebroadcast. Being physically present wasn’t necessary.
As the holder of the unique higher-tier sequence "Moon," Dean Silver’s greatest specialty lay in the domain of spirituality and soul—powers related to prophecy and divination.
Back when she had first met Rast, she had used the ability of the "Moon of Truth" to precisely divine the truth or falsehood of his words.
Now, though Rast had grown wings and dared to defy authority, surely her "Moon" sequence and spiritual divination would still be sufficient to glimpse into Rast and Little Shiya’s fate...
As a symbol of gossip, Dean Silver had used this ability countless times in the past to probe into others’ secrets during moments of boredom. Her divination skills were honed to perfection.
She retrieved a crystal ball from her sub-dimensional storage and solemnly placed it atop a flat stone.
Then, in her ruby-like beast eyes, a silver moon symbol quietly emerged and began to rotate in silence.
Ripples like water spread across the crystal ball, using the "Moon" as a lead to follow the instinct of the soul across the sea of spirituality—divining a vision of Rast and Akxia.
But just as those ripples stilled and were about to solidify into form, the light within the crystal suddenly froze.
Then, the once vague image quickly dimmed, turning into pure blackness. No picture emerged.
Dean Silver’s fluffy tail, which had been swaying in anticipation, stiffened midair in stunned silence.
She felt that just as her intuition was about to guide her through the star realm to a divination result, an overwhelming force crushed in, shattering all spiritual threads she had extended into the star realm.
The source of that force was mysterious, imbued with ancient, immutable grandeur—like the flood of time itself, like the embodiment of the vast concept called "Fate."
[Fate's Origin: You are the source of all destinies. Before you, the flowing time and passing years diverge into two unrelated lines.
You are both the creator and the end of the tale.
Thousands of worldlines are born from you and will end because of you.]
[As the Origin of Fate, you exist outside time itself. Your resistance against time-based and divination-based skills increases significantly.]
With the passive skill "Fate’s Origin" that could not be removed, as the genesis of countless worldlines and one who truly existed beyond the river of time—
Rast’s fate could neither be divined nor peered into by even Legendary powerhouses or true gods...
Dean Silver was, naturally, no exception.
"Aaaaah! If I can’t see the next episode of the rom-com I’m going to die!"
Within the empty mountain forest, the wails of a snow ferret devastated by missing her favorite show’s finale echoed miserably, pitiful and loud, reverberating through the silent valley.
...
The setting sun, like a tide, consumed half the sky, dyeing drifting clouds in the color of flames.
It made the steep cliff seem like a lonely island amidst a vast sea, with everything within view wrapped in twilight.
At the cliff’s edge, standing in the sea of flowers under the dusky sky, was a girl with long icy blue hair.
She wore a small white round hat, short wool boots, and a blue ribbon ornament tied into her hair.
She wore a dark knee-length dress with layered folds like overlapping lotus leaves. The mountain breeze lifted her skirt and swept through her waist-length hair, making every strand shimmer with the glow of the setting sun.
Her attire was identical to what she wore on that final journey long ago. Back then, her name had not been Akxia—but Queen Helen.
And on that day, it had been the same place, the same scenery, the setting sun, the bright sky... the thickening twilight had painted everyone on the cliff in hues of dusk.
Akxia stood there like a tall and slender tree at the cliff’s edge, or like a silent sculpture, unmoved by the passage of time.
As if...
She were waiting for someone.
The silence lingered for an unknown amount of time.
Until the moment came—steady, rhythmic footsteps sounded from the trail behind the cliff, growing louder, closer.
Akxia quietly turned her head.
At the same time, the person arrived—crossing the final slope, stepping onto the summit of the cliff.
It was a reunion spanning millennia. The black-haired boy bathed in warm sunlight, while the girl with icy blue hair stood with her back to the great sun touching the sea, the entire world wrapped in tranquil dusk.
And in this silent world, Rast saw luminous text outlined in the dim twilight.
The elegant handwriting was icy blue, but for some reason, it carried a trace of warmth.
She was writing—
"Rast, long time no see ( ^▽^ )"