Chapter 229: The Beginning of the Academy’s New Term (4)


    If you head south along the great river that cuts through the Hawol in, you’lle across the viges of the ck Cat Tribe and the Yua Tribe.


    Historically, those two tribes had been at odds with each other, frequently shing over territorial disputes... But the explorer Ka knew a significant secret about the rtionship between those two tribes.


    And that was.


    "Kyaa, this is it!"


    When you brew a drink by mixing musk coffee cultivated by the ck Cat Tribe with ck beads grown by the Yua Tribe, it created an extraordinary vodka.


    "What a unique human."


    "Does that taste good?"


    "Tsk. Tsk."


    The vigers of the ck Cat Tribe clicked their tongues as they watched Ka drinking musk bead liquor on the ground in broad daylight."It''s a pity they don’t know this taste."


    Wanderer.


    Or drifter.


    Or explorer. Or a homeless person.


    Or... Time traveler.


    She loved wandering the world aimlessly, but due to some circumstances, she was stuck in the Karacornia Mountains for a long time.


    It had been decades since shest tasted foreign liquor.


    Thanks to meeting some girls with a special destiny, she sessfullypleted her ''business'' in Karacornia and returned to wander the Hawol in, spending her days acquiring and drinking various liquors.


    The Hawol in was densely popted with various tribes, each having its own distinct drinking culture, allowing her to taste a wide variety of liquors. This was why she loved this ce so much.


    "Hmm. It feels a bit different from thest time I was here."


    Somehow, the cultures of these tribes seemed almost unified, as if a powerful ruler had appeared and united them all into one group. But that wasn’t a major concern.


    "As long as the liquor tastes good, that’s all that matters!"


    Returning to the Hawol in, Ka wandered around, enjoying strong liquor all night long.


    She frequented ces known for their famous liquors or where she could brew her own.


    With her bronze skin and cheerful demeanor, she would strike up conversations with anyone and make light-hearted jokes, easily making friends with the tribes. This was her secret to getting free drinks without spending a dime.


    About a week passed like this.


    "Ugh... What the...?"


    One day, as usual, Ka woke up on the street after drinking herself into oblivion. She wiped the drool from her cheek.


    "Ugh. Hangover."


    Her head throbbed as if someone was hammering her skull. Struggling with nausea, she realized that she was in a very unfamiliar ce.


    She didn’t like the look of it at all.


    Ka had the ability to see the past. She always witnessed the ''history.’ Because of this, she avoided ces where bad incidents had happened long ago.


    On battlefields, she saw the vivid sights of countless dying people, and in ces struck by disasters, she heard the screams of people in anguish.


    No one could endure such sights and sounds with a clear mind.


    "... I’m out of liquor too."


    Even though her stomach churned with the hangover, she wanted to quickly get drunk again to stay in a daze.


    Struggling to her feet, she looked around.


    This ce was a cold, deste ruin with no sign of life.


    Even though she had been drunk, how did she end up here?


    The city had been destroyed about half a year ago. Until then, it had been a lively city full ofughter.


    One day. Suddenly.


    A mana power nt copsed.


    The moment the power nt that supplied the city with magical energy exploded was vividly imprinted in Ka’s eyes.


    No matter how much she wanted to avoid it.


    No matter how she turned away.


    No matter how she closed her eyes.


    The echoes of the past kept tormenting her.


    "... Sigh."


    Ka plopped back down and grimaced as she felt her head throbbing.


    "The concentration of mana crystals in the air is dense... Has it been contaminated by mana radiation?"


    Mana was beneficial to all living beings when it existed in an intangible state.


    However, the moment it crystallized, it transformed into a deadly wave that devoured life energy.


    "It seems like it’s been about fifty years, yet the concentration is still this high..."


    If an ordinary human were to enter, they might sumb to mana poisoning, and bleed from all orifice.


    If it was this bad now, how horrific must it have been back then?


    Ka walked quickly through the ruins. She no longer wanted to stay in a ce that ruined her mood...


    However.


    She had to stop when she saw the profile of someone blocking her path.


    A man with gray hair tied in a ponytail was looking at the ruins with indifferent eyes.


    "It was a horrific disaster."


    Ka instinctively drew her staff from her cloak and pointed it at him.


    From the end of her staff, a silver chain dangled with a pocket watch swinging on either side.


    The gray-haired man turned his empty gaze to Ka.


    "A fragment of the New Moon Silver... Still, you’re wasting your time. I see."


    His voice was heavy and cold, almost soulless.


    Meeting his gray-eyed gaze, Ka gulped dryly. The pain from her hangover had long since vanished.


    "Hah. Time is always on my side. Is there any reason for someone as grand as a Twelve New Moon to be overseeing a mere fragment like me?"


    The New Moon Space.


    A man who could manipte the space of the world. He was perhaps the most strange entity in existence.


    Despite the creeping fear, Ka boldly retorted.


    "I heard you left Aether World. What brings you back? Missing the mages, are you?"


    "... Fragment of the New Moon Silver."


    "Why don’t you just call me Ka?"


    "Alright, Ka."


    He gazed past Ka, or maybe somewhere beyond, with his gray eyes.


    "What vision are you seeing here now?"


    "What...?"


    Ka frowned.


    He knew about her ability. So what was his intention in asking such a question?


    "Just... A horrific scene."


    "You must be seeing the tragedy from fifty years ago."


    "Is there anything else to see?"


    When Ka deliberately snapped, New Moon Space lowered his voice, responding almost as if reciting a spell.


    "The tragedy from fifty years ago is not the only past. The moment you stumbled in here drunkst night is also the past, and the moment a weed struggles to take root in the cracks of the ruins is also the past."


    "Why do you have to twist obvious facts into suchplicated words?"


    "A hundred years ago."


    Ka’s eyebrows twitched. She wondered what had happened a hundred years ago besides the tragedy from fifty years ago, and tried to see the scene from that day.


    "Two hundred years ago."


    "Five hundred, and then a thousand years ago."


    New Moon Space stared piercingly into Ka’s silver eyes.


    "The limit of the past you can see extends exactly that far."


    "Oh..."


    He was right.


    Thinking back, since she received the ''eye that sees the past'' from New Moon Silver, she had never tried to see the past a thousand years ago.


    Because.


    It was impossible.


    However, with no intention to concede to New Moon Space, Ka gritted her teeth and shouted.


    "Isn''t that obvious? The Twelve New Moon were born that day!"


    "No. It’s not obvious. Despite being able to manipte time, have you never wondered why there is a limit?"


    She hadn’t.


    She had never been happy with this ability in the first ce, so she never thought deeply about it.


    "That’s not really important."


    "It’s important. The fact that the fragment, more precisely the entity known as New Moon Silver, can only see back exactly 990 years into the past.”


    “Nine hundred and ny years...?”


    “Yes.”


    That was the exact figure.


    The limit of Ka’s ability to see the past was indeed 990 years.


    But why, of all numbers, was it 990 years and not a thousand?


    “What exactly are you trying to say...?”


    As he kept forcing thoughts she didn’t want to know into her mind, it started to be distressing.


    She could live without knowing such facts. She just wanted to drink every day and find her own happiness.


    “Destiny has begun to take a turn. You too must return to your rightful ce.”


    “You realize that’s basically telling me to die, right?”


    “Death is not the end.”


    “You’re so blunt because it’s not your end, isn’t it?”


    “You need to return to your position at the right time.”


    Suddenly, the atmosphere around New Moon Space changed drastically.


    The bright, clear sky and clouds turned entirely gray, and Ka felt her breath catch in her throat.


    “But this time... You’re not readily epting destiny.”


    New Moon Space tilted his head as if genuinely puzzled or displeased by Ka’s defiance and approached her.


    “What drives you to act like this?”


    “W-What...!”


    He looked up at the sky, realized his mistake, and withdrew his aura.


    The weather turned bright again in an instant, but Ka was already far from normal.


    “No matter. It’s fortunate that New Moon Silver is a coward. He even split his memories into fragments and hid them away.”


    “Kuh. Ugh!”


    As New Moon Space withdrew his power, Ka copsed to the ground, coughing violently. Tears welled up, and her whole body trembled.


    Fear. Beyond mere fear... This was the emotion of someone who had glimpsed death.


    <em ss="chakra-text css-0">‘Ah! Is this the end for me?’</em>


    Ka closed her eyes. She had just been freed from the Karacornia Mountains and thought she could finally travel freely. She never expected to be stopped like this.


    “Return to your position and do what you must.”


    As New Moon Space grasped the air, Ka’s body was sucked into another space and disappeared.


    Whoosh!!


    He stood there, staring nkly at the spot where she had vanished


    “... As it has always been.”


    Step.


    Turning away, New Moon Space slowly walked through the ruins.


    Because of the foolishness of New Moon Silver, he had always endured these hardships but always failed.


    Yet, knowing he would fail, New Moon Space repeated the same attempt this time as well.


    It was his duty and mission given to him.


    Having perfectlypleted his task in this ce, New Moon Space traversed to the other side of space.


    He had returned the fragment of New Moon Silver to where it belonged, so now it was left for New Moon Silver to find it and absorb it ording to destiny.


    … But he did not know.


    “Hm. ying Go alone is not fun.”