Chapter 54 – The Dead and the Eternal

The whereabouts of the goddess were impossible to guess.

The age she had lived was at least several hundred years—she was an elf with a long life, and the realm she had reached was something the two of them could not comprehend.

“First, we need to know if her power is strong enough to directly break the contract,” Duan Yu said. “Or, if there’s something she desperately wants, which would determine her destination.”

“The goddess craves freedom. The last words she spoke to the bard were about that, but she also personally stated in the Book of Contracts, ‘It transcends time and death.’ So the contract won’t be easily broken… Also, she carries a skull with her, never leaving it far from her side.”

“The owner of the skull might have special significance to her,” Duan Yu said, his gaze lingering on Lin Wei for a moment. “It seems… it’s time for you to let go of me.”

“No,” Lin Wei replied with a tone of utter composure, having not changed his posture since the conversation began and thus naturally not letting go of Duan Yu. “I’m cold! Once it starts raining in the west, it gets colder and colder, and in this godforsaken place without any magic elements, all the magic arrays on my robe have lost their effect!”

“What about the lion?”

“It doesn’t feel like being a fireplace today,” Lin Wei said with a sincere look. “I’m a kind and good master. I won’t force my summoned beast to do something it doesn’t want to do.”

—If Jerald could understand human language, it would surely plummet from the sky in disbelief at this moment.

Duan Yu grasped Lin Wei’s hand—it wasn’t exactly cold, but it certainly wasn’t warm either.

The mage was undoubtedly very concerned about his companion, so he adopted the most effective method of warming up for the fragile-bodied Young Duke who couldn’t maintain his own warmth.

The Young Duke was forcibly removed from the mage’s side and wrapped entirely in the warm fur of a magical wolf, placed to the side—he tried to resist but didn’t succeed.

“Just you wait,” Lin Wei gritted his teeth. “One day…”

“Wait for what?”

Lin Wei turned his head away, gazing at the dome. “I won’t say—I don’t want to talk to you right now.”

“You’ve become very strange,” Duan Yu’s brow furrowed slightly. “Ever since you woke up.”

At times, the Young Duke prided himself on being a man of his word, so he controlled his eyes from glancing in the mage’s direction and didn’t respond.

Duan Yu’s hand brushed the back of Lin Wei’s neck, pulling out the hair that had also been wrapped in the fur and smoothing it. His movements were gentle—the black strands stood out starkly against the snowy white fur.

Feeling Duan Yu’s touch, Lin Wei shivered slightly, burying his face in the fur and speaking in a softer tone. “I’ll forgive you for now—let’s continue talking about the goddess’s skull. Who do you think the owner of the skull might be?”

“Perhaps it’s Elvis,” Duan Yu said calmly. “The beginning of the Book of Contracts mentions that he died long ago.”

“Elvis was a human, perhaps a powerful dark mage, but his life was far shorter than that of an elf. The goddess keeping his skull as a memento makes sense,” Lin Wei chuckled. “It seems Elvis might have been the goddess’s lover… A clichéd love story, the kind that’s performed every day at the Imperial Opera House, always making my mother cry.”

“Why a lover?” Duan Yu asked, his tone tinged with slight confusion.

“For remembrance… When the mementos of a deceased lover or family member appear before your eyes, they evoke memories associated with them, preventing you from forgetting. There have been such cases in Imperial history—Emperor Yucarius III froze the Empress’s body, and the ring hanging from Viscount Philin’s necklace belonged to his first love.”

Lin Wei turned to meet Duan Yu’s gaze. “Forgetting never stops. This just slows it down, even giving the illusion that the person is still alive. Elvis clearly wasn’t the goddess’s family, and if he were merely a teacher, it’s unlikely the goddess would do such a thing, so I’m guessing he was her lover. Imagine if you had someone you deeply loved…”

“Our world never had such things,” the mage said. “When someone dies, we place their body and all their belongings together, and the closest person draws a magic array of eternal life, then activates it with a special incantation.”

“A magic array of eternal life?”

“Once activated, everything within the array gradually dissolves, returning to the ever-present magic elements, as if the person had never been born,” the mage explained slowly. “We believe that, in this way, they achieve eternal life.”

“Eternal life…” Lin Wei murmured the enchanting word, then said, “But I think this is also a form of remembrance. The elements are everywhere, as if the deceased is still by your side.”

“Perhaps. Sometimes it feels that way.” Duan Yu’s right hand gently brushed through Lin Wei’s hair—a rare unconscious gesture for him. “My mother achieved eternal life.”

Lin Wei looked at him. This was the first time Duan Yu had mentioned his mother. Those dark golden eyes showed no emotion, only a hint of wistful confusion.

“I never met her, and my father rarely spoke of her.”

“Why?”

After a pause, Duan Yu answered, “She didn’t live with us. The Valley of Metal is filled with chaotic elemental currents. Even with a mage’s barrier, it’s impossible to sustain life there long-term. She was from the mainland… Only those from our family can live there permanently. She continued to live on the mainland.”

“Then she…” Lin Wei asked cautiously.

“She left the mainland a few years later to search for my father, perhaps out of longing, but ultimately died on the outskirts of the Valley of Metal.”

“I don’t understand,” Lin Wei shook his head. “Maybe this question is impolite, but why didn’t your father go out to see her? Even just once a year, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“It wasn’t that he didn’t want to,” Duan Yu replied. “My father lived with my mother on the mainland for a few years, believing this life would continue for a long time. But then my grandfather had an accident and was on the verge of death. He had to return home to suppress the Source and couldn’t leave for even a moment… until the end of his life.”

“Was it a rule?” Lin Wei frowned—this also sounded like a story often performed at the Imperial Opera House, a love shattered by family rules.

A young woman from the mainland falls in love with a mage and lives with him, but they are soon separated. Due to cold, unchangeable rules, they can never meet again. Yet she remains devoted to her love and longing, ultimately sacrificing her life.

Lin Wei suddenly recalled the moment when Duan Yu had gently brushed his hair earlier and began to understand—Duan Yu had once said that the people in his family shared similar personalities. Thus, the occasional care from someone usually cold and detached was more alluring than the sweet talk of a flirtatious rake. She had received love from such a person, like a small insect sipping honey by chance, only to drown in a jar filled with it.

“The inheritance and suppression cannot be interrupted. Once broken, it can no longer be contained, so he had to return and could never see my mother again for the rest of his life.” Duan Yu’s tone was calm, as if discussing something utterly mundane.

“What happens if it can’t be suppressed anymore?”

“Like the Valley of Ice, everyone dies, the Source opens, and begins to spread—wherever it reaches, magical beasts advance, and children with water affinity are born the following year.”

“That should be good for the magic world.”

“It doesn’t end there,” Duan Yu said. “The increase in water elements disrupts the balance, triggering elemental storms that gradually intensify. The seasonal tide when we left the academy lasted a long time, perhaps because of this.”

Lin Wei recalled the books he had studied at the academy, especially the third volume of Chronicles of Time, which detailed the magic system. “If magic elements cannot coexist harmoniously, then if all Sources are opened…”

Duan Yu finished his thought. “The entire continent will be engulfed in unending elemental storms until all elements dissipate and peace returns.”

“Right, it’ll be peaceful—but by then, everyone will already be dead,” Lin Wei said. “This doesn’t sound at all like the poems praising the Creator God… The Creator God supposedly made a perfect world, but in reality, it’s full of contradictions.”

He hesitated, then cautiously asked, “Is your family a large one? With many branches?”

Duan Yu shook his head. “No.”

“Then your father… or you, do you have any brothers?”

“No,” Duan Yu looked at him, his lashes lowering slightly. “Just as you imagined.”

They suddenly fell into a long silence.