Chapter 61 – To Stay or to Leave

Year 755 of the Imperial Calendar, the 1,074th year since the founding of the Empire.

Lin Wei recalled this year from his past life.

The sailing season ended early, with incessant storms along the eastern coast, forcing all Imperial Navy ships to return to port.

The seasonal tide, centered around an elemental storm, transformed into an ordinary tempest as it reached the near seas. While it had no impact on the coastal areas in previous years, this time it affected the entire coastline, and the entire continent was dominated by overcast and rainy weather.

However, the climate eventually returned to normal, and no similar incidents occurred again.

Connecting this to events in the Magic World, it seemed they had somehow resolved the issue.

In the final fragments of Katanaphia’s memories, a bard appeared… He sought the goddess’s protection and journeyed to the “Northern Tower.” If this bard was the first Tower Master, Aisa Yivis, then he must have known of the existence of deities and was not on friendly terms with the Goddess of Light.

Lin Wei admitted he hadn’t given much thought to the history of the Dark Age, but if the Valley of Elements was connected to that era, it was worth delving into.

Most of the ancient spells from that time could no longer be used today, including many of the magic arrays on the Magic Wheel… Daniel’s explanation was that the concentration of Magic Elements was insufficient—but when these spells were created, they were clearly usable, otherwise they wouldn’t have been passed down.

To restore the concentration of Magic Elements, the “Source” would have to be unsealed, but the consequence would be even more violent elemental storms, endangering the lives of ordinary people and overwhelming even the mages—this had been verified by mages who, out of boredom, once conjured a small-scale elemental storm and ended up in a sorry state.

From this perspective… the five Valleys of Elements served to protect the entire Magic World. Yet the ancient spells and magic arrays proved that there had been an era when Magic Elements were highly concentrated, free from the threat of elemental storms.

Lin Wei felt a faint sense of unease—similar to when he read the supreme rules in the Book of Contracts.

Mages had lived for so long, exploring and studying spells and arrays, yet they had never fully understood the laws behind the elements. Now it seemed even their entire history was unreliable!

According to Teacher Adele, elemental storms would only grow more intense, and the remaining four families were also at risk of extinction. The Magic World, and even the continent, faced a great crisis… yet the atmosphere in the Magic World didn’t seem tense at all—the Floating Sky Capital remained peaceful, and the teachers at the Magic Academy were each immersed in their own magical fields. It wasn’t until now that Lin Wei fully grasped the situation. Before this, he had always thought the fall of the family in the Valley of Ice was irrelevant.

There was another issue—the timing of the dreams Adele mentioned was quite coincidental, making Lin Wei think twice.

Because this time last year was precisely when he had been reborn.

Lin Wei sorted through all these matters in his mind, only to find that none of them made sense, and now he had to face Gregory!

The fact that he had to live under the same roof as Gregory made him extremely uncomfortable, even if this place was technically his territory.

When he returned to his room, he was slightly anxious, dreading the possibility of seeing Gregory in the hall. Fortunately, His Highness was indeed not in the hall at the moment.

Upon returning to his room, he found that Duan Yu was not there—the room was empty except for the egg quietly sitting in the corner, with a neat pile of Magic Crystals beside it. According to Daniel, they had gone through quite some trouble to bring it safely back to the Magic Wheel, and Daniel had even added some crystals to ensure it could continue to incubate.

His mood lightened slightly, and he couldn’t help but smile. The thoughtfulness of his two companions was heartwarming—even if they had brought the magical beast egg back as a final memento.

Lin Wei took out the Book of Contracts. His soul power had grown strong enough to attempt the contents of the seals within.

Some time later, the door opened again—it was Haitie returning with Duan Yu.

Lin Wei looked up from the Book of Contracts: “Where did you go?”

“The Central Castle,” Duan Yu replied. “Haitie and I went to see the teachers for next year.”

Elemental mages had fixed courses each year. This year, in addition to continuing their study of magic spells, they would also begin learning about magic arrays.

“So you’ll start learning magic arrays this year…” Lin Wei said. “Can I join?”

“You want to learn?”

Lin Wei nodded. “Many of the seals in the Book of Contracts are different from summoning seals. They’re actually more similar to magic arrays, so I need to learn.”

“We can go together when the time comes—Teacher Mortier was just complaining about how few students there are in this year’s class!” Haitie said. “Another thing is that we ran into Teacher Ansel on the way, and he gave us a task…”

“What task?” Lin Wei asked.

“Teacher Ansel said: ‘Your classes haven’t started yet, and you must be bored in the academy, right? Perfect—I’ll lend you one of my old friends. It will take you to the shore, and you’ll be responsible for safely bringing in the new class, and perhaps some other magic apprentices who were stranded by the seasonal tide.'”

“Alright,” Lin Wei said. “But why doesn’t he go himself?”

“Teacher Ansel would never go himself—he’s constantly monitoring the Magic Wheel from the shore,” Haitie explained. “We sailed the Magic Wheel through the seasonal tide. Although we managed to reach the shore, it was severely damaged. Master Sylvester had to ask Master Sirius to repair it, and of course, he brought Daniel along. Teacher Ansel is on edge all the time—his exact words were, ‘Who knows if those two green-eyed alchemists will dismantle the Magic Wheel into four pieces!'”

Without Haitie elaborating, Lin Wei could already imagine Daniel’s enthusiasm—he had always been fascinated by the structure of the Magic Wheel, and now that he had a legitimate “repair” opportunity, of course he would take it apart thoroughly…

“Also,” Haitie added with a strange expression, “Teacher Ansel said that since the two of you managed to swim all the way back, he’s not worried about your safety.”

“He seems to have misunderstood something,” Lin Wei rubbed his nose. “I don’t want everyone in the academy to associate our names with the story of swimming all the way back to Siren Island—that’s just terrible.”

Haitie gave him a sympathetic look. “Teacher Ansel seems to have already told quite a few people.”

Lin Wei: “…When do we leave for the port?”

“Tomorrow. This year’s class has three students, all elemental mages—fire, earth, and light.” Haitie hesitated for a moment, then added, “I was thinking… we could also take Mr. Gregory back to the mainland.”

“No…” Lin Wei said. “I still need to think about that.”

Haitie looked at him curiously but didn’t say anything more.

After staying a while longer, she returned to her room. Lin Wei, deep in thought, closed the Book of Contracts and glanced at Duan Yu.

“Gregory…” he murmured. “The best outcome would have been if he hadn’t been rescued.”

Duan Yu didn’t quite understand his meaning. “Why?”

“Things in the Imperial Capital are always like this…”

Thinking about these matters was exhausting—especially now that he had grown accustomed to life in the Magic World.

If Gregory had simply died in the storm, everything would have been easily resolved, whether it was the throne or the war.

But he was rescued and brought to Siren Island… making the situation far more complicated.

First, there was the reason Gregory had come to the Eastern Sea Region—this was the territory of the Tidis family, something Lin Wei knew all too well. He had no news from the Imperial Capital and didn’t know the current state of relations between his father and His Highness, nor whether Gregory’s arrival here was connected to the Tidis family.

Even more uncertain was whether Gregory now had any influence in the Magic World—in his past life, since he had dared to wage war against the Magic World, he must have gained a comprehensive understanding of it. This wouldn’t have been difficult, as the Empire sent people with magical talent to the Magic Academy every year, allowing the Imperial Family to manipulate things from within—otherwise, they wouldn’t have had the means to train mages.