Chapter 663: The World is Accelerating, Only I am Trapped in the Past
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 663: The World is Accelerating, Only I am Trapped in the Past
A new day.
Afternoon.
"Are you ready? Is it time yet...?" I asked, looking at Sister Bai as she walked out.
"Mhm, let's go." Sister Bai gave a simple nod in response.
Sister Bai had come here primarily to rearrange her teaching schedule. The main purpose of the adjustment was so she could leave the academy with me.
After spending a "pleasant" night with her yesterday, I had told her about my decision to return home.
My consciousness had been a bit hazy at the time, so I hadn't expected her to be so efficient today. She had pushed her classes back; in the Witch Academy, postponing or adjusting courses was a fairly common occurrence. According to Sister Bai, filing an application was all it took.
"How are you feeling? Is your body okay, Xiao Han?" Sister Bai placed a hand on my shoulder, her words carrying a suggestive undertone.
"An entire morning has already passed. I'm perfectly fine, see?" I spoke defiantly, as if everything that happened last night was trivial.
"Seeing how stubborn you're being, I can rest easy~" Sister Bai chuckled, seemingly unbothered. "Are you sure you want to leave today?"
"Mhm. Better to go early, get things settled, and maybe walk around outside for a bit. Isn't that nice?"
"Right, get things settled early!" Sister Bai nodded in agreement, but her thoughts drifted back to the past. What kind of mindset did Xiao Han have back then when she left that place with her?
To the point where now, a "homecoming" that seemed so simple to others required such solemn preparation.
"So, have you thought about how we're going to get back? Magic City is quite far from there, isn't it?"
"Mhm... Can we take the same high-speed rail I took when I first came here?" I asked after a moment of thought.
"There isn't a direct line from the Witch Academy's Curtain Wall to the outside world, but there's a direct station in Magic City once we leave the academy grounds."
"Then we'll just take it from Magic City. It's all the same, right?"
"Yes, though we won't have the exclusive carriage for Transcendent Academies that way."
"That doesn't matter, does it?"
"I suppose not."
After a brief conversation, we settled on our method of travel. It wasn't a peak travel season, so there were plenty of tickets left for the day.
"Oh, I almost forgot one thing..."
"Oh? What did you only just remember, Xiao Han?"
"Mhm, at the dormitory villa where I used to live."
"I'll go with you," Sister Bai said. With a wave of her hand, she tore open a spatial portal.
"It's not anything particularly important, just... my old phone..."
"Your old phone?" Sister Bai blinked, looking surprised. "I didn't realize you still kept it."
"I kept saying I'd get rid of it, but... I just kept forgetting. Sigh, my memory..." I grumbled as I stepped through the portal. On the other side was the villa that had once housed our five-person dorm.
I looked up slightly. Everything looked the same as before, yet it felt much colder and lonelier.
Of the original five, only two remained.
Dongli Yiren and Yu Yuetian were in the Expansion Realm, and I hadn't been back in a long time. Only Guan Qiuling and Hong Chenyi were left here.
However, when I opened the door, no one was inside. The only thing there to greet Sister Bai and me was the smart butler—the cleaning alchemical item formerly known as "Little Ox-Horse."
"Welcome home, Master~"
It was that same familiar voice. Even though I hadn't been back in ages, the little fellow was as lively as ever.
"Little Ox-Horse, where are the other two who live here?" I knelt down and tapped the flat little device.
"According to today's schedule, both roommates have a full day of classes."
"Oh, right. Finals are coming up soon." I nodded, remembering the time of year.
I stood up and ignored the little guy, walking over to the villa's mana meter. Since I was back, I figured I'd pay a bit of "roommate fees." After all, one of the bedrooms here was still mine, wasn't it?
I didn't stop until the mana meter hit its maximum value and couldn't move any further. It took less than a few minutes; such was the convenience of having mental power strong enough to interfere with mana. Otherwise, relying on the device to draw mana on its own, who knew how long it would take to reach triple digits.
"Mhm, it looks about the same as it did back then." Sister Bai followed me inside.
Sister Bai hadn't been here many times—probably only once when school started, and she ended up fleeing in the middle of the night... I felt like I could tease her about that for the rest of her life.
"Mhm. Want to see my bedroom?" I took Sister Bai's hand and led her upstairs.
My bedroom was still very clean despite the long absence, likely thanks to Little Ox-Horse's periodic deep cleaning.
There wasn't much in the room to begin with.
Sister Bai looked around curiously after entering, wondering how the old Xiao Han used to live.
She instinctively walked to the wardrobe and pulled it open. Many of the clothes and dresses inside were ones she had prepared for me. On a nearby counter, she saw several different styles of leg rings.
"Xiao Han, these clothes..."
"Just leave them here. This is my bedroom, after all. What's wrong with keeping some of my clothes here?"
"Do you think you might come back here in the future?"
"I don't know. But as long as there are clothes for me to change into in this room, it proves that this is still a place I can return to."
"So... that's how you think about it?"
"Well~ it is where I used to live. I suppose it's the bedroom I've stayed in the longest, right?" I said casually, not thinking as deeply as Sister Bai was.
After searching for a bit, I found my old phone wedged in the gap between the nightstand and the bed.
"No wonder I forgot it; it fell somewhere we couldn't see." I wiped off the thin layer of dust, turned around, and smiled at Sister Bai. "Found it. Let's go."
"All that just for a phone?"
"Mhm. I don't know if I'll even use it, but... it seems to be the only thing left that anchors me to the past." I pressed the power button and found it was long dead.
This didn't surprise me at all. Even before, this phone had a severe power leak; I couldn't even play games on it. If I tried, the battery would die in no time. I had to keep it plugged in just to use it. The phone was like a terminally ill old man, and the charging cable was the oxygen tube keeping its last breath of life going.
"It's okay. You're just going back to see your old family. You aren't the same Xiao Han you were before," Sister Bai said, stepping forward to pull me into a back hug.
"I know... Alright~ there's no need to be so sentimental. Do I look like someone who's easily crushed by the past?" I turned around to face her.
"I know you're strong, Xiao Han. But the more you suppress yourself like this, the harder it is to find closure... Xiao Han, just be yourself for once. Emotions need to be released so they don't end up hurting you." Sister Bai pulled me into her embrace, one hand pressing against the back of my head, hoping to help me find some peace this way.
"Mhm..." I let out a soft hum, my hands pressing against Sister Bai's chest as I escaped the "face-wash" hug she had so invitingly offered.
"Let's go. Let's not waste any more time here," I said.
"Then let's go." Sister Bai agreed, sensing there was no need to linger. However, after tearing open the spatial channel to Magic City, she seemed to think of something. "Mhm... do you want to leave anything for your former roommates?"
"No. I've already left enough. The rest is up to them." I shook my head and followed Sister Bai into the spatial channel.
After all, I had given them many things: Great Knowledge Seeds, my business card, and... one final favor.
If they couldn't find their way into my sight through their own strength, that favor would be the last time they ever saw me.
In the end, I still hadn't become true friends with them. Even though I had decided to start a new life after getting on that high-speed rail with Sister Bai, my terrible social skills had still made a mess of everything.
Was I to blame my wretched childhood in this life?
Before, I would have humbly said it wasn't that bad, because I had been a "born knower" since the moment I came into this world...
But now... with my long-suppressed emotions surfacing, I... for once, felt a surge of hatred.
No one gets a second chance at life, yet I did...
If I had a happy childhood, would a life started over have changed the lethargy of my previous one?
If I had parents who loved me, would that love have filled the void in my heart?
If I had a harmonious family, would I have been soothed by kinship and learned to love myself?
If I had...
There were no "ifs." The past cannot be changed. It had already transformed into experience after experience, etched into my memory, ultimately shaping me into who I am now.
My current conflict was the clash between a mature mind that understood there is no such thing as unconditional kindness in this world, and the concept of selfless love between parents and children.
Parents treated "being good to me" as a bargaining chip to control their child. They tinkered with their power of dominance, tasting the sweetness of holding authority for the first time in their failed lives, and from then on, they forgot how to be human.
This was a failure of education, and a tragedy of the world. From this perspective, I was even more determined than those Witch Mentors to reshape this wretched world.
As I followed Sister Bai through the teleportation channel, we emerged onto a street bustling with people.
Cars roared past, and pedestrians hurried by.
None of them noticed the two figures that had suddenly appeared.
They were busy toiling for their lives, but this world had long passed the stage of insufficient productivity. Families harvested everyone's wallets. These worlds dominated by family factions—had they not also tasted the power bestowed by the Transcendent Academies and become something less than human?
And now, they were even starting to bite the hand of the Transcendent Academies. Even if they lacked the ability, the intent was already there.
Walking through the crowds and corridors, Sister Bai led me into the station. Just like the first time, she guided me the entire way. If I didn't use the Ley Line Identification Art, I wouldn't even know the process for taking the high-speed rail.
But I knew that if I followed Sister Bai, she would get me there.
After a short wait, we boarded the train. Watching the scenery outside the window, I began to fiddle with my old phone.
Although the charging cable was long gone, with my control over mana and the lightning-system spellbook, I managed to charge the phone anyway.
As the long boot-up screen appeared, distant memories gradually resurfaced.
I looked at the sparse app interface and, out of reflex, tapped on the memo app.
But the memos had been wiped clean. The diaries I once kept, the records of various events—I had deleted them all in one go at some point. If I wanted to, I could use the Ley Line Identification Art to retrieve that deleted information from the phone at any time, but I didn't.
Time seemed to be flying by. I stared at the phone screen, doing nothing. The novels I used to download, the little games I used to play... the current me had no interest in them at all.
Before long, after the phone was fully charged, I watched the battery hit 100%, only for it to stubbornly drop to 99% after just a few seconds.
For a moment, I stared at the number in a daze, until a second later, it dropped to 98%... 97%...
At that moment, I finally realized something was wrong.
I instinctively looked around and out the window. Everything seemed to have become incredibly fast. Everyone was accelerating forward, while I alone remained in place, as if I were the only person in the world still trapped in the past.
With a strong sensation of being pushed back into my seat, the scenery outside the window turned into a series of stretched, blurred lines. The sounds in my ears became thin and sharp, and Sister Bai's movements became rapid and indistinct...
When I looked at the phone again, the battery had dropped from 90% to 89%... 88%...
"What is this?"
"Obviously, this is Time Sense." At that moment, my Knowledge Shadow took Sister Bai's place. She turned her head and looked at me with a smile.
"Why? I didn't try to control my perception of time like this..."
"Because your heart is trapped in the past. The confusion in your soul has blurred time..."
"But... even if that's the case, shouldn't I be stretching time out, staying in the past?"
"Why can't it be that confusion has bred anxiety, making you want everything to be over sooner?"
"Then why did you say I'm trapped in the past?"
"Figure it out yourself. I really don't know what kind of luck you have to be able to perfect the dual-directional operation of Time Sense under these circumstances."
"Time Sense..."
Though prompted by the Knowledge Shadow, and though I should have been happy to experiment with the changes brought by Time Sense, I didn't delve into it as deeply as I usually would. I was indeed trapped in the past, to the point where I couldn't feel a shred of joy even at the perfection of my Time Sense...
I just stared at my phone. After a few casual words with the Knowledge Shadow, the battery had already dropped to 23%.
22%... 18%... 12%... 10% (Battery Low)...
Until finally, the phone leaked enough power to shut down. The screen turned pitch black. Through the heat of the screen, I saw my own reflection.
"Xiao Han... Xiao Han? We're almost there. If we don't get off, we'll miss our stop."
At that moment, Sister Bai's voice shifted from the thin, sharp distortion back to its calm, familiar tone. I felt as if I were waking from a long dream.
"We're at the station?"
"Mhm. Are you okay, Xiao Han?"
Sister Bai reached out and pressed the back of her hand to my forehead. Though she knew very well that I wouldn't suffer from any normal illness anymore, she still chose the most intimate gesture, hoping I would recover.
She had noticed my abnormality, but throughout the hours of the journey, she hadn't disturbed me until now.
"No... I'm fine..." I forced a smile and shook my head. "Let's go. We'll miss the stop if we don't get off now."