Chapter 179

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Chapter 179

(Continued)

It is spring now. I used to live in the tower for too long, and I think maybe, like me, you don’t have a special perception of the changing seasons in the mortal realm. But after having more meetings recently, I remembered what the four seasons in the mortal realm are like. In early spring by the Windon River, there are pale pink flowers blooming. I picked one while taking a walk and made it into a bookmark with the guidance of my gardener friends. I hope you will like it.

Titus has gained weight, probably because I often go out and leave it in the pet shop. It eats very well and has new playmates. I think it has almost forgotten what it feels like to live in the tower. I’m afraid it will forget about you. I even thought about bringing it to see you, but you know that’s not possible. I feel regretful about it.

I even look forward to you finishing your studies early and coming home to write your paper.

Your fame is not valid.

Sylas didn’t know why her nose felt a bit sour. Before she could react, tears quickly blurred her vision and rolled down onto the letter, smudging the crossed-out words "your".

She hurriedly tried to wipe it, but the smudged color made it look even worse. Sylas dared not touch it again, so she just left it on the side to air dry.

She then opened the envelope and tried to find the bookmark Xerath mentioned. Sure enough, there was a thin petal, wrapped in a transparent material. The petal was clearly pressed inside the dry pages, the color of its veins visible after losing moisture. The shape of the flower was well preserved, and even the stamen and pollen were clearly visible, just flattened.

The pale pink that Xerath mentioned might have deepened, but it still conveyed a dream-like brightness from the petal, calling out to the colorful flowers outside the window.

Reading Xerath’s letter, the beauty of spring seemed to have an extra charm. Sylas sighed, looking at the dark window. The pear blossoms in the school during the day were also very beautiful. For a while, the whole campus was filled with these small white flowers, falling like snowflakes when the wind blew.

It even made her think of a winter when she strolled with Xerath in the snow.

She also wanted to go back immediately and take a walk with Xerath in Windon River in Withered Leaf City, right under the flowers. Her imaginative mind wove Xerath’s figure into the imagined white flower bushes, and the warm breeze would surely melt the coldness in her heart, just like in the summer desert, revealing her softness inside.

She would smile, walk leisurely with her hands in her pockets, gaze around, and look for beautiful scenery. Maybe she would even wave to let Xerath catch up…

Sylas gazed at the beautiful scenery for a while, and when she heard the door, she thought it might be Luna returning. She hurriedly went to collect the letters on the table.

But the place that was smeared by her tears seemed strange. She felt curious and was about to take a closer look when Luna came in.

"Sylas!" Luna greeted happily. "You’re not asleep?" She noticed the envelope on the table and asked mischievously, "Ah-ha, I guess you didn’t come back to sleep, did you?"

Caught red-handed, Sylas almost forgot she had just said "go back to sleep." "I…uh…"

"It’s from ‘the teacher’! Am I right? He sent a letter! What did he write that made you so happy?"

Sylas smiled shyly. "It’s nothing important."

"Romantic things are never unimportant! Only with unimportant people would you talk about how your dog got fat, right? You wouldn’t do that with someone who isn’t important, would you?"

Sylas asked in astonishment, "How did you know our dog got fat?"

Luna widened her eyes and let out a high-pitched and joyful sound. "Wow, really? Did he really mention it? Oh my goodness!"

Sylas felt very sorry and said, "Don’t make jokes like this. I just didn’t know what to say."

"This is… what is this?"

Luna picked up the flower bookmark on the table and said, "It’s very pretty… where did you buy it?"

"No, it’s not… the teacher made it. Lately she has been spending time with gardeners and maybe she learned this little trick from them."

Luna stopped screaming and kept whispering, "Oh my goodness," "Handmade? Given to you? Ah, how romantic."

"It’s not romantic! It was probably just a coincidence." Sylas couldn’t tolerate Luna explaining so freely. She herself didn’t even dare to think about these things. How embarrassing it would be if Luna figured it out!

Luna asked in confusion, "But don’t you like the teacher?"

"It’s not… it’s not like that. I can tell the difference, I…"

Luna patted her shoulder and comforted her, "Okay, okay, stop explaining. I know, I know." It didn’t matter if the little fairy who could confidently talk in class stuttered. She admitted it or not, what did it matter?

"I really! And she won’t… won’t like me, stop saying that…"

"Okay, okay… I’m not joking anymore." Luna saw tears welling up in her eyes, afraid that if she made her cry, she wouldn’t have a way to get firsthand information anymore. Of course, she would agree to whatever she said.

Sylas saw Luna enter the bathroom, and only then did she calm down. She took out the letter again, and what puzzled her before was the flow of the ink. It didn’t form a blob, but diffused in a certain pattern, very clear. That pattern was a type of handwriting.

But this wasn’t surprising, Sylas immediately came up with an explanation in her mind: Xerath usually had a stack of draft papers on her desk, and she could write neatly even on blank sheets. Because she pressed hard when writing, the handwriting would imprint onto the next page. There was nothing strange about it. These patterns were mostly left from her previous letter.

It’s not good to read other people’s letters; Xerath didn’t agree to let her read it.

She thought about folding the already dry paper and putting it back, but curiosity tempted her to take out the letter again, just a few harmless words.

She looked carefully, and those few words were "peach blossom" and "taking a walk."

It’s a bit strange. "Peach blossom" and "taking a walk" are both words that appeared on this page. Why would they appear at the bottom of the same page? What kind of behavior would cause this? She was curious about what this paragraph was about, so she held the page up to the light and observed. She vaguely recognized that what was written was the same paragraph from before: the archmage took a walk by the Windon River, which was covered in blooming peach blossoms, and impulsively left a petal behind as a bookmark.

But it was different. It was much more detailed than the few sentences before.

"In early spring, on the riverbank of Windon River, there were many peach blossoms. In poetry, people often use peach blossoms to compare to young girls, but when I stopped for the first time to admire these patches of peach blossoms, I couldn’t think of any other words that would be more suitable. They made me think of you. I brought back many of them. Some I picked up from the ground before they were trampled by tourists, and some I secretly plucked from the trees. This made me feel guilty – pressing them dry in a book… and turning them into simple specimens, covered in glue to make bookmarks. This is a technique I learned from my gardener friends. I thought you might like it, so I chose one that was still quite beautiful."

Some of the writing is hard to read, some is mixed with fresh ink, some is too faint to identify, and some has messy edits and deletions. The only certainty is that the archmage made significant changes and edits to this letter for some reason.

The original sentence, of course, made Sylas happier because the archmage clearly mentioned thinking of her, even selecting materials for her bookmark and giving her the best one out of all the ones he made.

Those words describing actions made her feel as if she could see this unsmiling woman hesitantly walking into the flower rain, picking a petal with a guilty conscience, and opening a book with golden-rimmed glasses, carefully inserting the plucked petal between the pages.

A smile couldn’t help but escape from the corner of Xerath’s mouth. Xerath was surely unaware of just how adorable she was.

No, no, maybe she knew, that’s why she deleted this entire passage, leaving only two lines of words that wouldn’t reveal her true thoughts.

But even so, Sylas found her extremely adorable.

Luna came out of the restroom and happened to see her with that silly smile on her face. She rolled her eyes. At this moment, she needed a better, more discreet, and more trusted ally to discuss this romantic affair, instead of talking one-on-one with Sylas. Asking her wouldn’t lead to any satisfying answers!

However, the next morning, a big event spread through the school.

Actually, every year at this time, something big happens. It’s the day when the "Magic Wand" is released in May, and every May issue features a news article. It’s about the winner of this year’s "Magic Society Award".

The only criterion for the selection of the "Magic Society Award" is major theoretical and technical discoveries. Nothing else matters, not even if the winner is a wizard or not. Besides wizards and archmages, there have been apprentices and assistants who have won the award in history. There have even been thieves who have won.

This year’s winner is expected. It’s Archmage Xerath. However, the reason for winning is not what everyone previously believed would make it into the history books – "the non-linear relationship of siphon intensity". Instead, it’s "the series connection and overload of crystal absorption". Commentators have pointed out that "the non-linear relationship of siphon intensity" is just an expansion and extension of the "siphon theory" (Emerson) that won the award twenty years ago. And the "series connection of crystal absorption" overturns a long-held misconception: the absorption effect of crystals cannot be added together.