Chapter 39: Fate

  "He carried unspoken vows, and in the snow, her last kiss lingered. Now, each dawn is borrowed light, from her fallen star, and his endless night." Shen Jiu Yi’s lips curved into a faint smile, his pen scratching softly across the page as he wrote the final line.

  "You wrote it all down?" Wolf’s voice was deeper than before.

  "Yes," Shen Jiu Yi closed his leather-bound notebook. "Is there something amiss?"

  "I told you this story because I believe someone in this world should remember Lia’s name," Wolf looked him directly in the eye. "But I don’t want it to become a minstrel’s song, sung for tavern coin."

  "A song?" Shen Jiu Yi gently shook his head. "Even if it were a song, it would be one sung by the Goddess of Fate! One failed mission brought you together; another failed mission separated you forever. Perhaps... this is what is called ‘fate.’"

  "Fate?" Wolf let out a low chuckle, a sound steeped in the bitterness of years of hardship. "You from the Library record the myriad states of human existence. I’m curious to hear—how do your people view ‘man’ and ‘fate’?"

  Shen Jiu Yi observed Wolf’s expression, then smiled faintly. "It might be impolite to answer a question with a question, but I’d still like to hear your thoughts first."

  Wolf’s lips curved slightly. More than Shen Jiu Yi’s answer, he truly wanted to voice the thoughts that had long churned within him.

  "I once didn’t believe in fate," he said slowly. "But now, I increasingly feel that... everything is guided by an unseen hand. As long as I dare to face my true desires, to confront what I truly want, fate... will stand by me, guiding us down the right path!"

  Unnoticed, in the depths of his eyes, a spark of near-madness had already ignited.

  "Indeed."

  A soft female voice whispered close to his ear. Ethereal arms wrapped intimately around his shoulders, cool lips brushing his cheek.

  "Trust the guidance of fate, my love." The woman’s eyes were as dark as night, her form transparent and ethereal, and around her neck hung a sapphire pendant identical to Wolf’s.

  "Deep within the northern wastes... there lies a power, a power that can bring me back to this world." Her voice entwined around him like the blizzard’s wind. "This time, I will never leave you."

  No one else could see her—only Wolf.

  And only Wolf knew who she was.

  Lia Sheffield, the love of his life!

  —The moment he touched that swollen eyeball in the ice bear’s lair.

  The Goddess of Fate had cast her mad dice.

  The hallucination had begun then.

  The seasoned mercenary had known the moment he saw her: she was fake, merely a projection of his obsession.

  But that was enough.

  Even if it was just an illusion, as long as he could see her smile, hear her voice again—that was enough.

  The phantom told him that deep within the snowfield, a secret lay hidden! It held infinite power, enough to resurrect her!

  Wolf knew in his heart: this might be delusion, hallucination, the lure of some ancient malice.

  But he no longer cared to think.

  Even if it led to an abyss, even if it was the whisper of a demon.

  If there was even a glimmer of a chance to bring Lia back—

  He would take it!

  At any cost!!

  "That’s a remarkably confident answer." Jiu Yi smiled, still offering no answer of his own, but instead turned and gently tapped the carriage doorframe.

  Since it wasn’t snowing, the carriage door hadn’t been closed, so the master and student inside had naturally overheard their conversation.

  Shen Jiu Yi, still smiling, asked, "So, Mr. Ethan, what do you think?"

  Ethan had clearly been pondering for a long time. He now spoke slowly: "I actually agree with Mr. Wolf’s view. What we call fate, to me, is a reflection of cause and effect. Because of one’s actions, the outcome is constant."

  "One’s actions? Your explanation sounds different from Mr. Wolf’s," Jiu Yi probed.

  "No, this ‘one’s actions’ is actually also caused by other factors. Do you understand what I mean?" Ethan said, raising his hand. "For example, this act of raising my hand now. It seems to be my own choice, my own will, but in essence, it’s because we are discussing cause and effect and fate, and I chose to use the act of raising my hand to illustrate my point. And the reason it’s raising my hand and not something else is because my hand hasn’t been active much on the journey. So, when the thought of ‘demonstrating a point through physical movement’ arose, my body subconsciously prioritized moving the hand that hadn’t been active."

  Jiu Yi mused, "So you mean that all our actions are actually derived from an unseen ‘cause,’ and our actions then create new ‘effects’?"

  "Precisely. That’s why I agree with Mr. Wolf’s view that human destiny is already arranged, and we are merely playing our roles." Ethan adjusted his monocle. "In fact, I highly endorse the Lapsus Merchant Guild’s philosophy: omniscience and omnipotence. When you possess all knowledge, knowing everything happening in the world at this moment, then you can accurately predict everything that will happen in the next moment."

  Jiu Yi continued to smile and nod, offering no further comment.

  Wolf then spoke again: "You’re being unfair, you know. I asked you the question first, and you still haven’t answered."

  "Fate, it is both the endless staircase we climb, leading us ever upward in our quest; and the deep-rooted taproot, branching into countless veins throughout our long journey, firmly grasping all things around us, allowing us to stand firm against the storms. Perhaps, as Mr. Ethan says, everything we do is already arranged."

  "Your reasoning is sound, and I find no reason to refute you. In fact, I largely agree with your perspective."

  "But don’t you think if life were truly like that, it would be too dull? The joy of life lies in breaking one’s own fate."

  Jiu Yi’s gentle smile remained. "The Library’s work is to record stories from all corners of the world. It is precisely because different people, in almost identical situations, make different choices that everything in this world becomes interesting. And that is the meaning of our Library’s existence."

  "Alright, let’s end this discussion here. I can already see the Mage Tower; it’s time to get down to business!"

  Wolf’s words interrupted the others, who were still eager to continue the conversation. The four of them then looked north.

  In this vast expanse of land, eternally sealed by ice and snow, sunlight fell like precious jewels, illuminating the snowdrifts like countless glittering diamonds embedded in the earth. And amidst this silver-clad world, a tall tower stood proudly, like a weathered guardian, silently watching over this frozen land.

  In this vast expanse of land, eternally sealed by ice and snow, sunlight fell like precious jewels, illuminating the snowdrifts like countless glittering diamonds embedded in the earth. And amidst this silver-clad world, a tall tower stood proudly, like a weathered guardian, silently watching over this frozen land.