He Holds a Rose from the Abyss

Chapter 19 – Margaret

Countless thoughts flashed through Chi Lang’s mind, but he still shook his head.

Although he didn’t feel disgusted, he felt a little embarrassed.

Sheffield walked over a few steps.

Chi Lang resisted the urge to step back and still stood in place.

Sheffield opened his hands, leaned down slightly, and gave him a hug.

Sheffield’s strength was very light, and in a trance, Chi Lang only felt that the places in contact with Sheffield warmed up.

He smelled the faint smell of alcohol on Sheffield.

Is it because of the wine? Chi Lang thought it was to be expected.

“Would you like some wine?” Sheffield went to the table again and poured wine into the glass, which was swirling gently in the crystal glass.

Chi Lang took the glass and looked down at the wine in it: “Sheffield, is there any way you can prevent me from being seen by Margaret?”

Sheffield took a sip and said with a smile, “Why do you want to see her? I was only kidding about the question I asked you to ask earlier.”

“Because I think, apart from her, probably no one can answer my dreams.”

Chi Lang had a hunch that Margaret would know… how to return to modern times.

Sheffield shook his glass gently and replied “yes”, he murmured to himself, “I always feel sorry to say that.”

Chi Lang looked at him suspiciously: “Why are you sorry?”

Sheffield chuckled softly: “Should I say, let me kiss you and I’ll help you.”

Chi Lang:  …

“But I have my reasons, and I can’t accompany you into the Magic Tower tomorrow to meet Margaret.” Sheffield clinked his wine glass against Chi Lang’s.

“It’s alright,” Chi Lang said, “there should be other students from the academy who got all the best grades going tomorrow. There shouldn’t be any problems.”

“Although I can’t enter the magic tower, I can wait for you outside.”

Sheffield recited a series of spells to him: “Prophecy magic also has limitations, and this magic I used on you will keep Margaret from seeing your strangeness for now. She will unlikely use high-level prophecy magic on an ordinary magic academy student.”

Chi Lang nodded: “Okay,” he saw Sheffield’s expression was not right, “you don’t have to worry.”

Sheffield reached out his hand as if trying to touch his face, but in the end, he just stopped his hand in the air and slowly dropped it again.

‘The prophecy magic shows no danger, and there is no reason for an accident to happen,’ Sheffield thought.

But he had an indescribable feeling. Many years ago, he also had a premonition that someone would burn down his rose garden and seal him forever in the dark abyss. It was the same feeling that time as this time.

“I’m not worried,” Sheffield said, with a smile on his face, but a bit of hostility in his voice. “No one can break my rose anymore.”

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It rained lightly the next day, and the raindrops left a faint trail of water on the window, even the rose that Sheffield had brought back carried droplets of water on it.

Chi Lang walked out the door with an umbrella. Joyce, one of the students who got the best grade, went to Margaret’s Magic Tower with Chi Lang.

Joyce looked sullen as he walked and complained: “Obviously, Dana also got an excellent grade, but she refuses to visit Margaret.”

Chi Lang felt that something was not right and said, “Wait, are we going to walk over here?”

“Of course not, we’ll take the carriage,” Joyce said disdainfully, “the academy is too stingy and can’t bear a little money, they’re not even willing to call a carriage to come to the academy, we have to get out of the academy and sit at the intersection.”

A thought flashed in Chi Lang’s mind, he poked Joyce: “Joyce, have you ever seen a tool with two wheels that people sit on and stomp forward on the ground?”

Joyce thought for a while: “Never heard of it.”

Chi Lang heavily patted him, looking very excited: “Thanks.”  Chi Lang felt that he knew what to give to the Magic Research Society.

It took them about half a day or so to get from the academy to the magic tower on the outskirts by horse-drawn carriage.

When Chi Lang was about to fall asleep on the carriage, he saw the magic tower. To be fair, the magic tower was not beautiful, it looked ancient, the outer walls were gray and black, there were a few neat rows of windows, and there was no subtle design.

It was not tall either, and it didn’t look outstanding even on the outskirts.

Moreover, this magic tower was next to a rice field. The golden rice field and the gray magic tower appeared at the same time, giving Chi Lang a kind of surreal feeling.

In his impression, the mage living in the magic tower should live in isolation and not care about the outside world, but the mage Margaret chose to build a magic tower in the middle of the rice field and live here.

Neither disturbed too much, but also maintain communication with people.

Today, in addition to the group of students from the Saints Magic Academy who came to visit, people from the church also came here.

Outside the magic tower stood four knights in light armor, apparently waiting for someone.

Chi Lang and the others could only wait outside first. From Chi Lang’s angle, they could just see an occasional figure flashing through the window.

The decoration in the magic tower was also very simple. The parlor had only a wooden round table, the walls were full of magic patterns, and a daffodil plant was placed in a corner by the window.

There were two people sitting in the reception room, a mage and a priest, and their conversation came to an end.

The priest in a white robe stood up first: “Your Excellency, thank you for your hospitality. I bothered you today. Maybe I will need to trouble you with my future work. Thank you in advance.”

“You’re new to the city, it’s best to get to know the city of Zefnar before you do anything else,” Margaret instructed.

The white-robed priest agreed with a smile. He made a very strange movement with his finger against the tip of his nose, while his fingertips were pushing upward. However, the top of his fingertips was empty, so his movement couldn’t help but seem a bit abrupt and strange.

He seemed to realize that his actions were not right, so he touched his nose and said with a smile, “Thank you.” As he was turning to leave, he suddenly turned his head again and asked, “I would like to take the liberty of asking you a question that has nothing to do with my visit to you this time.”

“Please speak.”

“Do you know if there is any, whatsoever, way to travel to another realm?”

Margaret didn’t answer immediately, the priest continued: “If you don’t know either, or if it’s not convenient for you to answer, I’ll…”

“There is,” said Margaret.

*

Chi Lang was bored waiting outside.

Sheffield said he would wait around here, but Chi Lang looked at the blue sky and white clouds, and at the golden wheat fields, and couldn’t figure out where Sheffield would be hiding at all.

Chi Lang repeated the action of lowering his head and raising his head countless times, and finally saw someone walking out of the magic tower.

It was a priest, and it seemed that he was the one these knights were waiting for.

Chi Lang didn’t look at him much, he turned slightly to the side, and quietly waited for the priest to walk over.

Chi Lang just raised his head by chance, and glanced at the priest by chance, and then Chi Lang noticed that the priest made a move.

—His fingertips moved at the bridge of his nose. Although it seemed like he was just touching his nose, Chi Lang thought of another action.

Raising his glasses.

A priest so young should have had the blessing of divine magic and would not have been afflicted with any illness, much less myopia. Chi Lang wasn’t sure if there were glasses in this world now.

The priest passed him by and walked forward.

Chi Lang stared at the back of this strange priest for a while.

He thought of another possibility, and that possibility almost made his whole body tremble. Was that cleric also a transmigrator?

He asked Joyce, “Who is that priest?”

“I don’t know, I heard from my knight friend, it seems like a newcomer.”

“Can you help me ask about this person? It’s better to have more detailed information.”

“Okay,” Joyce agreed readily.

Chi Lang was a little absent-minded, and was still thinking about the priest before entering the magic tower.

Although he thought he might be overthinking it, he still harbored a bit of unrealistic hope.

He sighed slightly and looked at the magic tower. There was a carpet on the floor, and there was hardly any decoration except the necessary furniture, such as tables and chairs.

There were a few small magic formations on the walls, which were incompletely drawn, as if the owner had been inspired by chance and had drawn them by hand. Other than that, the room was full of books.

Books were stacked neatly on the bookshelf, and the wooden planks on the bookshelf were slightly dented, looking like they would break at any time, and the air was filled with the smell of wood and ink.

Chi Lang followed Margaret’s voice transmission instructions to the parlor.

Margaret, with white hair, was still wearing her magic robe even during the meeting, and she had a gentle smile on her face.

“Please, have a seat,” said Margaret.

Chi Lang sat across from her, introduced himself first, and said with a guilty conscience that he had achieved the best grades.

“Very good,” Margaret nodded, “I like listening to the stories of young people. Students who can get all the best grades must have extraordinary performance in some way.”

“Where do you plan to develop in the future? Magical Pharmacy? Or do you want to specialize in actual combat, or study magic spellcasting or something like that?” Margaret was as gentle as an amiable elder.

Chi Lang felt even more guilty. He lowered his head: “About magic research, in fact, it has nothing much to do with magic, just researching some mechanical creations and the like…”

Margaret’s pupils narrowed for a moment.

Chi Lang suddenly felt the passage of time slowed down. He could clearly see Margaret slowly picking up the teacup. He could even see the trembling of her fingers. The movement of the hands also seemed to have slowed down.

“Sorry,” Margaret said suddenly, pulling Chi Lang out of this slow state of time, “Accidentally used prophecy magic, which is really offensive.”

“It’s okay,” Chi Lang said, “did you see anything?”

“Mechanical creations are pretty good too, now that magic can be combined with machinery too, someone has to look into all aspects.” Margaret did not answer his question, but turned to another topic.

Chi Lang hesitated for a while, but still asked the question he wanted to ask the most: “Actually, I came to visit you because I had a small problem when I was reading a book before—”

He raised his head and looked at Margaret expectantly: “So the book says that there were once races that came from other realms, is there really a way to cross the realms?”

Margaret froze, it was a bit of a coincidence that she had heard two different people ask the same question in a short period of time.

Her eyes became strange, and Chi Lang felt as if everything about himself had been seen through by Margaret.

Then Chi Lang heard Margaret say—”Sorry, as far as I know, there is none.”

Chi Lang was a little disappointed, but he didn’t show it. He asked again, “Then can I ask you another question?”

“Is there any way to unlock the seal of the Demon Lord?”

Margaret took a sip of tea and looked out the window, as if she was reminiscing about something, and then she looked at Chi Lang again.

“I didn’t expect anyone to ask that, but it doesn’t hurt to tell you.”