Chapter 34: Black and White (II)

What exactly had he forgotten?
What was with that magic circle? Why did it always bring an inexplicable sense of sorrow whenever he saw it?
Lying on the bed in his dormitory, Jiang Zhe propped his head and gazed at the faint starry patterns on the ceiling—stars that were merely designs yet seemed to twinkle like real ones.
The second-year dormitories weren’t much different from the first-year ones; there was just one more bookshelf in the study. Other than that, each room had an additional magic resistance array. After all, the Riox student dormitories were built on space folding, so they weren’t particularly spacious. If students used space magic to damage the dorms, it could lead to unnecessary trouble.
Before going to bed, Jiang Zhe, Allen, and Scott, bored out of their minds, discussed their respective goals.
Allen said he wanted to become a great, unprecedented grand knight—or rather, a battle mage.
Given his cheerful demeanor every day, it was hard for Jiang Zhe to imagine what he would be like as a leader. In this world, a grand knight also meant the commander of an army.
Scott’s goal was to be a scholar—he wanted to master as many spells in the world as possible. But in the end, he always added that he wanted to become an upright, legitimate noble like his grandfather.
And what about him?
What was his own goal?
In fact, Jiang Zhe understood that his past achievements were inseparable from Professor Hodde’s supervision and Ravia’s “pressure.” Without them, he couldn’t believe he would have been able to focus on practicing the same spell every day.
It was less about a longing for magic and more about curiosity about it—a difference even Jiang Zhe understood.
He knew that without Ravia’s “pressure,” he would never have memorized those annoying magic theories. He knew that without the werewolf incident, he would never have worked hard every day to practice that spell called Flame Flash.
What is the greatest driving force for progress? It’s ambition, desire, and greed…

In this world, the primary motives of ordinary people who wish to become noble magicians are nothing more than to improve their status, gain glory, wealth, power, or seek revenge, and so on. Those without any aspirations have lost the drive to push themselves forward. It’s hard to imagine someone with no aspirations or hatred studying magic harder than others.

What on earth is magic used for?

Perhaps, as Old Roy from the farm said, it could be used to water the crops…

But he’s studying blue fire magic, right? With just one burst of flame, wouldn’t all those crops be burned to death?

Hey!

Jiang Zhe was well aware that he wasn’t from this world from the start, but for some reason, he had to live here until his death…

Due to his unfamiliarity with this world, he felt an inexplicable distance from everyone.

After living at the Rexox Academy for a year, his circle of friends remained small—Scott, Allen, Professor Hodde, Lavia…

Even Lisa and Lailira weren’t very close to him…

Hmm, maybe he should also include the academy’s head, the respected Archmage Great Greta Kaines…

Speaking of which, Jiang Zhe felt the old headmaster was looking at him in a strange way…

Although they had only met twice so far, the archmage seemed to trust him quite a bit… Well, maybe it wasn’t trust, but rather the indulgence and leniency typical of an elder toward a child…

That feeling wasn’t good…

Scott was too serious and rigid, Allen was too fond of pranks, and Lavia… well, she was just too much of that…

Professor Hodde’s personality actually matched his own quite well, but unfortunately, given his age—old enough to be his father even in his past life—it wasn’t very comfortable…

Oh, right, Agus’s personality seemed similar to his own as well…

Hey, what was that guy who was even poorer than him, with only two silver coins on him, doing now?

Who was chasing him? And why?

Hopefully…

In a daze, Jiang Zhe fell into a deep sleep. When he woke up, it was already the next day. Scott was reviewing the history of ancient magic, while Allen was practicing his huge knight’s sword for morning exercises.

“Woke up, buddy?” Allen said with a smile, seemingly struggling with one hand as he repeated movements of raising, swinging, and thrusting. “If you don’t get up now, we’ll leave you behind… Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that we don’t want to wake you—it’s just those fireballs flying around the bed are really scary…”
Before he could finish, Scott interrupted him.
“Don’t listen to his nonsense. Lavia was here just now and said the classes have been postponed… all of them. So we thought since there’s nothing to do, we’d let you sleep… You haven’t been getting much sleep lately, right?”
“Did… Lavia come here? Just now?” Jiang Zhe widened his eyes, feeling uneasy.
“Don’t worry, buddy,” Allen said, putting down his knight’s sword and wiping the sweat from his forehead with the towel over his shoulder. “Don’t let her boyish appearance fool you. Actually… knowing you weren’t up, she didn’t dare come in and just said a few words in the living room… Oh, I think I saw her glance your way… Oops!”
“What nonsense is that?” Scott moved a book two finger-thicks off Allen’s bare back, sat down by Jiang Zhe’s bed, and pointed at the fireballs floating around.
“Pop!” Four or five of the floating fireballs disappeared instantly.
“Did… she say anything?”
“What do you expect her to say?” Scott asked with a smirk.
Jiang Zhe was stunned for a moment, then shook his head, feeling his question was silly. Right, what did she say have to do with him? Although somehow, he didn’t seem to get along very well with her…
“Ahem,” seemingly noticing Allen’s mischievous chuckling, Jiang Zhe coughed twice and changed the subject. “So… why did the academy postpone the classes?”
“I’m not exactly sure about that either,” Scott said, shaking his head and frowning. “Lavia only said that Professor Hode told her the academy seems to be preparing to welcome some guests recently…”
“Guests?”
“I said I’m not sure. Um… maybe the academy invited some famous magician. As you know, not all magicians choose to join the Royal Magic Corps or teach at the academy…”
“I see,” Jiang Zhe nodded, got out of bed, grabbed a coat from the side, put it on, and shrugged. “Anyway, it has nothing to do with me… Fine, at least I still have some time to memorize that damned ancient history. By the way, what subject is Scott taking this year?”

“It should be around five hundred years back, um, during the pre-magic and post-magic eras. Next year should be the Golden Age, maybe plus the Age of Chaos… And in the second year, the exam questions will probably be more detailed than last year…”
“Oh my god,” Jiang Zhe said with a bitter smile, holding his forehead helplessly. “Last year, just three hundred years took me two weeks to memorize, plus one make-up exam. This year, they’re adding another two hundred on top of last year’s amount? I’ll have to spend a whole week memorizing all those famous figures alone, not to mention their achievements. More details? Ugh! By the way, is that professor grading us again this year?”
“Hey,” Scott said with a strange expression, as if surprised. “You’re not thinking of that again, are you? Last year, you got caught by Professor Hodde, right?”
“That was because I didn’t understand magic back then. Besides, the professor was way too extreme—using the Eye of Truth just for an exam with a 100% pass rate? Anyway, I really don’t want to deal with those annoying names and their so-called achievements anymore…”
“Agreed!” As soon as Jiang Zhe finished speaking, Allen clapped in support.
“Shut up!” Scott shook his head and glared at Allen. “I’m not criticizing you, Thors, but even now, a year later, can you really fool the professors? Although your senses are very sharp, the professors… Besides, you haven’t learned any detection magic, have you? I think you’d better just write everything down honestly. Maybe you’ll need it in the future…” He then turned to look at Allen. “Including you. You took the exam three times last year, and in the end, only three people took the make-up exam—you included. How dare you… Go ahead, memorize it!”
“Hey, you guy… Ugh, there’s no point talking to someone who’s always glued to books,” Allen said, quickly turning his head before Scott could glare at him again, and discussing with Jiang Zhe. “Dude, I’ve also been thinking that using cheat sheets isn’t really a good idea… You write a lot, but you end up using very little of it…”
As Scott shook his head helplessly, Jiang Zhe asked doubtfully, “So what should we do?” As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Allen giggling over there.
“Hey, aren’t you thinking of…”
“Hehe,” Allen said in a lowered voice, giggling. “Isn’t there a more hassle-free way? I know where the exam papers are…”
“But… but…”

“Don’t worry, with so many exam papers, we’ll just take one or two—no one will know…”
Glancing at Allen, who was grinning, and then at Jiang Zhe, who seemed somewhat tempted, Scott shook his head and stood up helplessly, saying, “Alright, you guys discuss it first…” But just as he was about to leave, Allen pulled him back.
“Where are you going, buddy?”
Facing Allen’s serious expression, Scott was caught between laughter and frustration and said helplessly, “You still doubt I’d…”
“No, no, buddy, that’s not what I meant,” Allen said with a grin, rubbing his hands together awkwardly. “Aren’t the three of us roommates? If the other two go, we can’t leave you behind. It’ll be awkward whether we succeed or not… What if we pass and you get rejected? That would be embarrassing…”
“Save it. Do I need you to worry about me? Even if I have to take all the exams, it doesn’t matter to me…”
“See, see,” Allen said, pointing at Scott in disbelief and shaking his head. “The three of us have always gone together, right? What if this affects our trust?”
“Okay, okay, fine. Come talk to me when you’ve made up your mind. I’m too lazy to talk to someone like you… You’d better bring Ravia and the others too, huh!” With that, Scott shook his head and walked into the living room. Behind him, Allen winked at Jiang Zhe triumphantly and then called out, “Don’t worry, I won’t forget!”
“Still… bring them too?” Jiang Zhe felt uneasy. He always thought Ravia was too strange, getting angry at the slightest provocation.
“Of course,” Allen said in a lower voice, glancing at Jiang Zhe. “I heard the exam papers are locked in that room deep in the underground passage… There might be traps or something, like magic puppets or guardian beasts…”
“Magic puppets?” Scott’s cold laugh came from outside. “Do you know how much time it takes to create a magic puppet? Do we really need those precious magic puppets to guard exam papers with a 100% pass rate?”
“Hey, if the pass rate were really 100%, we wouldn’t be talking about this, okay? The fact is, it’s not!” Allen retorted angrily.
“I don’t want to deal with you!” Just then, Scott suddenly glanced at the door because he heard knocking.
“Knock, knock, knock…”
Glancing at the bedroom inside, Scott shook his head, walked to the door, and opened it. Just as he was about to speak, his expression turned puzzled.

Outside the dormitory, there stood a kind-looking old man in a white robe, smiling at Scott and saying gently, “Hello, little one…”
“Uh, hello…” Scott opened the door and bowed slightly as a gesture of courtesy. Although the old man didn’t seem anything unusual, he still felt a sense of pressure, as if facing an impossibly high mountain.
“May I ask who you’re looking for?”
“Hmm, I’m looking for a young man named Thors. Does he live here?”
Subconsciously, Scott glanced back inside and faintly saw Allen talking with Jiang Zhe, arm in arm. Scott cleared his throat and called, “Thors, someone’s looking for you!”
Soon, Jiang Zhe’s puzzled voice came from inside. “Looking for me? Who is it?” As his voice was heard, Jiang Zhe stepped out, already dressed. When he saw the old man standing at the door, he froze, looking at Scott in confusion.
Scott shrugged; clearly, he wasn’t aware of anything.
But Jiang Zhe himself didn’t know either. So he stepped forward, met the old man’s kind gaze, and asked doubtfully, “Sir… are you looking for me?”
The old man carefully examined Jiang Zhe from head to toe, his smile growing wider. He nodded and was about to speak when his gaze suddenly stopped on the back of Jiang Zhe’s left hand, his expression filled with strange surprise.
“Child, this is our first meeting… Well, won’t you invite me in to sit?”
“Oh,” Jiang Zhe said hesitantly, filled with questions, “Please…”
“Thank you, my child,” the old man seemed satisfied. He nodded and entered the room, glancing around at the furnishings before stopping in front of a sofa. Raising his hand with a smile, he said, “Don’t be formal. I’m no suspicious person. Otherwise, your college dean would have thrown me out long ago. Hehe, you should sit too…”
Looking at the old man and then at Jiang Zhe, Scott hesitated for a moment before smiling and performing a noble gesture. “Sir, you must have something important to do. I’d better step aside for now…” With that, he headed inside, pulling the curious Allen along with him.
“What a polite little one. Truly rare… It seems he’s received a strict education.” Watching Scott’s retreating figure, the old man nodded with a smile. Then he turned to Jiang Zhe, paused briefly, and said softly, “Let’s sit down and talk. First of all, my name is Andrew Ashworth…”

“Oh, then why exactly has Lord Ashworth come looking for me? I don’t seem to remember knowing you…” Jiang Zhe interrupted the old man, speaking with caution.
“Hehe, don’t be formal. Just call me… Old Andrew,” the old man said, taking another look at Jiang Zhe before smiling. “Child, do you know about the Holy See?”
“The Holy See… Salonia?” Jiang Zhe’s eyes still held caution.
“Yes! It’s good that you know. Well, first let me introduce myself. My name is Andrew Ashworth, a priest of the Holy See—what you call a minister or a white mage…” As he continued to observe Jiang Zhe, Father Andrew kept his gaze on the back of Jiang Zhe’s left hand.
“White…”
“Please don’t be surprised, child. Though relations between our two countries haven’t been very good over the years, you surely can’t think that we white mages would harm you here? It was your dean who asked us to come…”
“The dean? Grand Mage Keynes?”
“Hehe, yes…” Father Andrew nodded, rubbed his hands together, and instinctively glanced at the fireplace behind him.
Seeming to notice Father Andrew’s movement, Jiang Zhe raised his right hand. After a few seconds, he snapped his fingers. With that sound, a small flame burst out from the fireplace, instantly igniting the wood inside.
Father Andrew stared at Jiang Zhe in astonishment, nodding repeatedly. “Not bad, quite skilled… And without relying on spells. Child, you have great talent!”
“Uh, thank you. But… I still don’t understand why you’re looking for me. I don’t remember having met you before…”
Seeming to sense the caution in Jiang Zhe’s eyes, Father Andrew shook his head with a smile and said helplessly, “Well, then I’ll just say it directly.” He paused, changed his tone, and asked solemnly, “Child, have you studied white magic?”
“White magic?” Jiang Zhe looked at Father Andrew in disbelief. “I have studied magic, but it was black magic. White magic… I’ve never studied it. You must have the wrong person.”
“Hehe, the wrong person? Impossible!” Father Andrew shook his head with a smile, pointed at Jiang Zhe, and said in a low voice, “Then let me ask you—since you’ve never studied white magic, why do you have the aura of holy light within you?”
“Holy light?” Jiang Zhe stared at himself in confusion.

“Holy light is a magic that only we in Salonia can learn. If it weren’t for someone from our Church teaching you, you would never have been able to master it to this extent… Who taught you white magic?”
“No one taught me…”
“Huh,” Father Andrew said with a wry smile and a shake of his head. “Don’t worry, child. I won’t blame you. It’s not a big deal at all. In fact, we’d be delighted if all the children in your empire learned white magic!”
“But really, no one taught me white magic…”
“That’s strange,” Father Andrew said, glancing at Jiang Zhe. He could sense that the boy wasn’t lying. With some confusion, he muttered something, then suddenly frowned and pointed at Jiang Zhe’s left hand. “Child, if you don’t mind, could you take off that glove and let me see your left hand?”
“My left hand?” Jiang Zhe was stunned. No one knew better than he did what was on his left hand, but at the same time, he didn’t know what it was either. After hesitating for a moment, he finally took off the glove and raised his left hand.
“This is…” Father Andrew’s gaze sharpened instantly. He grabbed Jiang Zhe’s left hand and stared intently at the magic circle, occasionally looking up at Jiang Zhe.
Could he… understand it?
With this doubt, Jiang Zhe asked hesitantly, “Excuse me, what is this…?”
“A magic circle!”
Nonsense!
Muttering to himself, Jiang Zhe said as if talking to himself, “I actually don’t know how it appeared on the back of my hand. Can you tell me what it’s for?”
Father Andrew didn’t answer Jiang Zhe right away. After studying it for a while, he slowly released his hand. Then, looking at Jiang Zhe with a somewhat sorrowful tone, he said, “Child, don’t worry. This is a hexagram magic circle. It will only bring you benefits, no harm. That person… the one who engraved this magic circle on you… where is he?”
“A person? There isn’t anyone. I’ve already said I have no memory at all of this magic circle or the person who engraved it!”
“Then…” Father Andrew nodded slightly, then patted the seat next to him and said, “Come sit here, child!”
Though the voice wasn’t loud, it seemed to carry an irresistible charm. After hesitating for a moment, Jiang Zhe finally sat down next to Father Andrew.

Father Andrew gently placed his hands on both sides of Jiang Zhe’s head and, looking at him in confusion, whispered, “Relax, child. I won’t harm you… I could never harm you!” As he spoke, his hands suddenly emitted a milky white light—different from ordinary white light; it was a dense, almost living light—holy light!
“Why should I…?” Jiang Zhe tried to struggle, but his words were cut off as he suddenly felt a calm energy flowing into his head, like a gentle breeze in spring or basking in the sun on a clear day—a comfort beyond description.
“What… what is this?”
“This is holy light. You also have it within you…”
“Me? That’s impossible!”
“Is that so?” Father Andrew smiled faintly. He could clearly sense that the child before him was absorbing the holy light he had sent, just as Brother Cheshé had said. Moreover, he noticed that with each bit of holy light absorbed, the hexagram magic array on the back of the child’s left hand became clearer. As more holy light flowed in, the magic array seemed to come to life, its patterns and runes covered in a glassy glow.
It wasn’t the child who was actively absorbing the holy light…
It was the hexagram magic array!
And it wasn’t just that…
For some reason, the energy carried by the magic array was constantly decreasing, though only slightly. This situation… was like a seal…
The power of the holy light seemed to be conflicting with some other force, suppressing that unknown energy, which caused the loss. Yet the magic array itself absorbed holy light… no, not just that—it also contained a [magical circuit] that transformed ordinary light elements into holy light elements. This was unbelievable!
How could such a thing be possible? Ordinary light elements could actually be transformed into holy light elements… This was simply…
Wait. Even if it seemed impossible, he had seen it with his own eyes. So…
There couldn’t be more than three people in all of Salonia who could do this… well, maybe just one…
Little Charles!
But why would he engrave such a magic array—something like a seal—on this kid?
And judging by the way the kid was looking, he didn’t seem to be lying…
This…
Frowning at Jiang Zhe, who was still with his eyes closed, Father Andrew whispered, “How do you feel, child?”

“Um…” Hesitantly, Jiang Zhe spoke in a tone of discomfort and embarrassment, “It feels okay, but…” Before he could finish, Father Andrew whispered, “It might not be so comfortable from now on. Bear with it, child…”
“Huh?”
Before Jiang Zhe could recover, the holy light in Father Andrew’s hands surged violently. Jiang Zhe trembled all over, while Father Andrew slowly closed his eyes…
A restriction!
A restriction had been placed on this child’s mind!
Indeed, some of this child’s memories had been sealed by psychic magic…
A very clever technique—without harming even a bit of the child’s soul or mental strength…
There’s no doubt about it. Although there are at least hundreds in the Church who can achieve such things, combined with that incredible magic array and the current situation of the Church’s personnel…
Little Charles… Sigh!
But then again, why would Little Charles seal this child’s memories? And why engrave that seal-like magic array…
Could there be some incredible existence within this child?
Let me take a look inside this child’s heart!
“Swish!”
Father Andrew slowly opened his eyes, but he wasn’t in Jiang Zhe and the others’ dormitory anymore—instead, he was in a very strange corridor…
A seemingly endless corridor…
“To understand who a person really is, it’s not enough to just look at their eyes. But if you look into their inner world, everything becomes clear. One can never deceive their own heart!”
Father Andrew walked along this seemingly endless corridor, knowing that at its end lay a great door—a door leading to the inner world of a person…
“But this child… how could there be two doors?”
The corridor, like a ribbon of light, split into branches at some point. One path led to an ancient, majestic wooden door, adorned with beautiful yet strange patterns, as well as some peculiar symbols and inscriptions. The other path led to a cold iron door, covered in barbs. As for the inscriptions and symbols on this iron door, Father Andrew could recognize a few—very similar to the [Mirror Script] commonly used by dark mages…
Father Andrew stood at the fork in the corridor for a while before finally choosing the path leading into darkness.

After all, he merely wanted to understand what kind of being was sealed within that boy’s body; he had no intention of prying into others’ private thoughts. That ancient and imposing wooden door, though its design and patterns were somewhat strange, was not a problem. It was only that iron door…

The iron door was enormous—Father Andrew realized this only when he stepped inside, as he appeared minuscule in front of it, like an ant.

He looked up at the patterns on the door, but they were quite simple—there were only seven black circles in total. However, only in the fourth black circle was a monster covered in scales and armor carved. Above that black circle, there was also a line of text. As for what it meant, Father Andrew stared at it for a long time, feeling his cheeks burn…

The seven black circles were arranged vertically from top to bottom in an asymmetrical pattern, and they were connected by a black line. From a distance, they resembled a plant—the black line being the stem, and the seven circles the leaves…

Since it was a plant, it surely had flowers as well, right?

Father Andrew strained to look up and then noticed that at the very top of the huge iron door was a carved black sun. The moment he saw it, he suddenly felt a dizzying discomfort. Clearly, he did not like this feeling. Looking at that black sun, he had a sense of ominous foreboding.

For centuries, the Bible passed down by the Church had stated that the golden sun represented the supreme god creating the world. Though the gods of the Church, in a sense, were not what one would call true deities—something Father Andrew himself understood.

When formulating doctrines and the Bible, the white mage had regarded the golden sun as the supreme god. This was definitely not the sun god worshipped by the empire.

Of course, where there is a positive, there is a negative. The black sun was promoted as the opposite concept, as proposed by a white mage skilled in great prophecy.

If the golden sun represented creation and peace, then the black sun represented destruction and ruin. It did not simply refer to a particular demon or type of evil, but rather an invincible [Will], that is, the [Great Will]!

This was a very pure symbol. If the golden sun symbolized [Good], then the black sun symbolized [Evil]. They did not refer to deities; perhaps, this symbolism was even on a higher level than gods…

“Well then…” Glancing at the massive iron door, which was tightly sealed without a single crack, Father Andrew raised his arm and pushed, but the door didn’t budge at all. After all, this door was taller than any structure Father Andrew had ever seen. “…So, how do we get in?”