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Chapter 22 – Witch

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Fishead is a freelance translator,
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Author:
Return of Han & Tang
Original Source:
SFACG
Word Count:
2029 characters
Translator:
Fishead
English Source:
Re:Library
Word Count:
1264 words

In the dim, light-starved confines of the tower, a solitary magic lamp’s glow brought a sliver of warmth upon the girl engrossed in reading at a round wooden table.

Once, this tower had been a beacon of brilliance, but now, eroded by the relentless passage of time, it stood as all that remains of the forgotten dreams and lost memories of the empire.

Now in this dilapidated tower, nestled in an alternate dimension only the girl remained.

Amidst the bubbling sounds of medicinal ingredients in a cauldron and the billowing steam that filled the air, the black-haired girl donning a pointed hat set aside the scroll in her hand and stretched languidly. Immediately after, her delicate hands, adorned with soft, fair skin, roved back and forth across the table as if searching for something.

However, after not finding what she expected to find, a trace of surprise appeared within her captivating violet eyes.

“Strange where’d my glasses go? They were here just a moment ago.” The girl questioned, perched on a bench with her legs swinging gently, fingers lightly resting against her chin in thoughtful contemplation.

With a clap of her hands, a magical staff1 emerged from beneath a stack of books, flying towards her as though it were alive.

Search object: enchanted glasses.” Commanding her staff, the little girl then thoughtfully directed her attention to the other two items on the table—her cane and the teleportation scroll she’d recently finished inscribing.

After a moment, the staff returned to her side, its movements akin to that of a person shaking their head.

“Didn’t find it huh?” The girl mused, since the staff couldn’t find her glasses it meant that currently, the glasses were no longer in the tower…

“Oh, so that’s what happened.” A sudden realization dawned upon the girl, and a charming smile graced her lips. Jumping from her chair, she skipped over to a nearby pile of books, where she began to ring a bell.

As its melodious chimes filled the air, the girl danced to the rhythm of the bell’s toll, as she continued ringing. As a boisterous tune resounded from the boundless black tower, a well-equip band burrowed out from the pile of books.

Formed from the pages of books, the band comprised a bagpiper, a harpist, a drummer, and accompanying dancers. Together, they recreated the ambiance of the grand palace galas of the ancient Ya Ting empire.2

Under the bell’s resonating chimes, a fantastical aura spread to everything within the tower.

The young witch, appearing no older than ten, exuded an unusual sense of elation, devoid of any hint of sorrow or frustration over her lost possessions.

“Little one, I’ll be waiting~ hopefully we’ll be able to meet one day.”

——————

So what’s this thing used for?? I didn’t get scammed right?

After the ring’s magical display, Mo Li had somewhat accepted the fact that this ring held quite the importance, however, after he put on the glasses no matter how he looked nothing changed.

Put it on, take it off, put it on, take it off… Nothing happened.

“What kind of alchemist glasses are these, isn’t this just a scam?” Mo Li questioned, a bit angry.

And I thought it’d be something useful, setting aside its usefulness, wearing it is the same as not wearing anything at all, it doesn’t even have the basic functions of a normal pair of glasses.

Mo Li suspected that these glasses were just made from two normal pieces of glass and had no use at all.

“I shoulda chosen the cane from before, hey, can you hear me, I don’t want these glasses anymore, give me an exchange.” Aggrievedly poking the ring in his hand Mo Li could only vent his inner helplessness.

“Tsk, you heartless ring.” Mo Li looked around, searching for anything else with color in this tower.

But still, this ring is quite incredible, it can actually hold such a huge world within it.

After walking forward a distance, gradually Mo Li’s view was no longer filled with only monochromatic color.

In the distance, a hole akin to that of a large well appeared, along with an iron stand that appeared to be for holding swords.

Can I touch these things too?3

As Mo Li expected, the wellhead and sword stand4 were both tangible but it was obvious that he couldn’t take the two things.

The sword stand was firmly fixed to the ground and the well was even less worth mentioning, unless he was able to tear this weird place apart he could forget trying to move it all together.

A sword stand and wellhead, is there some special meaning behind these two things?

Just as Mo Li had decided to walk up and investigate in detail—bang, he seemed to have walked into something invisible.

“Ow!” Mo Li looked around in confusion while covering his head but aside from air there wasn’t anything else.

How did I hit something? Is there an air wall here? Wait, no…

After rubbing his forehead, Mo Li blankly looked at the leftover lime dust on his hand.

He was very familiar with constructions using this type of limestone, or rather, it should be said that he couldn’t be more familiar, as this kind of limestone is the material used at the orphanage he resides in.

Could it be…

The light enveloping the ring was like a purple flame burning upon its surface, Mo Li hesitated for a moment then tried erasing it.

Suddenly the scene in front of him disappeared as Mo Li returned to his original world and appearing before him was the limestone wall of the orphanage.

As expected. Mo Li hadn’t physically traversed into the other world; rather, he was projected into it. In reality, Mo Li himself had never left his world. Thus, after walking a short distance, Mo Li collided with the wall of the orphanage.

That’s to say, the world inside of the ring can only be seen by me?

Mo Li tried rubbing the ring, and in an instant, its purple halo returned along with the monochromatic world of the black tower.

Gently feeling in front of himself, the roughness of the limestone wall was transmitted through his palms, further confirming Mo Li’s hypothesis.

But why can I touch some of the things in this monochromatic world?

After moving to a more open area, Mo Li, having reactivated the Rosewood Ring, tried touching the wellhead and swordstand.

There seemed to be nothing special about the wellhead, looking from above its depths weren’t visible, as for the sword stand aside from its somewhat unique construction there weren’t any other points of note.

Six swords.

This sword stand only had six openings and at most could only hold six swords.

Weird.

What’s this well and sword stand used for? Why is it that in the world this ring shows me only these two things can be seen and touched?

Mo Li couldn’t help but think of Elsa and Charles.

These two people more or less knew about the secrets of this ring and they both recognized him as the owner of this ring.

Going by this logic, they must have their own reasons for giving Mo Li this ring.

Sitting on the edge of the wellhead Mo Li fell into contemplation, causing his ring-bearing hand to inevitably touch the well.

In that instant, an ancient text suddenly appeared in Mo Li’s mind.

‘Fill this well with gold coins.’

“?What?”

Mo Li thinking that he was hallucinating rubbed his eyes to make sure.

‘Fill this well with gold coins.’



 

Footnotes:

  1. Wand, Staff no description was given soooo like not quite sure which one exactly, as such I’m using the one that my mind would think when someone says 杖, instead of 棒.
  2. I hate this sentence, first I second guess myself on the usage of 构成 here which took me like 10 mins to reconfirm because I decided not to read important parts of word description in a dictionary love my life. Then I had to figure out how the FFFFFFFFFFFFF I was gonna translate this SHHHHIZER 宫廷乐, which I ended up choosing gala because I think it’s the best english word to use if someone has better pls do tell me ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Anyways this entire sentence probably took me like 30-40 mins which it really shouldn’t have, I wanna kms. Oh ya I’m doing this at 4 am could be part of the issue hmmmm.
  3. I’ma put a question mark here because it’s worded like a question, buuuuuut I can’t tell if the author just forgot or is doing one of those things that at this point I’ve come to coin as a chinese question statement where a question to oneself is written as a statement because screw grammar.
  4. Author is making me rage, like if we’re gonna be specific and just say sword stand one sentence later why couldn’t you just say iron sword stand in the other sentence and save me the time of trying to find smooth wording ahhhhhhhhg.
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