A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 184 The Night of the Pizza Girl's Arcane Festival (Movie: The End of the World)
Train No. 000 is traveling through the forest.

A cool breeze rustled through the gaps between the treetops and leaves, and looking through the veil of mist, the forest seemed to sway gently, bathed in light and dust.

Like the countless mysteries of the academy, this forest beside Mirror Lake is a place that students cannot enter.

Apart from the Forbidden Forest that connects to the Abyss and the Ten Rules of School, the Academy never explicitly forbids students from doing anything, but in reality, students have very few places where they can act independently.

For example, the upper floors of the Whale Bones Library have no stairs, so students have to fly up on broomsticks. However, they will encounter invisible resistance, and to leap over by brute force, they need mental strength that surpasses that of an ordinary sixth-grade graduate.

There aren't many students who can do this in each graduating class.

The top floor of the library is the hall where school leaders hold meetings and a restricted area where ancient books and magical tomes are stored. If a student can break through the restrictions designed by the academy, it means that he is qualified to read the books there and bear the price of knowledge.

The same is true of this forest.

Although it doesn't look as desolate and gloomy as the Forbidden Forest, with occasional sights of mottled rabbits running by and the faint hooting of owls, and with lush wild grass, flowers, and trees full of life, its restrictions are no less numerous than those on the top floor of the library.

Without a teacher's guidance, students cannot use the ascending star staircase. Flying down from the academy's main castle on broomsticks involves a height of nearly two thousand meters. The higher the flying skill, the greater the energy expenditure. Flying on a rooftop on a broomstick is vastly different in difficulty from soaring through the blue sky. The invisible resistance in the sky below the main castle is countless, and even teachers cannot easily overcome it. If one were to jump from a building, one would fall backwards back to the main castle, inevitably losing both arms and legs.

According to Ankuya, the mountaintop of the Academy Space is as it was a thousand years ago, with the Mirror Lake, lakeside meadows, forests, hills, and even underground areas used as residences for retired teachers.

Only the best among Grindelwald's teachers can become professors—meaning absolute authority in their field of study. Not every professor, like Barbas in the guise of Tirecia, will teach for a century. When they realize they are getting old, they prefer to devote their limited energy to arcane research rather than teaching.

Their secluded dwelling place, besides the workshop towers floating around the main castle, was this pristine and beautiful ring-shaped mountaintop.

This group of elderly men and women, some a hundred, some even two or three hundred years old, contemporaries of Hermes, who rely on vast sums of gold and forbidden arcane magic to sustain their lives, are the true foundation of Grindelwald. Each of them has left an indelible mark on the history of arcane magic, spending the rest of their lives searching for its roots. Apart from the war against the demons, nothing can keep them from leaving the workshop.

The restrictions in mid-air were set up to prevent students from disturbing retired teachers, but if someone really had the idea to reach the ground, they might receive a true teaching from an old man or woman—provided they were in a good mood; more often than not, it would just be a magic wand used to activate the undead totem of the brat.

Of course, there are convenient shortcuts as well, such as the elevator hidden behind the whale skeleton library, the No. 000 train leading to the forest, and the coffin that can drift to the shore of Mirror Lake, but generally only faculty and staff—and only those with permission—can ride them.

Lin told him that as long as he shook the train's golden bell in a specific rhythm, the train could travel to a specific station. The reason she didn't shake it was because she was lazy—if she could control the train's central control system with her mental power, the little girl would never reach out.

When the train arrived at the station, the beautiful three-story villa in the woods stood in the thin mist outside the station. Quinn got off the train carrying three gift boxes, two of which were given to him by Amamiya Yu.

One box contained a cake, and the other a gift.

Quinn never expected that today was Lin's birthday, and even more unexpectedly, Yuu Amamiya came to the academy on behalf of a friend to deliver a birthday gift to Lin.

Since Quinn was going the same way, she asked him to take the gift with him, and she herself would not go.

Like her daughter, this royal mother seems to be a lazy person who likes to slack off whenever possible.

Although Amamiya Yu didn't say who gave the gift, Quinn could guess—it was most likely the owner of this small house in the woods.

Harry, the elusive headmaster of Grindelwald.

It was her birthday! I was speechless. The little girl hadn't mentioned such an important event. As I walked, I wondered what I should say to her as soon as I saw her.

Although he really wanted to apologize to her, he was already a scumbag, and to say such presumptuous things to a little girl who knew nothing about it made Quinn smile bitterly and feel disgusted with himself for having such thoughts.

The sound of train 000 cutting through the wind as it pulled away echoed in his ears, as if everything was repeating itself. Before time rewound, he had walked along this stone path to her house. The memory was so vivid that even the 'rustling' sound of his shoes hitting the dirt on the path was exactly the same, as if the night of the Eye of Grindelwald's roar had never happened. He no longer needed to hide his guilt from Lynn's eyes.

But Quinn didn't want to deceive himself anymore. He had fooled himself for too many years by pretending that nothing had happened by not thinking about it. But when he saw Mi Yutong in the abyss, the guilt he had buried in time finally turned into a shadow that enveloped him, making him want to go back to Earth to take a look. If he couldn't start over, then he would say sorry properly.

The consequence of this was that the cannons were fired at Lin.

He didn't understand what those broken giants flying in the air were—the Titans, the great magic the elves were trying to use to survive the apocalypse. It was utterly nonsensical. But the various anomalies surrounding Lynn finally had an explanation. Quinn didn't care if she was an android, a magical AI from another world, an ancient elven soul used to control the Titans, or whatever.
To him, she was just a simple-minded little girl who loved junk food.

As Quinn watched the tattered Lin ascend into the sky from the tower, he realized something while sitting in the corner—no matter what compelling reasons there were, even if a god called the Demon King were watching coldly from the depths of his soul, he no longer wanted to kill someone who trusted him wholeheartedly through deception.

It's not about the deep-seated guilt, nor about the saying "things shouldn't happen more than three times," it's just that this is too tiring, as tiring as waiting for the waves to crash in, as if there's a hard lump of air in my chest, as if I've swallowed a rain cloud whole, becoming the person I despise the most yet have no choice but to live for.

So what should I say when I see Lin?

Quinn already had the answer.

He walked up the steps to the door and knocked. A moment later, light footsteps, a fraction faster than usual, came from behind the door, a sound unique to Quinn.

Lin used her two short arms to push the doorknob open.

Two pairs of eyes, one gentle and the other indifferent, met.

Quinn held up the gift in his hand:
"Why aren't you wearing clothes again for your birthday quickie?!"

Lin tilted her head, her tone as calm or naive as ever: "This is my home."

That makes sense. Being outside without clothes doesn't mean you can't be at home without clothes. For the first time, Quinn felt that Lynn was logical.

"But I am a guest."

"Then you can take off your clothes too." "That would be at least ten years, so hurry up and put your clothes back on—"

Quinn forcibly turned the little girl around and pushed her inside, but her eyes were fixed on the gift box in Quinn's hand.

"Pizza?"

"Yes, as promised, the best pizza at the Arcane Festival."

When time rewinds, Quinn did not enter Lynn's house.

But one time, after finding no one home, he came straight in.

Of course, this was most likely Principal Grindelwald's house. Quinn couldn't just wander around like he was visiting a grand garden. Instead, he cautiously asked where he couldn't go. The reply was that he could go anywhere. So he had no choice but to go into Lin's room. Fools who visit an arcane mage's house without the owner's permission usually don't have a good ending.

Before being dismantled by the Papacy, Grindelwald was a grand colony composed of five houses, with a Grand Headmaster above the Headmasters—who still holds nominal leadership over Gryffindor, Hufflepuff Ron, Hufflepuff Britannia, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin in the East.

These are all branch campuses spun off from the academy, not limited to super geniuses and recruiting ordinary students.

You can roughly tell what kind of person the principal is just by looking at the house. The decor is American, a blend of elegance and simplicity, with uniform white-lacquered oak furniture. Everything in sight is impeccably organized: books are neatly arranged on shelves, the wine glasses in the glass cabinets are spaced perfectly evenly, the lighting is a uniform warm yellow, and there are various armor-like decorations and buttons whose purpose is unclear.
This is hardly like an arcanist. Most arcanists live slovenly lives. Even Aqua, who is particular about the quality of life, has his house filled with his favorite wines and hobbies, and he would never be very tidy in the details.

Especially with a completely carefree little girl around, and the fact that the headmaster himself hadn't been back for a year or two, yet the house was still so tidy, Quinn suspected that the house was even decorated with cleaning arcane magic—would anyone really bother with such troublesome and useless arcane magic?
It seems like someone with mild obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The strangest thing was the doors. Quinn found everything about the house to be great except for the unusually large number of doors. Doors were installed in completely unnecessary places like the entrance to the living room. He felt like he had entered a post-apocalyptic fortress. He couldn't think of any other purpose for so many doors besides keeping out zombies. Moreover, the door panels were strangely thick, each nearly a centimeter in diameter. No wonder Lin had to use both hands to push them open. Looking at them from the side, he realized that the doors were actually sandwiched between two layers of solid wood with an eight-centimeter-thick alloy steel plate embedded inside. This was the first time Quinn had seen armored doors since arriving in this other world.

This house is in the forest below the college, which is one of the safest places in the world. What is the headmaster guarding against?
I don't understand.

Lynn's room didn't match Quinn's expectations. He had imagined the little girl's room to be empty like Rei Ayanami's, with only a cold stainless steel bed covered in messy blankets. But when he came in, he found it quite cozy, except that it was dark without the lights on.

Wardrobes, bookshelves, large, soft pillows, a bed embroidered with cute cats, and even a dressing table full of cosmetics that looks like it's never been used.

What intrigued Quinn most was the row of glass bottles on the table. Some were empty and cracked, while others contained something darker than black, swirling chaotically within them. Instinct told him he must not open the Demon King's Eye to look; the cost of reconstructing this thing in his mind with his mental power was not something he could bear at this moment.

The glass bottles had handwritten labels: '6.28', '6.29', '6.30'. These seemed to be the dates of the past few days, while the broken glass bottles represented the days that had already passed.

Lin had no intention of turning on the light, and Quinn, who also had the night vision of a thief, saw the little girl climb onto the bed and rummage through her school uniform. He had no choice but to look away, and there, without her noticing, her small but surprisingly pert thighs were facing him.

"Let's not wear the school uniform today." Quinn glanced at the wardrobe beside her, which was neatly filled with a row of brand-new clothes, all custom-made for Lin. "Don't you have other clothes? Why don't you wear them normally?"

Lin, already dressed in two pairs of white stockings that reached her knees, sat cross-legged on the bed and asked, "Hmm, why do I have to wear them?"

It means that having a school uniform is sufficient.

"Aren't you tired of it?"

"The school uniform is very good."

Quinn didn't deny that the school uniform was good. "Want to try on some other clothes? Like this one."

He casually pointed to a pale yellow dress in the wardrobe.

Lin quickly got out of bed, her white-stockinged feet making a series of pleasant footsteps on the floor.

She came up to Quinn and looked at him without saying a word.

Lynn's figure was difficult to describe as merely sexy or alluring. The slight curves of her body made her seem nothing like a young girl who had just come of age—seriously, if the Titans were a product of the Elven race's efforts to cope with the end of the Second Era, Lynn would be at least tens of thousands of years old, older than everyone in the academy combined. More than a woman, her body was a work of art; her skin had an almost transparent, porcelain-like quality, unbelievably white, and every undulation reminded Quinn of musical notes, of that elegant, flowing feeling.

However, on the other hand, there's another story.

How can you be even more naked than if you were completely naked?
That means taking off all your clothes and then putting on a pair of socks.

Quinn knew what the little girl was waiting for, but he still avoided her gaze and asked knowingly, "What do you want?"

"Put on."

Lin uttered a single word.

It means help me get dressed.

"Wear it yourself, you're a grown woman."

Lin didn't reply. The little girl's thought process was very simple: if you ask me to change clothes, then you have to help me put them on.

Quinn had no choice but to take the pale yellow dress out of the closet, remove the hanger, and put it on the little girl.

Not wanting to take advantage of the little girl, Quinn had no choice but to keep his eyes fixed on the sky as he helped her get dressed, complaining as he did so:

"I've told you so many times, you're a girl, don't run around naked like that, don't treat me like I'm not a man. Raise your left hand, stick your head out and don't move."

Listening to Quinn's words, Lynn simply watched him quietly, raising her fair forearm to cooperate with his movements. Being helped to dress by a man would usually make any woman feel shy or annoyed, but Lynn felt none of that. She simply focused on him, occasionally glancing at his clumsy hands as he put on his clothes, her gaze following his movements. The sound of skin touching clothing echoed in her ears, and she wanted to etch it all into her memory.

(End of this chapter)