A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 220 Sage Quinn

It was Friday morning when I returned to the college.

The city of Eswell was shrouded in a light drizzle, but as the train crossed the boundary between day and night, the air quickly became dry and pleasant. Only at this time could one see the mirror-like sky reflecting the night sky—a seamless transition from the dimly lit city to the deepening darkness of the wilderness.

Upon arriving at the floating platform, Quinn spotted an acquaintance waiting for a ride.

Amamiya Nene was carrying a bag, holding the cage of the standing owl familiar, and walking with Wangcai on her leash, looking like she was going home after get off work.

"Yo."

Quinn raised his hand to greet her, but the little witch ignored him and walked straight into train number 0000. If Quinn hadn't dodged, the two would probably have bumped into each other.

Quinn looked at her speechlessly, wondering what she was up to.
Why are you ignoring me?

Amamiya Nene still ignored him.

Gradually, Quinn realized that something was wrong.

It was less that she was leading Wangcai and more that Wangcai was leading her—the silver dragon led her to her seat like a guide dog, and she slowly sat down with a blank look in her eyes.

Quinn had excellent eyesight and could see that Amamiya Nene's body coordination was extremely disjointed. Her legs were tense, then her buttocks were lowered, then her waist was bent. She was stiff, as if her limbs did not belong to the same brain.

Oblivious to everything, Wangcai fluttered its little wings and flew to the door, bumping the bell with its head, intending to set off back to Aiswell.

Quinn's brows furrowed.

"I only took one day off. Did I become stupid from working so much?"

Amamiya Nene still ignored him.

No, there is a problem.

Amamiya Nene never takes the train home on weekdays. She dislikes the crowded atmosphere on train platform and being stared at by men along the way. So, when she gets off work, she uses a special entrance connected by spatial magic and is picked up by her servants in a carriage.
"Wangcai, what's wrong with her?"

Wangcai can understand human speech. Although it ignores Quinn most of the time and treats him purely as its human servant, Quinn did not expect that Wangcai would hiss at him blocking the door and bar its teeth to signal him to get out of the way.

"?"

Faced with Hagiwan in its Spinosaurus form, Quinn got angry and yelled, "Garlic Bird, Garlic Bird, I can't beat it!"

Silver Dragon is truly someone you can't mess with. In the legends of the Mysterious History, the ancient dragons went extinct even earlier than the elves. Therefore, the ancient dragons have an extra "ancient" in their name compared to pure-blooded dragons. There are absolutely no quantifiable records of the ancient dragons' combat power.

"Hey, if you don't say something, I'm going to call for help. You see, this isn't going to be good."

Quinn was about to bypass Wangcai and enter the carriage to check on Amamiya Nene when he heard a hurried, low warning from behind—

"Shh! Don't mess it up, it's fake, come here!"

Quinn turned his head in confusion. Amamiya Nene's oval face was half floating in mid-air, looking extremely horrified. Her small mouth, painted with lipstick, urged, "Come on, to your dorm, someone's coming. Hurry!"

After she finished speaking, half of her face disappeared, as if it had been covered and made invisible by something.

Quinn hesitated for a long time before finally letting Wangcai take the strange Amamiya Nene away in a car, while he walked back to his dormitory alone.

I didn't realize anyone was following me the whole way, but I had a vague feeling of being watched.

After returning to his dormitory, Quinn deliberately waited a while before closing the door.

Then, a "whoosh" sound came from the sofa—the sound of a cloak being shaken off—and Amamiya Nene, who had suddenly appeared, let out a long sigh of relief.

"Ugh, it's so hot!"

This was the first time Quinn had seen Amamiya Nene wearing denim shorts. Her two long, beautiful, white legs were enough to make any man unable to look away. She was also wearing a simple crop top, a standard sexy outfit.

But Quinn had no interest in appreciating it. He was now detached from worldly desires, forgetting everything before and after. In any case, beauty was nothing more than a handful of dust in the end.
"What are you up to?" Quinn asked without looking at him.

This outfit is clearly not what she would wear to work; the "Amamiya Nene" who left by train has a more mature, teacher-like feel.

"I'm so angry!" she said through gritted teeth. "Two weeks ago, my mother actually came to the academy to talk to Dean Stephens and said that the aid would be doubled this year, on the condition that I wouldn't be sent to the abyss. Those despicable leaders, depriving young teachers of their opportunities for further study for a mere few million gold pounds, capital, you win."

After cursing angrily for a while, she finally let out two hums.

"Heh, she must know that Dad is connected to the Abyss, which is why she deliberately stopped me. I laugh at that Duke's lack of strategy and the Dean's lack of wisdom. The clever Ms. Amamiya Nene had already anticipated that they would give me a day off tomorrow and find an excuse not to let me go down to the Abyss. Heh heh."

The little witch let out a villainous laugh—

"To buy this cloak, I'll have to live on a shoestring for the next three months, but it's worth it. The brave and clever Amamiya Nene secretly stayed at the academy without anyone noticing—"

Quinn stared at her speechlessly.

It wasn't that no one noticed.

Your mom guessed two weeks ago that you were disobedient and was hoping I would stop you from going down the abyss.

"The operation plan is very simple."

Amamiya Nene tapped the ruby ​​ring on her index finger, and two pure gold medicine bottles appeared on the table. The bottles were engraved with a vibrant oak tree totem. Quinn recognized this totem; it was the totem of the Druids, one of the rarest Homo sapiens races in the world, who were believed to have close ties with the Elves.

“Druid's shapeshifting magic.” Amamiya Nene carefully picked up a bottle, a hint of reluctance flashing in her eyes: “After drinking it, you can transform into a magical creature. This isn't an arcane potion, but a true crystallization of ancient magic. Aside from those tree-men in the remote mountains, you can find very few bottles in the entire world.”

"What do you want to do?" Quinn vaguely guessed what she wanted to do.

“After you drink it, you will sign a contract with me and take me into the abyss as your familiar.” Amamiya Nene said with a determined look, “Druid magic cannot be practiced by humans. This is a transformation spell from the ancient era, which even the Nibelungs cannot recognize. Taking familiars into the abyss to protect you is a common practice, and no one will suspect anything. I will leave it to you then.”

Why did you prepare two bottles?

“One bottle contains the shapeshifting potion, and the other contains the antidote.” Amamiya Nene separated the two bottles and showed Quinn the different markings on the front: “The effects of Druid shapeshifting are permanent. If you don’t take the antidote in time, even your soul will turn into a magical creature, and that would be the end of you.”

A sense of foreboding washed over Quinn.

"Are you sure this thing is okay?"

Amamiya Nene leaned back on the sofa, looking up at the sky, her dark eyes revealing a sense of nostalgia.

"Back then, there were two portions of this stuff in our family. My dad drank one portion and turned into a cute black and white animal called 'xiongmao,' which doesn't exist in our world. He said, 'A dad who hasn't taken his daughter to see pandas is unqualified.' Anyway, I saw that he had no problems at all after drinking it, and he immediately turned back after taking the antidote."

"Isn't it strange? I can even recall the furry feel of riding 'Xiongmao.' But I can't remember his name, and even his face is almost blurry in my memory."

Quinn sighed wearily.

"Actually, you should have realized this a long time ago. Just like me, the more I understand this world, the more I feel that your father is probably involved in something terrible. In the face of things at this level, a magician who only knows a little divination, a mere Sequence Seven, probably can't do anything."

“Not only us, but even Lord Cavendish, even Grindelwald, and even the gods and Root Magic they rely on are powerless.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than a sofa cushion was thrown at Quinn.

He was too lazy to dodge, and the pillow hit his head like a light punch.

When the pillow obscuring her view fell, Quinn saw Amamiya Nene's annoyed face. She crossed her arms, kicked off her flip-flops like a delinquent, and crossed her beautiful feet, painted with fuchsia nail polish, glaring at him with displeasure. "You promised me."

"What would happen if I got caught?"

"It's a minor issue; at most, it'll be a major demerit."

"I'm aiming for senior teaching assistant status at the end of the year!"

"Hero, don't be so unambitious."

"Tsk," Quinn said helplessly, "Is your medicine safe or not?"

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. As long as you take the antidote within seven days, there won't be any problems."

Amamiya Nene was confident.

"The content of this Abyss Trial has been changed."

"The event will last for two days, from Saturday to Monday. To prevent a repeat of the previous attack by Abyss Transcendent beings, the academy has made thorough preparations this time. Each first-year student will not only be assigned a homeroom teacher, but will also be accompanied by a sixth-year student just in case."

"Guess who was assigned to the divination class?"

"Could it be Lin?"

"answer!"

Having helped Lin raise the fox for half a month and built a good relationship with her, Amamiya Nene happily said, "Lin has already promised me that she will cover for us. After entering the abyss, you will take me down to the fourth level as quickly as possible, and we will take it one step at a time."

Quinn was somewhat uneasy, not because he was worried about Lynn, but because of other factors.

Amamiya Nene seemed to sense his worry and said slowly, "This time, our class meeting will be a little special. Celia will not be traveling with the class."

"Don't let her fall into the abyss?"

"The dean personally escorted her. The reason it lasted for two days was because the academy planned to sweep through the first, second, and third levels of the Abyss to search for Abyss superhumans who might be lurking at the entrance to the Forbidden Forest."

Quinn frowned.

"...They wouldn't be using first-year students as bait, would they?"

"That depends on whether they have the guts to bite again."

Quinn slowly closed his eyes, and after a long while, he said wearily, "If their safety is guaranteed, then let's just leave it at that if it's just the two of us going into the fourth level."

"What do you mean 'them'? You only care about Celia, the sadistic teacher. I'm reporting you!"

Quinn was too lazy to talk, and silently thought, "I'll test you," before entering a meditative state.

"Why do you look so tired?" Amamiya Nene looked at him suspiciously.

Quinn was already a Sequence Seven transcendent, and no matter what fate he faced, he could remain energetic even after two or three days without sleep. However, he had faint dark circles under his eyes, and his voice sounded weak and listless.

Quinn sighed softly.

"I'm thinking."

"Thinking about what?"

What is the meaning of human existence? Why was the universe born? Where are we going?

"???"

It can only be said that even the strongest ox can't withstand such plowing. One plowing wasn't finished before another began, and the girl, having tasted the sweetness of success, was drained of her energy by Quinn until she was practically blind. Only then did he sneak back to the academy early in the morning while his girlfriend was still asleep, otherwise, once she had rested and replenished her energy, it would be time for a second round of battle.
Fortunately, meditation helped him recover his energy quickly, and when he opened his eyes again, he found that Amamiya Nene had already made his dormitory her own home.

"So there really is an arcane technique that can clean blankets?"

Quinn looked at the shiny new bed and Amamiya Nene lying comfortably on it, flipping through her arcane book, and thought to himself that the apartment bed was finally saved.

"No—you're planning to sleep here tonight?"

"I'll clean up for you when I leave," Amamiya Nene said with a mischievous smile as she read a book. "Of course, if you beg me, I might consider letting you fall asleep with my scent on your lips?"

Quinn is currently in super sage mode. Having seen many great waves, he is no longer the man before him, and this level of provocation has virtually no effect on him.

"Then where will I sleep?"

Quinn's tone was completely devoid of any ambiguity; it was pure disdain.

“Of course, the hallway.” Amamiya Nene smiled sweetly at him. “You mean the sofa? No way~ I’ll be scared, what if some pervert sneaks in at night?”

Without saying a word, Quinn turned around and went to the living room to pick up the phone, preparing to call the school administration to bring the evil to justice.

"Eek!!" Amamiya Nene, who had transformed from a powerful female demon into a lowly fodder, immediately rushed out and hung up the phone, saying pitifully, "...You can't expect me to sleep on the sofa, can you?"

"Do you think I'm a Democrat? Should we build you another refugee camp with an 80% discount on marijuana?"

Quinn walked into the room and closed the door in an annoyed manner. About five minutes later, he came out again and warned, "Go to sleep if you want, but don't go through my things."

"Oh~?" Amamiya Nene covered her mouth, her eyes narrowing slightly. "A secret? Something you can't tell anyone? What are you hiding?"

"Your black stockings."

".Roll, roll, roll."

She walked into the bathroom irritably, turning her head away, too lazy to watch Quinn act like a jerk.

"Go to the cafeteria and get me a salad, remember, no mushrooms."

"Why don't you just call and order? They have delivery services."

"Can't you be a little more perceptive? I need to take a shower. Do you expect me to be a man peeping at me from outside?"

"That's great! The sound of you taking a shower makes me want to eat three bowls of rice."

After Quinn finished his banter, the sound of Amamiya Nene no longer came from inside the closed bathroom door. He shook his head, smiled, and went out to get her lunch, taking on the role of a teaching assistant.

I'll stop by the little girl's house on the way and tell her not to come over tonight. What should I make for her tonight?
In the bathroom.

Amamiya Nene stood under the showerhead without taking off her clothes, bathing in the warm mist.

The sound of you taking a shower makes me want to eat three bowls of rice.
She remembered that when she was little, her mother was taking her to bathe once, and her father wanted to come in, but she wouldn't let him. So her father said the exact same thing outside the door, and her mother smiled gently.
It was clearly something very distasteful.

"Ugh, how disgusting." She muttered to herself, slowly sliding down to sit on the ground in the mist, wrapping her arms around her knees, her eyes looking somewhat lost.

Why am I happy?

(End of this chapter)