Millennium Witch.

Chapter 46 - A Small Wish

Standing on the white sand outside her seaside villa in Luya City, Yvette stared blankly at the sea.

This clear, clean seawater is like a giant mirror, reflecting the entire starry sky amidst the shimmering waves, and naturally, you can also see the magnificent aurora that suddenly appears.

It's right above your head, perfectly aligned.

This isn't right, she thought.

This is very wrong.

She had heard Rosalyn talk about the aurora belt and the Abyss. The key point was that this celestial phenomenon only appears once every hundred years. Most ordinary people on the Radiant Continent would find it difficult to see it even once in their lifetime. So why could a place like Ish Island see it again after only 12 years?
coincidence?

Is it really just a coincidence?

She gazed at the aurora borealis overhead, at the brilliant Milky Way, at the bright full moon, and at the transparent whirlpools that appeared and disappeared in the shallow sea for a long, long time without moving.

……

Whether it was a few minutes or a condensation of centuries, the low roar of the magical motorcycle engine shattered the thick silence, pulling Yvette back from the depths of her thoughts. She turned her head slightly and saw Rosalind leap from the still-moving vehicle, her breath slightly ragged: "Teacher, I..."

Yvette didn't give her a chance to finish, and asked directly, "Have you brought everything?"

Behind the gold-rimmed glasses, Rosalyn's eyes instantly reddened. She was silent for a few seconds before replying in a low voice, "They're all at the manor..."

Although the chances of returning were slim, she had actually made preparations for going home many years ago. There were two large suitcases in her room, containing clothes, novels and magazines, professional books on runes, pillows and sheets, useless wasteland toys, plant seeds, and some small notebooks for recording daily life, learning experiences, or cooking tips.

However, after seeing the aurora, she immediately went to the seaside villa in the north of the island, and naturally didn't have time to take these things.

"Did you bring the ring and the knife?" the teacher asked.

"...I brought it."

"Where's the flight board?"

"It's in the car."

"That's good."

The air suddenly fell silent. Rosalind watched as her teacher boarded the magical motorcycle, pointed to a barely perceptible, transparent vortex on the distant horizon, and calmly said, "I'll take you there."

After a pause, seeing that Rosalyn was still standing there, she added, "You get in the car first, we can talk in the car."

This time, Rosalyn did not refuse.

The magical motorcycle sped through the air, the sea breeze whipping at their long hair and robes. Rosalind, in the passenger seat, turned her head sharply to stare at her teacher's puppet-like, emotionless profile. She saw her teacher's silver hair flying wildly, like a terrifying evil god; countless monsters, the instant they emerged from the water, would be pierced by its strands and plummet to the bottom.

But if her teacher was an evil god, then she was a fallen angel under that evil god's command, she thought.

Perhaps because the tentacles were too powerful, the sea monster's attack gradually subsided after flying four or five kilometers.

Silence fell, except for the aurora borealis, which continued to dance and tumble in the vast starry night, casting a mesmerizing veil of light over the two of them.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" the teacher suddenly asked while driving.

"Teacher, you didn't even try to persuade me to stay," Rosalyn said sullenly, her head down. "I was all prepared. If you wanted, I could have stayed."

"It's good to be able to go home. Some people want to go home, but they can't." The teacher seemed to be referring to someone, though it was unclear who.

"I'm here too..."

“I know you have a home.” The teacher’s tone remained calm, without a trace of sadness at parting. “So I hope that after you reunite with your family and do everything you want to do, one day in the future you can come back here again, without any worries.”

Rosalyn paused, as if something was stuck in her throat, and nodded vigorously: "I will."

"That's good." The teacher smiled gently, like a frozen river thawing in spring.

As the levitating magical motorcycle sped along, the transparent vortex, which resembled a mirage, finally became clearer, like a door that was just a stone's throw away, quietly waiting for its destined passengers.

But having experienced traversing the abyss before, Rosalind knew that this was not the teleportation portal she had imagined. Its entrance might exist for tens of seconds or hours, the descent might take a dozen seconds, but the exit would only last for a fleeting moment.

In other words, this is a one-way passage. Once you land, if you want to return, you must hurry up and find other remaining abysses nearby, which is undoubtedly a very risky thing.

After all, this mysterious aurora zone only exists for a few hours, and wasting any time is risky.

Furthermore, it's unclear whether someone's arm would be severed by the abyss if they reached in and didn't pull their hand back the instant the abyss disappeared.

A dozen minutes later, the magical vehicle stopped at the entrance to the Abyss. It was a whirlpool about 50 meters above sea level, quite wide, theoretically wide enough for a vehicle to pass through.

Although she was just feeling very sad, the thought that after 12 years, she could see her father, mother, eldest brother, and second brother again, and even return home in glory to become the pillar of the family, immediately made her feelings complicated, a mixture of excitement and sadness.

"Here you go." Standing in the car, Yvette suddenly took out a small blue trinket from her clothes.

Rosalyn took a look and immediately showed a surprised expression.

This is a small brooch made from the dried flowers of the Magic Light Vine, known as "Magic Light Orchids," using a material similar to amber.

Because the Magic Light Vine blooms only once every hundred years and its flowering period lasts only half a month, it is quite precious. If it were in the city of Ish in the dream, its market price would probably be no less than the book "Elemental Decay Completion Technology" that the teacher bought.

Over the years, she had cut down so many Magic Light Vines at the Abyss Base to use as nightlights, but she had never seen this in person, only in pictures.

She solemnly pinned the flower to the chest of her mage robe, as if making a promise: "I will never take it off."

The teacher nodded, then paused for a few seconds before saying, "Actually, it's not that I don't want to..." "No, no, teacher," Rosalyn quickly shook her head. "Teacher, this is too dangerous for you."

She knew what her teacher was going to say, just like when she became his apprentice, he said, "It's not impossible." Her teacher was actually a very reserved and soft-hearted person, but he hid it behind his cold exterior, making it hard to notice.

But she couldn't let her teacher go to the Radiant Continent with her.

For her, the Radiant Continent was her home, but for her teacher, it was a dangerous forbidden land.

After all, the Radiant Continent is a high-magic world where there are real dragons and gods.

For example, the Kingdom of Eton, where House Theon is located, worships the true god of the Trinity Church, "The Lord of Unity." This true god is not a fictional being; He possesses a genuine land-based divine kingdom, a paradise that all believers dream of.

The war between humans and demons, including the war between the eastern and western continents, also implicitly contained the struggle between demon gods and true gods.

If someone like a teacher is exposed, they will inevitably be mistaken for the legendary evil god "Witch of the End." At that point, not only will they be wanted by the church and become enemies of the world, but in serious cases, they might even attract divine intervention.

After the teacher fell silent, Rosalyn wiped her eyes, picked up a magic vine from the car, and along with her ring, brooch, and battle blade, took it with her as her only baggage. She rode the wind and slowly made her way towards the abyss.

"Teacher," she said, standing by the translucent vortex, each word distinct, "I will definitely, absolutely come back."

After saying that, she gave Yvette a deep look, as if she wanted to etch her teacher's image into her soul, and then stepped into the abyss on the blue wind, disappearing without a trace.

……

On the sea, after waiting for a few minutes, Yvette watched as the abyss suddenly disappeared. Without a trace of sadness or joy, she returned to the driver's seat and headed home.

She felt it wasn't a big deal; in the context of her nearly 300-year life, 12 years was just a fleeting moment. However, Rosalyn was a 22-year-old young woman, and 12 years was more than half her life, more than the time her parents had spent with her. It was perfectly normal for her to have some emotional moments like crying.

But as a former man, now an ageless witch, she is by no means such an emotional creature.

After driving to the seaside villa, she looked at the bundles of magic vines that Rosalin had tied up in the back seat, thought for a moment, and decided to throw them all into the villa's storage room.

These soft furnishings were prepared for two people to live together. Now that I'm alone, I can just make do. Why do I need these things?
Then, feeling inexplicably irritable, she drove back to Ish, back to the familiar manor, back to her penthouse room, lay down on the bed, closed her eyes, and struggled to fall asleep for several hours.

After a long night of chaotic dreams, she opened her eyes wearily the next morning, but quickly closed them again for a short nap. It wasn't until almost noon, when no one brought her breakfast, that she belatedly remembered something, sat up in bed, and stared blankly for a while.

She thought that twelve years was not a long time, but it wasn't short either. Once you get used to something, it's not something you can change so quickly.

So, in the days that followed, she began to force herself to forget and then readjust to this life, to get used to days when no one served her tea or water, no one woke her up or cooked for her, no one did her laundry or tended the manor, and no one asked her all sorts of pointless questions or cheerfully took her on outings and adventures to various places.

This coercion was very effective. As the sands of time settled down, she felt herself gradually forgetting the blonde girl she had watched grow up, and returning to the solitary life she had lived many years ago, wandering alone in the apocalypse.

Three months later, on a quiet afternoon, while cleaning a bedroom on the second floor on a whim, she found a letter in the cabinet.

She immediately began to read it—

"Teacher, I'm worried that if I leave, it will be very sudden, and there will be many things I won't have time to say to you, so I'm leaving this letter. But I suspect that, given your relaxed attitude, it will be quite a long time before you see this letter? A month, two months, or even longer after I leave?"

“When I was by your side, I didn’t think it mattered. I enjoyed serving you in every little way. But now that I’m not here, I think you must need my reminders, such as the details of wheat field maintenance, methods for removing mold, and where you can find wild eggs, etc. I have written all of these down in the notebook in my suitcase. Of course, there are also my practical swordsmanship tips.”

"I must be home by now, perhaps fighting for the survival of humanity, or maybe raising money to build a school. You know, I've always wanted to do this, and thank you for your permission and support..."

"My feelings for you are actually quite complicated. In my heart, you are a teacher, an idol, a guardian, and an older sister. But sometimes I also feel that you act like a younger sister who needs my constant care... Well, it is only at this moment that I dare to write such rebellious words, haha, I hope you are not angry."

"But please believe me, my respect for you will always be number one, and far surpasses that of the god I worship, or even my father. So sometimes I am very troubled. What if one day you tell me that you are an evil god and want to destroy the world? Should I stand behind you? I used to think this question was very simple, but now it is becoming more and more difficult to face."

"Oh, by the way, there are many more letters like this in the bottom shelf of the cabinet. They are all letters I prepared in the past, many of which were written a long time ago and are not very timely or well-written. I hope you won't read them. If you really want to read them, then read one every few years."

"This is my small wish."

"Only in this way can I stay a little longer in your long, long, long life memories."

"—Your eternal student, Rosalind Theon."

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains, filtering through a layer of dust, and fell onto the yellowed letter paper, like a sprinkle of gold dust.

Yvette took a deep breath, then opened the second drawer and, sure enough, saw countless envelopes.

The inscriptions read "Open again in the second year," "Open again in the fifth year," "This is the tenth year, please be patient," and even "The hundredth year, teacher, I am sorry, but please do not forget me."

She closed the cabinet again, took the letter she had opened first, and went to the deck chair in the manor. In the bright daylight, she began to read it a second time.

And so, the winds of time swept through the courtyard, stirring up a few newly fallen leaves.

Unknowingly.

Five years, ten years, twenty years, fifty years... one hundred years.

Spring comes and autumn goes, the seasons turn endlessly, blowing countless dawns and dusks to the ground, but Yvette never thought of moving out of the manor or leaving the island.

She would often lean quietly against that old recliner, look at the sky, and then pick up the letter she had read many times before, and read it again.

She thought she would probably wait here forever, until the day her only student returned.

……

……

(End of Volume 1)

(End of this chapter)