He Holds a Rose from the Abyss

Chi Lang found the recent newspaper of the Magic Research Society, and asked Luth to read the words on it for him.

But Luth had no interest in anything other than research, and only waved his hand: “Knowledge has a soul, hear it with your heart.”

???

Chi Lang stared at the newspaper for a long time, but could not hear any soul’s voice. He could only rely on his excellent ability to read pictures to recognize some mechanical creations.

The information provided by Luth was – to enter the Magic Research Society, you must provide something novel.

Chi Lang spent the last few days thinking about this, and other than that, he spent his daily “Mechanical Time” practicing with the flintlock gun.

His part-time job of sorting files wasn’t finished yet, and he had to take the time to get this done.

He had to re-categorize the current student files as new students would be reporting after this holiday.

Chi Lang saw Sheffield’s name in it. The student’s file was a thin sheet of paper, so he saw Sheffield’s information at a glance.

The information was very detailed, including Sheffield’s family, his grades when he entered school, and his grades on the final examination which didn’t seem to have any problems. The only thing that Chi Lang found a little strange was that Sheffield had only been enrolled for one year, and he had entered the fifth year of the academy directly.

Chi Lang’s eyes suddenly glanced at the birthday column.

He looked at that column with some ulterior motives, but after reading it, he was very glad that he read it.

Sheffield’s birthday was in four days.

Four days later, Chi Lang vaguely remembered something four days later, but just couldn’t remember.

His soul was suddenly divided into three, one was still thinking about the Magic Research Society, the other had started thinking about Sheffield’s birthday, and the remaining one was still holding some doubt.

The archives room was in the most remote building in the academy, and few people came to it on weekdays. When Chi Lang walked out of the archives room, he didn’t expect to meet Joyce.

Joyce looked very, how to say, very pretentious.

He was wearing a pair of leather boots, the uppers were clean, and his magic robe was obviously freshly ironed without any wrinkles, and even his usual red hair, which was thrown up casually, seemed very soft at this time.

“…What are you doing here?” Chi Lang walked over and said “tsk tsk” twice while looking at his outfit.

“Waiting for someone, I’m not here to find you anyway.” Joyce turned back to his usual delinquent look as soon as he opened his mouth.

Chi Lang followed his gaze and, unsurprisingly, saw Dana walking down the second-floor corridor.

Chi Lang patted Joyce on the shoulder: “Not that I’m accusing you but, don’t you feel like a… stalker?”

“I just came to deliver a ticket. I only came here when I found out that she was here, I wasn’t following her, ” Joyce said with his chin raised.

“Whatever you say, then I’ll go first.” Chi Lang didn’t want to stay here and watch their story.

“Wait, wait,” Joyce said hesitantly. “Do I look good in this style? There’s no dirt on my face, right?”

“No, you are the most handsome in the academy today,” Chi Lang paused, “Can’t you just tell her directly? You like her so much…”

Joyce’s toes touched the ground unconsciously, and he lowered his head: “I don’t like her anymore, I just feel a little unwilling.”

‘Okay, if you want to be stubborn, be stubborn.’ Chi Lang patted Joyce on the shoulder again: “Go for it.”

Joyce’s hand was clutching a ticket, Chi Lang looked at it for a moment: “Is this a ticket for the opera? When is it?”

“Four days later.”

Chi Lang finally remembered that it was four days later when Luth invited him to the opera together.

“What kind of show is that? Why did you all want to go that day?” Chi Lang was very puzzled.

“I’m not too sure. It was about eulogizing the magicians or something. It’s just that the opera troupe that came to perform that day is more famous.”

While they were talking, Dana came down from the second floor, still with her braids and a faint smile on her face.

“What are you guys doing here?” Dana saw them.

Joyce tilted his head, didn’t even look Dana in the eyes, just handed out the ticket: “I was given two tickets by someone else, and you’re the only one around me who likes to see the opera, so I thought I’d better come and give them to you.”

Dana took the ticket and smiled politely: “When?”

“Four days later.”

Chi Lang had been paying attention to Dana’s expression, and it was hard for him to describe Dana’s expression at this moment; it was like the joyful mood was suddenly interrupted, and the smile began to disappear slowly before it reached the bottom of her eyes.

“I happen to be free that day, so let’s go,” Dana looked at the ticket over and over again, “it’s actually about Hubert, the God of Magic, that’s all the more reason to go see it.”

The way Dana mentioned the name “Hubert”…was the same as Sheffield’s, with an indescribably odd feeling.

“This opera troupe is very good at picking days. They will even perform this show in four days, they are really good…” Dana nodded twice.

“Four days later… what day will it be?” Chi Lang asked her.

“Maybe not many people know it. I also found it when I was looking through the miscellaneous books before,” Dana said softly. “It’s the day the Demon Lord was born.”

Chi Lang was slightly stunned.

Joyce was clearly not interested in the topic, he just asked Dana, “Where will we meet that day?”

“I’ll be waiting for you at the entrance of the opera house before the show, always, always there. Just come find me.” Dana lowered her head.

Chi Lang silently took a few steps back, not wanting to hear these two get mushy.

Joyce, however, just said a few words dryly, “Okay, then.”

Then there was no more.

There was no more.

They were both silent for a few moments before Dana looked up and said, “I’ll see you in four days.” Then she turned and left, her long braids tucked behind her, the wind blowing the tips of her hair slightly.

Chi Lang didn’t know what to say, he patted Joyce on the shoulder for the third time: “Good luck.”

Joyce glanced at him, “What’s that look on your face?”

Chi Lang: “I don’t know what to say, so I can only show such an expression.”

Joyce ruffled his hair immediately and relaxed his posture: “Every time we talk towards the end, it’s like this.”

“I can’t really blame her, you should at least say something, like ‘I’ll wait for you’ or something like that,” Chi Lang said helplessly, “What do you expect Dana to say to you when you reply like that? Do you understand sweet talk?”

Chi Lang imitated Luth’s tone: “Young man, the road is still long.”

Joyce: “You speak as if you are good at it.”

Chi Lang: “At least better than you, thank you. And to whoever I like, I’ll definitely say it directly.”

Joyce: “That’s because it is useless even if I say it. I also went to learn wind element magic at the time, and it was useless.”

“Does this have anything to do with you learning wind elemental magic?” Chi Long was curious.

“Voice transmission,” Joyce said naturally.

Chi Lang now knew more about the theoretical knowledge of magic, he sized up Joyce: “I remember, if wind elemental magic transmits voice, it doesn’t seem to have a designated target…”

Joyce was silent, and he said slowly: “So probably the entire elemental department and illusion department heard it at that time.”

Chi Lang didn’t know whether to sympathize with Joyce or Dana: “And then what happened…”

“I told Dana later that it was just me being drunk that night, and I didn’t really mean that…” Joyce replied.

Chi Lang:  …

Saying that would make Dana even angrier, right?

Joyce took a black stone out of his arms, as if he had given up on himself, and told his story in full: “I said it to the stone afterwards…”

Chi Lang thought it should be a magnet, he thought Joyce’s idea was very good: “It is able to record the sound? It would be good for you to record your own words…” Listen well to how silly you are.

“But it didn’t work, so that’s it,” Joyce said with a sullen face.

Chi Lang: “Young man, although I don’t quite understand it, your talking skills are not quite right.”

“You’ll teach it?” Joyce squinted at him.

“Don’t blame me if I teach you wrong, let’s make an example, how I’d say it anyway,” Chi Lang looked left and right, “I really can’t take you as someone I like, so I’ll just say it to this stone.”

Chi Lang took the stone from Joyce and thought of Sheffield: “I’ve been dreaming about you lately.”

Joyce thought Chi Lang would say something very touching and quote from the classics.

Chi Lang was going to say a lot of things, and he remembered so many images.

When he saw Sheffield for the first time, he was leaning against the window, with a smile reflected in the sunlight; Sheffield inadvertently raising his eyes in the library, and the fluttering of fireflies in the night – although it was only an illusion.

Even some images that Chi Lang thought he didn’t remember came to mind.

But when the words came to his lips, he felt that if he really faced Sheffield, he would probably only be able to say one sentence.

“I like you very much, can we be together?”

Chi Lang returned the stone to Joyce.

Joyce: “You’re no better off than me.”

Chi Lang: “At least I expressed my true thoughts. I guess you must be beating around the bush, and in the end, you said to her with a rebellious face, ‘Hey, want to be with me?'”

Joyce didn’t refute, he was silent for a while, and suddenly said to Chi Lang: “Micah, did you use magic to cut off?”

‘Used magic to cut off?’ Chi Lang shook his head: “I can’t do magic now.”

Joyce held up the stone: “Didn’t I just say… This is not a magnet, it’s a magic stone, don’t you know?”

“So? Is there something wrong with the magic stone?” Chi Lang wondered if he had broken the stone.

“You really don’t know? It used to be used by us for cheating… that is, after a person finishes the test, he will give us the answer from outside.”

Chi Lang still didn’t quite understand, he felt that Joyce’s ability to express himself was worrying.

But Joyce, whose ability to express himself was worrying, stumbled and still explained clearly: “Each of us will bring a magic stone engraved with the same magic array, through which we can hear what the person outside says.”

‘Okay, you don’t need to say it, I get it.’ Chi Lang had such a thought in his mind.

“I seem to have activated the magic array just now, because I have been blocking it with magic power, so they can’t hear what I say, but when this stone was in your hand…”

Chi Lang lowered his head and raised two fingers towards Joyce: “Two questions. First, this magic stone won’t be used by everyone, right? Second, is the sound clear, that is to say, if you listen to the voice in the magic stone, you can determine the identity of the person speaking?”

“There used to be a lot… I don’t know how many people use it now, but the voice is still quite clear…”

“You won’t take the stone with you all the time, right? So, people probably won’t happen to hear what I said.” Chi Lang still had a little hope in his heart.

“I won’t take it with me anytime. But this thing can record voices. You can use magic at any time and listen to what others have said before.”

Understood.

Please explode in place, thank you.