Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 359: A hundred years earlier than predicted?
Saint Shallia's refusal inevitably made the old wizard look disappointed, but it soon disappeared because he knew that people like Saint Shallia could not stay in one place forever, nor would they be bound by mortal emotions. So in the end he just shook his head and lamented, "My knowledge will be lost, and no one can inherit it."

Saint Xia Liya felt that he seemed a little pessimistic, because apart from her, an outsider, there were still many young people in the tribe who had been influenced by her since childhood and were quite talented. Even if they were not as good as her, they could still become qualified wizards and lead the tribe to continue on the journey of finding their homeland.

However, when she expressed her thoughts, the old wizard looked at her with an inexplicably sad look, and spoke in a hoarse voice, like iron tempered in fire: "Nothing in this world is unchanging, my child."

The girl remembered this sentence, but did not understand its meaning. She just regarded it as a pessimistic sigh from the old man, expressing his rejection and fear of this ever-changing world.

"It was not until the day he died that I realized that it was a prophecy - a prophecy of the Moryas." Saint Shalia raised her head slightly, her sight seemed to see the stars in the night sky like chess pieces through the lush green branches. At the end of the snow season, the White Frost Grass Constellation, the Centaur Constellation and the Ancient Knight Constellation were echoing each other, transmitting each other's light: "The wizards who are most proficient in this can make predictions based on their intuition without observing the trajectory of the stars. It does not come from a dream, so it is not a dream revelation; nor does it come from some mysterious premonition, so it cannot be called a revelation; it comes from one's own heart, the throbbing and germination at a certain moment. If it must be named, perhaps it can be called: spiritual revelation?"

Inspiration, does it come from spiritual enlightenment? It is quite appropriate.

"What happened on the day he died?" Ling asked.

A dead leaf fell from the ancient tree, and another yellow butterfly, destined to leave its hometown, slowly flew away with the wind. Saint Shallia watched its back until it disappeared at the end of the dark night light and could no longer be seen. Then she turned back and said to Lingge, who did not show any impatience at all, "There is a custom among the Moryas: before the death of the tribe's wizard, he would use his own blood to baptize his successor, passing on the knowledge that flowed in his blood in the past to the next person's veins. However, on the day he died, no one was willing to be baptized."

Because in this world, nothing is constant. Even the Moriah people who are always wandering on the road and always longing to return to their hometown will change their original ideas due to their environment and experiences.

"If you want to inherit the position of wizard, you must have abundant spirituality. I have told you before that the more agile a person is, the more knowledgeable he is, and the more experience he has, the more abundant his spirituality is. It is difficult to find such people among young people under the age of 20. However, the successors he carefully selected all refused the honor of being baptized as wizards."

"So, they all refused to be baptized and refused to become wizards."

He thought, if Mr. Yang Ke had not encountered that incident, and was still the pastor of Tianxin Church, and lived to the end of his life, and he wanted to pass the church to him, would he refuse without hesitation like those young people in Moruoya who rebelled against tradition and authority? He would not regard it as an honor, but a burden.

After all, he had never been a devout believer.

Lingge fell silent.

"To put it simply, they are eager to integrate into human society and no longer want to be looked at as aliens, which is more like humiliation."

“My hometown is so far away, the memories are not so much strange as they are never there.”

Hearing this, Linge couldn't help but ask, "Why?"

Somehow, he saw a familiar thread in this story.

He had originally brought up this topic just to chat with Saint Shallia, but now he was somewhat attracted by the story.

Saint Shalia looked at him deeply and replied softly, "Because young people with this personality have a typical characteristic, which is to rebel against tradition and authority. They don't want to be the kind of Moryas that the world thinks of them. Learning mysterious astrology and alchemy and leading their people to wander back home as wizards is no longer an honor for them, but more like a heavy burden. They want to settle down in cities and villages, and they think that they can definitely gain a place with their own abilities and say goodbye to the life of wandering for generations."

It wasn’t like that before, it’s not like that now, and I’m afraid it won’t be like that in the future.

But thinking is the most meaningless thing in the world, because time always flows to the future, not back to the past.

He put aside those inexplicable thoughts and returned his attention to the story itself. He asked Saint Shallia: "So in the end, no one succeeded in being baptized and inherited the knowledge and mission of the old wizard?" Saint Shallia nodded slightly, then shook her head slightly: "Indeed, no one became a wizard, but one person accepted baptism."

"Who?"

"I."

Saint Charity recalled the scene at that time. She was not a Moruoyan, so she was not qualified to watch the baptism ceremony, but she was suddenly called into the tent.

When she entered the tent, she saw the old wizard lying on a soft bed, his whole body sunk into the white sheets, as if he was sunk into a vast ocean of snow. He had lost the ability to speak, and he just looked at the girl who had intruded here with a look full of pity and resentment. No one had ever seen such a humble and sad posture in the 177 prophecies he had given in his 251 years of life.

The elder who presided over the baptism ceremony understood his last words with a gifted spirituality among his fellow tribesmen. He solemnly cut the old wizard's throat with a knife. He was not dead yet. The elder stretched out his withered fingers to wipe a trace of blood on the wound, then gently pressed it on Saint Shallia's forehead and drew a mysterious symbol.

The old wizard was completely relieved after seeing this scene. His throat was cut, but he still let out a leaky laugh. At the same time, his broken voice rang in the girl's ears. He did not speak. It was the language of the heart, which was said to be the supreme skill that only the great wizard who touched the inheritance of the King of Elves could master: "I will not ask you to do anything after accepting my blood, my child."

"Go on the path you want to take. I have seen the King of Elves waiting for you on your future path. Under his throne are jewels and jade, flags and glory. The ancient sacred tree wrote a prophecy with its branches, saying that three thousand years after the disaster of destruction, everything will usher in new life and hope. I guess that is what you are looking for."

"It's a pity that you came a hundred years too early. The prophecy has not yet come true."

"It's fate, so it's not unexpected."

He died right after he finished speaking. A sacred and turbid red flame began to burn from his toes. His hunched body was burned to ashes bit by bit. Wrapped in the howling wind, it quickly drifted away like a pitch-black snowflake and disappeared.

"From then on, I could see 'destiny'." Saint Shallia flipped her hand, and a golden [Destiny Beacon] appeared on the girl's white palm, as quiet as a star before it bloomed. "Before this, the lamb and I were just blindly following the footsteps of others; but from then on, the line of destiny guided us."

In this way, her royal power did not always exist, but was activated after being baptized in blood.

Ling Ge's mind moved slightly, and he asked aloud: "In which year did the old wizard die?"

Saint Charlena remembered it clearly. Although the Moriah people did not use the Gregorian calendar, she later deliberately checked the calendar and memorized the date: "October 1756, 10 AD."

"..."

On October 1756, 10, before his death, the old wizard of Moruoya baptized Saint Xia Liya with his own blood and helped her activate the hidden royal power. In his last words, he told the girl "You are a hundred years early"; on October 23, 1855, the girl met Lingge at the municipal square station in Linville. At that time, the Sedin Mountain Carnival was about to come, and the tents of the Moruoyas occupied a part of the city.

During this hundred years, Saint Xia Liya failed to find any young queen; and within less than half a year after meeting Lingge, she found Olvera and Iyetta one after another. Olvera was even found near the city of Rostin where she had been before. It seemed that there was an invisible force that dominated people's will and thoughts.

Thinking of this, Linger said with deep emotion: "The prophecy of the Moriah people is indeed amazing."

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)