Chapter 37: Chapter 37

Ethan looked at Evelyn in doubt and saw the hesitation in her eyes slowly turning into determination.

‘’There is something I must do,’’ she said, biting her lip. ‘’Alone.’’

‘’Something?’’ he repeated with a frown. ‘’What is this about, Eve?’’

Evelyn hung her head with a troubled expression. ‘’It’s about enjoying the journey. I-I can’t savor anything with constant anguish. B-But I want to. I need…’’

Ethan waited for her to continue, trying to make sense of it.

‘’I need you to trust me,’’ she demanded quietly and lifted her head with intense emotion in her eyes. ‘’Once the Meteora is open, we’ll meet there once again.’’

‘’Wait, wait. You’re leaving now? Eve, whatever this is, you know that I can help. Can you at least tell me what are you going to do?’’

Evelyn gave another hug to Ethan, slightly shaking. ‘’Not this time. This is personal,’’ she whispered. ‘’I’ll be back before you know it, and… I’ll come back as a new person, one without any burdens. Just… trust me and wait for me.’’

Ethan didn’t know what to say. In his bewilderment, he watched her hasty exit with Paprika on her shoulder. She didn’t even stop when he called for her again. He stared at the teleportation gate for a long moment and tried to understand what’s just happened before shaking his head and turning to Saruman, ‘’I fucking hate the things I have no control over.’’

‘’Well… She said Meteora, right? I know that land opens every four years. That’s not a long time, you know,’’ Saruman pointed, trying to cheer him.

‘’It should be less than two years now,’’ he murmured. 

‘’See? That’s not even enough time for a good nap!’’

Ethan chuckled wryly. ‘’Easy for you to say.’’ He waved his hand to empty the room, except for the tree and created a big table with all kinds of dishes on it. Fetching his barrel of beer from his ring, he sat on a chair and poured himself a cold Ehreneer as he muttered to himself. ‘’Should’ve bought something stronger as well.’’

Saruman sat in front of him, not knowing where to put his hands. ‘’Why not create one with mana? It can still give you the effect you wanted.’’

‘’It can?’’ he asked half-heartedly, storing the beer back, and creating a gin tonic. ‘’I thought the food was only for the taste. Either way, that’s really cool ability. It might be the best magic trick I’ve seen so far.’’

‘’It’s just mana stimulating your body by imitating your past experiences,’’ Saruman explained, watching the Beet with the corner of his eyes who jumped to the table’s corner, looking for anything intriguing to eat. ‘’Even my current body is made from your assumptions of how a flesh body should feel.’’

‘’Interesting,’’ he commented with dull eyes before gulping half of the gin tonic and banging the glass back to the table. ‘’I’m gonna miss Paprika as well.’’ Both Saruman and Beet nodded wordlessly as he continued. ‘’It feels off, you know? Why did she leave in such haste? After months of battles, she didn’t even get cleaned or take a little rest. One minute she was jumping with joy for her shield, the next she gave goodbyes and darted away.’’

‘’Maybe she was afraid that you'd change her mind if she delayed more?’’ Saruman suggested as the skin on his forehead wrinkled.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. ‘’Do you think I should go after her to talk again? Or maybe try to protect her from the shadows?’’

‘’What? Of course not!’’ Saruman exclaimed. ‘’She told you it was a personal business. More than once! Going right behind her back would be like spitting on her face.’’

‘’Since when you’re an expert on human relationships?!’’ he snapped, gritting his teeth.

‘’I’ve been watching the interactions of intelligent species for thousands of years,’’ Saruman stated, sounding almost offended. Raising his both hands, he continued. ‘’You have no idea what kind of dramas these walls had witnessed.’’

Ethan gave a deflated sigh. ‘’Sorry, I didn’t mean that. I understand the sentiment too, but… it’s an asshole move to say to the people who care about you; ‘I’m gonna do something dangerous, but you can't be involved. Just trust me,’ don’t you think?’’

‘’What else should she say? Even as an accident, you already figured out her wish to do something dangerous. Would you rather that she’d lie?’’

‘’You really witnessed a lot of dramas, huh?’’ he chuckled. ‘’I’m all new to this. I manipulated the people as a kid to survive and didn’t care about other people’s perspectives in the game. I’ve always told myself that I had no choice when I was a kid, and whatever I did in the games, it didn’t matter because they were games. Now, I know what’s the logical move, but my habits of years keep telling me, it’s stupid to just trust someone for something too important.’’

Saruman was having a hard time following. ‘’Games? Like the table tennis, we played?’’

‘’Not really,’’ Ethan said, smiling slightly. ‘’Let me show you.’’

He first wished for a copy of Saruman made of mana, and it appeared next to their table. Then, he created a copy of himself, standing in front of Saruman’s copy. ‘’Now, think as we’re playing a game. Whoever kills the other will be the winner,’’ he said and looked at the copies. 

The copy of Saruman raised his staff and stabbed it to his own copy's hearth in a brutal fashion, before pulling the bloody staff back. As the copy of Ethan was dying with wide eyes, he resumed his speech with cold eyes. ‘’You’ve won. Now, imagine that we've been playing this way too realistic game for years upon years. In order to kill me, you’ve cheated, lied, and done whatever you think was necessary or fun. You didn’t care about the consequences, because it was just a game. After so long, even though you know what’s right and what’s not, it’s inevitable to not be affected by the game. So, now, the Ethan inside me, who played the game for so long, is urging me to screw the rules and do what I want.’’

Saruman’s expression changed between puzzled and fascinated before settling on a serious one. ‘’When did you stop playing this game?’’

‘’A year-’’ He paused to gaze at the corner of his vision, where his HP bar was. ‘’-No, never. I guess I’m still playing it.’’

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‘’Then you should stop. If you can’t, you must treat this game as real, and make your choices accordingly.’’ Perhaps for the first time, Saruman gave sincere advice with the attitude of an elder. ‘’This is not only about your confused morality, more importantly, you only have one life, Ethan. You can never get confused about that. And don’t think I’m only saying this for you to not risk your life casually. The fact of death also makes life more crucial, and more beautiful. If you dismiss that, life becomes blank and tasteless.’’

‘’Who are you? What did you do to Saruman?’’

‘’W-What?’’

Ethan chuckled, more spirited this time. ‘’I’m messing with you. That was actually the most meaningful thing someone told me, for a long time.’’ He slowly stood up and finished his drink. ‘’Didn’t know you were such a good drinking buddy. Let’s change the atmosphere a bit, I think it’s best for me to stay with you for another day. Otherwise, in this mood, I’ll definitely punch that Leo in the face.’’

Positioning himself in the middle, he looked around the room, and their copies dissolved into the air, leaving none of the gory scenes. He closed his eyes and started to wish. Slowly, the walls of the Wish Room began to change, displaying vivid and magnificent scenery. A cloudy sky appeared on the ceiling, two of the walls showed a vast ocean, the other two turned into a view of high mountains with enormous waterfalls pouring into the ocean, while the floor they stood on became transparent and showed the ground a thousand miles beneath, making them look like they were standing in the air.

Of course, they were still in the same room, but the walls were showing whatever he wished for. A gentle breeze started to blow as Ethan opened his eyes to look at the never-ending sunset and smiled. ‘’Oh, I keep forgetting we’re in a fantasy world.’’ As he looked up, two gorgeous creatures made an appearance, a golden dragon and a blazing phoenix, flying above and demonstrating an elegant dance.

Beet, who was watching everything curiously so far, got spooked bad, calling his four rhea shades to circle around him.

‘’Seriously? You think your ugly birds can protect you against them?’’ Ethan asked, struggling hard to keep his face straight. 

‘’You are really… creative,’’ Saruman commented, looking up. ‘’Thousands of people entered this Wish Room, and this is the first time I’m seeing something like this.’’

‘’The game I mentioned wasn’t all that bad,’’ he said as he walked back to the table and sat on his chair. Both chairs turned into majestic thrones with the comfiness of expensive gamer chairs before he wished for the dragon and the phoenix to be visible only to him and Saruman, saving Beet from long hours of therapy. ‘’I learned to have fun and enjoy my free time. But all of this loses its luster after a time, what’s rare is the good company.’’ Raising his cup to air, he looked at Saruman and Beet with a smile before drinking the bitter gin tonic and feeling content.

‘’It’s just,’’ he added, his smile falling a little. ‘’I imagined this as a party of five, not three. I didn’t even have the time to show her my [Mana Connection] skill. Now, she’d only remember my songs as bizarre and foreign. Hell, I doubt she’d remember at all, with whatever she has going on…’’

‘’Focus on the timeline, Ethan,’’ Saruman said. ‘’With both of your talents, you will live for centuries, maybe even for millennia. In the future, when you look back on this two-year separation, you’ll feel nothing of it. And stop giving such low confidence to the girl. After every floor, her technique improved much more than yours. Now, at the mid tier-4 along with the Maiden’s Tear, only a few tier-5s could endanger her life. Even your help wouldn’t change much, so stop worrying.’’

Ethan took it all in and realized how accurate it is. With his young age, two years still felt like a long time to him, but there was nothing he could do about it. Saruman was right, he had to trust her for this one. He looked at Saruman’s eyes and gave a nod with gratitude. ‘’Thanks. I’ll do as you say, but I’ll still send someone to check her situation and get informed about the changes.’’ When Saruman opened his mouth, he pointed his finger with narrowed eyes. ‘’Don’t you fucking start! I said I won’t go and send someone else. If there is no need, I’ll stay out of it. Not to mention, I can only do that months after.’’

Saruman gave a wry smile. ‘’I guess that’s the best she could get.’’

Ethan smiled slightly, pleased to convince both himself and Saruman. He snapped his fingers and a piece of dark fantasy-themed drum music started playing, almost giving Beet another heart attack. ‘’Enough about me. What do you want? I know you can just shut yourself down and sleep way too long. But don’t you have any desires? Any wishes for yourself?’’

‘’Shut yourself down… It’s called meditation,’’ Saruman murmured. ‘’Well, not being able to leave was a bit depressing at first but I learned to love this place after so long, I don’t really want to go out. Though, I wouldn’t mind more company. When I first made an appearance in Elisium, I was so popular that I had to make people wait for months until the others finished their trials. Then, a command came from the higher realm, and they made the entrance more difficult to find. After that, everyone who discovered and finished the test kept the location to themselves or shared it with their families. I miss those busy times, but if it gets too crowded again, the Wish Palace would send others to tone it down.’’

‘’If the Wish Palace is still around.’’

‘’They… they must be. What could possibly happen to the powerhouse which ruled more than one higher realm for eons?’’

‘’Pissed off another powerhouse? Maybe a big war happened? Or maybe they found a much better place and left everything behind to move there,’’ Ethan said, shaking his head. ‘’I have no idea, but anything could happen.’’

Saruman didn’t say anything, he looked up to watch the dancing dragon and phoenix. The creatures sometimes came close to them and sometimes flew far away, always in harmony with each other and the drum sounds which echoed everywhere.

‘’Say, can you shelter sapient beings here?’’ Ethan asked in a low voice. ‘’Like a settlement with a thousand people or so?’’

‘’Technically, I can,’’ Saruman replied, raising an eyebrow. ‘’But if people from Wish Palace turn up, I’ll have to send them away and I might get more strict commands afterward.’’

Ethan nodded thoughtfully. ‘’Let me do some investigation about that first. According to the situation, I might help you to lay out a small settlement. Many people would love to live here, without even mentioning your ability to open teleport gates everywhere. In exchange, they can become your eyes and ears outside, like doing maintenance or some controlled targeted advertising,’’ he proposed and added with a smile, ‘’Plus, you can have plenty of dramas to watch.’’ 

‘’It’s not like I like to watch people,’’ Saruman said, already showing excitement. ‘’I just know pretty much everything going on inside the Wish Well since I am the Wish Well. Anyway, I like the settlement idea and it doesn’t have to be small. It might be a big city where people send their youngsters to learn from my wisdom while the adults brag about their scores on the trials. We're going to need some artists though, I’m not good at sculptures. What about the name? Wish City? The City of the Mysterious One?’’

‘’Take it easy, dude,’’ he said, amused. ‘’As I said, it's gonna be a while 'til I figure out what’s going on. At least a few years.’’

‘’Years, months, days, all the same,’’ Saruman said, waving his hand dismissively. ‘’How about Nameless? It does sound mysterious.’’

‘’Nah, they did that. It was in Tennessee or some shit. Once people get used to it, it just becomes weird.’’

High in the sky, the blazing phoenix flared up even more and made a dive toward the gigantic waterfalls. It tangent to the floating table closely where a young man, an artifact spirit, and a mantis were having a merry time. 

Hours upon hours, they ate, drank, and talked. Ethan slowly got over Evelyn’s abrupt departure, but having lost another companion still hurt, temporary or not. Especially when his most important aim was making genuine relationships with people. Deep in his heart, he couldn’t help but think if he did something to make the other leave. Regardless, venting out to his friend felt good.

When it was time to leave, he hugged Saruman and promised to come back with news, good or bad. He went toward the gate of Niamaris with Beet on his shoulder before pausing in front of it. ‘’Right. I forgot my hammock on that mountain. Take it as a gift from me. I’ll see you later, City Lord,’’ he said and passed through the gate with a smirk.

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