Chapter 107: Rebecca’s Tears
“Tell me anything. Now that you are my follower, I will use my own two hands to make your dream come true,” Abyss said, gazing at Rebecca with his gentle, turquoise eyes. “I’m someone who likes to challenge the impossible. You don’t need to worry.”
“I know,” Rebecca replied, nodding slightly. “The reason I’m telling you now is because I know you’re someone who never fears a challenge.”
Rebecca pulled a magic crystal from her pocket. It was the contaminated magic crystal they had created in that now-destroyed world, the one that allowed them to travel between worlds. She had always kept one with her.
“The reason I study spatial magic isn’t because I want to use it for something. My goal is far more ambitious—I want to master spatial magic, then attempt to reach a higher level,” Rebecca said, gazing at the crystal, its surface shimmering with a myriad of colors, the result of being soaked in various potions. “That is, spatiotemporal magic.”
“Time and space?” Abyss’s eyes lit up with excitement. “You want to not only control space but also travel through time?”
“Exactly,” Rebecca replied, her gaze firm. “I want to create a machine capable of traversing time and space, of changing history.”
“I remember that theory being mentioned by a transmigrator—the ancestor of that genius Druid from the Elven Kingdoms,” Abyss said, thinking back. “He gave two reasons why time travel was impossible. First, the gods wouldn’t allow mortals to manipulate time freely. It would disrupt the balance of the world, leading to unpredictable consequences. Perhaps the gods could handle such disruptions, but the simplest solution was to eliminate the mortals causing the problem. Second, even if someone overcame all those impossible conditions and traveled to the past, they wouldn’t be changing existing history, but creating a new timeline. Time travel would affect causality, preventing certain events from occurring. He called this paradox the ‘temporal paradox’.”
“Yes, I’ve studied those theories as well,” Rebecca nodded.
“But you still want to try, right?”
“Yes. If you don’t mind me rambling, I can tell you a story from my childhood. It’s the reason I want to create a time machine,” Rebecca said.
Abyss smiled, gently stroking her soft, black hair. “I always have patience for my followers. Tell me everything. Even if it takes days.”
“It’s not that long,” Rebecca said, relaxing, scooting her chair closer to Abyss, her shoulder brushing against his arm. It was an intimate gesture, but neither of them thought much of it. They both understood it was a sign of trust.
Having settled into a comfortable position, Rebecca closed her eyes and began her story.
“I was a genius from a young age. I’m not exaggerating. I grasped alchemical theories very quickly. My family was in the potion business. We had a fully equipped alchemy laboratory and an entire library filled with books on alchemy. I was surrounded by it growing up, which sparked my interest. I would spend entire days in the library, often forgetting to eat or sleep.”
“And as a result, I finished reading all the alchemy books in our library in a short time. My mother initially thought I was just playing, flipping through the pages and looking at the illustrations, like any child. But when she tested my knowledge, she realized I wasn’t playing. I had memorized every word, every formula. And after finishing all the books, I even corrected some of their errors through my own experiments and deductions.”
“My mother didn’t want my talent to be wasted. She bought me more books, equipment, and ingredients. And so began my journey as an alchemist. My life was smooth sailing. Everyone praised my intelligence, and boys were speechless in my presence, captivated by my beauty. I grew up surrounded by flowers and compliments, enjoying a happy childhood.”
“Of course, adults aren’t as simple as children. Many of them praised me because they wanted to gain my favor, my support. When I was young, I brewed many potions for various people, partly to prove myself, partly because they paid my family handsomely. Some used the potions themselves, while others purchased my formulas and produced the potions for sale, sharing a portion of their profits with me. We lived a very comfortable life.”
“But my life didn’t remain smooth sailing. One day, a member of a Lavoisier City gang approached me, requesting a potion that could heat their furnaces, allowing them to brew high-temperature potions without hiring Elemental mages. They offered a generous sum, and I readily agreed. I created the potion in a short time and sold them the formula at a reasonable price.”
As she spoke, a look of intense regret filled her eyes. She leaned closer to Abyss, clutching his arm as if seeking comfort.
“And then… they took my formula and gave it to another alchemist. I was confident in my skills, but even those less talented than me could occasionally decipher my formulas. That alchemist, a skilled but heartless individual, modified my formula, creating a weapon that could generate intense heat, capable of inflicting terrible burns.”
“They then engaged in a war with another gang, using this new weapon to kill many of their rivals. It caused a massive fire in Lavoisier City, killing dozens of innocent civilians and injuring hundreds more. When I heard the news, I ran through the streets, seeing the destruction, the charred bodies of those who had been burned alive, the injured crying in agony, their families weeping beside them. I was devastated.”
“No one knew that I had created the original potion formula. Those who knew me begged me, the genius alchemist, to save the injured… But I was no genius… I was just a greedy fool.”
Tears streamed down Rebecca’s face. It was the first time Abyss had seen her so heartbroken.
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