He Holds a Rose from the Abyss

Chapter 10 – Shattered Dreams

Chi Lang almost thought he would dream back to modern times, but he still woke up to see the fireplace in his bedroom. Then he saw Sheffield standing by his bed. The faint scent of roses floated in the air.

Chi Lang blinked, as if recalling what happened before: “Ah, are you okay?”

Sheffield was stunned for a moment, and he smiled extremely slowly and faintly, “I’m fine.” He didn’t expect Chi Lang’s first question when he woke up would be this.

Chi Lang’s expression suddenly changed, his whole face wrinkled, and he weakly called out, “Sheffield…”

“What’s the matter?” Sheffield took a few steps closer.

“You, you help me look at…” Chi Lang turned around and pointed to the back of his head, “Hair, my hair, did my hair get burned that day?”

…

Sheffield was silent for a while, then replied bluntly: “No.”

Chi Lang also felt that his actions were a bit exaggerated, and explained: “You see… people in our hometown care more about hair.”

…

“What time is it now?” Chi Lang finally remembered to be concerned about his own situation.

“Three days after the final exam, to be exact.”

Chi Lang: “It’s over… Mrs. White will kill me… I  don’t know how much money she’s going to deduct from me…” After he lamented, he asked again, “Although I failed that day, did you pass the test?”

“When Joyce reported the results, he said we all passed.”

Chi Lang was very surprised: “Joyce… he would actually…”

“Micah,” Sheffield interrupted him, and in Sheffield’s usual style, she wouldn’t interrupt someone like this.

“Aren’t you going to ask about your injury?”

Chi Lang paused for a moment: “I think I’m okay. I don’t feel any discomfort now, it’s similar to how I usually feel.”

Sheffield’s tone was not very good: “Really? If it weren’t for the healing magic, you would have died under Joyce’s magic.”

Chi Lang felt that the word “death” was a bit harsh, and he didn’t know what to say for a while.

But Sheffield seemed to realize that what he said was not quite right, he moved his eyes to the window and showed his usual kind of smile again.

“I’m sorry, my words came out too heavy. And it was supposed to be my fault that day, I was the one who got distracted and caused the protection magic to go awry.” He said, “Since you’re all right now, I’ll go out first.”

“Sheffield,” Chi Lang stopped him, “I think I need to explain. When the flame fell that day, I thought it would hurt you, so I pushed you away… but I didn’t expect to get myself hurt…”

He was a little rambling, but Sheffield kept his eyes on him, patiently listening to him finish.

“I’m not holding the idea of saving you even if I let myself get hurt, the injury was because of my own carelessness… so you don’t have to have any psychological burden.”

Chi Lang felt that he should explain clearly that since he had never thought of sacrificing himself to save others, he should not let Sheffield misunderstand like this.

“I understand.” Sheffield said with a faint smile, “You get some rest.”

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Since the conversation with Sheffield that day, Chi Lang hadn’t seen him for the past few days.

Chi Lang sometimes would feel a little lonely, but more often he would fall into the thirst for money. Mrs. White expressed sympathy for his experience, but still deducted his salary. Chi Lang still continued to worry about the fifty silver coins owed to Joyce.

On a sunny, breezy, and warm afternoon, Chi Lang was in a good mood if he hadn’t met Joyce.

“I’ll pay you back when this vacation is over.” When Chi Lang met Joyce, he wanted to take a detour, but Joyce kept following.

There were two months of vacation after the final exam, and Chi Lang was planning to find some part-time jobs again during this vacation.

But Joyce refused his offer: “No need. You don’t need to return it to me.”

Chi Lang stared at Joyce with a suspicious look on his face.

Joyce turned his face away: “I’m sorry…and thank you.”

Chi Lang took a few steps back, he could barely understand when he said “I’m sorry”, but couldn’t understand when he said “Thank you”. From the first time he saw him, Chi Lang really felt that his brain circuits were different from Joyce’s.

Joyce looked at Chi Lang: “Is your injury okay?”

“Yes, I think so.”

Joyce asked the questions accumulated in his heart: “You didn’t have any protective magic on your body that day… Later, when I used the healing technique, I also felt that you had no magic power…”

Chi Lang sighed in his heart, without showing any emotion on his face: “I was injured some time ago… and then, then, then…”

Joyce waited expectantly for his “then.”

“And then I lost my magic.”

…

The atmosphere was a little awkward for a while.

Joyce’s face changed, and then changed again, and finally suppressed his anger. Although he felt that Chi Lang’s statement was very unreliable, he guessed that Chi Lang should have some inconvenient reason to say it.

“So you don’t have any defense against magic right now?”

“……more or less……”

“Would you like to go to church with me?”

Huh? What the hell kind of development is this? Chi Lang took a few more steps backward.

Joyce: “I have a knight friend who works in the church. I can ask him if you can follow and learn some swordplay.” He paused for a while, “I just hope that when I use magic in the future, I don’t have to worry about accidentally killing you.”

Chi Lang’s eyes lit up, the hope of possessing supernatural power rekindled in his heart, and nodded quickly: “When are we going? Now?”

So they went to the church in Zefnar City that day.

The church was built in the center of the city, surrounded by silver oak trees, and in the lush interlacing of the leaves revealed the white bricks of the church.

Chi Lang was actually a little excited along the way. After he saw the charm of magic, he also felt some regrets that he didn’t know how to do magic. Since he came to a world of swords and magic, he always aspired to master some supernatural power, or at least have some combat power.

The power of a magician comes from the mastery of energy in nature, while the power of knights comes from faith. The knights are essentially under the administration of the church and are empowered by their belief in the God of Light.

Joyce called out his knight friend.

Mr. Knight, wearing silver and white light armor, first looked Chi Lang up and down, and frowned: “You don’t seem to have any talent for swordsmanship.”

Straight to the point, every word is heartbreaking.

However, Mr. Knight still did not give up on him immediately.

He took Chi Long to the place where the newly initiated swordsmen supposedly practiced and compared with Chi Lang.

Chi Lang could not keep up with him at all.

Mr. Knight frowned again and still didn’t give up on him.

Mr. Knight took Chi Lang to the church again and took Chi Lang for an afternoon of prayer.

And then Chi Lang fell asleep in this atmosphere full of theology.

In the end, Mr. Knight came to the conclusion that Chi Lang was incapable of doing anything in swordsmanship, and his talent in magic was mediocre.

Chi Lang bowed his head when he came out of the church. He was exhausted physically and mentally, and just wanted to go back to the bedroom to lie down.

Joyce saw that his face was not very good, and he guessed the result, but Joyce would not comfort anyone, he could only say things like “You can go back and try magic again”, “Go on the research path of theoretical magic”, etc.

“You don’t understand,” Chi Lang’s tone was very mournful, “it feels like, you were looking forward to playing a game of fighting monsters, upgrading and changing maps, but now the game has become a game of raising and making money to pay off debts.”

“The psychological sense of disparity ah,” Chi Lang lamented.

Joyce didn’t understand what he meant, and said sullenly, “Where are you going next?”

It was getting dark, Chi Lang yawned, “Go to the pub, see if Mrs. White is busy today?”

Joyce: “Don’t hang your head, let’s go for a drink.”

Chi Lang: “Is it your treat? I’ll accompany you to drink if it is.” He was too poor and in a bad mood, so he didn’t want to invite Joyce to drink.

Joyce complied with the request for a treat.

Chi Lang picked out the best color bottles of wine and placed them in a row on the table. Today, once again accepting the fact that he was useless, Chi Lang felt a little depressed in his heart. And in the pub, this bit of depression was multiplied again.

He was thinking of getting drunk. Vent his depression today, and tomorrow will be another beautiful day.

And Joyce, who was usually very bad-tempered, had a pretty good attitude at this time and was still qualified as a drinking buddy.

– If Joyce hadn’t seen his ex-girlfriend, it would have been a perfect night.

Joyce’s movements stopped suddenly, and he looked straight in the direction of the door of the pub.

And when Chi Lang looked in that direction, he saw two people. He saw Sheffield first, who was still wearing his magic robe. Then Chi Lang saw the girl next to him.

The girl had braided her hair and walked in smiling and talking to Sheffield.

Just the two of them.

The girl also noticed Joyce when she came in, she tilted her head and smiled at Joyce.

It was a very beautiful girl with a beautiful smile.

It’s just that Joyce’s face was getting more and more stinky.

Chi Lang looked at Joyce and then at the girl: “You know her?”

“Ex-girlfriend.”

Chi Lang stopped taking the wine for a while, he felt a little embarrassed about the scene: “Or else, let’s change places?”

“No,” Joyce refused quickly, “just here.”

The story of Joyce and his ex-girlfriend left a deep impression on Chi Lang. Chi Lang didn’t dare to say anything at this moment and filled Joyce’s wine silently.

While noting Joyce’s state, Chi Lang couldn’t control his mind and started to make up the feud between Joyce, his ex-girlfriend, and Sheffield.

Could it be that Joyce and Sheffield’s unfriendly exchange of eyes during the final exam was because the two love rivals met? Chi Lang didn’t feel right again, because Joyce said before that his ex-girlfriend was tied to a boy from the illusion department.

The love story was too complicated, Chi Lang decided not to think about it anymore.

Joyce drank as fast as ever, Chi Lang’s glass was already empty, and he was ready to go to the inner room to get some more wine out. As he was getting up, someone next to him took his glass and filled it for him. Chi Lang glanced to his left and—

— it was Sheffield.

Sheffield handed him the glass of wine and smiled gently, “Didn’t you say you were going to invite me over for a drink before, since we ran into each other today, why don’t you do it today.”

Brother, can you see what’s going on here? Chi Lang: “…I don’t think… Joyce, what do you think?”

Chi Lang desperately gave Joyce a hint with his eyes, but Joyce ignored him, just stared at the girl and put down the glass— “Okay, I don’t mind.”

Chi Lang:  …

So they began a drinking trip for the four of them.

They chose a table for four, Sheffield and Chi Lang sat face to face, Joyce and his ex-girlfriend sat face to face. The girl was called Dana.

Chi Lang thought it would be awkward.

It did start out awkwardly, with Joyce staring at the table, Dana drinking all the time, and Sheffield looking at Chi Lang, but none of them were talking!

Chi Lang thought about it for a long time and finally came up with a topic—he asked a question for the final exam.

No more embarrassment. After the three rushed to answer Chi Lang’s question, they began to discuss magic.

Chi Lang:  …

They discussed from “formula research on magic principles” to “history of magic”, and then to “teacher’s latest research topic”. Chi Lang was in a state of confusion throughout, but he had to pretend to be listening very carefully, with a look of ‘listening very seriously’.

‘Why do they want to discuss and study in a place like a pub?’ Chi Lang thought and drank silently. Doesn’t this make him drink under the cloud of learning?