The World Forgets Me

Unfolding the aged parchment revealed rather messy handwriting. Selwyn had likely been unable to hold his pen steady when writing the letter. "I do not know which name you currently use, so I can only address you as an old friend. I trust you will accept the title. After all, there exists between us an acquaintance valued at a shriveled coin pouch worth thirteen silver coins..." Anbaixiu read the words calmly. The final letter did not depict any miserable death in Anbaixiu's future, nor did it touch upon anything else. It held only an old man's reminiscence of his past life as death drew near. From learning magic in his youth to meeting the love of his life, and finally watching his beloved pass away before him. Anbaixiu sighed with emotion. "The path every divination wizard must walk." Success in youth, wealth and glory, only to realize fate was a pitfall, sinking deeper and deeper until one confirmed that no matter how hard they struggled, they were utterly powerless. Be it Anbaixiu, Selwyn, or Mister Misfortune, every divination wizard shared the exact same experience. Harvey was simply still young and had not yet reached that stage; sooner or later, he would undergo something similar to these predecessors. Still, Selwyn's life had been somewhat plainer than Anbaixiu's, for the path of fate he walked differed from Anbaixiu's. His way was obscurity, hiding, and evading misfortune. Much like Anbaixiu's Dice of Fate, which others could not see yet could lock down destiny, after Selwyn's lover died, he was able to erase everything related to himself from the world. It was not simple forgetting. Even books chronicling Selwyn would, by fate's design, become "lost." Perhaps they were accidentally soiled, or perhaps accidentally burned; in any case, whatever recorded information about him would vanish and then be forgotten by people. The sole reason Anbaixiu could remember the name Selwyn was entirely because he was a divination wizard himself. In the eyes of anyone else, Selwyn had ceased to exist long ago. Yet, even though the world had forgotten him, he could not break free of his own destiny. Death clung like a shadow, ultimately bringing this old man who had lived in seclusion for half a lifetime to his final moments. "I once thought I could treat you as an enemy, but only after so many years did I realize there is no room for enmity between us divination wizards. You and I are both prisoners walking along a rugged path of fate, forced toward that destined death. I spent an entire lifetime believing I could delay fate's arrival, but in the end, I still failed. "By the time you read this letter, I will have already been captured by fate, and you too will fall into the net of the Goddess of Fate. When fate has not yet been revealed, anything can still change. Thus, I will not tell you the future I foresaw, but have instead had my student bring this letter to you. ... "My friend, that you have read this far shows you already possess the resolve and have not chosen to run away. That means you may be the only divination wizard capable of transcending fate. I entrust this final hope to you." Having read the letter to its end, Anbaixiu found no resentment between the lines, only a faint trace of unwilling regret. Selwyn had not resigned himself to fate the way Anbaixiu had, spending a lifetime searching for a way to break free of destiny. Yet ironically, Selwyn's method of fighting fate had been flight, whereas Anbaixiu, who had long since chosen to lie flat, habitually relied on himself rather than casually tapping into the power of fate. Regardless, the outcome seemed the same. Once Anbaixiu finished reading the final letter, the words on the parchment began squirming like tadpoles, transforming into magic-infused runes. What had been an ordinary letter instantly turned into a magic scroll. "This is..." Anbaixiu was perhaps already the divination wizard in the world who understood the power of fate best, yet he still could not fully comprehend the runes on this scroll. He only knew that the scroll condensed Selwyn's final power—the crowning research achievement of his life. The girl who had inherited Selwyn's name looked at the scroll in Anbaixiu's hand and said calmly, "This is a spell created by my teacher. He called it 'The World Forgets Me.' It can make everyone in the world forget oneself, including everything related to them." Anbaixiu said to her, "It seems you truly were unsuited to learn under Selwyn. This scroll is not as simple as making the world forget a person." Curious, the girl asked, "Then what is it?" Anbaixiu explained, "It erases a concept from the souls of all sentient beings. That concept can be a person, or it can be something else." "What would happen if you made everyone forget breathing?" she asked inquisitively. Anbaixiu glanced at her. This girl's thoughts were a bit dangerous. Even so, Anbaixiu explained, "Nothing much would happen. Breathing is an instinct of living things, so people would simply gradually forget that the action is called breathing. All medical research related to breathing from before would slowly be lost over time, until the action was renamed and passed down under a new name." The girl remarked in surprise, "That doesn't seem very meaningful then." Anbaixiu did not explain further. He merely stored the scroll away with great care, then said to the girl, "Since you aren't suited for Selwyn's path, you should change your name. Inheriting this name means inheriting your teacher's entanglement with fate." The girl hesitated for a moment, then said, "Master Ultraman, I don't want my teacher to truly be forgotten by the world. I hope at least someone will remember this name." Anbaixiu fell silent for a beat, then said, "As you wish. I was merely giving you a warning. Then starting today, you are my apprentice." Selwyn looked at Anbaixiu in surprise and hastily asked, "Teacher, you're willing to take me in just like that?" "I have no reason to refuse. Divination wizards in this world are far too rare." "I thought..." Selwyn said hesitantly, "I thought, Teacher, that you would charge a massive tuition fee before accepting me." "Then you don't know me well enough." Anbaixiu chuckled, then said, "I could tell at a glance that you're penniless. You'd better prepare to work for me to pay off your tuition." Selwyn quickly said, "Of course, that's no problem at all! Please order me as you see fit, Teacher." Selwyn was already well aware of Master Ultraman's temperament. Anbaixiu pointed toward a certain direction on the island and said to her, "Go find your senior apprentice-brother Harvey. He needs a helper right now. By the way, you're my third apprentice." Selwyn froze for a moment, saying in disbelief, "The third? You just said divination wizards are very rare!" No wonder her previous teacher had entrusted his dying affairs to this new teacher—he was practically a darling of the Goddess of Fate. Anbaixiu did not explain. After dispatching his newly accepted apprentice Selwyn to work, he silently took out the Necrotic Codex and typed a line into the group chat: [Friends, my time has come. The debts I previously owed, I'm afraid, will never be repaid.]