Chapter 213: Chapter I Want to See Her With My Own Eyes
On the bookshelf of the library.
After confirming that Rast’s ntal state was stable and that he didn’t seem likely to suffer a breakdown upon learning the truth about Canaan, Dean Silver imdiately began to play dumb.
Hmm? What do you an, being your Emotional Support Ferret?
Did I say that? I didn’t. No, I didn’t.
Seeing this, Rast didn’t pursue the matter further.
He was well aware of Dean Silver’s stubbornness… This was the type who could spark a thousand-comnt debate on the player forum over “Does His Excellency Rast prefer cats or dogs?”
If Dean Silver were thrown into the River of Ti, after countless millennia, even if her flesh and blood had long been weathered to dust, she’d probably still have that unyielding mouth opening and closing: “Did I say that? I didn’t, right?”
Rast looked at the gradually dissipating light screen in the library, extended his right index finger, and lightly slid it through the air.
Though the void was clearly empty, as Rast’s finger moved, complex rays of light and shadows intersected in an instant within the void.
Then, they transford into one crystal-like screen after another, densely materializing in midair before Rast’s eyes.
Just as Little Grey had said earlier in the recording—
Before she chose to vanish from the Present World and fall into the deepest part of the starry sea, making her third wish to Fate… Little Grey had left all her access rights within the Watchtower and its database to Rast.
Because of this, he now possessed administrator rights within the Watchtower, allowing him not only to freely browse all data stored in the Grand Library, but also to access the resources of the Shoreguards organization at will.
To so extent, although Rast had entered this unfamiliar Echo of History for less than two days—his authority already rivaled that of the leadership of the Human Federal Governnt in this world.
“Click, click, click. This feeling of getting a max-level account right at the start of a new Ga is just… euphoric.”
Dean Silver leapt back onto Rast’s shoulder, watching him wave his hands and manipulate the light screens, flipping through various confidential files stored within the Watchtower using his administrator privileges, unable to contain her astonishnt.
“Jealous? It cost a life.”
“So technically, Dean Silver, you’re a Black Night Traveler now too. Although you don’t have an official Nightworld ID—you could still try out the kind of jobs we Black Night Travelers do.”
Rast didn’t look back as he continued browsing through the confidential files displayed on the light screens.
“Forget it. I could never do the kind of stuff you lot do.”
Dean Silver used her fluffy snow-white tail as a pillow, stretched, and let out a lazy yawn.
“I’m more suited to staying sowhere safe, eating junk food while watching your stream.”
Having witnessed Rast’s journey ever since he joined Starfall University, Dean Silver knew very well just how reckless he was each ti he entered an Echo of History.
Each ti, he walked a tightrope through death-defying peril, ending up battered and bruised… The enemies he provoked were monstrously formidable—either Gravekeepers who had endured for countless Eras, or colossal entities like Evil Gods.
And yet, every ti Rast stirred up such earth-shattering trouble, he still managed to survive.
So yes, she was envious, but asking Dean Silver to go through that herself—it was absolutely out of the question. Just as Rast had said—it was bought with a life.
A snow ferret should live like a snow ferret: lying flat and doing nothing. Charging into battle—that kind of thing was best left to two-legged beasts.
At the side, Rast’s speed in flipping through files also gradually increased.
As the headquarters of the Shoreguards organization, the internal database of the Watchtower contained an overwhelming volu of information, covering nearly everything about the developnt of Sixth Era civilization since the Battle of the Fractured Coastline over two centuries ago.
But what Rast truly cared about was only the “Artificial Angel Project.”
“According to the files in the database, the project should have been successfully carried out.”
“At least up to now, everything has gone smoothly.”
Rast murmured to himself.
The recording just played—left by Little Grey in advance—was likely recorded over a decade ago.
At the ti, Little Grey had just broken through to the Eighth Tier and ascended to the “Fate” Sequence Angel not long prior. Due to the two wishes she made upon ascending, the Canaan of the future tiline collapsed, causing herself, Xiao Ai, and the ruins of Canaan to be transported to the Sixth Era.
These matters weren’t directly docunted in the Watchtower’s database, but nurous indirect pieces of evidence could confirm them. For instance, certain regions that were suddenly ordered to be sealed off… or the dical logs still stored in the Shoreguards' internal hospital—those belonging to Emis.
Later, when Xiao Ai’s condition gradually deteriorated and beca terminal, Little Grey initiated the “Artificial Angel Project.”
As the leader of the Shoreguards, she mobilized all of the organization’s resources, overcoming countless obstacles and resistance, and pushed the “Artificial Angel Project” forward with all her strength.
Just as the “Artificial Angel Project” had made it through the most difficult early phase and could proceed naturally without Grey’s direct oversight…
Grey herself vanished from this world.
Before she disappeared, she left behind only a half-implented “Artificial Angel Project” and the prototype of the virtual reality online ga, “Shoreguards’ Ballad.”
According to Grey, the purpose of developing “Shoreguards’ Ballad” was, firstly, to commorate those Shoreguards who perished while guarding the Spark during the dark era.
Secondly, it was to guide Rast, when he arrived in this world in the future, toward the Watchtower and help him uncover the truth behind everything.
And thirdly, it was an attempt—or perhaps a rehearsal—on Grey’s part to simulate the real world of ancient history using a virtual video ga combined with the ability of Temporal Rewind.
A rehearsal for the third and final wish she would make—the “miracle” she hoped to achieve.
Although from beginning to end, Grey never explicitly stated what her third wish would be, nor the full nature of that “miracle” she sought to attain—
Rast, drawing from all that had occurred, had already ford a rough conclusion in his heart.
“So, as expected…”
“‘Nightworld’ is the ‘miracle’ you prayed to Fate for, isn’t it?”
“Little Grey…”
Looking at the images on the light screen before him, Rast murmured in silence.
But soon, he reined in his emotions again.
No matter what, this all lay upstream of the River of Ti—in a past temporal node, in historical facts already set in stone.
He could not change the past, nor did he intend to.
At this mont, what Rast needed to care about most was the future that lay within reach, the one he could grasp with his own hands—his own future.
“According to the dical records in the database, the first half of the ‘Artificial Angel Project’ proceeded quite smoothly.”
“Using the body of a chanical angel to replace Xiao Ai’s originally shattered, broken flesh… Within the casing of machine and tal, it bore a burning human soul.”
“And after the chanical angel body was created—the next step was the containnt of the ‘Judgnt Holy Grail.’”
“To conquer the high and mighty divine key from the Mythic Era with human soul and will.”
Just as Grey ntioned in the recording earlier, this was destined to be an extrely long process.
Simply containing it wasn’t hard, but to fully conquer the eternally existing “Cup of the Stars: Judgnt,” and transform it into a power fully under one’s control—then use it as the trigger to ascend beyond the angelic realm—this would take an exceptionally long ti.
Perhaps a hundred years. Perhaps a thousand. Perhaps ten thousand.
After all, this concerned the realm of Mythic Beings. A single slumber of an angel, a single sleep… and the mortal world might have already gone through trendous change.
Moreover, during the process of containing the Judgnt Holy Grail, no external force could interfere—doing so would only ruin her process of containnt.
It was a contest between human will and the laws of the world. And what Emis could rely on was only herself.
“So, Grey chose to leave only after Xiao Ai had begun her long slumber to contain the Holy Grail and ascend as an angel.”
“And at this very mont, Xiao Ai lies in deep slumber within the depths of the Third chanical Research Institute… in that ageless sleep, constantly using her own will to conquer that Holy Grail that leads to the Domain of Gods.”
“To ascend to the Eighth Tier and beco an angel of the Judgnt Sequence.”
“And also, to et again in the future.”
Rast gently closed his eyes, feeling a surge of burning emotions slowly ripple through his heart.
“As I thought… I still want to see her.”
“To see her, with my own eyes…”
This was a silent self-murmur.
Even if Xiao Ai was still in her long slumber toward angelic ascension and unable to speak with him, it didn’t matter.
Even if all he could do was gaze through thick quartz glass, through a window, at her sleeping face, that would be enough.
He still wanted to see her again—in a place beyond the rift between Nightworld and reality, outside the ruins of Canaan—to see that golden-haired girl with his own eyes once more.
Because only then could Rast fully prove it to himself, only then could he truly be convinced… that everything he experienced in “Canaan” was not an illusion, nor a hallucination conjured by stress in Deep Blue Port.
That there truly had been such a remote yet beautiful Border Town.
There really had been a girl with sky-blue eyes and pale golden hair, who loved playing the wind flute and also loved cooking, quietly waiting for him sowhere along the River of Ti.
Of course, these matters involved the most top-secret information, and even the Watchtower’s database retained no records of it.
After all, as long as sothing was stored in a database, there was always the risk of a leak. The most secure confidentiality system in the world would always be word-of-mouth, passed from one person to another.
“Grey ntioned in the recording that she entrusted the intelligence about my arrival in over a decade, along with all the information concerning the ‘Artificial Angel Project,’ to the deputy leader of the Shoreguards organization, who is also the director of the Third chanical Research Institute—the chief person in charge of the ‘Artificial Angel Project’ after her.”
“In other words, if I want to see Xiao Ai with my own eyes, I’ll need to get in touch with that person.”
“For Grey to entrust such a heavy responsibility to soone, the current deputy leader of the Shoreguards and second chief director of the ‘Artificial Angel Project,’ they must have held Grey’s deepest trust…”
Rast’s gaze lingered slightly on the light screen.
He wondered just what kind of person could have earned such deep trust from Grey.
After all, following Grey’s disappearance from the Present World, while this person was nominally just the deputy leader, they had in truth taken on the responsibilities of the Shoreguards’ leader. A single misstep could have led to irreversible consequences.
Just as this thought erged—
The next mont, Rast heard the sound of a chanical trigger being activated behind him, and the sound of a door opening.
Imdiately after, a slightly hoarse, sowhat incredulous voice sounded softly in his ear.
“Captain… is it really you?”
It was a woman’s voice.
It sounded rather hoarse, suggesting she was sowhat aged.
Yet in her trembling words, Rast sensed a trace of familiarity.
He turned around.
As he had expected, standing at the library entrance was indeed an older woman.
The mont she saw Rast, her expression began to grow more agitated. She walked quickly toward him, seemingly wanting to say sothing.
But soon, as if suddenly reminded of sothing, her movents froze mid-air. She awkwardly lowered her hand, her expression becoming sowhat uneasy.
“Captain… no, Your Excellency Rast, do you still rember ?”
Rast frowned slightly as he studied the woman before him.
There were clear wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, indicating her age. Her gaze carried a depth of ti, suggesting she was even older than she appeared.
But through the contours of her face, one could still imagine what she must have looked like in her youth—she must have been quite beautiful, energetic, and full of life.
And her current expression also affird this. Though Rast could sense a strong aura from her—her rank likely near the Legendary Realm, and she was surely the director of the Third chanical Research Institute, the chief person in charge of the “Artificial Angel Project,” as Grey had ntioned, soone with high status and power—
Yet before Rast, her agitated and slightly hesitant deanor was like that of a shy young girl.
Rast’s thoughts drifted through the attic of mory, matching the faces he rembered with the one before him. It didn’t take long before he found the corresponding image.
“Yanice?”
Ancient mories slowly resurfaced.
The woman before him had been part of the sa cohort as Grey, who had passed the newcor assessnt of the Shoreguards and beco a Shoreguard reserve mber.
At the sa ti, she had also been Grey’s closest friend within the Shoreguards organization.
Back when they had carried out the “Lost Paradise” plan in the Royal City of Paradise, Yanice, like Grey, had been one of the mbers of Rast’s Shoreguard team—trained and commanded by him.
He never would have thought that the next ti he saw Yanice… would be two hundred years later.
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