As ti passed, Marinate stood up and brushed the grass from the hem of her dress.
Seeing her rise, Vivian lifted his gaze and asked, "Are you leaving?"
Marinate smiled.
She wanted to stay, but she knew staying longer would only make it harder to hold back her feelings.
"Yes," she said softly. "I have a few things to take care of. What about you? Are you going to stay here?"
Vivian nodded. "Yes. I’ll stay here for a while."
Marinate gave a small wave. "Goodbye."
Then she turned and walked away.
Vivian watched her back as she moved farther and farther away.
After a short while, she disappeared from his sight.
Only then did he lower his eyes and turn back to the lake.
The water was calm, just like before.
He sat there in silence, listening to the wind and the soft sound of the waves.
His mind slowly cleared, and his thoughts drifted back to training, to the wall he still could not cross.
Ti passed quietly.
Vivian did not move.
He simply stayed by the lake, waiting, hoping, and gathering his thoughts, as the day continued to move on.
Vivian stayed there as ti passed.
The sun slowly moved across the sky until it stopped right above his head.
The shadows on the ground faded, almost disappearing.
It was clear that it was already noon.
Seeing the sun overhead, Vivian let out a quiet sigh and stood up.
Charlotte had told him to return before lunch.
He knew her well. If he did not return, she would wait for him and skip her al.
Even though he did not want to leave, he still stood up.
"Haa..." he breathed out again. "Ti really flies."
He turned around and took a step, ready to head back toward the dorm.
Then—
A sound echoed.
It was the clear sound of a string being pulled.
Vivian froze.
Before he could even turn around, music followed.
Slow, deep, and complex, it spread across the lake like gentle waves.
The notes felt familiar, yet distant, as if they ca from another world.
His eyes widened slightly.
"...This sound..."
His heart began to beat faster. He slowly turned back toward the lake, his breath held tight in his chest.
The music continued to play, calm yet heavy, filling the quiet air around him once more.
However, there was no one around him. Not on the shore. Not on the lake.
That only made it more confusing.
The music was still there, clear in his ears.
It felt close, as if it was right in front of him, yet at the sa ti it felt very far away.
Vivian’s heartbeat began to speed up.
He took a step forward.
The sound grew a little stronger. Just a little.
It was like hearing music from a distance and walking toward it, where each step made it clearer.
He took another step.
The music beca sharper. Sothing inside his mind stirred, as if a locked door had been touched.
"...Could it be...?" he muttered.
A mory surfaced. Three years ago. This sa lake. The sa strange music.
Excitent rose in his chest.
He took another step. Then another.
Soon, he broke into a run.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears as the music grew louder with each step.
A new feeling filled him, anticipation, hope, and a quiet joy he had not felt in a long ti, as he ran toward the sound, chasing the answer he had waited for all these years.
"If this is the sa music, then it might help reach Grandmaster," he muttered as he ran.
From the first ti he heard it, he had felt that the music was strange.
Back then, he did not think too deeply about it.
But after three long years without even a small breakthrough, still stuck at the early stage of Swordmaster, that mory began to weigh on him.
The failure slowly dragged him into despair.
Yet every ti he recalled that music, sothing inside him moved.
He rembered what his father once told him.
To reach the Grandmaster stage, he needed to form his own Genesis Heart.
And a Genesis Heart could only be created when a person found their own path, their own understanding of themselves.
No matter how hard Vivian tried, he could not understand what that truly ant.
He tried many things. He trained harder.
He pushed himself past his limits.
He even spent more ti with Charlotte, hoping that by being close to her, he might find his path, just like his father once did.
Deep down, he knew that everyone’s path was different and could not be copied, yet he still tried.
And he failed.
But this music was different.
Whenever he thought about it, he felt that if he could hear it again, he might finally break through.
That was why he had been coming to this lake for the past few months, day after day.
Yet no matter how many tis he ca, the music never returned.
Until today.
This music gave him hope, so he did not think twice before running toward it.
As he kept running, ti seed to pass without him noticing.
The open space around the lake slowly vanished, and his surroundings changed.
Large trees rose around him, their shadows stretching across the ground.
He did not know where he was anymore, and honestly, he did not care. Right now, only the music mattered.
To soone who did not know him well, his actions might seem excessive.
But this was not excess. This was desperation.
He felt it deep inside. No matter what, he had to beco stronger.
If he did not, when the ti ca, he would be unable to protect anything.
He would be powerless.
His thoughts also drifted to that mysterious person connected to the system he carried.
That person had said they would reveal themselves when he beca strong enough.
Despite knowing so little about them, Vivian felt a strange sense of familiarity, as if he had known that person for a long ti.
What troubled him even more was that this person knew everything about him.
His transmigration. His secrets. His past life.
Everything.
Yet, even with all that knowledge, that person never called him by his old identity.
They always called him Vivian.
That alone made his heart feel heavy.
Because of that, because of the war, because of his limits, and because of everything he carried, his desire to reach the Grandmaster stage grew even stronger.
More desperate than ever before, Vivian kept running, chasing the music as if it were his only path forward.
After running for a while, the music beca much clearer, and Vivian finally stopped.
He did not look around.
If he had, he would have noticed that tall trees surrounded him on all sides, and the sky above had darkened.
It was already night.
The air was quiet, broken only by the soft buzz of insects and the distant calls of birds.
Their sounds mixed with the music, blending together in a strange yet natural way.
The music stood out even more now.
It felt real. Close. Almost within reach.
Vivian stood there, breathing heavily, his heart still racing, as the sound wrapped around him in the darkness.
From there, Vivian slowed his steps. He could feel it. He was close.
He walked forward, trying to calm his mind and steady his heart, but his heartbeat refused to slow.
Thum. Thum. Thum. Thum.
Each beat felt louder than the last. Slowly, all other sounds faded away.
Only the music and his heartbeat remained.
It felt like a trance, yet he was fully awake.
His feet kept moving on their own.
After a while, large banana tree leaves blocked his path.
Vivian reached out and pushed the leaves aside.
The mont he did, he froze.
"This..." he muttered.
No other sound ca from him.
In front of him stood a massive Bot tree.
Its branches stretched wide, as if they could cover the entire forest.
A soft light shone from it, as though the tree itself was enjoying the music.
At the base of the tree blood a lotus flower, far larger than any ordinary lotus.
And seated upon that lotus was a woman.
She wore a white gown with a thin red line along its edges.
Her left foot rested on the ground, while her right leg was folded.
Her long black hair flowed down her back like a quiet stream.
In her hands was a veena.
The music ca from it.
At her feet sat a large swan, listening closely.
Its intelligent eyes were filled with devotion, as if it understood every note.
Vivian could not see the woman’s face.
Nothing covered it, yet it remained unclear to him.
Still, he gently sat down on the grass, nearly forty feet away, and listened.
The woman paused for a brief mont and turned her gaze toward him.
A soft smile appeared on her lips.
Then she began to play again, and the music flowed once more through the silent forest.
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