Mage Manual

Chapter 123: Chapter 112: The self at different times is not oneself_2

“Could it really be that we’re just unlucky and that’s why we can’t find any golden fish?”

Although it was hard to believe, Ash could only accept this conclusion. At this moment, the paper turned into a wisp of smoke and dissipated, and their chairs also suddenly vanished, almost causing them to fall onto the ground.

Returning to the boat and watching the Fate Q&A island sink, Sonia said gloomily, “Feels like a loss; we hardly got any useful information.”

“At least I know I can escape the Kingdom of Blood Moon alive,” Ash said, relaxed. In his view, the Fate Q&A was a chance encounter that came for free. Getting something out of it was good, but if not, it was still an eye-opening experience, “And in the future, for various reasons, you and I will break up, and then, for some reasons, we’ll reconcile—”

“Once we’ve gone through the Fate Q&A, the future isn’t certain anymore!” Sonia glared at him, “And there’s always been a saying that many prophecies in the Fate Q&A aren’t fulfilled because those who know about them die before they come true, so none of these ineffective prophecies are known or recorded.”

“If you die, then I’ll report this valuable case about the Fate Q&A to the school; might even earn some credits…”

The survivor theory, huh… Ash spread his hands, “So do you hope the prophecy comes true, or do you hope it doesn’t?”

Sonia snorted, “I only believe in prophecies that are beneficial to me; those that aren’t are lies.”

“Just like you.”

“What about you?”

“Me? How should I put it… I don’t care about the prophecy itself, but I look forward to the confrontation with it.”

“Confrontation? What do you mean?”

“Um, let me think about how to explain it to you… Sword Maiden, do you think you now and you thirty years from now will be the same in terms of personality, values, ideals, habits, etc.?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on ƝοѵǤօ.с0

Sonia thought for a moment and shook her head, “Probably not, I’m not even twenty yet. Thirty years is longer than the time from my birth until now; surely many changes will happen.”

Ash nodded, “Then if the soul of you thirty years from now suddenly took over your body now, could it be said that the you thirty years from now has killed the current you?”

Sonia furrowed her brows slightly, her expression a bit uneasy, “Could it be seen that way?”

“If the ‘takeover process’ is extended to thirty years, and through prophecy you know that there’s a Sword Maiden who will be completely different from you in thirty years, yet you inevitably become her, could it be said that the prophesied Sword Maiden killed you over the course of thirty years?”

“…Normally, no one would think that way.”

“But don’t you find it interesting?” Ash spread his hands, “If you didn’t know about the prophecy, that’d be another story. But knowing the prophecy is like having a ‘future you’. Only one of you can survive; either you kill him, or he kills you. There’s no second possibility.”

“The only difference between ‘prophecy’ and ‘takeover’ is the length of time. ‘Takeover’ happens in an instant, so you feel the ‘future Sword Maiden’ has killed the ‘current self,’ but prophecy is a long series of days and nights, where the ‘future you’ slowly sculpts the ‘current you’ into his own image.”

Sonia’s lips moved slightly, wanting to say something but then didn’t, as if pondering a rebuttal. Ash continued to ask:

“Have you heard of a game where children write a letter to their grown-up selves?”

“I’ve heard of it, I’ve written one too.”

“Do you think the grown-up might feel that it’s a last will when they see that letter?”

“Why would they think that?”

“Because they are completely different people, with different thoughts, habits, values, and ideals, yet they once lived in the same body. Isn’t it the latter who killed the former?”

Sonia shook her head repeatedly, “But they are the same person in continuity, that kind of change is called growth, not takeover!”

Ash laughed, “When the child wrote the letter, it was like freezing that moment of him onto the paper. The soul on the paper is removed from continuous time and becomes an independent, unchanging individual.”

“Isn’t that similar to prophecy? Prophecy shows you your future self at a certain point in time, isn’t that just like your future self writing a letter to your current self?”

“People in different times are not the same person.”

“So I don’t care about prophecy, but I look forward to the showdown with the prophecy. Of course, things like me causing trouble for Selin after jailbreaking, which are obviously about to happen, don’t count as prophecy. But if in the future we really do break up for those inexplicable reasons, it means the prophesied Observer has killed me, and the prophesied Sword Maiden has killed you.”

Ash suddenly mused, “Odd, why do the reasons for reconciling include love, but the reasons for breaking up don’t mention a falling out? Could it be that love only emerges after a break-up, when both sides realize how indispensable the other is—”

Sonia snapped back to reality, her face red as she gritted her teeth, “That would mean it’s not because of love, but because of the need to unite against a common threat!”

“All right, all right, don’t get worked up.”

“I’m not worked up!”

“Okay, okay, you’re right, we should go hunt some Fish-Slicing Dragons to liven things up.”

After hunting two more knowledge beings, not only did they not retrieve an Experience Treasure Orb, but Sonia was also distracted and failed to intercept a fleeing knowledge being. However, such mistakes were normal, and Ash didn’t mind. The two said goodbye and exited the Void Realm at the same time.

…

Upon regaining consciousness in the meditation room, Sonia still hadn’t recovered her composure, Ash’s words echoing in her mind.

In fact, after getting to know each other better, Sonia couldn’t help but wonder—was the Observer really the reviving force of a strong figure she had imagined?

Mainly because the Observer didn’t seem like a legendary figure in any way: he didn’t pursue strength, wasn’t keen on learning, his desires weren’t deep, and if someone like this, with no potential and a gray, low-quality anonymous existence, was placed in Sword Flower University, Sonia wouldn’t give him a second glance.

But the Observer’s recent rhetoric made Sonia realize that he couldn’t possibly be an ordinary person. Even if he was now, he couldn’t possibly be in the future.

That craziness cloaked in logic, and the aberrance so different from common sense, Sonia had encountered many times in “Sin Mage Psychological Analysis”. Not all Sin Mages were bad people, in fact, many were content with a mundane life and family. But when their lives were unexpectedly broken, they would shed their ‘old selves’ like a chrysalis becoming a butterfly, daring to trample all laws of the world and chase the light in their hearts like moths to a flame.

She recalled the foreword of that book—

“They haven’t changed; they’ve just awakened.”