Chapter 2 Mother and Erasing Memories "What?" he asked: ...

"What?" he asked. "What did you just say, Lord City Lord?"

“You know the people here.” Starfall mercilessly shattered Ethan’s last glimmer of hope: “If anyone finds out you have family, many people will want to make your mother suffer a fate worse than death; she will be in danger.”

Ethan opened his mouth, his lips moved a few times but he couldn't utter a single syllable.

Starfall noticed Ethan's reluctance and told him the story of the guardian.

“...The moment I saw Abigail on the day of her funeral, I understood. She was determined to die.” Starfall slowly concluded, “Sure enough, a few days later I sensed the death of my guardian, and in the end I buried her with her family.”

“While you were learning the basics on your own, I had already sent your father to prison. But you know, scum like him isn’t popular in our city, so he died a few days later.” Starfall, still in his black suit, sat with his legs crossed next to Ethan, casually twirling the end of his hair. “Before that, I had already helped your mother get a divorce, and she got all his assets. Now all that’s left is to say goodbye to you.”

Ethan knew Starfall's good intentions—to help resolve his abusive father's situation and allow his mother to regain her freedom. He could have easily erased all of his mother's memories, but he left them for the mother and son to say goodbye.

But when he actually stood by his mother's bedside, he still felt a little apprehensive about returning home. He turned back to look at Xingyun, still somewhat hesitant. Xingyun gestured for him to hurry up.

Looking at her sleeping mother, she said weakly, "Mom."

There was no response. Ethan was shouting too softly. Starfall patted him on the back, signaling him to shout louder. Otherwise, at this rate, how many times would it take to wake Selene?

"Mom? Mom." Ethan leaned over the bed, gently shaking Selene's arm and calling out repeatedly. His voice was a little hoarse, thinking that his mother wouldn't remember him after tonight. He thought that after a while, he wouldn't even recognize the overly thin Selene: "Mom, it's me."

Selene was shaken awake. After losing her child, she couldn't sleep or eat all night. Every time she closed her eyes, she seemed to see her star lying silently in a pool of blood. She was so pained that she couldn't stop crying.

When she awoke from her coma, all she saw was her child's cold body. She nearly fainted on the spot, so grief-stricken that she lost her voice, and even began to hate herself for fainting, wishing she could lie there in Ethan's place.

Her body simply couldn't take it anymore; she quickly became emaciated and could only fall asleep with the help of medication. Even in her dreams, she saw Ethan covered in wounds.

Selene saw her child again, her star. He was lying by her bedside, looking like he was about to cry, and it broke her heart.

Selene stroked Ethan's face: "Don't cry, Star, Mommy's here."

Ethan couldn't hold back his tears.

Hearing the familiar yet unfamiliar nickname his mother had given him, and thinking that no one would ever call him Xingxing (Star) again, especially since Selene himself was silently weeping, he couldn't hold back anymore. He could never resist his mother's tears.

Selene sat up, hugged Ethan, and said in a choked voice, "Star, I'm sorry, it's all my fault. I didn't protect you. You must hate me too, right? Even in my dreams, you still don't want to talk to me like that."

"No, I didn't blame Mom." He denied it hastily: "It wasn't Mom's fault..."

Inside, mother and son wept together. Selene kept apologizing, feeling like she was dreaming. Ethan frantically denied everything, saying it was never their fault, and rambled on about their heartfelt bond.

On the outdoor balcony, Xingyun sat alone, smoking and looking at the sky where the night view was completely obscured. She thought to herself that mother and son were truly made of water, so prone to crying.

Born in the city, he had no parents and could not understand the entanglements caused by blood ties and the human desires of greed, anger, ignorance, hatred, love, evil, and lust.

Incomprehension doesn't mean a lack of emotion; it just means that only a few feelings remain. Generally, they don't choose to form ties with other things because their lives are so short that they pass in the blink of an eye.

The immortal species is the loneliest, so it is even more important not to get entangled with others; it only wants to complete this guardian quota.

Then again, Ethan isn't alive either. If his body is well-maintained and the repair materials aren't lost, he could live for at least several hundred years. Starfall thought casually.

Inside the house, Ethan finally managed to convince Selene that this wasn't a dream, and was then embraced tightly by the reunited Selene.

"...Mom, I've come here to do something." Ethan hesitated for a long time before finally speaking in a low voice.

“Go ahead and do it,” Selene said. “I will support you in whatever you do, as long as I know you are still alive and can see the world.”

Selene didn't ask why her child's body was cold, nor did she ask what he was going to do. She didn't dare to ask what the price of his resurrection was. She was willing to trade her life for his if the price was that he was here to save hers. As long as Ethan could walk in this world and be happy, she would be content.

So she said, "Go do it, my star."

She was willing to give up everything; all she needed to do was cherish the beautiful memories with Ethan and rest in peace, knowing that a mother will always love her child.

Magical sparks emanated from Ethan's fingertips, like dazzling fireworks, but unlike fireworks, they spun and collided without causing harm.

“I will always protect you, Mother.” He pressed his fingertips against Selene’s temples, his heart heavy. “Even if you don’t remember me.”

Selene, who had been obediently bowing her head, looked up in astonishment upon hearing this: "What?!" But the magic had taken effect, and before she could even question it, she collapsed limply.

Ethan was annoyed that his mouth had spoken before his brain, but it was his promise, and he assured Selene.

He positioned Selene comfortably, covered her with a blanket, and cast a protective spell to ensure that Selene would wake up refreshed and free of fatigue the next day.

Then, after scrambling to clean up the traces of my existence, I even had to Photoshop myself out of group photos. But at least I had a backup beforehand, which was some consolation.

By the time Ethan finished collecting the items, it was already 1 a.m. Starfall opened a portal and let Ethan follow him inside.

This wasn't Ethan's first time entering a portal. When he was initially learning, he'd accidentally teleported to other countries more than once, and because he couldn't pinpoint the location accurately, he'd have to wait for a meteorite to retrieve him. But the portal was incredibly fast; he'd arrived at his destination almost as soon as he stepped through.

The starfall's destination was a large hall, which was dark purple in color, with mysterious patterns carved on the walls and vines wrapped around the pillars.

Although it was already past midnight, there were still many people coming and going. Most of them were wearing cloaks and walking in a hurry, with almost no interaction between them.

Ethan found the hall eerily quiet. He silently put on his cloak, revealing only half of his face.

"See that?" Xingyun gestured for him to look at the service counter not far away. Above the counter was the sign "Registration Office," and a woman was there flipping through documents. "Go, go register your identity yourself. Everyone who becomes a magician has to register, so that if a crime occurs, it can be better located."

Ethan pointed at himself in disbelief, too nervous to speak in the unfamiliar environment, but his meaning was clear: "Me?"

“You know I’m just the city’s will, not your parent, right?” Starfall patted him. “You can’t always rely on me. You need to be able to do things independently. By the way, I’ve put a spell on you. You can’t leave here until it’s completed.”

Ethan only realized belatedly that the magic had been cast when he was being slapped. Heartbroken, he moved forward at a snail's pace. Because he was too slow, Starfall disliked him and shoved him, causing him to stumble. He finally made it to the service desk with great difficulty.

"Do you need to register?" the woman asked, noticing him.

Ethan could clearly feel the other person's gaze on him as if it were tangible. He swallowed hard, suppressing the urge to turn around and run away, because there was no way to escape.

Say something quickly, anything will do, self-introduction or something? How can he concisely ask someone to register him? Calm down, there aren't that many people watching him, at most only the lady in front of him. Don't panic, actually no one cares about him. Or just say it's okay, as long as you speak quickly, just get through this for now.

He silently encouraged himself, and under the woman's questioning gaze, he could only nod stiffly, unable to even utter a "yes." Wasn't the last time he socialized with a stranger before he was eight? It had been six years already. It was probably normal for him to be unable to speak...

"Please don't be nervous, the process is very simple." The woman seemed to notice Ethan's embarrassment, took out a stone and handed it to him, her voice softening: "This is a testing stone, which can determine your aptitude. Only after confirming that you have the aptitude will you begin the written test."

Ethan knew this; Starfall had tested him. They said his aptitude was the best, purple, with purple representing the highest level of good aptitude, ranked from lowest to highest among the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

Ethan picked up the testing stone, and after a few seconds it emitted a faint purple light. The woman was only surprised for a moment before quickly adjusting her expression, pulling a piece of paper and a pen from a pile of documents on the table and handing them to him: "Okay, this is the written test."

Huh? The written test is here? In this huge hall? Shouldn't we find an empty room? But he probably wouldn't be able to answer the questions if he were alone in a room being proctored; he couldn't even imagine being supervised one-on-one by an examiner.

Ethan pushed the test stone over and took the test paper. The handwriting on the test paper jumped and moved for a while before turning into a series of questions, some true/false questions and some short answer questions.

Ethan had heard of this magic that randomly generates questions. The core of the magic is a huge database, and the person distributing the questions doesn't know the questions until they collect them, thus preventing cheating at its root.

The question was simple: write down some uncommon spells, what ingredients can be combined to make what kind of medicine, and how to remedy a mistake in casting magic. Ethan answered quickly.

After answering the questions, Ethan was asked to demonstrate. He silently cast several spells, and just in case, he cast a calming spell before the demonstration to calm himself down since everyone was watching him.

Then they said they needed to take ID photos and asked him to take off his hood. Even though he was practically completely covered up, Ethan was so nervous. He resisted taking his clothes off outside his comfortable territory—what was the difference between that and running around naked?

So he quietly took a step back.

A note from the author:

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