Chapter 72 World C Side Story: The First Rebirth, Etha...
The first time he had to start over, Ethan had forgotten when it was, only vaguely remembering that he had seemingly died at the hands of the residents due to negligence.
When he woke up, the near-death experience he had just gone through seemed to linger in his body, making his heart pound.
When she opened her eyes and saw Xingyun standing beside her, she thought she had been saved by Xingyun. She felt a little relieved but also very guilty: "Xing, Lord Xingyun, I'm sorry, I will never do that again."
He vowed that he would never be easily killed again, and asked that people not be angry. He promised to minimize such accidents.
Unexpectedly, Starfall merely looked down at him, his tone calm but Ethan knew Starfall too well and was a little annoyed: "Who told you to call me that?"
Ethan was taken aback.
What does that mean? Oh my god, Lord Starfall is completely enraged! My god, so angry! Even his words are so cold. Oh no, he must be furious.
"I was wrong, I was really wrong." Ethan slid to his knees at lightning speed, looking pitiful: "I'm sorry, please forgive me, Lord Starfall."
When Ethan admitted his mistake, his gaze softened a little, and it wasn't as sharp anymore. But when he called out "Lord Starfall" at the end, that slight softening was gone.
“I said, Ethan Knicks.” His voice, imbued with the authority of the city, said, “Don’t address me so intimately. I have never allowed you to call me that. Although I intended for you to become my guardian, you have gone too far by addressing me like that.”
Ethan was completely dumbfounded.
"Haha." Ethan chuckled dryly. "Lord Starfall is quite the joker. Haven't I already become your guardian?"
Xingyun frowned, extended a hand, and a milky white light swept over him. Xingyun withdrew his hand, still looking indifferent: "Are you fooling me? I only brought you here today, and you don't have any residual magic that transcends time and space. You didn't come back to the present from the future for any reason."
Before the words had even finished, Ethan's face drained of all color in an instant.
"What time is it today? What year, month, and day?" Ethan quickly sought to verify his thoughts. How could even the omnipotent Lord Starfall not have noticed?
Starfall casually uttered a string of numbers, which was the day Starfall and Ethan first met, the beginning of his journey to becoming a Guardian.
“How could this be… Why? Why did I return to this day?” Ethan muttered to himself, completely lost in his own world, unable to comprehend it: “…Was there any magic back then? I didn’t see anything special, I was just caught off guard and ambushed by the residents of Starfall City…”
As Starfall looked at Ethan, doubts were still growing in his heart.
“I can attest to it, Lord Starfall.” After an unknown amount of time, Ethan suddenly raised his head, his eyes shining as if he had thought of something. “You can ask me some questions. I have lived in your alternate dimension for a long time after becoming your guardian. We have spent quite a bit of time together. You can ask me some questions, or you can ask me questions using the knowledge from your collection of books.”
Ethan rattled off more than thirty strings of numbers without stopping: "I've mastered all of these, I know them by heart. You can test me now, I can even recite them from memory."
A meteorite reminded him: "The City Lord."
"Yes... Lord City Lord..."
Starfall conjured paper and pen out of thin air, which landed in Ethan's hand: "First, write down the contents of the nineteenth book from left to right on the seventh bookshelf, the one you just mentioned, the one with the magic starting from page five hundred, the one with the thirty-two lines from the left."
Ethan unscrewed the pen cap and corrected him without looking up: "Star, City Lord, that page isn't magic, it's a magic circle."
Starfall remained completely unfazed: "I know."
So Ethan stopped talking and buried himself in writing. For a moment, only the rustling sound of rapid writing could be heard in this alternate dimension.
Once he started writing, he poured all his energy into it, not even noticing that his neck was itchy and that his fatal wound had stopped bleeding.
In ten minutes, Ethan wrote down the introduction to the magic circle, the magician's insights, and even drew a diagram of the magic circle. He then handed it to Starfall.
Xingyun glanced at them, casually tossed them into a spatial rift, then took out a few more sheets and spat out several long bookshelves: "Write down the contents of the middle book in the very middle of the middle column of these bookshelves I just mentioned."
Another round of rustling sounds followed. Ethan didn't know how long he had been writing. He felt like his hand was about to cramp up before he finally managed to copy all the content, filling several pages.
Xingyun took it and began to read it.
“Lord City, I know that right now… that ‘father’ of mine has been sent to prison by you and will probably die soon. If I become your guardian, you will require me to erase all traces of my existence, even to erase my mother’s memories.” Ethan whispered from the side, recounting what Starfall had done before: “Because I haven’t been to school for a long time and couldn’t learn those basic introductory books, you even spent two weeks teaching me to university level and making me finish learning the introductory books for mages. Next, you will have me register at the Mage Alliance, where I will meet Sister Bertha. She will invite me to a party when I hand in my quests to introduce me to other classmates. Some of my classmates should have already successfully registered and become long-term partners. After I register at the Mage Association, you will have me go to the Guardian Base…”
After finishing his observation, Xingyun glanced at Ethan. Dark mist condensed into several ravens in his hand, which flew away with a flick of his wrist, passing above the alternate dimension.
A few seconds later, several ravens flew back. One or two of them turned into black mist and disappeared the moment they touched his palm. Starfall also obtained the information he wanted.
“I understand,” he said. “But I still haven’t found the reason why you came here from the future timeline. Your soul and body are perfectly integrated, it doesn’t seem like you came from the future to the present at all. You said you didn’t see anything strange or unusual when you were attacked?”
"No." Ethan shook his head frantically, then his eyes lit up: "You believe me?"
“I have no reason not to trust you,” Starfall said calmly. “You have already proven your closeness to me. In any case, so far, I have not allowed anyone else into my library except myself, not even the City Will.”
Ethan was deeply moved: "Lord City..."
"Stop—" Xingyun couldn't stand being treated so intimately. What was wrong with this guardian? Like a whiny little fried egg puppy, the unconsciously affectionate tone in his voice made him uncomfortable: "Don't call me that so clingy."
Ethan, who couldn't hear any slurred or sticky tone in his own voice, thought, "...QAQ"
The days passed for the time being, and Ethan went through the process again as before. Starfall was still investigating the matter, but there was still no progress, which made Ethan feel listless.
Ethan always thought he had simply traveled from the future back to the past, until another accident occurred, and when he opened his eyes again, he was once again looking down at him from the familiar angle of Starfall.
Ethan was so shocked he couldn't speak: "..."
"You are already dead." The familiar words came from Xingyun's mouth.
Ethan opened his mouth, his lips twitching several times as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he could only utter the words: "Was it today, the first day I met Xingyun?"
Xingyun raised an eyebrow: "Yes."
Ethan closed his eyes and covered his face in despair.
What exactly happened?
Why is it happening again? Why is this happening for the second time...? Does death mean he can go back in time? Is he a guardian who starts from scratch?
Stop joking. When that scum killed you, why wasn't there a time rewind?
Why is that? Before the time travel, Lord Starfall hadn't made any progress at all. If it weren't for the fact that everything proved Ethan was familiar with him, he would have thought he was fooling him and might have taken care of it.
Ethan felt like the world was playing a cruel joke on him. Was his life just a game? Otherwise, why did he keep returning to this day? Was the previous part part of the story? Was this genius the beginning?
Or is he in some literary work? A pathetic creature trapped in the cycle of his own life?
"What are you doing?" Xingyun waited for a while but found that Ethan was still in the same position, so she asked him.
Gaining Lord Xingyun's trust... Is it too much trouble? Do I have to rewrite everything again? Do I have to do everything I did before? Is there a more effective way to make Xingyun trust me instead of doubting me?
We still can't find the reason... What if it regresses again after a while?
What should I do? What should I do? Will this cycle keep haunting him forever?
After a long silence, Ethan finally spoke softly: "Lord City, if I told you that I became your guardian long ago, and then, for some reason, returned to the present from the future, my body and soul perfectly aligned as if we were in the same time period, but I am very familiar with you, and with your library, and know that you sent that person to prison, and that after becoming a guardian, you wanted me to protect Mom to erase my own traces, and that after I registered as a magician, I met Sister Bertha and joined her side, would you believe me?"
Starfall: "?"
Finally, Ethan spent a lot of time proving himself, until he was exhausted. He asked if he could make a deal with Starfall to discuss something only he knew, in order to reduce trouble in the later cycles.
Having already believed Ethan, Starfall pondered for a while and surprisingly agreed, uttering a string of words.
Ethan: "..."
Ethan: "City Lord... Really? We're using this phrase to acknowledge each other? Is it absolutely necessary to use this phrase?"
Starfall: "No matter which version of me it is, after hearing this and your explanation of why you said it, I should have 45% trust. Every version of me should be the same."
"..." Ethan agreed with a strange expression: "Okay."
This time it ended quickly again, and when Ethan opened his eyes again and saw the starfall looking down at him, he felt a strange sense of peace.
Ethan's gaze shifted to the ground beside him. "This is really the ground," he muttered to himself.
“…What?” Starfall thought he had misheard.
"F, Fuck Yangyan!" Ethan closed his eyes, his expression resolute yet somewhat hesitant: "The will of a city that should never exist in this world..."
Then came a string of insults directed at Yang Yan.
Yes, that's right. Xingyun's promise to him was still to insult Yangyan, but due to Ethan's strong insistence, it was changed to a sentence with fewer swear words, but the general meaning was still the same: Xingyun's evaluation of Yangyan.
The meteor fell silent.
This time, Ethan quickly gained Starfall's trust... After explaining what had happened before, Starfall still helped Ethan find the reason.
However, there was still no progress. Ethan kept returning to the day he met Xingyun. But one day, Ethan suddenly realized that he was no longer being forced to start over because of various accidents, but rather because he felt dizzy for a moment at certain times.
After the dizziness subsided, when he opened his eyes again, he was greeted by the sight of Xingyun looking down at him from above.
What exactly happened...?
Ethan has already gone through dozens of restarts, and he doesn't want to be rewound again; it's too painful...
Ethan did not immediately gain Starfall's trust, nor did he speak to him; he simply covered his face with his arm.
"Ethan?"
Lord Starfall is speaking again, wanting him to become a guardian.
"...Ethan?"
Starfall's voice rang out again, and this time Ethan sensed something was wrong. Suppressing the negative energy in his heart, he moved his arm away and met Starfall's gaze as he looked down.
Lord Starfall... what's that on your face? Uh, is it worry? Ethan wondered uncertainly.
“Ethan.” Starfall’s tone was firm this time, without the hesitation of the previous two times.
He said, "I remember everything."
It took Ethan a while to understand what Starfall meant—it seemed to refer to Starfall, who had gone through so much with him at the beginning.
No, it should be said that it refers to all of Lord Xingyun's memories, because Lord Xingyun just said that he remembered everything, which proves that he should also have those memories that were recalled earlier.
As if guessing what he was thinking, Xingyun pulled him up from the ground, her tone unusually soft: "Yes, you're not wrong. I still have the memories of the previous dozens of times, I know that your time has been reversed to today, and I also know some other things."
"What is it?" Ethan asked urgently, instinctively feeling that what Starfall knew was very important to him, wishing Starfall's mouth could turn into a machine gun.
Starfall looked at Ethan.
He looked at his guardian, who was both familiar and somewhat unfamiliar.
The repeated replays were a huge blow to Ethan, who was already psychologically fragile. Despite having been through so much with his friends, partners, and colleagues, each replay left him with nothing.
Because he grew up at the beginning, looking back later, his mindset sometimes changed and his choices differed, creating some butterfly effects. For example, there were a few times when he failed to meet Bertha, and without the healing presence of his warm colleagues like the magician, his life became empty.
Ethan went from being gloomy and forcing a smile at the beginning to becoming increasingly taciturn. Even when recalling those memories, Xingyun felt that there were times when Ethan didn't want to talk to him about the past.
Of course, in all those past recollections, he didn't completely trust Ethan. Even last time, when Ethan's answers were flawless and his behavior showed signs of his teaching, and he even knew Ethan's thoughts inside and out, saying what Ethan was thinking at the same time.
However, Starfall didn't fully trust him yet. He always remained vigilant, even when he softened his attitude towards Ethan and helped him find the cause of the matter. He still kept a last bit of wariness.
It wasn't until this time, when he inadvertently regained so many memories from the past and learned about other things, that he completely trusted Ethan.
“Ethan, do you know that every work has a ‘protagonist’?” Starfall looked into his eyes. “You are that kind of being. This world is a work that unfolds around you. You are the ‘protagonist’ of this world.”
Ethan was stunned again.
For a moment, he almost thought that Xingyun was joking with him, comparing someone like him to a "protagonist." Being at the center of the world was impossible; how could he be worthy of it?
But he also knew clearly that Xingyun wouldn't lie to him, and Xingyun didn't like to joke, so everything he said was the truth.
But how could that be? What are his strengths?
His career started off terribly badly, and even after meeting his magician colleagues, things were still pretty bad. Plus, his personality was awful; he had many flaws and practically no redeeming qualities.
He had a strong appetite; although he couldn't eat, he would occasionally eat something and then vomit it up.
He's lazy and doesn't want to do many things. He doesn't particularly like his job, but since it's his duty, he has to fight against mountains of official duties. He doesn't really want to enforce the law and kill a lot of people, even though it's to punish murderers through the law. But would other "protagonists" do that? However, he does want his mother to create a safe and comfortable living environment.
Furthermore, his personality is problematic. He's timid and cowardly, initially unable to speak clearly, almost like a mute, only able to express himself through gestures after much hesitation. His personality is unlikable, at least not among the Guardians. How could someone like that be the "protagonist"?
...Leaving everything else aside, why was he able to go back in time? Ethan looked at Starfall.
"Do you know what 'OOC' means?" Xingyun's tone was also serious. "It stands for Out Of Character. To be precise, it means your personality deviates from the original character design, or that you've done things that aren't what you should be doing."
“…I think I know.” Ethan took a deep breath, his expression changed instantly, and he looked up at the sky with a hint of melancholy. “I think he…had a reason for hitting me.”
The familiar dizziness returned, and Ethan opened his eyes again, only to stare at Starfall with wide eyes.
Starfall: "...Does it have to be this disgusting of yourself?"
Ethan stated that this is the fastest testing method.
So, if all those previous instances of time travel occurred after accidental deaths, does that prove that one of Ethan's defining characteristics is that he cannot die? To be precise, he has already died, but he won't perish again because he was saved by a meteorite.
Having learned some of the true nature of the world, Ethan still lacked confidence, feeling that he shouldn't be the "protagonist." He wondered, if the protagonist were someone like him, would anyone still watch this kind of work? He was such a terrible person.
But they still started researching in this direction. Ethan himself conducted his own research and began backtracking tests in an attempt to find a solution.
During this time, he inadvertently caused other people—his magician colleagues, guardian colleagues, his mother, and even some ordinary residents—to gain memories, plunging the world into chaos for a long period.
In the end, everyone begged him not to let them regain their memories, and some even went so far as to try to kill him, including some of his former colleagues.
Some people do succeed, but they are reverted to their previous state after killing someone, making them immortal in a sense.
Ethan experienced this far more often than others. At first, he still held some hope, wanting to end this endless torment, but as the frequency increased, Ethan became somewhat obsessed, especially after being killed by his colleague.
Although their relationship was not particularly close, they were still colleagues, and although they managed to get by, Ethan's mental state became even more precarious.
Even knowing that killing him wouldn't end things, many people still wanted to try, and some refused to give up.
Blood, blood everywhere.
Ethan stared blankly at his hands, which were now stained with a large amount of blood. His once bright and energetic eyes were now fixed on his hands.
“I don’t want to do this anymore,” he said.
"What?" Starfall was examining the surviving assassins when he heard this abrupt question.
Ethan had actually forgotten how many times his life had been rewound. He had given up recording it after more than 30,000 times, but he rewound many more times afterward, and he was about to break the 100,000 mark.
Even if it was just for a short period of time, used for testing, so many rewinds brought him to the brink of mental collapse.
"If only dying would end this." Ethan, a faint smile on his lips, his face still stained with blood, his pupils trembling, his expression broken: "I don't think I've ever tried suicide."
Xingyun thought, "Oh no, he's gone mad."
Although he was also driven somewhat mad by the torment, Yang Yan had stopped bothering him for a long time because he was even more insane than before, and even the oblivious Yang Yan had restrained himself.
Oh, maybe before that, he also went a little crazy about Yang Yan, and I haven't seen him since.
Although Xingyun wanted to discourage him from having such self-destructive thoughts, it was an undeniable fact that he did have them.
"...Let's see what others have to say." That was Starfall's final advice to his guardian.
As expected, everyone agreed, but not that they agreed to Ethan committing suicide. Instead, Starfall changed his meaning to something else—to drag the whole world down with him.
Surprisingly, it received widespread approval; residents have retraced their steps at least several thousand times, and those around Ethan have done so tens of thousands of times. In fact, everyone has already gone crazy.
Starfall, together with other cities, verified the feasibility of this method, of course, without the world's consciousness noticing.
After everyone was fully prepared to carry out their plan, a sudden time traveler arrived in their world, abruptly halting their plans—in order to borrow power to save their own world, Tenas.
After hearing about what happened in his world, everyone felt that they were all going to die, so helping was just a matter of course. They generously gave away a lot of their power, leaving only a small amount to conceal from the being who had noticed what they were doing.
Of course, suicide couldn't let the creators of this work know, otherwise their plan would be thwarted, and they would continue to suffer.
Everyone could see the wariness beneath Turner's friendly exterior; it was normal that the other party didn't fully trust them, because in fact, they didn't fully trust him either.
No matter what you're borrowing the power for, if you say you're saving your world, then let's just believe you for now. If not, then forget it; you've already borrowed it, so there's nothing I can do about it.
Just as they were about to send him away, his companion arrived—Ethan from another world.
This Ethan is just like the original Ethan, but after being healed by Cassidy and the others, he has become a little better. He chatters like a little bird, has bright eyes, is shy yet cheerful, and is so vibrant.
When Xingyun saw it, he was stunned for a long time. He hadn't seen Ethan like this in a long time. He had only seen Ethan like this at the beginning, when he hadn't been mentally broken by the multiple time travels and could still be considered optimistic.
Ethan seemed to really like him too. He was chatting with Turner, but then he ended up next to him and started chatting with him too.
Caught off guard, Ethan blurted out what he had done after the world fell into crisis.
For example, in the previous world he experienced, he thought everyone was a good person, but he didn't expect Tenas to trick him and mislead him with montage lies. In the end, he still failed to fulfill the promise to ease the tension between the two of them.
However, the other party said that because Ethan was Ethan's counterpart, he also lent him his power. But he was still angry when Tenas was mentioned, saying that he would never forget that Tenas lied to him.
But Xingyun felt that the child's memory wasn't deep enough. She told him everything, even her complaints. Did she trust him that much? She wanted to share even the smallest things with him?
It seems... Ethan at the beginning was like this too, but so much time has passed that Starfall can no longer see any trace of Ethan from back then. Now, he is just a marginalized Ethan who silently treats himself as if he were invisible.
Starfall looked at Ethan, who was holding a toy sword and gesturing at it, looking quite childlike.
However, apart from the two parallel universe counterparts, everyone present knew that the toy sword was something that would soon kill them and bring them peace.
Ethan was only focused on getting the two of them away as soon as possible; he couldn't see anything else.
"Never mind." Xingyun thought helplessly. After going through so much, it's normal for one's personality to change. Even his personality has become much better.
When he left, Ethan was reluctant to part with Xingyun. He seemed to want to chat with him and held onto him, reluctant to leave. His eyes were filled with sadness, and Xingyun felt that he couldn't hold on any longer.
They left wanting to come back, saying they'd come back to chat with him again, but the world was going to die after they left, and they wouldn't have the chance to meet again, so Starfall didn't respond.
The other party was still persistent, thinking he hadn't heard them, and raised their voice.
Xingyun still didn't want to agree. He didn't like to agree to things he couldn't do, but if he didn't agree, it might arouse suspicion from the two of them, so he gave a low reply.
As soon as the portal closed after the two of them left, countless swords floated above them, seemingly poised to strike.
"It's finally coming to an end." Controlling the sword as it rapidly descended, Ethan seemed somewhat relaxed, his tone light as if he had received the birthday present he wanted rather than death, watching the sword in the sky as the distance between them grew ever greater.
“Hmm,” Starfall said.
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Author's Note: Do you like unfocused eyes? Hmm? Tell me! My eyes go unfocused at work... I'm so sleepy, I'm exhausted from the early shift every day, and today I had to work from 7:30 to 12:00, then from 6:00 to 10:00, and I was pulled into doing the busiest A6 work... I'm almost delirious by now, and I haven't even showered yet.
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