Ch. 70 Witch of the glintstone Crown

“Apprentice, I want to have a serious talk with you.”

From Sellen’s words, Mia felt a heavy atmosphere.

It had been a month and a half.

She had never seen Teacher Sellen strike such a pose before.

Mia realized the importance of what Sellen was about to say.

She immediately straightened her posture.

Putting away the unhappy expression she had just shown because of the problems with the created spell, Mia prepared to listen to what Sellen was about to say.

“I once mentioned that I was expelled from the Raya Lucaria Academy, do you remember?”

Mia nodded.

“The reason behind it is that I want to revive the origin of Glintstone Magic. Current Glintstone Magic has lost its core, becoming a plaything of the Carian royal family, knowing only how to show off its own learning. What I pursue is Glintstone Magic without taboos, with a spirit of pure exploration.”

“To fulfill this wish, I am willing to sacrifice everything.”

Sellen paused.

“Apprentice, I do not force you.”

“Even parting ways is a normal occurrence between master and apprentice.”

“Under this premise, I want to ask you, are you willing to contribute to reviving the origin of Glintstone Magic?”

“Are you willing to work together with me?”

Mia lowered her head and pressed her lips together.

Sellen pursued magic without taboos, and then was expelled from the academy.

Clearly, it was because of her title, ‘Witch of the glintstone Crown’.

Mia took a deep breath.

“Teacher Sellen.”

“Hmm.”

Sellen was waiting for her reply.

However, what she heard instead was Mia’s counter-question: “As a Primeval Sorcerer, must one become a Sorcerers Sphere in order to explore the source?”

It seemed she had never expected to hear such a question.

Sellen’s eyes, hidden beneath her glintstone mask, trembled slightly.

Her shoulders drooped; she raised her hand, then lowered it, appearing completely at a loss.

“My apprentice,” she said, her voice suddenly growing weak.

“In truth, you have always known of my past, my desires… yet you still chose to take me as your master?”

“Yes.” Mia nodded calmly.

“Haa…” Sellen let out a heavy sigh, stepped back a few paces, and shifted her feet uneasily.

“I thought I could hide it from you… but… I apologize.” The sorceress beneath the mask revealed a bitter smile.

“I am actually quite terrifying, aren’t I? A witch who has harmed countless sorcerers and explored forbidden realms…”

“That is not the case.” Mia shook her head very earnestly.

At the very least, Master Sellen had always been gentle with her apprentice.

In this The Lands Between, which was neither friendly to the Tarnished nor devoid of danger.

Master Sellen was one of the few sources of warmth.

Even if she truly was a witch who had harmed countless sorcerers, so what?

Before the Tarnished, she was always that gentle, patient Master Sellen who was willing to accept the protagonist.

She had never told our Tarnished why she was called the Witch of the Sorcerers Sphere, nor what the Sorcerers Sphere truly was.

Only when the Tarnished saw that Sorcerers Sphere in the Grand Library of the Academy—hearing a familiar call from the mouth of that sorcerer who spoke in fragmented sentences and let out pained groans from time to time…

Shock, confusion, sorrow, and other emotions flooded the players’ minds.

Why had Master Sellen become like this? Why did she have to become this way?

Could all of this be changed?

“Master Sellen, why did you choose to become a Sorcerers Sphere?”

With that scene appearing in her mind, Mia’s tone carried a hint of interrogation.

“It is one way to explore the primeval…” Sellen did not dare to look at Mia, turning her gaze away as she answered.

“Ever since that demigod, Radahn, shattered the law of the stars’ movement, their inherent circulation came to an abrupt halt. Those who pursue the life of the stars find their fates naturally turning with them, but that man is the seal upon the stars.”

“The stars have ceased their movement, which is undoubtedly the worst news for us sorcerers of the Primeval Current.”

Sellen was visibly becoming angry.

“Merely to prevent the one-in-a-million falling meteorite from harming life on the ground, he chose to seal the movement of all stars… This is undoubtedly an extreme display of the selfishness and hypocrisy of the Carian Royal Family; it is an evil act that should be condemned by all!”

“After doing all this… what are we sorcerers who explore the primeval to do?”

“Just because we turned ourselves into glintstone in pursuit of the primeval—just because of this, a matter that is only natural on the path of seeking truth. We, the Primeval Sorcerers, are shunned and cast aside by Carian. In an era where the stars have stopped moving, where are we to go?”

She sighed and turned away.

Once the planets had stopped flowing, these sorcerers who wished to explore the life of the stars and the origin of the stars…

Had to choose to use an even more extreme and horrifying method than turning oneself into glintstone: becoming the seed of the stars—the Sorcerers Sphere.

Hoping, through this, to draw closer to those stars that no longer flow, like a dead sea.

“Yet, even with this… they are still not satisfied.”

“The Academy, manipulated by the Carian Royal Family, even banished my master, the Primeval Sorcerer, Azur of the Comet, and another Primeval Sorcerer representing the falling stars, Lusat.”

“They cast aside the origin of Glintstone Magic, their roots, like filth!”

“And even now, those Primeval Sorcerers who persist in the original intent of Glintstone Magic, who refuse to give up exploration even under the sealed starry sky, are being hunted down by the lackeys of the Carian Royal Family.”

“My apprentice, may I ask you: who is it that truly committed the crime? Should the Carian Royal Family, who stand high above, acting tyrannically and arbitrarily, where those who follow them prosper and those who oppose them perish, not be driven out? And should those dregs of the Academy who blindly revere the strong, casting away their own hearts completely to become accomplices to evil, not be eradicated?”

Sellen clenched her hands, her whole body trembling. She paced back and forth in the room, unable to sit down, unable to calm herself, as if she had lost control of herself.

“That’s right… I am the Witch of the Sorcerers Sphere.”

Ever since that Queen, with her beautiful full moon, unreasonably conquered the Academy of Magic in Liurnia, the end of Primeval Sorcery had already begun.

And all of this was grievance, all was resentment… all was the loss and hesitation of being unacknowledged and abandoned.

“I am the calamity of the Academy of Raya Lucaria, the Witch of the Sorcerers Sphere who harmed countless sorcerers and was banished by the Academy.”

There was a choke in her voice.

Then, in that very instant.

Weak and slender arms wrapped around her from behind.

“Master… Sellen.”

Mia pressed her face against Sellen’s back.

That was, in truth, a body without warmth, without a heartbeat, existing as a tangible phantom.

But even with such a body, her back was heaving from intense breathing.

Sellen lowered her head and grasped the small hands wrapped around her waist.

“My apprentice,” she called out softly, her breath slowly calming down.

Mia responded softly: “I am willing to revive the origin of Glintstone Magic with you.”

“…” Sellen remained silent for a long time.

Just like that, Mia snuggled against Sellen in the dim basement.

And Sellen held the girl’s hand tightly.

“I apologize for burdening you with such a bizarre matter…”

“No, I am serious. I am willing to travel with you.” Mia tilted her head, pressing tightly against Sellen’s back: “If I can restore the movement of the stars, you won’t need to become that way anymore, and you will be able to explore the stars, right?”

Sellen nodded gently, tacitly agreeing with Mia’s thought.

“Thank you, my apprentice. I am very happy.” Sellen held the girl’s hand, gently lowered it, and then turned around.

Subsequently, that glintstone mask, which evoked a slight uncanny valley effect, was removed.

She shook her head, letting her long black hair, now returned to freedom, sway lightly, her neat braid hanging down naturally.

“This should make it easier to talk, right?”

The sorceress smiled, looking at Mia before her.

Mia looked at those azure eyes, as bright and beautiful as gemstones.

She couldn’t help but be mesmerized.

Sellen gazed intently at Mia: “I am actually not a very good teacher, am I? Revealing such an ugly side in front of my apprentice.”

Mia shook her head.

“You are a very gentle teacher.”

“I am very happy to have an apprentice and confidant like you.”

Sellen looked at Mia with attachment, as if she were viewing a work of art carved by her own hands.

She reached out and patted the girl’s head.

“My first apprentice has, in this short time, grown into an outstanding and understanding sorcerer.”

“You are a Tarnished, right?”

Although Sellen spoke the sentence as a question, there was no questioning intent in her tone.

“I know that the Tarnished came to The Lands Between to become the Elden Lord.”

“Sending a child like you to kill demigods and become a ruler… that Erdtree is truly as unreasonable as the Carian Royal Family.”

“But I believe you have the potential to become the Elden Lord. So, my apprentice, please become the Elden Lord.”

“If you are unable to become the Elden Lord, then return to my side.”

Sellen smiled, like the bright North Star in the sky after the storm clouds have passed.

“…Don’t worry,” Sellen’s fingers brushed Mia’s earlobe, smoothing out her messy blonde hair: “Even if my apprentice does not succeed, I will still prepare a place for her to stay.”

The sorceress took a step back and put that glintstone mask back on her head.

The witch’s mask had lowered eyelids and a smiling mouth, as if it were having a beautiful dream.

And Sellen’s smile, as captivating as the North Star, had vanished like a phantom dream.

But it would surely, always, always linger before the girl’s eyes.