Chapter 1068 – Mo Lan’s Travel Diary 21

The last rays of the setting sun squeezed through the crack in the door, casting a narrow band of golden light across the floor. Within it, dust motes drifted slowly.

She suddenly recalled how, ten days ago, during a dusk just like this one, she had excitedly tugged at her mother’s arm and said: “Let’s stay one more week! Just one week! Business is this good—it’d be a waste not to capitalize on it!”

Back then, all she could see were the rising numbers on her Gem Coins, and all she felt was the craving to earn just a little more.

But now… she lowered her head and stared at the pile of Gem Coin Cards on the counter, freshly earned that evening.

Another record broken.

So why… didn’t she feel the slightest bit happy?

“Mama.”

She suddenly spoke, her voice soft, yet startlingly clear in the quiet of the general store.

Mo Lan looked up from the rattan chair by the window and gazed at her quietly.

Sylvia didn’t raise her head. Her small fingers unconsciously rubbed a 500-denomination Gem Coin Card. After a long silence, she murmured:

“Let’s… leave the City of Chaos. Move on to the next place.”

Mo Lan set down her book, walked over to the counter, and asked gently:

“There are still a lot of people outside the castle waiting to buy cards tomorrow. Don’t you want to take the chance to… earn a few more Gem Coins?”

She had deliberately echoed the words Sylvia herself had used ten days ago.

Sylvia’s shoulders trembled slightly.

Then she looked up.

Gone was the usual sparkle of excitement or the haze of exhaustion. In its place was something close to crystalline clarity:

“No.”

She spoke, her voice growing steadier:

“I don’t want to spend every day cooped up inside the castle, seeing nothing but the counter and lines of people from dawn to dusk. I don’t want to have to sneak around just to go look at the stars in the garden because of all those people outside. I don’t want… the journey to become like this.”

She paused, her small hands clenching into fists:

“Travel isn’t supposed to be like this!”

The general store fell silent for a few seconds.

Then Mo Lan smiled. She came around the counter and gently pulled her daughter into her arms:

“You’re absolutely right to think that way.”

“Gem Coins are important, of course, but you’re a Second-Generation Sorceress. As your Mana grows naturally, the Gem Coins you’ll be able to earn in the future will only increase.”

“You don’t need to sacrifice your happiness, trapped behind a counter every day, spending your most precious time trading for things… that you’re not actually short of!”

She stroked her daughter’s hair:

“The meaning of travel is to see, to experience, to feel the vastness and wonder of this world—not to leave one cage only to walk into another one forged from Gem Coins.”

Sylvia buried her face in her mother’s embrace and nodded firmly.

In that moment, she suddenly felt the heavy, suffocating weight that had pressed down on her heart for so many days dissolve all at once.

Late that night, in the deep stillness of the small hours.

The mobile castle’s wings of starlight unfurled silently, without disturbing the people on the hillside below who were still queuing even in their sleep.

The concealment magic circles activated without a sound. The entire castle melted into the night like a phantom, rising slowly into the sky and vanishing into the thick clouds.

When the next morning’s sun rose, the people waiting on the hillside found only a patch of trampled bare ground and the traces of campfires and tents.

After leaving the City of Chaos, the rhythm of the mobile castle’s journey changed completely.

They headed north, crossing the Sacred Mountains where daylight never ended. After lingering there for a few days, they continued on to the Holy City at the foot of Heaven’s Peak.

Mo Lan took Sylvia to see the magic candy shop she had once opened, and they visited the Witches living in the Holy City.

They stayed only a week. Before word could spread, the castle set off again.

The next stop was the Durin Volcanic Cluster.

Rivers of crimson lava flowed sluggishly across black rock, and the air hung thick with the scent of sulfur. This time they lingered a bit longer.

Sylvia developed a keen interest in Dwarven forging techniques, and Mo Lan had a child-sized dagger custom-made for her, inlaid with a fire-element gemstone.

After taking in the culture and customs of the Dwarven Royal City, the mobile castle set off once more.

The adventurers who arrived after hearing the news could only watch as the mobile castle disappeared into the distance.

“We can’t repeat what happened in the City of Chaos,” Sylvia said, her small face solemn.

Mo Lan smiled and nodded.

From then on, they traveled at a leisurely pace, stopping and going, but never staying anywhere for long.

At places they truly couldn’t bear to leave, Sylvia would take the initiative to close the general store and ask Mo Lan to activate the castle’s concealment magic circles. The castle would hover silently above the sea of clouds while mother and daughter rode their broomsticks down to the towns below, strolling through streets like ordinary travelers, sampling local snacks, and listening to street performers.

Sylvia still enjoyed running the general store, but she had become more carefree about it.

Opening depended on her mood, stock depended on her interests, and how much she earned no longer mattered.

Sometimes she would even sell cards at a steep discount to adventurers who looked like they desperately needed help.

And so, spring gave way to autumn, flowers bloomed and fell.

The mobile castle carried them across the world. They gazed at the starry sky above endless deserts, listened to the chorus of Merfolk in the deep sea, tasted moonlit dew-fruit in the Elven forests, and strode through the rolling waves of grass on the Beastmen grasslands.

Ten years slipped by quietly, measured in departures and arrivals.

On the eve of Sylvia’s thirteenth birthday, the mobile castle returned to where the journey had begun—Emerald Creek Plains.

The stream was even clearer than she remembered. New varieties of wildflowers dotted the grassy slopes. But that sky, those clouds, that fragrance of green grass mingled with earth—it was all still as familiar and comforting as ever.

The castle descended slowly to the very same spot as before.

When its great feet touched the ground, they startled a few Dodo Birds that had been drinking from the stream. The birds looked up briefly, then lowered their heads again as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.

Sylvia walked out of the castle.

She was no longer the little sprout who had to stand on tiptoe to reach the counter.

The thirteen-year-old girl had grown considerably taller. She wore a purple Witch’s robe, her long hair tied up in a high ponytail.

She walked to the stream, crouched down, and scooped up a handful of cool water.

It slipped through her fingers, catching the sunlight like scattered diamonds.

“We’re finally home!” she said softly. “I miss Tessa, Evelyn, and Dorella so much!”

Behind her, Mo Lan walked over and stood by her side. Ten years of time seemed to have left few marks on her face.

“I miss my friends too. Let’s rest up a bit, and then we’ll head to the lakeside cottage together!” Mo Lan said.

Sylvia nodded, and was just about to speak when a point of golden light suddenly blazed to life on the horizon.

What began as a distant star arrived in an instant, streaking across the clear autumn sky before landing precisely in Sylvia’s outstretched palm, where it transformed into a golden bird.

The golden bird departed, leaving behind a letter.

On the envelope, seven First-Generation Sorceress seals of varying designs were arranged in an elegant arc.

Traci’s was a book, Anita’s was a firework, Carmela’s was a golden pen, Sylph’s was a great tree, Lilith’s was a drop of blood, Vasida’s was a stomach pouch, and then…

Sylvia’s fingertip gently traced the card design at the very center—the one that represented her mother, the Card Sorceress, Moira.

The seven seals glowed faintly warm in the sunlight. Sylvia looked up at her mother.

Mo Lan smiled and gave a gentle nod: “Go ahead and open it. Your admission letter should have arrived too.”

(End of Chapter)