I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha

The carriage drove straight through the town. The people on both sides of the street, upon seeing the "terrifying troll (Nal)" in the procession, fled in terror. Fortunately, the knights cleared the way, otherwise, it might have caused a riot.

In fact, Baron Hall had repeatedly stated that the missing people had nothing to do with the wizard's troll pet. The real culprit was a "cyclops" wandering from the north.

This morning, the huge head of the cyclops was still hanging on the castle gate. The soldiers guarding the head told onlookers that the giant was killed by the wizard's troll himself and sent to the castle.

But this incident instead increased the residents' fear of Nal. Because the logic was obvious—since Nal could defeat the cyclops, then he must be more terrifying than the cyclops! Since he was more terrifying than the cyclops, then he must eat people! So since he eats people, the lyrics of the "Cat Wizard" ballad must be true.

Catherine and Nal were indifferent to all of this. She had Nal deal with the giant only because she needed its blood to make magic potions.

The townspeople hid in their houses, peering at the carriage through the cracks in their windows. Many recognized Roland, secretly discussing the poor boy's fate and feeling very sorry for him.

The mentor withdrew her gaze from the window, lazily propping her chin up as she looked at her student, who was still practicing magic diligently: "Everyone seems very worried about you—this should be the place where you grew up, right, Roland?"

Mentor Catherine asked with some curiosity: "You don't seem to have any attachment to this place. After leaving this time, you may never be able to come back."

"Never come back?"

Roland looked up at the familiar yet unfamiliar town outside the window, "If I don't come back, I don't come back. There's no one here that I miss."

He looked towards the crossroads in the center of town, and to the north was the castle built on the hill. That was indeed where he grew up, but Roland didn't feel a sense of belonging here.

He couldn't help but ask himself—was this really his hometown? Did the past of himself in a parallel world count as his past? Which world did he really belong to?

The carriage drove out of the town amidst the terrified gazes of the townspeople. Roland withdrew his gaze. Suddenly, a childish shout came from afar.

It was a white horse—a young girl, riding a white horse, galloping down the hill where the castle was located, towards the town.

She shouted at the carriage:

"Brother Roland~~~ I saw you, Brother Roland!~~~ You must live well!~~~ Don't get eaten by the Cat Wizard!~~~"

These shouts seemed to awaken some fragments of memory in Roland's heart. He couldn't help but look out the window.

In the end, the girl failed to catch up with the carriage, because her horse was far less brave than she was. The horse collapsed to the ground, terrified by Nal's tall figure, even before it approached the carriage, throwing its master to the ground.

The girl scraped her hands and knees, and cried loudly as she lay on the ground: "Waaah, Brother Roland, you must live well, waaaah!"

Roland smiled as he looked at the girl crying loudly on the high slope.

"I will, Alice," Roland said softly, "I will live well."

He drew the curtains.

"Now what?" The mentor looked at Roland playfully: "Our Mr. Roland, who has no attachment to his hometown and likes to act cool?"

"Hmm," Roland pondered for a moment, "I do feel a bit like I'm leaving my hometown."

Roland couldn't help but think of that question again.

Is the me in a parallel world still me?

Do the memories in a parallel world count as my memories?

Perhaps, there's no need to dwell on this question anymore.

Zhuang Zhou dreamed of a butterfly, both the butterfly and the man are himself.

He looked out the window and thought to himself: "Goodbye, Valeria. World, here I come."

"The future journey will be incredibly exciting, but also full of dangers. I will definitely stay away from all dangers and live well."

"Oh, right, we might pass by that damn place, Brown Fern Glade, later. I have to remind the mentor not to let the carriage get close to that area."

He paused, looked at the mentor, and said: "By the way, mentor, you're not a local, so you might not know the situation here. In fact, the area around Valeria is not as peaceful as it seems."

The mentor quietly flipped through her magic book, not saying a word.

Roland continued: "In fact, at the next fork in the road, I suggest taking the left side. Although it will be a bit of a detour, it can avoid the 'Brown Fern Outpost'—from the Brown Fern Outpost, a few kilometers to the east is the area where the Brown Fern Glade is located. It's very eerie and very dangerous."

The mentor was still very focused on reading the magic book.

Roland scratched his head, feeling that the mentor should understand what he meant. Although he didn't know why he was so afraid of the Brown Fern Glade in the parallel world, his subconscious kept telling him that he must stay away from it.

"Ahem." Roland asked cautiously: "By the way, mentor, I haven't asked yet. Where are we supposed to meet the team that's also going back to the academy?"

The female mentor turned a page of the book and said indifferently: "Brown Fern Glade."

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Roland's face turned ashen.

The carriage happily drove towards the Brown Fern Glade at the next fork in the road.

Under a towering tree at the entrance of the Brown Fern Glade, a man in a light black robe, about twenty-six or seven years old, was chatting happily with Baron Hall.

This man was a counselor at the Black Abyss Academy, and his realm was Advanced Apprentice. His name was Leonard.

Behind him were three wizard apprentices in gray robes. The oldest looked to be sixty or seventy years old, named Wallace. Wallace's realm was Intermediate Apprentice, and he was a handyman at the Black Abyss Academy.

The other two wizard apprentices were very young, and their ages looked about the same as Roland's. Their realms were both Low-Level Apprentices.

These two young men were the new students that Counselor Leonard had recruited for the academy this time.

Although Counselor Leonard was only an Advanced Apprentice, he had extensive connections in the secular world.

In order to bring back a few more outstanding juniors to the academy, he went to many places. And the lords and petty kings of various places had also recommended many outstanding people to him.

He eventually selected ten people from a thousand. And from these ten people, he finally selected two. So these two new students were both wizarding talents chosen from a thousand.

The two people's backgrounds were also good. Their parents were both pure-blooded wizards, belonging to the small aristocracy among wizards.

The two new students had received a very good magical education since childhood. Before following Leonard, they had already had ten years of magical education.

However, because the two families had declined and could not afford the magic potion for probationary apprentices to advance to low-level apprentices, the two people's realms had been stuck at the bottleneck of probationary apprentices before following Leonard.

A few months ago, their parents sent them to Counselor Leonard. Leonard gave the two new students magic potions. With the help of the magic potions, the two smoothly stepped into the threshold of low-level apprentices.

Now, they had been following Leonard for five or six months. Under the careful guidance of Counselor Leonard, they had learned a lot.