Magical Journey: The Other Shore Blooms on the Other Shore

"Are you sure... there's a magic shop in this place?" Even the expressionless boy couldn't help but complain. What he saw in front of him looked like a small village, and a rather poor one at that.

It's better to believe pigs can climb trees than to believe there's a magic shop in this place.

Oh, pigs really do seem to be able to climb trees.

What's with that pig in the tree?

"Hmm... this map... says this should be a small country." Elena also had something to say. If she could, she wouldn't want to walk for half a day only to end up in a remote, impoverished place.

Normally, she would be interested in exploring the village's unique features to enrich her travelogue, but right now, all she wants is to find a magic item shop to repair her magic broom.

"You're a witch, why can't you even fix a broom?" Qin muttered to herself.

“Why learn something if you can solve it with money?” Elena retorted. “There are plenty of witches who can’t fix brooms. My teacher couldn’t either, and she didn’t teach me how.”

Now, it seems like they're communicating more frequently.

To be precise, the frequency of their sarcastic remarks has increased.

Perhaps it was because they had known each other for a while, seeing each other all the time, and having recently survived a perilous situation together, Qin had also changed from being as silent as a doll to being able to speak up and say a few words.

Even though he rarely speaks, and when he does, it's usually just complaining. It's clear how much negativity he has.

"Hey, are you Mina?" When the villagers saw Elaina, their eyes seemed to light up, as if they had seen a savior. They looked at Elaina as if she were radiating a divine light.

Then the man ran back to the village, which stretched as far as the eye could see, and shouted loudly.

"Hey, hey—Mina's back! Abel's saved!"

"You also have another name, Mina, right?" Qin asked thoughtfully.

“Who is Mina? His whole family is named Mina. He must have mistaken you for someone else.” Elena weakly rubbed her forehead. Before she could explain, the news that the man had brought Mina back had spread throughout the entire village.

Before long, a crowd gathered at the village entrance, mostly the elderly, the weak, the young, and the disabled, but all of them were extremely excited.

The villagers were chattering about things that Elena found somewhat difficult to understand.

"Mina, did you buy the cure-all medicine?" "Did you buy any local specialties?" "Mina seems to have become more beautiful." "Have her breasts shrunk?"

"Who said that last sentence?" Elena suppressed her anger, silently repeating to herself that adults shouldn't argue with little brats, but it still took her a long time to calm down, and she almost couldn't help but cast a spell.

"Mina, who is he? Could he be your new love interest?" At this moment, someone noticed the unusual situation, and everyone's attention shifted from Elena to Qin.

"Poor Abel." "Shameless, bringing a man home when she's already got a boyfriend." "She abandoned her old love for a new one."

Those were really harsh words!

"Enough—look carefully, I'm not Mina!" Elena had reached her limit. Even the most good-tempered witch couldn't withstand this kind of torment. "He's not my boyfriend either. Stop talking nonsense. If you can't speak, then don't. Just shut your mouth and open it when you're eating!"

"Mina is so fierce." "Waaah... Why has Mina become like this?" "Grandma, what are we eating today?" "Didn't we just eat the day before yesterday?"

“That’s enough…” Elena took a deep breath and smiled as she calmed herself down.

Suddenly, I feel like my life has been elevated; without realizing it, my patience has improved so much. Hehe...hehe...deep breath...

Don't get angry, getting angry ages you faster.

"Are you really not Mina?" Finally, someone in the crowd saw Elena's face clearly. She was indeed a little different from the Mina they knew. The biggest difference was that Elena was a little shorter, and her chest was... a little flat.

“Yes, this bespectacled uncle,” Elena smiled, suppressing her urge to use magic to make everyone in the village kneel down.

"What about Abel?" some people asked dejectedly.

Just then, an old man came out and shook Elena's hand: "Could I take a moment of your time? Let's go inside and talk."

"You call that a house?" Qin muttered under her breath. The hard-of-hearing old man couldn't hear her, but Elena did. She stared blankly at the place that people could live in—an open-air villa.

But Elena agreed anyway, after all, she had walked for so long and was tired, and it was time to rest.

The old man slowly spoke after leading the two people to a habitable space.

“The villagers mistook you for Mina, and I apologize to you.”

"It's alright," Elena said.

Yeah, right—you guys almost got into trouble.

"But you really look like Mina. Could you do us a favor? Otherwise, Abel is really pitiful."

Then the village chief began to tell a story.

In short, the story is about a man named Abel who is terminally ill and doesn't have long to live. Mina, Abel's lover and the village chief's daughter, takes meticulous care of Abel in the hope that he can recover.

But there was nothing that could be done. Two weeks ago, he went to a large country in the north to buy "medicine for all diseases," but he has not returned.

Although it wasn't explicitly stated, everyone in the village knew perfectly well that Mina probably wouldn't be coming back.

But Abel was so pitiful that he couldn't see his lover until his last breath, so the village chief hoped that Elena could impersonate Mina to see Abel one last time.

Qin was completely unmoved after hearing the story.

He had witnessed too much death and had long since become numb to it.

But after a moment's hesitation, Elena finally agreed to the village chief's request.

It was just a small favor, and ultimately she felt it would be unreasonable to refuse the request.

Therefore, the important task of "pretending to be Mina" was handed over to Elena.

Qin was like a transparent person, keeping a proper distance from Elena. He would take a short rest at the door when Elena went inside.

However, when he saw the completed "Mina" version of Elena, he was still slightly moved.

The main problem was the cotton stuffed in her chest; he hadn't even realized it himself. He thought he'd just smiled, but it vanished in an instant.

Elena glared at Qin, then went inside to complete her task.

Qin was listening to the conversation between the two "lovers" from the doorway.

"Mina...is that you?" A weak and hoarse voice drifted to Qin's ears.

"It's me, I'm back! I've found the cure for all ills!" Elena said emotionally. Her emotional delivery was spot-on; it was a waste of her talent not to be an actress.

"Um...Mina, can you hold my hand?"

"Of course, we're lovers."

"Can we kiss?"

"Hey?"

Qin's eyes twitched. You can play it like this? He could just imagine the speechless expression on Elena's face.

"Just kidding, I wouldn't kiss someone who isn't my lover. You're not Mina..."

Then Abel explained that he deliberately sent Mina away to find the so-called "cure for all diseases," when in fact there was no such thing. He just didn't want Mina to see him die and be sad, so that she could go to the big city and live a happy life.

Finally, he made one more request.

The request was to kill him; he was already beyond saving, and the villagers also hoped he would die sooner so they could save on resources. In any case, if Elena didn't kill him now, the villagers would poison him tonight anyway.

In the end, Elena couldn't bring herself to do it.

She had never killed anyone in her life, and the number of times she had seen blood was very limited.

It would be incredibly difficult for her to kill an innocent person without any psychological burden.

……

"He must be so happy to see his lover again." The villagers were genuinely pleased as they saw the two off at the village entrance as they embarked on their journey.

"Probably," Elena said noncommittally.

"I hope you can come back and visit again."

“Okay.” Elena told a colossal lie—it would be better if she never came to such a desolate village, where lies and tragedies intertwine.

And so, the two walked away into the sunset.

They did not choose to stay overnight in this place.

As they truly departed.

"As a witch, can't you save him?" Qin asked.

"Who? Abel?" Elena tilted her head.

"Yes."

“I can’t save him… The healing magic I possess is essentially time-reversal magic. I can’t go back to before he got sick.” Elena exhaled a breath of stale air. “Besides, even if I did save him, wouldn’t that be another kind of tragedy for him?”

"You're absolutely right, it was an inevitable tragedy."