Magical Journey: The Other Shore Blooms on the Other Shore

It's worth mentioning that, because of the curse on Jean, tranquilizers and similar medications should have been ineffective against him.

Slater later discovered this anomaly and modified the sedative to specifically target the harp's condition. The sedative, which would normally be lethal in doses, finally took effect on the harp.

Soon, Qin's experiment achieved a phased success.

His body successfully adapted to the machine's exploitation of his life force, meaning he met the requirements. If he could endure this intense exploitation, then he would have the prerequisite to activate magic in this way.

No matter how stringent the prerequisites are, the progress made in the experiment with the piano is enough to advance Slater's Project 871 by a large margin.

There are two pieces of good news. The first is that Qin's body shape has successfully returned to normal due to the high-intensity life drain she experiences every day.

The second piece of good news is that Qin is the only test subject who survived the initial stages of the experiment, so she is generally out of danger. After all, the researchers will be extremely careful, while the newly arrived test subjects will continue to be treated brutally and could easily die.

What's the cost?

It was the excruciating pain every day, and the relentless hunger.

Qin doesn't know what has kept him alive until now. If there really is a Grim Reaper, even the Grim Reaper would have to give this tenacious guy a thumbs up.

The success of the piano naturally attracted Slater's great attention.

After his daily grueling training sessions, he was also provided with a fairly comprehensive range of recreational activities. After all, this was his precious child, and of course, he deserved to be treated well.

Education was carried out simultaneously.

Slater thought long and hard about who his teacher would be, and in the end he chose one of his daughters. He couldn't even remember which wife she was born to, but she was outstanding enough to become a witch just over twenty.

Her name is Alice.

Alice is Jean's only teacher. Although she was assigned by her father to teach Jean, she has a different feeling about this poor child than her father.

Perhaps he felt that Qin's experience was similar to his own, being imprisoned in this dark and hopeless cage with no bright future.

Despite her seemingly glamorous life as Slater's daughter, she is constantly controlled by her father and has no say in anything she does.

She received no maternal or paternal love whatsoever, a trait she shared with Qin.

Alice's mother was just one of her father's many collections, and she knew that her inhuman father didn't even know which mother she was born to.

Only she knew that her mother had died when she was seven years old. She had contracted a strange illness and then died. She was buried hastily and no one cared.

If your collectibles break, just throw them away.

People are like objects; you can just throw them away.

But she dared not resent her father. No matter how much dissatisfaction she harbored towards him, she could not show it. He was a Class C Snow Guard, and if he wanted to, thousands upon thousands of his men would be willing to kill her for Slater. As for the father-daughter relationship between them, that kind of thing had never existed since she was born.

Perhaps it was this simple empathy that made Alice, the Witch of Light, feel affection for a child like Jean, perhaps seeing him as another version of herself.

Although, she asked herself honestly, Qin's experience was even more painful.

Her orders were to teach Jean magic. Alice was naturally aware of her father's Plan 871. Before Jean appeared, Alice always thought it was an impossible thing to achieve.

Ginger followed Alice's instructions in a daze. He was injected with strange liquids every day, which seemed to dull his senses so that he could be better controlled and also better endure the life-draining of the experimental machine.

"That's the incantation for fire magic." Alice taught patiently, repeating the magic spell over and over again without losing any patience or uttering any harsh words.

She was always very gentle, at least to Qin.

Jean couldn't learn it, of course. He had no magic power, so he couldn't release magic using conventional methods. But according to Slater's speculation, he would naturally be able to use magic the moment Jean sensed the life force.

Jean gradually grew into the person Slater had hoped for. She stopped crying and making a fuss, and quietly went to the lab table to do experiments every day. The pain became bearable, and she could swallow it down.

After that, he learned magic from Alice, and in the time that followed... he would stare blankly at the playing cards scattered on the floor, or sleep.

Escape in dreams.

Or perhaps they seek the meaning of their existence in their dreams.

Sometimes Qin would also feel sad. Although the medication had made his mood swings much smaller, he would still occasionally experience all sorts of emotions. If he had been emotionally intact before, he might have completely broken down.

I feel like a doll now, you fix it when it breaks.

It gets fixed only to break down again, and the cycle repeats itself.

Alice would patiently tell Jean stories and try to understand Jean's needs.

Alice knew she could do nothing… she couldn't defy her father, and so could Jyn. How similar they were…

Aren't I just a puppet myself?

Haven't I broken myself too?

Jean's only companion when she was a child was Alice. Before she turned three, the others only bullied her, and after she turned three, the people in the laboratory only saw her as an experimental tool. Only Alice seemed to really care about her.

Even though deep down, Jean felt that Alice might be faking it, or that she might have been ordered to approach her.

But even if it's just an act, Jean really enjoys being with Alice.

Only here can he experience less pain.

Even if it's fake, it's fine.

Two wounded hearts huddle together, seeking the healing they deserve in this dark and twisted land.

Even Alice, known as the Witch of Light, cannot see where the light is in this dark and twisted kingdom. The title given to her by her witch teacher is nothing short of a mockery and ridicule.

Beatrice, a land where everyone wears a mask. Tragedy unfolds every moment; tragedy needs no explanation, it spreads naturally, and is buried by the wind.

Despite Alice's careful guidance, Jean still couldn't use magic—he couldn't even create a tiny spark. Every time he tried to use magic, it felt like he was about to die.

I was in excruciating pain all over my body.

Then came exhaustion and collapse.

It felt like I had truly died once. That feeling was worse than death; life had no meaning, and death was a luxury.

I long for death, but whenever I think of the moment of death, I can suppress that feeling with the help of medication.

"Teacher Alice... I want to die, please help me?" Qin could no longer hold on and leaned into Alice's arms, crying loudly. Perhaps the dose of medicine injected in the morning was not enough, or perhaps Qin's body had developed a resistance to the drug.

Qin had an emotional breakdown that day, and all her negative emotions poured out on her teacher.

Alice hugged the weeping piano, and tears streamed down her face.

She also thought about leaving this world, but she was too cowardly to commit suicide. Perhaps her life wasn't as miserable as Qin's. At least, she appeared to be living a successful life on the surface.

"Teacher... I really can't take it anymore, I want to die..."

"Teacher, please kill me..."

"Ms. Alice..."

"I beg you……"

There is only silence.