Magical Journey: The Other Shore Blooms on the Other Shore

There is a fable circulating among merchants of the Federal Republic of Pierre.

Simply put, it's a story about a monkey who originally had a big watermelon, but then saw a sesame seed and wanted to pick it up too, ultimately picking up the sesame seed and losing the watermelon.

The story itself is absurd and far-fetched, but it's meant to tell everyone not to be greedy and not to lose sight of the bigger picture.

When doing business, one should not be too greedy and want everything, even while maintaining one's desires.

But few people have considered what it would be like for a person to have no desires at all. It's simply unimaginable. For anyone with normal values, living is about satisfying one's desires.

Therefore, it is because of desire that we experience regret when we miss out.

It is because of desire that we experience the pain of not being able to obtain what we want.

If there is no desire—if—even the already extremely low threshold of expectation is broken again, then the castle in the air, built on shaky foundations, will collapse.

Everything will crumble and vanish.

Qin slumped helplessly in a corner of the ruined wall, her aching back leaning listlessly against the earthen wall that seemed poised to collapse at any moment.

A light drizzle fell from the sky. Several hours earlier, the entire kingdom had been transformed by this sudden downpour, changing from the former Kingdom of Merchants into a city shrouded in rain.

On the street, the wealthy and powerful, holding umbrellas, strode quickly toward their destinations.

Like Jules, who lay bleeding by the roadside back then, no one would glance at an eliminated person. Every minute of their lives was worth gold coins, and everything they did was for value and wealth.

“I actually quite like you humans,” a voice said, though it was hoarse, it sounded somewhat joyful. “Many times, I really want to live in peace with you, because we are all the same in essence.”

Qin remained silent, as if she hadn't heard the sound at all.

That voice had been with him since he was ten years old; he should have gotten used to it by now.

Just like getting used to hunger, getting used to pain, getting used to the past, getting used to the present.

The demon who made a pact with him called himself a druid.

“We are all just wolves in sheep’s clothing, except that we are more blatant and you are more hypocritical. In terms of the expansion of desire alone, we are all slaves to desire—and we remain so for our entire lives.”

The druid exclaimed excitedly, "See those people? Don't they look familiar? Just like you did in Beatrice."

Although Jean did not respond, the druid continued smugly, "All things are vanity. Therefore, from the moment our deal was made, the final outcome was already predetermined."

trade……

He grants himself demonic power, but each time he uses this power, he must pay a price, sacrificing a portion of his soul and sanity. The deal ends when he is completely succumbed to it.

For Qin, this was a deal that had to be made at the time; without it, he would have had no chance of escaping that hell.

For the druid, it was just a game, at least that's how he put it.

But the devil's greatest skill is deceiving the truth, and how much truth is in his words is not something we should be thinking about at this moment.

"Ultimately, I still don't understand you. You could have easily used my power to destroy a city, to vent your past rage—this world has always disappointed you, and ironically, you never had any hope at all," the druid said. "In truth, what's the difference between humans and demons? Hahaha—"

I don't know if Qin is listening or not.

He had been there for who knows how long, staring blankly ahead.

The rain, falling heavily, clung to him like threads—his face and clothes were covered in endless water stains.

So tired... It's time to learn to give up.

I don't belong to the same level as this world to begin with, and I clearly no longer hope for anything more... Since I have brought misfortune upon myself, my existence will not bring any meaning to the world.

Well then, I've lived enough.

That's enough—there's no need to go through anything more.

I hate sleeping in bed, just like I hated lying on the lab table when I was a child; that feeling of helplessness is chilling.

I hate living like a human being. I've known since I was a child that I can't ask for too much. Only by having nothing can I find peace of mind.

Nothing of it matters.

It is precisely because of the fear of loss, the fear of losing something that one thinks one can have, that one resists living so much.

"This is... what loss feels like," Qin said, her eyes half-closed. "I don't like it. What have I lost now?"

"Perhaps... I've lost the direction I've always had in life. And the reason to keep living."

"This day should have come long ago."

Qin felt her consciousness fading away, with only the faint sound of rain around her, and the tactile sensation of raindrops on her face gradually becoming blurred.

Pain and hunger prove that you are still alive.

Suffering and tragedy remind us that we are still awake.

Now, those things are saying goodbye to me; it turns out that the relief of unloading burdens is so pleasant.

This must be what joy is, after all, it's a feeling I've never experienced before. Apart from sadness, any other emotion I've never felt before is joy.

Gradually, the sound of rain around me grew fainter, and the feeling of being wet slowly disappeared.

Has this meant we've reached the other side?

The other shore I long for is a shore where spider lilies bloom in abundance, a shore free from sorrow and tragedy.

Qin slowly opened his eyes, wanting to see the other side of his dreams as soon as possible.

His vision was blurred by the rain, and he could only vaguely make out that he was still in a rainy world. Everything around him was shrouded in mist, and above his head, a black umbrella was held up.

There was a person standing in front of me.

The blurry vision gradually focused, and the indistinct figure slowly came into view.

She was a girl who blended into the gray world around her; her hair, like the world itself, was a dull gray.

She stood quietly in front of the zither.

Her glassy eyes revealed no emotion as she stared back at those empty eyes that never revealed any emotion.

In this world where heaven, water, and earth are seamlessly integrated, it seems that even a prisoner once banished by the world will receive a gaze that even the very person who abandoned him could not have imagined.