Knights and Magic Wand
Chapter 718: 335: Dream of the Great Group

Chapter 718: Chapter 335: Dream of the Great Group

Galliard…

Leon gazed at the minstrel he hadn’t seen in three years, countless doubts surging in his mind. He opened his mouth to speak, but the movement tugged at the wounds on his face, and his damaged lungs made it difficult to speak.

“—Shh~”

The minstrel gestured for patience, donned his feathered hat again, and as he stepped into the room, his fingers traced an unseen line in the air.

A warmth spread from the depths of Leon’s heart and lungs, circulating through his body along the pathways of magic elements and blood.

The excruciating pain throughout his body, a clear sign of domestic abuse, was rapidly dissipating.

Through the circulation of magic elements, Leon perceived the state of his body, noticing how the shattered bones and damaged organs were slowly restoring as if time were reversing.

Within a few breaths, he felt the strength to raise his hand.

Instinctively, Leon touched his chest, which had almost lost its bone support and was maintained by the Quenching Life Technique from collapsing and crushing his organs, and let out a sigh of relief.

Propping himself up carefully, he leaned against the headboard, not withdrawing from Ines’s hand, trying not to disturb the girl sleeping beside him, and turned his attention to the mysterious great minstrel.

“Thank you,” Leon said gratefully.

“You’re welcome, Lord Pendragon. I should thank you for posting notices all over the world, warmly inviting me to taste this intoxicating and rich brew of emotion~”

Galliard responded with a polite smile, leaning languidly on a nearby easy chair, his eyes narrowing with a roguish gleam, one hand gesturing in front of his nose as if savoring fine wine or perfume.

“Ah~ like the wisteria around a corridor, like twin-lotus on the same stalk, like the fragrant osmanthus…~ I probably have new inspiration again.”

Leon paid no heed to the minstrel’s peculiar abstract tone and words, attributing them to his professional affliction of playing matchmaker.

At this point, he did not want to beat around the bush with this mysterious Galliard and asked the question that had been troubling him.

“Master, the greeting you expressed before Kovis six years ago, was it directed at me? Do you know that I and…..” He paused, glanced at the sleeping Ines beside him, then continued, “Do you know that Ines and I hail from a parallel space-time?….. Who exactly are you? Are you this world’s Galliard, or another world’s, the one I know?”

“You sure have quite a few questions.”

Galliard chuckled lightly, raising an eyebrow.

“‘Parallel space-time,’ concurrent space-time? It’s an interesting term and concept, and it seems I’ve heard some friends talk about similarly described mystical realms in the past.”

Amidst the teasing, the great minstrel shifted his posture, smiling, and twirled his well-trimmed mustache: “Perhaps I can incorporate this idea into a new poem or story, but alas, in my shallow understanding… at least on the land you live upon, there has yet to appear another parallel world you’ve mentioned.”

“A parallel space-time has never appeared?” Leon furrowed his brow tightly.

“Uh-huh,” Galliard pointed at himself as a matter of course: “So your question is naturally easy to answer. I have always been myself, the suave and talented Galliard.”

“But if there are no parallel worlds, then where are Ines and I now?!”

Leon asked in a deep voice, “This place differs greatly from the world we know! Even now, there are distinctly two Ines’s.”

He instinctively grasped Ines’s fingers, feeling her tangible existence, and fixed his gaze on Galliard.

“Are you saying that our previous life experiences were all false? Are our memories mere illusions?”

“Of course not~” Galliard shrugged.

Leon squinted his eyes: “Then, are you saying that this current world is false?”

“Neither is correct, ah, I could provide a perfunctory explanation according to common knowledge to deceive you, but perhaps it’s better to give a more earnest answer.”

Galliard stroked his chin and said with a smile: “How do you define what’s real and what’s fake?”

“Existence is reality, and non-existence is falsehood,” Leon replied with a frown.

“Then what is existence and non-existence? Based on physical perception? Look at everything here; can a difference alone determine that one side is false? Does it mean that every slight change upon waking in the morning points to a new world?”

Galliard said, tugging at his clothes: “When I change my red suit for a subtle blue one, does wearing blue make me no longer myself?”

“It’s not a simple equation. You told me there are no parallel worlds. I was merely assuming that your premise was true…” Leon pondered and shook his head: “If there are no two different worlds, then there must be a sequence when you choose your clothes. But you in red and you in blue won’t appear together.”

Honestly, he felt dizzy from the minstrel’s words.

There is no parallel space-time, yet he speaks of two vastly different worlds both being real?

Galliard picked up an apple from the table, took a bite, and with a smile, said, “I don’t intend to instruct you in Magic Science, but your view of space-time is too constrained by so-called common sense. I must point out that in the endless void, common sense… often is merely an illusion restricted by the perception and capabilities of living beings.”

Seeing that the mysterious and powerful mage intended to explain, Leon humbly said, “I’m eager to hear more.”

“You’ve actually spoken the answer,” Galliard, pointing at his apple-holding fingers, indicated Leon: “For this land, my red-cloth and blue-cloth selves indeed won’t exist simultaneously, but right now, are there not two ‘simultaneous’ yet ‘different’ selves?”

“What about Ines? How do you explain that this world has two of her?” Leon indicated the girl tightly clasping his hand.

“Think carefully, Lord Pendragon, are the two Miss Ineses ‘simultaneous’ existences?” Galliard responded with an amused gleam in his eye.

What did that mean?

Leon fell silent in thought, and after a moment, a realization struck him…

Galliard, not leaving him in suspense, waved while munching on his apple and said: “The two Miss Ineses exist sequentially in the flow of the River of Time, three local years apart, aren’t they?

You see the so-called two ‘different’ Miss Ineses, but it’s merely her wearing the red dress and then three years later changing to a blue dress, under no circumstance does changing clothes alone constitute a different entity.”

“According to your interpretation, we’ve arrived three years into the future? This is still our world?” Leon’s eyes widened in astonishment, but immediately he shook his head: “No! The experiences of this Ines and everyone else are different from three years ago, six years ago, or even further back, not just experiences, even the entire environment of the world is different! There’s no Spiritual Field here, and my ancient castle residence has long turned into ruins with the passage of time.”

“Are those things fundamentally different from the clothes I’m wearing?” Galliard didn’t rush to explain directly but put down his half-eaten apple and looked at Leon: “Lord Pendragon, do you believe that the fates of all things and beings are predetermined and immutable?”

Suddenly diverted from the topic, Leon was baffled, pondered for a moment, then shook his head: “I don’t know about the reality… but emotionally, I don’t wish to believe in predetermined fate, as it makes every choice seem meaningless, which is rather disheartening.”