Chapter 906 — The Mystery Mo Jin Left Behind

"Looking back over my notes from the past while, I once again saw those final unsettling scribbles and mad ravings, and that word 'leave,' written in a hand utterly unlike my own... Now I can be certain that this word was not written of my own will; it must have been written by my hand when 'Enya' came to help, its function perhaps some kind of 'spiritual awakening' or medium for channeling power.

"I hesitated a long time over whether to keep these records—they are truly bizarre, and by any measure do not look like the proper contents of a normal adventure travelogue—but in the end I decided to preserve every trace of this adventure in its entirety, including those wild scribbles and the word Enya wrote through my hand.

"There is no special power in these words; this I have confirmed. Leaving them behind will serve as a warning to those who come after. They fully embody the perils of adventure, and may perhaps make other reckless adventurers like myself think a little more before setting out...

"To you later readers: if you too are interested in adventure, then remember my counsel—the sea is full of danger, and the north of the human world all the more so. Beyond the eternal storm is no place for ordinary folk to tread. If you truly mean to go, then be prepared to bid this world a permanent farewell...

"As for myself... it seems I shall need some time to recuperate, and to properly settle the aftermath of this reckless adventure. As for the future... well, I cannot lie to myself in my own notes.

"Mo Jin Wilde is a reckless, unrepentant fellow, and I simply cannot master my urge to adventure!

"It has been proven that I cannot be a proper duke. I am not a proper noble, nor any proper ruler. I will complete the cession of my title and the division of my inheritance as soon as possible; the king and the other dukes can none of them stop me. Let me go on being absurd, let me set out once more toward the next unknown—perhaps next time alone, no longer dragging innocents down with me; perhaps one day I shall die alone somewhere far from the human world, with only a notebook for company, but who cares!

"This world, so full of the unknown, is just too damned wonderful!!"

Gao Yang quietly closed the thick, ancient notebook, watching its mottled, timeworn cover hide the words within once more. The sunlight, now nearing dusk, fell upon its restored spine, scattering a faint afterglow across the gold threads and silver stamping.

After taking rule of this nation, he had made a point of studying the stories behind the major noble lineages of this land, and the series of changes that had come to this country after the death of Gao Yang Cecil, and in the course of it many names had gradually grown familiar to him.

Mo Jin Wilde of six hundred years ago... counted as a rather famous man.

He had inherited the title of Duke of the Northland early, and passed it on to his heir early as well. For half his life he roamed the far corners of the world, conducting himself in no way like a proper noble; even among the early pioneer descendants of Ansu he stood out to the utmost, so that nobles and historians alike frowned whenever they brought up this "adventurer duke," unsure how to set him down in writing.

He was a great man. He trod every corner of the human world, and many corners beyond its borders. He added nearly a third of a duchy's worth of developable wasteland to Ansu of six hundred years ago; he found more than ten kinds of precious magical materials and new food crops for the human civilization that had only just gained a foothold; he measured out the northern and eastern borders on foot; and many of the things he discovered—minerals, flora and fauna, natural phenomena, the magical laws that followed the magic tide—still benefit the human world to this day.

He was also an absurd man. He abandoned his title, neglected his fief, ignored the royal house. His contributions in truth all sprang from personal interest, and the trouble his capricious ways caused at the time nearly equaled his contributions, so that the Ansu royal house of six hundred years ago was forced to devote considerable effort to helping the Wilde family stabilize the Northland situation, lest the Northland Duke's "paroxysmal disappearances" throw the frontier into chaos. Had he lived in the Second Dynasty, when the royal house's hold on power had greatly declined, Mo Jin Wilde's impetuous conduct might even have provoked a new schism.

So in the end, the nobles and scholars who studied history could only decline to pass judgment on the life of this "absurd archduke." They recorded the duke's life in ambiguous terms and left behind no conclusion at all; indeed, were it not for the "Textual Preservation Project" launched in the first year of the Cecil calendar, many precious historical records concerning Mo Jin would never have been unearthed at all.

"What a character..."

Gao Yang laughed, then sighed and rose from behind the desk.

He walked over to the "world map" hanging nearby and let his gaze drift slowly across it.

Mo Jin Wilde had left behind far too many mysteries...

Gao Yang sighed inwardly. He took a pen from the small rack beside him and touched its tip to the landmass representing Thalrond, opposite the Eternal Storm—though this land was merely a sketch, not nearly so accurate or detailed as the Loren Continent. After a moment of hesitation and thought, he moved the pen tip out over the sea to the west of Thalrond, left a mark there, and beside it drew a question mark.

"Another tower, is there..."

He murmured softly to himself, his gaze drifting downward until it came to rest on the coastline where Northport lay.

"A world full of the unknown..."