However, Saulâs smug smile didnât last long.
As he gently flipped open the title page, and, unsurprisingly saw the first golden page again, a slight frown crept onto his face.
âThis golden page still isnât reacting. Am I just not capable of controlling it yet?â
Saul tried several methods, but the golden page gave no response whatsoever.
âForget it. Letâs take a look at the pages behind it, see if there are any other changes in the mental realm.â
He decided to check the section with the white pages.
When the diary first appeared before him, it had opened directly to the middle, where words began to appear. Saul had never seen the pages before that.
He was a bit curiousâif the earlier white pages also had content, could they perhaps record the experiences of the diaryâs previous owner?
But when he gently flipped past the first page, his eyesâfull of curiosity and reverenceâsuddenly froze in place.
âHuh? Another golden page?â Saul stared blankly at the newly appeared second page.
He was certain that after seeing the first golden page, since he couldnât figure out its use at the time, he had turned to check out the newly obtained half-black page instead.
During that flip, the page following the golden one had clearly been an ordinary white page.
So where did this second golden page come from? And when did it appear in the diary?
âNot only can I still not figure out what the golden pages are for, now thereâs a second one out of nowhere⊠When did this one show up?â
He closed his eyes, trying to recall his recent use of the diary.
âI hadnât been paying close attention to the diaryâs pages lately, so maybe this second one appeared a while ago and I just didnât notice. But the golden page is so mysteriousâit canât have just appeared on its own.â
Saul tried to recall the scene when he first encountered the golden page.
The soul storm, the deep ocean that appeared while he was unconscious, the massive sun above his head that could be traversedâŠ
Despite all those strange visions, the real core was that deranged manâVictor.
No, not VictorâŠ
âI almost forgot his name.â Saul rubbed his forehead. âOh, right. Itâs Kismet.â
âThatâs right,â Saul suddenly remembered somethingâsomething he hadnât paid much attention to, and even the Tower Master had overlooked!
âThat guy once sent me a letter.â
That clouded, cryptic letter had completely vanished after Saul read it.
âThe appearance of the first golden page was definitely related to Kismet. This second one probably is too.â
Saul thought it very likely that the second golden page was also Kismetâs doing.
âAfter I got the first golden page, that guyâs attitude⊠seemed to shift a little.â With this suspicion, Saul immediately began recalling details related to Kismet.
âSo that letter he sent afterward wasnât just to provoke me? If he really sent the second page⊠then he probably knows about the diaryâs existence.â
âI still know far too little about him. Itâs best not to make contact for now.â
Even though the second page might have come from Kismet, Saul still couldnât be sure of the manâs intentions.
But thinking of how the guy always orchestrated deaths through the hands of others, Saul knew he had to be careful.
Who knew what kind of hidden scheme might be behind this âgiftâ?
Setting aside Kismetâs possible motives for now, Saul continued examining the two golden pages.
He gently tugged at them. The texture was the same as when heâd first touched them on the ocean surfaceâsmooth and tender like a babyâs skin. But no matter how hard Saul tried, he couldnât leave a single mark on the pages.
And the binding between the pages and the diary was flawless, as if the diary had always included these two golden sheets.
âHah, Iâve got absolutely no clue. But come to think of it, even though this thing is called a diary, all the writing appears on its ownâI never wrote a word myself. If someday I could write on it⊠then wouldnât I be able to control peopleâs life and death?â
Saul began daydreaming a little to soothe his frustration.
âDead Wizardâs Diary⊠is it because Iâm not a Dead Wizardâs yet? Or am I just missing a pen that can leave a mark on it?â
He shook his head and finally gave up. He flipped the page againâthe next one was indeed a white page.
Even though the golden pages were clearly more valuable than white ones, they also meant uncontrollability, and more unexpected developments.
The following white page really did have words on it.
And these were words Saul had never seen appear before during any of his page-turning.
Maybe the diary had deliberately hidden them from him before.
But strangely, Saul couldnât recognize a single one of these characters.
Still, from the layout and formatting, it looked just like the diary entries he had seen before.
He flipped through the pages quickly. Most of the text that followed was also unreadable.
More than that, some of the characters looked very strange, and when he stared at them, heâd faintly feel like people were walking around nearby.
But when he stopped reading and looked up, those walking figures disappeared.
Saul lowered his head again. This time, instead of staring at the white-page characters, he flipped through them rapidly.
Roughly every few pages, the diaryâs script would change.
If each type of script corresponded to a past diary owner⊠then this diary had passed through quite a few hands.
Not only that, but Saul also noticed: the last page of each script section always had just a very short sentence.
Strangely, when he looked at those short sentences, he could somehow guess their meaning instinctively.
âYou are dead.â
âLooks like the past owners of the Dead Wizardâs Diary didnât exactly meet good ends.â
Finally, he flipped to the first page of his own entries.
This Dead Wizard Diary had set Saul on a new path, but it had also dragged him into deeper entanglements.
He kept flippingâŠ
And flippingâŠ
âHuh, something to be proud of at least. So far, the combined number of pages used by the previous owners doesnât even match mine. Did none of them run experiments? Or were they not even wizards to begin with?â
He turned to the very last pageâit was the diaryâs warning about the Seed of Malice.
But when Saul tried to turn further, he discovered that despite the thick-looking stack of white pages left, they all flipped by at once, and what appeared before him were black pages.
It was as if the diary didnât want Saul to know how many blank pages it had left.
Or maybe the blank pages didnât actually have an end at all.
âEach black page represents a personâs souls. This is my mental realm, but the black pages havenât turned into human forms like the souls Morden absorbed. The diary mustâve altered their shapes.â
âBut if the diary can absorb other peopleâs souls and turn them into black pages, then it must consume soul energy in the process⊠Could that process be reversed?â
As he thought this, Saul picked up one of the black pages.
He figured he could try it out with Hermanâs page.
He started by silently saying in his heart, âRestore Herman to his original soul form,â but the diary didnât respond.
Then Saul tried channeling his mental energy to command the black page.
Still nothing.
He frowned, âThis is the mental realm, and using my mind still doesnât work. If I am consciousness itself, thenâŠâ
He gave the page a slight tug, and the black page actually tore off in his hand, perfectly whole.
Then, the page started heating up slightly, and the mental feedback to Saulâs brain began to grow erratic.
It felt like a balloon on the verge of bursting.
Saul immediately threw the page away.
It landed on the stone platform, and in an instant, it expandedâgrowing longer and larger, its outer appearance even gaining vibrant color.
In just a few breaths, the black page actually transformed into the form of Herman.
(End of Chapter)
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