"They really are a fascinating young couple, and I'm almost certain that they come from the south," Lia said.

"The south? I bet they're no ordinary people, right?" the elderly man asked.

In his eyes, there was no way that such a poem could've been made by any ordinary woman.

Lia nodded in response, then smiled as he asked, "Are you willing to come with me now?"

"You were never planning to give me a choice in the first place, were you?" the elderly man asked with an amused expression. "I could tell from the moment you came in that you weren't going to take no for an answer."

"You're right," Lia replied with a wry smile. "I really am in desperate need of people. Otherwise, I wouldn't have come to you on such short notice. At my age, things like dignity and reputation don't matter anymore. I'm going to take you with me even if I have to tie you up and kidnap you."

"Do you really have to do this? You're already an old man as well, can't you just settle down and enjoy your retirement?" the elderly man sighed before continuing to smoke his pipe.

"Quit trying to stall for time and complaining about this and that. Hurry up and pack your things, and we're going to set off as soon as you're ready," Lia urged, and it seemed that the decision had already been taken out of the elderly man's hands.

"Take a look: what do you think I need to bring with me?" the elderly man asked as he took a carefree glance around the room, indicating that there were no belongings here that he wasn't willing to leave behind.

"Alright, then let's go!" Lia urged in an impatient voice.

"These bottles have to be thrown out. Otherwise, insects will start breeding in them," the elderly man said as he gestured toward all of the empty bottles lined up in the room.

"Then what are you still waiting for?" Lia asked with an exasperated expression.

"I'm waiting for you to help me do this together," the elderly man replied with a justified expression.

Lia was rendered speechless upon hearing this.

Thus, the two of them began to work.

All of a sudden, Lia stopped what he was doing before turning to the elderly man as he asked, "If you end up not coming back from this trip, I would've really screwed you over, wouldn't I?"

The elderly man faltered slightly upon hearing this, then replied in a philosophical manner, "Well, it's the same idea as picking up all these empty bottles. I know there's a chance I won't be able to come back, but we still have to do what we have to do, don't we?"

It was Lia's turn to fall silent upon hearing this.

After some hard work, the two of them managed to pack all of the empty bottles into two large bags, both of which were very heavy, and they were struggling to carry them.

Prior to leaving the dim and foul-smelling apartment, the elderly man placed his pipe into his mouth and turned around to look at the room one last time. All of his poems were still littered all over the floor. After taking a moment to make sure that everything had been packed up, he promptly closed the door and locked it.

"I was only able to buy this single room with my entire life's savings."

"So?" Lia asked as he turned to him with an amused expression.

"So nothing."

The two of them were standing on the apartment's balcony, and they were just about to make their way downstairs when Lia took a glance over at Mark Street before remarking, "There really are quite a few New Light Church followers around these parts."

"You know what Mark Street is like. There are all types of 'artists' here," the elderly man said as he pursed his lips with a derisive expression.

His remark was a thinly veiled insult toward the young men who were more interested in attracting noblewomen than the pursuit of their art.

"Speaking of the New Light Church, what they are doing is no different from smearing feces all over an artistic masterpiece or ruining the most beautiful musical score with the most terrible of vocal accompaniments. They are committing all these heinous crimes, yet in their eyes, they're doing nothing wrong. It is truly a sad state of affairs," the elderly man said in a sad and frustrated voice.

"What artistic masterpieces could possibly come out of these parts?" Lia jibed as he raised an eyebrow.

The elderly man was rather amused to hear this. "You're right. Most of the artists on these streets are only after the bodies of those foolish noblewomen. They're not capable of producing anything close to deserving of being referred to as masterpieces."

"It's hard to say which side is actually benefiting more from this," Lia said in a placid voice.

"Hold on a minute, you're normally such a righteous and upstanding man, I didn't expect to hear you say something like that. This doesn't really fit with your identity as an elder of the Universal Church," the elderly man chuckled.

"Do you think I'm a little too biased toward these nobles?" Lia asked. At times, he found himself wondering if there were some elements of selfish desires involved in the vision that he was trying to make into reality. For someone like him, he had to think about the greater good at all times, and his own desires could get in the way of that.

"To answer that question, you have to think about where your biases come from," the elderly man replied as he took a meaningful glance at Lia. "In other words, do the people at the bottom of the social hierarchy also share the same type of bias?"

"I haven't even told you what we're going to be doing yet," Lia chuckled.

"Nor have I guessed what your plans are, I was only saying that in response to your question. Could it be that I struck a nerve with what I said?" the elderly man asked.

"Let's talk on the way back to Zans," Lia replied.

The elderly man nodded in response.

By the time the two of them returned to the Holy Rosken Cathedral from Mark Street, Menpo was also almost done b=packing.

Lia was stunned by the sight that he was greeted by upon his return.

Menpo had packed up all of his belongings, including books, scrolls, celestial globes, silver javelins, pieces of small furniture, and all types of other bits and pieces. Almost the entire carriage was filled with his stuff, leaving virtually no place to sit.

In contrast with the elderly man, who was only bringing a pipe with him, Menpo looked as if he were trying to bring his entire house with him.

"Are you... fleeing the continent?" Lia asked as he turned to Menpo with a stunned expression.

The elderly man couldn't help but burst into laughter upon hearing this.

A slightly awkward look appeared on Menpo's face as he asked in a quiet voice, "Am I bringing too much stuff with me? Should I unload some of it?"

The elderly man's amusement was further compounded upon hearing this.

Lia waved a hand in response. "Forget about it, we have to set off right away."

Menpo scratched his own head with an embarrassed expression.

"Is that all you have to pack?" Lia asked.

"Yes, that's all," Menpo hurriedly replied with a nod.

"Joe, prepare to set off."

"Yes, Teacher," Joe replied before making his way to the front of the carriage.

Meanwhile, the trio entered the carriage and began their arduous quest to find somewhere to sit amid all the clutter.

During the process, Menpo was looking at the elderly man with a curious expression, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen this man somewhere before.

...

In the town of Lomu, Erwin was in his room on the airship, and a cloud of black mist suddenly appeared, much like the cloud of black mist that had emerged during his battle against the giant ice dragon that day.

Erwin's brows were furrowed slightly as he felt the space and time around him begin to warp and fracture, and he stood rooted to the spot, at a loss for what to do. It wasn't that he was so shocked that he was unable to even conjure up basic magic defenses to protect himself with. Instead, he was unsure of whether using magic power at a time like this would place him in even greater peril. In the case of his new moon's spell, they were capable of severing space and time, and the more power one drew upon to escape from the spell, the more they would be pulled toward it.

Looking into the center of the cloud of black mist, he felt as if he were looking into a boundless abyss that stretched into infinity in all directions. It was like the black mist was a terrifying giant beast that could devour him at any moment, but as he peered carefully into the cavernous mouth of the beast, he saw boundless mysteries within it, as if it contained all of the world's secrets. The rays of condensed black light were like locks of black hair that were gently caressing his face, as if they were welcoming the arrival of a visitor.

All of a sudden, a gorgeous figure appeared within the cloud of black mist.

She was curled up into a fetal position like an infant that had just been born. Her bare skin was extremely fair and delicate, and it was truly as soft and silky smooth as the skin of an infant.

She seemed to be sound asleep, but there were clear trails of tears on her face. Her eyes were closed in a peaceful fashion, but the set of her brows suggested that she was in a state of agony and despair.

Looking at the familiar face of the red-haired beauty, Erwin's heart jolted violently, and his breathing began to accelerate.

This was the woman that he would often think of while looking out at the light of the setting sun. He would often regret not bringing her with him on his journey to the north, and the last thing he had said to her before they parted ways was "if you miss me, come and find me in the north". Despite this, he would often think to himself that she most likely wasn't going to come. In doing so, she would have to set down her own pride and her status as the princess of the Atlas Empire, and he didn't think that he held a sufficiently important place in her heart for her to do that.

But what if? That was a thought that he could never completely banish from his own mind.

"Lana!" he roared as he charged into the black mist in alarm and horror.

However, in the instant that his fingertips came into contact with the cloud of black mist, it abruptly vanished, along with the woman within the mist. It was as if everything had been nothing more than a dream, and Erwin was left reeling in its wake.

Could it be that by constantly thinking of her, time and space have resonated with my thoughts? Erwin wondered to himself, but he then immediately turned down the idea.

No, that's impossible. Something definitely did happen just now. 

He had clearly just felt the tearing of time and space within the room just now. As a time and space magician, the feeling was far too familiar to him.

Erwin's alarmed roar pierced through space, rousing Lana from her slumber as she laid in a fetal position in a land of snow and ice.

She peeled back her heavy eyelids and was immediately struck by the freezing cold that was converging toward her from all directions. In particular, her back was already almost completely numb from being in contact with the snow and ice on the ground.

She propped herself up with difficulty, then looked around at the vast expanse of whiteness around her, feeling completely lost and disoriented.

Where am I? How am I not dead? Also, why is there so much snow and ice during summer? Lana thought to herself with a stunned expression.

Lana quickly realized that this place had to be the Terarody Mountain Ranges. The Terarody Mountain Ranges were constantly covered in ice and snow all year round.

But how did I get here? she couldn't help but ask herself.

Her last memory prior to waking up here was that she had been completely powerless against Sirius's time and space magic, and she couldn't remember anything after that.

Hmm? This thing followed me here as well! Lana suddenly noticed Erwin's staff, which was lying beside her hand.

She recalled back to how she had tightly embraced the staff at the time, and a deep blush immediately appeared on her face.

She picked up the staff before carefully inspecting it, upon which she discovered something rather peculiar, which was that the Shaved Purple Gem on the tip of the staff had turned into a transparent gemstone that couldn't have been more unremarkable.

However, she clearly recalled that the Shaved Purple Gem was still very much usable during her battle against Sirius and the others.

Once again, she recalled back to what Mistress Faye had said about the staff witnessing the passage of far more time than she had imagined.

There was no way that it was due to any spell unleashed by her that had caused the staff to age so drastically that the magic gemstone had lost its magic power, so there had to have been some other special reason for this.

Thus, she used her magic power to assess the condition of the gemstone, upon which a hint of surprise flashed through her eyes.

The gemstone feels like... a Fall Crystal! Indeed, she could sense faint traces of a Fall Crystal's aura coming from the staff, and she couldn't help but doubt her own judgment.

She didn't know how Fall Crystals were used, but the True Light Church mined a massive quantity of Fall Crystals from the province of Burmen every year near the Terarody Mountain Ranges. She was curious about the material, so she had studied it in secret in the past, and as a result, she wasn't unfamiliar with it.

However, she clearly recalled that this was a Shaved Purple Gem staff, so how could it have anything to do with Fall Crystals?

Could it be that it has something to do with the time and space magic that Sirius unleashed? Lana thought to herself with tightly furrowed brows. Or does it have something to do with the owner of the staff?

She thought of Erwin's time and space magic, and she wondered whether it had exerted some type of subtle influence on the Shaved Purple Gem on the staff over time. She had a feeling that it was perhaps this staff that had saved her life.

However, she was unable to make sense of the situation in the end, so she shook her head to rid herself of this confounding train of thought for now. She decided that she was going to ask Erwin some questions about this the next time they met.

Of course, this wasn't the time to be thinking about things like this. Her top priority at the moment was to get out of these mountain ranges.

A gust of glacial wind blew past, causing her to shiver involuntarily. She looked down at herself, and only then did she discover that she was virtually completely naked.

She couldn't help but let loose a sharp scream and hurriedly clasp her hands over her own private regions upon seeing this. Never had she been in such a humiliating situation.

Her clothes were so tattered that pulling them down on one side would expose the other side, so she had to be very strategic with how she chose to let what remained of her clothes drape over herself.

If Erwin were present, he would be lapping up this glorious sight with glee.