Chapter 477: The Last Supper

“I told you that boy Howard is good at making friends. Look at this…”

“This was supposed to be a perfectly ordinary dinner, yet it allowed Daeli Duke and Mr. Sean to reunite after so long. This is what you call fate!”

“Well done, you little rascal.”

Viscount Mockray gave Howard an approving look, then raised his glass to Daeli and Sean. “Daeli Duke, Mr. Sean, on behalf of the Grev Family, I raise this glass to you. May you grow old together and be blessed with a happy union for all eternity.”

“I will drink first!”

Daeli: “…”

Sean: “…”

‘What kind of talk was that?’

‘Anyone who knew what was going on would know this was just a dinner party. Anyone who didn’t would think Daeli and I were getting married.’

Viscount Mockray’s words actually had a dual meaning.

Both Sean and Daeli understood. He was subtly trying to take credit for his son, Howard.

If Howard hadn’t happened to make a friend like Sean and invite him to be a guest of the Grev Family, who knew when Daeli and Sean would have seen each other again.

And it was, indeed, the truth.

So Daeli graciously played along. She smiled and said, “I’ll dispense with the pleasantries. From this night on, the Blazing Angel Family and the Grev Family are friends. If you ever need assistance in the future, Viscount Mockray, you may send word to me.”

Mockray: “!!!”

“Thank you, Daeli Duke!”

He said excitedly, standing up abruptly. He called his wife over, and they toasted Daeli with another glass.

Mockray hadn’t expected Daeli to be so “generous.”

Not just anyone could become a friend of the Blazing Angel Family.

As far as he knew, even the Potter Earl Family, masters of the entire Austinburg State, had not earned the title of “friend” despite doing so much for the Blazing Angel Family.

This just went to show how good a mood Daeli Duke was in tonight.

More importantly, it showed just how important his son’s new friend was to Daeli Duke.

‘That boy Howard really lucked out this time.’

‘No, it wasn’t just Howard. The entire Grev Family had lucked out.’

Daeli also smiled, raised her wine glass, and clinked it with the Grevs’ from a distance in a return gesture.

Sean instinctively grabbed her wrist and whispered, “I remember you can’t drink alcohol.”

Daeli glanced at him. “Then why aren’t you drinking it for me?”

Sean: “…”

‘So that’s what you were waiting for?’

‘Fine, I’ll drink!’

Without another word, Sean snatched the glass from her and downed it in one gulp.

Seeing this, Viscount Mockray couldn’t help but sigh in admiration. “Daeli Duke and Mr. Sean are truly close.”

Everyone here was intelligent; some things were understood without being said. For instance, everyone present was a Reshaper.

Daeli’s phrase, “after all these years,” had already revealed a great deal.

She and Sean were husband and wife in their past life, and possibly the one before that, or even earlier. To be able to remember one’s beloved in every life and remain devoted to them for an entire lifetime was an exceedingly rare thing.

He could admit it without fear of ridicule: he himself had failed to do so.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to. The act of “Reshaping” itself was a struggle against fate. The cycle of life and death was this world’s most primal and inviolable rule. After death, a soul returns to the Sea of Souls. There, it is scoured and cleansed by waves formed from other souls. This process erases all of a person’s previous memories. Only when it has become a clean, pure new soul is it released back into the mortal world at an opportune moment.

This was the foundational theory upon which the Church Court’s First Saintess, Olivia, had based her research into the Reshaping Technique.

To resist the scouring of the Sea of Souls and reincarnate with one’s memories intact, a Wizard needed two things: an incredibly deep-seated obsession and a soul powerful enough to withstand the process. The two were indispensable. Otherwise, one would end up like him. After being Reshaped, he only remembered his former identity. He recalled that he seemed to have a wife, but who she was, what she looked like… he couldn’t remember any of it clearly.

The world was mostly full of “ordinary people.” They didn’t have noble statuses to begin with, and they forgot too much after being Reshaped. Rather than dwelling on the past, it was better to forget everything and start anew. For the vast majority of Wizards, this was the best choice.

To them, the meaning of Reshaping was simply to give their next self a better Talent than others, allowing them to get a head start. As for everything else… it wasn’t important.

It couldn’t be helped. Who could they blame but themselves for not being strong enough to endure the soul’s scouring?

Many people thought Grand Mages were incredible, making it their life’s pursuit and goal to become one. But they didn’t know that Grand Mages had their own kind of helplessness. It was just like the saying that spread from the Hall of Truth during the Era of Polymath: “The more you know, the less you know.” The higher one’s Tier, the more one understands that many things are beyond human control. Even reaching Tier Ten is not enough to defy the great power of time. That is why so many Scholars later began to research the Path of Divinity.

But for an ordinary Wizard, achieving godhood was far too remote. Whether you were willing to accept it or not, the only ultimate fate was to be endlessly Reshaped, gradually becoming a different version of yourself under the repeated scouring of your soul.

Viscount Mockray himself was one of them.

This was his third time being Reshaped, so he understood the weight behind Sean’s cry of “Wife.”

If Daeli and Sean hadn’t loved each other to the bone, their affection would have long been drowned in the river of time. How could they have had this reunion tonight?

Only Daeli herself knew.

Sean did indeed love her very much.

But he didn’t *only* love her.

She just didn’t want to bring up Olivia and ruin the mood.

Although Sean’s reaction tonight had made her a little angry, compared to the joy of their reunion, that bit of anger was nothing.