Hate Me, Witch!-Chapter 109: A New Historical Echo

Chapter 109: A New Historical Echo

The next day.

When Xia Ya opened his eyes again, he saw that the sky outside the window was still dark, with only a faint glimmer of light on the distant horizon.

It was that moment right before dawn—the darkest hour of the night.

In the deathly silence before sunrise, he could faintly hear the slow, steady breathing from the Meditation Room in the distance.

Last night, after washing the dishes, Ai had ultimately kept her promise, letting Xia Ya enjoy his long-awaited dream of a perfect lap pillow—complete with a micro skirt—right in bed.

So that night, Xia Ya had slept incredibly well.

But when he awoke, there was no one beside him.

Only a neatly folded quilt remained, along with the soft, lingering scent of sandalwood unique to a young girl.

That was Ai Lora’s routine. She woke up at 5:30 every day and went to the Meditation Room to cultivate. Ever since they moved into this mansion in the Black Lily District, she had never missed a day.

Even now, with her Rhongomyniad lineage confirmed by the Imperial Royal Family—officially verifying her Legendary-tier potential—Ai Lora's daily training routine hadn’t changed at all.

Xia Ya stretched lazily, got up, and began washing up.

On the wooden table downstairs was a steaming hot sandwich, next to which lay a handwritten note in elegant script: "There's warm milk in the kitchen."

This was their long-established routine. Xia Ya was the better cook, but except for special occasions, all other meals were handled by Ai.

It wasn’t that Xia Ya was shirking responsibility—it was Ai Lora’s insistence. She insisted on waking up early every day to cook for Xia Ya.

At first, her cooking was a little clumsy, but over time, influenced by Xia Ya’s presence, Ai Lora’s culinary skills had far surpassed ordinary chefs and could now even rival those of the palace cooks.

After finishing the sandwich and milk, Xia Ya stood up again.

Usually, around this time, he would head to the Meditation Room to accompany Ai.

Training wasn’t the main goal—unlike Ai, Xia Ya didn’t really rely on meditation to advance his own level. His real purpose was to admire his little wife’s beauty while she meditated.

That moment when the sunlight gently kissed her profile… it looked just like one of those sword-fighting girls kneeling in a dojo from his previous life’s anime—no, wait—spear-wielding girls. It was nothing short of breathtaking.

But today, Xia Ya didn’t do that. Instead, he returned to the second floor, entered the study, and closed the door.

He lit the magitech lamp inside, then closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into his spiritual world.

In the pitch-black ocean, there were three bright, spacious little worlds. The little Snow Ferret, the Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey, and the red Star-Spirit puffball were all sleeping peacefully in their respective domains.

However, beyond those three soul realms, there was another shadowy space.

This space had clearly been established—it existed—but it was entirely filled with some sort of dim, murky substance.

In theory, this shadowed space was Xia Ya’s fourth Soul Pact realm.

Back during the Borgia family’s engagement banquet, it was right after he shot Warwick and officially broke off the engagement that his spirit reached completion, allowing him to break through from Third-Ring to Fourth-Ring in one leap.

And based on his current spiritual capacity, after that breakthrough, Xia Ya’s level was already very close to the Fifth-Ring.

In theory, all he needed now was to sign a pact with a strong new Summoned Beast to complete the fourth Soul Pact. The feedback from the pact could very well help him jump straight to the Fifth-Ring and become a Master-Tier Beastmaster.

If he got lucky, and signed a powerful high-tier beast for the fifth Soul Pact, the boost from that feedback could bring him within striking distance of the Sixth-Ring Titled Tier.

A Beastmaster with their own unique title—that would be enough to place him among the top powerhouses of the entire Western Continent.

But now, Xia Ya had run into something totally unprecedented—or rather, something so unheard of, it might not exist anywhere else in the entire Transcendent World.

His fourth Soul Pact realm—which by all logic should’ve been newly opened and still unsigned—was already occupied the moment he broke through to Fourth-Ring.

What’s worse, he had no way of identifying the source that had taken up this space.

Utterly absurd.

Xia Ya focused his thoughts, and a glowing system interface appeared in his mind.

「Fourth Soul Pact (Xia Ya Egut)」

「Pact Status: Equal Contract (Signed)」

「Contract Target: Unknown (Permission Level Insufficient)」

「Species: Unknown (Permission Level Insufficient)」

「Species Tier: Unknown (Permission Level Insufficient)」

「Combat Level: Unknown (Permission Level Insufficient)」

What the f***.

I’ve only been a Fourth-Ring Beastmaster for a few hours. How the h*ll did I sign a pact without even knowing it?

And it’s not even a Master-Servant Contract—it’s an Equal Contract?!

Staring at the lines of text on the system panel, Xia Ya felt speechless.

But then he noticed a tiny line of text at the bottom of the glowing blue interface.

「Friendly Reminder: Complete your first official quest to unlock more unknown data permissions」

Alright, alright. So you're just waiting for me to bite, huh?

Xia Ya stared at the line, falling into deep thought.

To be honest, after completing the Beginner Quest, Xia Ya had no plans to tackle the first official quest right away.

Because—let’s be real—this system was sketchy as hell.

That weird Beginner Quest at the start already conned him into that Historical Echo, and that would’ve been bad enough…

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But the most outrageous part was that everything in that Historical Echo turned out to be real.

After completing the quest, Xia Ya had actually asked the Military Department’s Intelligence Division to collect past info on other Historical Echoes. The intel showed… all those other Echoes triggered by people were nothing more than ancient secret realms, or historical mirages.

Those Historical Echoes contained treasure, Transcendent materials, Holy Relics, even ancient beast eggs… if you were lucky, you’d walk away with great loot. But that was it.

They were just reenactments of past history… no one had ever actually traveled to the past or influenced real historical events.

So, looking back on his own Beginner Quest—it was genuinely terrifying.

That was cause and effect flipped on its head.

Of course, the results of Xia Ya’s first instance were good…

He completed the quest, earned a pile of rewards, and even got Sylvia—a white-haired wife who buried herself for five hundred years just to reunite with him—for free.

But Xia Ya hadn’t forgotten what his system was called, or what it said when it first activated.

【Heavenly Fate Villain System】

【So-called humanity is nothing more than beasts who don’t praise life without sacrifice. Naive, ignorant children only grow up after knowing pain. Only blood and death can nurture beautiful flowers.】

【So let this world taste agony!】

This thing was evil from the core.

If he’d really followed the mission requirements… then that Historical Echo of the Cangting Principality would’ve been perfectly complete the moment he backstabbed Sylvia.

If Xia Ya hadn’t gone through all that effort to redeem himself—driven by some deeply personal reasons, fighting hard and pulling off a bunch of outrageous plays—then what he’d have faced yesterday in reality wouldn’t have been a time-traveling reunion… but a time-traveling revenge.

And the whole vibe of the Argent Witch would’ve shifted into some Yuno Gasai-type character—pretty face, blood-splattered cheeks.

“Brother Xia Ya, I finally found you.”

“That stab back then… how should I repay it, piece by piece?”

“Should I cut across? Or should I go lengthwise? Should I start from the head? Or the feet?”

True Bad End: The Yandere Route.

And honestly, after taking revenge on the Borgia family and reuniting with Sylvia, Xia Ya’s drive to grow stronger had already cooled down a bit.

Even without relying on the system’s help—just following a proper step-by-step path for a few years, or even decades—he was confident he could still reach Legendary-tier, maybe even surpass the Throne boundary.

But…

After hearing about the ancient organization hidden behind the scenes—“Golden Dawn”—and what Isadella had said about the Holy Sword and Holy Spear awakening, that chaos was coming…

A sense of urgency began to grow in Xia Ya’s heart.

On the surface, everything around him looked great. The old noble houses in the Imperial Capital were currently leaderless, and the Second Imperial Princess he had allied with—along with the royal family behind her—had the upper hand. Plus, he had a Throne-tier Tower Master from the White Chalk Tower right at his side.

But if a disaster on the scale of the “Era of Cataclysm” were truly to descend… then all this thriving tranquility could shatter like an illusion in the blink of an eye.

Throne-tier was on par with demi-gods—or angels. But even during the Cataclysmic Era, there were plenty of saints and angels who bled and died.

He calmly closed his eyes, emptying his thoughts.

A long moment later, he made his decision.

“I’d rather take some risks and suffer a bit now…”

“…than one day look back in regret, asking why I didn’t try harder when I had the chance.”

The next moment, an old mechanical pocket watch appeared in his hand.

【Flashback Pocket Watch】

【Rarity: Purple】

【Category: One-time Transcendent Item】

【Price: 15 Tokens】

【Description: Records the current spatial coordinates and state of the holder when used.】

【Upon second activation—or if the host nears death—the item will trigger, returning the host’s state and location (including any touched objects or lifeforms) to the previously recorded point.】

【If triggered during a Historical Echo, it will forcibly eject the host from the Echo and restore their state.】

【Note: After one use, the “Flashback Pocket Watch” becomes a “Broken Pocket Watch,” requiring Space-Time Transcendent Resources or 10 Sands of Time to repair.】

This had been Xia Ya’s backup plan for the banquet—the reason he was confident he could escape with Ai even in the face of a Legendary-tier threat.

But thanks to Sylvia showing up, he hadn’t needed to use the Flashback Pocket Watch, so now it was just perfect for today.

The Historical Echo for his first official quest—this place called “Aisgania”—no matter how much Xia Ya had searched, he couldn’t find a single clue.

But based on the common trait of Historical Echoes appearing near existing ruins, and the fact that this one had been triggered inside the Sins & Thorns Club…

It could be reasonably deduced that “Aisgania” likely existed somewhere within today’s Imperial Capital.

The Fresta Empire was founded in Year 1 of the Sacred Calendar, meaning “Aisgania” could have been a place name from the Old Era before the Sacred Calendar began.

And with historical records from the Old Era being fragmented and incomplete, it was no wonder Xia Ya couldn’t find anything.

He reached out and pressed the button on the old mechanical pocket watch.

Since there was no intel on “Aisgania,” that also meant there was no way to make targeted preparations.

The final boss of the Cangting Principality’s Beginner Quest had been a sealed Twilight Ancient God, plus a peak Fifth-Ring villain like Norton. Who knew what kind of danger this official quest's “Aisgania” might hold?

“This time I’ve prepared a failsafe for the worst-case scenario. Shouldn’t be a repeat of last time, where I passed out in the washroom and made little Ai worry.”

Listening to the long, calm breaths of the girl in the distant Meditation Room, Xia Ya smiled to himself.

The next moment, he focused his thoughts.

【You have entered the Historical Echo — “Aisgania.”】

And just like that, Xia Ya’s figure rapidly faded, then slowly vanished.

Inside the study, everything froze.

Except, in that frozen space-time, one pure white figure remained unaffected.

Meow—

A white cat gracefully leapt onto the windowsill.

It looked over the still scene in the study, argent eyes deep in thought.