A day later, my teacher took me on a journey. The two of us were heading to the northern states, which were on a different continent.
Getting there would take two to three weeks by horse-drawn carriage, followed by a sea voyage of nearly a month by ship.
So, if you calculated it, it was two weeks to the port by carriage, a month to cross the ocean by ship, and then another week by carriage.
The carriage we used was quite comfortable. Despite not being nobles or officials, Chroniclers were generally treated like royalty, or even better.
The seats inside were plush and the space was ample. In the back, there was a chest for our belongings.
We set off in the morning, as the sun was rising. We passed through dense forests where monsters and wild beasts often appeared. We also crossed vast grasslands, with colorful flowers growing wild.
Midway through the journey, my teacher asked, "What all did you pack? You didn't forget your fishnet underwear, did you? Hahaha..." She laughed.
She was teasing me with her favorite joke, the one about the fishnet underwear. "Well, I didn't forget, since most of my own are gone anyway," I said, annoyed.
Irritated by her joke, I turned my face to look out the window. Outside, there were only tall, massive trees; we were on a forest road.
In the distance, I saw a tower. It must be a derelict castle, I thought.
Though it was far, the tower's immense and striking size allowed me to see it clearly. I could make out the size of its walls, the glass window frames, and the figure of a woman in a white dress behind one of them.
Wait... a woman? In a derelict castle? In the middle of a forest? Damn, I must be seeing things. It seems my eyes are starting to play tricks on me, I thought.
I rubbed my eyes and checked again to see if what I saw was real or just a trick of the light.
Ahahaha... I wasn't mistaken. It was indeed a woman, with her back to the window.
Could she be the castle's guardian? Or... a ghost?
"Teacher, I see something over there," I told my teacher what I saw. "It's in the right window of the tower," I said, pointing deep into the forest toward it.
My teacher rose from her seat and looked out the window, then said casually, "Ah… that is The Wife, a figure manifested from a vow."
I didn't understand what she meant, so she told me to open the book to page 002, which contained the following:
APPELLATION: The Wife
TITLE / EPITHET: The Eternal Promise, Guardian of the Empty Bed, Echo of a Final Vow
CLASSIFICATION:
* Primary: Legendary
* Status: Bound
* Scale: Local
* Tier: Bound
ORIGIN: She is an echo made real. At the dawn of time, when the world was young, a Dawn King—an entity whose name is long forgotten—spoke a wedding vow to his queen. The vow was uttered with such pure and absolute power, a promise "for all time" that it bound reality itself. The King later faded with time, his power eroded by the ages. The vow, however, remained. The Wife is not the spirit of the queen, but the vow itself, having taken the ethereal form of the woman who once received it.
FORM / ESSENCE: Her essence is the Conceptual Echo of a Vow. She is the embodiment of the concepts of loyalty and an unbreakable promise. She is not entirely physical, existing on the border between memory and reality.
APPEARANCE & PERCEPTION: Her presence is preceded not by terror, but by a deep, baseless melancholy. The air might suddenly carry the scent of an unfamiliar perfume or the smell of ozone just after a lightning strike. The soft humming of a lullaby might drift from an empty room. Visually, she is only ever seen in glimpses—a faded figure in a gown with her back to the observer, a silhouette in a rainy window, or a reflection in a mirror that vanishes when you turn. Her face is never seen, as if her own identity has faded with her husband, leaving only her role as "The Wife."
DOMAIN & INFLUENCE: Her domain is that of bonds and promises. In her presence, all vows and promises become tangible and supernaturally binding.
* Passive Influence: A promise spoken near her presence becomes etched into reality. To break it invites strange and inescapable misfortune.
* Active Influence: She is drawn to strong bonds of love and loyalty. Sometimes, she "mistakes" a faithful husband for her lost king, and slowly pulls the man out of reality to "keep her company" in her timeless dimension of memory. To the outside world, the person simply vanishes without a trace.
VULNERABILITIES & COUNTERMEASURES: She cannot be fought with violence, as she is not a being of aggression.
* Sincere Empathy: Showing genuine understanding and empathy for her sorrow and loss can temporarily soothe her, causing her manifestation to fade. She responds to sorrow, not threats.
* Objects of Betrayal: She is conceptually weak to artifacts that symbolize a broken promise. A wedding ring intentionally snapped, a signed divorce letter, or undeniable proof of infidelity will create a painful "dissonance" for her, forcing her to retreat.
* Vow Paradox: Uttering a new vow that logically contradicts her existence (e.g., "I vow to make you forget your vow") can create a conceptual paradox that temporarily paralyzes her as her essence tries to process the impossible promise.
ECHOES IN HISTORY & MYTH: The legend of "The Faceless Queen of the Dusty Castle" tells of a queen who loved her king so much that after his death, she refused to leave the castle. She continued to await his return, and her loyalty was so strong that even after her body turned to dust, her promise remained, haunting the empty halls as a guardian of eternal fidelity. It is said that any new couple who takes residence in the castle's ruins will either be bound forever, or vanish together.
WHISPERS & FRAGMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE:
"In some quiet places, a promise isn't just words. Be careful what you say."
"She doesn't haunt a place. She haunts a promise."
"They say the reason her face is never seen is because she is waiting for her husband to be the only one to see it again. And she will wait forever."
Scribe's Note: Of all the entities recorded, this is perhaps the most tragic. She is not a monster to be vanquished, but a love story that has decayed into an anomaly. There is a real danger in her presence, yet it is hard to feel anything but sympathy. My greatest fear in writing this was not being attacked, but being swept away by the endless tide of her sorrow.
Suddenly, I smelled a perfume I had never smelled before. Then I asked, "Teacher, so... is she a ghost or something?" I asked my teacher, holding the open book after I had read the page.
My teacher sat back down in her seat and replied, "Calling her a ghost isn't entirely accurate, because she isn't a living being, as it says in the book."
She opened the window and pulled a cigarette from her pocket. "She is not a dead being, but rather a concept so powerful that it manifested into a form," she said, lighting the cigarette in her mouth.
"A concept that came to life?" I looked back out the window. The white-gowned figure behind the glass didn't seem intimidating, I thought.
My teacher took a drag from her cigarette and said, "Yes, a vow so pure and absolute that it formed a bound figure." Smoke billowed from her mouth, curling and getting sucked out the window.
With my gaze still fixed outside, I asked, "Then isn't she dangerous?"
"That is a frequently asked question. People often ask about things they don't know, starting with whether it's dangerous."
My teacher paused for a moment to take a drag. She was always like that. She'd speak, then pause, take a drag, and then continue.
"A question like 'is it dangerous' is common, because we living beings are reluctant to approach or understand anything at the risk of danger."
My teacher then said, "We humans first try to determine if they are dangerous or not. We prioritize our own safety when encountering a new phenomenon, without considering what we, as beings, could contribute to this phenomenon."
"They might be dangerous, but that's because we are more focused on and prioritize looking for the danger."
Then my teacher said to me, "Try reading the influence and vulnerabilities section," she instructed, referring to the page about The Wife.
I read it again and focused on the instructed part. My teacher then continued, "You see, you can tell who is truly dangerous—her to us, or us to her."
I read it and, well, I could conclude that what my teacher said was true. There was a big difference between her influence and her weaknesses.
There were only two influences, and one of them was very useful for binding a couple's vows, I guessed. Meanwhile, there were three vulnerabilities, all of them non-physical.
She only sometimes mistook someone for her partner. I guess that wasn't a crime she committed on purpose. And I would be angry if the proof of my own bond were destroyed, but unlike her, she would weaken and retreat.
I guess she is very sincere about it, so even when rejected she doesn't get angry, she just leaves.
My teacher then said, "Well? Do you understand what I mean?" I replied, "Only a little. I'm still hesitant."
Without realizing it, we had arrived somewhere. Our carriage had stopped. We had reached a town, our first stop to rest after a full day of travel.
My teacher and I then stepped out of the carriage, and she said, "Sometimes we don't have to respond to everything based on its danger. Instead, we should think about what we can do about it, as rational and emotional beings."
I got out with the book in my arms. My teacher then looked up. "The Wife is not a figure you should fight with violence or even magic." Her gaze shifted to me. "She just needs sincere feelings and empathy."
We then gathered our things and booked an inn for the night and had dinner.
My teacher and I entered the reception area, where we were warmly greeted by the woman standing behind the reception desk.
My teacher chatted and booked everything we needed for tonight until tomorrow afternoon. Meanwhile, I glanced around, as the reception area was adjacent to the dining hall. I could see many people sitting and eating; some were chatting while drunk.
As I focused on my surroundings, I heard a man complaining. He said, "What a shame! She's so beautiful, and I liked her so much," he shouted drunkenly.
The man took a swig from his bottle of alcohol and then said, "I already promised her on our first date, and I even proposed to her in a very romantic place."
"I proposed to her in a magnificent castle in the middle of a forest, and she accepted. The atmosphere there was even very supportive of us." He looked very drunk, his body slumped over the table.
"So why did she suddenly call it off and reject my proposal?" But his mouth still didn't stop talking.
His friend, sitting across the table, patted his back. "I can't believe she'd cancel without a reason," he said. "Are you sure you didn't do something, my friend?"
The drunk man then spontaneously replied, "I don't think so... it was just because I slept with another woman last night that she called it off."
Ah, so that's it. This fool, despite having made a promise, was still playing around with other women. He was stupid and idiot, I thought.
"That is the effect of making a promise near The Wife," my teacher said. She had finished booking our room.
I looked at my teacher, and she continued, "Even though that woman doesn't know the man broke his vow, the binding effect from making a vow near The Wife works directly."
So, I understood what my teacher meant. The man had gone on a date with his woman at a castle, which turned out to be the one we saw this afternoon.
They made their vow there and it was immediately binding, and as soon as one of them broke it, the effect worked instantly, like the woman suddenly calling it off.
"The effect won't stop here," my teacher said. "That man probably won't be able to make a promise again, or his promises will never be accepted or heard."
"So, will he be single for the rest of his life?" I asked innocently. "Yes, it's possible," my teacher replied, taking my hand.
My teacher pulled me towards our room and said, "If you ever like a man someday, be careful with your promises. If you break them, you will face the consequences."
I'll remember not to make any promises around The Wife, I thought, following her.