Chapter 48: Miracles Are Only Temporary

Chapter 48: Miracles Are Only Temporary

If Jasmine had still somewhat enjoyed the different gazes from men earlier, now only worry and fear remained.

She quickened her steps again, as though she were being chased by Feysacians.

Finally, before those men could approach, Jasmine rushed into the apartment and escaped them.

Phew… The young girl patted her chest and secretly decided that she would go out at night less often in the future.

Only now did she realize that beauty exceeding imagination had its own downsides as well.

After calming herself, Jasmine climbed the dim staircase to the third floor and returned outside her home. Using the key she carried with her, she opened the door.

Carefully, she approached her parents’ bed and once again borrowed the moonlight to examine their faces.

Compared with when she had left a short while earlier, her father’s and mother’s faces had become quite ruddy. Their white hair and wrinkles had both lessened greatly, and their snores were almost gone.

They really have recovered their health… Jasmine’s smile could not be suppressed, and she breathed out in obvious relief.

Sensing movement, her mother’s eyelids twitched. Slowly, she opened her eyes.

Jasmine held her breath and restrained her smile, preparing to surprise her mother.

Her mother half sat up and looked over. Her expression suddenly turned extraordinarily frightened.

“Who are you?” the woman asked in a sharp voice, forcefully shaking the husband beside her.

Who am I? Jasmine was stunned by the question. For a moment, she actually did not know how to answer this simple matter.

At this time, her father also woke and looked at the beautiful girl before them with both confusion and wariness.

“Get out! Otherwise, I will call the police!” Jasmine’s mother climbed out of bed, picked up the candlestick beside her, and used it as a weapon.

“We do not welcome thieves here.” Jasmine’s father gave a comparatively polite order to leave.

He knew that when facing a thief, one should try not to press too hard, because that could easily make the other party choose an extreme response.

If he did not have a wife and child, he would not be too afraid of fighting a thief. But now, an entire family rested on his shoulders.

Jasmine finally came back to herself and hurriedly spoke.

“Dad, Mom, I’m—”

Before she could finish, her mother’s frantic shoving fell upon her. Her father pressed on her shoulders and pushed her all the way out of the room.

As for what she said, in such circumstances, no one paid any attention.

Clang!

The door of her own home closed in front of her, leaving Jasmine both bewildered and helpless.

She wanted to knock on the door. She wanted to use the key she carried as proof of her identity. But just then, she heard her mother, at the window across the room, shout down to the patrolling police:

“There’s a thief! A thief!”

A thief… Dad and Mom don’t recognize me… Will they think I murdered myself… Will the police believe in the Fully Automatic Wish Machine… Jasmine’s heart tightened. Subconsciously, she decided to leave the apartment first and avoid the police, then wait until daybreak to explain to her father and mother one by one and use their shared memories to win their trust.

Thud, thud, thud. With her head lowered, she hurried down the stairs under the gazes of neighbors who had come out after hearing the commotion, then rushed out of the apartment.

She ran all the way to a nearby alley, avoiding the police who had come from the main street. Panting, Jasmine stopped. Tears slid across her face one after another and fell to the ground.

Suddenly, a hand reached out, covered her mouth, and dragged her to a secluded part of the alley.

“How much? I’ll pay any amount…” A drunken, slurred voice sounded beside Jasmine’s ear. He seemed to have mistaken her for a streetwalker and could not resist her allure.

Jasmine struggled desperately, shocked, afraid, and despairing.

Just as she felt she was about to collapse, the drunkard’s hand loosened.

“Miss, are you all right?” a rough male voice asked.

Jasmine first quickly left the area near the drunkard, then turned around. She saw a policeman wearing a black-and-white checkered uniform.

“He—he wanted to…” As Jasmine spoke, she began crying.

The policeman looked at her with pity and said,

“We will send him to the public security court. However, Miss, you need to come with me to the police station and give a statement.”

Jasmine was in a state of extreme fear and complete helplessness. Subconsciously, she nodded.

Before long, she sat inside the statement room of the nearby police station. Across from her were the policeman from earlier and his colleague.

“So he never asked whether you were a streetwalker, and you never made any gesture implying that you were soliciting customers?” the policeman asked carefully, choosing his words.

He was worried that speaking too directly would hurt the beautiful girl before him.

Jasmine held a cup of coffee and lowered her head, taking a sip.

“Mm. I had only just arrived in that alley.”

“All right. That will be enough. Miss Jasmine, may you tell us where your home is? We will send someone to escort you back.” Another policeman asked with an ingratiating tone.

Thinking of her parents’ reaction and the disgusting gazes she had received, Jasmine could not help shivering. Almost crying, she said,

“I had a quarrel with my parents and cannot go home for now. Perhaps you could send me to the nearest hotel…”

Only after saying this did she remember that she had only a few pennies left on her, with no way to stay in a decent hotel. And to her, a cheap hotel would be almost equal to danger.

The first policeman froze for a moment, then said,

“All right.”

On the way to the nearest hotel, that policeman hesitated several times before finally speaking.

“If—I mean, if—you plan to become a streetwalker, you can come directly to me. There is no need to work so hard…”

Hearing those words, Jasmine felt that her mind was about to collapse. It was nearly the same as what she had felt when she first saw that face after being burned.

It filled her with an extreme lack of security. She remained silent and gave no answer.

Fortunately, the policeman did not force her. He escorted her all the way to the entrance of the nearest hotel.

“There is no need. I can go in myself.” Jasmine rejected his proposal to send her to her room.

After the policeman left, she, who had not truly checked in, quickly walked out of the hotel.

She wanted to go to the municipal square—to the Fully Automatic Wish Machine—and cancel her previous wish.

Such beauty was truly too frightening!

After walking a few steps, Jasmine took off the scarf draped across her shoulders and wrapped it layer after layer around her face, just like when she had first gone out that night.

Back then, her face had still retained traces of burns from fire. Her missing nose and badly damaged lips had made her look like a demon.

After taking a trackless public carriage to the municipal square, she once again entered that street and saw the brass-colored Fully Automatic Wish Machine.

Jasmine’s heart immediately calmed a little. She quickened her pace and arrived before the machine.

Then she grew blank, not knowing how she should operate it to remove her previous wish.

“Your first wish was a free attempt. It does not count among the three wishes, so you still have one wish left.” At that moment, Jasmine heard the voice of Mr. Merlin Hermes.

She turned her head and saw, across the street beside a gas streetlamp, beneath the dim yellow light, that magician in the tall top hat calmly watching her.

“All—All right.” Jasmine hurriedly took out one copper penny and inserted it into the Fully Automatic Wish Machine.

“I wish for my previous wish to be canceled.” She closed her eyes and silently recited the wish while grasping the lever and turning it once.

“Tok.”

She once again heard that slightly muffled knocking sound.

After opening her eyes, Jasmine rushed to the nearby shop and stopped in front of the glass window. She removed, layer by layer, the scarf wound around her face.

She saw herself again—the young girl who could not be called beautiful.

Jasmine immediately relaxed. Instinctively, she turned back to look at the Fully Automatic Wish Machine, only to discover that it and Mr. Merlin Hermes had disappeared together.

“Praise the Goddess. Thank you, Mr. Hermes.” Jasmine sincerely drew four clockwise points on her chest.

Then, holding the last copper penny, she boarded the trackless public carriage home.

No one gave up a seat for her along the way.

When her figure vanished from that street, Klein once again appeared by the roadside, holding a silver mirror with ancient patterns.

“Great Master, why did you not say one final sentence like ‘too much greed will only turn good things bad,’ or ‘wishes always have a price’? That would have made the entire matter seem more philosophical and raised it to the level of a fable.” On the surface of the mirror, silver words leapt out one after another.

Klein smiled.

“The biggest problem was that I could not satisfy her wish to become very, very, very beautiful using normal methods. Lie can only adjust things within a certain range.

“So I had no choice but to graft onto her one effect from a Sealed Artifact originating from a Demoness. This caused her to gain astonishing beauty while also carrying a terrifying charm ability that men around her could not resist.”

That Sealed Artifact belonged to Judgment Xio and was an item left behind by the Demoness Shermane.

Because of a lapse in Xio’s preservation, Shermane’s Beyonder characteristic had fused with the box that contained it, becoming a Sealed Artifact with terrifying negative effects. As a result, even the way Xio’s younger brother looked at that box had become wrong.

To resolve this problem, Xio made a wish to Mr. Fool, asking Him to seal the item.

After casually explaining, Klein glanced at the Magic Mirror.

“Arrodes, are you comforting me?”

“No. The main problem is still that she was too greedy. If she had only wished to become beautiful and not added so many ‘verys,’ the result would have been quite good.” On the mirror’s surface, silver words rapidly appeared.

“That is true. That belongs within the scope Lie can adjust.” Klein nodded and said to Arrodes, “Lie’s adjustment of appearance can indeed be permanently fixed, but it still differs to a certain extent from the original structure of the muscles, skin, and bones. After ten-some years, once she gradually begins showing signs of aging, the difference between the adjusted and unadjusted portions will slowly intensify, and her face will appear quite strange and stiff—unless she truly becomes a Faceless and can constantly correct the problem.”

At this point, Klein smiled and shook his head.

“A lie is ultimately only a lie.”

Then, as he walked toward the other end of the street, he continued,

“Besides, even if she truly became beautiful, whether she would live better in the future would still be unknown. Indeed, beauty can help her obtain many resources and let her marry a ‘prince,’ but her own cultivation, personality, and level of knowledge would likely make it difficult for her to sustain that kind of life for long.

“Of course, it is also possible she is good at learning, capable of enriching herself through different experiences and ultimately gaining control of a beautiful life. But that would be another story.

“Heh. Miracles can only last for a moment. Fate is always long.”

Amid his conversation with the Magic Mirror Arrodes, Klein’s figure gradually vanished at the end of the street.

His understanding of the Miracle Invoker had deepened another level.

…

After returning to the apartment building where her home was, Jasmine did not try to open the door. She mustered a great deal of courage before raising her hand and knocking.

With a creak, the door opened, and her mother appeared before her.

“Oh, you finally came back.” Her mother first breathed out in relief, then asked in extraordinary fear, “Your… your face?”

Jasmine forced a smile.

“It was healed by a gentleman skilled at creating miracles.”

Mr. Fully Automatic Wish Machine.

Just as her mother and father suspected their daughter had been influenced by a devil, several policemen wearing black-and-white checkered uniforms came up the stairs and walked over.

The leader was a lady with pale-blue eyes and a smile that made others feel calm.

“Miss Jasmine, there are some things we would like to ask you.” The lady spoke politely.