Chapter 237: Don’t Go Against the Current
Chapter 237: Don’t Go Against the Current
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The new semester had entered another month.
The girls seemed to have gotten used to their new routine as their aversion towards it had become blunt. Slowly, they turned back to the little obedient girls again.
November arrived and saw the climate start to embrace colder winds. Winter was coming.
Before the present day, a number of small but significant things happened. For example, the man who had sent Laeticia to his doorstep last time, the Paladin Grand Cross, Sir Grunewald, came to visit the Soul Armature again. Apparently, he came to check on Laeticia's progress, but the visit had also served as an opportunity to fill Baiyi in on news regarding the Godsfall cult.
It turned out that the Godsfall cult had suffered incredible damage from their tireless efforts; millions of cultists had been captured; their properties and funds seized, and many of the cult's higher-ups had committed suicide in order to escape sentences. This was a clear indication of the cult collapsing already, and the Church believed that, over time, the entire organization could be uprooted from Isythre once and for all!
These were commendable tidings!
"Master Hope, December 5th would mark the holiest of all holy days in the year. Would you be willing to grace the Holy City by conducting a mass?" The Grand Paladin Cross asked before he left the household.
"Hahaha! Er, we'll see about that! Ha! See you." Baiyi could only delay his reply this way.
December 5th — also known as the Day of Grace. It was as important as the Chinese's New Year, or the West's Christmas Holiday. It was one of the most important days of the year, and Baiyi really did not have the heart to ruin another festival again.
He planned to find a realm and hide there with the girls.
However, the girls had been looking forward to this festival since the month before. He could not find any reason to pour a bucket of cold water over their anticipation, so he considered leaving on his own when that day arrives.
' Spending an important festival alone sounds seriously sad, though 1 .'
Today was their rest day, so there was no class for the girls, who had already seized the chance to frolic around and play. Only Attie was left at home to keep Baiyi's company.
The Kitty Cat Maid did look like a cat as she curled next to the Soul Armature on the couch, fast asleep.
At that moment, there was a knock on the door.
"Hmmm?" Attie was roused pretty quickly, and after she had rubbed her eyes, with "pat-pat-pat" sounds, she sprinted to the door.
When she returned, there was a new guy with her — a bald man whose head seemed to reflect light.
"He said he's a friend of yours." Attie pointed at the bald man.
Baiyi turned his head to face him, and —' Oh my god, who is this Shiny Head here? When have I ever met a guy who looked like he had lost his hair because he chose to forfeit sleep for a long time in order to grind for a rare item in a game?'
"Apologies for the unplanned visit," Baldy said as he extended his left hand, displaying three fingers, which he then placed before his own chest.
The salutation looked very familiar. Baiyi glanced at Baldy's long robe. It was a common, plain white robe, but with a quick sweep using his psychic energy, Baiyi could make out the invisible shape of an eye on his chest.
The man was from the Door of Conundrum.
'Back it up. Why are a bunch of nerds looking for me?' Baiyi was puzzled. He remembered he had donned one of their great sage's uniform back then, so technically, he was a part of this oversized nerd's book club.
He had no choice but to mimic Baldy's action, raising three fingers before his chest as a gesture of an eye 2 .
After having Attie make some tea, Baiyi politely gestured at the man to sit down.
Baldy was very discreet in his behavior. He bowed before the Soul Armature first, then from his inner pocket, he produced an envelope and handed it to him.
"Great Sage Hope, I am Kris, the representative of the Door of Conundrum in Arfin city. The reason for my visit is to pass you the decision made by the Master Sages."
Master Sages were obviously the highest-ranking, decision-making members of the Doors of Conundrum; only the biggest nerds could possibly become one of them. Sometimes, when they got bored of reading, these nerds would start a meeting that ended with a dozen new commands for the rest of the members to follow. Other times, the governance of this organization was divided among the Lodge, the Arbiters, the Executioners, and other such divisions within the order.
Unfortunately, it was the rarity of a direct order from the Master Sages that made their commands irrefutable. Baiyi could only relent and open the envelope.
There were only two plain white papers.
'Gods, these nerds just love doing unnecessary tricks on craps that no one cares about,' Baiyi thought as he jabbed the paper with his psychic energy using a special rhythm and frequency.
Just like that, the words appeared on the papers. This was a special communication technique among the members of the Doors of Conundrum. Their letters were always encrypted so that outsiders would not be able to pry.
How did Baiyi even know their secret? Simple — the encryption method was invented by a certain lifeless nerd who also ended up in the Void.
Baldy accepted the hot tea from Attie and patiently waited for the Soul Armature to finish. When he noticed that Baiyi had finished reading the letter, he added, "I've actually sent a few of our letters to you for the past few days, but never did I receive a reply from you. That is why I am here today."
"Cough! Uh, I probably missed those?"
Baiyi never read his mails. In the beginning, it was because he rarely had mails. If he had, it was the account sheets from the alchemical refinery or some stupid boys' bold love letters. Lately, there was also an increase in the number of invitations he received from the aristocrats, which he never bothered with. He passed these letters to Laeticia, thinking that it would probably help the semi-literate village girl in learning new words and sentence structures.
A more thorough recall did allow Baiyi to remember that Laeticia once mentioned finding a few blank letters among the stack of letters that Baiyi handed to her. Back then, Baiyi thought it was just someone's lame prank, so he ordered the girl to burn the blank letters to ashes, and pour them into his animal tin can potted plants.
'Huh. If the nerds realized what I did to their super-secret-letters, what would they do?'
Baiyi looked up again and studied the eye symbol on Baldy's chest. Five brows.
That was all Baiyi needed to discern Baldy's identity and standing in the order. "Great Sage Kris, I have some questions about these orders from the Master Sages…"
"Please, do tell."
"Why me? I'm just a Soul Armature now, right? I'm no longer a part of the Doors of Conundrum. These things — well, they are more suitable for the other Great Sages, right?" Baiyi said as he ran his fingers along the paper, and the letters disappeared.
"Great Sage Hope, your wisdom will not vanish just because of your current form, " Baldy flattered, and then he went on to nag the Soul Armature...
Even after Baldy had gone, Baiyi still could not come up with a good excuse to knock it off, so all he could do was to sit in the living room, lightly tapping his gauntlet as he pondered his next move.
After a while, Little Mia and her friends returned home with new winter attires.
Mia was the first to notice Soul Armature troubled disposition, so she dashed to his side and hugged his neck from behind the couch. She placed her face close to his, rubbed on it gently, and then she asked, "Mr. Hope, what's the matter?"
"Nothing," Baiyi replied, his hand reaching out to pinch her cheek. "It's just that, well, you guys might need to expect new company…"
To summarize the purpose of the visit: every Great Sage in the Door of Conundrum had a few rights and obligations to fulfill. Baiyi had made use of the right to introduce before; however, never had he carried out his obligations as "one" of the Great Sages.
The obligations were such that one either publish an impressive academic treatise, show the fruits of their experiments and investigations, or mentor a few brilliant students from the Door of Conundrum.
They never once suspected that Baiyi could be a fake — purely because he had the Seal of the Great Sage with him. The Door of Conundrum was not very keen in extensive identity-checks, so as long as one displayed their Seal, the Door of Conundrum would automatically treat them as a member, even if the person could be a fake. Of course, that also meant that Baiyi would have to fulfill a few of the obligations that a Great Sage was expected to do.
If he refused, discord would ensue.
Baiyi was not very popular back then, so although they had accepted his identity within the order — and accepted Vidomina because of his introduction — they never actually followed up on this bootleg sage.
However, Baiyi had been all over the news lately. The Church kept using him as their unofficial mascot, and the Door of Conundrum remembered that they had gotten him first. Although they could not find any of his information from their own records, that was still fine by them; after all, it was not likely that a famous man like Baiyi would have an unsavory past that the order would have to be wary about.
As long as Baiyi still fulfilled his obligations, it would not matter that he never returned to the order. After all, he was a big hero, so his schedule must be packed. The Door of Conundrum understood his problem, so they would cave in a little and send the assigned student to his place instead.
"...and that's all folks," Baiyi ended his story with a helpless -_- expression. He had no idea that his greed for Vidomina's Saint Quartz staff would end bringing him a heap of unwanted problems now. 'Karma's a bitch, no doubt.'
Baiyi, of course, had considered outrightly rejecting or even ignoring the chores. The Door of Conundrum was an academic association — a glorified book club for nerds who could not fight. What could they do to him? However, if the order spread the news that he was a fake sage who harbored harmful conspiracy, or something close to his, Baiyi's reputations would be in ruined—or worse, he would start getting stalked and monitored.
"May I propose that you graciously accept what is stipulated in the Order? A shift of perspective shows that you would thus gain a valuable new identity. You may then use the Door of Conundrum as a deterrence for an investigation against you," the Scholar said in the Void. She, an actual Great Sage, was the one who had asked him to take on the role of being a Great Sage.
"I'm not worried about that! I'm just not sure of who they assigned to me! It's fine if it's a male, but if I'm not mistaken, you people even have some seventy or eight years old senior citizens as 'students', right? I am so not into the idea of having these sort of students!" Baiyi voiced out his main concern in the Void.
"As I'd said, Sir Hope, a shift in perspective would greatly benefit you. These 'senior citizens' are very independent in their studious pursuit! All you have to is to grant them a topic or a book and give them a direction as vague as 'Investigate this', and they would be on their own. Is that not the convenience all teachers dream of?" the Scholar replied.
'Hey! When you put it that way…'