Chapter 216: Details
Chapter 216: Details
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Following the logic of most people, majority of them believed that if Baiyi intended to go against the Church's orders, then he should not have even mention the involvement of the Laws in the first place by covering up the anomaly. However, Baiyi had his own considerations regarding this issue.
Perhaps the involvement of the Laws would not even be considered by a naive girl like Aya, or the experienced leaders of the Brotherhood Kandor and Yosef, but such detail like a temperature change would eventually be discovered by someone, and they would have reached the same conclusion as Baiyi after some time. The people were not dumb, or lack in such knowledge – they were just not as aware towards their surroundings as Baiyi.
So Sir Hope, that was blown up to the skies by the Church, might just not notice such a detail? And would not have thought about the laws? It was impossible. Unless Baiyi does not plan on getting himself involved with this ever again, he should not hide the truth if he decided to participate, for that would rouse even more suspicion. Hence, to seem less suspicious, he should just reveal the truth and then declare his own thoughts regarding the matter. Even if old Yosef did not ask him such a sudden question earlier, he would still use other methods to declare his fear and respect towards the Laws.
Furthermore, this insight he had provided had more or less a direction, but the details of the matter itself…
After the epiphanic moment, Baiyi attempted to relieve the situation by speaking in a more relaxed tone, "Actually, this was just a prediction on the worst case scenario – I was just bringing it up so that you could prepare yourself for what's to come. In all seriousness, I don't think that this anomaly was as bad as we thought, and it doesn't necessarily involve the Laws. We only noticed the reason behind the abnormal behavior of the creatures – we might be too quick to judge."
What Baiyi said had certainly sooth the nevourness within the members of the Brotherhood. His statement was reasonable though – even if there was no change in the temperature, it would not have been a problem with the Laws. Gouve would not be wiped out just like that from a little manipulation of the laws, right? It was not wrong to say that more investigation was required at this stage. It was only human nature – to think of the worst possible outcome, and yet balance it out with a positive direction.
Baiyi was determined to believe that the laws definitely play a role in the occurrence of this anomaly, for this was an invite - or a challenge - from the War God himself. As the first god who came into contact with him, he certainly knew the ways to entice Baiyi. By removing all the unnecessary factors in the game, allowing only the highest at stake, it would be worthwhile even if the outcome had nothing to do with the Laws. How could it have came from the hands of the War God himself if it was any less extravagant?
"Well then, does Sir Hope have any suggestions on what to do next?" A critical clue during their first ever mission – no doubt this had earned Baiyi a few bonus points in the hearts of the Brotherhood. Even elder Wywern leader seeked his opinion in a humble manner.
"Let's just go with the worst case scenario, and mitigate accordingly, shall we? Notify the king, so that we'll be given more manpower to investigate this situation. Make adequate preparations for what's to come... notify the Church as well." Baiyi mentioned a few neutral suggestions.
"There wouldn't be a shortage of manpower, I believe. If the problem persists into a more disastrous situation, the whole of Gouve would be called to participate, including other associations," said Kandor. He let out a sigh filled with a mixture of emotions. "Let's just hope that we have only been thinking too much."
"I'll be doing some investigation on my own as well. I would like to know about other findings too, if possible," said Baiyi.
"Of course, this wouldn't be a problem at all," the Leader agreed without further hesitation.
Everything is settled, then. For his next step, Baiyi could utilize Gouve's connections and network to gather more necessary information without pressure. With the help of the Voidwalkers, he believed that he would discover the truth in a much shorter time than common folk, leaving misleading crumbs to cover up his real agenda simultaneously.
The next day, using the reason that it was in fact Aya who inspired the discovery yesterday, he took initiative to request for her to join him to go on a day trip. It was part of his strategy to avoid further suspicions on him as an outsider, and to gain the Brotherhood's trust.
Aya initially thought she would spend the rest of the day at home, expecting that she would not be of any help anyway. When presented with Baiyi's invitation however, she was whipped away instantly, willingly... as though as she had no control over her own body. She had gotten use to flying at this speed today, and no longer produce very questionable screams in the process.
On ground, the other knights sent them off with an envious glares. "It felt like the missus was going on a date," mumbled someone.
"Does she... fancy Sir Hope? She has never left to somewhere with a stranger before..."
"Then... what would happen to her? Will she be accepted by Sir Hope?"
"I think he would! I mean, he brought along a few kids with him – he was being such a father figure to the cutest one."
"The cutest one? You mean, the girl with the blond hair and dark skin? The kitten-like one?"
"How so! I'm talking about the one with the pigtails..."
Aya was not aware that she was being talked about by a bunch of gossipy men. She waited for Baiyi to reduce the speed as she recalled her father's message, trying hard to find a common topic to start a conversation with Baiyi. In reality, the times where she spent with Baiyi alone were often passed with silence.
Last night, after Baiyi took his leave, she was whisked aside by her father. Old Yosef had advised her to monitor Baiyi's actions, and to be on better terms with him. Although Aya did not quite get what her father meant by those words, she knew it was of absolute importance that she carried out her duty, and hence, she played along.
Perhaps she was just very inexperienced in flirting with men as stoic as Baiyi, finding the right topic to start the conversation was a little awkward…
"Ah... Sir Hope, you're pretty strong, aren't you?" asked Aya, timidly.
Baiyi glanced back and gave her a look. What's with all this small talk, was I very weak? What's with the gossipy tone like she's got some great scoop?
"Actually... you scared Lancelot away yesterday, didn't you?" Aya persisted with another question. "He was one of our strongest members. Come to think of it, I've never seen him so afraid – I could even feel the fear in his heart."
"If you think so," replied Baiyi flatly. "I just didn't want others to come along today, anyway. And I don't want to ride on any other dragon," he added.
"Eh..? Ehhh...?!" Aya's face flushed into a deep shade of crimson. This sentence... it means... he only wanted to go out with her alone, and only wanted to ride on her? Is-is this... a secret confession?! Now, now, we hadn't known each other for long yet... the dragon-mom's head was filled with an influx of creative thoughts. She seeked to entice, but she was being enticed as they spoke.
Baiyi did not bother to feed into her wildest fantasies. He conveniently found a floating island to descend, and weaved two enchantments once more. One of them was the temperature-regulating charm as observed by Aya yesterday, and another – Baiyi explained – a charm to monitor abnomal magical activity.
This second enchantment was a new concoction produced over the night by a band of magicians and some high-ability magic users. Its abilities was not simply to monitor magical activities, but it was used to monitor spatial vibrations.
After a whole night's worth of discussion, the Voidwalkers had arrived at a conclusion, which was fully supported especially by those who had additional knowledge in this. This anomaly was not caused by a change in the laws – it was rather, a manipulation of the laws.
The Laws were quite constant in nature– the War God had no reason to allow Baiyi to reach them so quickly.
However, the possibility that the Laws could be manipulated was highly probable. For example, gravity was a law that dictates water would flow from high ground to lower ground, but a sorcerer powerful enough would be able to reverse that flow temporarily. This was a form of law manipulation, but only on the surface. It was a temporary effect that would still cause some reaction.
To have created a almost undetectable, mysterious effect such as the anomaly recently, there was a possibility that a new set of laws had been added into this world. This set of new laws were not effective enough to completely offset the existing ones in Gouve, but it was enough to create unexplainable phenomenons. Only those who were sufficiently well-versed in these laws would be able to notice these discrepancies.
This was the conclusion arrived by the apprentices. The War God has set a high bar for them – commoners will not be able to spoil the game.
All this, however, was just a deduction built on the subtle hint given by the War God. If the War God was just purely toying with Baiyi, or all these were just hallucinations due to Baiyi's numerous memories, this would be an unending game indeed.
Baiyi's duty was only to use this as the foundation for more progress. He had considered that the powers of the War God was somewhat related to space, and hence he chose to space-monitoring enchantment. He lied to the little dragon-mom – it was not like she understood anyway.
However, today was an unproductive day. After wandering for half a day, and exploring different sky islands, there was no reaction at all from the charms casted earlier – either the charms were not as effective, or they guessed the wrong direction. With no further direction, Baiyi returned to the base of the Brotherhood with the dragon-mom.
It was old Yosef and Kandor who brought good news instead. The king had declared this anomaly as a high-priority issue, and had started to mobilize some of his men to investigate the situation based on Baiyi's insight while more were being recruited at the same time; the sorcerer's association also expressed their interest in this matter. Like the king, they also mobilized their action plan, but with better efficiency.
On the contrary, it was the Church who had the slowest response of all towards this matter. As predicted by old Yosef, they were too occupied with the purge and could not be bothered. They never objected to anything or showed any support. They only further notified Isythre's committee, whose only request was that the Church's management had to be notified prior to every investigation, and that a member of the Church must be present during every information sharing session.
To Baiyi, this nonchalant attitude of theirs was not a big issue at all.