Chapter 725: The First Lesson (3/4)

Chapter 725: The First Lesson (3/4)

"Better not joke about that, or things will fall into chaos. You can use the Rubik's Key, after all. If you weren't your parents' flesh and blood, whose abandoned child could you possibly be?"

"Hiss..." Richard shuddered with delayed fear. "You're right."

"What are those?" Karen pointed to the documents in Richard's hand.

"Oh, isn't this my new assignment? Some are university records, some are files on the investigation team. Mr. Alfred forwarded everything relevant, and I've gathered a bit more to supplement them. Right now, I'm just compiling it all."

"How is it coming along?"

"My Lord Minister, please have faith in my abilities. I've committed all the records to memory, along with every face in the photographs. Whenever you have a question, I will surely have the answer ready.

Lately, I haven't just memorized the history of every department in the Holy University; I've even poured over some of the official records of the Desert God Covenant."

"Your memory has grown that sharp?"

Richard tapped his own forehead. "Thanks to Jerry taking over my brain."

"You could stand to spend a bit more effort on your cultivation."

"It's not as if you're lacking people who can fight around you."

"This trip might last quite a while. I have no idea how long the investigation team's work will actually take."

"It's fine, I love going out. Staying at home feels a bit stifling, whereas the outside world offers true freedom. Ah, right, Karen, here is your curriculum schedule. You can pick the classes you want to attend over the next two days. Following the standard procedure, you just need the instructor's signature after class. You belong to a rather unique category of non-resident students."

Karen took the sheet and scanned it; it was densely packed. The Holy University of the Order of Light was vast in scale, a match for—no, far exceeding the Imperial University of Wien.

The courses offered within were myriad. A "student" like Karen only needed to log enough class hours and pass the relevant examinations to receive a certificate of completion.

"Once we arrive in the Dingle District, I'll review it thoroughly at the guesthouse tonight. Keep it for me for now."

"Alright."

Just then, Grandmother called up from below, "Dinner's ready!"

Richard climbed out of bed on his own and smoothed his clothes, looking, for all intents and purposes, like a perfectly normal man.

"Do you need me to support you?"

"No need."

"Done acting?"

"Heh, we're heading out for the mission right after dinner."

Karen and Richard went downstairs to the dining room. Delon, who had returned early from his shift, Grandmother, and Madame Kathy were all bustling in and out of the kitchen and dining room, busy carrying dishes and setting the table, while Philomena sat by the table, waiting for the meal to begin.

"Heh, there you are." Richard took the initiative to slide into a seat beside her.

Madame Kathy brought out the drinks, frowning slightly as she watched her son edge closer to Philomena.

A mother's intuition is sometimes uncannily precise; in her previous role within the dynamic of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, she had been the one strung up and tormented, and it was highly probable that in the next iteration, she would become the mother-in-law who was strung up instead.

The relationship shifted, yet her fate of being the one left hanging remained unchanged.

Fortunately, her own mother-in-law disliked this girl from the Felscher family as well; only her father-in-law favored her, and it was a true blessing that her father-in-law's voice carried little weight at home.

The meal passed with pleasant warmth and great conviviality.

After dinner, Mr. Eisen drove them, delivering Karen, Richard, and Philomena to the teleportation array hall.

At the entrance of the hall, Ashley stood waiting with little Conna. Before their departure, little Conna had been taken to the Beast Research Institute for yet another examination.

"Minister, after the examination, my parents and the vice-director unanimously agree that the little bone dragon's developmental state is exceptionally good."

"Excellent, thank you for your hard work."

"It is no trouble at all, Minister. I wish you a smooth and successful trip."

"Mm."

Naturally taking little Conna's hand, Karen walked all the way into the hall. Under the arrangements of the hall director, the group stepped into a temporarily added teleportation array bound for the Dingle District.

Accompanied by a rising and then dissipating white light, Karen and his companions arrived in the Dingle District.

Here, the sky was still shrouded in the deep hours before dawn, meaning they would first have to stay at the guesthouse. The reason they couldn't stay at a regular hotel was that the Holy University was located within an isolated barrier, which housed only a single guesthouse for outsiders.

Richard hailed a carriage, and once everyone climbed inside and stated their destination, the driver remarked with evident cheer, "You folks must be here for enrollment, aren't you?"

Karen had not donned his ceremonial robes of rank; he was going to attend classes, not to put on airs. Thus, all three of them deliberately wore only ordinary clerical robes, and since they were all quite young, the driver naturally assumed his passengers were merely students.

Richard replied, "Yes, we're here for school."

"How come you've brought a child along?" the driver asked with a chuckle.

Richard responded, "A mistake from my youth."

The driver nodded. "Well, that certainly is young enough."

The entrance to the barrier was situated at a pier by the sea; when the carriage halted there, someone stepped forward to conduct an inspection.

Richard had the identification documents of all three ready, alongside Karen's admission notice. When handing over the papers, Karen's credentials were presented first. Upon seeing the rank, the inspector looked up to verify Karen's appearance, seemingly comparing it intentionally to a familiar image from the newspapers. Once confirmed, the inspector did not even take the remaining documents from Richard's hand, stepping back half a pace.

"Praise the God of Order. My Lord, please enter."

"Thank you," Karen nodded to him. "Praise Order."

The driver glanced back with a hint of bewilderment but dared not ask further, driving the carriage forward. Beyond the barrier lay a colossal basin, with the university nestled in its center; the carriage still had to wind its way down the mountain road surrounding it.

Upon entering, little Conna's mood suddenly grew somber.

Karen looked down and asked, "What is it?"

Little Conna replied, "This is the skeleton of an ancient dragon."

Karen realized with a jolt that the mountains surrounding this basin had actually weathered from the corpse of a dragon.

To strike such a resonant chord within little Conna... it was certainly no ordinary dragon, considering she held even Lord Augie in disregard.

The guesthouse sat just outside the campus grounds, adjacent to the university gates. Richard produced their documents and completed the check-in process.

Karen shared a room with little Conna. Already dispirited by the dragon bones, her mood worsened further when she discovered the room featured an attached bathroom.

After pouring himself a glass of water, Karen sat down at the desk and began selecting the classes he wished to attend the following day.

Little Conna swallowed her pills on her own, then slipped away to bathe before drowsiness could overtake her.

Emerging from the bath in clean clothes, she silently lay down at the foot of the bed, falling asleep with her head pillowed on her hands.

Karen checked the time, drew a few circles on the curriculum schedule, and took a bath. Before getting into bed, he pulled the blanket over little Conna, then reclined at the head of the bed, switching on the lamp to read.

Due to the time difference, dawn would soon break here, so Karen had no intention of sleeping.

As daybreak neared, Karen detected a faint tremor. Ordinarily, the perimeter of this guesthouse was shielded by defensive arrays, preventing external sounds from filtering through—unless the disturbance was monumentally grand.

The previously fast-asleep little Conna opened her eyes; Karen reached out and patted her gently, and upon being soothed, she closed her eyes to return to her slumber.

Karen walked to the window, pushed it open, and looked out, catching sight of a great rupture in the sky from which a colossal, pitch-black beast resembling a giant crab slowly descended.

The spot where the crab touched down was not far from the university gates, and closer still to the guesthouse; from his vantage point, Karen could squarely see the massive creature's eyeballs.

A group of young youths disembarked from the crab, carrying wooden crates filled with plant saplings in their arms, evidently students from some department returning to campus after completing an outdoor field experiment.

Seeing that the hour was growing late, Karen tidied up and went next door to rouse Richard. By then, Philomena had also emerged from her own bedroom and stepped into Karen's quarters.

Richard would accompany Karen to school, while Philomena remained behind to keep little Conna company.

It was not that they feared little Kanna would face any danger here, but rather that a little bone dragon left unattended could quite easily cause danger for everyone else.

After a brief breakfast with Richard, the two stepped out of the guesthouse to find the massive crab outside slowly taking flight, inexplicably carrying a hint of panic in its movements.

Meanwhile, back in the bedroom, Philomena watched as the sleeping Kanna sucked on her own finger, as if craving a treat.

Powerful magical beasts could share a certain instinctual resonance, though this was merely a minor interlude that drew no one else's attention.

The campus was dotted with sculptures of all sizes, casting a solemn aura over the grounds, but as the new day dawned, more and more students emerged from dormitories and dining halls on their way to class, their youthful vitality painting the atmosphere anew.

Entering the academic building and arriving at the classroom listed on their schedule, Richard paused just before the doorway to check the curriculum posted on the wall: "Philosophy of Divine History?"

Because they had arrived early, the lecture hall was practically empty, so Karen and Richard chose to sit in a corner at the very back row.

Richard asked curiously, "Karen, why did you choose this class?"

"The name sounds nice."

"True, the title of this course does carry a rather high-end feel to it."

Gradually, more students filed into the room, the only difference from a real-world university being that they all wore clerical robes—not just of the Order, but of various other religious cults, likely foreign exchange students.

Presuming upon its status, the Church of Order took great pleasure in helping other faiths cultivate "excellent youth," offering them a better education so they could return and better develop their own churches.

As these students entered, their movements were remarkably uniform; they tossed their textbooks onto the desks, leaned forward, and immediately began to catch up on sleep.

Before long, the classroom was nearly full—or rather, nearly filled with sleeping bodies, with only a scant few keeping their heads up.

It seemed this was a textbook blow-off class meant for sleeping and earning easy credits.

Finally, the professor arrived, an elderly man with white hair and thick-lensed glasses, clutching a heavy volume of The Light of Order; upon seeing the room full of sleeping students, he deliberately softened his footsteps, as if terrified of disturbing their rest.

Taking a seat behind the lectern, he moistened his finger against his lips, turned open the annotated edition of The Light of Order, and began to speak in a remarkably gentle voice:

"Today we shall resume where we left off, continuing our study of The Light of Order: Volume of Light. In our last session, we discussed how the divergence between the God of Order and the God of Light manifested in three distinct aspects..."

His voice was clear yet unobtrusive, the sort of tone that, truth be told, made it exceptionally easy to drift off to sleep.

Even Richard began to drowse; he had accompanied Karen here last night and, due to the jet lag, had barely slept, yet he had intended to brave through it and sit upright like Karen to listen in, only to find his eyelids growing heavier with the professor's lecture until he finally slumped over to join the sleepers.

The few other students who had initially kept their heads raised followed suit, giving in to the crowd and leaning down to sleep.

Karen felt he was truly witnessing something remarkable; the professor’s voice carried a form of mental hypnosis, and as an educator, he was actually deliberately "putting under" the students who came to his class.

As he lectured, the professor adjusted his glasses and noticed a student in the far corner of the back row who hadn't fallen asleep, but sat there watching him, listening intently to the lecture; he immediately gestured to Karen and asked with great benevolence:

"Young man, are you not tired?"

Karen shook his head.

"The youth still need plenty of rest, a lack of sleep is detrimental to physical development, so sleep if you wish to sleep; I never fail anyone in this class."

Karen shook his head again.

Seeing this, the professor could only say, "Then if you wish to listen, come sit here by the lectern and I shall lecture for you; let us try our best not to disturb the quality of sleep of your fellow classmates."

Karen nodded, left his seat, and walked up to the front of the classroom.

"Young man, why do I find your face somewhat familiar?"