Chapter 728: Regional Director Karen!

Chapter 728: Regional Director Kallen!

"Crack."

A crisp snap echoed as the gemstone embedded in the white skull’s brow shattered.

In that instant, it lost its vitality, turning into a mere specimen in a laboratory. Paintbrush and palette in hand, it stood entirely motionless before the easel.

A stray breeze, blowing from nowhere, swept the drawing paper from the easel, sending it fluttering through the air before it landed upside down on the floor.

"Come, drink with me."

Mavallio reached out and grabbed Kallen’s arm. He desperately needed someone to confide in right now, completely past the point of caring about saving face. He felt that doing this might somehow disperse a bit of the burning heat radiating from his cheeks.

"But class isn't dismissed yet."

"Cutting class is fine, I'll cover for you."

"This isn't a question of whether it's fine or not."

Before arriving at the University of Order, Kallen knew there would undoubtedly be many exceptional students and professors here, but he hadn't anticipated they would be this outstanding.

Whether it was Hidrode’s *History and Philosophy of the Gods* in the morning or the *Judgement and Cognition of Heretical Cults* currently in session, the caliber of the lectures exceeded Kallen's expectations.

Hidrode had offered him an alternative perspective regarding the Mad Pope, which also contained a whole new logical framework for interpreting the end of the God of Light.

This female professor, meanwhile, had thoroughly dissected the underlying prophetic principles of the Wall God Cult. Kallen believed that even Mr. Bed and Piaget themselves had probably never conceived of it to this depth.

After all, once the Wall God Cult was branded as heresy, though its believers persisted, it had long since lost its systematic structure.

In contrast, the Church of Order stood eternally here. The accumulated wisdom, analysis, and research of generations of predecessors—the profound cognitive depth and reservoir of knowledge continuously stacked within such a robust system—was terrifyingly formidable, capable of utterly crushing the former.

Thus, it could be said that the Church of Order understood heresies far better than most of the heretics it condemned.

Kallen genuinely felt that attending classes here was a rare and precious opportunity. Even after this program concluded, he would likely return frequently to audit and listen in.

"But I need to vent right now," Mavallio said, growing somewhat irritable. "You can't leave me alone, or I might actually go and howl at the door of the Chancellor's office."

"Then come inside, join me for the lecture, and wait until class ends."

"What?"

Without waiting for Mavallio's response, Kallen turned around and walked straight back toward the rear row where he had been sitting earlier.

"Hey!"

Mavallio sighed and followed him in, taking a seat beside Kallen. "What's the topic of this class?"

"It's about the Wall God Cult."

"You're interested in that?"

"It's quite fascinating. Alright, tell them to stand up."

Feeling somewhat helpless, Mavallio spoke up: "Students, please rise. Professor, please resume the lecture."

"By your command."

"By your command."

The students all rose and returned to their seats, and the female professor stepped back behind the lectern.

At that moment, what had been a perfectly normal class instantly transformed into an "open lecture."

Typically, such open lectures carried a performative nature, meant to make the classroom appear as lively and engaging as possible. After all, the lecturing professor faced evaluation and judgment from other faculty members and school officials sitting below.

But this time, the person sitting below and listening in was a Son of God.

Even if you tied the school leadership into a bundle and threw them here, they wouldn't carry a fraction of the pressure exerted by a single Son of God.

The female professor swallowed hard. Had she known a Son of God would attend, she would have rehearsed the lesson in advance, designated specific students to raise their hands and answer, and even pre-screened the content of their responses.

Now, she could only steel herself and push through.

The students felt the same. Initially, everyone had been overjoyed and thrilled by Kallen's presence in the class. Yet at this moment, no one dared to turn back and steal a glance at Director Kallen. Everyone sat perfectly upright, their expressions solemn, "listening intently."

They were all believers within the hierarchy of the Holy Church. As members of the Church, if you didn't revere "God," what else was there to revere?

Mavallio whispered to Kallen, "I did something incredibly stupid at her place. After parting ways with you, I went back to her home and found her washing dishes."

"When you lived together, did you ever see her do housework?"

"Never. She wouldn't even empty the trash bin. Not that I mind you laughing at me, but I dislike having other people in my home, and having just her was already quite overwhelming, so I didn't hire a maid. The housework, like cleaning, was all done by me.

If you asked her to take the trash down on her way out to work, she’d forget!"

"So you're saying that when you went back, you saw her washing dishes."

"Huh, that's right..." Mavallio blinked, repeating in disbelief, "She was actually washing dishes!"

Kallen picked up his fountain pen and began noting down the key points the female professor was continuing to lecture on. She pointed at the white skull and spoke:

"Class, this is what I mentioned earlier. When a prophecy from the Wall God Cult acts upon you, because of the bonds within yourself and your relationships, you strike back against the prophecy. Most of the time, neither the person who paints the prophecy nor the target of the prophecy possesses this specific conscious awareness during the process. The clash and confrontation often occur invisibly. Take our Director Kallen... our classmate Kallen, for instance. When the great Son of God appeared, the influence entangling him was dissolved by the divinity inherent in the Son of God, and even... inverted."

The female professor paused, deliberately elevating the theme: "This is the gift of praising the Great God of Order!"

Subordinate deities inherent to the system were ultimately tethered to the main god, so all glory belonged to the Supreme Deity.

The students crossed their arms over their chests in unison, chanting, "Praise the Great God of Order!"

Mavallio mirrored the gesture alongside Kallen, though his mouth kept moving: "The plate broke, and she was cleaning up the broken shards..."

"How did the plate break?"

"How else could it break? She accidentally dropped it."

"What floor is this?"

"The sixth floor, this classroom."

"If you jumped out of the window, would you die?"

"How could I possibly."

"So why would a plate break?"

"Yeah, why would a plate break?" Mavallio frowned slightly. "Her finger even got cut by a shard."

"So why would her finger get cut?"

"Yeah, why would her finger get cut?"

Mavallio lowered his head, sinking into deep thought.

Things that seemed perfectly normal to ordinary people were nearly impossible to happen among certain groups. Clerics, especially high-ranking ones, were fundamentally different from ordinary mortals.

After pondering without reaching an answer, Mavallio asked, "Why is that? Did she do it on purpose? Why would she do that on purpose?"

"You came to her home, you took the initiative to make a gesture, and she is giving you a response."

"You mean she's intentionally interacting with me?" A smile crept onto the corners of Mavallio's lips, and a spark finally lit up his eyes.

As an exalted Son of God, what he feared most was his unilateral initiative meeting nothing but a cold, unresponsive wall.

Kallen actually understood this sentiment well. Even setting aside his status as a Son of God, when a normal person showed affection or confessed to the opposite sex, the immediate reaction to rejection was usually not regret over the failed romance, but rather... embarrassment and a wounded ego.

But if your initiative received a response from the other person, and you discovered they were reciprocating, that spiritual joy of interaction was often the very first sweetness of love.

Kallen hadn't originally expected the Son of God and the Regional Director to spark a so-called romance and genuinely enter a normal marital path, but looking at it now, it seemed there really was a trend in that direction.

The Son of God now sitting beside him truly gave off the impression that his intelligence had plummeted upon falling in love.

"And then? What did you do?"

"Me?" Mavaryo pursed his lips, but spoke anyway. "I asked her if it hurt, and then I picked up a shard and cut my own finger, saying, 'It's fine, it doesn't hurt much.'"

Karen stopped speaking, lowered his head, and continued taking notes.

"Am I very foolish?"

Karen did not reply.

"Karen, tell me, am I very foolish?"

Karen still did not reply.

"Right, I am foolish." The Son of God crossed his hands on the desk, leaned back against his chair, and looked upward. "So foolish I can hardly believe it myself. You didn't see the way she looked at me when I did all that."

"Actually, it's no big deal," Karen said. "Have you ever considered that finding someone before whom you don't need to put on airs or pretend, someone with whom you can display your foolishness to your heart's content without feeling embarrassed, is also a kind of happiness?"

"This..."

The female professor continued her lecture from the podium, and the students below listened intently—except for two "classmates" who dared to sit in the back row and openly whisper during her class.

In the past, she would have called those two students up long ago to punish them and enforce classroom discipline.

But now, she even had to control the volume and rhythm of her lecture to avoid disturbing their inclination to whisper.

Finally, the bell rang.

Relieved of a heavy burden, the female professor spoke: "Class is dismissed."

The students also breathed a long sigh of relief, yet no one moved.

"Class is dismissed," Mavaryo said.

"Mm."

Karen packed up his notes, stood up, and walked down, with Mavaryo following along.

As they passed the podium, Karen handed over his schedule, and after the female professor finished signing it, Karen bowed slightly to express his gratitude.

Once Karen and Mavaryo had departed, the female professor repeated: "Alright, class is dismissed."

The sounds of shifting bodies and rustling papers echoed.

The students collapsed over their desks or leaned back, feeling entirely sore.

...

"Do you want to change your approach?" Karen said. "Do you want to be knelt to all the way out?"

"I know." Mavaryo's form was enveloped in a shroud of black mist.

Karen also silently put on a silver mask.

"Where to next?"

"To find your wife; she arranged the dinner party."

"Where is my wife?"

"That question is not suitable to ask me."

Walking out of the teaching building, they saw a VIP vehicle parked beneath the steps, with Gasper standing by the car door, and someone already sitting inside.

"Director," Karen greeted Gasper.

Gasper pointed inside the car and said, "Get in, Dean Jacques is inside."

Jacques Poli—the Dean of the Criminal Investigation Academy of the University of Order. Most of the students from this academy would enter the Whiplash of Order system upon graduation; one could say it was the cradle for cultivating and supplying talent to the Whiplash of Order.

The fundamental reason why the Academic Faction could become a political force that could not be ignored within the Order Sacred Church lay in the fact that this faction controlled the intake for talent cultivation, while constantly having fresh blood join its ranks.

Moreover, this faction generally possessed another characteristic: its main body or core layer consisted basically of ordinary clergymen, unlike those groups shielded by families and established powers.

An inaccurate way to phrase it would be that a group of "young people" who originally had no backing had formed a faction composed of "young people without backing" through a method of huddling together for warmth.

Karen sat inside the VIP vehicle and bowed to Dean Jacques who was sitting within.

"Dean."

Jacques did not speak, but merely watched calmly as Karen completed his etiquette inside the car, showing no amiable posture, nor reaching out early to support him and interrupt the protocol.

Just as Karen was preparing to take a seat beside the dean, Jacques spoke coldly: "Sit in the back."

Karen knew this was a deliberate attempt to polish and observe him—the so-called "taming of a hawk."

This also fully proved that the Academic Faction intended to accept him; otherwise, there would be no need to impose rules on him now.

"Yes, Dean."

Karen sat in the back.

Then, Mavaryo, transformed into a mass of black mist, entered, and he spotted Karen sitting in the rear.

Seeing this, a look of astonishment appeared on Jacques's face. He truly had not known that the Son of God was also here, which showed that Gasper had not informed him in advance.

"Greetings, Son of God."

"Oh, hello."

Jacques performed the etiquette, kneeling down in prostration. Mavaryo did not reach out to support him, nor did he tell him not to be so solemn; he just watched him complete the entire process.

Seeing that it was about done, Mavaryo then said, "Rise."

"Yes, Son of God."

Jacques stood up.

Mavaryo said, "Sit in the back."

"Yes, Son of God."

Dean Jacques went to sit in the back, side by side with Karen.

Subsequently, Gasper boarded the vehicle, and Mavaryo sat with her in the front row.

The driver started the car and drove toward the school gates.

There was no concept of separating pedestrians and vehicles within the University of Order; after all, even massive magical beasts could occasionally enter, so a car like this was hardly an issue.

After driving out of the school gates, the car continued onward, arriving at the back of the basin. The scenery here was excellent, featuring a vast pool of water surrounded by a complex of buildings that resembled a resort town.

Though it was called a dinner party, the car did not stop at the entrance of a restaurant, but rather in front of a residential estate.

Mavaryo and Gasper stepped out of the car first.

The Son of God walked straight to the edge of the water and began to breathe deeply, embracing nature.

Because of the presence of an outsider, Gasper took the initiative to accompany the Son of God, appearing like a wife whose gentle personality made her defer to her husband.

Mavaryo suddenly said with a smile, "In the future, let us also find a place with such beautiful scenery and settle down."

Gasper was initially slightly startled; this was the first time her fiancé had ever said such words to her, but she still instinctively replied:

"No, I need work to fulfill my vow to the God of Order."

Mavaryo's lips twitched slightly as he swallowed the words: Keeping me good company is your greatest contribution to Order.

Instead, changing his approach, he said:

"What I mean is, when we grow old."

"A resting place in old age is the First Knight Order; that is my goal."

Mavallio grew annoyed and asked, "So, you intend to poison yourself the moment your physical condition declines, just to preserve your combat effectiveness after entering the First Knight Order?"

Gaspard replied, "A good method."

Mavallio licked his lips and said, "What I want is a family. I want a normal family life."

Gaspard said, "But in my eyes, being with you is not life; it is work."

Mavallio said with some irritation, "I promised you that I would not interfere with your work. I will support your work. After all, I have work too. My idea is that outside of work, I hope I can get..."

"But you have already affected my work."

"You..."

"If it hadn't affected it, I wouldn't be here now, laying the groundwork for my subordinate to take over my position."

"That was an accident. I told you, that was an accident!"

"I only know that you broke your promise."

Mavallio gritted his teeth. He turned his head and looked at Gaspard.

Gaspard avoided his gaze.

Sometimes, anger comes just like that. A couple who seemed perfectly fine and happy just moments before can suddenly erupt into a fierce argument for no apparent reason.

In a relationship, the greatest emotional damage does not come from so-called b

"He can't divorce her anyway."

Xidrode set his glass down.

"Yennifer, I'm not trying to frighten you. But surely you wouldn't want to receive news of your own granddaughter's untimely death due to illness years from now, before your own time has even come?"

...

As they stepped out of the carriage, Jax spoke up. "It seems you share a very close relationship with His Highness the Son of God."

It was not a question, but a statement of fact.

Karen knew that Jax’s attitude toward him would not shift simply because of this friendship. The Son of God possessed an exalted status—anyone who met him was obliged to kneel—yet it was difficult for him to influence the practical operations of the world. They were noble mascots, respected and revered by all, but placed on too high a pedestal for their hands to ever reach the machinery below.

"Yes, we are, in a manner of speaking, good friends."

"Mm." Jax nodded. "I shall introduce you to some young people today. I hope you can become good friends with them as well."

"Young people?"

"Ah, to me, they are young. To you, perhaps they are a bit advanced in years, haha. This is precisely why we hold you in such high regard."

"Thank you for your appreciation."

"It is merely mutual fulfillment. A transaction where each takes what he requires. If conditions permit, we might indulge a little more extravagantly and add some emotional factors—such as your sense of belonging to us, and our deeper appreciation and recognition of you. What do you think?"

"That is something worth striving for."

"Very good. I like your candor."

"As do I."

By the deep waters of the pool, Mavallo walked straight away. Gasper cast a glance in their direction, gave a subtle nod to Jax, and nevertheless followed in Mavallo's footsteps.

It was a gathering she had arranged, yet she did not need to attend. At the very least, she had to visibly prioritize her fiancé on the surface.

Yet Karen noticed that Mavallo grew only more irritable because of this. He began to violently flick his sleeves, stifled by a palpable sense of suffocation.

"Let us go inside."

"Very well, Dean."

Karen followed Jax into the manor, passing through the grand gates, moving through the foyer, and arriving in the drawing room. It was vast, furnished with numerous large sofas, bearing the distinct air of a private club.

In truth, the birthplace of the Academic Faction was a mere student society within the University of Order. The original founders of that society had universally attained high positions within the Holy Church, and thus the tradition of the club had been preserved down through the generations.

More than sixty people sat in the drawing room—a turnout far larger than Karen had anticipated.

He had originally assumed there would be only three or four individuals, that they would go through the motions and reach a few consensus points. He had not expected it to be a grand party.

Jax clapped his hands and announced:

"Now, let us welcome the newest member of our society—Minister Karen of the Whip of Order from the York City District!"

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

To a man, everyone raised their glasses or tumblers. There was no clamor, no chaos, no shouting; everything remained perfectly gentlemanly and reserved.

Next, guided by Jax and holding his own glass, Karen exchanged greetings with one person after another. Each would take the initiative to state their title before taking a sip of wine, while Jax offered supplementary details by his side.

It felt somewhat like a wedding banquet, where a groom is paraded about to meet the relatives.

In essence, it was precisely that.

They required an occasion, a medium, to make acquaintances.

This society was the wedding itself; through the platform it constructed, they wove a new network of relationships, forging a distinct circle.

The introduction to relatives at a wedding feast was simply a fresh integration into a social network. Throughout history, many famous figures had relied on the connections of their spouse's family to secure assistance and achieve success. It was merely that for the vast majority of ordinary people, such heights were out of reach, reducing the practice to a hollow formality.

Karen did not particularly fondness this atmosphere, yet he did not entirely reject it either, for everyone was exceedingly polite and strictly adhered to decorum.

This was also the reason why the Academic Faction had always remained a centrist faction within the Church. Its organizational structure and composition dictated that it could rarely achieve a very high degree of cohesion. Lacking cohesion, it naturally lacked formidable combat strength, yet it simultaneously guaranteed a solid baseline.

Thus, the Academic Faction maintained a constant presence within the Holy Church of Order, though its influence was limited strictly to just that—being present.

As for the three individuals of the highest status at this "dinner," Karen met them last. They were not in the drawing room, but rather in a private study. When Jax escorted Karen inside, the three of them were drinking tea.

One was the third-ranked Vice Dean of the University of Order, Jakes Movenson. He wielded immense authority, as many ranked above him held purely honorary titles and did not manage affairs.

Another was Andylow Caph, Minister of the Disciplinary Inspectorate of the Whip of Order. Though they shared the title of Minister, Karen belonged to a local district, while Andylow belonged to headquarters.

The third was Parey Seton, Director of the External Office of the Forbidden Space. The Forbidden Space was a high-tier department, and the External Office... essentially commanded the authority to lend and utilize sacred artifacts.

These three were, without a shadow of a doubt, giants within their respective departments—the sort of figures one could never hope to see under normal circumstances, whose appointment schedules were routinely tossed into the wastebasket.

It could be said that their presence here today constituted the greatest courtesy and regard they could possibly show Karen.

Jakes remarked, "Ah, so young. An age to be envied, a youth to be coveted, a future to be anticipated."

Andylow spoke up, "The Hand of the Whip has mentioned you several times, Karen. I can tell you with full responsibility that your name has already been remembered by him."

Parey added, "If you wish to apply to borrow a sacred artifact in the future, simply contact my office secretary to arrange it, haha."

Jax spoke to complement the introductions, "District Chief Gasper is currently taking a stroll by the lake with His Highness the Son of God."

Jakes observed, "She has more important work to attend to now. It is time for her to temporarily lay down her current burdens."

Andylow stated, "I shall oversee Karen's nomination for the new District Chief. I believe it will pass through the Hand of the Whip quite smoothly."

Parey stood up, walked behind Karen, and placed both hands on his shoulders, giving them a firm pat as he smiled.

"Then I shall look forward to sending our Minister Karen an official letter of congratulation, hahaha;

Oh, no,

Rather,

District Chief Karen."