Chapter 245: A Common Man Would Not Be Able to Get To This Position
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The following morning was marked by rows and rows of carriages outside of Baiyi's house, flanked by soldiers in shiny armors and glistening swords. The butler, who came the previous day, was leading a large number of maids marching towards the mansion. A few of the marching maids carried rolled up red carpers under their arms, prepared to set up on the ground.
Naturally, this development shook off the morning haziness that Sunny the Sunflower and Baiyi had while they were outside watering the plants. Baiyi quickly strode forward, blocked the butler and his staff outside and shouted angrily, "What the hell are you guys even doing?!"
"Milady said that she wanted the highest standard of service for her new friends," the butler replied nonchalantly, and then, a little apologetically, he added, "Our apologies, the city baron went back to his post at the behest of the Emperor, or else he would have surely come. Other aristocrats have been contacted, however, and they are on their way here."
'Are. You. F*cking. Kidding Me?'
Baiyi was speechless. Yes, Little Miss Deep Pockets did say that she wanted her new friends to be served as well as she was, but he did not really look into her words. She may be part of the elite, but she was not pompous or overly showy, either. However, it had turned out that her simplicity did not mean that her people would not know how to make a scene!
"Just… Just tell them to go home. We only need three of those carriages. Why all these servants? Return them at once. We only need a few coachmen with us." Baiyi waved in dismissal.
"Master Hope, this… this won't do," the butler's impassioned face finally revealed a little expression of awkwardness. "Milady asked us to—"
"Oh, just you wait." Baiyi turned around and strode back into the mansion.
After a few moments, he reappeared — and this time, he was lifting the princess herself by the white collar of her white sleeping gown, as if he was carrying a cat, making her bare feet visible to all.
Vidomina did not seem to have woken up fully. She rubbed her eyes hard and stared at the long line of carriages. Then, feeling puzzled, she asked, "Mentor? You mean this is still too few, right?"
Baiyi gave her a hard flick on her forehead.
In the end, all that remained was the butler, the coachman, and a few bodyguards disguised as coachmen. Baiyi happily let his specially-dressed students get into the coaches.
Miss Fox was too big to fit inside, so it had to settle for the roof of the coach.
"Take care of yourself! Don't catch a cold… uh, why is your skirt still this short?" Baiyi asked Tisdale, who was just holding Sunny the sunflower in her arms, as she stepped into the coach.
"This? Is it short?" She pulled her skirt a little lower with a puzzled look, almost exposing underneath it again. "This is the trendiest length this winter, sir; don't worry! My long john is heavy, totally keeping me warm right now. Don't believe me? Come and touch it!"
Speechless, Baiyi shoved her into the coach. Not feeling entirely convinced, he peered inside the coach again, and as his eyes rested on Nota hugging on the hammerhead shark plushie, rubbing her face on it softly, he added, "Remember to take care of Nota!"
"I know, I know! Gods! Sir, you're acting more and more like a father!" Tisdale replied snippily.
'Why you little—!' Baiyi was just about to give the girl a lesson when the cheeky girl swiftly closed the door before he could make a move, and from the window, she looked out to the Soul Armature and stuck out her tongue, making a face at him playfully.
And the couches departed in a rhythmic stream of tee tock tee tock, leaving only Baiyi and Vidomina.
"Right. We better get moving too," Baiyi turned to Vidomina, who had already donned a full blue dress, and said. The girl was surprisingly reserved, with her dress length fitting Baiyi's conservative metrics perfectly.
"Mm!" She happily replied. She held his hand, and they boarded the last coach.
Their destination was situated in the north of Arfin city; it was a bustling city that served as the state capital and central city of the entire north — Breighton. It was also Vidomina's hometown.
When they stepped out of the transporter portal, they found a coach already waiting for them in standby outside the Association of Sorcerers building.
As Baiyi sat in the coach, he admired the scenery and was, no doubt, impressed by it. It was the financial center of the entire North. It had development and infrastructure that could rival the Capital City herself. Even its area and population was second only to the Capital City of this country.
One could easily deduce that Vidomina's father was no common man, seeing as he could still govern a large city handsomely despite his own ailment.
The Wright's country estate was located in the suburban area of Breighton, but it looked less opulent than Baiyi had imagined it to be. It did not have the appearance of a duke's home; however, the interior was a different picture: it was laden with gold and silver, revealing the identity of the master to be a true vassal of the empire.
Baiyi's arrival was long since announced, so the estate was quiet, with the conspicuous absence of unimportant interlopers. Of course, that meant Baiyi was free from the tropes of being questioned or accused of trespassing by some bishops or aristocrats.
The sun had already climbed to its highest point in the sky, but the servant reported that the Duke had not yet woken up. Vidomina had Baiyi wait comfortably in a lavishly-designed room for their noble guests. When Baiyi's personal entertainment — making a movie by manipulating his tea into tiny characters — was over, Vidomina finally returned and extended a formal invitation to him to come to the Duke's room. She was carrying a hammerhead shark plushie in her arms, close to her chest.
'Has the Duke been so sick that he could not even leave his bed?' Baiyi could already estimate the state her father was in.
He eyed the plushie in her arms curiously.
The girl was immediately flustered. She whispered very quietly and self-consciously in the corridor, "D-d-don't stare at me like that! I don't know why they grew so big, either.."
'That wasn't what I was looking at!' Baiyi could only turn his gaze away without saying anything out loud.
She detected the slight difference in his gaze, and with a pang, she understood. "Mentor, you were looking at this, right?"
She released the plushie from its comfortable, cushioned spot and waved it in front of him. "Yes! I saw Mia's plushie, and I thought it was very adorable, so I hired a dollmaker to make the exact same one... Of course, it looked cute, but it wasn't as formidable…"
'Hello? What kind of plushie do you think Mia has?'
"Hmm, the class of beaus that Vidomina represents is quite different from the Mia class and the Tisdale class, right? Although she dresses as if she read the dress code set up by a certain conservative dad, we can all still agree that this plushie is enjoying a very comfortable seat there, right? I, too, wish to have my consciousness imbued into this plushie in order to experience the softness mmmmmfff, mffff—" Although the Engineer took a big circle to get to his point, his intention was still detected easily by the radar, and he was quickly muted.
"My two cents? Try and find out what kind of food this girl eats normally Sir Hope, and cook the same for Mia-chan and the other girls so that they can also grow big and strong! After all, she was only a first grader, so how did she grow up to that size? I supposed this is the difference between the nutrition the Duke could offer — mmff, mfff—" The Paladin, too, suffered the Engineer's fate.
After both Walkers were muted, Baiyi entered the Duke's room in reality. He was greeted by a miasma of sinister smell — and no, it was not even the stench of the curse or anything evil. It was merely the stench from the combination of holy items, holy water, runes, formations, and whatnot.
'He didn't die from asphyxiation despite all these? The Duke is really something!'
The Soul Armature could not even control himself, and he quickly shoved open the tightly-closed windows with his mana. A breath of cold, but fresh, wind rushed in instantly, making the semiconscious Duke cough from his bed. Maybe this had woken him up a little?
"Father!" Vidomina dashed to the bed, snatching a mink coat from a female attendant, and wrapped it around the Duke. She helped him sit up slowly.
"Well met, Lord Duke." Baiyi nodded at Duke Wright, but the latter did not respond. His eyes were murky and glassy as though he was still in his vegetative state.
Baiyi created a small jolt of psychic energy and pricked the old Duke — finally rousing him.
"You are… Great Sage Hope?" His eyes as sharp a peregrine's.
Even though the first scene he saw immediately after his waking up was a strange Soul Armature standing before him, he did not panic the slightest bit. Instead, he was very composed as he quickly identified Baiyi.
Then, he turned to Vidomina. He ruffled her hair and muttered, "You've gotten thinner…"
'He seems like a normal father.'
"Please, let me conduct a check-up," Baiyi said.
"Please, do whatever you must. I can only… Apologize that you, Great Sage Hope, had to subject yourself to my current unsavory state," the Duke replied, feeling exhausted.
Baiyi quickly started. As he scanned the Duke with his psychic energy, he also removed traces of other foreign energies around the duke; it seemed that the Duke had already been subjected to many similar scans.
When he was finished, Baiyi took a step back and seriously looked at the frail man before him, who was already engaged in normal father-daughter conversation.
His scan revealed that all the Duke's organs had already degenerated, and they were on the verge of complete shutdown. The lower half of his body and nervous systems had already ceased to function, effectively making him paralyzed from the waist down.
He must be experiencing great agony every given second he was awake, yet in front of Baiyi, the man was calmly conversing with his daughter. If it was not for the unnatural twitch in his eyes at certain intervals, no one would have been able to guess that he was suffering from a serious ailment.
'Just a thought: whoever can climb up to a position like his must possess an indomitable will.'
"I admire your will, sir," Baiyi exclaimed earnestly.
The Duke loosened his grip on Vidomina's hand, turned to face Baiyi and replied, "Everyone says that to me, but what else can I do except endure it as much as I can…"
Baiyi was silent. He yanked a chair and sat on it and placed his hand under his own chin.
He started to ponder, but first, he shared the result to other Voidwalkers, "Alright? Does anyone have any leads?"
"I'm truly amazed," the Devil was the first to speak, "At how he was still alive. If it was someone else, they would long be dead."