Chapter 93: You Must Be the One I'm Looking For!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After the game ended, the Champion--- the Warrior delivered a simple speech, "I just wanted to test my ability in rearing and nurturing children. That’s basically it. However, I do think that Mia is not fit to follow my path. It’s better for her to make her own decision!"
Having said that, she went back to become taciturn once again and did not explain further.
In the end, nothing had been decided at all through the game. As it turned out, it was nothing other than entertainment for the bored Voidwalkers…
The very next day, Tisdale returned to the alchemy workshop to settle her things while Baiyi brought Mia over to the president’s office to receive her golden collar pin. After they had done that, they planned to leave the academy and stay in Tisdale’s mansion temporarily, spending their harmonious and happy holiday together just the three of them.
When they reached the Mage’s Tower, it turned out that the president had organized a simple ceremony for the presentation of the golden collar pin. The president, the two vice presidents and a few professors that were famous in the academic circle--- whom Mia did not recognize at all--- and a few more teachers from the Golden Rose class were present in that ceremony. Each of them took turn to praise and encourage Mia one by one, and finally, the ceremony ended with the president personally pinning the golden rose onto her uniform collar.
After everything had ended, a few teachers brought Mia to the side to have some small talk while the president invited Baiyi into his office. After another round of small talks, he finally broached his real topic, "Master Hope, I would like to ask you what exactly were you in your past life? Not only are you so well-versed in Rohserlian Formation, you even have great mastery in Morochian Occult! In my honest opinion, a great powerful sorcerer as you would not be buried in oblivion but I’ve searched through many historical books and documents but I still could not find anything about you!"
"Historical documents don’t record everything," Baiyi responded calmly. He had long guessed that someone would ask him such a question eventually so he had already had his lines prepared beforehand, "The prolonged war and battle had buried too many things in the long river of history. I am nothing but only one of the pebbles by the riverside, leaving nothing to be recorded in history. Besides, the historical books that you looked through are all from Isythre, am I right?"
Hearing his words, the president could only shake his head helplessly. Nonetheless, that was not the only main topic of his conversation today. Quickly, he restructured his question, "Then, may I know where did you learn the Rohserlian Formation, Master Hope? At first, we thought that you’re a Rohserlian sorcerer but the possibility is too small and absurd. And yesterday on the stage, you performed the Morochian Occult that only appeared in the history 3000 years after the fall of the Ancient Rohserl Empire, which had proven my hunch that you’re not a Rohserlian sorcerer at all. Then, I suppose, there’s only one possibility for you to be able to fully master the Rohserlian Formation…"
"So, you think I came from the Door of Conundrum, huh?" Finding the idea absurd, Baiyi chuckled lightly.
"Yes!" The President nodded his head, "That’s the only place where one can master the wisdom and knowledge that belong to two different eras."
"With all due respect, what does this have to do with anything?" Baiyi started to feel annoyed over the whole situation.
"It doesn’t have to do with anything and I know that I should not be so rude as to pry into your background, Master Hope, but… AHEM!" Instead of finishing his word, he pretended to let out a cough loudly and without delay, one small door in the president’s office that was linked to another room was pushed opened by a little girl who walked out and said, "But it has everything to do with me."
Baiyi turned his head around to have a look. It turned out that the owner of the voice was no other than Mia’s opponent--- Vidomina? What is she even doing here? Wanting to cry and howl over her defeat in front of me like a loser?
Filled with disdain, Baiyi snapped at her and the president, "Don't you know that eavesdropping is very rude?!" On the spot, he stood up and prepared to leave. To be honest, he had a bad impression towards Vidomina especially after the match yesterday. Having expensive and premium equipments and yet pulling dirty tricks at the same time? Now that was despicable!
"P-Please wait! Master Hope!" Vidomina yelled out as she quickly rushed forward to block Baiyi from leaving, "I apologized for my action yesterday! To you, and to Mia as well! Please let me finish my words!"
The President also quickly helped her to say a few words, "Master Hope, for my sake, can you please spend a few moments to listen to her story first? She's the daughter of the Duke of Wright after all."
He was impatient but he found the whole ordeal funny at the same time, Baiyi scoffed, "So? She's neither sincere nor polite!" As he said that, he lifted up a hand trying to push Vidomina aside.
"Please wait!" Taking half a step back, she hastily pulled out a shiny staff from her storage pouch and holding it in both hands, she lifted the staff up to give it to him, "This is my humble gift that I prepared for you, Master Hope! I hope that you'll forgive me for my rude behaviour on the ring yesterday. However, I do have a strong reason to win that game, which prompted me to make such reckless decision! But I swear, I never meant to hurt Mia at all! Please believe me!"
Swiping a swift glance down to have a look at the staff, he thought to himself, Hmmm not bad. This is the Saint Quartz staff that she used yesterday on the ring. Looks like her humble gift is not that humble after all! Involuntarily, he stopped in his tracks and decided to listen to what she wanted to say.
Yet, instead of picking up the staff, he sat back onto the chair and said coldly, "Make it brief. Let's not waste each other's time!"
"I need to save my dad," Vidomina did indeed make it very short, "That is why I need to enter the Door of the Conundrum and find a way to save him!"
"The Door of the Conundrum has given me a number of test and one of them was to obtain the golden collar-pin. For this reason, I had no choice but to use such a tactic on the ring. Once again, I apologize for my misconduct."
Err... Somehow the reasoning seems to be quite valid? Baiyi could not explain why but at that moment, he felt like he could understand her situation. Wasn't Mia doing the same thing by giving her best trying to save him and the other Voidwalkers? Even though Mia knew nothing about it, but being the party waiting to be rescued, he somehow could comprehend the Vidomina's anxiety. He could still accept that as a reason behind her actions.
Baiyi stared at the beautiful red eyes of the girl standing in front of him, trying to look for traces of lies but after a while, he found nothing of the sort in there. It seemed like the girl was telling the truth after all, but at the same time, she seemed to be witholding some information as well. For that reason, he decided to keep listening as he asked the Scholar at the same time, That place of yours is skillful in healing?
"I-I guess so? Because there are countless and all kind of books over there, there must be some books inside that have a few unorthodox healing methods," the Scholar replied, "When I was there, I've seen many people who found methods of lifting strange curses or curing incurable diseases from those books."
So I guess, this girl's words are quite believable then, huh? Let me ask for more details. Back in the realm of reality, Baiyi asked, "What kind of situation exactly that requires you to personally search for the cure in the Door of the Conundrum? Can't the people inside find them for you?"
The question stunned Vidomina for a while. After a slight hesitation, she shook her head and said, "I'm not in the position to talk about the situation in details, but please believe me that I must find the cure by myself. I've looked for Kertz the Great Sage before and he was the one who told me this personally."
The moment the words were out of her mouth, the Devil chuckled and said, "Sounds like the blood curse or something to me, man! Looks like that Duke had contact with a devil before, eh? Usually, ordinary devils would not be able to cast such vicious curse so I guess, he must have offended a powerful devil."
Blood curse--- a curse that would not only affect the person who was cursed, but it would also be passed on to the next generations until no kin was left at all in the family. In other words, it was a curse that would cut off the bloodlines of the victim. It was indeed a brutal and evil technique.
More importantly, other than the victim and the caster of the curse, no one else would be able to break the curse at all. Fortunately, the victim's children, who could also be considered as the victim as well, could lift the curse up on behalf of their parents, which was why Vidomina said that no other person but her could lift the curse.
After listening to her words, an idea came into Baiyi's mind. Without delay, he replied, "Alright, I accept your apology. Saving your father is a very noble act!"
Not in a hurry to accept her humble gift, he continued to ask, "So, what do you plan to do now that you've found me?"
"I hope you'd recommend me," Vidomina said straightforwardly before she continued to explain, "I've failed the test that was set by the Door of the Conundrum and if I want to retake them again, I would need to wait until the next round of test. Or, I could just get a recommendation from an ancient great sage to retake them again."
Seizing the opportunity to interrupt, the president added, "The Door of Conundrum had set a rule down before that a great sage can recommend the students of our academy to enter the Door but because many great sages got too involved in secular affairs, the rule was revoked and ever since then, those great sages no longer qualify to recommend any more students. Only ancient great sages are still allowed to do that but most of them have passed away so it's terribly hard to find one now."
After listening to that, Baiyi asked the Scholar in the Void, Why do you guys still have such pesky rules? Isn't the Door just a plain oversized library? Is it necessary to make it so laborious?
"Of course!" The Scholar responded immediately, "There are too many dangerous powers that are recorded in those books! Of course we have to regulate the entrance! Even so, there are still many people who would perpetrate all kind of evils and so we have no choice but to set up a special executive department for this!"
Back in the realm of reality, Baiyi already understood Vidomina's idea but there was still one tiny problem...
"Why did you come looking for me when the thing that you need right now is the recommendation from an ancient great sage?"
"Because you are the ancient great sage, Master Hope!" Vidomina exclaimed excitedly, "This is what Kertz the Great Sage had told me before! He said that a person who is able to master both Rohserlian Formation and the Molochian Occult must be the great sage of the Door of the Conundrum!"