Eldritch Horror Theatre

"Melia?"

Given it was a secret even the Night Watchers kept strictly confidential, Kasi was clearly unfamiliar with the name.

"A suspected Ancient Higher Being who left behind quite a few traces and even Items. The entity seems related to a life-type authority, but is so mysterious it makes people doubt whether it ever truly existed."

The conversation only grew more explosive as Fu Qian shared the Night Watchers' taboos without blinking an eye.

He even recounted the discoveries from his recent explorations, withholding only the detail that he himself symbolized Melia to a certain extent.

"So you suspect they have a deep connection with the Academy, and consequently imbued the location with a certain property, which my actions just happened to trigger?"

Kasi's receptiveness was impressive. He swiftly sorted out Fu Qian's logic, though his brows furrowed slightly.

"However, the situation you described feels a bit contradictory... I wouldn't be surprised if a higher entity could imbue a location with their own properties, but given their mysterious style, why would they do something so theoretically easy to expose?"

Indeed.

"I'm curious about that as well, but this contradiction seems to be exactly what is happening. Both aspects keep getting confirmed."

Fu Qian nodded, acknowledging the Dean's brilliant insight.

Leaving Items behind was one thing, but as anyone who operated in the world knew, letting others pin down your base of operations was a massive taboo.

Imbuing a specific area with properties related to oneself genuinely clashed with keeping one's whereabouts a mystery.

Even assuming the other scenario—that this mysterious elusiveness wasn't a subjective choice but the result of being harmed by a villain—since the perpetrator went to such lengths, they wouldn't want their victim to be rescued by anyone else, would they?

Why wouldn't they deal with such an obvious clue? Or was it simply left behind on purpose?

It was difficult to make a definitive judgment; the available information was still far too scarce.

All he could say was that anything concerning Her Excellency Melia always felt somewhat off.

...

"The good news is that the accidents caused by this name aren't isolated incidents, and Professor Ah Kai has gained quite a bit from them. He has now officially advanced to High Tier."

"He and Professor Rob will be conducting some related research later on, which might be worth paying attention to."

Since the answers to certain questions were currently out of reach, Fu Qian didn't dwell on them and shared the good news instead.

"Understood. I will do my best to accommodate them."

It truly felt a bit like a project handover. Kasi signaled for him not to worry and sighed.

"It is indeed a good thing. A new Demigod Realm expert has finally emerged from the beneficent curse side of things."

It was clear that despite the Benevolent Curse Institute being packed with religious zealots, his impression of it was fairly positive, and he didn't wish to see it fall into decline.

"Speaking of which, how much do you know about their former Dean, Nepheli, who left years ago?"

Taking the opportunity, Fu Qian casually fished for some gossip.

That character, whom he had dealt with on numerous occasions, had been acting rather unrestrained lately.

She had directly asked him for a spark to ignite herself; her underlying motives were truly intriguing.

Given that Kasi must have worked with her for quite some time, Fu Qian was very interested to hear his perspective.

"A genius. Many people looked down on her a bit because of the path she took, but in my eyes, she is very likely to be one of the highest-achieving individuals to ever come out of the Academy."

It was evident that Kasi was somewhat surprised that Professor Fu would be interested in a former staff member, though he answered without the slightest hesitation.

"To be honest, it was surprising that she was still only at the Demigod Realm when she left. I even felt her progress was a bit slow."

There was actually a reason for that... That bastard Master Yuhun had done plenty of harm to others, thoroughly exploiting his advantages to monopolize patents, truly walking every possible path so that others were left with nowhere to go.

Kasi's evaluation of her was astonishingly high. As for his confusion, Fu Qian merely kept the answer to himself.

"Her personal style was a bit strict, and more than one of the seniors over at the beneficent curse side complained about it..."

"She also had some eccentricities, like being reluctant to deal with the opposite sex, to the point where even I barely exchanged a few words with her—"

Kasi continued to reminisce, pausing at a certain point to look over with a peculiar expression.

"Now that I think about it, we actually interacted a bit more right before she left the Academy, because she suddenly asked me for a portion of Claudora Flesh."

...

Something like that happened?

Nepheli had also acquired a portion of Claudora Flesh for research? And she left the Academy shortly after that?

"But she didn't say what she was going to use it for?"

Everything he had said before matched Fu Qian's own impression, but Kasi's final piece of information suddenly made the situation deeply intriguing.

"No. The style of the Benevolent Curse Institute has always been mysterious, so I didn't press the issue. I personally took her to retrieve a portion at the time."

Kasi shook his head, clearly not having made things difficult for her regarding the matter.

Even his reasoning inevitably brought Professor Rob to mind.

Similarly taking the Benevolent Curse Institute's style into consideration, he hadn't asked what it was for, and similarly, the person vanished afterward.

Just what had that portion of Claudora Flesh allowed Nepheli to see? Or what had it helped her accomplish?

His imagination running wild for a moment, Fu Qian noted that Professor Claudora's intentions hadn't been let down after all, truly making a massive contribution to the research endeavors at the Academy.

"I hope I have the chance to figure it out."

Feeling quite satisfied, and well aware that Kasi was always interested in anything related to Claudora, Fu Qian casually mentioned that he would definitely share any future findings.

"For now, let's first try to resolve the issue with your body."

While the atmosphere of their conversation seemed to be growing increasingly harmonious, he suddenly changed the subject in the next moment, returning to a most critical issue.

"Oh? You really have a way?"

Kasi was genuinely surprised this time.

Although Professor Fu frequently created surprises, the more intelligent a person was, the more they could understand the sheer despair of the predicament mentioned earlier.

"It's only an idea at the moment, but it would be best for Professor Lisa to keep her distance."

Fu Qian's tone was brimming with confidence as he gestured toward the third person beside them.

"Understood."

Kasi was decisive, immediately placing his cup down on the table.

Thump—

Because of the expensive tablecloth underneath, the sound wasn't particularly crisp, but at that moment, Professor Lisa still let out a slightly heavy breath, her eyes becoming vivid and animated.

"I'll have to trouble you to stand guard outside. Professor Fu and I need to chat in private."

Casually releasing the bindings on Lisa, Kasi gave the instruction with a smile.

"Understood."

Regardless of her usual demeanor, Professor Lisa indeed knew how to look at the bigger picture. She paused for only a brief moment before agreeing, not asking a single question even as she closed the door from the outside.

"Let's begin."

Fu Qian didn't waste any time either, directly activating the Decree of Return.

He had mentioned earlier that there was no rush to use it, because he was worried about provoking the hidden struggle going on in the shadows.

Now that the dust had settled, according to the person involved, there was no harm in trying this method to force everything to reveal its true form, right?

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