Four Split Personalities

[Hmm——]

For less than a millisecond, Foster suddenly felt a surge of emotion he had never experienced before, a desire to make the man before him, who naturally stood behind Lian and quietly observed his every move, disappear.

Of course, this feeling, easily dismissed by Foster as ’jealousy,’ vanished in an instant.

"Perfect,"

He walked up to the ’Foster’ in front of him, who looked exactly like him with a subtle smile on his face, adjusted the other’s collar, and nodded, "Today’s Foster Ward doesn’t have any critical work. Matters regarding the league have long been dealt with, and people from the enforcement team probably won’t come looking for you, so... stay quietly where you’re supposed to be, say less, even if any unexpected situation arises, Lian will help you."

Theresa, barely adapting to her new look, nodded vigorously and responded obediently, "Okay, Senior Foster."

"Haha..."

Foster chuckled silently, shaking his head, "Talking face to face with ’myself’ always feels odd."

Standing next to Theresa, Lian smiled serenely and said, "How cute."

"Calm down."

Foster glanced at Lian with a wry smile, reminding her, "Your task today is heavy."

Lian naturally linked arms with Theresa, rested her head on the latter’s shoulder, and said with a laugh, "Don’t worry, I’ve gotten used to being by your side every day over the years, and I can help Little Theresa fend off some troubles. Besides, everyone’s attention is mostly on the competition, so no one is idle enough to cause trouble for you, the captain of the law enforcement team."

"I’m not talking about that."

Foster shook his head and said solemnly, "You should remember who Theresa is pretending to be participating in the competition today, right?"

Lian blinked, then boldly pinched the cheek of the ’Foster’ beside her and laughed lightly, "Is that even a question?"

"Hmm, it seems you do remember."

Foster nodded slightly, then continued to ask, "So, who is the person actually pretending to be Foster Ward in the competition?"

Lian didn’t answer but asked somewhat puzzled, "What exactly are you trying to say?"

"What I’m trying to say is simple. For you, the most challenging thing is not deceiving others as ’Lian’ to fool them about Foster, but rather..."

Foster suddenly opened a folding fan (on which was written: Burn Calories) and said softly, "To act as a counselor for Theresa Tarosa, who is pretending to be a seeded player named Foster."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lian’s usually serene and smiling face turned pale.

Just like when Theresa heard Lian was going to make her do soft exercises.

"Hehe~"

Foster smiled gently, then strolled to the podium, opened the book he had been reading: "Alright, the competition is about to start, you guys should go."

"Wait, Foster, you..."

"Good luck~"

"Is there any Compound Water Agent left? Or are you going to be Little Theresa’s coun—"

"Believe in yourself, you’ve always been excellent, Lian."

"This has nothing to do with being excellent or not..."

"Stop complaining, after all, there’s such a ’cute’ person by your side."

"You did that on purpose because I called you cute!"

"I’ll be watching at the venue then, as part of the audience, of course."

"Foster!"

"Not sending you off~"

Gently raising his hand, he conjured an invisible force to push the two out of the classroom, then with a snap of his fingers, set up several eerie barriers centered around the classroom. Then... he stood up with a cold expression.

[Ph’n-glu-i ph’n-glu-i, Om-Sudri-stih—!]

The noise started echoing in Foster’s mind.

[s’unh-nglu-i-syha’h-uaaah... hia! Hia! hIa! hiA! HIAAAAAAA—!]

The ethereal echoes were deafening.

Without any expression on his face, Foster simply took slow steps to the teapot Lian had left on the classroom ledge, calmly poured the fragrant herbal tea into a cup he had conjured out of thin air just a second ago.

[ch-ch-ch-shagg-shaggoth-ch-!]

The noise resounding in the depths of consciousness could drive anyone insane, even an epic-tier spellcaster with strong spiritual power might not withstand such a soulful impact for more than three seconds.

But Foster was not bothered, though he could hear, feel, and even to some extent ’see’ that nameless entity, he showed no signs of madness.

Except for being somewhat noisy, especially when talking with someone else, those sounds barely affected him.

The reason was simple, he was just used to it.

That was Foster Ward the month before he came to the Academy City to enroll at the Phoenix Comprehensive Academy. One night, he had been caught in an unexpected situation.

Nobody knew what happened that night, not even the elders’ meeting. The only information they could find was that ’a fifth-year girl from Danu Military Academy died.’ Although Foster’s testimony was detailed, upon closer analysis, it revealed no valuable information.

Either he was lying, or he was indeed just an innocent person accidentally caught up in an accident.

With only these two possibilities, the elders’ meeting conducted a detailed investigation into Foster Ward for six months and eventually concluded that this young man was undoubtedly innocent.

They weren’t entirely wrong, because objectively, Foster truly was innocent. Being caught in that incident was indeed accidental.

However... he had indeed kept many things hidden.

He never told anyone that since that day, he had been listening to a lot of chaotic, frantic, jumbled, obscure ’noise’ almost daily.

He also hasn’t told anyone that he once made a promise to someone.

In short, after the investigation ended, Foster Ward gave up his direct admission spot to the most prestigious academy in the Academy City, the Phoenix Comprehensive Academy. Though he didn’t leave, he chose the Dan Slave Military Academy, which was also considered a top academy, though it was incomparable to the former.

Then, the story people are familiar with happened.

And those unknown parts only surfaced when Foster was alone.

Space began to warp, and one by one, the light-twisting black vortices silently emerged, hovering around Foster Ward. The ’noise’ that originally only echoed in his mind swept through the classroom confined within the barriers, thunderously.

"Don’t do this..."

Foster sighed lightly, casually tossing his teacup into the black vortex before him and said blandly, "I was just subconsciously thinking, honestly, those points of doubt may not necessarily be related to... the dilemmas we face. They might just hold some inspirational value."

In the space, those two-dimensional-looking black vortices, which could only be observed from the front, began to tremble uncontrollably.

"Be patient, I will surely find a way, so... be patient."

Foster murmured lowly, closing his eyes.

A second later, when he opened his eyes again, the bizarre empty vortices around him had completely disappeared, as if they had never appeared.

"In reality, they might have never existed~"

He chuckled softly, then opened the drawer in front of him, taking out a book entitled "Advanced Magic Potion" and flipping to the page on the "Compound Water Agent."

"Colorless, odorless, transparent... correct."

"Requires sixteen moonlight bugs stewed for seven days... correct."

"A pinch of horn keratin from the amber beast... correct."

"Shed skin of an illusion snake... correct."

"Hmm, the rest are all wrong."

Chapter 1296: End

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