Chapter 143
"As a scribe, Alhaitham, you must have seen many documents. How long has this country remained unchanged since the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata died 500 years ago?"
Alhaitham was prompted to think about what was being said.
Seeing that Alhaitham was thinking, Li Yue added another sentence.
"Or, to put it another way, does Sumeru really have Dendro Archon?"
"Um!?"
Alhaitham paused for a moment.
"What do you mean?"
"My meaning is very simple: in my eyes, Sumeru is a godless kingdom!"
Alhaitham was somewhat shocked, but he did not show it.
"Where's the evidence?"
"A god who hasn't appeared in 500 years?"
"..."
Alhaitham fell silent, and after a while, he chose to change the subject again.
"But what does that have to do with me? I'm just a lowly scribe. Matters concerning the gods are not my concern."
"Is that so? Is that what you think?"
Li Yue smiled and looked at Alhaitham.
"That's right, that's what I think. I, Alhaitham, just want to live a peaceful life."
"Indeed, as a scribe, you have no right to interfere in matters concerning the gods, but what if Sumeru is destroyed, making it impossible for you to live a peaceful life anymore?"
Li Yue pushed up her glasses.
"Alhaitham, you don't want Sumeru to be destroyed either, do you?"
237. Alhaitham chose to go undercover.
Alhaitham was persuaded.
Although he didn't like getting involved in those trivial matters, he had to get involved when it came to the destruction of Sumeru. After all, while he believed he could protect himself in major events, he didn't want to end up as a refugee in another country after the fall of his nation.
"Speak, what exactly do you want?"
Inside a coffee shop on the Treasure Street in Sumeru City, the desert mercenary [Aisen] leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed, asking Li Yue and Nahida, who were sitting opposite him, a question.
After going around in circles, Alhaitham finally arrived at the coffee shop he had wanted to visit since early that morning, but his identity was completely different from that morning.
In the morning, he was Alhaitham, the scribe of the Akademiya, who was respected by the ordinary people of Sumeru. Now, he is Aisen, a mercenary from the desert who is looked down upon by the people of Sumeru.
As for why he was with Li Yue and Nahida, the reason is simple: he couldn't beat Li Yue.
After Li Yue said that Sumeru was destroyed, Alhaitham chose to take action. He planned to subdue Li Yue and then force Li Yue to reveal the information he knew.
As a result, Li Yue simply raised his hand, and a whole bunch of trees attacked Alhaitham. He couldn't cut them down at all by swinging his sword alone, and even using Elemental Power was useless. He couldn't even beat those few tree branches!
After being defeated by the tree branch, he was not discouraged. Instead, he chose Nahida, who was next to Li Yue. He thought that this seemingly weak girl could be controlled. In order to get the information he wanted, Alhaitham had to take action.
The result was that he discovered that, apart from Li Yue, he couldn't beat this little girl called "Hinagiku" either!
Even more direct and swift was Hinagiku's action. She immediately had a large number of branches bind him up. What Grand Disciplinary Officer Cyno couldn't do, she did. She used branches that suddenly sprouted from the ground to bind him, then dragged most of his body into the ground, leaving only his chest and above on the ground, and looked up at the two of them.
After realizing that he couldn't defeat any of them, and that they didn't seem to intend to kill him, Alhaitham chose to temporarily submit. Although he didn't know what they possessed, he figured that by staying by their side, he could at least slowly learn something. So, Alhaitham pretended to accept Li Yue's invitation and joined them.
"Do you remember what we talked about before?"
In response to Alhaitham's question, Li Yue raised her chin at Alhaitham, mimicking the upward gaze Alhaitham had made when he was buried in the ground.
Alhaitham's expression was somewhat unpleasant, but he still responded.
"Sumeru is a kingdom without gods."
"So what?"
"Therefore, I will ascend this throne of heaven."
"You want to be the god of Sumeru?"
Alhaitham was somewhat surprised.
"That's right."
"What does this have to do with what you said before about Sumeru being destroyed?"
"Because if I don't become this god, I will destroy Sumeru!"
Li Yue's words surprised even Alhaitham.
No, what kind of logic is that?
You can't become the god of Sumeru, so you want to destroy Sumeru? What kind of lunatic is that?!
Is this the reason I wanted to ask you something outside the city?
However, the thought of Li Yue and Nahida's strange ability to control trees made him a little apprehensive. In the Sumeru Rainforest, what was the one thing they had in abundance? Trees!
There are trees covering the mountains and fields, and they are all kinds of huge trees. If Li Yue can control these trees, then Li Yue's power will be terrifying.
However, in Alhaitham's view, the most troublesome thing was Li Yue's ability to transform into anyone.
He transformed into Alhaitham right in front of him, and even committed crimes in that state.
Alhaitham, now back in Sumeru City, understood what he had done that morning: he had killed a scholar in front of a peddler, and after the peddler saw it, he arrogantly went to a coffee shop for tea, only to be caught by the Grand Disciplinary Officer Cyno.
However, after Alhaitham escaped, a strange thing happened: the body of the murdered scholar disappeared.
Alhaitham understood that the so-called murdered scholar was probably a fake, and everything he had done was to slander him Alhaitham.
"I'm still very curious as to why they chose me."
Alhaitham really didn't think he was anything special. He always kept a low profile in the Akademiya and didn't do anything special. So why was he the one chosen?
"Because I believe you have the ability."
"I don't think I have that ability."
Alhaitham shook his head slightly.
"I don't care what you think, I care what I think. If I think you can do it, then you can! Unless you want the Sumeru City to be destroyed."
Can't you speak properly?!
Alhaitham had a headache. Was this Aizen - Inazuma a madman? Why did he keep trying to destroy Sumeru?
"I understand, I will follow your orders."
Alhaitham was helpless. He couldn't defeat these two people right now, and more importantly, he didn't know what other tricks they had up their sleeves, which was why this madman from Inazuma wanted to become the god of Sumeru and even dared to say that he would destroy Sumeru.
For Alhaitham, the best course of action right now is to stay under this guy's command. Although he doesn't know why, this guy seems to think highly of him. So, he can infiltrate his side as a subordinate, find out his true purpose and abilities, and then figure out a way to deal with him.
"Very good, I am very satisfied that you have such awareness."
Li Yue smiled with satisfaction. In his eyes, Alhaitham was the perfect candidate to become the Grand Sage in the future. After all, it was impossible to rely on Nahida to manage Sumeru alone. Nahida's job was to manage the World Tree, while Sumeru could be left to humans to manage.
"So, what's our plan next?"
Now that I've joined the team, I'll get information from within.
Alhaitham was eager to know what Li Yue was going to do next.
"Our team is still too small; we need more people."
Li Yue pointed to Alhaitham.
"After all, as a god, I certainly won't personally manage Sumeru, and such a vast Sumeru needs enough people to manage it."
"So, you want even more people to join our team?"
Alhaitham understood what Li Yue meant.
"That's right, you did a great job today, and the same goes for the Grand Disciplinary Officer who arrested you."
"You want to recruit Cyno?"
Alhaitham was surprised.
"He is the Grand Disciplinary Officer, the head of the Disciplinary Officer."
Li Yue simply smiled and adjusted her glasses.
"Isn't it more interesting that the head of the Disciplinary Officer is actually the mastermind behind the darkness of Sumeru?"
238. The Grand Disciplinary Officer's Superb Reasoning
Grand Disciplinary Officer Cyno is very busy today.
Early in the morning, he received a report from Sumeru City that someone had committed murder in the street. After investigating the scene, he gathered solid evidence and went to arrest the culprit. However, the culprit, who was a clerk, was surprisingly strong and fought him to a standstill. In the end, he even managed to escape from the Disciplinary Officer's pursuit!
After the failed arrest, they returned to the crime scene only to find the body missing. The vendor also said he didn't know what happened, no one came to collect the body, and the body just disappeared.
The whole incident was filled with an eerie feeling.
In order to investigate the case, Cyno investigated a person named Alhaitham and found that this clerk named Alhaitham usually did not communicate much with others, but he was very efficient. He would avoid being in the office as much as possible, but once he returned to the office, he would process documents very quickly, accurately and efficiently.
But apart from that, he didn't have much contact or communication with other people.
Why would someone like that suddenly commit murder in the street? And who took the body away?
Especially the scholar who was killed. Although his body was gone, his face was preserved because it was recorded by the vendor's Akasha Terminal. However, when the people in the Akademiya recognized his face, they all shook their heads and said they had never seen this person before.
This case is full of suspicious points, but these suspicious points don't seem to connect at all. Each one seems ordinary, an event that once happened in Sumeru City, but when linked together, they seem very strange.
However, these things can all be deduced and analyzed by experienced senior Grand Disciplinary Officer.
What exactly is the connection between all of these?
Looking at all the clues before him, Cyno couldn't help but start to think outside the box.
Alhaitham is usually very laid-back and rarely speaks, suddenly became very talkative, even killing a stranger disguised as a scholar from the Akademiya in the street. Alhaitham had had some disputes with people from the Akademiya before, but each time Alhaitham made the other party admit defeat with words and never used force. This time, he suddenly took action, and it was against someone who was impersonating someone from the Akademiya. This person is suspicious.
Could it be that Alhaitham had some kind of enemy before? This enemy didn't even know where Alhaitham was hiding until recently when he discovered that Alhaitham was hiding in the Akademiya. So, he came looking for Elhesen by impersonating someone from the Akademiya. This also explains why Alhaitham had a low profile in the Akademiya and didn't want to get involved in things before, because he wanted to hide himself!
Unfortunately, someone still came to his door today. The person who came to his door got into an argument with Alhaitham. In the Alhaitham, to prevent himself from being exposed, Elhesen killed the person in the street. After killing him, he threw the body into the bushes by the roadside, then looked around and left after finding no one else. He pretended that nothing had happened and continued to live his life as usual.
However, what he didn't expect was that a street vendor witnessed the whole process and then reported it to the Akademiya. What happened next was what Cyno himself experienced.
"That must be it, that makes perfect sense!"
Cyno crossed his arms and nodded in satisfaction. He felt he had completed his deduction regarding Alhaitham, but what about the murdered stranger?
The body is gone. Either the person wasn't dead and got up and ran away, Cyno confirmed that the person's heart had been pierced and there was blood all over the ground, so it was impossible for them to still be alive. In this case, the only possibility for the body to disappear is that the person had an accomplice!
When it comes to people capable of committing crimes in groups, the first thing that comes to Cyno's mind is the Fatui, a specialty of the Sumeru Desert!
The desert people, finding it difficult to survive in the desert, became mercenaries, living a life of constant danger. They would do anything for money, betraying their comrades, killing their relatives, and anything else!
"That must be it!"
Cyno reaffirmed his deduction: Alhaitham had once been enemies with the desert mercenaries, but after the feud, he had been hiding in Sumeru City, so the desert people couldn't find Alhaitham. But recently, the desert people found him again, so they came to cause trouble for Alhaitham, and Alhaitham killed them on the spot!
"So now, where will Alhaitham run to?"
The Fatui, Desert Mercenaries, Desert!
Cyno thought of another possibility! It was completely different from his previous speculations.
Alhaitham was never a native of Sumeru City. He was a deserter and a mercenary sent to Sumeru City by a mercenary group to carry out a mission. However, after arriving in Sumeru City, Alhaitham abandoned his mission because he liked the quiet environment of Sumeru City lived in anonymity in order to get rid of his past life.
In the past, they were mercenaries who lived on the edge of a knife, but now they live a stable city life. They don't even need to think about which one to choose.
But the past isn't something you can easily escape, especially for someone from the desert. It's impossible to escape the fate of a mercenary so easily. The mercenary group sent someone to find Alhaitham, wanting Alhaitham to go back. But unfortunately, Alhaitham didn't want to go back, so Alhaitham killed the person who came to find him.
In this situation, if Alhaitham were to leave Sumeru City, the only place he could probably go is back to the desert mercenary group he originally came from.
Therefore, Alhaitham's destination should be the desert!
Yes, that's how it should be!
Although he didn't know which tribe Alhaitham belonged to in the desert, Cyno was confident he could catch him!
No matter if you were a desert dweller or a rainforest dweller in the past, once you enter the Akademiya, you are a member of the Akademiya. As a member of the Order of the Akademiya, if you commit a crime, I, the Grand Disciplinary Officer, have to take charge!
Having made this judgment, the Grand Disciplinary Officer Disciplinary Officer tasks to his subordinates for the recent period of time, and then set off alone from Sumeru City towards Caravan Ribat.
Entering the desert from the rainforest side, due to the huge sand wall left by the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, the only way to reach the desert is currently through Caravan Ribat, which is also the only place to resupply before entering the desert. If Alhaitham wants to enter the desert, he will definitely take this route.