"Zandik, how dare you!"
"Don't forget, the Akademiya trained you and made you what you are today! If I'd known you would turn on us, I should never have let you stay!"
Azar struggled and roared furiously as expressionless members of the Eremites held him by the arms.
"Don't call me by that name, you old fool."
"After being expelled from the Akademiya, I gave myself a brand-new name-Dottore!"
"All I did was secretly experiment on a few people from Sumeru! You actually thought those lowly people were more important than me?"
Dottore's words made Azar glare at him.
"You have some nerve, Zandik... Are human lives so cheap to you? What do you take life for?"
Azar's angry, disappointed rebuke made Dottore shake his head.
"There's no point talking further. If you weren't still useful, do you think you'd be able to stand here shouting at me?"
"Take him away and keep him under strict guard!"
The Eremites whose minds had been altered nodded impassively at Dottore's words.
Dottore had modified their terminals and erased their consciousnesses, turning them into tools in every sense of the word.
Because in Dottore's eyes, nothing mattered more than his research.
Now, half his interest lay in Scaramouche's godhood project, and the other half in the Great Tree King of Abundance.
He was truly curious about what had allowed the Great Tree King of Abundance, whose power had been exhausted, to recover and return in just a few hundred years. He wanted to uncover this secret.
Since the extent of the Great Tree King of Abundance's current power was unknown, Dottore could only set aside his curiosity about her for now and focus entirely on researching the birth of a new god.
He was truly eager to see whether Scaramouche would become a