A Localized Drop in Temperature Across Sumeru

The night gently enveloped the entire Sumeru City, the deep blue night sky was clear and transparent, and countless tiny stars densely filled the sky.

Starlight streamed through the bright, clear windows of Puspa Café, casting soft, dappled light into the warm, yellow interior.

"Kaveh, take it slow at the beginning. I'll take this round first."

Cyno revealed his Electro dice, unleashing his ultimate attack that instantly eliminated the last character on the field Kaveh.

"Ugh... Why am I so unlucky? I've lost three games in a row." Kaveh slumped his shoulders, let out a long sigh, and slumped back in his chair in frustration.

"Play cards slowly; haste makes waste. If Kaveh is in such a good mood, I'll gladly oblige." Cyno casually asked, while gathering the cards Genius Invokation TCG. "By the way, when is Tighnari arriving?"

"Not mentioned."

"Didn't you mention it? I wasn't talking about the current situation."

"Uh..." Kaveh rubbed his head, his face full of helplessness.

"Huh? Didn't you understand? We don't have Tighnari now, or in short, we don't have it. Isn't that funny?"

Kaveh sighed deeply. "Here we go again. I shouldn't have come to play cards with you."

"Alright, Cyno, I felt the whole café getting colder the moment you walked in, thanks to your lame jokes." Tighnari pushed open the door and walked in, her earlobes twitching slightly, before pulling out a chair and sitting down opposite Cyno.

"Hmm? Cooling down? You know, in Tighnari, we're warm-blooded animals, and our body temperature is higher than the current temperature in the café. So when I tell corny jokes, I'm actually 'warming up' the whole café."

"..."

Silence fills the café tonight.

"Huh? Isn't it funny? 'Cooling down' sounds like 'talking about cooling down' in Chinese..."

"Alright, alright, Cyno, stop explaining! Let's get down to business." Tighnari quickly interrupted Cyno, lest he himself experience Superconduct Reaction.

"That's good. So what happened at the Akademiya? Why do you need to leave your forest ranger duties and come back?"

"It's nothing major. I heard that the Akademiya recently enrolled a new batch of children from the desert, and my teacher, Nafis, is so busy that he called me over to help. But it's getting late, and I figured he'd already gone home by now, so I came to have a little get-together with you guys."

"The Akademiya recruits students from the desert every year, but it hasn't brought about any substantial change to the current situation in the desert."

"This time the situation is a little different. These students are eligible for extra credits, and their room and board are all covered by the college."

"Then I think it's necessary to investigate the identities of these desert students. I strongly suspect that someone is abusing their position to open back doors for the families of high-ranking officials."

"You're really dedicated, Great General Mahamatra." Kaveh raised his hand, signaling the waiter to order another coffee for Tighnari.

After a brief moment of relief, Tighnari's expression turned serious again. "By the way, have you seen Teacher Nafis recently? He's been asking me to go back to Sumeru City to help out."

"It's nothing new, you've mentioned it many times. Is there something new this time?" Cyno keenly caught the unease in his tone.

"Yes, I feel something's not right." Tighnari frowned slightly, her eyes full of confusion. "Teacher Nafis has been sending me a lot of letters lately... too many. Knowing his personality, if he really wanted to force me back to Sumeru City, he probably would have already gone to Gandharva Ville to scold me, then dragged me here by the ear."

So you think there's something wrong with your teacher?

"I didn't know, so I went back to Sumeru City to check the situation. And I feel that it's not just my teacher, but the whole of Sumeru City is... a bit off. Cyno, what do you think?"

Cyno shook his head. "I know very little about those sages either, but I'll keep an eye on them in the meantime."

"So, everyone thinks that there are some problems with the current Akademiya that we don't know about, right?" Tighnari looked at everyone and made a final confirmation.

Cyno nodded solemnly.

Kaveh was completely out of sync with the others, was instantly stunned, looking blankly at the two serious-looking people. "Huh? Am I the only one who didn't notice something was wrong?"

"Forehead..."

Kaveh quickly explained, "Don't look at me like that. I was away working on a project for a while, and I only returned to Sumeru City today after hearing that Tighnari was back."

"Okay, then I wish you all the best with your work."

Kaveh instantly regained his confident demeanor. "Definitely! The moment I get the final payment, I'm moving! I want to live in a house 100 times better than that lousy place, Alhaitham!"

Tighnari and Cyno exchanged a helpless glance.

"It seems things are more complicated than we thought. Tighnari, I'll accompany you back to Gandharva Ville first; Sumeru City is probably not safe right now. Afterwards, I'll investigate the Sage's matter alone. If things go smoothly, I'll find a way to come find you."

"Okay, I understand."

Kaveh was completely confused and couldn't help but ask, "So... what exactly happened to Sumeru City? I feel like I've been kept in the dark the whole time."

Tighnari looked at Kaveh and slowly said, "I think you could ask Alhaitham. He's a scribe in the Akademiya; he might know some inside information."

"Have no idea."

"What do you mean you don't know? As a secretary, isn't your job to record the contents of meetings?"

Alhaitham closed the book and slowly replied, "First of all, as the clerk, I have no obligation to share the contents of every meeting with you."

"Secondly, if you're looking for some juicy insider information, you'll be disappointed, because 55 minutes of the one-hour meeting will be Azar's long-winded and rambling monologues."

"This job must be really tough for you, Alhaitham," Kaveh complimented sarcastically.

"It wasn't tiring at all. It was obvious his long-winded speech wasn't the focus of the meeting, and I'll be leaving on time. But Mr. Kaveh, you haven't forgotten your keys again, have you? I have to open the door for you at this hour."

"Hmph! Just you wait, Alhaitham. After this project is finished, I'll use the money to build myself a house and never live with you again!"

"Alright then, let's wait and see."

Alhaitham got up to return to his room, his gaze sweeping lightly over the Sumeru night outside the window, and he unusually uttered a few words.

"Recently, Azar has been talking much less nonsense in meetings. Meetings that used to take one or two hours can now be finished in twenty minutes with some noise."

However, the fact that the silence was too deliberate is itself the biggest problem.

"Hey! You didn't say anything at all!"