Warm natural light streamed into the lecture hall through the massive landscape windows, cascading like a translucent waterfall of pale gold across each tier of seats.
In the back row, Hyperion pressed her lips together and looked at Lanqi, her eyes shining with an indescribable brilliance.
The sorrow and stifling gloom that had weighed on her seemed to melt away the moment she heard Lanqi's "outrageous" words, dispelling the icy loneliness that had enveloped her.
Her expression softened in the sunlight.
"If I can bring your father back, I'll have a massive backer."
Lanqi grinned, looking as though he had firmly resolved to help her find him.
"Lanqi, it's not as simple as you think..." Hyperion murmured softly.
Her gaze was like the warm spring sun, yet beneath her profound emotion and gratitude lurked a shadow of melancholy—a deep concern born of her refusal to drag Lanqi down with her.
Precisely because Lanqi had always helped her and was an irreplaceable friend, she was even more determined not to pull him into this vortex.
Too many mysteries surrounded the Duke's disappearance.
Yet all clues pointed south to the Creti Empire and the Resurrection Church.
It was a path where survival was almost impossible.
Hyperion thought Lanqi's talk of bringing Duke Micah back was merely a joke.
After all, a prodigy of his caliber could thrive in the Hutton Kingdom even without a patron.
Given just a few years, he would rise on his own as an extraordinary figure.
There was no need at all for him to rush to find a massive patron in the next year or two.
"Hyperion, if I could latch onto the Duke's coattails and coast through life doing nothing, I wouldn't lift a finger to strive for anything," Lanqi said in all seriousness, as if he had just discovered his ultimate purpose in life.
"..."
Seeing Lanqi utter such completely unmotivated words with deadpan earnestness, Hyperion felt the words catch in her throat.
She had no idea how to respond.
Precisely because she understood Lanqi, she knew he was genuinely not joking.
This guy had everything except ambition.
Hyperion could not fathom how someone could possess such terrifying talent while simultaneously maintaining an utterly indifferent, laid-back mindset.
Yet on closer thought, this extraordinary disposition was truly inseparable from his strength.
"Thank you, Lanqi. My friend," Hyperion said at last, enunciating every word.
Her voice lacked any awkward stiffness, flowing instead like a gentle yet fervent stream.
Crystal-clear, reflecting the utmost sincerity of her heart.
"Don't worry, don't worry. When the time comes, we can also ask Frey."
After getting to know Frey over the past few days, Lanqi had realized the guy cared about only two things: efficiency and thrill.
Frey might not bother with ordinary, mundane matters.
But for a major job like this, he might actually jump at the chance.
After all, high risk and high reward were right up Frey's alley.
Having talked things through with Hyperion, Lanqi returned his attention to the lecture.
This magic engineering course covered material he genuinely needed to study and take seriously.
The reason he wanted to earn as many authentic course credits as possible to waive the required subjects was precisely so that starting next semester, he could freely enroll in more School of Magic Engineering courses.
That said, the School of Magic Engineering also had plenty of required courses Lanqi had no need for; he was far more interested in the novel magic engineering classes taught by Professor Borao.
For now, Lanqi had no intention of revealing too much insider knowledge to Hyperion.
Telling her outright that "the Duke is most likely in the Creti Empire and there is only a year or so left to rescue him" would probably scare her.
Moreover, he had no way to explain the source or credibility of such intelligence.
Lanqi worried that Hyperion might not grasp the Creti Empire's current reality and, blinded by desperation to save her father, rush recklessly into the Blood Clan's stronghold.
Every Blood Clan Marquis was at Tier 8 and vastly outclassed experts of other races at the same tier. Worse yet, Tier 9 Blood Clan Grand Dukes or Blood Clan Princes might have already unsealed themselves.
That zone was definitely not something they could touch right now.
However, they truly did have a way to deal with the Blood Clan.
They just needed to clear a few Shadow Worlds to grow stronger first, discover methods specifically countering the Blood Clan from the history of [Blood Moon Cataclysm], and only then head to the Creti Empire with confidence.
Perhaps they wouldn't even need to reach the final step of [Blood Moon Cataclysm] before making their move.
Lanqi himself possessed a vast wealth of map intel regarding the Blood Clan's lair to fill in the blanks!
Lanqi was confident that he was probably the only person in this world who could rescue Duke Micah.
This would also serve as a shortcut to resolve the [Wilfort Tragedy] once and for all!
Lanqi's sole goal in life was simple: work hard for two years, then retire!
Duke Micah Aransal was beyond doubt the golden ticket he needed.
Once he became the Duke's savior, he would attain financial freedom and never have to study again! Wealth, status, utter bliss!
The only regrettable thing in Lanqi's eyes was that even he couldn't think of any bargaining chip to convince the great demon Talia to accompany him to the Creti Empire.
She was his bodyguard, not his hired muscle; her job was solely to protect him from assassins, not to stop him from throwing his life away.
And even though both Talia and Hyperion belonged to the demon race, there was no such thing as a "demon fraternity pact" that would prompt Talia to risk danger to help Hyperion.
He could only wait and see if he could acquire bargaining chips down the line to negotiate with Talia.
In the meantime, however...
Most of the next year and a half would be spent waiting for Shadow World cooldowns.
During those days spent in the mortal realm, there was another crucial path to growing stronger—
"Teacher Teresa, I have a question."
Sitting in the back row, Lanqi raised his hand high.
The very ethos of this class was that students were welcome to ask questions and engage with the instructor at any time.
"Student Lanqi, go ahead."
Teresa looked slightly surprised; she hadn't expected Lanqi to participate so actively.
She had heard from other School of Sages instructors that Lanqi essentially attended class just to keep everyone company.
He looked sickly and listless the entire time, had no idea how to answer when called upon, yet never skipped without reason and never dozed off or spaced out.
He was the kind of student whose sheer diligence was genuinely touching.
She had no idea why Lanqi was giving her this much face.
"Could you tell me who currently possesses [Original Slate - Mind], [Original Slate - Healing], and [Original Slate - Seal]?"
With an intensely earnest expression, Lanqi asked the question that mattered to him most.
The current timeline differed from the main story he was familiar with.
The bearers might not be the same.
Furthermore, because the [Original Slate] feature had never actually been implemented at the game company, he only knew bits and pieces about some of the bearers to begin with.
Yet the beauty of this academy was that whatever you wanted to know, you could just ask the teacher!
And the teacher would happily share every bit of intel they knew!
Chapter 104