Chapter 548: A Very Risky Decision
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The grim end by which the conversation ended stirred up a fog of unease in Baiyi’s mind. Sometime later, he sighed, “Is there… any way to bring her back at all?”
Noirciel’s reply contained a trace of helplessness. “Even if there is, it eludes me.” With an expression of regret on her face, she continued, “Only the one who holds Lord Tylemus’ Arbiter Right can send someone back to the present from any point in time.”
Noirciel was even more disappointed than Baiyi about this. She had undergone countless trials in the realm of mortals, hoping to see Mia and be separated from Lulu’s unappeased soul; it was the only way she knew to redeem herself and return to her normal, respected self. Unfortunately for her, the thousands of years of trials had been for naught.
Attie, on the other hand, did not seem interested in the conversation, making her look out of place. No one could tell if she did not see to care because she was confident that Baiyi could rescue her best friend, or because she had always been this indifferent to sensitive issues. Without so much as a word, Attie leisurely walked into the kitchen to take a cup of chocolate pudding.
Attie returned with the chocolate pudding and a small spoon. She scooped out a spoonful of pudding and raised it to the angel’s lips. Noirciel, who was always easily distracted, wasted no time in eating what she had been offered, and while she did, she asked, “So, um, am I supposed to do a rub-rub again?”
“Tee hee! It’s your turn to rub my cheeks,” Attie replied coyly.
“I’ll leave her to you, Attie. I need to meet the other Voidwalkers, p.r.o.nto,” Baiyi said, giving up the chance to see a red-faced Noirciel rub her cheek against Attie’s. Baiyi left the Aegis mansion, headed for the academy.
The Voidwalkers a.s.sembled shortly after, and even the Cleric Walker, the Paladin Walker, and the Charlatan Walker, who Baiyi had split up with, made their way to Baiyi’s underground bas.e.m.e.nt on time. The first question that they asked was why the Fifth Walker did not introduce everyone to the newest member of his harem.
“Because there isn’t time for such trivialities. The situation is worse than I expected,” Baiyi replied, wearing a grim expression. “We need to find a way to save Mia right now!”
“Did your meeting with the angel not bear fruit?” The Scholar Walker asked.
“It sure did not! That angel is all style and no substance! h.e.l.l, acting cute is her only talent,” Baiyi replied bitterly. “Dammit! I shouldn’t have placed my hopes on her!”
“There’s no need to panic, Son. At least, we know that Mia isn’t in life-threatening danger,” the Archmage said, comforting his student. “There must be a way to get her back. You had to have obtained new information from the angel, did you not?”
Baiyi nodded and elucidated the concept of history as an expanse of indecipherable chaos; how and why Baiyi became an “observer of the past”, while Mia became a direct agent; and finally, why Noirciel had risked everything to send Baiyi back to the present.
The Archmage was quiet for some time before voicing his thoughts. “It seems the key lies in that weird armor. It was that thing that sent you back to the past to be an observer, right? I’ll bet it is the key to saving Mia.”
“Did the time you spent in the armor edify you in any way, subtly or otherwise?” The Scholar Walker asked.
“No.” Baiyi shook his head. “After the armor sent me and Mia to the past, it did not do anything else. It was no longer anything special to write home about.”
This knocked the wind out of their discussion. Anxious to fill the void, the other Voidwalkers fell back on their habits of coming up with preposterous ideas. One of them suggested placing a phone on a microwave that was heating a banana, to see if it’ll send messages to the past. 1 Someone else suggested searching for an a.s.sistant that was a beautiful auburn-haired genius scientist, who pairs her white lab coat with a pair of black shorts atop of silk black tights 2 .
There was no need to explain how useless these suggestions were.
As Baiyi was being offered useless suggestions after useless suggestions, he suddenly received three revelations from the Fourth Walker, who seemed to spend all its time sleeping. As such revelations were quite rare, they could not be overlooked. Baiyi probed the first message, which read: “Remember, search. Remember where you left the lost fragment of your soul.”
Although Baiyi appreciated the weirdo’s suggestion, that did not stop him from lampooning. “Okay, don’t get me wrong; I’m grateful for your help, but dude, can you at least learn to elaborate a little… Make things clearer?”
Baiyi sighed and proceeded to the second message. As expected, it was a witty reply to Baiyi’s silent lampoon. “Quit asking me to spoonfeed you! Learn to understand these things yourself!”
“Oh, I’m soooo sorry for being too inept to understand your oh-so-cryptic omens. Will you forgive an uncouth plebian, hmm?” Baiyi sneered in his heart as he proceeded to the final message.
This message was unusually short. “It’s alright.”
‘I wasn’t really apologizing!!’ Baiyi bellowed in his mind. ‘And, why do I feel like I’ve just got played by a narcoleptic?’
Despite his displeasure, Baiyi quickly informed the other Voidwalkers about his bizarre exchange with the Fourth Walker. The other Voidwalkers found the messages just as bizarre as Baiyi did. Some of them took their reactions a step further and s.h.i.+vered intensely.
Nevertheless, one could not become a Voidwaker if they did not possess outstanding intuition. In almost no time, the Voidwalkers understood the meaning behind the Fourth Walker’s words and began to discuss this.
“Your incapacity for any action while trapped in the body of a kitty plush toy was a consequence of insufficient energy. Indeed, that weakness was due to how small your soul was when you inhabited the plush toy,” The Scholar pointed out solemnly. “Thus, the most critical question comes to mind: where is the rest of your soul? The one voluminous enough to power a normal, man-sized armor?”
Baiyi shrugged. “Don’t know. And if I’m honest, I almost forgot about it.”
“You… don’t know? ” The Scholar Walker asked in disbelief. “Your loss should be bad enough to put even the calmest mind at an edge. It is graver than having one’s arm amputated!”
The Hitman Wakjer, who was quiet when theoretical discussions like these are being held, could not help but chime in, “Even the most scatterbrained person in the world wouldn’t forget losing that much of their soul, right?”
Baiyi sighed. “Here’s the thing…”
In reality, he always severed his connection to every single fragment of his soul that he did not use. This was a habit he had been using for a long time, as other Voidwalkers borrowed part of his soul to Pseudo-descend. It was a move conceived to both preserve his sanity and the Walkers’ freewill; had he not done so, he would have long been addled and debilitated by their different personalities and activities.
More importantly, the rest of Baiyi’s real soul, which was still lying in the Void, was astronomical . If he utilized his entire being just to talk, feel, or even think, he would not be able to see the Voidwalkers at all, much like how an elephant could not register the presence of an ant. The Walkers’ souls were just too minute in comparison, and Baiyi would not be able to talk to them if all he could hear were akin to the whispers of an annoying mosquito.
“Long story shortened, I automatically shut off my connection to any part of my soul that isn’t under my control, alright? Then there’s the fact that my original soul is just so G.o.dd.a.m.ned expansive! How could you expect me to notice when a teeny mote of my soul got lost somewhere or whatever?”
The Voidwalkers were silent. As the nonpareils of their respective domains, the strength of these Voidwalkers’ souls eclipsed that of normal men. However, here was their tyrannical admin, who was so much stronger than the other Voidwalkers that, in front of him, they could not help feeling grains in a desert. If they lost that much of their soul, they would have been groaning and wailing in agony by now. But this b.a.s.t.a.r.d? He did not just shrug it off; no, he just forgot about it ever happening!
Maybe this was why he was the only one who could force a haven out of an utterly uninhabitable Void against all known logic.
“Ooh-kay. I get ya’ now.” The Archmage broke the silence and patted his protégé good-naturedly on the shoulder, though no one could tell if it was out of pride or sympathy. “But it looks like your lost fragment is the key to solve this crisis, so there’s no way around it — you’ll have to look for it. After all, if the Void can’t harm your soul, I doubt there’s anything that can. If it isn’t still misplaced in the past, then it’s probably back in the Void already.”
“Urgh, do you know how hard this is gonna be?” Baiyi growled. “I’ll have to slowly awaken every square inch of my soul just to find which exact mote was lost! What’s the difference between doing this and finding a needle in a barn full of haystacks?”
“Er, is that how large it is?” Even the Archmage was palpably shocked, though it pa.s.sed very soon. “Look, it sounds tedious, but it’s the only way we have. Unless, of course, you don’t wanna save Mia anymore…”
“Uh, of course, I’m gonna rescue her. It’s just that I can’t control my body in real life once I do that, you know? It’s kinda like how if you force someone to focus on every fiber of muscle in their body, they lose their bearing to their whole body,” Baiyi finally revealed the source of his reluctance. “Worse, I don’t even know how long this whole process is gonna take. There are so many things in reality that still needs me to solve…”
“Aww, why worry? This old man here can pull it off for you,” the Archmage replied. “Didn’t everything work out smoothly while you were away for three months?”
“But maybe things aren’t steady enough to be left alone like that —”
“I can look after your beloved academy,” The Archmage offered.
‘That’s not what worries me the most…’ Baiyi thought to himself.
“I am delighted to offer my a.s.sistance in coordinating Da Xue’s academic affairs as well, if that could placate your anxiety,” The Scholar added helpfully.
‘That’s not what worries me the most!’
“I know you’re worried that the Church might attack us while you’re gone, but let me a.s.sure you, we’ll be able to defend ourselves with no sweat!” The Hitman piped confidently. “Besides, I’m your secret weapon! Just send me in and I’ll a.s.sa.s.sinate the Pope like you wouldn’t believe it!”
‘I don’t ! I don’t believe it! Wherever did your confidence even come from — don’t tell me you think you can raid the entire Holy City on your own, too!’
“Ah, I know what worries you. Fear not, good sir, for our latest esteemed guest — the beautiful, holy Angel — is in the warmest of hands. Specifically, your two official Church insiders’ hands!” The Cleric Walker and the Paladin Walker offered, to ease Baiyi’s burden. “Rest easy; we’ll treat her with only the best Void hospitality. She will feel nothing but the love, comfort, and pleasure of home!’
‘… Now, this is what terrifies me the most!!!’