Nothing happened overnight. The next morning, everyone except Alhaitham gathered at the village chief's house in Aaru Village.
The three followers of King Deshret who had been captured yesterday were squatting in the corner, shivering. The moment someone approached, they immediately begged for mercy. It was hard to tell what kind of suffering they had endured at the hands of Candace and Cyno.
"The 'mad scholars' you speak of are the village keepers of Aaru Village. They are part of this village—some people even regard them as family. And yet you treated these important villagers like disposable tools?"
Candace's gentle big-sister demeanor carried killing intent. It nearly scared little Paimon to tears, and the followers of King Deshret were already terrified beyond measure.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'll tell you everything we know to make up for it… please spare us!"
"Speak."
"It wasn't something we did of our own will! Someone really did spread rumors in the tavern, saying King Deshret would revive, and that the mad—no, the village keepers—were the best sacrifices for his revival. As long as their lives were offered… King Deshret would return… and our wishes would come true…"
"Who spread those rumors?"
"You have to believe me! If I knew who it was, I would've sold him out long ago! That person always wore a cloak and kept their face completely covered… said they were King Deshret's envoy. Other than that, I truly know nothing!"
Candace and Cyno looked left and right toward Victor Wang, and the atmosphere turned delicate. It wasn't strange for them to suspect him, because—
"A cloak…?"
"A covered face…?"
Hey, isn't this a little too specific… Victor Wang was forced to explain himself. "Don't mess around. I just got here. It couldn't be me."
Paimon and Lumine also spoke up to deny it, and only then did the awkward tension dissipate.
Lumine took over Candace's questioning. "Where are the village keepers now?"
"I—I don't know…"
"Three." Cyno uttered a number without emotion.
"Huh? What?"
"Two."
"Wait, I'm not lying! We really don't know! We were only responsible for using incense to lure the village keepers out of the village. Then a mysterious person would take them away. It's true—everything I said is true!"
Cyno stared straight into the follower's eyes, then finally sighed. "All true. He doesn't know."
Knowing only this much was barely different from knowing nothing at all. Everyone frowned.
However, the village chief of Aaru Village offered another clue. "That mysterious person… may have come from the Akademiya. In the past, the Akademiya tried to take the village keepers who lived here, but I refused on the grounds that they are part of the village. If King Deshret isn't actually reviving… heh, how could that be? Then the Akademiya is the only group I know that would harbor designs on the village keepers."
"But…" Paimon looked confused. "But weren't the village keepers exiled here by the Akademiya in the first place? Why take them away again?"
Victor Wang reminded them, "Something must have changed. The Akademiya needs the village keepers, but only dared to act after turning mad scholars into village keepers first. That means whatever the Akademiya intends to do… can't be shown to the light. It's not a good thing."
The others were startled.
"Doesn't that mean the village keepers are in extreme danger?"
"We have to find them as soon as possible…"
"Yeah, Isaac is still waiting for news about his grandfather…" Realizing she had missed something when introducing earlier, Paimon added, "Isaac's grandfather is a village keeper, even though they're not related by blood."
At this point, their leads were clearly running dry. Cyno and Dehya proposed splitting up. Lumine looked at Victor Wang, and Victor Wang patted the Wentian Sword, speaking mysteriously. "There's a place I want to check out. I won't be going with you."
After leaving the village chief's house, Alhaitham—who had not shown himself earlier—was sitting on a chair by the door, reading a book. Sensing Victor Wang's gaze, he spoke first. "Alhaitham."
"Victor Wang," Victor Wang replied.
"Mhm."
They didn't exchange further words. Victor Wang flew toward the depths of the desert.
By the time he returned, night had already fallen, and Alhaitham and Lumine had uncovered new clues.
"Not far south of Aaru Village, there's an abandoned Eleazar hospital. The Akademiya used scholars who went mad after contacting divine consciousness to extract divine knowledge capsules there."
"The Akademiya exiled the mad scholars, ensuring no one would care about their safety. Then they spread rumors that King Deshret's revival required madmen as sacrifices. By inciting those radical followers of King Deshret, they reclaimed those scholars through others' hands."
Alhaitham summarized all of their findings in just two concise sentences.
Cyno questioned it. "But divine knowledge capsules have been circulating for a long time. Why was it that the moment we got close to Aaru Village, those people seemed to foresee everything and evacuated in advance?"
Thinking of that cloaked, face-covered 'envoy of King Deshret,' Candace's heterochromatic eyes couldn't help drifting toward Victor Wang. "In situations like this, it usually means one thing—an insider."
Victor Wang let out a soft sigh. Before he could explain, Alhaitham shook his head. "Impossible. A renowned writer, Ningguang's collaborator, the challenger of the 'Duel Before the Throne'—I'm fairly familiar with Victor Wang's background. There's nothing suspicious."
Victor Wang looked at Alhaitham in surprise. Alhaitham continued, "Don't overthink it. I watched your 'Wisdom and Imagination' debate with Pravina. You won through clever tricks, but they were so ingenious that even I couldn't come up with a way to break them. That made me curious, so I looked into you."
"Exactly!" Paimon chimed in uncharacteristically firmly. "Victor's basically been traveling with us all the way from Mondstadt! If you doubt him, then Lumine and I aren't trustworthy either."
Candace parted her lips. "Sorry… it's just that this situation is really hard to explain. Something must have gone wrong, and we have to take action."
Dehya had known them for a long time, Cyno hadn't left Aaru Village since arriving, and Lumine's every move had been accompanied by others. After some thought, Candace reasonably suspected, "If Victor Wang is innocent, then the only one who's been acting alone all this time is Alhaitham."
Alhaitham agreed with part of her statement. "Under normal circumstances, this situation would indeed be unsolvable. But there's no need to guess—Cyno, they were able to predict our movements because you were here."
Already at odds with Alhaitham, and now being singled out for no apparent reason, Cyno was naturally displeased. "Watch what you say, or don't blame me for being rude."
"General Mahamatra. The Akademiya's General Mahamatra. Think carefully—who did what, and what kind of stains they carry. You've always had access to a great deal of extra information, but all of it was provided by the Akademiya. Do you really think they wouldn't take precautions against someone as dangerous as you?"
"What are you implying—that the Akademiya was monitoring my actions?"
"Not just that. On every 'Knowledge Capsule Day,' the Akademiya uploads information into the Akasha through knowledge capsules. Once, I found a thick notebook by an operations console. Every single entry in it was about you—execution habits, action reports… everything."
"They uploaded my information into the Akasha? But what's the point of doing that?"
"The Akasha can calculate. As long as there's enough data, with its computational power, it can directly predict your actions—when you'll act, which routes you'll take, where you'll go. It's all laid bare."
"!"
"Do you see it now? Your actions were predicted long ago."
"..."
Cyno fell silent for a moment, then quickly lifted his head. "If it really is because of me that the Akademiya could withdraw in advance, then I think I can guess where they went… Given my personality, the place I'm least likely to go is somewhere I've just been."
Their gazes crossed, and they nodded in unison. Aside from Candace, who needed to stay behind to guard Aaru Village, everyone else decided to follow Cyno to the suspected location immediately.
Isaac, who had lost his grandfather, had been eavesdropping outside the door. Everyone had noticed long ago but didn't stop him. Now, he firmly insisted on going along as well.
Meanwhile, Dehya lagged behind the group and quietly headed off in another direction.
===BREAK===
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