After Dunyarzad returned to the Humay household, it scared her parents half to death. They quickly protected their daughter and refused to let any outsiders enter. The Traveler also didn't know how Dunyarzad was doing.
Regarding Dunyarzad, Nahida was naturally very concerned. The first thing Nahida did after waking up was to go see Dunyarzad.
So now Nahida could tell the Traveler about Dunyarzad's current condition.
[Nahida: "Although her condition has already stabilized, Eleazar, this 'Forbidden Zone' on humans, can only be fundamentally cured by finding a way to solve the problem of the World Tree's withering."]
Eleazar is a "Forbidden Zone" on humans!
This sentence became the key point of Alhaitham's attention. When he was reading Aranyaka, he had all sorts of guesses about the "Forbidden Zone." This now verified his conjecture—the Sea Cucumber Hypothesis.
The appearance of the "Forbidden Zone" is because the forest understood 'death.' Then, does Nahida's statement mean that the World Tree has also come into contact with this 'knowledge' of 'death'?
Alhaitham gradually understood everything.
The story of the desert hasn't even started yet, and he had already guessed seven or eight parts of it. At most, there were just some missing key clues that he hadn't figured out yet.
So in order to figure these out, Alhaitham began seriously reading. There must be clues in the book.
Work? What work? Reading the book is my work now!
This matter concerns Sumeru's rivers and mountains—he had no choice but to savor it carefully! Could they fire him just for reading a book?
Go ahead and fire me, go ahead, just fire me. If they fired the Acting Grand Sage, the worst that could happen is he'd go back to being a scribe.
If they could let him go back to being a scribe, he'd be willing to quit being Acting Grand Sage too.
In the book, Nahida and the Traveler planned to first investigate together what exactly the Grand Sages were up to.
In the illustration, Paimon revealed a sneaky, thief-like expression and said:
["Sorry, adventurers, we're borrowing Katheryne for a bit~!"]
It had to be said, this sneaky little expression was truly adorable. In the illustration, she was furrowing her brows, pursing her lips, with a smug, villain-triumphant look.
Her little hand was placed by her mouth, as if she were whispering a secret or sneaking a laugh—truly full of a thieving vibe.
Too cute! Some Paimon fans couldn't take it and said they had to print this expression on their bedding no matter what.
However, this kind of behavior seemed somewhat 'punishable' after all.
Let's not talk about those people anymore. Let's talk about the cute Nahida and Traveler. Their method of investigation was actually a simple, easy-to-understand, and practical technique—finding a guide.
The target was the little lackey who followed the Grand Sages in targeting Nilou last time. She was a citizen of the desert, named Setaria.
As a citizen of the desert, she was in a state of complete isolation without support in the Akademiya.
She was the type where even a mantis could trigger her passive skill every time.
Such a person was the easiest to break psychologically, and naturally became the best candidate.
Even better, although she wasn't favored in the Akademiya, she had 'benefited from disaster' in a way.
Because she wasn't favored by others and had no room to retreat, she ended up being used even more by the Grand Sages.
From her, one could really find quite a bit of information about the Grand Sages, even digging out some Akademiya documents—practically a personal eunuch.
And another key point: Setaria was not innocent, so it didn't matter if she got involved; she was already in it anyway.
[Nahida said: "Mm, I usually like observing all sorts of people, and Setaria is one of the more special ones among them."]
["She hails from the desert region and is the top academic genius among the desert folk. Thus, she was exceptionally allowed to enter the Akademiya and stay by a Sage's side as an assistant."]
The top academic genius of the desert, exceptionally allowed to enter the Akademiya, and in the end could only stay by a Sage's side as an assistant.
Don't think it's just an assistant—that was already very inspirational, practically like getting into Peking University with a Hebei household registration.
Although Setaria was already at the top, she could only be a lackey for the Grand Sage.
[Nahida continued: "The name Setaria means 'star.' And she in the desert is just like the brightest star in the night sky."]
["Later, the sun chose her, and as a star, she came to the daytime sky, reflecting the sun's radiance."]
["However, not long after, she saw the blazing sun scorching the earth, bringing many disasters."]
["The star began to hesitate: rather than helping such a sun, it would be better to return to the night and light up a piece of the starry sky."]
["But in the end, she was too greedy for the light of the day, choosing to hide her shame in her heart... Thus, the star closed her eyes."]
This was Nahida's wondrous metaphor. Translated, it actually meant that after Setaria came to the Akademiya, she discovered all sorts of evil deeds in the Akademiya.
She opposed all of it, but she couldn't bear to leave the Akademiya's academic environment—the desert didn't have such good conditions...
So it's like getting into Peking University from Hebei—who would still be willing to go back?
She didn't want to go along with the corruption, but she had no choice. Everyone around her was 'corrupt'—did she still want to stay clean and incorruptible all by herself?
Impossible. In that situation, 'corruption' was her certificate of allegiance; having a stain was what made everyone feel at ease with her.
Thus, Setaria closed her eyes and walked all the way into the darkness.
Now, although Nahida was using her, it was actually equivalent to giving Setaria another path, another choice.
Perhaps she really could return to the night sky under the moon.
Setaria, who was reading the book, was stunned. She had originally been wondering why the others were still in prison while she had only done labor reform for a while and then been released. So the reason was here?
Nahida had seen the degrees of crime committed by everyone in the Akademiya.
As for the first two acts of the story, Setaria hadn't seen them because she was still doing labor reform at the time.
[Paimon: "She was actually opposed to the Akademiya's actions, right? And she feels some guilt toward her homeland in the desert... She's clearly just escaping from the problem."]
Setaria felt ashamed because Paimon was right—she really was just escaping. Escaping was shameful, but it was useful.
But Setaria truly had no choice. At the beginning, she still had a chance to leave, but at that time she hadn't realized the Akademiya's problems yet.
Later, when she realized it, she discovered she was already deeply mired in it and couldn't escape blame.
The Akademiya was like a quagmire—how could someone who came here stay clean all by themselves? If you didn't have mud on you, others wouldn't feel at ease with you; they'd even splash some on you.
Tinari's master was one of the Sages, yet he was still imprisoned for opposing the Grand Sage. If even a Sage was like that, let alone Setaria, a little assistant.
This was called being no match for the momentum; the flood of the era was pushing this little person forward.