One-Eyed Monster

The lights in Luona Yonder Travel Academy’s dean’s office had stayed on all night. Many students curiously watched that bright corner of the academy, wondering why the dean, who was always dozing off during the day, seemed so energetic at night. It was beyond their understanding.

Inside the dean’s office, Dean Hoffman was, as always, nodding off, while everyone else was frowning.

None of them had slept through the night, because the amount of information they’d received was simply too overwhelming. An ordinary person would need a very long time to digest all of it.

Perkins rubbed his temples, trying to figure out what exactly Lord Governor meant with these two letters.

Both letters had been Teleported over by Mail Bird, with less than an hour between them. That allowed them to infer that Lord Governor hadn’t actually waited long between sending the two.

Perkins had rushed off with the letters toward the dean’s office, and happened to run into Sol on the way. Stan Sol looked just as anxious, and he was holding a letter as well.

Later, Tobin Sol also arrived at Dean Hoffman’s office, and even Aevernan had galloped over from the City Administrative Office.

Dean Hoffman didn’t know what had happened, but from their expressions he could piece together the atmosphere of the whole affair. Judging from the look of it, there definitely wasn’t anything good written in those letters.

And so, the light in the dean’s office did not go out all night.

Perkins frowned. "Why did all these things pile up at once!"

"Who knows. Even usually-newsless Guru Mountain hasn’t been peaceful lately." Aevernan followed up.

When he finished, the two of them turned their eyes in unison toward Dean Hoffman.

"Yonder Travel Academy creates miracles!" The drowsiness just happened to fall off Dean Hoffman’s shoulders, and his first reaction was to recite this slogan.

"Dean, this isn’t the Twin Star Grand Hall, we don’t need that." Teacher Hadi beside him felt a bit embarrassed. Everyone had rushed to Yonder Travel Academy to discuss serious matters, yet the dean kept on nodding off.

"Oh, oh, this is the academy? Then I should be going to bed, and you all should be off doing whatever you need to do. It’s getting late." Dean Hoffman clearly still hadn’t taken the matter to heart—or rather, he hadn’t listened to a single word of last night’s discussion.

"Dean, it’s almost dawn!" Teacher Hadi could only cover his face helplessly.

"What, dawn! This... ah, I’ve slept for so long."

"Sir..." Everyone looked at Dean Hoffman in puzzlement. He was the highest authority here; you could say that with the Governor absent, matters of this importance had to be brought to Dean Hoffman for advice. And of course, "matters of importance" meant those secret resistance activities they were conducting.

"What were you just talking about? News from Igor?" Dean Hoffman rubbed his eyes, stretched lazily, then pulled himself together and looked at everyone.

"On Igor’s side, they’ve beaten the Clown from the Circus..."

"His Majesty the King has just Enthroned a new King’s Hand; Kuyi Tulan from the Alchemy Workshop has taken that post."

"And Guru Mountain—Energy Fluctuations there are getting quite obvious..."

Everyone spoke out the information they’d received...

"Is that all?" Dean Hoffman felt this amount of information wasn’t enough to keep these people discussing all night. There had to be something else.

"Igor says they’ve discovered another Craftsman Spirit. And the Clown from the Circus was only an executor; the real controller behind the scenes is Lord Bern."

"After His Majesty’s Enthronement Ceremony, the authorities from North Shore, Bistal and other regions met with the scribe Benjamin. They’re very dissatisfied with this Ennoblement and want to restrict the development of the Alchemy Workshop."

Dean Hoffman stroked his beard, paused, and said, "Hmm. Our academy doesn’t meddle in political affairs. It’s Igor’s discovery that’s truly unbelievable; Bern’s always been a warm-hearted fellow."

"Exactly. And the next piece of news is what you really need to analyze, Dean. It’s from Lord Governor, and I just can’t understand how he came to this conclusion."

"What kind of content?"

"Lord Governor says His Majesty the King is very likely already under control, and we need to get our battle preparations ready."

Hiss—this news made everyone draw a sharp breath again. This kind of message was no laughing matter; if the authorities found out, Rostov could be branded with treason!

"It is indeed a thorny piece of news." Dean Hoffman wiped his beard, his brows knitting as well.

"Did Lord Governor give any instructions?" Dean Hoffman once again looked to Perkins.

"Lord Governor wants us to cooperate. He also said Burstan will send new information, and we must give our full cooperation. He said we must trust the Kayne royal family, and not be fooled by appearances."

"That’s fairly detailed." Dean Hoffman chuckled.

"Dean, can you see any connection among all this?" Perkins asked, puzzled. The others also looked at the dean with curiosity.

"Connection, what connection? Lord Governor has already arranged everything, hasn’t he?" Dean Hoffman shrugged, utterly baffled by this whole gathering.

"Uh..."

"Just do what we always do. As long as nothing unusual happens, the enemy is always there; Igor and his people are doing great. Why waste time discussing it here?"

Shouldn’t they be discussing it? Everyone looked at one another blankly.

"We have plenty to do next. My students are still working hard to decipher those special Symbols. Igor and the others will definitely go to Bern. Even though I think Bern’s a decent person, still, if Igor and his team have reached that conclusion, they need to go check it out. As for His Majesty, we also need to actively cooperate."

"Dean, how do you think we should go about it?" Aevernan asked.

"I’m not a Politician; I can’t make decisions, and I don’t dare to. But Lord Governor has written very clearly—we just get ourselves ready."

Easy to say, but how were they supposed to prepare? Everyone’s heads started aching, and their expectations of Dean Hoffman suddenly dropped to zero.

"Do what you’re supposed to do, and be ready to resist at any moment. We can’t wait until the enemy comes knocking and find we’ve made no preparations at all. Besides, there are quite a few Alchemists in the academy right now—are we supposed to expel them all?"

These few sentences left everyone speechless. They really had no idea what to do.

"Our enemies are in the dark, so we must remember to stay quiet—don’t expose ourselves all the time." Dean Hoffman continued.

"All right, everyone, head back. Do what needs to be done, and don’t overthink it. Our mission has never changed: we must always be ready for battle." Teacher Hadi stood up, declaring the end of this long night’s discussion.