Chapter 642: The Museum and Medlin

This was obviously a semi-open room in the White Spire Palace.

The walls were snow-white.

Wildly, slightly excessive minimalist paintings were framed and displayed, showcasing various excavated vessels of different racial styles.

In the introductory rows beneath them, without exception, they were all described as ancestral utensils of the Star Spirit People.

It was somewhat like a museum.

Why would a headquarters be built to look like a museum?

"It's not as exaggerated as you say; this is merely an entrance migration technique mastered by the Star Spirit People."

Haley smiled.

Her face wore pride and smugness:

"Perhaps you don't know, but the history of the Star Spirit People can be traced back tens of thousands of years. Even the First Era left traces of the Star Spirit People. This technique of manipulating labyrinths, such as the secret arts held by the elves of the Emerald Court and the goblins, all originate from us."

"."

"Look, at this clay tablet with a curved circular pit. Doesn't it have obvious traces of a 【Dragon Breath Technique】 spitting impact? This trace of magical friction, this wrinkle of Dragon Breath impact."

"Hmm, I suppose so."

"Right? This is an artifact excavated from the ancestral ruins of the Star Spirit People. Based on this, we can be certain that the 【Dragon Breath Technique】, a spell borrowing the breathing ability of dragons, was created by us Star Spirit People, not by the Dragon Vein Mages as the textbooks claim."

"."

If you say so, then so be it. Anyway, it's your territory.

In fact, perhaps there were no humans in the First Era at all.

The currently accepted theory is that the Star Spirit People appeared in the Fourth Era, which is the beginning of the current era.

As the rulers of the Third Era, the elves, possessing long lives, left behind a vast array of secret art systems; their technology regarding labyrinths goes without saying.

If you claim the elves' technology originates from the Star Spirit People,

that is somewhat turning the world upside down.

However, this behavior of the Star Spirit People stealing culture is not uncommon on the continent.

Rod is a decent person, so naturally he would not pick holes in such matters in someone else's place.

At this moment, one simply smiles, nods, and exclaims in surprise.

The Young Lady of the Star Spirit People was very satisfied with Rod's reaction and led him to tour this museum, which she claimed surpassed the palace of the Bright Light City Lord.

It certainly did not surpass it.

As the capital of Aethelorn, the prosperity and extravagance of Bright Light City can be imagined.

The Star Spirit People are not weak, but ultimately they are few in number, a niche group.

Let alone the Aethelorn of the past, even the Aethelorn of the present would not spend much effort crushing them.

Rod did not care much about the exhibits in this museum.

It was nothing more than proving their own empty history from various wonderful angles; the key point was that they actually believed it, each one bursting with overconfidence.

Rod was not only decent but also broad-minded.

He simply did not care much.

Moreover, his more important purpose was to use this to check the progress of the Star Spirit People's research on the transmission routes of the Beast Transformation Disease.

Haley was also carried away by excitement, emphasizing that she would hold nothing back.

After several probes and inquiries, she truthfully told him about their progress regarding the infection of the Beast Transformation Disease.

Unfortunately.

Their current direction is still blood infection.

Moreover, the main method is to proceed by regulating their own state, rather than creating a disease strain with even stronger infectivity.

As for the unimaginable method of dream transmission, that goes without saying.

This fellow Haley was also carefree; she actually took Rod to their laboratory to confirm it once more.

"Then the question arises,"

If it is not man-made,

then did the Beast Transformation Disease evolve on its own?

Rod was confused.

He indeed gave up thinking about the matter and followed Haley to a restaurant for a meal.

Stardust crisp, roasted star beast spine meat, orbital salad, starry sky slime liquid jelly.

Emphasizing nostalgia and formalism, each was related to what they considered their starry home.

As for the taste...

It was passable; it would have been even better if Haley hadn't been explaining on the side that the crisp, the roasted meat, the salad, and the jelly all originated from the Star Spirit People.

I say, what is there to steal about roasted meat?

Isn't it enough to just have meat and fire?

"Yo, isn't this Haley, captain of the second squad of our Security Department? What, have you finally figured it out and started bringing men along?"

They were chatting happily in the small booth of the restaurant.

An uninvited guest suddenly barged in very impolitely.

How uninvited? Just hearing the voice was enough to know it was a villain.

Rod raised his eyes to look.

A female Star Spirit, her age similar to Haley's, perhaps a bit younger.

Her face was beautiful, her upturned blue-white eyebrows carrying a fighting spirit.

She wore a mage robe of white with dark blue starlight grass trim and embellishments.

Slit high up to the thigh, far more form-fitting compared to Hayley's loose robe.

The neckline was lower too. Though her figure was petite, the fabric was propped up high, exposing a small half of her chest to the air, flirtatiously

Rod, with his discerning eye, saw at a glance that she was a Padded Heroine.

That outfit was less a mage's robe and more a gorgeous dress that wouldn't look out of place at a banquet.

Speaking of which.

The mages of this world all swapped and tailored their own mage robes.

Take the witch Dimia — Rod had seen no fewer than twenty completely different styles of mage robes on her.

On another note.

Behind this Star Spirit stood a girl with an expressionless face.

A dark-green velvet cinched-waist long dress, mithril-forged spherical joints flowing at the articulations, skin bearing wood-grain texture, eyes of lifeless polyhedral crystal.

It was a lifelike marionette.

"Medelin"

Hayley's brow furrowed slightly, a flash of annoyance passing through.

"I have no interest in trading barbs with you."

"Oh, is that so? For someone no one has ever beaten, it is quite possible that one's will has withered to the point of having no interest, isn't it?"

"Hmph, how dull."

Medelin curled her lip in contempt.

"What, not even the courage to talk back? Looks like those rumors are true — if you still can't clear this trial, your squad leader position won't be safe, and your father's medical aid will be withdrawn because of it."

Hayley bit her lip, saying nothing.

Medelin, pressing her advantage, leaned close to her ear and laughed: "Your father wore that exact same expression when he lost to my mother back in the day."

"Enough!"

"Oh my~"

Medelin lightly withdrew, her skirt flaring, and before anyone knew it she had arrived at the opposite end of the dining table.

Which was right beside Rod.

She draped an arm over Rod's shoulder and sized him up with a flirtatious, rippling gaze.

Her expression immediately turned odd.

"Tell me, when you pick a man, can't you at least pick a decent-looking one? At least like the ones in those romance comics you read, right? So rough, so scraggly-bearded — pfft—"

Hmm.

The current Rod, due to matters of decorum, had used Disguise Art + the Masking Domain to alter his appearance.

Rod corrected her in a muffled, nasal voice:

"I am Hayley's vanguard."

"Vanguard? A human?"

Medelin's face showed shock. She looked at Hayley again. "Are you sure? Using a human vanguard to fight for your father's chance at survival! Don't you know what you'll go through in the trial?"

"Is it any of your business? None of your concern."

"I had thought that after two or three months in closed-door cultivation you'd come up with some decent plan, something that could make you my opponent and entertain me a little. Never expected it to be this utterly disappointing."

She looked at Rod again.

Her arm pressed against his neck, her back straight, so that the fabric propped up high on her chest nearly brushed Rod's face.

"Handsome, she's sending you to your death. The trial's contents aren't something a human can resist. Why don't you ditch her and come serve under me? Don't worry, I'll break that slave spell for you~~"

Medelin was still hoping Rod would be bewitched.

After all, this fellow had been staring fixedly at her chest from the moment she arrived.

Heh heh, my little Close-Range Fragrance move has never failed me!

"1, 2, 3"

Hmm? Why is this human counting?

"10, 11, 12"

The man burst out laughing with a snort:

"Hayley, this one's padded a full twelve layers."

(End of this chapter)