Chapter 435: Exchange

The waiter who had led the way earlier, after seeing that Reckton and Glan indeed knew each other, quickly came over, handed Reckton a menu, and introduced:

"These are some dishes our restaurant offers. The first page features our specialties. You can take a look at what you'd like. I'll be right nearby, so call me anytime you need anything."

After saying that, the waiter instinctively stepped aside.

Reckton casually handed the menu in his hand to Glan across the table and smiled:

"Ladies first. May I ask what business you have with me, Miss Glan?"

Glan accepted the menu without ceremony, picked and ordered some dishes, then handed the menu to Tu Ba Ge and the two cats, Buri and Ritz, who were glaring at each other nearby.

Then she looked up at Reckton, her deep eyes seeming to harbor a dim galaxy, making Reckton feel as though he had no secrets left before her. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, leaning back against the chair.

The standoff lasted a moment before Glan finally gave a light laugh and said:

"You're somewhat like Roselle. Even though I still can't understand many of his thoughts and reasoning, whenever I saw you before, I'd always inexplicably think of him."

"Roselle? You know him?"

Reckton looked at Glan across from him with some curiosity, a strange feeling in his heart. In his subconscious, the women Roselle knew were either his hookup partners or potential hookup partners. The atmosphere of Intis made him feel like a fish in water!

"The thought in your mind seems rather rude." Glan reminded him in a flat tone, her brown eyes seeming to see right through people.

She mastered relatively advanced mysticism knowledge in the domain of the mind? Did her demigod ritual use the blood of an angel-level mind dragon?

Various thoughts flashed through Reckton's mind. He quickly reined in his emotions, raised his eyes to look at Glan, and asked with some curiosity:

"Are you someone from Roselle's era?"

"Asking a lady's age so abruptly is very rude!"

Glan responded in an even tone, casually sweeping her loose hair behind her.

Reckton controlled his expression and nodded without any emotional change: "I apologize, I was rude."

Glan suddenly waved her hand, seeming to lose interest:

"You really aren't the same type of person as Roselle. He wouldn't let any chance to chat up a woman slip by."

"To be precise, I'm not from Roselle's era. By the time he began to make his mark, I had already left the Church of the God of Craftsmen of that time—which is now the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery—and instead joined the Morse Ascetic Order."

"Join the Morse Ascetic Order? Why?" Reckton pursued with some curiosity.

Even though the Church of the God of Craftsmen at that time was severely suppressed by the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun, it was still one of the orthodox churches. Giving up a perfectly good position to join a wanted secret organization was something he found quite hard to understand.

Glan's gaze grew distant for a moment, as if sinking into distant memories. She said in a relaxed tone:

"On one hand it was an issue of promotion, on the other I truly couldn't stand those stubborn church members anymore."

"If you've had relatively deep contact with members of the Church of the Mechanical Heart, you'd find that they often act even more stubborn and rigid than those arrogant sun believers, like rusted steel—foul and hard."

Reckton quietly leaned against the back of his chair without responding, until Tu Ba Ge handed him the menu it had ordered together with the two cats, Buri and Ritz. Reckton took it and glanced at it, finding they had picked dishes with the strangest names.

Fruit Platter Eighteenth Revision, Lucius's Steamed Fish, Ronburg Diagonal-Cut Cake Standard Edition... this naming style really resembles my computer desktop!

Muttering a complaint in his heart, Reckton waved over the waiter and handed him the completed menu.

Then he turned his head toward Glan and asked casually:

"What do you think of Roselle?"

Glan fell silent for a good while, seemingly deliberating her words. After a long pause, she spoke carefully:

"He was a genius, a true genius, a genius ahead of his time, but sometimes I also think he was a pitiful creature, a madman..."

"... A pitiful creature, a madman? You had deep contact with him? An ordinary level of understanding shouldn't be enough for you to make such an assessment."

Reckton pondered and continued pressing.

Glan rested her elbow on the edge of the table and said in a leisurely voice:

"He initially chose the Savant pathway. With Steam in existence, he could at most become a Sequence 2 'Knowledge Mentor.' For further promotion, he chose to switch pathways and became a Sequence 1 'Knowledge Emperor' of the Mystery pathway."

"He obtained that Knowledge Emperor characteristic with my help. In exchange, he separated a portion of the excess Sage characteristic for me and helped me complete the ritual needed for my promotion."

"Between him and me, we were fairly familiar, though only during that period. Later, he seemed to encounter some mishap and changed drastically. I even suspected he had been covertly corrupted by Steam or some evil god."

A woman's intuition—er, no, it should be a Sage's intuition—is actually quite accurate, Reckton remarked inwardly, then skipped over this topic and asked instead:

"Why did you come to the Southern Continent, and why stay here as a teacher? The cooperation between the Morse Ascetic Order and Mr. Plack shouldn't require an angel like yourself to come in person, should it?"

"It is the will of the Concealed Sage."

"I'm not clear on the specific reason. He has changed greatly. Even the Morse Ascetic Order finds Him somewhat unfamiliar now."

"We don't know whether this is good or bad either. To deal with possible changes, I decided to come and see for myself. As for staying here as a teacher, that's just a personal hobby of mine."

Glan's voice was slightly husky as she unhurriedly recounted the reasons for her presence here.

After a brief silence, Reckton asked again:

"In your understanding, what kind of existence is the Concealed Sage?"

Glan regarded Reckton with a solemn expression for a moment, then gave a light laugh as if unable to hold back:

"Heh—as a follower of 'Knowledge,' you should understand Him better than I do."

"However, if you want my personal view, I can share it: He is a kind of embodiment of this world's knowledge and information, equivalent to knowledge itself to a certain degree. His act of imparting knowledge to every Mystery Seeker seems to me more like an instinct to propagate knowledge."

"Our Morse Ascetic Order hasn't really had much contact with Him. He is mysterious and inscrutable."

"But that was my impression of Him in the past. As for now, He has become even more mysterious and inscrutable. Still, I faintly feel that He is scheming something, waiting for something."

"Perhaps, at some point in the future, an existence named 'Mystery' will quietly appear and spread His radiance across the land."

Is she probing me?... Reckton lowered his eyes, hooked the corner of his mouth, and suddenly spoke as if just realizing something:

"I wonder if you've noticed in West Bilang that someone has been secretly promoting such a hidden existence lately. The description of Him is: the embodiment of knowledge, the radiance of civilization, the ultimate answer to all mysteries!"

Glan gave a light laugh and said in a solemn tone:

"Not lately—it started several months ago."

"Most of those so-called new church members are people from the Aurora Order in disguise. While promoting the True Creator, they occasionally also promote this 'Erudite.' In their promotion, the two seem to hold equal status."

"My original suspect was the God of Knowledge and Wisdom. Perhaps They had secretly reached some kind of cooperation, joining forces against Storm and the Sun. But thinking carefully, it doesn't seem right."

Saying this, she fixed her burning gaze on Reckton, her words unconsciously growing imposing, displaying the cold pressure belonging to a Sage.

"Whether it's knowledge, civilization, or mysteries, they clearly point to the vocabularies of the two pathways, Sequence 0, of the Hermit and the Perfect. Do you think that 'Doctor' would be the Concealed Sage?"

Without waiting for Lei Kedun's answer, she quickly shifted her tone and whispered doubtfully.

"But after the Spirit Realm Arcanist system appeared, I've started doubting the God of Knowledge and Wisdom—could it be that someone, pressured or scheming, plans to risk annexing a non‑adjacent but similarly knowledge‑focused pathway?"

"Until you appeared before me, a follower of 'Knowledge,' yet a member of the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom; the secret alliance is not between the God of Knowledge and Wisdom and the True Creator, but between Him and the Concealed Sage, right?"

Lei Kedun remained silent, not blinking his eyes, staying quiet for a while before he finally lowered his gaze and gave a low laugh.

"This isn't something we can guess; just let things take their natural course."

"'Going with the flow. Is that your answer?' Ge Lan whispered, and the restaurant's sounds and food aromas instantly filled the air; the previously isolated space merged back with the current restaurant."

"Here you go, two—your meals. Please enjoy."

Still the same waiter who had led Lei Kedun earlier, he spoke in unpolished Feinebote while quickly setting out the dishes.

After the waiter left, Lei Kedun looked at the exquisitely arranged dishes on the table, so precise they seemed obsessive‑compulsive, feeling as if the chef had copied a recipe down to the exact grain of salt.

"In Lunbao, every restaurant has the same trait: identical dishes always taste the same and are presented the same way, no matter which Lunbao outlet you're in."

"The downside is you won't look forward to eating the same meal a second time; the upside is you can quickly tell which dishes are good or bad, so you won't make the same mistake twice."

Ge Lan, very familiar with the pros and cons of Lunbao's flavor restaurants, casually picked up the juice on the table, took a sip, then added as if recalling something:

"Moreover, they don't promote alcoholic drinks that get you drunk; correspondingly, their juice‑pressing and coffee‑blending skills are highly proficient."

Obsessive‑compulsive sufferers' late‑night study partners really are coffee. After sighing twice in his heart, Lei Kedun also began to sample Lunbao's specialty dishes.

Pfft! Tu Ba Ge, sitting with the two cats Bu Li and Li Ci, glared and spat out the mouthful of dark‑green juice, his face almost contorting as he muttered.

"What juice is this? It's both sweet and bitter."

Bu Li thought seriously for a moment and replied:

"It seems to be a Feinebote ruby fruit mixed with coffee."

"The people of Lunbao drink too much coffee; adding milk and honey no longer satisfies them, and they're obsessed with various sweet‑sour coffee flavors."

Li Ci followed up on Bu Li's remark, adding:

Sighing, Tu Ba Ge glanced at his cup full of strange dark‑green liquid, then swiftly swapped his juice with the one in front of Lei Kedun.

With a smack, Lei Kedun slapped Tu Ba Ge's head hard, kneading it for a while before letting go.

Afterward he turned his gaze to Bu Li and Li Ci, curiously asking:

"Why do you keep two animals of the same pathway?"

"We were just adopted."

"We're certainly not pets like a gray rabbit."

Bu Li and Li Ci, one after another, rebutted Lei Kedun's earlier question.

Tu Ba Ge looked down at the two cats beside him, chin slightly raised, and said haughtily:

"When pets can eat and drink freely and still have someone looking after them!"

(End of chapter)