Chapter 3019 A Discovery

Old Man Henry's chosen lodgings certainly matched his personal style.

Back in the Sacred Night Capital, he had liked to hole up in churches and temples. While the building in front of them wasn't exactly a primary structure of that sort, it still carried a heavy air of spectacle.

"This is another of the buildings that won't automatically fade away. My teacher usually likes to stay on the top floor, since the view is a bit better."

Chief Yuan led the way up, explaining her teacher's daily habits as they climbed.

"It certainly looks nice, but doesn't he find it noisy?"

Fu Qian couldn't argue about the view. The Clock Tower was even more absurdly tall than the Laboratory they had seen earlier.

Its location was also excellent, with nothing nearby to block the line of sight.

Lying on the top floor inside the bell chamber and looking down over the Birthday Party would be quite an experience.

But that was also the problem. While the clock face itself was somewhat ruined, it had been perfectly clear from below that the massive, dark-cyan bell at the top was completely intact.

More importantly, the single hand left on the clock face was still stubbornly ticking away.

It made him wonder if the great bell might still ring at any moment.

"Your focus is quite unique—and accurate. Normally, my teacher absolutely hates people disturbing him, but this place is the sole exception," Yuan Shan said, shooting Fu Qian a surprised look as she shook her head.

"The bell up there really does ring. Twice a day. One is right at midnight, and the other is completely random, so you can't even time it to dodge out of the way.

"But according to my teacher, it's one of the few interesting things in this place."

In the next moment, she had revealed not only Old Man Henry's quirks, but the Clock Tower's as well.

It actually rang? A guaranteed twice a day? And one of those was a sneak attack?

And the old man actually enjoyed the feeling of being ambushed by it?

"Very unique," Fu Qian praised, making it hard to tell if he was complimenting the man or the bell.

"Regardless, I can't stand it. No one knows why it still runs, especially since the power mechanisms broke down long ago—" Yuan Shan sighed, looking deeply aggrieved.

It was safe to assume she spent every visit to her mentor in a state of mild stress.

"There, that's where my teacher usually stays."

Taking the final step into the bell chamber, Yuan Shan lifted her chin to gesture upward.

...

On top of the stone beams?

It was a nice spot, certainly, but it made him wonder what kind of posture the old man usually adopted to lie up there.

Fu Qian was already prepared for Excellency Henry's lodgings to be unconventional, especially since he had imagined similar scenarios himself.

It was a very classic clock tower structure. Giant beams carved from solid bluestone crisscrossed overhead, exuding an immense sense of weight, with the great bell suspended directly beneath them.

Even for a full-grown adult, the stone beams were wide enough to lay down some bedding and sleep on.

But given some of the old man's specific forms, Fu Qian couldn't help but picture a different scene: a black-and-white figure curled up comfortably on the stone.

"It doesn't look like there was a struggle," Fu Qian noted. As his mind wandered, he had already climbed a small adjoining stone staircase, surveying the empty beams above.

There was no trace of the old man, nor any sign of anything else.

"I think so too. My teacher must have left on his own, but I simply can't think of a reason why," Yuan Shan agreed as she caught up to him, her worry unhidden.

"Especially since Soral hasn't returned yet... Are you sure he had no visitors?" Fu Qian asked.

It was undeniably strange. Factoring in Excellency Henry's social habits, Fu Qian found it hard to imagine him just going out to visit someone.

"He shouldn't have. I was nearby the whole time... Have you found something?" Yuan Shan shook her head with a trace of hesitation, her confidence clearly sapped by the fruitless search.

"You could say that," Fu Qian replied, offering an affirmative answer after just a single glance. Fortunately, her trusted advisor was as reliable as always.

...

"What is it?" Yuan Shan asked. Even though she had high hopes for Professor Fu, she was still somewhat in disbelief, hardly daring to imagine a breakthrough had come this quickly.

"If I'm not mistaken, this place should be located south of Drifting Street?"

Instead of inspecting the center of the stone beams to answer her, Fu Qian turned around and looked out, taking in the surrounding scenery.

He hadn't been wrong earlier; the spot Old Man Henry had chosen offered a spectacular view. He could even see the central business district they had just visited in a single glance.

"Directionally, yes..." Yuan Shan nodded subconsciously, not quite grasping Fu Qian's meaning.

"Earlier today, Excellency Aike read my fortune. She said I should avoid the southwest, and that it is suitable for forging ties."

His words only confused her further.

Leaving aside how mystical that sounded, the subject was completely wrong, wasn't it?

What did him avoiding the southwest have to do with her teacher?

"...And then?" Yuan Shan asked. The leap in logic was simply too vast, and her reasoning skills were on the verge of shutting down entirely.

"And then, while we might not have found any traces yet, I have a feeling that as long as we keep standing here, something bad is bound to happen.

"We might as well wait a bit and find some clues in the bad news."

...

That line of thought was truly... well-founded.

For a moment, it seemed even someone as resilient as Chief Yuan had suffered a total mental crash.

His "discovery" was just "if we stay here, we might discover something"?

Relying on her considerable experience dealing with him, she barely managed to follow his logic.

But because she understood it, the resulting shock was maximized.

Was this the true power of an Academic Leader?

If this sort of logical reasoning was explained to someone, they might be able to loosely grasp it.

But to invent it out of thin air, in almost no time at all, as naturally as eating or drinking—it left people completely in the dust.

"Are you sure that will work?"

Still, as abstract as it was, it represented hope for someone entirely out of options.

After a moment of hesitation, Yuan Shan couldn't help but ask for confirmation.

"I'm not entirely sure, so we might as well set a time limit. Say, ten minutes," Fu Qian replied.

The longer he was missing, the more dangerous it would be. Considering Chief Yuan still had the option of laying her cards on the table with the Council, Fu Qian didn't make any absolute guarantees.

Recalling how fast that previous group of inspiration providers had shown up, he casually threw out a timeframe.

"Now I'm sure," Fu Qian spoke up again, barely ten seconds later.

...

Outside the arched windows of the bell chamber was a wide, thick stone ledge.

And in that brief moment of silence, a tall, slender female figure suddenly appeared there out of nowhere, bringing the previous Professor Ian to mind.

But unlike him, she wasn't looking in their direction. Her back was to them, and she too was gazing out into the distance.