Chapter 635: Alhaitham Starts Performing

Azar doesn't understand politics or people's livelihoods. He's just an arrogant scholar—unlike Ningguang. He has never suffered hardship, so there's absolutely no room or value in discussing such topics with him.

When it comes to not understanding the common people, he's even more outrageous than that dragon Neuvillette.

In this regard, even Ei is more reliable than Azar, because Ei genuinely hopes her people live well—she's just powerless to achieve it. But the Grand Sage truly doesn't care about the people of Sumeru from the bottom of his heart.

Since negotiation is impossible, what then?

Alhaitham: Simple—I'll just take action.

With that, Alhaitham no longer concealed his aura—peak Shadow Emperor!

[Alhaitham: "As expected, just as you judged, Grand Sage—they are indeed dangerous elements…"]

["Not only do they want to resist the Akademiya, but their ideas could easily lead scholars astray. It seems my task truly has value."]

What do we do? Alhaitham directly defected—he admitted it. He's a double agent.

Alhaitham, what are you doing!? Without the Traveler, how are we supposed to deal with the Akademiya?

The Sumeru audience's eyes widened. Alhaitham is a traitor?

No—if he was on the Akademiya's side from the beginning, he wouldn't be called a traitor…

Anyway, everyone was on the Traveler's side. Seeing Alhaitham's "betrayal" made them extremely unhappy.

But the people of Sumeru still considered themselves smart, so they thought a lot. Could this just be acting? The goal being to regain the Grand Sage's trust?

This was only speculation, because everyone still preferred to believe Alhaitham was a good person—that's why they came up with this guess.

The Fontaine audience, however, didn't think Alhaitham had betrayed them at all—either because those present were smart or because they knew Alhaitham.

Even someone like Tartaglia, who doesn't like using his brain, could tell things weren't that simple.

Not to mention Furina. Don't let her usual silly Furina appearance fool you—in interpersonal matters, she's a master. She saw the issue at a glance.

Her usual silly Furina act was because she's sincere with friends. When it comes to scheming, Furina might not be the best, but she's definitely not the one lacking wits.

Only Itto couldn't see the problem and really thought Alhaitham had defected. He even felt regretful—such a good person, how could he be on the wrong side?

He didn't think Alhaitham was a traitor, because if he was an undercover agent, he wasn't one of "us" from the start—where's the betrayal then?

So Itto wasn't emotionally agitated. He just hoped the Traveler would give Alhaitham a few "personality correction punches" to make him understand which side he should be on.

In the movie, Paimon's face was full of shock, her incredulous eyes mixed with a trace of grievance—the grievance of being betrayed.

The scene had a strong impact on the big screen, making the audience feel a bit heartbroken.

[Paimon said grievancefully: "Alhaitham…? Are you talking about us?"]

Alhaitham completely ignored Paimon and casually pulled out a report containing a detailed summary of intelligence on the Traveler.

[Paimon, aggrieved and angry: "Alhaitham! Y-You… so you really were on the Akademiya's side after all!"]

[Paimon's voice cracking: "We finally trusted you…"]

[Traveler echoing: "We've really been played, Alhaitham, you bastard…"]

To save the little Dendro Archon, he went this far? Alhaitham, you bastard…

Kaveh was already struggling not to laugh. He knew Alhaitham, so just thinking about what Alhaitham might do next made him want to laugh.

In the scene, the Traveler was restrained by guards and could only complain a couple of sentences.

Azar took Alhaitham's report and was very satisfied. With such detailed intelligence, the Akasha could now predict the Traveler.

Everyone thought that after backstabbing the Traveler like this, Alhaitham would be trusted by the Grand Sage. But unexpectedly, the Grand Sage said directly:

["Sacrificing the Traveler here—isn't that your plan?"]

The audience was shocked. On one hand, they were surprised they had guessed correctly—this really was "acting out a betrayal."

On the other hand, they were surprised by the Grand Sage. This guy could figure it out without a god's perspective—he wasn't stupid after all.

Because of his previous performances, everyone thought the Grand Sage was a big idiot, so seeing him see through it now made them surprised.

Thinking carefully, it made sense. The Grand Sage just didn't understand politics, schemes, gods, governance, people's needs, or the Fatui—but he still wasn't stupid.

[Alhaitham: "…Lord Azar, I hear the implication in your words. I've always been following your plan. And now, at this point, you're going to doubt me again?"]

"Again"—clearly, this wasn't the first time Azar had doubted Alhaitham.

Seeing this, Kaveh felt a secret schadenfreude. Alhaitham got shut down—eat more!

Usually in their bickering, he never won. Seeing Alhaitham shut down once was rare—this should be recorded and framed in the room, right?

Kaveh knew this was acting. In fact, precisely because it was acting, Kaveh found it satisfying.

If he really saw Alhaitham get shut down, he wouldn't be happy—instead, he'd be angry.

He hadn't even made Alhaitham suffer yet—why should someone else get to?

In the movie, the Grand Sage continued stating his deduction. The gist was: Alhaitham disappeared at Caravan Ribat and went to the desert, where he likely met Cyno.

For such a long time, the Akademiya received no intelligence from Alhaitham. Being with the pro-Dendro Archon faction for so long, he might have been swayed.

The Grand Sage only said it was possible—50%? 70%? Unclear. But no matter the probability, as long as there was a possibility, it was enough for the Grand Sage not to trust Alhaitham.

[Azar: "If I'm not mistaken, to rescue the Lesser Lord Kusanali and destroy our 'great undertaking'… you should have prepared two plans."]

["Taking advantage of Jnagarbha Day to sneak into the Akademiya, with Scribe Alhaitham's identity, there's a good chance of directly finding a way to rescue the Lesser Lord Kusanali."]

["And once your intentions are discovered, Alhaitham would 'sacrifice the pawn to save the king,' abandoning the Traveler to prove his innocence and continue lurking in the Akademiya to find another way."]

This deduction actually had some merit—or rather, quite a lot.

In fact, most of the audience had the same guess. They all thought Alhaitham's earlier behavior was just "sacrificing the pawn to save the king." No one thought he had truly defected.

But precisely because of that, the audience started worrying. Alhaitham's plan seemed to have been seen through by the Grand Sage—what now?

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Character Voice Lines · Lucian: About Mona · Surprise

"Yeah, I was surprised. I didn't expect her to have such a niche guess."