Why Did You Summon Me?

Laeticia was finally pacified. If things remained that way without any more “uncalled excitement”, she was expected to remain relatively calm and stable all the way to the war with the Church.

At least, that was what Baiyi was banking on. He really hoped that was the last of this issue. It had not been easy for him, at all.

With that being said, it was just as… tempting to imagine a straight-laced gal like Laeticia turning dark and letting all hell break loose. In fact, one would bet that there will be some thrills to seeing a holy Saintess acting without boundaries. Unfortunately, with Laeticia’s issue solved, Baiyi had basically clamped down on the chance to see it play out in real life. He was starting to regret it.

Baiyi shook his head hard, swinging that momentary weakness of thought out of his head. That fantasy was a tad bit too ‘gentlemanly’ for his liking.

Besides, following the resolution of Laeticia’s problem, the two little girls he had kidnapped from Moonworld were no longer rejecting his affection. If anything, that was something he should definitely feel like a victory.

“Okay, girls. I would like the two of you to learn and master the powers available in this universe. Since the two of you are latecomers, you’ll have much to brush up on your basics. Luckily, this small window of time between now and next year is the perfect opportunity for a crash course,” Baiyi reasoned as he fished out heaps after heaps of textbooks and learning materials from his storage pouch. They belonged to Mia and the rest of his Angels, but now he piled them on top of Santa and Anna’s arms until one no longer saw their faces from the front.

“By the time you’re done with these materials, you’ll be good enough to go. Feel free to ask your big sisters whenever you encounter any difficulty in your learning. Here’s a handy guide: if it’s related to magic, seek Nota or even Tisdale if she was available. If it’s related to martial arts, look no further than Attie. Meanwhile, Aya — yes, Mordred’s mother — is a great source of help when it comes to the history, cultures, ethics and what-have-you of this universe…”

Baiyi nagged on and on, his eyes completely obscured from the two girls’ expressions thanks to the hill of books before them. He did manage to see their legs literally shaking, however, and he immediately reasoned that they must be really excited to start learning so many new things.

“No matter who you seek for help, never bother with Mia, understood?” His voice suddenly shifted to a sharp sternness. “She is good at absolutely nothing but the art of acting cute, using her wiles and adorableness to get around actual work.”

To illustrate his point about how dangerous and unhelpful Mia would be, Baiyi started recounting the girl’s past when she was still his student. She was always on the verge of being punished either because she did a bad job for her homework — if she had done anything, at all — or because she had flunked her exams for the nth time, but in the end… Most of the punishments never came.

Why? Because sly little Mia always had something in her sleeves to defuse Baiyi’s wrath. Sometimes, she rolled around on the floor like a kitty cat purring for affection. Sometimes, she widened her eyes and blinked, tears on the brink of falling, like a sad puppy; other times, she changed into a pair of black or white silk socks and put on her prettiest getups before flirting girlishly, acting out practically every item on the art of kawaii just so she could moe her way out of Baiyi’s punishment.

“The point is, she is an example of what the two of you  ought not to be. You see, if you don’t learn well, you’ll be stuck as a kid forever and never be able to marry a handsome man! ” Baiyi ended his lecture with a terrifying warning.

The two little girls shot a meaningful glance at each other safely behind their books, instantly getting what was in their friend’s head as they sighed. Thanks to Baiyi, they now knew exactly who was the best at each class.

“Always remember that knowledge is the most powerful armor in our arsenal. No stinking metal, however powerful and improved and hi-tech, could top knowledge itself!” Baiyi punctuated as if he was giving a rousing speech, completely forgetting that he was literally cobbled out of stinking metal.

From then on, the two lolis had continued to be friendly with him whenever their paths met, which Baiyi rationalized as the expected response from two sensible girls who understood that everything he asked for was for their own good. It was also clear that the days where the three of them worked together in his garden, or the days when the two would rest on each of his thighs as they hummed cute little songs while he poked and played with them, were over now. To be honest, Baiyi felt a pang of loneliness…

Santa and Anna were still amicable, but they never seemed to have wanted to be even closer with Baiyi than they already were — a sign of their independence, perhaps, despite their age.

It was certainly not the case with Mia back then, though. She was very clingy, but worst of all, she used her adorableness for her advantage. She frequently did sudden acts of cuteness just to melt Baiyi’s heart, then as he was in his weak, doting fatherly state, she would pester him about buying new, beautiful clothes and/or delicious, mouthwatering confectionaries, etc.

Nonetheless, Baiyi wondered if the two newest lolis only opted to give Baiyi a wide berth because they had heard rumors concerning Baiyi and his… age preference for women. If that were true, well, never had he ever been so dismayed for being a victim to his own reputation.

However, although he sometimes lamented about the absence of pure loli therapy in his life, he had to admit that he welcomed the recent tranquility. It was just the thing he needed to work out the messy knots of mysteries surrounding the legendary armor, Mystique.

Baiyi had once performed a thorough inspection of the armor some time ago. The result was lackluster, to say the least. Aside from the continuous pulses reminiscing the Law, There was almost nothing noteworthy about the armor at all. Worse, the shoddiness of the armor’s materials, as well as its craftsmanship, became clear upon his inspection. Now, coupled with how old it was, Mystique was centuries behind even the most average armor available in the market, let alone be good enough to replace high-end ones like the Sanctus that Baiyi was currently donning.

Truthfully, the only thing worth giving any care would be the formations inscribed on its surface. Next to the most obvious one — the same one that had informed Baiyi its name — the Fifth Walker had found three hidden formations on the interior of the armor. They seemed to be merely descriptive, providing nothing substantive other than three words that did not even make sense: “Joe”, “Iss”, “Bael”.

That was all. It was as if the writer was just carving some fragmented sentences by using Formation Script. In fact, if it was not because of Baiyi’s own expertise in Ancient Rohlserlian formations, he would have likely treated these three descriptive formations as some sort of awkward aesthetical pattern.

There was another small detail that did seem, at least superficially, quite worthy of attention: the orthography of the Formation Script used in these formations shallowly resembled the runic system that modern-day magic practitioners used. More specifically, the graphemes presented were clearly chunked together to form a compound — uncharacteristic of Formation Script, a definitive trait of the runic system. Despite that, these compounds utterly failed at adhering to the coding formulae of modern runes, resulting in their inability to be used. They were so experimental and crude it was as if they were some kind of proto-runes.

Could this be the leftovers of experimentation conducted by sorcerers in the days of yore when they first started to simplify Formation Script? Perhaps the Lawful pulses Baiyi had felt from this armor came from these purely accidental combinations within these descriptive formations — much like Mia’s faulty, erratic summoning circle that had brought Baiyi here, as well as his own Ember of Hope, which was notable for its never-permanent form.

There was something else that puzzled him, too. Although Formation Script remained in use even after the fall of the Ancient Rohlserlian Empire, owning to how unnecessarily complicated the system was — which then further complicated daily communication — the number of its users dwindled rapidly as time passed. In the end, all Formation Scripts were good for was to give a few elite Rohlserlian sorcerers something to brag about; it was no wonder that the system was then completely superseded by runes.

Hence, one’s first hunch was that Mystique must have been created sometime after the fall of the Ancient Rohlserlian Empire, which would place its creation date at about five thousand years ago. But, according to the Scholar, humans had only attempted to codify Formation Script into runes about three thousand years ago. Corroborating that fact was the material used to make Mystique; judging from the extent of its decay, the armor could not possibly be five thousand years old.

Questions swirled in Baiyi’s head. When exactly was the armor built? Why did it produce pulses resembling the Laws? Why, despite its apparent mediocrity, did people spread legends of its supposed spectacular feats? People would not have so eagerly spread something that did not hold at least a modicum of truth through centuries, would they? Maybe this armor just happened to have the same name as the Mystique of the legends…

Or… could it be that the Law involved this time… Is Time itself? A new thought sprang into Baiyi’s mind.

He shook his head to no one in particular. Time was probably the most guarded and unbreakable Law of the universe. No one could possibly get even a whiff of control over it, not even the “one true god” himself. After all, it was not like the One True God wore glasses, had a long beard, and called himself Father Time.

He had wanted to discuss the mysteries of the Mystique with other Voidwalkers, but it seemed that most of them were currently uncontrollably absorbed in their research of Earth technology. Being the only one who had actually come in contact with the Law, there were even fewer people who would be able to contribute anything he himself had not known to the discussion.

It was close to the end of November, which meant that the exam season was upon them.

In Da Xue, there was only one exam throughout an academic year which began since the end of November and lasting ten days. A long semester break would follow directly afterward, encompassing both Grace Day and the New Year. After that, since the start of January, Da Xue would be hosting the entrance exam as enrolment season for new students arrived. When that ended, so would the existing students’ holiday, and finally, all new and existing students would gather together to witness the graduation ceremony.

Since Da Xue demanded that only those reaching the required merits could graduate, the students all took their exams seriously. By this point in time, all bustle and recreational activities had completely ceased in academy grounds as every student retired to studying and revising for their upcoming exam. It was so quiet and devoid of the students’ usual shenanigans that even the Jawflower felt a little lonely and bored as it rested languidly nearby the female students’ dorm.

Compared to theory-heavy courses like Alchemy, Magic, Engineering, and others, the Knight Faculty was having it much easier in terms of bookish knowledge. Their most theory-laden exams would be basic ethics, culture, and general history, which were all something they had long studied before entering Da Xue.

In other words, students of the Knight Faculty did not need to spend that much time on their books. Maybe that was the biggest reason why the Knights Faculty always had the highest number of graduates every year?

The only thing these students really had to put effort into passing would be their hands-on battle exam. As an assessment of the student’s overall fighting ability, ranging from f techniques, weapon proficiencies, combat strategies, and more, it was much more difficult than other faculties’ practical exams.

By now, the Knight Faculty’s battle exam had begun. With Vice-Principal Hitman taking the lead, three hundred and six students marched through the transporter formation and arrived at one of Da Xue’s privately-owned micro-realms.

Unlike many others, there was no picturesque landscape for one to enjoy here. Instead, the entire realm was an endless karstic landform. Diamond-hard boulders soared out of the valleys, where sharp, rocky prongs waited eagerly to pierce through the flesh of whoever unfortunate enough to fall. Then, on the top of the tallest rocky pillar, was a wide plateau where the students gathered.

If anyone were to observe the micro-realm from the sky, they would think that they were looking at a tear in a continent with only a pocket of small, flat surfaces dotted across the landscape for a human to stop by. There was nothing — not even a naturally-formed bridge — to connect each of these small islands; they were separated by edgy, rocky spikes as closely-packed as tall grasses in an abandoned field. To put it simply, the entire area looked like it was a trap set for a leviathan.

This was it, the special battlefield used for the Knight Faculty’s practical exam: Mount Parazonium.