Chapter 490 - 202: Lovely...

Besides, she was no noble.

At best, she was just a lucky girl who had won a god’s favor and the help of the great forbidden item, Mr. Clown Leonard!

"Tina, write!"

Tina stared at the clown doll with vacant eyes, her tone growing heavier. Her fingers twitched, and black threads, visible only to her, slowly began to wind around the clown.

’Fuck!’

’Who the fuck is the forbidden item here?’

Still, if it’s writing she wants, it’s writing she’ll get!

’How could these idiots possibly know that Gonzalez is a required course for the Turing Royal Family? Even if I wasn’t a great student, I can still crush everyone here!’

The clown doll wobbled to its feet. It grabbed a quill, dipped it in ink, and pulled a sheet of parchment toward it. Then, standing right there on the table, it finished writing the Gonzalez script with just a few casual strokes.

It set down the quill and turned its head to look at the words on Miss Zombie’s parchment, its mouth splitting into a mocking grin.

’Stupid zombie. In a calligraphy contest, you’re ten thousand years behind this clown!’

Tina looked at the parchment, a strange expression on her face. She glanced down at the copy of *Mastering Gonzalez* in her hands, then nodded a few times. She could confirm that the clown’s handwriting was identical to the textbook’s—in fact, the strokes were even more elegant.

Curious, Pavla leaned her head in for a look. Her lovely eyes lit up, and she couldn’t help but exclaim, "It’s written so beautifully."

Noticing their reactions, Shawa stopped writing with her quill, sidled up next to them, and looked at the Gonzalez phrase the clown doll had written...

A second passed, then two.

Miss Zombie silently rolled up the parchment in her hand, crumpled it into a ball with her fist, stuffed it straight into her mouth, and chewed and swallowed with a blank expression.

"Tina, Rexi, write!"

The white-haired girl looked at the clown doll again, signaling for it to continue writing another phrase.

SCRITCH, SCRITCH, SCRITCH.

The clown doll grinned. ’Now you see how amazing I am, don’t you?’

It picked up the quill again and, under the gazes of the three women, wrote a perfect Gonzalez phrase. Before Tina could even say another word, it took "Rexi" as a prompt and improvised an entire passage.

"Death is a wondrous journey, the separation of body and Spirit. It gives the soul walls of confinement, causing the Essence to lose its tendrils. As the body withers, the Spirit and soul merge, and the soul and Essence connect ever more tightly. Finally, when the body’s flesh and blood have completely vanished, the Essence dissipates..."

The clown doll filled an entire sheet of parchment with Gonzalez, only stopping after smacking its lips in satisfaction. It dropped the quill, hopped onto a chair, and prepared to bask in the adoring gazes of the three women.

The white-haired girl looked at the parchment, tilting her head in thought for a few seconds before turning to Shawa. "Tina, don’t know."

Miss Zombie averted her gaze. "I... Wei’en knows."

"Such perfect handwriting,"

Only Pavla took the parchment, a look of surprise on her face as she began to read. "Though I don’t recognize many of the words, from the elegance of the script, it’s clear that the doll... erm, this Mr. Clown is an expert in Gonzalez."

After some time, she had gained a preliminary understanding of Tina, Shawa, and the clown doll, but she still couldn’t comprehend how a forbidden item could be an expert in Gonzalez.

As far as she knew, even during the Third Era—a chaotic age when gods still walked the earth—those who had mastered the Gonzalez language were few and far between.

She could only guess: perhaps Mr. Clown had been a Gonzalez scholar before he became a forbidden item?

The clown doll looked at Pavla, its button eyes twinkling slightly, a satisfied smile on its face.

’So there are some decent people among the Favored Ones of Orpheus. At least this one knows how to talk.’

As for Shawa’s claim that Wei’en knew Gonzalez, the clown doll, though unwilling to admit it, knew the kid had a knack for the language. It was well aware that translating the passage would be a piece of cake for him.

’Damned freak of nature!’

"Tina, find Wei’en."

The white-haired girl took the parchment from Pavla, trotted over to the work area, pushed open the door to Wei’en’s studio, and walked right in. "Tina, translate."

"Wei’en knows Gonzalez?"

Pavla knew Wizards had to study a great deal of knowledge from prior eras, so knowing some Gonzalez was normal.

’But given Wei’en’s age, his proficiency could, at best, be on par with my own—and I was a top student who graduated from the Dawn Church with honors. It was impossible for him to be better!’

"Good at it."

Miss Zombie sat back down in her seat and added stiffly, "Very. Good at it!"

’In truth, she wasn’t sure herself. She just knew Wei’en had been the one to provide all their study materials, so he had to be pretty good, right?’

’At the very least, he had to be better than that ugly doll!’

And so, under three gazes each carrying a different meaning, Wei’en walked out of his studio with Tina in one arm and the parchment in the other.

"Who wrote this?"

"Tina, ugly thing wrote."

’The clown?’

Realization dawned on Wei’en. He walked over to the dining table, sat down, and looked at the clown doll. "This stuff you wrote... did you just make it up, or is it real?"

The description of the death process was knowledge he had never encountered before. The simple phrases about the body withering and the soul merging with the Essence made him immediately consider the connection between body, Spirit, soul, and Essence...

It was a clear understanding of an internal connection that would be difficult to obtain without dedicated research or access to related records.

"The process of death turns the body into a cage that imprisons the Essence. That’s... a novel idea."

Wei’en ignored the clown doll’s silence, mused to himself for a few seconds, then asked, "What if the corpse is cremated? What would happen then?"

’Cremated?’

The clown doll curled its lip. "The Spirit hasn’t merged with the soul, and the soul hasn’t strengthened its connection with the Essence. What do you think happens?"

"I see."

Wei’en nodded thoughtfully. "If this is true, it’s quite helpful to me."

This wasn’t mere speculation on his part. It related directly to several of the main research avenues he had just outlined for his project.

One of them concerned the changes that occur during the process of undead transformation.

According to his thinking, his research into fusing the undead with mechanical modifications would have to be centered on the undead. He needed to preserve the autonomous consciousness of the Undead Creatures while also ensuring that their mechanical modifications could advance as their power grew.

Following this line of reasoning, he first needed to clearly understand the transformation from corpse to Undead Creature, the process by which Undead Creatures increase their power, and the variable parameters after they’ve grown stronger.

Only by understanding these could he determine which aspects of an Undead Creature’s abilities should be enhanced with mechanics.

If possible, it would be best if the mechanical parts could autonomously evolve as the Undead Creature grew stronger...

Of course, that would probably require the mechanical components to have their own consciousness.

Listening to Wei’en and the clown doll’s exchange, Pavla’s jaw dropped. "You... you can actually read that?" she asked.

’He can actually read it?’

’Is his academic knowledge really that profound?’

"Not a problem at all."

Wei’en shot her a glance before turning back to the clown doll. "Mr. Leonard, I may need to consult you on a few things later on."

"Consult? Me?"

The clown doll hopped onto the table, tilted its head back, and sneered, its mouth stretching wide. "What do you take me for? Your loyal servant?"

"Tina."

Wei’en ignored the clown’s defiant act and left it for the white-haired girl to handle.

"Tina, lie down!"

SLAM!

"Huh??"

SLAM!

"Damn it, you can’t do this to me!!"

SLAM!

"I, I agree! I agree!"

SLAM...

With a blank expression, Tina made the clown doll slam onto the table a dozen more times before finally stopping. "Tina, obey."

"O-Of course!" the clown said, lying on the dining table with a grin. "I’m very obedient."

’So that’s how you’re gonna treat me, huh?’

’Just you wait, kid. Tonight, I’m summoning a real monster for you!’

Wei’en pursed his lips. "Alright, you all can continue studying. I have things to do."

"Wait!"

Just then, Pavla spoke up to stop him. "Did you really join the Eternal Life Association?"

"Hm?"

Wei’en raised an eyebrow. "Clelia told you."

"You really joined? Don’t you know how those people from the Eternal Life Association operate? They kill—"

"What does that have to do with me?"

Wei’en turned back toward his studio, his lip curling slightly. "I don’t care how other people do things. I have my own ideas. And I don’t care about other people’s opinions or their sense of right and wrong... hm, that includes you."

"Finally, a piece of advice. If you haven’t lived through someone else’s pain, don’t force your own ideas and perceptions on them. Understand? My dear, lovely Candidacy Saintess of the Dawn!"

"..."

Pavla watched his retreating back, biting her lip. She lowered her head in silence, saying nothing more.

PS: That’s it for today’s Chapter. There will be an extra Chapter tomorrow!