Chapter 2665 The Wise One Overthinks <TOC> Chapter 2667 Bonus Point Conditions
Translator: SumTLMan
The Sovereign of Wisdom also picked up on the deliberately vague points in Angel’s words, yet he didn’t mind and instead brought up something unrelated: “I’m quite intrigued by your source of information. Would you be willing to exchange it with me?”
Angel: “If I share it with you, will you let us pass through? Hmm, I mean, you won’t harm us, and you’ll allow us to go inside and then come out smoothly, and finally leave.”
The Wise One: “Anything is open to negotiation as long as you can fulfill certain conditions.”
“You’re basically saying nothing.” Angel deliberately whispered softly, then raised his voice: “So what do we need to fulfill?”
The Wise One: “Answer my questions.”
Angel and the Wise One stared at each other for a few seconds, then Angel spoke plainly: “Alright.”
The Wise One: “Aren’t you going to discuss it with your companions? Perhaps I have questions for them too.”
Angel replied casually: “If you need to ask them, just ask.”
Angel understood that the Wise One would never give up observing everyone else’s reactions, nor fully believe Angel’s words. The Wise One even remained uncertain whether Angel truly belonged to the Noah family.
Hence, if Angel tried to confer with the others, the Wise One could glean extra information from watching them. Yet Angel didn’t confer at all, as though this whole team followed only his lead. That made the Wise One wonder: Is Angel really the one making their decisions? Or had they already mapped out a strategy for dealing with him? But if they truly had a plan in advance, they must know his personality in great detail, and that intelligence is hardly common knowledge.
Even Cecia wouldn’t be able to predict him with such accuracy.
So, could this illusion wizard really be the one in charge?
The Wise One had many suspicions, but he revealed none. Without pausing, he turned to the others: “Are you all sure you want to listen to him?”
He looked at them one by one. The two apprentices, set aside, obviously they had no say. His gaze lingered on Daus and that peculiar nose.
The nose on the stone slab offered no reply, but that very silence led the Wise One to believe it tacitly acknowledged Angel’s lead.
As for Daus, his reaction struck the Wise One as amusing.
“His opinion doesn’t represent mine,” Daus said, raising a brow.
The Wise One turned back to Angel: “It seems your companion doesn’t entirely agree with you. Are you sure you won’t consult him first?”
Before Angel could speak, Daus beat him to it: “What do you mean by ‘not agreeing with him’? Can’t I have my own viewpoint? Besides, he already said that if you want to ask us anything, just do it. He’s made it perfectly clear, if you’ve got questions for me, ask them directly. Stop beating around the bush.”
Angel had been about to say something similar, but now that Daus had spoken, Angel was content to let him handle it.
However, Angel also guessed the Wise One had done it on purpose: twisting Angel’s words to see if the group was truly united. That was an obvious attempt at sowing discord, and Daus had jumped right in.
Whether Daus’ intervention was good or bad, Angel couldn’t say. Daus was aware that the Sovereign of Wisdom threatened their lives, yet still he stepped up. Daus must have his own reasons.
Perhaps that reason was a nudge from inspiration?
Even if his inspiration talent was only half-recovered, hunches and flashes of insight could still happen.
Just as Totoro couldn’t foresee Angel’s ultimate goal, but even when prophecy failed, Totoro simply relied on a faint echo in his heart to produce the phrase “The Wise One is Not Foolish.”
That, too, was a kind of “mysterious inspiration.” Not so much a solid ability as a sudden flash, but occasionally it pointed to the right path.
Hence, Angel didn’t mind Daus stepping out as the Wise One’s new subject of observation.
Though Daus was sometimes less than reliable, when standing under the Sovereign of Wisdom’s looming threat, he was still brave enough to speak up. Angel was willing to trust him.
The Wise One looked at Daus: “Very well, I’ll ask you something first. Tell me, is what he said true?”
The Wise One pointed at Angel.
Daus: “Which part do you mean? The things he just said?”
The Wise One: “Not what he said before. I want you to judge each statement he and I exchange from here on.”
The things Angel said earlier were too ambiguous to pin down as strictly true or false. Going forward, though, every statement might hold more weight.
Daus froze for a moment: “So every time you two say something, you want me to come in and pass judgment on it?”
The Wise One: “That’s one way to see it. Are you willing?”
Daus: “I can, but… sometimes I might not know how to respond.”
The Wise One just smiled: “Answer however you like.”
Angel kept his emotions contained, while Daus wore his on his sleeve. No matter how Daus responded, the Wise One believed he could derive clues from it.
Daus scratched his head and muttered under his breath: “Feels like I’m being underestimated…”
The Wise One smiled but didn’t continue with Daus. He turned back to Angel: “Are you ready to share information with me now?”
“Sure, but exchanging and interrogating aren’t the same,” Angel said, eyeing the Wise One.
The Wise One: “I understand. Since it’s an exchange, we each give something. If you want to know something, I can tell you.”
This gesture looked magnanimous on the surface, but in Angel’s view, it was little more than a carefully planned trap. The Wise One wasn’t a fool; if Angel asked him questions, those questions themselves could reveal further details.
Angel: “Then let’s begin. Do you want me to answer the question you brought up before, my intelligence source?”
The Wise One nodded.
Angel: “I’m not sure which intelligence you mean. Intelligence about Noah’s ancestor or something else?”
The Wise One: “Since you’re aware of Augustine, it’s natural you came here. That’s not my chief concern. I want to know how you learned about me.”
Implicit in the Wise One’s words was a crucial message: Augustine, that is, Noah’s ancestor, had a definite link to the group’s objective. Everyone caught it.
But truly, the Wise One didn’t have to reveal that. Volunteering this bit of information certainly served another purpose.
He wanted to test how much each member grasped about their actual goal.
Angel didn’t check the others’ faces. He could imagine Vai and Kael being surprised, the Black Count maintaining composure, and Daus… unpredictable.
Angel: “So you want intelligence on you. That came from Day.”
The Wise One didn’t respond right away, instead turning to Daus.
Daus nodded on cue: “Yes, Day was the first to tell us you’re the Sovereign of Wisdom.”
Detecting no lie from Daus was easy enough for the Wise One.
But who was Day?
The Wise One passed the question to Daus rather than Angel.
Daus asked, puzzled: “You don’t know Day? Isn’t he one of yours?”
One of mine? The Wise One was still puzzled when Daus directly identified Day as the Curled-Horn Half-Demon guarding the third narrow passage.
The Wise One immediately understood: “So that was it? And it told you its name was Day?”
Daus nodded: “Yes. From what you’re saying, it tricked us, right? A fake name?”
The Wise One didn’t answer but instead frowned for a moment in thought, then turned to Angel: “It’s your turn to ask.”
Angel: “I thought you’d keep going and ask us what else Day might have told us.”
The Wise One: “Everything Day knows, I know. Whatever it doesn’t know, I do too.”
Angel: “Then since you claim that, perhaps the Sovereign of Wisdom knows why it calls itself Day?”
The Wise One was momentarily stuck; he truly did not know.
Angel dropped that question with a small smile and didn’t give the Wise One a chance to reply, swiftly diverting the topic: “That was just a personal curiosity, so it makes sense you don’t know. Let me switch to another question, all right?”
“Of course.” The Wise One could sense Angel was trying to control the flow of conversation, but he didn’t mind. He was secretly curious as to whether Angel knew why that Half-Demon had named itself Day, but he wouldn’t allow Angel to sway him too far off course.
Angel: “How many of your questions do I have to answer to satisfy your conditions?”
The Wise One: “Answering my questions is just one condition. And it’s not a necessary one.”
“Then why bother answering at all? Why not just tell me the real condition?”
The Wise One: “Though it’s not necessary, it’s a bonus condition.”
“What do you mean?”
“Once you fulfill the Necessary Condition, I can let you pass through my great hall so you can look for Augustine’s legacy.”
“But the outcome there might not be favorable.”
“You spoke earlier of wanting me to let you through safely and help you leave. I can manage the first part, but I can’t ensure ‘safe and smooth.’”
Hearing that, Angel more or less understood: “So answering your questions is a bonus, and you might help ensure a safe return?”
The Wise One: “I can’t promise, but I won’t stop you from leaving my great hall. If necessary, I can go to sleep and seal it.”
Those words brimmed with deeper meaning.
He was basically telling them outright: The place you’re heading is extremely dangerous, with threats beyond your ability. If you earn those bonus points, I might help you escape.
Angel: “Your turn to ask then… oh, by the way, does that last bit count as one of my questions?”
The Wise One gave a leisurely nod: “It can.”
Angel: “Great. If you were like Miss Cecia and insisted on meticulously counting each question, one by one, I’d be in trouble.”
The Wise One: “My second question, then: What did Cecia tell you?”
The Wise One wasn’t fooled. He could tell Angel had intentionally brought up Cecia, but even if Angel hadn’t, he would have asked about her anyway. Their point of entry guaranteed they’d meet Cecia.
So he went along with Angel.
Angel: “She said all sorts of things. I’m not sure where to begin. It’s my own fault, I asked too many questions. Telling you everything could take ages, since I spent nearly an hour inside her Box of Cecia.”
The Wise One knew the Box of Cecia accelerated the mind. If they were inside for an hour, that meant nearly a full day of conversation in subjective terms.
So talkative? And Cecia was willing to talk that long?
Confused, he turned to look at Daus.
Daus nodded: “Yes, about an hour.”
An entire hour? The Wise One felt something was wrong, yet he also saw Daus wasn’t lying.
While the Wise One hesitated, Angel silently praised Daus for muddying the waters further.
The more complicated the situation seemed, the more angles the Wise One had to consider, and the more angles he considered, the more likely he might overlook something else.
Angel’s greatest concern wasn’t that the Wise One might uncover major truths, but that he might learn minor details: references to the Nightmare Plane, the Wilderness of Dreams, and so on.
So the murkier the conversation, the better Angel could hide those small details.
Perhaps Daus really was following a serendipitous inspiration?
Angel: “Sovereign of Wisdom, do you truly want to hear everything from the start? Or shall I confine it to whatever Cecia said about you?”
The Wise One could tell Angel wanted to keep certain matters hidden. After a brief pause, he nodded: “All right, just what’s related to me.”
He didn’t entirely approve of Angel hiding things, but after some thought, he concluded that the secrets Cecia told Angel likely concerned her own identity or hidden history.
He did know some of Cecia’s background, and he was sure it had nothing to do with Nightfall City or Augustine… because Augustine’s situation happened after Cecia had become a box.
That meant it was irrelevant, and he had no desire to waste more time. If his curiosity persisted, he could always ask Cecia herself later.
He was certainly being thorough, but he still missed a crucial detail: Angel and Cecia conversed one-on-one.
Information exchange goes both ways. Cecia might have shared secrets with Angel, or Angel might have revealed something to Cecia, things he wanted to keep hidden.
If the Wise One realized this red-haired man draped in layer after layer of illusions was actually Angel, the Southern Region’s most remarkable rising star, he would consider both directions. But he had no idea this person was Angel.
He was using an information imbalance against them. Yet Angel also had an imbalance in his favor, possessing knowledge about the Wise One, the Noah family, and so forth, which could be turned around to hoodwink him.
That said, the deception could only obscure peripheral details. The core storyline was harder to conceal.
If Angel could completely fool the Wise One on everything, then the Wise One wouldn’t deserve the name “Wise One” at all, he might as well be called the Fool.
Chapter 2665 The Wise One Overthinks <TOC> Chapter 2667 Bonus Point Conditions