Chapter 2803 Yes or No Questions <TOC> Chapter 2805 Poetry Room Changes Hands
Translator: SumTLMan
The energy fluctuations of the True Word Book were as stable as ever, and after the word 「No」 appeared, there was no sign of it fading away either. This meant that, once again, Angel had told the truth.
He had never seen the man in the emblem, much less had any deep contact with him.
The Black Count and the others were stunned for a moment. They really had been following the Sovereign of Wisdom’s line of logic earlier, thinking that there might be someone 「behind」 Angel, but now it seemed that they had still wronged Angel.
As for the Sovereign of Wisdom, he revealed a look of startled suspicion, his brows slightly furrowing, as he once again sank into thought.
He had guessed wrong again this time? Angel really had never come into contact with Ouro?
Then that was strange, where had Angel gotten so much information from, and why was Aedannis paying such close attention to Angel?
The Sovereign of Wisdom pondered bitterly without obtaining an answer, while Angel stared expressionlessly at the word 「No」on the True Word Book.
Everyone thought that Angel’s expression like this represented displeasure, after all, the Sovereign of Wisdom had suddenly added a question, and its targeting could not have been more direct.
But in reality, Angel had long expected a question aimed at himself. The reason he was still staring at the word 「No」 was because his answer this time was actually not entirely from his true heart.
The Sovereign of Wisdom’s question was：「Have you ever seen and come into contact with the male in the emblem? 」
The key point in it lay in 「seen」 and 「come into contact」, if it were only the former, Angel could answer 「No」 directly and without hesitation, because he indeed had never seen the male in the emblem.
But if it were the latter, then this was a bit hard to say. The term 「come into contact」 is quite broad and vague, for example, if you have spoken with the other party, even if you said only one sentence, that still counts as contact.
Also, 「come into contact」 can also be interpreted as meeting, encountering, meaning that even one-sided contact counts as contact. That is to say, even if you did not speak with the other party, if you only met face to face once, that could still count as contact.
Angel was very certain that the Sovereign of Wisdom had deliberately used this word, precisely in order to expand the scope of this question.
And had Angel ever come into contact with the male in the emblem?
The answer：yes.
This was the answer in Angel’s heart, because he believed that the man who had possessed that giant unicorn whale in the void back then, was the male in the emblem.
The most important evidence lay in one sentence the other party said before leaving
「Please, you absolutely must come to the Ruin Site…… I have waited for too long.」
The meaning of this sentence was simple and direct, requiring no explanation. And its implied meaning was that the man speaking to Angel was actually in the Ruin Site.
And according to the Sovereign of Wisdom’s statement, it could be inferred that there were no outsiders in the Ruin Site, only Aedannis and…… the male in the Demon God of Mirrors emblem.
Then the question circled back, Angel had spoken during the duel with a male suspected to be in the Ruin Site, and the only male in the Ruin Site was the male in the emblem.
From this level, Angel had unquestionably come into contact with the other party.
But here another problem appeared, everything above was only Angel’s own inference. So-called inference is merely wrapping a layer of self-righteous skin around the 「unknown」.
Skin is ultimately only skin, what matters is still the true body beneath the skin…… that is, the truth.
The truth, Angel actually did not know.
Even if his inference had a ninety-nine percent certainty, there was still a tiny possibility that it was wrong. After all, he had not truly seen the person who spoke with him, and that man had not explicitly told Angel that he himself was the man in the emblem.
If considered from this level, Angel could completely regard himself as never having come into contact with the other party.
What he came into contact with was an unknown man, and who this man was, he had no way to determine.
This involved inner conviction, that is to say, everything depended on Angel’s personal thoughts.
And Angel’s thoughts leaned toward the former, he himself felt that he should answer the Sovereign of Wisdom’s question with 「Yes」, rather than 「No」.
A ninety-nine percent probability, possibly being the male in the emblem, made it difficult for Angel, as a rational person, to ignore such a high probability and instead focus on that almost-negligible unknown probability.
But, Angel still wrote down 「No」 without the slightest hesitation. The reason he did this was that he wanted to see what reaction the True Word Book would have.
Because his inner conviction and the answer were opposed to each other, under normal circumstances, the True Word Book would certainly make a strong reaction.
But the True Word Book unexpectedly had no movement whatsoever, directly determining that 「No」 was the accurate answer.
This caused doubt to rise in Angel’s heart.
In his view, there were two possibilities for the True Word Book having no reaction at all：first, just as Angel had thought before, even if a ninety-nine percent guess was correct, a guess is still a guess, not the truth. And the True Word Book’s judgment was still based on the 「absolute」 truth, rather than on free inner conviction.
And the second possibility was related to that one from the Nightmare Plane.
The energy Angel entered into the True Word Book was actually the endlessly overflowing power of the Nightmare Plane spilling out from the Green Rune on his right hand. Strictly speaking, this kind of power, or rather this kind of aura, was not cultivated by Angel himself.
So there was a certain possibility that the one who signed the True Word Book was not Angel, but the true owner of this right hand, that one from the Nightmare Plane.
If that was the case, then it was normal for the True Word Book to have no reaction, because that one from the Nightmare Plane indeed had never come into contact with the male in the Demon God of Mirrors emblem in reality.
Among these two possibilities, which one was true, Angel currently had no way to judge. Unless the Sovereign of Wisdom asked another explicit question, and Angel directly answered that question with a lie, if the True Word Book still had no reaction, then it could be confirmed that it was related to that one from the Nightmare Plane；if the True Word Book reacted, then the opposite was true.
However, Angel also could not possibly take the initiative to ask the Sovereign of Wisdom to test this, so he could only see whether, after the Sovereign of Wisdom finished thinking, there would still be other questions.
This time, the Sovereign of Wisdom’s contemplation did not last very long, not because he had understood quickly, but because he simply could not figure it out at all…… since he could not figure it out for the time being, then he would put it down first.
When signing the True Word Book contract for the first time before, the Sovereign of Wisdom had already stated that he would not deeply investigate Angel’s matters, and since this probing had not produced a result, then he might as well let it go.
After giving up thinking, the Sovereign of Wisdom instantly felt much more relaxed.
Clearly, Angel was not even a fraction of his age, but for some reason, when facing Angel, he always had the illusion that he was facing a complex formula. He thought he had understood it, solved it, seen through it, yet in the next second he was slapped in the face, and his entire line of thought from beginning to end had been wrong. Then he overturned it and derived it again from the beginning, and after obtaining the answer once more, he thought he had completely understood it, but the True Word Book again gave a resounding slap on his face, which made the Sovereign of Wisdom feel very uncomfortable.
In all these years, he, who was famed for wisdom, for the first time felt the distress of being unable to fathom something.
Choosing to give up instead produced a sense of release.
The Sovereign of Wisdom looked deeply at Angel, sighed inwardly for a moment, stopped thinking further, and turned his gaze toward the Black Count：「The yes or no questions end here.」
The Black Count：「Next, should it be your turn to explain.」
The Sovereign of Wisdom smiled：「Rest assured, I will explain why I brought up these yes or no questions, and at the same time I will keep my promise and tell you the situation of the Ruin Site.」
After a pause, the Sovereign of Wisdom slowly said：「The first question I asked you, Parting Sky Poetry Room. This name, that the descendants of Noah do not know it, surprised me a little.」
「Because, Parting Sky Poetry Room was something your Noah clan’s ancestor, that is, Augustine, thought of every possible way to build. To say its ownership belongs to your Noah clan might be a bit far-fetched；but to say it is your ancestral land, that would not be wrong either.」
The Black Count seemed to think of something：「Could Parting Sky Poetry Room be……」
The Sovereign of Wisdom nodded：「That’s right, Parting Sky Poetry Room is exactly that Ruin Site that you have kept mentioning.」
Next, the Sovereign of Wisdom began from Parting Sky Poetry Room, and told the story from back then.
「This matter, must begin with the romance between Augustine and Margaret, the daughter of the Warden of the Hanging Prison Stairs……」
Back then, Augustine and Margaret formed their bond because of an encounter, and became companions because of love poems；only, at that time, the Noah family’s strength had long been weak, and although Augustine was a genius, Warden Franklin still remained unwilling to let his daughter have contact with Augustine.
There was another point, Augustine was indeed a genius, but Margaret was also a genius, and the brilliance she radiated was not one bit weaker than Augustine’s.
Facing an existence as dazzling as Margaret, Augustine could not find any other means to please her, and could only use love poems that represented his feelings and sincerity to confess, which was enough to show just how constrained and at a loss he was in front of Margaret.
However, the Warden’s obstruction did not make Margaret and Augustine give up loving each other.
They began secretly meeting, secretly passing notes, passing love poems.
At that time, the intermediary helping them pass notes and love poems was precisely Cecia. And at that time, Cecia and Margaret were the best of close friends.
But later, a problem arose on Cecia’s side, and she chose to merge with the box, and from that point onward, the matter of passing love poems was shelved just like that.
However, this did not obstruct the development of the young couple.
Margaret used her own talent to draw the Sovereign of Wisdom’s arrival, and the Sovereign of Wisdom even moved to live near the Hanging Prison Stairs in order to communicate with Margaret.
One should know that, at that time, Warden Franklin was one of the lords of Nightfall City, and the Sovereign of Wisdom also belonged to the lords.
Their levels were the same, so by rights, they would not have been arranged to live so close to each other. But solely because of Margaret’s astonishing talent, the Sovereign of Wisdom broke the rules, chose to live near the Hanging Prison Stairs, and built a residence, and this residence was the present Sovereign of Wisdom’s Great Hall.
「Margaret was truly, truly very talented, especially in alchemy and rune, it could be said that she was the strongest in Nightfall City at that time. The magic formations of the underground sewers, in most regions, adopted Margaret’s suggestions.」
「At that time, her glory was unmatched.」The Sovereign of Wisdom sighed emotionally：「To speak the truth, that a heaven-favored daughter like this would take a liking to Augustine, this was something I had never expected at all. What I did not expect even more was that Margaret’s reason for communicating with me, in the end, was still for that brat…… ahem ahem, what I mean is, Augustine.」
After all, with the Black Count, a descendant of Noah, present, the Sovereign of Wisdom also found it inconvenient to openly disparage his ancestor to his face, so he could only change his wording.
After the Sovereign of Wisdom’s Great Hall was built, Margaret often came here in the name of exchanging ideas. And Warden Franklin also had no excuse to stop her, after all, the Sovereign of Wisdom’s status was anything but ordinary.
But was Margaret really here to exchange ideas?
A small part of it was, the greater part was still for meeting Augustine.
They even, for the sake of meeting, had Augustine and Margaret secretly build together a private meeting place.
And this private meeting place, was Parting Sky Poetry Room.
Building a secret base in the underground sewers was something very difficult to hide from the Warden, but they still succeeded in building it, and the reason lay in the Sovereign of Wisdom’s help.
The Sovereign of Wisdom turned the nearby region into his own territory, and the Warden also found it inconvenient to pry, and only then did this give the young couple a safe environment for construction.
It could be said that the Sovereign of Wisdom was Cecia’s successor, and under his protection, the young couple finally had a place for Secret Trysts.
As for why the Sovereign of Wisdom had been willing to help Margaret and Augustine build this Parting Sky Poetry Room, everything originated from a certain remark by Margaret.
「Within the vast and complicated magic formations of the underground sewers, I can open up an absolutely safe place that will not be affected by the magic formations at all, and will not be discovered by any lord, would the Sovereign of Wisdom like to see it? However, if the Sovereign of Wisdom wants to see it, then you absolutely must help me conceal it from my father, otherwise father definitely will not agree.」
At that time, the Sovereign of Wisdom, who was obsessed with alchemy, nodded without the slightest hesitation, and as a result was roped straight into Margaret’s scheme, becoming an accomplice in the construction of Parting Sky Poetry Room.
In the end, after Parting Sky Poetry Room was built, as its protector, the Sovereign of Wisdom had actually only gone inside a scant few times.
Most of the time, that place was still the place where Margaret and Augustine held their secret trysts.
Since the Nightfall Incident, Parting Sky Poetry Room had been directly sealed shut, and the Sovereign of Wisdom had even less opportunity to go in. After ten thousand years had passed, the Sovereign of Wisdom actually also did not know what Parting Sky Poetry Room had changed into now.
「As for the Parting Sky Poetry Room from back then, I do remember its internal layout, but that is only the surface layout map. It is very possible that Augustine established secret rooms inside, and as for those places, I do not know.」
After speaking, the Sovereign of Wisdom lightly tapped the True Word Book.
At the same time, on the pages before each person, the internal layout map of Parting Sky Poetry Room appeared.
The Black Count looked at it, and for the time being did not discover anything special about Parting Sky Poetry Room. It was just like an ordinary building, with a hall, a poetry collection room, a study, a kitchen, and also a poetry-recitation room.
「Seems like there is no bedroom? 」Daus muttered.
The Sovereign of Wisdom cast Daus a light glance：「Indeed, there is no bedroom, and this is also why I feel Augustine may have built secret rooms.」
「However, speaking of it again, even if there were a bedroom, Augustine and Margaret would not necessarily have taken me to visit it.」
As for the reason, everyone understood.
Aside from the bedroom, the others did not feel that there was anything wrong with Parting Sky Poetry Room, only Angel, looking at this layout map, felt a trace of doubt arise in his heart.
Chapter 2803 Yes or No Questions <TOC> Chapter 2805 Poetry Room Changes Hands