LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 945
<945 – Rolling Oknodie (5)>
First Wahyhiemhai, having witnessed Oknodie’s exceptional performance, felt a sense of pride in the accuracy of his reading the moves.
“Fufufu. Did you see that? Oknodie’s final move was indeed what I guessed: the Tito Beam. Professor Sadako, while it’s not bad to immerse yourself in dark mana, you shouldn’t rely solely on a mere tool as your main weapon.”
“…Hmph. How pretentious.”
“I won the bet.”
“What’s the price?”
“How about transferring 1% of the dominion over Hell?”
“Nice try, but specifics on the location and entity, please.”
Though his reading the moves concerning Oknodie had worked, First Wahyhiemhai smiled contentedly at Professor Sadako’s meticulousness, who wouldn’t easily permit any additional benefits.
With such a thorough mentor for Oknodie, wouldn’t he become even stronger?
“First Wahyhiemhai, regardless of the outcome of your bet, I must ask you something urgent during this opportunity.”
“Curiosity that persists even after ascension, is it? What could a man with a child like you possibly be so curious about?”
“How on Earth do you teach your family?”
Ignoring the offense of harassing a married man, Mahabharata delivered an even stronger counter.
However, this wasn’t a vengeful insult due to prior provocations, but a genuine question.
“The continuity of a person’s existence is fundamentally the continuity of self-awareness. The fear of losing one’s unique identity to a clone is something that cannot be eradicated once one is born as a living being. This is similar for ascendants like us who possess personality, ‘Personality Gods’. Yet, Oknodie seems to have transcended that.”
“Haha. So you are saying that the education I’ve provided has led this child to possess an alien continuity akin to a ‘concept deity’ without even a sense of self?”
“I’d call it more abuse than education.”
First Wahyhiemhai smiled handsomely and replied.
“I’m afraid I don’t know.”
“…If you didn’t intend to answer, that’s fine.”
“I’m not trying to tease. I genuinely don’t know. My teachings aren’t that special. I merely provided the best educators on a blank canvas, allowing the best potential to flourish in good soil.”
Mahabharata thought to himself how a child raised in such rotten soil ended up like that, but First Wahyhiemhai had another suspicion.
‘The remnants of the gods. The vessel forged in the chaos of the unconscious, while artificially created, is not so different from a natural spirit.’
The brutal nature of Oknodie.
That belongs not to ‘himself’ but is closer to that of ‘the gods’.
That fact was not something First Wahyhiemhai was particularly pleased about.
‘I should consider advancing the gift I promised to Oknodie soon.’
The parental meeting-like viewing time with the three gods came to an end, filled with profound thoughts and the monologues of the trio.
*
After a retired professor from the academy’s Senate, Professor Bronze succeeded in hiring the mercenary of the mad noble Michael.
“Phew, what a fulfilling day!”
Wiping the cold sweat from his brow, Professor Bronze grabbed the nape of Oknodie, who was about to return to the dorm in a waddling manner, without even looking back.
“Oknodie, second year. A day is longer than you think. It’s time to hire the third mercenary.”
“Ugh, I’m so tired…”
“Don’t be a coward. It was just Michael who was peculiar; the next professor shouldn’t be that intense.”
Oknodie, who had never benefitted much from trusting the professor’s words, shot a suspicious glance as if he were doubting the parents’ promise to return the new year’s allowance he had carefully saved.
Momentarily set aside was that insidious attitude; as they traveled on the familiar road, he started to feel a warm glow on his face.
“Jonna!”
“Did you call, Agassi?”
“I missed you!”
“Then be diligent and come to the weekend lectures.”
“But the weekly event made it impossible to attend the lecture!”
“That’s true.”
Thanks to the principal’s weekly event, which had drastically worsened, the weekend lectures became an intermittent ordeal.
With the frequency of their faces meeting naturally reduced, Oknodie was extremely pleased to see Jonna.
Though he didn’t show it, his disappointment with NPCs who weren’t 100% loyal due to the Mob or Ishtar issues made Jonna’s presence all the more welcome.
A butler who would never betray him.
Someone who genuinely had his back regardless of the interests of the Foundation, the Academy, or the world.
That was Jonna.
“Professor Bronze, you’ve brought along some suspiciously strong heavy hitters to accompany the lady.”
“They are mercenaries to protect Oknodie. Oknodie has definitely crossed the line of the retired professor Buzhaar’s mood. I thought you wouldn’t hesitate to pitch in.”
“If you’re calling for reinforcements, then you’ve come to the right place.”
Having lost the lady three times at the academy, Jonna had long vowed not to endure the same loss twice.
To him, who was practically a benefactor under the Wahyhiemhai Foundation, abandoning the assignment bestowed by the chairman was nothing.
“Won’t the principal dislike it if you discard the lectures like that?”
“I plan to prepare additional elixirs to expedite the progress of the substitute lectures.”
“That means the substitute lecture is totally possible!”
There was no one among Jonna’s students who would willingly choose to take a low-value elixir twice instead of attending a single lecture.
Since those who had the stamina and physical capabilities to attend his classes were mostly acquaintances of Oknodie, they wouldn’t be unable to understand the reason for the absence.
“I will contact all the professors at the Foundation Academy.”
“No need to go that far. It won’t be advantageous for Oknodie if the situation is blown out of proportion.”
“Is the leak of the [Super Armor] function that important?”
Professor Bronze gave Oknodie a light shove.
“Show me directly. Just how extraordinary the function you stole is.”
“Well, I suppose there’s no helping it!”
He promptly crafted a supersmall model of the Super Armor generator, which he had also grafted onto Alice, and installed it onto the newly trained, blood-collecting transparent mech mosquito.
The output from such a tiny device was small, but the Super Armor’s effects, now resistant to all attacks and status ailments, remained the same.
Clang! Bang! Crackle!
Even as the sword struck, not a wing broke.
Even if hit by bullets, it was unfazed.
Even when pressure was applied via compressed metal, it broke through the metal with its whole body.
Whoosh! Vroom! Sizzle!
Even when subjected to a flamethrower, it wouldn’t burn.
Even when operating a gas cooler, it wouldn’t freeze to death.
Even when grilled under high-voltage, there was no sign of paralysis.
“Ta-da! All intact!”
Jonna pinched the mechanized mosquito that tried to jab its nose into his arm and crushed it with his fingers.
“Ugh, my mech mosquito!”
“I’m sorry. I had to due to physiological disgust. Instead, next time, I’ll help you craft special rare metal mosquitoes using my metal crafting.”
“Really? Is that a promise?”
They sealed their pinky promise with a tap, high-fiving with thumbs, then tapping elbows, forearms, and shurikens, while Oknodie was ecstatic, Professor Bronze asked with a grim expression.
“It seems like a terrible existence that shouldn’t appear in this world is about to be born. Is that really alright?”
“The child is quite nice. She won’t go around sucking blood from just anyone and causing trouble.”
“When we return to the lower realm, we need to develop a dedicated extermination device to ensure that such dreadful beings don’t lurk around.”
While ordinary mosquitoes could at least have their reproductive capabilities eliminated to reduce their population, mech mosquitoes could operate infinitely using the mana contained in the blood they sucked, leading to an endless suffering if they couldn’t be destroyed.
It was understandable why the retired professor would be shocked upon grasping that nature.
[Agassi. Have you already made your move?]
[Shh! It’s a secret!]
Having unleashed many mech mosquitoes for information gathering in the new field, Oknodie winked at Jonna, asking him to keep the secret.
Anyway, Professor Bronze, having now equipped an impressive lineup with three professor-level mercenaries, felt confident.
“That should be enough professors by now. Then let’s recruit external mercenaries on top of that.”
“Still, who else is left to hire?”
“An unemployed husband who has nothing to do since his retirement.”
Oknodie’s suspicion was correct after all.
A man who had recently begun to earn a new reputation as the ‘Dark Princess’ and, following that, the ‘Little Evil Dragon’, is now notoriously known as the guardian who protects Oknodie’s wealth as he works as the captain of the guard in the Collection City of the Kingdom of Troy.
Thanks to his incompetent apprentice, the retired former warrior and professor Destroyer had now become a dual-class holder, and he was Marina’s husband as well as an external mercenary.
“Wow! When did you two become such a pair?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Is it a boy or a girl?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Will you raise the child to be a warrior or as a rogue…”
Thud.
“Ugh!”
Destroyer’s fist came crashing down on Oknodie’s crown.
“If it’s to prevent Buzhaar’s personal revenge, I’ll offer all my assistance. But first, there’s something you need to know.”
“Ugh… the fact that my head is pounding tremendously right now…?”
“Activity from the subordinates of the Seonhwang, who had been silent for a while, and old companions of Darknodi has been detected.”
“Darknodi has friends?”
“A comrade doesn’t have to be a friend.”
It suddenly dawned on Oknodie that if Darknodi had no friends, that sort of comradery certainly made sense, and he nodded in understanding, barely managing to suppress the impulse to land another punch on Oknodie’s head.
“So what are they up to?”
“It seems the identities of the Foundation scholarship students have been exposed, and as the butler and assassin maid flock to the academy, they intruded during the gap. They’ve reportedly established a ‘Foundation Investigation Bureau’ involving twelve nations.”
“Oh? Why does there need to be a Foundation Investigation Bureau if the Foundation doesn’t exist?”
“It’s an organization that flatters the powers that be, targeting anyone they dislike and branding them as Foundation members to attack.”
Just hearing about it made it seem like this organization was bound to draw the attention of the Evil Child points.
“They say the leader on the surface is a guy named Velocasio. It seems the butler and the warrior party’s former companion Alpha are backing him, but their power is rapidly growing, comparable to that of the old Foundation. As the heir of the Foundation, this is something we must monitor closely.”
Velocasio, that jerk of a contract scammer senior, challenging the authority of the Foundation?
Even bringing up the name of something like the ‘Foundation Investigation Bureau’?
First Wahyhiemhai hadn’t necessarily liked the way the Chairman operated, but…
This was definitely starting to scratch an itch.