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After Troy returned, Luo Wei offloaded most of the Mulberry Garden's responsibilities onto him and promptly relaxed again.
She only weighed in on one thing: picking the overseer.
"This one," Luo Wei said, circling a name on the application form Bella had brought her. "Nick. Sounds like an honest man. Lives close by, no parents, no wife, no kids. That kind of person fits right into a family like ours."
Bella stared at her, baffled. You could tell someone was honest just from their name?
"Mistress, perhaps we should look at the rest of the list?" she ventured. "There are stronger candidates further back. Nick meets the basic requirements, but his background is... a bit concerning."
"Concerning how?" Luo Wei's expression cooled. "Spell it out."
"I heard from people in his village that he's been strange ever since his wife and child died. Keeps to himself, talks to himself, barely leaves the house except to work the fields. Neighbors tried to set him up with a new wife. He refused."
Bella listed out the oddities, then added carefully: "His wife was executed for worshipping the Evil God. There's some feeling that he might be... similarly inclined."
"What feeling?" Luo Wei didn't budge. In fact, she pushed back. "His wife and child are dead. He's devastated. Is grieving a crime? He loved his wife and doesn't want to remarry. Is that a crime? We can't hold him responsible for what his wife did. That's presuming guilt. Do you know how much that kind of thinking hurts an innocent person?"
Is that... is that right?
Bella lowered her head, ashamed. "Mistress, I understand. I'll send someone to notify him immediately."
"Good girl." Luo Wei nodded. "Go on, then."
"Yes, Mistress."
Bella turned and walked out, steps quick.
Star Luo Residence was humming with activity. Troy was at the Mulberry Garden overseeing the hired hands as they turned the soil. The maids were helping Bella tally the past few days of spending on farm tools and building materials. The manservants handled cooking and meal deliveries out to the workers.
Rosie and Roman attended classes during the day and taught the street children in the back courtyard at night. Tom had taken on the solemn duty of feeding the two horses and one Griffin , and reportedly delivered the plump little lambs to the Griffin every single day with his eyes shut.
Luo Wei wandered from one corner of Star Luo Residence to another and found that no one had a spare moment to talk to her. Mildly put out, she went upstairs to bed.
Seven or eight more days passed, and then a piece of news arrived from the southern nations that sent everyone reeling.
Luo Wei returned to the academy that evening to find heated arguments echoing all the way down the path. Inside Rose Castle, the corridors were thick with girls whispering to each other.
"Have you heard? Leaves fell from the sky at Black Reef Coast! A whole storm of them!"
"You heard it too? I was just about to tell you!"
"Let me go first. The leaves were covered in holes — I think poisonous insects sent by the devil chewed through them."
"Oh, who cares about the holes! Aren't you curious about the writing? I heard from a southern merchant today that the leaves tell a tragic love story between the Goddess of Love and the Goddess of Life. I don't know if it's true."
"You've got it wrong. There's also the God of Death. It's a love triangle. Both the Goddess of Love and the God of Death loved the Goddess of Life deeply, but the God of Death stole the Goddess of Life's divine authority. The Goddess of Love was so furious her eyes went red. She swore to kill the God of Death and reclaim her beloved's relic!"
"What!!! Both the Goddess of Love and the Goddess of Life are goddesses! Can two goddesses love each other?"
"It's probably unrequited. The Goddess of Love shed sorrowful tears after the Goddess of Life fell. Oh, my aching heart!"
"What are you all going on about? The divine oracle said the Goddess of Life's authority was stolen by the Thief God, causing her fall, and that's why the Goddess of Love wept. It's been established doctrine for ages."
"We're not wrong. Maybe the Thief God in the oracle is the God of Death. The Church just doesn't want anyone knowing the Evil God's name, so they called him the Thief God instead."
"And you're saying this out loud! Aren't you afraid someone will hear?"
"If you don't say anything and I don't say anything, who's going to find out?"
"Exactly!"
...
The debate ran through the night and straight into the next morning.
Students who'd stayed up buzzing with excitement tumbled out of their dormitory rooms the moment they woke, desperate to unload the conclusions they'd spent all night working out.
"I kept thinking about it, and the more I think, the stranger it gets. The God of Death snatched the Goddess of Life's divine authority from the Goddess of Love — but why was it in the Goddess of Love's hands to begin with?"
"That's exactly what I can't figure out. The oracle says the Thief God stole it. So who is the real thief?"
"Shh! Keep your voice down, are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"What? I don't even worship the Goddess of Love. We're men of the North. We fear nothing."
"Right, since when are we not allowed to speculate?"
"What if it happened like this: the Goddess of Life gave her divine authority to the Goddess of Love, then fell, and then the God of Death seized it from her?"
"Have you ever read divine history? A god who loses their divine authority falls and ceases to exist!"
"Exactly. Think about the gods who fell in the Wasteland War — their divine authorities were either shattered or absorbed by other gods."
Luo Wei trailed along with the crowd toward the classroom, quietly listening as she walked.
A god loses their divine authority and falls. So why did the Goddess of Life only fall now... no. That wasn't right. The Goddess of Life had actually fallen a thousand years ago.
It was only because the God of Death had preserved the Goddess of Life's divinity, keeping her divine throne from collapsing, that the Goddess of Life had "persisted" in any sense until now.
If divine authority was software, divinity was the license key. Without the key, you couldn't access the software's full functionality , the system simply wouldn't recognize you.
The Goddess of Love had been running a cracked version. She could use parts of the Goddess of Life's divine authority, but not all of it.
So when she destroyed the divinity, the divinity sent a final signal to the divine authority. And the divine authority, with its anti-theft measure built in, detonated.
Luo Wei sighed internally. A pity the failsafe hadn't been strong enough. Why couldn't it have taken the Goddess of Love and the Sun and Moon Venerable Gods out with it?
They were almost at the classroom now. The students ahead were still going, enthusiasm completely undiminished. Love triangles and forbidden romances had never gone out of style in any era.
The only question was how many people would actually believe what she'd written on those leaves , and of those, how many would read between the lines to the truth underneath.
The righteous gods were not the shining, untouchable figures the world believed them to be. That was the truth tucked inside her words: the Goddess of Love was the real thief who had stolen the Goddess of Life's divine authority.
Cracking the perfect image of the righteous gods. Making the world look again at the gods they'd trusted their whole lives.
That was the goal. Getting the God of Death to draw the angels' attention away was also part of the plan.
The great God of Death probably wouldn't refuse. He was the one who'd called himself her mother.
Luo Wei walked into the classroom, slipped the magic wand from her sleeve, set it on the desk, gathered her skirt, and sat down.
Today was magical incantations. If she wanted to make Magister before long, she'd better actually pay attention.
➤ Next: If Nothing Unexpected Happens, I Choose Mage
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