Back in Leonard's Constellation dream, after helping him fulfill his wish of climbing Pilos Peak, that entire rain of constellation meteors had turned into dust.
The Balladeer had obtained the truth of the false sky ahead of time, yet his constellation still existed. That meant he absolutely had not obediently climbed Pilos Peak—so were the sights he saw the same as what Victor Wang had seen?
Victor Wang didn't know. That was why he wanted to hear what The Doctor had to say. Unfortunately… when he woke up, it seemed he had already missed everything.
"Awake, awake—finally someone's awake. You really had us worried."
When he opened his eyes, he could feel that the mask was still on his face. Little Wen floated nearby carefully, once again protecting his true appearance.
Victor Wang let out a breath of relief and continued to observe his surroundings. The environment looked like the Bimarstan. The one who had spoken earlier was Nilou, and beside her was Dunyarzad.
"How long was I asleep?"
"It's been a full day since Nahida brought the three of you out of the Sanctuary of Surasthana. We all thought something had gone wrong… thankfully, you were just sleeping."
"The three of us…"
Supporting himself as he sat up, Victor Wang saw Lumine on the neighboring bed. She had exhausted herself in battle and was then affected by The Doctor's device, remaining unconscious until now. Paimon seemed to have already woken up and had fallen asleep again, sprawled beside Lumine.
"Nahida has decided to personally reorganize the Akademiya, so she's been extremely busy lately. Alhaitham, Cyno, and the others are busy too, so we've been taking care of you. Oh, and Tighnari comes by regularly to deliver medicine," Nilou explained why Victor Wang was here.
Nodding slightly, Victor Wang asked again, "Did anything important happen over the past day? Could you tell me about it?"
Nilou and Dunyarzad began to recount everything in detail.
After witnessing how the Akademiya and The Doctor used the Akasha to harm the people, Nahida had already intended to shut it down. Handing over the Dendro Gnosis—the core of the Akasha—made its closure unavoidable.
The matter was put on the agenda immediately, with the Akademiya itself setting the example and beginning implementation.
Within the Akademiya, the Grand Sage Azar and his faction had already been stripped of their positions. Of the Six Sages, four were removed. Upon learning that the Nahida they had once looked down upon had defeated The Balladeer and saved Irminsul, although their god-creation plan had failed, they claimed to rejoice at the return of the God of Wisdom?
Yet the facts were undeniable: harvesting the people's dreams while disregarding their safety, forcibly extracting divine canned knowledge without respecting the rights of mad scholars, illegally imprisoning scholars who refused to participate in the god-creation plan, discriminating against desert folk, spreading rumors to incite conflict among King Deshret's followers.
Awaiting them was… before Nahida made a final decision, they chose self-exile—spending the rest of their lives in ascetic cultivation within Avidya Forest, seeking enlightenment.
As for Irminsul, once its corruption was removed, not only did Eleazar patients such as Collei and Dunyarzad all recover, but the mad scholars corrupted through their connection to Irminsul also regained clarity. Haypasia recovered her sanity as well when The Balladeer was defeated.
Through Nilou and Dunyarzad's account, combined with what he already knew, Victor Wang grasped the current situation.
He got out of bed to stretch, wanting to ask Little Wen about something, but ran into Dehya, who had just arrived.
"You're awake. How do you feel? Nothing wrong, right?"
"I feel pretty good. Don't worry."
"Oh, I mean… if you're fine, then there are some things that need you to handle."
"?"
…
"This land fleet can't be handled by anyone else. It's only been parked here for a day, and it's already drawn a crowd. Desert mercenaries have never dealt with something like this. They want to leave, but Sumeru City is far from the desert. They're all waiting for you to take them home," Dehya said.
Eight large ships and over twenty small boats were docked crookedly in the open area near Sumeru City's gates—the same place where the Akademiya guards had been surrounded before. Following Dehya here, Victor Wang finally remembered this detail.
With the Akademiya leadership replaced, the guards had already been withdrawn, but the Eremite mercenaries could only remain here, being gawked at by curious onlookers.
So, Rahman was like someone seeing his savior, hurriedly pulling Victor Wang onto the ship.
"Lesser Lord Kusanali came by earlier. We apologized for the misunderstanding from a thousand years ago, and she promised to help improve the desert. We've done what we had to do and gotten what we wanted. It's time to go home—but these ships were provided by you. Without you, we didn't dare just leave them."
"These ships aren't mine…"
"Then whose are they?"
Without answering directly, Victor Wang climbed to the highest prow, cleared his throat, and shouted to the crowd:
"These ships are all provided by Lord Sangemah Bay—Dori Sangemah Bay, owner of the Alcazarzaray Palace, Sumeru's super merchant who sells everything! The markings on both sides of the ships are Lord Sangemah Bay's insignia. Please make sure you recognize them correctly!"
Using the act of saving a god as advertising, with the payment being free use of the ships—everyone won.
Returning to the deck, Victor Wang reassured Rahman. "Wait a bit longer. I'll go see Lesser Lord Kusanali first, then I'll send you all back."
After that, he headed toward the Sanctuary of Surasthana, finally getting a chance to be alone with Little Wen.
"The secret The Doctor spoke of after knocking me out… did you hear it?"
"That guy! He discovered me… I—I failed my duty…"
"…It's fine. With his knowledge, that's normal. As expected of the Fatui Harbinger ranked second."
When he reached the Sanctuary of Surasthana, Victor Wang learned that Nahida had been working at the Akademiya lately, so he turned around and headed back there.
The Akademiya was bustling with activity. With the Akasha being shut down, all knowledge without paper records had to be transcribed. Fortunately, this was only a small portion—after all, Akasha knowledge was manually entered on Akasha Terminals and generally went through a paper-collection process first.
The main issue was the downfall of the Grand Sage and a large group of others, leaving a severe shortage of personnel—especially at the management level.
On his way to the Grand Sage's office—currently Nahida's location—Victor Wang overheard people discussing this in a corner.
"Alhaitham, how about you take over Azar's position as Grand Sage? Given my understanding of you, you'd surely be able to assist Nahida in governing the Akademiya."
"I'm not interested in being one of the Six Sages, let alone the Grand Sage. If you truly understood me, you'd know I don't like being a leader."
"But only two of the Six Sages remain, and so many people are gone. If capable people like you refuse to step up, who else can we find?"
"I'm just a scribe. You're the one in charge of personnel. Putting the right people in the right positions is your responsibility. Frankly speaking, this has nothing to do with me."
"But you don't want to see the Akademiya collapse, do you? And then have it affect your daily life? How about we all take a step back—until we find a suitable Grand Sage, you take the position temporarily?"
"Heh… Vijay… I take back what I said earlier. You do understand me somewhat—or rather, this was your aim all along, wasn't it? Do I even have room to refuse?"
"Unless you truly want the Akademiya to collapse."
"With Nahida here, the Akademiya won't collapse."
"There's a saying from Liyue: 'Even the cleverest cook can't prepare a meal without rice.' Without enough high-quality scholars, at least for this period, the Akademiya will collapse… and then it will affect your life."
"…So, I'll handle major Akademiya affairs temporarily until new sages take office. Once things stabilize, I'll submit my resignation immediately. I hope the personnel department works efficiently."
During the conversation, Alhaitham noticed Victor Wang's presence and nodded in acknowledgment. Victor Wang, however, shook his head inwardly.
Alhaitham never liked leadership roles. Now that he had taken on the responsibility of acting Grand Sage of the Akademiya, it was almost impossible for him to agree to become the head of a mysterious organization as well… even though, in terms of capability, he was the most suitable choice.
===BREAK===
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