"What?"
At Idris's first order—cease the Akasha's harvesting of brainpower and dreams—more than a few Akademiya elders froze in place.
For nearly five centuries, the Akasha had kept Sumeru's adults from dreaming and siphoned that power. Tradition, some of them would have called it. And now this youngest Grand Sage wanted to shut it down.
And what was this about forcing the Fatui Doctor to issue a public apology? Most elders were hardly clean-handed; several had even dealt with that viper themselves and knew exactly how treacherous he was. If Idris could actually make Dottore apologize… that was terrifying in its own right.
But the plan didn't stop there. The moment the Doctor's apology went out, they would simultaneously publish a notice explaining why Sumeru's adults hadn't dreamed for five hundred years—laying the cause at the feet of the Akasha. Even if they didn't name the culprit, wasn't this basically dumping the cauldron onto the Doctor?
Dottore was the Second Harbinger of the Fatui. Few had seen him personally dirty his hands, but if he had no extraordinary skill, how would he sit so high? It had already taken a minor miracle to wring an apology from him. And now they were going to hang this on him as well? That was courting death!
A few elders hurried to object.
"Grand Sage Idris, isn't this… unwise?"
"It's true we've harvested much dream-power over the last five centuries, but we still lack that final portion."
"The former Grand Sage Azar left instructions: if possible, we should open a special dream-loop space—consume a measure of the citizens' life span if we must—to complete the reserve as soon as possible."
"And if we publish that notice alongside the Doctor's apology, misunderstandings will be inevitable. Should the Doctor lay blame at our door, what then?"
Facing these aged, stubborn men—some might even say ossified—Idris didn't so much as blink.
"The Grand Sages before me already harvested Sumeru's dreams for five hundred years," he said evenly. "At most, we're a few months short. I'll find another way to make up the remainder. That isn't your concern."
"As for whether the Doctor gets angry?" A faint, cold smile. "Why would I care?"
"If any elder here is willing to bear the consequences personally should this dream-harvest be exposed, I can consider continuing the plan for now."
"And if anyone is willing to take the fall, I'll guarantee wealth and rank afterward. Even if something befalls you, I will do my utmost to ensure your descendants are untouched."
"Now then—any volunteers?"
His gaze swept across the chamber. Everywhere it landed, necks shrank, eyes fell, mouths shut.
He wasn't wrong. After half a millennium of harvesting, the shortfall truly was small; there were other ways to bridge it. And this Grand Sage was plainly not the same as his predecessors—he might not even intend to complete the so-called god-making plan with the Balladeer at all.
As for tossing the pot onto the Doctor… truth be told, Idris had been weighing that since day one. The sin was too great, the innocents harmed too many. In the "original story," it was the heaviest charge nailed to Azar's name. Idris had no intention of wearing that yoke—nor of letting the problem fester until it exploded.
He simply hadn't expected Dottore to deliver himself to the door, and over the Akasha, no less. If you come presenting your face, how could he not slap the biggest cauldron right onto it?
So when Idris said, "If you think it's too dangerous to pin this on the Doctor, you're welcome to carry it yourselves," heads shook in unison.
Who would shoulder a crime like that? No matter their lofty standing in Sumeru, the moment they accepted it they'd be marched to the scaffold.
Which meant, danger or not, the cauldron must be thrown—straight at the Fatui.
Thank you for your service, Scapegoat-in-Chief.
"Since there are no objections," Idris concluded, satisfied with the silence, "we'll proceed as planned."
He paused, then added, voice ringing through the hall:
"In addition, I am establishing a seventh faculty within the Akademiya—
the Pill-Refining Faculty."
To read advanced Chapters, head over to p@treon:
patreon.com/nani_kaito