Chapter 听见声音后, 苏昼微微睁眼 1 Hearing the Voice, Su Zhou Opened His Eyes Slightly

Hearing the sound, Su Zhou opened his eyes slightly.

He turned his head, looked behind him, and noticed the silver-haired girl floating at the entrance of the tunnel.

"You're awake."

He said this casually, then turned his head again, facing Yelena and Master Suiguang, who looked surprised.

Su Zhou didn't pay attention to the girl who should have been the target of the entire ruins exploration team, as if she didn't exist. He continued to say to the two, "Are you really not going to surrender? You can see that I don't intend to kill you. I just want to ask about your background, your true purpose, and what the bigwigs behind you are thinking."

"Heh." Glancing at the silver-haired girl behind her, Yelena's attitude was uncooperative.

[Nothing to say.] Master Suiguang's tone was gentle and polite, but the content was the same.

Su Zhou could only shake his head at this uncooperative attitude.

The Asmodeus Third Army behind Yelena and Hardt represents the imperial military. General Aharonov, whom she mentioned, should be the leader of this army.

He also often heard this name in Professor Svetlye's memory. He should be one of the main high-ranking officials in the imperial military.

The Asmodeus Empire has a total of twenty-eight armies, but there are not many fully staffed. Most of them are colluding with local nobles, or even local emperors themselves. Only nine are directly under the command of the imperial royal family. The Third Army is the strongest of them.

Although the number is not large, the armies directly under the royal family are far superior to others in terms of both soldiers and equipment. If it were not for frequent natural disasters and the various legacies of the previous generation's internal strife and division, these forces would be enough to rule the entire empire.

Yelena was obviously following military orders to secretly explore the Chuyou Ruins. The military had a general idea of what was in the ruins. At least they knew they could find the stasis field iron coffin and the 'First People' in the coffin.

As for the Suiguang Order to which Master Suiguang belonged, Su Zhou was even more familiar with it—his predecessor had studied in the Order's academy. At least forty years ago, the Suiguang Order was still a gentle and progressive organization, dedicated to developing technology and benefiting the people of the entire Aean world.

Most of the alchemists in the entire world have a background in the Suiguang Order. They never hide their knowledge, but alchemy is really difficult to learn. It is roughly equivalent to a complex of advanced disciplines such as advanced mathematics, chemistry, fluid dynamics, and physics.

Without a teacher and professional guidance from textbooks, it is difficult for ordinary people to become self-taught. Therefore, among extraordinary professions, the number of alchemists is not as large as that of casters.

As for now, Su Zhou doesn't know whether the Suiguang Order still retains its original intention, but even if the other party wants to kill him, he, who can listen to people's hearts, cannot deny that Master Suiguang reluctantly took action with the ideal of 'benefiting mankind'.

These two people respectively represent the imperial royal family and the military; one represents one of the top independent extraordinary forces in the entire world.

If he could get these two to speak, he could clearly grasp the general situation of the entire Aean world.

Unfortunately, it seems a little difficult.

"Svetlye has been retired for too long. In recent years, he has been focusing on building orphanages and hasn't even paid attention to the world situation."

Shaking his head slightly, Su Zhou couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "Although Yelena and Suiguang are very cryptic, they are indeed the ports through which I can understand this world."

Thinking like this, he made a decision in his heart.

"Are you really not going to cooperate?"

Stepping forward again, Su Zhou stood in front of the two who had lost their ability to resist with an indifferent tone.

The large shield in his hand was heavy, and his steps were like a war chariot. No one would think that this man was not dangerous just because he didn't have a blade on his body. His existence itself was like a war hammer of divine punishment, a battering ram for besieging cities, and the most dangerous weapon.

Yelena couldn't figure out how the originally extremely weak professor, who seemed to have no strength to restrain a chicken, could become like this now—she had indeed prepared for Professor Svetlye to hide his strength, but the image in her mind was that of a powerful alchemist, a scholar who manipulated source energy and strange machines!

But what about now? He's simply a humanoid dragon!

Faced with Su Zhou's hidden threat, this female knight still had no intention of compromising.

She even smiled mockingly while lying on the ground.

"Heh, you stiff-necked person. I'm not like you, ignoring the safety of the children in the orphanage and acting arbitrarily according to your own wishes."

"Do you think I'm afraid of death? If I fail the mission and live, it will be the greatest disaster for the people around me."

"No matter how you torture me, it's meaningless. Just kill me quickly."

"I see." Without getting angry at Yelena's provocation, Su Zhou just nodded calmly, as if he had thought of something: "I roughly understand what you mean...Indeed, you can't live. It's not a good thing for the people around you."

"Then excuse me, I'll send you on your way."

After saying this, Su Zhou didn't hesitate. He directly raised his hand, and the lower edge of the shield slashed down like a guillotine.

"Dean!"

Seeing this scene, Loya, who had been hiding aside, couldn't help but speak subconsciously—he was quite confused during the previous battle and couldn't understand why Aunt Yelena, who had been quite nice to them before, would suddenly fight with the dean.

He also completely couldn't understand how things had gotten to this point.

"Loya, stop." Gasha pulled Loya aside.

Although he couldn't see the situation clearly either, he could vaguely feel that the professor's action was not to 'punish' Aunt Yelena for her lack of cooperation, but rather to 'fulfill' the other party.

"They are all good children, aren't they?"

Hearing Loya's voice, Su Zhou also stopped his hand. He said softly, "You don't seem as bad as you appear on the surface. At least I saw you trying to keep the children away from the center of danger several times."

Perhaps, in the perfect deduction, in the world line where Professor Svetlye died and Su Zhou didn't possess him, it was Yelena's indulgence that allowed the two children to escape the Chuyou Ruins.

At this moment, the female knight, who had a stubborn expression on her face, was also somewhat shaken.

In the military's information, Professor Svetlye was a demonic alchemist who dared to use blasphemous potions to turn half of a mobile city-state into plague puppets in order to resist the imperial army's encirclement and suppression—the reason why he opened an orphanage after his escape was just to use this persona to conceal his identity.

After all, who would have thought that a cold-blooded butcher who dared to kill hundreds of thousands of people would become a caring and impoverished professor?

But in the dozen or so days of exploring the ruins, she vaguely realized that these children, who were about the same age as her daughter, sincerely respected him, and the temperament that Professor Svetlye revealed was not at all the same as that of a death plague warlock who was ranked high on the wanted list.

——But what's the point? If I fail the mission and don't die, I'll be treated as a traitor, and my daughter's fate will probably be more miserable than death...

"Don't let the children see it, Professor."

Sighing, she said this: "They shouldn't see this at this age."

"You underestimate them, Yelena."

Su Zhou replied: "They are orphans who crawled out of famine and corpses, not flowers in a greenhouse. And in this world, they must see every step clearly, not escape."

The shield fell, blood splattered, and the head rolled to the side.

Su Zhou wiped the blood off the shield. He looked at Suiguang on the side: "Master, are you going to be so stubborn too?"

The mechanical humanoid watching all this said calmly: [The Suiguang Order has fully mastered the manufacturing technology. 'Suiguang' is not afraid of death.]

[Don't have any psychological burden, Professor Svetlye. You are indeed a good person. I want to apologize for trying to kill you before.]

"Why bother."

Sighing, Su Zhou raised his hand, and electric arcs flickered in his palm.

Without hesitation, the man pressed one hand on the head of Master Suiguang, who was about to run out of energy, and then retracted his hand. At the moment when the soul fire in the other party's eyes went out, he turned around and walked towards Gasha and Loya.

"Your shield."

Returning the shield to Gasha and rubbing the other party's head, Su Zhou turned his head and looked at Loya, who was still somewhat dazed.

"What, can't understand?"

He bent down and asked softly.

"No...I understand very well." Raising his head and looking at Su Zhou, Loya shook his head forcefully: "They all wanted to kill Dean, so of course Dean can kill them."

"It's just..."

The boy shifted his gaze and looked at the female knight's corpse.

Loya's tone was filled with confusion and bewilderment: "Aunt Yelena...and Master Suiguang."

"Are they bad people?"