https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-194-Hiberrian-s-Determination-to-Keep-an-Eye-on-Lanchi/12584233/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-196-Lanchi-Only-Attended-One-Public-Lecture/12584235/
Chapter 195: The Great Poet is in Serious Trouble This Time
Chapter 195: The Great Poet is in Serious Trouble This Time
An unknown amount of time had passed.
The storage room on the second floor of Boss Cat's restaurant was dimly lit. Weak rays of sunlight barely penetrated the thick veil of rain and curtains, casting scattered spots of light on the floor.
It didn't resemble a traditional storeroom, but rather a hidden chamber. The room relied on a few murky hanging lamps for illumination, and the sturdy wooden boards seemed heavy and ancient.
In the center of the room, a man was bound to an iron chair. His body was bent forward, head slightly lowered, eyes tightly shut, and his cheeks were pale. His hands and feet were securely bound by resilient ropes, and his dark clothing was covered in visible dust, as if he had been dragged along the ground.
When the door was closed once more, the warehouse fell into a deep silence, disturbed only by the soft patter of rain against the windows, a continuous lullaby.
The warehouse remained unchanged.
"...”
Until finally, Phoenix's eyebrows furrowed, his eyelashes trembling slightly as he regained consciousness.
His lips twisted, and a low growl emanated from his throat, as if he were in pain.
He tried to recall, but his mind held only fog-like hazy memories, leaving him feeling exhausted.
Then, Phoenix's tightly closed eyes slowly opened, revealing cold, sharp eyes.
He felt the hard wooden chair against his back, his hands tightly cuffed to the armrests. He tried to make sense of his situation, but more than anything, he felt anger and resentment.
The curse on his body refused to dissipate, obviously a terrifying curse far beyond his rank, leaving him weak and frail like a terminally ill patient.
The lingering sting of the mental trauma that had knocked him out earlier still made his brain feel like it was trembling.
He struggled to lift his head and looked forward, his gaze landing on a dark wooden table in the center of his vision. On it were several documents and two teacups.
And on the other side of the table sat two figures he was all too familiar with.
Lanchi leaned back in his chair, nonchalantly sipping from his teacup. He gently blew on it, savoring the momentary calm.
By his side, Huberian held a pen poised above a piece of paper, ready to record every detail that followed.
Apart from them, someone else adjusted the angle of the bright lamp in front of the table, directing the beam of light onto Phoenix's face. He instinctively squinted and scrunched up his face, his facial muscles tensing against the sudden stimulation.
"Do you know why you're here?"
Lanchi set down his teacup and examined Phoenix with a detached gaze.
"Lanchi! You have no right to tie me up like this. I demand to see the professors from our college!"
Phoenix quickly regained his composure and spoke with righteous indignation.
Even if he had failed.
These guys couldn't confirm his identity, let alone convict him.
The civilians in the restaurant had been controlled by the Great Puppet Show, and they couldn't even get eyewitness accounts of his attempted assassination of the duchess.
Lanchi remained silent in the face of Phoenix's attitude.
"Phoenix, male, 19 years old, born on the 11th of May, 1778, in the Solar Calendar. A national of the Kingdom of Yarloran, unmarried, currently enrolled at Yarloran Royal College, no criminal record, no loans, parents deceased, with one younger sister."
Lanchi picked up the document on the table and glanced at Phoenix as he read out the information.
This was the personal information, social status, and family background of each student and teacher on the Yarloran Kingdom academic visit team that he had asked Fred to investigate before coming here.
"You've kept it hidden pretty well, being a Revivalist."
Lanchi set down the document and looked at Phoenix with a sigh.
"You're slandering and defaming me, and violating my personal freedom!"
Phoenix shouted angrily at Lanchi.
Phoenix was certain that as long as he adamantly denied it, Lanchi would have no way to deal with him as he had no evidence to prove that he was a Revivalist.
Now, in Ikelite, the capital of the Kingdom of Horton, they wouldn't be able to detain him for long or take the law into their own hands!
Otherwise, if the Ikelite Academy found out that a student from the Yarloran Kingdom's academic visit team had gone missing, they would surely launch an investigation. By then, if it led back to Lanchi, Phoenix would have a way to turn the tables on him.
"Mr. Phoenix..."
Lanchi's voice was gentle yet authoritative, and he spoke at a steady pace, enunciating each word clearly and powerfully.
"You know, in my line of work over the years, I've seen all sorts of troublesome students. Some repent, some remain stubbornly unrepentant. But in the end, they are all corrected. How long do you think this process would take for someone like you?"
Lanchi sat patiently at the table, his hands clasped under his chin, a smile on his face as he watched Phoenix.
This unnerved Phoenix a little.
He wanted to argue logically, but Lanchi didn't listen to a word he said.
As the saying goes, the soft fear the hard, the hard fear the twisted, the twisted fear the reckless, and the reckless fear the insane.
Lanchi was clearly the last type.
Phoenix lowered his head and gritted his teeth in thought.
As he thought carefully, Phoenix still couldn't understand why his perfect plan, which had been going smoothly, had suddenly taken a turn for the worse, and then he had ended up in Lanchi's hands.
It was as if from the moment he had arrived in the Kingdom of Horton, he had become the true prey.
Everything felt very wrong.
Clearly, Lanchi should have been the one at a disadvantage, operating in the open while Phoenix worked in the shadows!
Phoenix's heart was now filled with an unusual fear and regret.
Why did he have to provoke this guy? Clearly, the first time he had met this creature at the Corridor of Purgatory Academy, he had instinctively felt that he was quite troublesome.
At that time, Phoenix hadn't been able to recognize that the Radiant Demon Principal was a Challenger, and he didn't even know about Lanchi. It wasn't until he returned to the mortal world that he received intelligence from the Revival Church—
That Radiant Demon was played by an Ikelite Academy student named Lanchi.
"Mr. Phoenix, whether you admit it or not, and whether we have a way to make you admit that you're a Revivalist, is irrelevant to me because it's a fact."
Lanchi picked up the teacup on the table, took a sip, and then looked at the figure standing next to him.
"Miss Lanfu, would you mind doing some ideological education work?"
The Great Poet, who had just shone the light into Phoenix's eyes, nodded and loosened the lamp. She walked over to Phoenix's side and circled him, examining him.
"Who are you, really?"
When Phoenix saw the gray-haired female devil clearly again, he couldn't help but ask, his whole body trembling as if in instinctive fear.
He was quite sure that it was this woman who had treated him like an ant earlier.
At this moment, she seemed to have dropped her pretense and revealed her true nature, no longer hiding her evil behind a cold facade.
However, before she made her move, she still only appeared to be at the first rank!
"I am the Great Poet," she replied, wearing a black jacket with a fluttering skirt and a hat reminiscent of a prison officer. She had recently started asking Lanchi to buy her new clothes, although her taste was rather peculiar.
"It's a pity that the Three Divine Heads aren't here, otherwise, we wouldn't need to bother with this ourselves."
The Great Poet sighed wistfully.
Those three clergy members, deeply influenced by her and Lanchi, wouldn't have taken more than an hour to get Phoenix to talk.
"... "
Huberian's eyes twitched at the mention of the "Three Divine Heads." She, of course, remembered who they referred to.
She just hoped that when she and Lanchi went on vacation to the Northern Continent, those three wouldn't become too famous.
(End of Chapter)
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