28 House of Cards

Guy knocked on Al's office door and waited for permission. He was a little apprehensive about approaching Al. Based on his observation, Al seemed like he was averse to teaching people. The last time a kid asked Al for clarification regarding a section in a spellbook, he just waved his hand and tossed the kid out of the library.

"Come in!"

Hearing the affirmation, Guy entered. But right when he stepped into Al's office, he was assaulted by a horrific sight that caused his stomach to churn.

There were papers strewn left and right! There were plates of half-eaten food peppered around the room. The man's desk was piled with stacks of open books, documents, artefacts, and gadgets. The room smelled rank as if it hadn't been aerated in centuries.

In his lifetime, Guy had seen many workaholics and their "lairs". But this was by far the worst of its kind. It was as if all of them had been condensed into one space and then multiplied by a 100.

There was barely enough space to step foot inside the room. Guy wondered how Al managed to transit from the door to his desk.

'Does he hover?'

Al peeked from around the mountain of papers on his desk and saw Guy's aghast expression. He then followed Guy's gaze and inhaled the sight before him. It was at that moment, he realised the absolute mess he had created.

Biting his tongue, Al quickly waved his hands and materialised multiple spell circles. As they vibrated and expanded, the items in the room started to levitate and move.

The leftover food in the room disintegrated. The papers fluttered together and stacked themselves automatically as if given lives of their own. The books on his desk lifted themselves and marched into the many shelves in his office. A vacuum formed in mid-air and started to vigorously pull at the air particles in the office, taking away the stagnant smells lingering in the room. A series of flashes of light strobed, adding vibrancy to the drab and peeling walls with each passing.

As Guy beheld the sight before him, he sighed inwardly at the conveniences offered by magic. He was especially envious of the vacuum air freshening spell.

'I guess that's one good reason for me to advance my cultivation.'

While Guy could create a vacuum using his modular spells, it wasn't like this one. Guy could clearly see with an |Inspect| cast that Al was essentially puncturing a hole in space and pulling in the particles through it. It was like how the vacuums from Earth worked, where they created low pressure by running a high-speed fan. But instead of having a dust bag, the filth was deposited into a different space altogether.

"Please take a seat," Al said, pulling Guy out of his trance. Al gestured Guy towards a chair that magically materialised before his desk. Well, it was already there. It was just buried under a massive pile of papers.

As Guy sat down, Al gushed out excitedly, "This book you gave me is fascinating," while sliding forward a workbook named, "Elementary Geometry."

Adhering to Al's request, Guy would frequently compile information from the textbooks in his RoK and print out concise workbooks for Al to follow.

"I was especially surprised by this theory by Pythagoras. You won't believe how much time it saved me in verifying the building blueprints a friend of mine was working on. And these theories on shape construction were a massive help in a beast-suppression ritual formation I was working on."

Al put away the book and commented, "You know, at first I was thinking: What's the point of all of this? But then after I thought about it, I found a lot of scenarios where some of the concepts and theories here could prove of use."

"That's what they all say," Guy muttered while stifling a chuckle.

Al then snapped his fingers as he remembered something, "Oh right! I was thinking about the whole True World Theory you brought up last time. I looked into it, but I couldn't find any information about it. I am quite interested in learning more about the theory in general."

As he finished the sentence, his gaze sharpened. Guy knew immediately that this segue was a probe.

Guy started to panic. He had been too quick to write off Al's scepticism. The man had lived for over a century, after all, it couldn't have been so easy to hoodwink him.

'Mast! Help me!' Guy pleaded.

(What do you want me to do?) Mast replied in confusion.

Guy screamed in defeat. He didn't know what to do! He had made up the whole True World Theory to create a reliable fallback for the ideas he was producing. If anyone asked how he envisioned something, he could attribute it to the works of a forgotten race with a rich history.

But he never thought that Al would actually grasp so tightly at those strings and follow them so doggedly.

'Why are you so inquisitive?' Guy lamented. Ironically, being a teacher, this was something he should be encouraging from his students.

(Why don't you just play it off? I looked up information on how people responded when place in a situation similar to yours. Usually, they plead ignorance,) Mast offered.

Seeing as there wasn't anything else he could do, Guy decided to roll with that.

"Uhm... I don't know why you couldn't find anything about them. Then again, the merchant told me that people didn't really believe the things written in the books. They thought it was just some nonsensical fiction," he said while shuffling uncomfortably in his seat.

Al leaned forward and hummed, "Probably... But this is what I don't get. Even if it was perceived as fiction, at least someone should have tried things out. The experiments were so detailed, it would be weird if some people didn't make an attempt. And on top of that, if the books written by a foreign species made it into our plane, that must mean there was a realm connection between our plane and theirs. So by deduction, there has to be more evidence of their presence. I have a lot of connections who manage research into foreign races and magic, and none of them have ever heard of Homo Sapiens before."

Guy stared at Al with a blank expression. While he appeared calm on the surface, he was freaking out internally. Thankfully the RoK existed and Guy could conveniently escape into it at any time.

Straddling his knees, Guy rocked in place.

"Mast! What do I do? Can't I just tell him I'm from another world?"

Guy was not comfortable with lying. In his past life, he had spent a great part of it discouraging kids from being deceitful. He was already queasy about the whole Homo Sapiens and True World Theory spiel he made up to avert Markus' and Al's curiosity. And now, he was facing the consequences!

He always believed that lying was akin to building a house of cards. No, not the show, the metaphor. Even a casual investigation could threaten to topple the entire structure.

Mast materialised next to him and immediately shook his head, (No can do. My brother is keeping a part of his attention on you at all times. If he hears you reveal that you were brought here from another world, then I am screwed.)

Guy then jolted up and screamed in aggravation, "Then give me a solution, damn it!"

Mast bit his lips and dissipated, leaving Guy by himself. Guy returned into a fetal position and rocked in place. Following a quick minute, Mast returned with a stack of books in his hand.

(So I processed our predicament and cross-referenced it with historic scenarios from my world. You're basically struggling with keeping up an elaborate lie, right? Well, I think these could be of help,) Mast said while extending the stack to Guy with an eager and pleased expression.

"What are those?" Guy asked. As his eyes scanned over the titles of the books in the stack, they widened in disbelief.

"You're kidding," he commented while shaking his head in incredulity.

(No. I really think these will be useful for your cause,) Mast replied while pushing the books towards Guy.

Guy leapt back from Mast's extended hands as if avoiding the plague.

"I refuse to even entertain this thought!" Guy stipulated while closing his arms.

Mast shrugged and retorted, (Well, do as you wish. But just so you know, if you disclose the fact that you've been transplanted into this world, I will delete you.)

After throwing a casual threat Mast disappeared, leaving the stack of books on the table in the middle of the RoK.

Guy debated internally for a while as he approached and moved away from the books. He never would have thought that he would have to consult from books like these in his entire life.

Swallowing his shame, Guy inched closer and cracked open the book at the top of the pile. Suppressing his urge to hurl, he started reading it.

While this entire back-and-forth was occurring in the RoK, due to the lack of time dilation, in reality, Guy was basically sitting in place the entire time with a blank expression.

Al observed Guy with extreme scrutiny. Truthfully, he wasn't planning to grill Guy like this. He was satisfied with Guy's explanation of the source of the knowledge.

But as he got to know Guy, he started to appreciate him as a person. He wanted to form a closer relationship with Guy; something more along the lines of friends. Al had already run a background check on Guy. He confirmed that Guy was truly an orphan and was not affiliated with any parties at all.

The only issue was that there weren't any records of Guy before he arrived in Radiant City. So there was no way for Al to verify the claims regarding the foreign species and novel theories.

While Al could take Guy for his word, he was averse from doing so. His experience with a strayed student had taught him better than to trust people readily.

Although Al was interested in the almost revolutionary theories proposed by Guy, he wanted to fully confirm its source. He had heard of far too many cases where mages were led astray due to tainted knowledge, resulting in cultivation deviation or worse.

Al liked Guy a lot. He was a good teacher and a nice kid. If he didn't care about him, he wouldn't have egged Guy this way. If Guy refused to reveal his source, then Al would summarily cut their relationship and treat it as a passing acquaintance.

Therefore, Al was carefully taking note of the changes in Guy's expression the entire time. In the beginning, when Al began his casual interrogation, he had noticed a growing uneasiness in Guy. This spelt trouble!

Either the man was willfully being duplicitous, or he was unknowingly ignorant. While it was alright in both cases, the reason mattered to Al.

Al was fine with Guy not revealing everything to him. But then he wanted to confirm the cause for withholding the information.

But surprisingly, Guy quickly calmed down and entered a blank trance-like state. Al kept his eyes peeled for any deviations, however, the man had turned into a statue.

After half an hour of inaction, Al became concerned and leaned forward to nudge Guy.

But right before his fingers could make contact, Guy's eyes turned resolute and his face animated in fanaticism.

As Al once again evaluated Guy's expressions he noticed something awkward. There was a trace of disgust in Guy's resolute expression. It could have been easily missed by anyone but since Al was paying particular attention, he grasped on to it very quickly.

To Al, the resolute expression conveyed that Guy was about to reveal a truth he had suppressed deeply. While the hint of disgust indicated that Guy was not proud of it.

Al's eyebrows furrowed as he wore a frown.