Chapter 233: Exquisite Taste in Women
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After the Emperor had said those words, he snapped his finger, and a soft "hoy!" echoed from the crowd. Close to the entrance, people moved to a side, opening a path for a staff of servants carrying a long box draped in canvas.
The procession stopped in front of Baiyi, and the box was unloaded. The Emperor said nothing; he only mirthfully gestured at it.
Baiyi lifted the canvas, and somehow, triggered a mechanism in the box. The box's four sides fell one by one, revealing its content.
It was a set of silver-grey armor. Its craftsmanship was a paragon of aesthetic; graceful carvings were etched on its dazzling surface. A pair of small wings were carved on the shoulder plates, and even the gauntlets were not exempted from the dexterity of its maker as every finger boasted its own elegant marking.
These carvings were not only there to serve as decorations. They served a practical purpose because they followed a certain type of magical circuit, with certain crucial parts blank so that the user could make their own adjustment and calibration to personalize it with any specific magical enchantment.
If one carefully stared at the silvery-grey metal for long enough, they would notice a bright glow emanating out from the armor — for it was imbued with mana. If Baiyi was to highlight a flaw in this armor, it would be the mask. First, the mask was chiseled to look like a human's — or more specifically, a noble's — face; then the helm was quite edgy with its two long antlers stuck on either side, making it seem as if one could ram someone to death when wearing this. These parts combined with the tiny wings made the armor looked…. animesque.
Of course, these were such small bones to pick! Baiyi would not be stupid enough to let these little details disparage the value of this beauty. He stepped closer, and after a close examination, he said, "Augustril?"
Augustril was a special alchemical material, invented by one incredible pious alchemist on one incredibly pious day, out of a divine accident. The alchemist wanted to experiment on mixing all kinds of normal alchemical materials and those found in the church — holy water, holy ashes, votive candlewax, etc. — in a quest to create the most sacred of all materials. He realized that mithril had the best compatibility with these materials, and after combining them, the original magical property within mithril became greatly enhanced.
Feeling overjoyed, the man christened this composite material "Augustril", a name that annotates to the "sacred silver"— and then earned some earthly moolah from this.
The formula had since been reviewed and perfected throughout centuries, to the point that it no longer had its original holiness or religious undertone. The original Church materials used in the combination had since been replaced by better materials, and when they were combined with highly-concentrated mithril, an even more exceptional Augustril was created. The reason why the name stuck despite the absence of the "holiness" was out of respect for its originator.
Hence, the Augustril armor before Baiyi's eyes was the best armor for sorcerers. It was second only to the weapons and armors of fables and legends. If Obsidian armors were the best for physical fighters, then one could say that this very one is the most perfect for all sorcerers.
"Do you like it?" The Emperor popped up beside Baiyi. The Emperor believed, from Baiyi's attitude, that although Baiyi had no attachment to high-ranking positions or ruling power, he may still have a normal person's material leaning. This had greatly relieved the Emperor's stress, frankly, because the hardest gift to get is the to gift to a man with absolutely no desires.
"Truly magnificent," Baiyi replied earnestly.
"She's called 'The Sanctus'. She was made by the master of the dwarves in Marle, combined with our Isythrian alchemy—making it a product of the geniuses of two realms. A priceless item from my collection," the Emperor explained.
Baiyi had no reason to doubt him. Augustril may not be very expensive inherently, but crafting with the materials it contained required extreme skills. Besides, Augustril production was scarce because its production was completely monopolized by the empire. The common man or even the common noble would not be able to get it even if they had the money. It was hard to estimate its value.
Owning a set of armor made out of Augustril may not showcase one's financial capabilities, but it could easily lend its wearer prestige that could only be revealed to the trained eyes. That was the true value of the armor.
Of course, frankly, compared to the position of vice principal of the Royal Academy, the armor was still a little less valuable.
Baiyi had no care for those sorts of things. He just thought the Sanctus as an incredible boon for his role as a sorcerer. Prestige and names? He could gain those from other avenues.
"Now, she's yours." The Emperor clapped on his shoulder. "I know it's so insignificant, compared to the achievements you had made — and the lives you saved — when you'd saved two realms, but this is my sincere gift to show my gratitude — and, perhaps, a token of our mutual affection…"
'Why does this sound a little gay?'
Baiyi hurriedly thanked the Emperor. A gift like this was just the sort he would gladly accept.
A few royal sorcerers were summoned, and with Little Mia's cooperation, Baiyi managed to change into his new armor.
It was just as perfect as it looked. The Sanctus was even adjusted to the needs and characteristics of a Soul Armature, with additional parts being added into the internal structure. The flexibility of every ball and every joint was impeccable, and Baiyi did not even have to make any adjustments of his own.
Interestingly, the mask was made out of leathery silver. With the right magic imbued into it, the features of the face could actually change according to his expression 1 !
The biggest show on the banquet was thus concluded. The Emperor then lavished the group with so much money and jewelry that even the girls had their own. The amount gifted to them was enormous. It was possible that the gifts were to compensate for the fact that they could not be bestowed with titles like duchess and ladies. In this empire, women could not be knighted as their titles are inherited, so the women who made contributions would usually have their family members bestowed with a title, or they could choose to be compensated materialistically.
It was a good thing the Emperor had not offered his sons' hands to the girls. He may have heard something about how badly that would go with Baiyi, and so he acted more wisely than Prince Rowan.
Afterward, the banquet went into the most boring and torturous part: chitchats among the aristocrats. These fat cows surrounded Baiyi and his students, greeting them or trying their hardest to come up with small talks. Some of them were even Dukes in their own rights, who all sought to hire Baiyi as their children's personal mentor, or their family advisor—but none was accepted.
He forced himself to brave the flood of nobles and gently let down their plans for him, while simultaneously watching those young nobles and their actions towards the four girls like a hawk. The Fifth Walker felt like he may have found one battle he had no firm chance of winning.
And it worsened.
A little girl, who looked even younger than Mia, donned a red dress and had her golden hair plaited. Her face brimmed with excitement and joy as she suddenly popped up from the crowd and hugged his thigh, crying, "Papa!"
It echoed through the hall, and everyone went quiet.
Baiyi was just as taken aback. He thought that some aristocrat might have plotted against him by sending a random kid to do this in front of the Emperor, but when he looked down — it was none other than Mordred.
"Papa, you look even more handsome-er!" Mordred grinned widely, baring her cute two fangs.
'So, anyone who's named Mordred would always be daddy-adhesive? You're latching yourself onto me because Aya's your mom instead of dad, right? I mean, look at me! I'd even changed my looks, so why the hell do I still look like your actual father?'
The crowd gave a collective sigh of shock. Little Mia, who remembered their conversation back then in the dragon knights' plain, was frantic. She hugged Baiyi tightly from the side and glared at Mordred vigilantly, without a shred of the sisterly closeness they used to exhibit — as if they were both fighting for something.
'Is she fighting for daddy, or fighting or something else entirely…?'
Just as everyone was starting to discuss the implications — such as the idea that maybe someone had invented magic for Soul Armatures to "plant seeds everywhere, and then abandon the wild flowers they had created; or, that someone had pulled out a dirty prank to insult the great hero—a very scarlet-faced Aya popped out from the crowd and yanked Mordred back behind her.
She looked at Baiyi with a pitiful expression, as if she was about to burst into tears right there and then.
"Mr. Hope I'm s-s-so, so sorry! Th-this kid refused to l-l-listen to me…" She stammered. She was so ashamed and frenetic that it was even more painful to see. She was even wearing that same, eventful black dress…
She had been invited to the banquet as well, it seemed. Perhaps she chose this dress again because Baiyi had stared at her longer than usual when she had put it on back then?
After the confession, the dragon-lady was so ashamed after she calmed down from her 'hormonal tide', she wished she could just run into a wall and die from of the concussion. Yet, she just had to see him again — a silhouette in the distance at the banquet.
She could not bring herself to greet him, even if Mordred obviously wanted that. She had held the girl tautly into place.
Until, she accidentally let go, and the kid went and did the unthinkable.
"I'm sorry, everyone. My child is young; she knows not what she says. I'm so sorry if she offended everyone," Aya apologized profusely to everyone in the hall, even dragging Mordred along and knelt before the Emperor.
"Bwahahahha! Oh, I've heard that kids love Master Hope, but I never knew that it was to this extent! Miss Aya, please rise. That was just a misunderstanding, wasn't it?" the Emperor replied heartily, helping the poor girl's case by standing on her side.
With the Emperor's words, the crowd was relieved. A few, however, could read into Aya's expression towards Baiyi, so they gave a very knowing glance instead.
When most of them discovered that Aya was a dragon, they were even more amazed. Master Hope, who seemed celibate, actually had such an exquisite taste in women…