Chapter 111: Stone Plates

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Every academy had different requirements for their classes, but of the people in the hall right now, there were only three students, including Xiao Lin. The other two were seniors, and everyone else was either a graduate or a researcher.

Xiao Lin was the weakest one there, so he was very curious if the rest of them had ever looked inside the rooms. However, the moment he asked the question, everyone immediately went quiet.

Lolander said, “Don’t you know those guards are all Gold-ranked? From their gear, they should all belong to the elite dragon-eagle knight regiment. I definitely don’t want to get into any trouble with them.”

The Caucasion woman put down her fork and knife and elegantly wiped her mouth. Xiao Lin remembered she was called Chloe from the Royal British Academy. She was a researcher. Chloe lowered her voice and said, “My tutor once told me that the stone plates were all dug up from the ground. The castle district of New Washington had always been set aside for development, and someone probably suggested developing on these empty grounds. They hired a few Normans to clean up the place, and one of them accidentally fell through the floorboard when he was cleaning a bedroom, which was how they realized there were secret passages underneath.”

As if trying to stir their appetites, Chloe took a small sip of her coffee before slowly continuing, “The Judge Academy then came in to investigate. The floorboards there have gone through many years of wear and tear, so were considerably weak. The results of the investigation were very shocking, because they discovered that there were secret passageways under practically every room. Judge Academy blew apart a secret door by force, which was how they discovered the stone plates.

Xiao Lin waited, but realized there was no continuation to that story. He could not help but ask, “Is that it? Are you done?”

“What more do you need to know?”

Lolander could not understand. “It’s just a few stone plates, why is Judge Academy taking it so seriously?”

“You definitely scored very low in your history classes!” Chloe glared at him before adding, “This palace was the bedroom of the last queen of the Thunder Kingdom.”

“So what?” Lolander still did not understand.

Chloe rolled her eyes, not even bothering to glare at him, “The Thunder Kingdom’s last queen was the sister of the high priest.”

“Asabanor!” Xiao Lin exclaimed in surprise. The inn he was staying in had a half-statue of Asabanor, and Hank once told him and Song Junlang about the last high priest of the Thunder Kingdom.

“Correct, it’s Asabanor.” Chloe’s blue eyes looked at Xiao Lin in mild surprise. It was not easy for a new student to know that name.

Xiao Ling recalled what Hank told him, saying, “Back then, when Judge Academy destroyed the Thunder Kingdom, everyone in the castle was captured, except for Asabanor. Putting aside the question of how Judge Academy missed the secret pathways under the palace, are they worried right now? Right, what was the average life expectancy of ancient Norman humans?”

Chloe shook her head, “It’s impossible, when Judge Academy was at war with the Thunder Kingdom, the high priest was already almost a hundred years old. Over a hundred years have passed since then, and even modern spells or medicine can’t possibly extend his life by that long.”

At that point, everyone was deep in thought, wondering what secrets were kept in the stones.

Lolander said in disinterest, “Guys, why are you all adding to your own troubles! No matter what the stone plates are hiding, it concerns Judge Academy. We’re just here to work, once we get our pay, everything here has nothing to do with us!”

Chloe pursed her lips and smiled. “You’re right, nothing in the stones has anything to do with us. Let’s just get our work done properly. I really need to head back and get my own research done.”

After a simple lunch, the work for the afternoon was the same as earlier. As Xiao Lin was copying, he tried to piece together any information he could glean, but his grasp of Ancient Normese was way too weak. The only thing it was good for was ensuring his writings were accurate, and that he could understand a few random phrases here and there. However, when linked up together, he had no idea what the texts meant.

When he got back to the inn at night, Song Junlang forcefully pulled him into his room. He showed an immense curiosity as he asked about Xiao Lin’s work today.

Xiao Lin told him everything, and Department Head Song went deep in thought before exclaiming, “I really did not expect that this would have something to do with the high priest.”

“I don’t really understand it. That Abasanor guy has definitely been dead for a long time. Are they scared he’ll climb out of hell and lead the citizens to revolt?”

Song Junlang half-jokingly said, “Logically, it’s actually not that impossible! Don’t forget we’re currently on Planet Norma. Black magic exists in the world’s magic system. Of course, it’s impossible to actually resurrect someone from the dead, even our own Law of Immortality only gives us a very restricted version of resurrection. However, black magic can still revive the souls of the deceased... That’s not a big threat though; it’s probably even more insignificant to the academy.”

Department Head Song started to look confused. Xiao Lin could only say, “All I can do is to try as hard as I can to remember the contents of the stones. Maybe I can find some clues from that.”

Song Junlang smiled, “Are you saying you want to be a spy? Did the student union president say anything to you before leaving?”

Xiao Lin did not hide it. “He did, but I’m just in a bad mood myself.”

“The Americans are indeed quite prideful, which has to do with their history. The colonists only came to be about four hundred years ago on Earth. America did not exist at that time. The Americans established Judge Academy in the very infancy of their country, but their power was far behind the few original colonist academies. After all, they were late by more than a hundred years, but their birthplace is way too perfect.”

“Birthplace?”

“Yes, I mean the wormhole that is in America. Honestly, those wormholes originally belonged to the Royal British Academy. As I’ve said before, the wormholes are all locked, and both the origin and destination can’t be changed. The wormholes in America were way too perfect, and they were quite ambitious at the time as well. They were not willing to just hand it over to the English. In the end it caused some sort of war.”

Song Junlang thought for a while and continued, “Back then, the Thunder Kingdom was in decline, and their power was among the weakest on Planet Norma. After conquering Thunder Kingdom, the American colonists practically did not have any strong enemies around them. The only ones were the neighbouring elves, who are a peace loving race, or should I say a very lazy race. They very rarely ventured out of their own territory, and had no interest in expanding. In the end, America signed a hundred year non-aggression pact with them, and focused all their resources and energy into building up the country.”