One-Eyed Monster

Dean Hoffman’s proposal made everyone’s stomachs start growling. Indeed, after such a long time, everyone was hungry...

Igor looked at the group, who all seemed eager to eat, and decided not to insist on checking those books. After all, there was plenty of time, and filling their stomachs was more important.

So everyone followed Dean Hoffman to the kitchen to find something to eat.

Of course, they also brought the four Spirit Books with them.

Along the way, they didn’t stay idle; their discussion continued.

However, the Sol Brothers remained most puzzled about how Stim found these connections. They couldn’t understand why Stim thought those paragraphs should be singled out. Even though Dean Hoffman’s cryptic explanation made some sense, it wasn’t entirely convincing. They wanted a rigorous deduction and couldn’t just accept it casually.

Igor, throughout the journey, asked about the contents of those books. He was also curious about what special aspects they held that allowed Stim to make such significant discoveries...

”I’ll certainly explain your doubts, don’t worry. The reason I mentioned so much outside of these books before was because of cause and effect. The experience of exploring the Wilderness was the cause; the hidden contents of these books are the effect.”

When they reached the kitchen, Stim gave everyone a brief explanation.

Because most of the students were on vacation and had gone home, the kitchen was left with only the head chef, who was responsible for cooking for the instructors and students remaining at the academy. Although there were only about twenty people, the head chef was not at all careless and got up early to prepare the ingredients.

Seeing Igor, the head chef was quite happy. After all, Igor had spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen. Although he hadn’t achieved much in terms of culinary skills, he was still considered part of the kitchen staff, like family.

The head chef asked Igor if the meatballs were good without considering Igor’s feelings. The head chef naturally understood Igor’s stubborn nature—preferring to tinker alone rather than accept help from others. He only asked to see if Igor had made any progress during his travels.

Igor’s response satisfied the head chef. This time, Igor did not deliberately avoid the issue but expressed his gratitude to the head chef directly, which earned him an extra egg in his breakfast...

Everyone noticed Igor’s special treatment, but no one found it inappropriate, not even Young Master Hustace. Everyone felt that Igor had earned it himself. Even though they couldn’t quite understand what Igor had done, they all had a deep feeling that Igor had discovered more than they had, and he just couldn’t articulate it completely yet.

Breakfast continued in a harmonious atmosphere, and then they were to continue discussing the matter of those Spirit Books.

Stim directly suggested continuing the discussion in the kitchen, but Dean Hoffman felt the kitchen wasn’t spacious enough, and moving outside would be more suitable.

Initially, Stim and the others were a bit puzzled. It was just stating a fact; why need an open space? But as the discussion went on, Stim gradually realized that he was still too young.

Stim only focused on his narrative, forgetting that the books he cited were Spirit Books. At first, they were quiet and obedient, but as they continued, they started to unleash themselves.

Stim’s discovery was in the details of these books, where each detail invariably used an object for comparison, and that object was the Wilderness.

For example, the description of the Mountain Monsters in the Ghost Realm Travelogue. Mountain Monsters are solitary and prefer to live behind mountains, never caring for the forest. To them, forests are as irrelevant as the Wilderness. Their attitude towards forests is akin to that of humans towards the Wilderness...

And the description of Guru Mountain in the Kayne Realm Travelogue—Guru Mountain is to the Kayne Empire’s territory like the Wilderness—neither too much nor too little, completely neglected...

These descriptions, which Stim called commonalities, used Wilderness for metaphor. It’s fine for such metaphors to appear once or twice, but appearing in every book seemed unusual, though only a bookworm like Stim would notice this frequency.

Although the frequency of these metaphors was high, it didn’t explain everything. Stim naturally had other findings.

The other findings were in the books, right after these metaphors appeared.

Whenever a Wilderness metaphor appeared, similar sentences would follow.

These similar sentences were the seemingly irrelevant musings beneath the metaphors.

In the four Travelogues, these musings didn’t appear frequently, but whenever there was a Wilderness metaphor, a musing would inevitably follow, even if it was just an interjection.

Perhaps Lord Soron’s feelings about the Wilderness were special, so mentioning the Wilderness always came with a musing. This explanation may seem reasonable to others, but to a scholar like Stim, it was intentional. He had read too many books, even countless times of Lord Soron’s works. A book can reflect a person’s temperament. Though this might sound mystical, it is true. Every reader can sense an author’s mind and manner through their writings. Stim felt that, given the style of Lord Soron’s other works, these musings weren’t spontaneous but intentionally placed.

Stim provided numerous examples, which made Igor and the others feel dizzy. They weren’t like Stim, a scholar; digesting so much detailed content was a bit challenging.

Nevertheless, Stim’s vivid description convinced everyone.

”You provided these examples to prove your hypothesis. We understand now that your hypothesis is reasonable,” Dean Hoffman said, feeling that Stim’s explanation was clearer to everyone now.

”Yes, now you should talk about your findings,” the Sol Brothers said, agreeing with Dean Hoffman’s assumption, as they were thoroughly convinced.

”I still find it very strange,” Igor continued, scratching his head, becoming the most insistent one again.

”Strange about what?” Dean Hoffman asked, particularly attentive to Igor’s questions.