BXBX NOVEL Chapter 402 - The Stumbling Block
Chapter 402: The Stumbling Block
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Mia smiled weakly at Vidomina, who had bolted out the door, intent on knocking some sense into a batch of unruly students. Ever since Vidomina was promoted to Vice Principal, she was always in a hurry or very busy, attending to her daily duties or completing tasks assigned to her by the Principal.
Unfortunately, this required all her time. Her busy schedule made casually chats — like the one she just had with Mia — very rare occurrences.
“Vidomina... Aren’t you, maybe, trying a little too much to prove yourself?” Mia quietly mumbled. She stood up from her seat, eyed her half-completed thesis for a second and decided to leave it be. Whenever she saw the thing, she got a headache.
Attie and Nota had returned. If there was ever a time to take a break, it was now.
She put her leather shows back on and opened her windows. Suddenly, she jumped out and flew towards the residential area for Da Xue’s staff. This was where she and her friends lived.
Baiyi’s concern prompted him to ensure that every female staff had their own private quarters. As the girls around him matured, Baiyi demolished Aegis mansion and built each female an elegant villa in the staff residential area. The villas were built really close to each other, allowing the ladies to visit each other without hassle, whenever they so wished to.
It took Mia only a few minutes to move from the teaching blocks to the residential area. She landed and straightened her robe right away, as it had fluttered about wildly during her flight. Jawflower, one of Baiyi’s mutated potted plants, was there to welcome her. Ever since Attie left, the enormous plant had been guarding her villa. The plant quickly shuffled over to Mia and began to rub its huge petals against her shoes, squealing in excitement.
The Jawflower was one of Baiyi’s oldest pets. It had grown much stronger than before, and fortunately, its taste for human buttocks had quelled over the years. Although it was now able to recognize faces, its intelligence was still no greater than the average house pet. That was nowhere near the level of intelligence of Sunny the Sunflower. Ten years was not enough to bridge the gap.
“Hee, hee! Did you look after Attie’s house like a good boy?” Mia smiled and walked to Attie’s door. Before she could open the door, something attracted her attention. It was Attie’s mailbox. It had been burned black, and now resembled something that a garbage truck would pick up on sight. The scorched mailbox had been stuffed with a pile of pink envelops, which suggested that the Jawflower had not done a good job of guarding the place.
‘It’s probably for the best that the Jawflower is lenient towards students, else someone would have gotten really hurt,’ Mia thought. She turned away and knocked on Attie’s door.
In a few seconds, the owner of the villa — a tall, slender and beautiful lady, who was wearing a white apron — opened the door. The snow-white color of her apron was a stark contrast to her alluring, tanned skin, giving her an irresistible charm.
This lady was none other than Baiyi’s ‘Kitty Cat Maid’, Attie.
“Long time no see, Attie!” Mia smiled and spread her arms wide, intent on giving her friend a hug.
Attie moved first, though, and pulled Mia into an embrace. Then, she caressed Mia’s cheeks and replied, “Yes, Mia. Long time no see.”
“Aww! I told you not to do that to me anymore!” Mia protested, her face a little red.
“Nonsense. A hug every time will add an inch on your spine,” Attie replied, lowering Mia back down to the ground. After that, she beckoned Mia to come in.
Mia had never bought Attie’s ‘advice’ on how to get taller. She had been hugged by Mr. Hope numerous time, but here she was, still as short as ever. Attie loved hugging Mia because of the latter’s small figure; similar to how little girls loved hugging their beautiful, little dolls.
The discrepancy in their heights was astounding. They were of the same age, and ten years ago, they were of the same height. Now, however, Attie was taller than most women and had a lean figure. Her curvaceous body oozed sex appeal, and with her exotic skin tone, Attie was practically begging for her mailbox to be filled with love letters.
Mia was unable to veer her thoughts away from her height. She had grown a tad bit taller over the years, but the difference was almost unnoticeable. She was not conscious about this when she was alone, though. Ten years ago, Vidomina, Tisdale, and Laeticia had been taller than her, which made the current difference between their heights and her height understandable. However, ten years ago, the girls who had been as tall as she was — Attie, Nota, and Modred — had grown quite tall. Mia, however, was still as tall as a loli. [1]
Unfortunately, this was something she could do nothing about. Nota’s and Mordred’s physique, as special lifeforms, allowed them to alter their appearances as they willed. As for Attie, she claimed that her growth spurt, which she had coined ‘Second Wave Puberty’[2], was a divine blessing from the War God, whose trust in her was at an all-time high.
This ‘Second Wave Puberty’ only affected her height, though, as the rest of her body remained as flat as Mia’s. This was the reason why they had both suffered some pain from their embrace.
After the embrace, Attie hurried back to the kitchen, to prepare dishes for the night’s gathering. Mia was left alone, but she did not mind; after all, she considered the villa her home, as well, so she made herself comfortable.
“I’m sorry for burdening you with dinner preparations, seeing as you just returned from your trip, Attie,” Mia said in a low voice. Her cheeks burned bright red when she remembered that she could not cook at all. Mia had tried cooking before, but the finished dishes were promptly transported to Mr. Hope’s Magus Lab, so he could conduct tests on them to determine the lethality of the ‘unknown concoction’, and this really stung her.
Attie’s prowess in household management had hit an all-time high. In the past, the flair Attie had shown for cleaning and cooking was already impressive. This won her the hearts of many male students, and more than half of the love letters she received made mention of her cooking. Many students considered excursions with their Professor Attie the blessing of a lifetime. In a recent student-created poll —’Da Xue’s Most Beloved Professor’— Attie and Nota, a stellar cook who doted on her students, occupied the top 2 spots.
“It’s alright. Nota will be here soon to help out,” Attie replied, with her back turned to Mia, as she chopped some vegetables.
Mia glanced at Attie and realized that Attie, who was still as bold as ever, wore nothing underneath her apron. With haste, she said, “Attie, if Mr. Hope sees you like this again, you’re getting another earful!”
“It’s fine. I spoke to Big Sister Dale about this. Master’s not gonna be home tonight,” Attie replied flatly without turning around.
“Now that you mention it, Big Sister Dale joined Mr. Hope on that conference thing, right? Is she not gonna come home tonight, too?” Mia asked.
“She’s fine. She can make it, but not Master, though. He has some important matters to attend to,” Attie said. With a slight change in her voice, she murmured, “He no longer has the time to hang out with us daily.”
“Yea; it’s been like this the last ten years...” Mia said, reminiscing.
Da Xue was founded ten years ago. To a Legendary level sorcerer like Mia, ten years was not exactly a long time, yet a lot had changed in that time. [3]
Nothing reminded her of these changes as much as Mr. Hope’s absence did. In the past, he had taught her personally, done her laundry, and managed her day-to-day activities. Baiyi was now the most respected figure in the education industry. His eminence in the Walthart Empire left him a ton of mundane affairs to take care of.
Furthermore, it had been years since he joined them to attend a festival.
Mia sighed. She had gained a lot these past ten years, but she had also lost a lot. Could this be a part of growing up?
Baiyi had no idea that his youngest daughter, Mia, had gone all sentimental over him. As Attie had said earlier, he was in the middle of a conference, with Tisdale and a graduate named Vivi sitting beside him.
The conference was more of a debate. He was there to there to persuade a few very powerful and influential but stubborn geezers to permit Da Xue to begin research on Void Energy.
This conference was not the first of its kind. Baiyi had spent years pushing for this. In the beginning, when Da Xue was founded, he debated some old conservative leaders who considered Void Energy a taboo. Baiyi drafted speeches and read them in these debates, doing his best to sound as logical as possible.
Eventually, he began to sit back, relax, and let his students do all the talking.
However, these conservative leaders were stubborn, adamant on maintaining the status quo. It began to seem that Baiyi could only get his way if he employed patience, waiting till he had outlived the geezers, but time was not a luxury that he could afford. If these geezers could just give him the green light, Da Xue would begin teaching classes on Void Energy, and this would go a long way towards attaining the change in society and education that Baiyi and the Voidwalkers have strived for.
Ten years had passed since Baiyi put his plan in motion, and it had progressed steadily. All the students at Da Xue knew about Voidwalkers. They had come to realize that the group of powerful people sitting in the dark hell called the Void — people that society called evil sociopaths — were, in fact, good but unlucky people. Those that had graduated from Da Xue had either taken up roles in society, opened businesses, or made powerful social connections, and the notion that Voidwalkers were not belligerent people had begun to spread.
The Bard Walker had done a good job as an instructor in the Literature department, telling students very good stories about the Voidwalkers in order to boost their opinions of these unlucky prisoners. Some of these stories were made up, of course, and some were true. Nevertheless, they were all told in a manner that made them appealing and hard-to-forget; for example, songs, poems, novels, and even plays. This had slowly begun to change the mind of the public.
The only hiccup in Baiyi’s plans was the refusal of some very influential people in the empire to adopt his belief and permit his projects. These people had the power to influence a very large demographic; these were the people who mattered the most.
This was why Baiyi was here, sitting through yet another debate session.