Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 741 - 684: Raymond: "You just like me, right?

Raymond’s stomach was already filled to the brim, and the sensation of fullness gradually subdued his pursuit of fine dining. The excitement that burst from his taste buds began to cool down, and Raymond snapped back from the extravagance of the holy light. He looked around and remembered the purpose of his visit, which was to convince Mr. Loveday to assist with his experiment.

The feast was not yet over, and Raymond picked up his knife and fork and pretended to continue eating, while his eyes discreetly scanned those around him. Aryan, next to him, was the loudest eater besides himself; she kept at her meal, maintaining an elegant demeanor while thoroughly enjoying her food. The nun of noble birth exhibited dining etiquette that could make others feel ashamed, yet strangely, while handling her food, she often mistakenly exerted too much force and shattered the porcelain plates beneath. In the end, Raymond glanced over cautiously, finding that Aryan had already broken eleven plates.

Despite the table being laden with food, Mr. Loveday and Loveday showed no intention of eating. They seemed to be present merely as a backdrop, indifferent to the spread before them. Loveday was staring at Raymond, while Loveday was resting with his eyes closed.

Mr. Loveday, due to the Holy Flame, could not enjoy the food in disguise, and Loveday simply lacked a mouth due to Star Spirit’s unique physiological structure.

"I almost forgot." As if something occurred to him, Loveday took out a tin can that he had prepared earlier. Holding the lid down with one hand, he raised it high above his head and vigorously shook it with his other hand that was radiating with holy light, until the shiny silver tin turned into a dazzling gold.

Mr. Loveday stopped, lifted the lid, and overturned the container—which clearly held a liquid—onto Loveday’s head.

The room fell silent, as no one understood why Loveday had suddenly performed these actions. Loveday was soaked thoroughly, the golden liquid rich with the power of holy light appearing extremely hot, steamed as it spread across Star Spirit’s armor.

"Ah..." Loveday’s feeble moan was particularly jarring in the quiet room.

Raymond thought that the retribution of the Holy Light had finally come for the false believer. It was only later that he learned it was not the case.

The "tortured" Loveday removed the tin can from his head, his face gleaming, his blue pupils now tinted gold, and those moans, at this moment, seemed delightfully satisfied.

"Thank you for the Archbishop’s blessing; I could have done it myself." Loveday’s holy light hair wash wasn’t a form of club bullying; in fact, it was a feeding ritual. Star Spirits do not have a mouth to ingest food, but their skin is highly efficient at absorbing fluids and energy, making the act of dousing them with the power of holy light the most efficient way of feeding. Loveday had personally compressed the power of the holy light into the liquid and baptized Loveday with this high-purity Holy Water, a supreme favor to a Star Spirit, eliciting even restrained Loveday to moan in pleasure.

With the misunderstanding cleared, but Raymond felt his composure was completely unsettled, and now he only wanted to complete his objective quickly and then leave this blessed land.

"Mr. Loveday, the reason for my visit today is to ask for..."

Loveday nodded cheerfully.

"Ah, I understand..."

Raymond was puzzled; I haven’t said it yet, and you already understand?

"Mr. Loveday, what I mean to say is, I am conducting an academic-level experiment...I need your..."

"I agree," Loveday interrupted decisively, his gaze softening as he looked at Raymond.

This guy is skipping over the dialogue today.

Raymond kept up a forced smile, patiently explaining to Andrey’s most potent warrior that he needed Loveday’s full support and naturally needed to make him understand the reasons.

"Mr. Loveday, it’s like this, I need your assistance to test some of my newly developed flesh creations as an experimenter. It won’t have any adverse effects on you; I don’t have that sort of ability. Its function is a bit complex; please patiently listen to my explanation..."

"No need to explain!" Loveday raised his hand, forcing Raymond’s meticulously prepared speech of thousands of words back down. "I agree!"

Uncomfortable, that was it, Lyle was just very uncomfortable. Raymond kept interrupting him frequently, and the development of the situation was like a train running off onto a roller-coaster track. All the carefully prepared arguments and turns of phrase he had considered were rendered useless, as Raymond adopted an attitude of, no matter what you say, you’re right."

Why on earth was Raymond so easy to talk to?!

"But, I haven’t even begun to appeal to your emotions or enlighten you with reason..." Lyle felt like a clown after all his pondering.

Raymond waved a hand dismissively, "No need, at the end of the day what you’re saying is just an excuse to cover up your real thoughts..."

What was going on? Lyle’s heart skipped a beat, had his idea of exploiting the Divine Light plague been discovered?! Lyle found himself in danger.

Raymond sighed, somewhat helplessly saying, "Under the Divine Light, face your true heart bravely, Plague Doctor."

Had it really been exposed? Sorry, Mr. Raymond, treating you like a handy tool or something...

"Lyle! You actually just want to be good to me, right?!!!" Raymond stood up abruptly, his voice filled with fervor as he made a solemn declaration in the Holy Land, surrounded by angelic illusions and a transcendent scene of ten locks and ten wings, heavenly light making everything seem sacred and noble. Then like a gospel fallen from Heaven Country, came the self-absorbed proclamation. "You actually super admire me, right?! Your feelings! I’ve understood them a long time ago! We have a psychic connection! The bond between the pure connects us!"

"Uh... huh?" Lyle felt as if he’d lost his mind and his ability to speak.

"What uh are you talking about, did I say something wrong?"

"No, not at all, you’re right," Lyle said, though not quite sure what had happened. Mr. Raymond seemed very easy to talk to now, even if his narcissistic state was a bit annoying.

"I’ll fully cooperate with you, Lyle!"

"Of course, Mr. Raymond." Lyle had no choice but to offer up his left hand for the unusually behaved Raymond to hold—if there hadn’t been a table between them, Lyle might even suspect that Raymond would wrap his arms around him and take flight.

"My plan is to put you into a dream woven by my flesh creations, where your clone will perform a play where righteousness defeats evil; and naturally, you will be the protagonist..."

Raymond promptly pulled Lyle into his embrace, donning a look of I-knew-it all along.

"The rest I understand! It’s about spreading my heroic and noble demeanor to Andrey, hahaha, this I’m good at. I appreciate the thought, Lyle, I’ll definitely cooperate with you wholeheartedly!"

"...I’m glad it meets your approval, but there’s one problem. Your innate Holy Flame weakens the influence of any Spirit summoning creations on you, so I need to weaken you to a certain extent first, to peel away that protective shell, I hope you understand. Ah, of course, there are also benefits for you. Later on, you could use products developed by the Necromancer Figure Club, allowing you Mr. Raymond to wear flesh disguises and experience the delightful life filled with flavors of the world before death..."

"No need to be so specific, Lyle. I know! I guessed it a long time ago, you’re doing this for my own good! We don’t need to communicate because our minds are in sync! Just tell me directly what you want, my full support is with you!"

Raymond leaned back, hand covering his tilted head.

"Lyle, you don’t have to be this straightforward next time. Expressing how much you care for me, your admiration and all that to my face so many times, even I feel a little embarrassed."

Lyle’s face turned sour, as if he had swallowed a fly.

"You’re right, I’ll hold back more in the future."