Dr. Ratio: "...…"
This time it was Professor Ratio's turn to be speechless. He pressed a hand to his face with a headache, then waved at Aventurine, signaling him to step aside.
"Hm? Professor, do you have a way?"
Aventurine obediently made way for Ratio, standing to the side with his arms crossed, watching Ratio's actions with great interest.
"I'm really starting to suspect that the IPC is short on manpower. Otherwise, why would they make you one of the 'Ten Stonehearts'?"
Ratio spoke with clear mockery, then walked to the spot where Aventurine had been standing and pressed down on a rather inconspicuous raised bump on the door.
With his action, the button-like protrusion sank in.
'Buzz——!'
A blue light swept over Ratio and Aventurine, followed by a mechanical voice.
'Visitor information query in progress… Query complete!'
'IPC employee "Aventurine", passage permitted.'
'Creak——!'
As the mechanical voice ended, the tightly closed door of Dewlight Pavilion slowly opened, revealing a wide, bright path before the two men.
"Professor, you're amazing! As expected of someone from the Intelligentsia Guild!"
"No need for compliments. As I said before, the sooner we finish, the sooner I can go back."
Dr. Ratio had already grown somewhat immune to the talkative Aventurine. Right now, he only wanted to finish quickly. Every second he breathed the same air as this guy felt like millions of ants crawling all over his body.
"Of course, I won't disappoint you, Professor."
Aventurine smiled confidently and stepped into Dewlight Pavilion. Facing such excessive self-confidence, Ratio could only shake his head helplessly, sigh, and follow after him.
"This… the road ahead seems blocked." Aventurine frowned as he looked at the path before him. It appeared something was missing, preventing them from directly reaching Sunday.
"It seems this is the test left for us by the Family Head. Before our formal meeting, he wants to observe whether we are qualified to negotiate with him."
Ratio crossed his arms, gazing at the tightly closed door ahead and calmly analyzing it with a scholar's insight.
"Hahaha, so he wants us to prove we have the value to negotiate with him? Interesting. Then we might as well play with him for a while."
Saying so, Aventurine began scanning the hall. After a while, his gaze finally landed on the huge statues of Night Ravens lining both sides of the path.
"The positions of the statues… I think this should be the key to solving the puzzle."
Aventurine smiled lightly. Ratio also thought of something. The two eventually focused their eyes on a massive painting on the wall on both sides of the path.
"What a peculiar painting. Is this depicting a Dusk Eagle?" Aventurine gave a random guess after carefully examining the painting.
Ratio facepalmed.
"Among the five major families, only the Night Raven exists. The one in the painting is undoubtedly a Night Raven."
"Really? But are there Night Ravens this big? I still think it looks more like a Dus—"
"Stop! Don't talk about these pointless things anymore. Whatever you say it is, it is."
Ratio did not want to argue with Aventurine any further. Wasting time on such unnecessary matters was simply a desecration of life.
Seeing that Ratio no longer wished to debate, Aventurine also dropped the topic.
"So, it looks like we just need to arrange the statues on both sides of the path to match the painting, and the puzzle will be solved?"
"Yes, that should be it."
After receiving the professor's confirmation, Aventurine walked to the Night Raven statues and adjusted their positions according to the directions in the painting.
'Clack clack clack…!'
Accompanied by the sound of turning gears, the originally closed door slowly swung open from the inside out.
"Success."
The two walked inside. The first thing that greeted them was a massive hall, divided into two levels from top to bottom, similar to theater balconies.
In the center of the hall stood a huge sandbox. Red carpets were laid around the sandbox, leading all the way to another door on the opposite side of the hall.
"Whoa? This place looks really grand. It seems our Oak Family Head has no intention of building an image of noble aloofness. After all, in politics, such an image still has its uses."
Generally speaking, what Aventurine just said was correct. What he didn't know was that everyone in the entire Oak Family was actually Sunday's people—or rather, [Order]'s people.
The authority of [Order] was, in a sense, somewhat similar to the "Herrscher of a Thousand People" from the neighboring Honkai world. They were one and the same, so there had never been any concept of "usurpation." This was the key reason Sunday could sit firmly on his fishing platform.
"Meaningless questions. Our target is [Death]. The Family must know something. Let's not waste time."
"Alright, whatever the professor says." Aventurine shrugged.
The two descended the stairs from the second-floor viewing area to the huge sandbox in the center of the hall.
"Let me see what this is… Hmm, the large-scale Golden Hour cornerstone model. Heh, overlooking the sandbox from here every day—Sunday really treats himself as a giant of Penacony." Aventurine sneered.
"Enough nonsense. Let's find a way to open the door first." After searching the sandbox for a moment, Ratio's gaze finally stopped on a large gap.
"It should be here. We need to find the key."
Ratio pointed at the gap on the sandbox.
"That's simple, Professor. Time for that genius brain of yours to shine again."
After some effort, Aventurine and Ratio finally found the missing puzzle piece for the model. After simply assembling and restoring it, a facility resembling a space gate appeared before them.
"Let me try."
Aventurine reached out toward the 'space gate.' A powerful suction force immediately pulled his body inside. By the time he came back to his senses, he found himself inside the cornerstone model, his body shrunk by a factor of tens of millions.