Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Su Ye heard a collective gasp after he submitted his answer.
“Three!”
Niedern’s voice rang out. The commotion settled.
“Very good. All of you completed it. I am very pleased.”
The students immediately realized that Teacher Niedern had intentionally dragged out the count to ensure that everyone could finish their answers. It was only now that they understood that Niedern’s empty threat meant to force them to pen down their first thought.
Some students slipped deep in thought.
Niedern said, “I have received the answers. Now, every group is to form a circle. Voice out your answers and start discussing.”
Su Ye stood up when he heard Niedern. He carried his chair and joined the six other people at his table.
The group looked at each other, not knowing what to say at that moment.
Palos raised her spellbook and turned the page toward the rest of the group. There was only one word on the page.
Method.
Su Ye glanced at Palos in shock. He did not expect her idea to be near-identical to his.
Then, Su Ye had a look of sympathy in his eyes. It looked like Palos truly could not speak.
Jimmy smiled. “I’ll speak first. My answer is to skirt around the order. I don’t know why I had such a thought, but I do not want to scale Mount Olympus. It would be too bad if I angered the deities and got killed by a bolt of lightning. What about you guys? Rolon, what did you write?”
Rolon put down his battle spear and longsword. This action caused Su Ye and the rest of the group to roll their eyes in their hearts.
“I wrote ‘leave.’” He took out his spellbook and let the group have a look.
Hort also took out his spellbook and said, “I wrote ‘scale.’ I did not think too much. I’ll just follow the order since it was given by the director of Plato Academy.”
“Brave!” Jimmy said.
Su Ye said, “What I wrote is to search for a way to scale the mountain.” He lifted his spellbook after he finished his sentence.
Palos had a glimmer in her azure eyes.
The rest of the group looked at Su Ye, then glanced at Palos.
Jimmy rolled his eyes and chuckled, “What about you, Laker?”
Laker, who was a little pale, raised his spellbook in frustration as he said, “All I thought of just now was what would happen to my sister, so I could only write that.”
The only phrase on the page was, “What about my sister?”
“Haha, I knew that you would do that.” Jimmy smiled. “Ebert, you?”
The scrawny Ebert looked a little awkward. “Can I not say?”
“What do you think?” Jimmy’s tone was unfriendly.
Ebert had no choice but to lift his spellbook with his scrawny hands. On it was the word “escape.”
Jimmy did not hold it in and roared with laughter. The spots on his nose almost leaped out of his skin.
Ebert’s sleeve fell. Su Ye saw that there were multiple wounds on his arm. However, in the next instant, Ebert retracted his arm and covered it with his sleeve. His face was red. He looked down and did not say a word.
Jimmy coughed and masked his awkwardness. He said, “Our answers are ‘leave,”skirt around the order,”find a way to scale the mountain,”what about my sister,’ and ‘escape.’ Alright, then… What do we discuss next?”
The group looked at each other, not knowing what to say.
The rest of the students from the other tables were the same. No one knew what they should be discussing.
The classroom slipped into an eerie silence.
Su Ye did not care about the rest of the people and instead deliberated silently. His heart thumped faster the more he thought about the topic. He had the faintest sense that he was overthinking things and so stopped his deliberation.
Jimmy spoke when he saw that no one else was speaking, “I thought about it for a while just now. This should be the teacher’s way of testing us about how we deal with difficulty by invoking the name of the director of Plato Academy.”
“That should be the case,” Su Ye interjected abruptly.
Jimmy looked joyfully at Su Ye, then conducted a serious analysis. “Let me voice out my opinion. All of you know that Mount Olympus is located in the northwest of Greece. It is perpetually covered in fog and is connected to Zeus’s Divine Temple in the Divine Realm. The Divine Temple of the Divine King Zeus is the Divine Temple of all of the Greek gods. I do not have to tell you how dangerous that place is. The question becomes simple if we are clear of this point.”
Jimmy smiled as he surveyed the group. He said confidently, “When met with danger, Su Ye and Palos had the idea of searching for a ‘method.’ They only thought about solving the problem, but not if the problem could be solved or not. The warrior, Hort, chose to take the problem head-on, truly not thinking about anything. Laker was more worried about his sister and completely disregarded the problem itself. Ebert was even better, running away directly even without thinking about the problem. Rolon and I were smarter. We would ascertain the problem’s level of difficulty and would not risk our lives. We chose the wisest course of action.”
The group smiled. All of them seemed to accept Jimmy’s opinion.
However, Su Ye and Palos’ gaze suddenly met, then split apart rapidly.
The two of them saw a shred of indifference in each other’s eyes. It was an indifference that stemmed from knowing that the other party was wrong but not needing to explain yourself.
“What are your views, Hort?” Jimmy smiled as he asked.
Hort shook his head. “I feel that I was truly too reckless. Now that I think about it, I think that Su Ye and Palos’ idea was more reasonable.”
“Oh? What about you, Su Ye? You have changed a lot during the summer vacation.” Jimmy grinned as he looked toward Su Ye.
“I think that your explanation was quite good,” Su Ye smiled as he replied.
“Are you sticking to your idea?” Jimmy asked.
“Of course,” Su Ye said.
“Then, can you tell us why you would not consider if the problem could be solved or not, but instead only thought about a way to solve it?” Jimmy’s attitude was extremely friendly.
Su Ye smiled. He did not expect Jimmy to be a person of such a high caliber. He was clearly learning from Socrates and using questioning as a method to convince the rest of the group. It was just that his technique was a little rough around the edges.
However, since the other party had already posed the question, Su Ye no longer hid his opinion. He said, “Before we discuss this matter, I would first like to pose a question. That is, is scaling Mount Olympus our true objective?”
The moment, Su Ye asked this question, Niedern, who was listening in on the discussions of the other group, turned his head fiercely to look at Su Ye.
Jimmy froze for a moment. He did not know how to answer this question at that moment. The rest of the group also slipped into deliberation.
Rolon grabbed his battle spear and said, “If Mount Olympus is not our target in this question, then there’s no need for this discussion. Now, we can only assume that scaling Mount Olympus is our objective.”
“That’s right, that should be the case.” Jimmy looked at Su Ye after he spoke.
Su Ye smiled, “If, and I mean if, scaling Mount Olympus is our goal, then I would obviously search for a way to scale it.”
“Have you not considered the deities on Mount Olympus?” Jimmy asked.
“I have. I would consider ways to avoid them or consider methods that would make them allow me up the mountain.” Su Ye said matter-of-factly.
“You…” Jimmy froze once again.
Ebert could not help but say, “But the deities would never let you scale the mountain. Only deities can set foot there.”
Su Ye nodded and smiled, “Look, Ebert just gave us another way of scaling up the mountain. Becoming deities.”
Five out of the six deskmates looked at Su Ye, dumbfounded. It was as though they were looking at a lunatic.
Palos also stared at Su Ye, but the light in her eyes was completely different from the others.
Ebert pulled back his neck and said, “Let’s change the topic. I am afraid that the Divine King will shoot his Spear of Lightning here and destroy the entire school.”
The rest of the group, aside from Palos and Su Ye, nodded in agreement.
“Or possibly the entirety of Athens,” Ebert added.
At this moment, Teacher Niedern walked over and asked, “How does one become a deity?”
The five deskmates felt their brains turn into a pot of vegetable soup. Why would Teacher Niedern come to join in on this insanity?