You Can't Catch the Wind - Chapter 40

The employees’ eyes widened at the miracle of the Golden Rule manifesting before them.

Lasis tends not to use the power of the Golden Rule much in front of others.

So people tend to remember Lasis more as a handsome celebrity who likes to party and shows his face at all the imperial banquets, rather than as the successor of the Golden Rule and dean of the academy. In fact, many people thought he was an actor.

But at times like this, the academy staff would realize.

That this lazy person who likes to play is the emperor’s right-hand man and a powerful successor of the Golden Rule.

Lasis disappeared across space. As he vanished, the circle that had connected the spaces also immediately disappeared.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Is Your Majesty inside? May I come in?”

The head chamberlain shook his head as soon as he saw Lasis suddenly appear.

“Why? Is he with the empress?”

“You should say ‘Her Majesty the Empress’.”

“How many years have we known each other? Can’t I speak more casually? As the dean of the academy, shouldn’t I be given that much authority!”

Although Lasis shouted loudly, he still didn’t open the door on his own.

‘If I interrupt his time with his wife, he’ll really throw a fit.’

Instead, Lasis walked back and forth in front of the door, making loud footsteps as if to be heard.

Soon the door opened and a man’s irritated face appeared.

“What is it, Lasis.”

Ignoring the emperor’s expression, Lasis stated his business.

“I have something to report, Your Majesty.”

“If you’ve disturbed my rest time for something trivial, I’ll cut the academy’s budget in half next year.”

“You can cut it entirely!”

At Lasis’ words, the emperor’s face showed that something unusual was happening.

Because if you take away Golden Rule research and the academy budget from Lasis’ life, all that’s left is his bad luck.

“Fine, I’ll give you 5 minutes. What is it?”

“Well, Your Majesty,” Lasis whispered in a small voice.

“A successor stronger than you and I may have appeared.”

[This is the timeline separator]

“What a mess this really is.”

Nisha muttered, holding a mop for cleaning water in one hand.

Something unbelievable happened in the morning. The port of Denertum was overturned by wind.

It’s not just a figure of speech. It really flipped over. And now Nisha was cleaning up the aftermath.

As she swept the seawater that had entered the first floor building, Nisha shouted at the staff walking around nearby.

“Bring a bucket over here! The fish are still alive!”

A nearby employee who had been picking up fish came over, groaning as he carried a large water container.

He put the fish, which were lying limp and just barely breathing, into the container near Nisha.

The fish that were still at first soon began to move little by little.

The water container held not just fish, but starfish, shrimp, and all sorts of marine life.

In front of the company building, a sea turtle the size of a child was crawling around, and an octopus was clinging to and crawling on the walls of the building.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen something like this.”

There had been no warning signs. The sky was clear and the sea was calm. The seabirds were leisurely preening their feathers while perched on the ships’ sails.

But suddenly the sea churned. As if thrown into the middle of a sea storm. A whirlwind arose inside the harbor, water surged up, and the sailing ships rocked chaotically.

Of course, everyone screamed and hid. The seabirds also hastily took flight, but unable to advance against the strong wind, they tumbled onto the ships.

“It’s fortunate the gust was brief, at least.”

The tremendous wind disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.

The people who thought they were going to die were just dumbfounded to see the blue sky and calm sea again.

The sudden gust left clear evidence that it wasn’t just a collective hallucination.

“The buildings are bad enough, but I wonder if the sailing ships are okay.”

Thankfully, the Ash Company’s ships suffered little damage despite the rocking, thanks to being tied securely with wide spacing according to regulations.

However, ships that had been loosely tied out of laziness collided with each other in the gust, resulting in damage to their hulls.

For the Ash Company, the damage to the branch building was more severe than to the ships.

Because it was located right in front of the harbor, the water that had surged upwards with the whirlwind rushed into the building.

Fortunately, only the floor was soaked, so they managed to save the documents, but people stood around with pale faces while fish flopped around gasping for life.

Of course, wet documents and intruding fish weren’t the only problems.

The company building was made half of stone and half of wood, so if left as is, corrosion could occur. So before the seawater could seep further into the walls or floor, everyone urgently started cleaning up the wooden floor first.

Fortunately, thanks to everyone pitching in, the cleanup was nearing completion quickly. However…..

“Miss Ael!”

Nisha called out to one person who was moving particularly energetically among them.

“You can go back up now. You don’t have to do this.”

“No, I can’t just sit out when everyone else is working.”

Though she answered like that, her voice trembled. Nisha inwardly clicked her tongue.

It was Ael’s first week at the Ash Company, and while her complexion had improved and she had gained some weight during that time, her wrists were still as thin as twigs.

Still, her movements as she mopped were as neat as those of a professional cleaning staff. Nisha found that distressing as well.

When Nisha had called in a worker who went to repair Ael’s house and asked about its condition, he shook his head.

He said the house was in such poor condition overall that it would be better to tear it down and rebuild.

At least the interior seemed to be maintained, as the hallways and stairs were in very good condition, so it seemed the maid was quite diligent, he said.

‘That must have been Miss Ael’s work too.’

Nisha had enough experience to be a branch manager. It was no challenge for her to guess how a person would work just by observing them briefly.

So Nisha immediately noticed that Ael was an extremely meticulous and diligent worker.

Unaware that Nisha was looking at her with concern, Ael continued to move her body.

In truth, Ael didn’t need to come out.

As Kaile had said when she first arrived, it would have been more helpful for the Ash Company if she had decoded one more ancient document instead.

‘But…’

Ael remembered when she had regained consciousness.

When she came to her senses from the seawater that had entered inside the balcony railing, the port was already in chaos.

Unable to move her body easily, she crawled into the room and slowly caught her breath, and only then did strength gradually return to her body.

She had fainted a few times as a child after being beaten by the baron. So she knew well the feeling of losing consciousness…

‘It was completely different.’

Back then, it felt like collapsing after reaching her limit of endurance, but this time it felt like something had suddenly been pulled out from inside her body.

It was the same when she regained consciousness. It felt as if all the blood had drained from her body and then returned, bringing life back.

Unlike when she collapsed from being hit, there was no unpleasant feeling. She just thought it was a strange sensation.

‘At least I’m glad I found the papers again.’

When she had collapsed, the papers that had flown outside seemed to have been blown back in by the wind, as all the ones Ael had tried to grab were scattered around the room.

After barely organizing those, she came outside to find people bustling about trying to clean up. Seeing that, Ael also found cleaning supplies and joined in.

She couldn’t tell anyone, but somehow this strange incident felt like it had happened because of her.

‘There was a flash of light and wind blew at home too. It was the same this time.’

Of course, the scale was incomparably larger.

While helping clean up, Ael asked others if they had seen a flash of light. But no one said they had seen any light.

‘If I keep asking around, people will just think I’m strange…’

When no one was around, she tried stretching out her hand and exerting force like she had in the garden, but again nothing happened.

‘Was it just a coincidence?’

But it felt too unsettling to think that. Moreover, she was now afraid.

If both times it had happened because of her… she wondered what would happen the third time.

‘Could it be… because of the Golden Rule?’

But in the books in her father’s study, it said the successors of the Golden Rule could see their power and clearly feel it.

However, right now, Ael didn’t feel anything in particular.

‘That book, should I borrow it?’

As Ael was lost in thought, she remembered the imperial book she had seen in the library. The book that had definitely sparkled.

When she went last time, she had completely forgotten about it because she was busy selecting ancient language dictionaries and books on codebreaking sequences with Kaile.

‘Should I go borrow it today?’

But because of the morning’s chaos, it seemed the library would be closed by the time she finished the work that hadn’t been done.

As Ael was contemplating what to do, she heard a voice calling her from behind.