The bard fantasized again.

Chapter 60 Life is Like a Box of Chocolates
Pluto blinked.

no--

How come he recognizes each word individually, but can't understand them when they're put together?

So much so that he subconsciously read it again:
"I led the commoners and captured the nobles alive?"

Impossible, absolutely impossible…

"How did you get past the construct guards to get here?"

His shock disturbed Goya, causing her to quietly put away her notebook, try to calm herself down, and turn around to question him.

"me--"

The novice Su Wen was still stammering and trying to find an excuse.

The experienced Pluto had already chosen to preemptively refute:
"This is a restricted area designated by Dean Ulasang. What exactly is your purpose in sneaking around here?"

"The dean asked me to find traces of the author of the stone tablet. How can I determine his identity without reading its contents?"

"Have you confirmed it?"

"What does this have to do with you?"

"Get out, or I'll have the guards throw you out—and then it won't just be a matter of leaving the garden."

Goya was already suppressing her anger.

Bruno knew that she cared a lot about her image and rarely looked at others with such hostile eyes.

The act of stalking really angered her.

He was a smart man; he quickly pulled Su Wen over to try and share the firepower, while simultaneously retreating.
"What about your notes? Were they also part of the dean's mission?"

So they did see it after all.

Goya remained calm: "Yes."

"So even if I report this to the dean, there won't be any problems?"

"..."

A silence fell over the air; Goya knew he was threatening her.

"what do you want to say in the end?"

Pluto breathed a sigh of relief and said calmly:
"Hey, listen. I admit I just wanted to get some dirt on you so you wouldn't be able to hold your head up in the academy—"

But now, I just want to take a good look at what's written on the stone tablet.

This is much more important than finding juicy scoops!

Pluto raised his hands, a gesture that was both a sign of surrender and a gesture of reassurance:

"I don't want the dean to know about this, and I'm sure you feel the same way."

So after we're done watching, you take your notes, and I'll go back to my dorm. Let's pretend nothing happened, okay?

"And you?" Goya asked Su Wen.

"Me too."

Su Wen had a premonition that after today, Senior Sister Ge Ya might never applaud him again.

Goya sighed and didn't respond.

He simply picked up his notebook again and began recording the inscription on the stone tablet.

Pluto quickly examined the stone tablet.

Although the dean brought in a spellcaster to cover the stone tablet to some extent, the starlight still managed to see through when the distance got close enough.

Pluto was too curious.

What exactly happened to the poet in the days following his being kicked out of the tavern?

I never imagined that what started as a well-intentioned act of helping would end up causing such a huge problem.

But do you still remember my plan to 'pass off inferior goods as superior ones'?
It's already a failure before it even started.

Goya had already read the inscription on the stone tablet, but the interruption earlier had broken her train of thought.

Looking at it again now, it still retains the same freshness it had at the beginning.

The feeling of a plan falling through is not pleasant, especially after being betrayed.

It always gives people a sense of frustration, like when your wife is insulted by thugs, you angrily defend her dignity, and are eventually sentenced to three years of hard labor, only to find out after you leave prison that your wife has slept with the thugs.

My relationship with Black Snake wasn't that close.

But I still have a thousand and one curse words prepared in my mind, ready to expose him and curse him until his ears are oozing pus and he regrets being born!

But in the end, I forgave him.

After I realized that he had become a prisoner before me.

His writing style remains unchanged, still with that crude and humorous flavor. Perhaps after reading his blog for so long, I've become less averse to those words?
Goya murmured, "But what does this have to do with nobles?"

...Really, I thought my life was over just like that—

I was captured by a group of mercenaries and taken to Dragon Gold City. I begged the noble lord for forgiveness, and he pardoned my crime by making me do hard labor.

Write another ten thousand terrible songs, like "Repentance," for that young master who's eyeing other people's hooks.

I certainly don't want my epitaph to read "friend of male homosexuals" after I die.

That's absolutely terrible.

"Hey, how can you be a sexist?! Don't men deserve to enjoy women's pleasure?"

Pluto was greatly disappointed.

He thought that true bards knew how to enjoy all the pleasures of the world.

Just like him.

But life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.

It's like my plan ended before it even began.

Just like how the title of 'friend of men' was never officially established before it was shattered by a tribe of orcs, goblins, and giants...

"Orcs!?"

Su Wen exclaimed in surprise.
"Dragongold City is located on the eastern coast of the continent, within the Lords' Alliance. Could it be that the orcs have already breached their southern Great Wall and are advancing straight into the heart of the Alliance?"

Every bard has a general world map in his mind.

Moreover, as citizens of the Terran Empire, they also understand the orcs.

These savage, bloodthirsty, and stupid greensmen were not only heading towards the Southern Great Wall on the east bank.

The Terran Empire on the west coast also faced a similar threat—

Otherwise, Goya wouldn't have been able to accompany Lord Versace to the border to see the true colors of the nobles profiting from the war.

Pluto was even more horrified:
"He actually survived the orcs' attack and even kept a diary?"

"...Fuck your fireball spell!"

What poet, on his way to jail, might bump into a spellcaster from the Third Ring Road?
If I weren't still hoping that Lady Luck would smile upon me one day, I would have already cursed her in my heart as the daughter of a beach beach!
Fortunately, I'm not one of those sycophantic types in the Poets' Academy. If it were them, they'd probably be singing their elegiac songs for the next life the moment the first volley of arrows fell.

With their awareness of danger, their assessment of the situation, and their control of resources...

And so, I successfully avoided most of the dangers with the black snake.

The author of the log did not omit the process; instead, he recounted it in detail.

"To hell with Arrow Rain, Goblins, Trolls, and Fireballs..."

This is fucking a 'tall dwarf'!

The more Pluto looked, the clearer his mind became; the alcohol from his hangover, along with his cognition, seemed to evaporate.

Su Wen forcefully supported his jaw to prevent it from being stretched and dislocated.

Despite her pounding emotions, Goya's fingers, gripping the pen, trembled uncontrollably.
"He actually survived all those dangers?"

There was no flowery language to embellish what happened, so the whole process seemed like a straightforward narrative.

But Pluto, Sven, and even Goya were all inevitably troubled by this experience.

They no longer cared that the log's author had committed a blatant insult against the three academic poets.

They knew they could never write a scene like that.

Because no one has ever experienced it!
Having never left the academy, they had no idea that trolls could grow a second head!

The bizarre developments made it impossible for them to look away.

If Black Serpent hadn't refused to follow my commands in the first place, we could have escaped much faster.

But no one can guarantee that the path they choose is the right one under those circumstances.

I can't either.

But at least we got the snake's kiss back, found Kuru who was finishing off the enemy, and everything is moving in a better direction, right...?

"So, they escaped the pursuit?"

Goya was so nervous that she even forgot to take notes.

Fuck your chocolate!

Why does the next one smell like a fear spell?

　I can't update too much during the new book period, so I'll be adding extra chapters over the next two days. Thank you all for your support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)