Although Lynd's attire was in the style of Pentos, his overall demeanor and clothing were completely mismatched. Fortunately, within the city of Pentos, there were many merchants, mercenaries, and others from out of town who dressed similarly, so he didn't stand out much among them.
He stayed for a day at Illyrio's estate outside the city, then headed to Sphinx Academy to understand the actual situation there.
Although he had already learned about the situation at Sphinx Academy from Illyrio, what he heard from others was never as good as experiencing it himself. Moreover, he also needed to examine the books hidden within Sphinx Academy, as this was one of his objectives.
Perhaps because Pentos was built on coastal hills, or due to the habits of the Pentosians themselves, the streets of Pentos were not very wide, barely allowing two palanquins to pass side by side. The streets were also chaotic and winding, and with the straight walls of buildings on both sides blocking the view, those unfamiliar with the area could easily get lost in the city.
Lynd also found himself caught in this massive urban labyrinth. As he walked, he lost track of his location, only able to deduce from the surrounding buildings that he was likely in the area where the Pentos nobility resided.
"I should have found a guide," Lynd couldn't help but mutter to himself.
Fortunately, he didn't stay lost for too long. He soon followed some merchants' palanquins out of that area and onto a relatively wider road where he could see the roof of Sphinx Academy in the distance.
He walked along this road to its end, then, learning his lesson, hired a local child as a guide. Under the child's lead, he navigated through alley-like streets and finally arrived at the main gate of Sphinx Academy.
It must be said that the Pentos Governor who initially built Sphinx Academy had an extraordinary reverence for the Citadel. Not only did he replicate the pair of Sphinx statues exactly, but even the main gate was completely modeled after the Citadel's gate, differing only slightly in size.
Perhaps due to years of disrepair, many parts of the gate had corroded, and the bronze surface was covered in verdigris.
Outside the main gate of Sphinx Academy, there was also a plaza similar to the Scribes' Porch at the Citadel. Clearly, the original builders also wanted Sphinx Academy students to be able to copy books and earn money there, just like at the Citadel.
However, the idea was good, but putting it into practice was a completely different matter.
The nobles in the city had their own servants to copy books, while the common people couldn't even read and wouldn't be interested in books. So, this plaza had now become a general market, with various stalls spread across it, and many locals buying things, making it very lively.
Lynd was not in a hurry to enter Sphinx Academy. Instead, he strolled around the plaza, buying some interesting items from the various stalls.
"Oh?" At a stall specializing in antiques, Lynd saw a very ancient-looking pottery vase, and his attention was quickly drawn to it.
He wasn't interested in the vase itself, but rather the patterns on it. These patterns looked very ordinary, but in reality, they were made up of many ancient runes broken apart and reassembled.
While doing so would cause the runes to lose their original meaning, it made the vase's appearance look more beautiful.
Regarding magic, Lynd had not delved as deeply as Moroa, but regarding runes, Lynd had conducted extensive research due to his own Dragon Rune, which included the runes on the Hightower in Oldtown and the runes on the Others' sacrifice stone tablet.
Therefore, when Lynd saw that pottery jar, he recognized at first glance that some of the runes from the Hightower and the Wall were present in the reassembled patterns carved on its surface. However, because these runes were broken apart, there was no supernatural power within them.
With curiosity, Lynd picked up the pottery jar and examined it carefully. After confirming he hadn't mistaken it, he turned to the stall owner and asked, "Where did this pottery jar come from?"
The stall owner, who had been leaning against the Wall, immediately sat up straight upon seeing a potential customer and began to introduce the item: "I brought this here with great difficulty from the Yi Land…"
Before the stall owner could finish, Lynd directly interrupted him and said, "I'm not interested in the pottery jar itself. I just want to know where it came from. You tell me…" As he spoke, he took out a Pentos gold coin and held it in his hand, saying, "This is yours."
Upon seeing the Pentos gold coin in Lynd's hand, the stall owner's eyes lit up, but he still deliberately hesitated for a moment, to see if Lynd would offer more.
Seeing this, Lynd stood up, put the gold coin back in his pocket, and prepared to leave.
Upon seeing that Lynd was not going to increase his offer and was instead leaving, the stall owner immediately stood up and said, "Wait, wait! I'll tell you where this came from."
Saying that, he eagerly extended his hand to Lynd. After Lynd placed the gold dragon in his hand, he motioned for Lynd to lean closer, then whispered, "This thing was made at Sphinx Academy behind us. You can find Scholar Xiu Fu; he's in charge of making these things."
Upon hearing this, Lynd was somewhat surprised, but after a moment's thought, he found it reasonable. Even a Silver Scholar like Scholar Xiu Fu had to use his knowledge to create fake antiques for sale, which undoubtedly proved that Illyrio was not wrong; Sphinx Academy was indeed at its wit's end.
The main gate of Sphinx Academy was ajar, not closed, and there were no guards at the entrance. Only a few students, dressed as such, had set up stalls by the gate, writing or reading letters for the people of Pentos. On their tables, there were also some books for sale, but judging by the worn condition of the book covers, these books had clearly been untouched for a long time.
The students at the gate did not stop Lynd from entering the Academy. For them, apart from the books, there was nothing else of value for thieves to covet within the building behind them, so there was no need to specially assign guards.
Upon entering Sphinx Academy, Lynd saw a spacious hall. In the middle of the hall was a somewhat prominent stone platform, and on top of it sat a Silver Scholar, seemingly similar to the Archmaester's Study at the Citadel. The Scholar on this platform was likely responsible for receiving visitors.
However, this Scholar now appeared very listless, propping his head with his hand and dozing off behind the platform.
Lynd walked to the platform, reached out and knocked on the tabletop, pulling the Scholar out of his drowsy state.
"Can I help you?" The Scholar rubbed his not-yet-fully-open eyes, then looked at Lynd and asked.
Lynd said, "I want to see Scholar Xiu Fu."
The Scholar shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Scholar Xiu Fu was invited by Governor Pemmo this morning to his estate to appraise antiques for him. He probably won't be back until the afternoon."
Lynd saw that it was inconvenient and said nothing, continuing to ask, "I heard that there are some very old books in the Sphinx Academy's collection. I'd like to see them. Do I need to go through any procedures?"
"No procedures are necessary, just enough money will suffice." The Scholar seemed not to be dealing with someone like Lynd, who came to read books, for the first time. He directly picked up a piece of paper from the table and placed it in front of Lynd, saying, "All books are categorized by the time they were written. You can see the price for each category yourself."
Lynd took the price list and quickly glanced at it, finding that the cheapest books cost only one Pentos copper coin. However, the more expensive ones, such as the books related to ancient civilizations that Lynd wanted to read, cost two Pentos gold coins. Furthermore, it wasn't unlimited reading for one book; there was a time limit, and he had to pay again after each hourglass period.
Seeing this situation, Lynd couldn't help but shake his head. No wonder no one came to Sphinx Academy to borrow books. The cost was not only expensive for ordinary people, but even the nobles found it expensive. For those with poor reading and memory skills, they might spend more than ten gold coins and not even finish a single book.
Sphinx Academy was well aware that this reading mechanism was very crude and problematic, but because this reading rule was established from the beginning and was tightly linked to many other Academy rules, later generations who wanted to modify the rules might involve other rules of Sphinx Academy. Therefore, based on the principle of 'the less trouble, the better,' successive directors of Sphinx Academy had never actively modified any rules, including the reading rules.
Although this reading rule was very unfriendly to ordinary people, it did not affect Lynd. His memory was very strong; he could essentially remember all the content by just flipping through a book once.
So, Lynd directly took out a bag of Pentos gold coins and placed it on the table, then asked the Scholar behind the platform to lead him to the shelves where the oldest books were stored in the library. He then began reading from the outermost books on the shelf.
Although the price for reading the books was expensive, it was also worth it, because the books Lynd saw not only included original editions, but also the research of later Sphinx Academy scholars and Scholars on these ancient books, such as research on the language used in the books, and research on the content of the books, and so on.
In other words, as Lynd read through an ancient book, he also learned the ancient script used in that book.
However, Lynd was not reading these books to learn a new language or script; he was interested in the content about past mysterious civilizations found in those ancient books.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much content related to various mysterious civilizations. The most extensive content among all the books was about Lorath's giant labyrinth. Almost half of the ancient stone tablets were found by adventurers in the labyrinth, and the research materials were also very rich, as there were physical objects present.
Among all the research materials, a research notebook left by a Gold Scholar named Gubeite caught Lynd's attention. This Scholar Gubeite seemed to be a traveler and adventurer. He had been to Asshai, the Yi Land, the continent of Sothoryos, and even north of the Wall.
During his travels, he discovered that those ancient buildings seemed to have a connection: Asshai in the far east, Oldtown in the far west, the Five Forts and Qarth in the Far East, Lorath's giant labyrinth, the Wall on the continent of Westeros, and other magnificent structures all shared similar architectural styles and black stone building materials.
In his notes, he meticulously recorded some mysterious runes. Some of these runes were the hidden magical runes on the surface of the Hightower, and some were the magical runes of the Wall. Clearly, this Scholar Gubeite was not an ordinary person; he, like Lynd, must have possessed special sight, able to perceive traces of magic.
It was a pity that Gubeite's notes ended there. It was unknown whether he met with some accident, or if his later notes were destroyed or hidden by others who understood their value.
"Where else can I find this Scholar Gubeite's books and notes?" Lynd didn't randomly search the library shelves. Instead, he directly found the Scholar on the platform and asked.
"You can find Scholar Xiu Fu. All of Master Gubeite's books are with Scholar Xiu Fu." The Scholar of Sphinx Academy, naturally, told Lynd, a big client he hadn't encountered in a long time, everything he knew without hesitation.
After getting the answer he wanted, Lynd lost interest in continuing to read there. For him, the books here would sooner or later be sent to Summerhall along with Sphinx Academy. At that time, he could read them however he wanted, so there was no need to continue wasting time and money.
So, he casually picked up a book on the history of the Free Trade City States, sat on a stone chair on one side of the hall, and flipped through it to pass the time.
Shortly after noon, Lynd saw Scholar Xiu Fu, whom he had met once outside the city, walk in from outside, panting and carrying a very thick book. Judging from his expression, the situation didn't seem very good.
"Scholar Xiu Fu, how was your harvest today?" The Scholar on the platform immediately stood up and ran over, taking the book from Scholar Xiu Fu's hand and asking with concern.
"Don't introduce me to such an idiot again next time. You can never explain the authenticity of an item to an idiot," Scholar Xiu Fu gasped for a moment, steadying his breath slightly, and said grumpily.
The other Scholar gave an awkward laugh, then, remembering something, pointed to Lynd, who was sitting nearby, and said, "Oh, by the way, this gentleman has been waiting for you all morning."
Scholar Xiu Fu was stunned when he heard this and looked at Lynd, quickly appraising him. Clearly, he hadn't recognized Lynd.
Lynd stood up and walked to Scholar Xiu Fu, greeting him, "Hello, Scholar Xiu Fu."
Upon hearing the greeting, Scholar Xiu Fu paused, seemingly recognizing something, then tentatively asked, "Lord Onstein?"
"Scholar, you can actually recognize my voice?" Lynd was also a little surprised. Although he didn't deliberately change his voice when wearing the lion armor, the lion helmet could have a similar effect.
"I'm a bit sensitive to voices." Scholar Xiu Fu smiled, then volunteered, "Since you're here, I'll give you a tour of the Academy as promised! Although it's not very big, there are quite a few places worth seeing."
Lynd did not refuse, letting Scholar Xiu Fu lead the way. After half an hour of touring Sphinx Academy, the two went to Scholar Xiu Fu's study and residence.
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