In Teyvat, it all begins with rescuing the grass god.

Today is another day off.

After touring the Grand Bazaar, the two rested for a while at the Lombard Tavern.

Disia tugged at Rhodes's clothes and teased with a smile, "It's been a month, and I still almost didn't recognize you in this outfit."

Rod is wearing the attire of the Surontists today.

In fact, the uniforms of the Faculty of Education are all of the same style; the only difference is the badges of each faculty on their hats.

The emblem of Siddham Academy is dark red and features an ancient tree and ley lines.

Dixia is right.

With such attire and Rhodes's skin tone, from a distance, Rhodes would only be mistaken for a scholar from the rainforest, rather than a student from the Order of the Doctrine who came from the desert.

"Hey."

"This is the effect we want."

Rod chuckled, stretched out his hand, and beckoned with his finger, saying, "Have you gotten results for the thing I asked you to do before?"

It was clearly a question.

But Rhodes seemed certain that Desia had completed the request.

Snapped--

Rhodes was met with a hard slap on the hand.

"You're quite impolite."

"For your request, the brothers didn't go home and ate sand in the desert for months."

"Give me the payment."

"Didn't you say that even brothers should keep clear accounts?"

"We're not even close enough to be brothers yet, so we need to be even more clear about things."

In an instant, the roles of offense and defense shifted.

Desia reached out to Rhodes directly, demanding money, implying that she wouldn't get anything without paying.

"Pfft-"

Seeing her serious expression, Rod chuckled and then took out a receipt that allowed him to withdraw money from Dolly's shop and handed it to her.

See the numbers above.

Dixia's expression froze for a moment, then she frowned and asked, "Where did you get so much money?"

Back in Aru Village.

Rhodes had almost run out of money.

If he hadn't made a fortune selling sand pupae later, he probably wouldn't even have a hundred moras left.

Dixia knew about his situation.

Actually.

Rhodes wasn't really that poor.

He still has a lot of money; a rough estimate would put it at several million Mora.

But that was Dolly's investment in his research.

Rod said that the money should be used properly and not embezzled.

As for Dolly's mushroom breeding base, breeding work has only just begun there, and it is expected that it will take at least two years before she can start receiving dividends.

Because he has no positive income and is always spending money on projects that exceed his budget, Rhodes now needs Desia's help from time to time.

So how did he manage to come up with 500,000 Mora as a reward all at once?

"Funding".

Rod uttered two words lightly.

"Funding?"

Dixia blinked.

These two words brought her a sense of unfamiliarity.

impression.

Only bookworms would constantly use those two words and complain that the funding is too little and not enough for this research.

Now these words are coming from Rod's mouth.

Suddenly, she felt as if she had returned to the desert.

"Ah."

"We successfully secured funding for a research project with Professor Gülesh."

Rhodes laughed and said, "The Council of the Church is really rich. Even a project I applied for from Diliyese can get such a large sum of funding."

In fact.

If it weren't for Gülesh's personal intervention, Rhodes wouldn't have been able to secure such funding.

The Academy of Education is very strict about grant applications for research projects.

There are requirements not only for the research topic, but also for the applicant.

Ordinary Diliyasi can only obtain very limited funding.

The reason why Rhodes was able to obtain such a large sum of money is twofold: firstly, the project was deemed highly feasible and worthy of funding after review; and secondly, it was the reason why Gülech personally requested the money.

As for what this topic is.

"A feasibility study on using a mechanical structure to support the Eye of God?"

"What the hell are you researching?"

Desia painstakingly repeated what Rod had said.

She recognized each character individually, but when put together, they became somewhat obscure and difficult to understand.

"It's a mechanical device that can embed the Eye of God into it and then drive it."

"The main research topic is the direction of element flow."

Rhodes gestured with the shape of a machine, his eyes shining, and said, "I'm going to try to see if I can make a device that can embed and drive multiple God Eyes. Who knows, it might have some unexpected effects."

Dixia felt a little dizzy listening to this and couldn't help but complain, "After a few days of school, you're talking like a different person. Can't you be a little more considerate of people who don't understand these technical terms?"

Say it.

She then pushed back the funds that Rhodes had given her: "Take this money back and use it. I'm not in a hurry right now. You can give it to me when the dividends from Lord Sanggomahabai come through."

However, as soon as she returned the money, Rod stuffed it back into her hands: "Take it, I don't need this money right now."

"?"

Dixia asked, completely bewildered, "What do you mean? Weren't you going to do research? How come you can't use this research funding anymore?"

"Because someone else is paying for it."

Rod chuckled: "Actually, I didn't expect that there would be a senior in the college who was also preparing to research this topic. We had the same topic, and then she said that as long as I was willing to help her, she could cover all the expenses."

This is not a joke.

Qinate.

This is the name of the senior student that Rod mentioned.

Coincidentally.

The research topic he submitted happened to overlap with that of Qinate.

Moreover, because he submitted his application a day too early, Qinate's application was rejected.

In order to continue my research and not let my hard work go to waste.

Qina specifically sought out Rhodes and told him what he had just said to Dixia.

This is such a great thing.

Rhodes, of course, agreed.

This way, not only would he not have to return the college's funding, but someone would also help him carry out the research he envisioned.

If I had to point out the only drawback...

That is, when the project is completed, Qina Te must be listed as the first author in the publication.

But that's not really a flaw at all.

Rhodes didn't care about any so-called honors at all; all he wanted was to get some money and the results he wanted.

After hearing the whole story...

Dixia was both amused and exasperated.

It's such a coincidence that Rhodes was caught up in this; I really don't know how to comment on it.

But since Rhodes has already said so...

So she accepted the money.

"Let me tell you this first, don't let me find out you're up to no good or have any ulterior motives, or I won't let you off the hook."

Before giving Rhodes what he wanted, Desia gave him a serious warning.

"Okay, I remember."

"Don't worry."

Rhodes nodded heavily.

"Hmph, I wish you could really put my mind at ease."

Desia muttered something and handed a small box and a thick file folder back to Rhodes.

then.