I don't want to be a dragon maid!

Noah felt a slight tremor in his heart, and an impulse to get closer to Shelley suddenly welled up inside him.

"See? That's how we cracked it. Actually, it's quite simple once you grasp the pattern!"

Shelley wiped the sweat from her brow and looked at Noah, whose expressive pale blue eyes seemed to be saying, "Praise me..."

Noah instinctively reached out and touched Shelley's soft blonde hair. Shelley was somewhat surprised, but she did not resist.

Noah's courage suddenly grew. She gently stroked Shelley's head and said with a smile.

"Yes, Lady Shelley, you've really worked hard, and Noah has seen it all!"

"Hey hey hey..."

Shelley squinted slightly, like a comfortable cat enjoying the contact with people.

However, this harmonious scene was shattered in less than ten seconds.

Shelley suddenly opened her eyes, looked at Noah, her cheeks immediately flushed red, and she took a step back.

"No, Noah, do you think I'm a child? You actually... you actually took the opportunity to touch my head..."

"Sigh, can't I touch it?"

Noah paused, then said with some confusion.

"You know that touching it will stunt your growth!"

Shelley's cheeks puffed up rapidly like two loaves of bread as she spoke loudly.

"My height is already pitiful enough. If I don't grow any taller, will you take responsibility?"

"Yes, I'll take responsibility!"

Noah smiled and readily agreed.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Odd Changes, Even Remains the Same; Sign Determines Quadrant

"You idiot, this isn't the kind of responsibility I meant!"

Shelley immediately understood. She gently punched Noah's chest with her small fist and said, both embarrassed and angry.

"I didn't say anything about being responsible, did I? It's just that Lady Shelley is being too sensitive..."

Noah wore an innocent expression and spoke softly.

"You idiot, you big idiot! If you keep doing this, I'm never teaching you again!"

Shelley crossed her arms, pouted, and said with a sullen expression.

"That won't do, it will be very troublesome for me. How about this, Lady Shelley, I'll make you something delicious tomorrow to help you cool down!"

Noah moved closer to Shelley and spoke gently.

"Delicious? What's delicious?"

Shelley turned her head and said softly.

"That's a secret, but I can tell you, Lord Shelley, that the dish I'm going to make this time is on a completely different level from the ones I've made before."

Noah shook her finger, pointed to her lips, and whispered.

"This is the dish I made. It's so delicious you'll want to swallow your tongue. It can make you feel happy..."

"Swallow your tongue, and you're happy?"

Shelley touched her lips, her throat bobbing as she thought of the meals Noah had prepared before.

"Lord Shelley, would you like some?"

Noah narrowed her eyes and said with a smile.

"Actually, I don't really want to eat it, but if you let me try it, I'd be willing to..."

Shelley maintained her haughty demeanor, but the drool dripping from the corner of her mouth betrayed her thoughts.

Noah saw everything clearly, but didn't expose Shelley's intentions. She smiled and said...

"Then, Ms. Shelley, if you continue teaching, I will cook a delicious meal to reward you."

"You say you're giving a lesson, but is there anything you still don't understand?"

Shelley slowly turned around and looked at Noah, a hint of expectation hidden in her pale blue eyes.

"I don't understand... but I remember some..."

Noah picked up the magic book in her hand, flipped through a few pages, looking for a puzzle that was both difficult and could be solved by Shelley.

Noah had barely turned a few pages when her fingers stopped, and a look of surprise appeared on her face.

Among the tadpole-like characters of the Snow Country, Noah saw familiar characters—Chinese, the Chinese characters from the real world.

"My time is running out. This is my last code, Norwegian. Please write it down and tell my best friend Ned..."

Noah swallowed hard. Encountering Chinese in this world filled her with excitement. She turned to the next sentence with trembling hands.

All I could see were those words, almost etched into her DNA!

Odd changes, even remains the same; sign depends on quadrant.

"what?"

As Noah looked at the sentence, she felt a deep sense of nostalgia, as if she had traveled back to her junior high school classroom and could see her math teacher's disappointed face.

Noah soon discovered that there was another sentence left below the "code".

Forgive me, Ned. As I face death, this is the only sentence I remember. I will soon be reborn. If anyone can say this to you, that person is me. Please do your best to help me regain my memory. In short, I entrust everything to you.

"..."

Noah stood there, stunned. He could tell that this sentence contained a lot of information.

But she knew so little that her mind was a complete mess.

"Noah, what are you looking at? Why are you spacing out?"

Shelley curiously leaned over to look at the book, nodded, and showed an "I see" expression on her face.

"No wonder you're lost in thought; these are the words of a sage, one of the ten greatest mysteries of the past millennium!"

"Words of a sage? What is that?"

Noah looked at Shelley curiously and asked in a low voice.

"It is the last message that the great sage left to his disciple a thousand years ago."

Shelley picked up the grimoire, tapped the Chinese characters lightly with her finger, and looked thoughtful.

"In the final battle a thousand years ago, the Great Sage challenged the gods and the church but failed. He died and wrote these mysterious words before his death, which are therefore known as the Words of the Sage."

"Please forgive my ignorance, Lord Shelley, but who is this sage?"

Noah said with a serious expression.

"Noah, you must have failed history. You don't even know the great sage who is sung about by everyone on the continent!"

Shelley rolled her eyes at Noah, but she still patiently explained.

"The Sage was a scholar who appeared a thousand years ago. He spent hundreds of years traveling across the continent, spreading a great deal of knowledge in the process. All races benefited greatly from this and cultivated the first generation of heroes. Therefore, he was known as the Sage by the world."

"But this sage seemed to have a natural grudge against the Central Church. During his hundreds of years of wandering, he was constantly attacked and slandered. The sage and the church fought each other for hundreds of years. Finally, the sage could no longer bear it and gathered his companions and the races that supported him to fight the church in a final battle."

"So the sage failed in the end?"

Noah asked cautiously.

"That's right. The sage was killed, and his companions either surrendered, were killed, or were exiled. The races that supported him also met the same fate!"

Shelley sighed softly, a look of regret on her face.

"Although the sage is dead, his name as a sage still circulates throughout the continent."

"Lord Shelley, does that sage have a name?"

Noah asked calmly.

"The sage naturally has a name, and it is said that his name is composed of this mysterious script."

Shelley pointed to the Chinese characters in the magic book and said earnestly.

"So apart from his companion, the hero, no one knew his name; everyone preferred to call him the Nameless Sage."

"The nameless sage, the hero..."

Noah silently analyzed Shelley's words, and when she looked at them again, a complicated expression appeared on her face.

This sage seems to have also traveled from another time. Could I possibly be related to this sage?

Noah's mind was in complete turmoil; she had received too much information and needed time to sort it out.

“Noah, you’re interested in the words of the sages, and coincidentally, I have some knowledge of this…”

Shelley looked at Noah and muttered softly.

"Lord Shelley, please tell me, this news is very important to me. I want to know who the Sage's words were left for..."

Noah looked at Shelley and said somewhat anxiously.

"I...I understand, I'll tell..."

This was the first time Shelley had ever seen Noah so anxious, and she couldn't care less about being proud anymore, so she quickly said...

"It is still undetermined to whom the wise words were left; they may have been left for his disciples or for a hero."

Shelley said very seriously.

"This question has been debated by scholars ever since, because the wise man left his wise words to whom, which determines who is the traitor who stayed by the wise man's side."

"Traitor? What traitor?"

Noah was slightly taken aback, and she asked instinctively.

“A traitor has appeared beside the sage, revealing his whereabouts to the Central Church.”

Shelley said with a serious expression.

"It is said that this traitor is hiding right next to the sage..."