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[Genshin Impact] Chapter 553: The Sage Title (2-in-1 Chapter)
🕑 Added 2025-08-18 15:30:02 +0000 UTC“This is where I’ll have to trouble you to cooperate with the explanation in a bit.”
Nolan chuckled.
By the bookshelves, Mona gave a soft “hmph,” then turned to look at him and Layla before walking straight toward them.
“Mona seems to be looking at us?” Layla blinked in mild surprise.
“Uh… maybe she noticed us staring at her and got curious,” Nolan guessed after a moment.
“Eh? Did we disturb her? Maybe we should leave…” Layla grew flustered, instinctively starting to stand.
“Wait!” Nolan quickly caught her gloved hand. It was clear her lack of confidence was pretty severe. He sighed.
“She’s already walking over—if we leave now, that’d be a bit rude.”
“But…”
Her heartbeat quickened, but before she could say more, it was too late—Mona had already reached them.
With her arms folded across her chest, Mona looked at Layla and said:
“So, you’re the junior that guy next to you told me about—the one here at the Akademiya studying astronomy, right?”
Hearing that Mona already seemed to know her, Layla froze slightly. She wasn’t stupid—her eyes immediately turned to Nolan.
“Hehe, actually Mona is my girlfriend. Earlier, when I saw you seemed interested in her, I thought I’d introduce you two. But since you’re so lacking in confidence, I had her come over to give you an ‘accidental’ meeting.”
Nolan didn’t hide it and kept his explanation simple.
“What?!” Layla’s eyes widened in disbelief. “M-Mona is your girlfriend?”
“Ahem, well… you know, being a fairly famous legendary adventurer, it’s pretty normal to have a well-known girlfriend, right?” Nolan coughed lightly.
“Alright, now let go of her hand!”
Seeing Nolan still holding Layla’s hand, Mona frowned and smacked his hand away, smoothly taking Layla’s hand herself. She introduced herself:
“Hello, I’m Astrologist Mona Megistus. Pleased to meet you!”
“Ah… M-Mona… s-senpai, I’m Layla…”
Layla’s tone was clearly nervous, her body stiff as if her tongue might trip over itself.
“Oh come now, I’m not a monster. Don’t be so tense. I’m quite interested in meeting a junior. Let’s sit and chat.”
Mona released her hand and pulled out the chair across from her.
“…Mm.”
Layla’s mind felt blank, almost overloaded, and she instinctively obeyed, sitting down.
She kept her head lowered, white shoulders slightly hunched, small fists resting on her thighs as her fingers nervously pinched the thick fabric of her white tights.
Seeing this, Nolan realized she was probably overthinking how to talk to Mona—introverts always tended to overanalyze.
In such cases, the best thing to do was steer the conversation toward the person’s area of expertise. That way, it was least likely to stall.
After all, when in their element, their accumulated knowledge made it easy to keep the conversation going, boosting their confidence.
It would also stop Layla from burning through her mental energy overthinking.
So, he smiled at Mona and said:
“Layla studies the stars just like you—maybe you two can share some research and learning experiences.”
“Ah, in front of Mona-senpai, how could I dare to share anything? I should just humbly learn from her…” Layla murmured.
“Why not? I study the stars, but my focus is mainly astrology, and I learned from my master—so my education might not be as systematic as the Akademiya’s.
“I’ve always been curious about what the Akademiya teaches. If you don’t mind, why don’t we chat about that?”
Mona straightened slightly, showing the poise of a senior.
“…Mm.”
Layla was still nervous, but after a brief exchange, she realized Mona was easy to get along with—and being the adventurer’s girlfriend also put her a little at ease.
“You—if academic talk bores you, go wander around instead,” Mona said to Nolan.
“Sure.”
Nolan nodded. Now that the introduction was done, he could use Mona as a reason to approach Layla later and create more opportunities to interact.
Leaving them to talk without him might help them get closer, making it even easier for him to use Mona as an excuse to meet Layla in the future.
But as he stood to leave, Layla let out a soft “ah” and instinctively tugged on the hem of his shirt, keeping her head lowered:
“Um… could you stay here? It’d make me feel a bit more relaxed.”
Without a familiar face nearby, being alone with someone she’d just met—especially a senior like Mona—made her feel uneasy.
“…Alright.”
Nolan had guessed her reasoning and nodded, sitting back down. Even if he couldn’t follow all the academic talk, sitting beside a girl wasn’t boring at all.
“Phew… thank you,” Layla said gratefully.
> [Layla Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 340 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.7 (600/700)]
Seeing the notification pop up, Nolan smiled in satisfaction.
He hadn’t expected to reach Level 8 so soon. Sure enough, having an exclusive specialty sped things up—and the “Sumeru Sage” title Nahida had awarded to him and Lumine not long ago was also proving useful:
> [Sumeru Sage: An honorary sage of Sumeru, possessing the true authority of a sage second only to the Lesser Lord Kusanali. Gains additional affection when winning over the people of Sumeru, gains bonus EXP when earning Adventure EXP, and has all attributes increased by 10%.]
With Nolan present, Layla felt just enough at ease to steady herself.
Parting her soft lips, she began explaining to Mona how knowledge was taught at the Akademiya. Whenever she touched on something Mona found interesting, Mona would ask follow-up questions.
After covering the basics of the Akademiya, the two shifted into a discussion of astronomy.
Nolan could follow the parts about star maps and orbital paths, but once the formulas came out, he was quickly lost—he had no foundation in the subject at all.
To keep from dozing off, he quietly put on his Akasha Terminal and opened the “Akasha Forum” to browse the net for a bit.
The forum, now in testing by a large number of Akademiya scholars, was no longer empty—it was already filled with shared content of all sorts.
On the “Live” page, some scholars were streaming field research trips with their mentors—clearly students of the Amurta Darshan, judging by the shovels and watering cans they carried, likely heading out to plant new research specimens.
Others streamed tours of the Akademiya itself, though some were awkward speaking alone to an audience through the network.
There were even streams of friends playing Genius Invokation TCG. Overall, the content was positive—no inappropriate broadcasts, thanks to the Akasha System’s supervision.
Nolan clicked over to the video page. Most uploads were mundane daily-life clips—not surprising, given how new the forum was.
Posts and status updates were much the same—basic, but meeting his expectations for the early stage: people could communicate freely through the Akasha Forum.
He felt the platform was already in good shape and would soon be ready for full launch, which would surely spark huge public enthusiasm.
That reminded him—he contacted Nahida through a “Waymark” to discuss advertising space on the Akasha Forum.
They’d need to test formats—whether to use unskippable ads, embed banners above or below videos without disrupting viewing, or try some other method entirely.
By midday, Layla and Mona had finished their scholarly exchange. Apart from being a bit nervous at the start, Layla had quickly immersed herself in the discussion, speaking with real confidence—nothing like her earlier shy, withdrawn self.
Now she could talk to Mona almost as naturally as she did to Nolan.
Their talks had given her a clear direction for her thesis, and she felt she could finish the final edits tonight—though it would be a big workload, it was worth it.
To strengthen their budding friendship, Nolan suggested having lunch together.
Mona, living off his support, had no objections. Layla hesitated for a moment, glancing between the two of them, but since she now considered them good friends, she agreed—no longer nervous about spending time together.
After lunch, they returned to the House of Daena. They’d already discussed plenty for the day, so they planned to continue another time.
However, Mona had discovered that Layla’s knowledge was exceptionally deep—enough to rival a prodigy—and was puzzled by her lack of confidence.
She suspected it was simply Layla’s overly reserved nature, something not easily changed and not worth forcing. Once Layla recognized her own strengths, her confidence would grow naturally.
Mona even began thinking that, if Layla moved into the Wonderland space one day, she could help her study the simulated sky there. Mona had been at it for ages and had only scratched the surface—Layla’s help could speed things up immensely.
To that end, Mona wanted to keep chatting, giving Nolan more chances to win Layla over.
Touched by her active help, Nolan decided he’d make sure to improve Mona’s abilities tonight.
---
Evening – House of Daena
After nearly a full day of academic discussion, it was time to part ways. Even if they wanted to talk at night, Layla wouldn’t have the stamina—she wasn’t as strong as Mona, and her health was on the frail side.
Today’s endurance was only thanks to Nolan removing her fatigue before. Without that, she couldn’t have kept up.
Now fully comfortable with Mona, Layla could interact without tension—just like with Nolan.
She had the gist of her thesis ready and was eager to get home to finish it.
Seeing the time, she reluctantly said goodbye to the two of them.
Mona, also a little reluctant, waved and arranged to meet again the next day or the day after for more discussion. She had grown quite fond of Layla over the day.
“Alright, see you tomorrow,” Nolan said with a smile. Before she left, he used “Harmonic Energy” once more to clear her fatigue—otherwise, if she stayed up late writing, she’d be in poor shape tomorrow.
“Mm, thank you, Adventurer,” Layla said with a smile.
> [Layla Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 360 Affection Points. Current Aaffection Level: Lv.8 (260/800)]
Seeing the prompt, Nolan grinned.
“Do your best. If you still can’t wrap up your thesis, just bring it tomorrow and have Mona give you some pointers.”
“Alright.” Layla nodded, her legs in white tights and golden heels stepping forward. After a few paces, she looked back wistfully.
Today had been one of the rare days she felt truly at ease around others.
It felt nice. She decided she’d come early tomorrow. Exhaling softly, she headed home.
Nolan and Mona returned to the Wonderland space, where he resumed “training” with the girls.
He could now reliably increase his progress by about 100,000 points per day. He was already past 700,000:
> [Level: 101 (731,242 / 11,000,000)]
With over 8 million EXP left, once his progress reached about 3 million—less than a month away—he could level up.
By the end of today, he should break 800,000.
(End of Chapter)
