"Actually, I'm not completely surprised," Ada said.

"You knew already?" Leanne was clearly surprised by Ada's turnaround.

"Yup, he seemed fishy from the moment I saw what kind of fish he ordered for me."

Leanne chuckled. Ada grinned, thinking that a chuckle was infinitely better than a look of pure confusion.

"I actually really don't know what you saw that indicates he's hiding something," Ada admitted.

"Did you notice anything strange about Master Obar's appearance?"

"He seems just like an old man. An impressive old man. You missed the fight outside but I saw that he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself."

"How old does he look like to you?"

"From what I see, I'll say in his early fifties?" Ada guessed. She has read that though the average life expectancy at birth for people in the middle ages was 35, that was only because of the disproportionate number who died at birth or as young children. For those people who were able to survive childhood and teenage years, reaching the age of 50 or even 70 was not unheard of.

Leanne nodded and continued, "The Rift War started 106 years ago and formally lasted half a century until the final treaties by all parties were signed. In common calendar, that would be from CE570 to CE620. The Galacia Club was founded 53 years ago which would mean CE623. According to Master Obar, he was one of the first members and had direct contact with the gods shortly after the Galacia Club was formed. When I was registering to join them, the receptionist at the desk was quite proud in informing me that none of the bylaws have changed since their founding."

"And what did you see in the bylaws?"

"A lot but I want to point out that on the first page, there was a list of requirements for membership. A minimum age of 21 with a sound body and mind was among them."

"Just like the legal age for alcohol in the States except during the Prohibition era," Ada muttered audibly.

Confusion flitted across Leanne's face but by now she was probably used to Ada's antics. She continued, "Even accounting for the possibility that he joined a few years after the founding, he would be over 70."

"That's only if you're assuming he was a founding member. He could have joined a decade later which would make him in his early 60s. And ... what does his age have to do with him lying?"

"Almost all the young men and women were drafted into the war. When I say young, even children as young as twelve were sent to fight and die. Near the end, there were barely anyone alive under the age of thirty. Most who were alive were not drafted because either they were very old or very young."

"That ... sounds both terrifying and terrible," Ada said sadly. She felt blessed to have grown up in a country which never experienced war on its own territory. Yet, if God was truly merciful, wouldn't God have intervened then? But he should have intervened during World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War or any of the other innumerable horrors of senseless killings on her home world and He never did. Perhaps to God, in the multitude of multiverses, the worst atrocities were still not considered extraordinary to His eye. Ada sincerely hoped that she would not have to do anything this horrible to create the change necessary in this world.

"Terrible is an understatement," Leanne said sadly.

"I'll make sure that nothing like that happens again," Ada assured her.

"I think the memory is still fresh enough that no mortal would want to at this time. I thank the gods that my grandparents were fortunate to have survived mostly unscathed. I brought up what happened to point out the master's true age. I know things are different in the divine world but here, almost no one in their late 70s are sound of both body and mind unless they are continually blessed by the gods."

You clearly haven't read any xianxia novels, Ada thought. Leanne mistook Ada's expression for disbelief and said softly with a hint of dejection, "I see. You do not believe me."

"No, that's not it. I just thought of something else," Ada explained. "Couldn't he have been a baby at the time that the war ended and then joined the organization right before the gods stopped blessing the members with the Divine Tongue?"

"That is a possibility but I find it unlikely. When the war ended, many children were orphaned. The gods divided up them and took them to their temples to serve as future priests and priestesses. Once you become a dedicated servant of a god, you serve for life and you're not allowed to be part of any other organization. Those who were fortunate enough to still have family were actually unfortunate. With the destroyed cities and farms, food was scarce. Many people, especially children, died in those years."

"Couldn't he have been one of the lucky few who did survive?"

"He could be but there is a bigger clue which is a clear indicator that he has been in recent touch with at least one god."

"What's that? His ring? I didn't notice any but I wasn't really paying attention to his hands."

"You will have a hard time seeing it from where you are sitting. I am almost certain that it is a Ring of Longevity. An artifact like this was definitely given by a god. Not only that but it was glowing which is impossible unless it was recently blessed by a god."

"I think I'll sign up for your World History and Introduction to Gods classes once we get back to the palace," Ada joked.

"I think I can do that," Leanne smiled. "I have always wanted to teach but the elders at the temple thought I was too young."

"Age doesn't translate into wisdom or knowledge. You'll get your chance with me as your goddess," Ada patted Leanne's back. "Back to the topic at hand. Alright, I do believe you."

"Are we still showing him your palace?"

"I don't know. This kind of throws a monkey wrench into how much I feel like revealing to him. I would like to find out more. Let me think about what to do."

"Meditation may help."

"That was the idea. I am totally going to commune with the System."

"I need to do something too," Leanne said and tried to be nonchalant as she looked at the stalls.

"If you're going to have to do your business, then go right ahead. There's no one else here and there's three stalls. I'll just go into this one and you have a fair picking of the other two. Hopefully, there isn't a goat behind one of them."

"What?"

"It's the Monty Hall problem where there's three doors and two of them have goats whereas the other has a prize. So Monty who knows what's behind all three doors shows you one of them which is a goat. Then, he asks you to choose another door out of the two remaining ones. Whatever you choose, he asks you if you want to switch with the other door which you do not know. Would you switch doors or stay with what you chose?"

"Uh, it is equally likely if you stay or switch?" Leanne guessed hesitantly. "But a goat would be a prize too. Most farmers would be happy to have a goat."

"Not if you can get a car or mansion but nevermind about that. Point is that you double your probability of winning something better than a goat if you switch doors. Remind me to sign you up for Math Puzzles once we're back. It'll be fun."

"Maybe?" Leanne didn't seem thrilled at this prospect of doing math puzzles. She cleared her throat and continued, "But are you sure you want to meditate in the bathroom?"

"Look, you're not going to bother me," Ada replied. Her college dorm restrooms were a million times worse.

"But..."

"But if this is about you having privacy, I can leave," Ada finished what she presumed Leanne was implying.

"No, I do not mind. You are right. This is probably the most private place for meditation here."

Ada smirked as she closed the stall door. Maybe she should make this bathroom her first temple on mortal ground. She looked down and saw the toilet was like a porta potty and did not have any mechanism for flushing. It was finely made and very clean with nothing inside. Either no one chose this stall or someone cleaned it recently to her relief. She didn't like the thought of sitting on top of someone else's poo though as a goddess, she was sure no smell could really bother her. She hoped that Leanne was equally lucky though she wasn't sure that the girl cared as much as Ada did. This world was still pre-modern and people's expectations of sanitation are assuredly much lower. Ada shook her head and ended her toilet musings. There were more important things to think about. She sat down.

"Unpause system."

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grep -E 'Master Ob*|master ob*|Master ob*|master Ob*' -R ./

>

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"My God, you would think that God would know how to write a program that's at least capable of some natural language processing" Ada groaned.

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A flood of information hit her brain at once. Several of them appeared to be binary or assembly files and with a basic text interface in her brain, she could make no sense of it.

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Ada ignored the comment and focused on scouring through the seven text files for clues. After a moment, she closed her eyes. "Pause system."

...

Ada gently tapped the stall wall next to her. "Leanne, are you done? Sorry, I don't want to bother you but there are some things I just found out which I really think you should know before anyone else happens to barge in here."