In the Babylon Temple, a funeral had just concluded, and after a moment of sorrow, Ziyu ordered the temple’s people to reorganize the day-to-day affairs, among which the most important task was to select a new Goddess.
During the few days’ interim waiting for the Goddess to be selected, the arrival of No. 0 unfurrowed Ziyu’s long-locked brows. After a post-incident investigation by Ziyu, it was confirmed that the woman who had drowned that night wasn’t Apoli. Instead, it was an old Maid who had served under Apoli for many years, whose demeanor and stature greatly resembled Apoli’s. As for the former Chief Maid, she had run away before Ziyu returned to the temple and her whereabouts remain unknown to this day.
"I can’t believe Apoli would commit murder," judging from the cross cut on the maid’s face, identical to the cross that disfigured Ziyu’s visage, it must’ve been done by the same person. The cross on Ziyu’s face was personally carved by Apoli. Moreover, just before leaving the temple, she had expressly instructed the Chief Maid to frame Yijie.
No. 0 had also discussed with Ziyu their original assumption that Apoli would not gift the basalt Xuanwu stone pillar to King Hammurabi, but she ended up doing so. Subsequently, the incident of Yijie breaking into the palace and stealing the pillar occurred. According to King Hammurabi’s recollection from that day, the text on the Xuanwu stone pillar he saw differed from what Ziyu had transcribed.
Someone had altered the text of the law code inscribed on the stone pillar and handed it to the King of Babylon through the "temple" for implementation. If everything went well, the promulgation of this law code would affect many people and events.
Yijie had not returned to the city since leaving. No. 0 originally thought that Ziyu would be able to leave the temple soon, but then the selection of the new Goddess came up, delaying her departure.
Ziyu felt guilty about this, as in her mind, it was greatly improper for a master to wait on a servant. So when she happened upon No. 0 consulting the new maid on common knowledge about planting herbs, she volunteered to teach No. 0 some basic herbal knowledge while waiting for the Goddess to be selected.
Ziyu, like the NPC Maggie, had undergone systematic training from a young age. Different from NPC Maggie, Ziyu, lacking the support of technology from the year 2564, relied on the most basic human senses for identifying each type of herb: from appearance, touch, to various aspects of clinical trials and processing—compiling records after accumulating a wealth of experience.
Therefore, learning from Ziyu required more time and Physical Strength. Like this morning, No. 0 had numbed her entire tongue by mistakenly consuming raw pepper, and by lunchtime, the tongue’s function had not yet recovered. However, the upside to this method of learning was its memorability, and it allowed her more opportunities to practice her Loli Reconnaissance Skill.
"This is wormwood leaf. After soaking, the leaf water can be sprayed around your body to prevent mosquito bites. Boiled, it can be used as a tea." In her interactions with No. 0, Ziyu also discovered that her new master had some talent with plants. Even though she sometimes named them very peculiar names, and every time she encountered an unknown species, she would take out an unfamiliar notebook to record it.
"Similar to modern-day Floral Dew," No. 0 liked to apply everyday terms to some of the Ancient Babylonian plant names to facilitate memory.
"Let’s stop here for today, by tomorrow we will have selected the new Goddess," Ziyu had taught No. 0 all the medicinal herbs she could identify in the Babylon Temple. She was a good teacher and during the lessons, she did not forget to test what No. 0 had remembered.
"Ziyu, do you know how to use poison?" No. 0 asked in a casual tone of voice. She understood Ziyu well; her disposition was entirely different from Apoli’s. Ziyu was restrained and upright, seldom harboring ulterior motives. Poison is also a part of pharmacology, but it seemed unlikely that Ziyu possessed that knowledge.
"Poison? Master, why do you ask that?" Ziyu indeed seemed somewhat displeased, countering with a question.
"It’s nothing, it’s just that my Weapon, the Ghost Gun, has too little lethal power. I think it needs some processing," No. 0 said somewhat euphemistically.
After leaving Babylon City, the enemies encountered or the difficulty of the missions would surely increase. They would have to take along Ziyu, who was weak and defenseless, and with Yijie, the live target gone, it would be best for the two women to tread cautiously on the road.