Fortunately, the atmosphere did not turn awkward. Lin Feng continued, "Miss Noelle is my friend, and she will also be an extremely capable officer in our Abyss Order. Although you do not report directly to Miss Noelle, you must treat her with the exact same respect as you would your direct superior."
Lin Feng said this mainly out of concern that Noelle might be bullied by these Abyss Mages when he wasn't around. Although he knew these Abyss Mages were fiercely loyal to him, their intelligence seemed to have dropped significantly due to the curse. Lin Feng felt it was better to spell things out clearly for them, breaking down every detail.
"Understood, My Lord," the Abyss Mages chanted in unison, led by Big Wise.
"Alright, off you go to handle your duties. I have nothing else for now," Lin Feng said with a wave of his hand.
The Abyss Mages each tore open spatial tunnels and set off to carry out their respective missions.
It seemed that because of Lin Feng's transmigration, Aether had remained in deep slumber for nearly a hundred years prior to Lin Feng's arrival. This caused the current strength of the Abyss Order to be far below what it was in the game. However, Aether wielded the power of all seven elements. When fused together, these seven elemental powers formed a nearly white energy. This near-primordial power could transform a portion of the cursed Khaenri'ahns into Abyss Mages, or even Abyss Heralds.
It was just that Lin Feng was currently only able to convert three Abyss Mages per day, and the requirements for the conversion were quite harsh, demanding suitable candidates along with massive amounts of materials. Converting an Abyss Herald was even harder; in any case, Lin Feng hadn't managed to convert one yet.
With Noelle joining, Lin Feng checked his system and was pleasantly surprised to find that his win rate against the Heavenly Principles had actually changed from zero.
It had risen to 0.1%.
Although it was still very low, it was at least a huge step forward. This also proved that Lin Feng's approach was correct. As long as he kept poaching people from the faction of the Heavenly Principles over to the Abyss, through this shifting balance of power, he would eventually reduce the Heavenly Principles to a commander with no troops. And by that time, *hehehehe*.
Now that Noelle had successfully joined the Abyss, who should he target next?
At that moment, Lin Feng thought of Eula, who had come with Amber at noon to visit Noelle. Eula belonged to the Lawrence Clan. A thousand years ago, the City of Mondstadt was ruled by the Lawrence Clan. In the beginning, the Lawrence Clan guided the development of the people's lives and contributed to a peaceful and prosperous society. But later on, the Lawrence Clan forgot their original aspirations, becoming oppressors and hedonists, and ultimately fell into corruption.
Eventually, the Lawrence Clan was overthrown. Because of this, the Lawrence bloodline was unpopular in Mondstadt. And even though Eula had joined the Knights of Favonius and done so, so much for Mondstadt, whenever she went to the market to buy groceries, the shopkeepers would often refuse to serve her. The taverns were no different. The insults hurled at Eula behind her back by the people of Mondstadt were countless.
Even so, Eula, the captain of the Reconnaissance Company of Mondstadt, still patrolled the wilds to clear out monsters and ensure everyone's safe travel. Yet even within the Knights of Favonius, a large group of people still held prejudices against Eula to this day.
Thinking of this, Lin Feng felt like shouting out a slogan: *To restore the glory of the Lawrence Clan, it is our unshirkable duty!*
***
The next day.
A letter appeared at the entrance of the headquarters of the Knights of Favonius. The author of the letter was Noelle. The content stated that she was resigning from her position as a maid in the Knights of Favonius.
The entire Knights of Favonius was utterly shocked upon learning of this. Although Noelle's letter claimed she was leaving the Knights due to her own health issues, everyone in the organization knew that she must have taken it to heart after failing the knighthood exam for the eighth consecutive time, and resigned because she simply couldn't accept it.
Noelle's fellow maids all felt a deep sense of injustice on her behalf. Everyone had witnessed firsthand how hard Noelle worked day in and day out. Practically every maid in the Knights of Favonius had received help from Noelle to varying degrees. Noelle's repeated failures caused these fellow maids to begin doubting the fairness of the knight selection process. Some of the bolder maids even directly submitted formal requests to Acting Grand Master Jean, demanding a reinvestigation of Noelle's knighthood exam results.
Upon learning that Noelle had resigned from her job as a maid, Acting Grand Master Jean was filled with remorse. She immediately rushed to Noelle's home. But the place was already empty; Noelle had only left a note for her parents saying she was going on a trip.
With someone stoking the flames, the matter regarding Noelle blew up into a massive scandal. Almost the entire City of Mondstadt learned about it. Noelle frequently helped people around the city, and everyone held a certain fondness for this optimistic and cheerful young girl. People hadn't known before that Noelle had endured so many failures in the knighthood exams, but now nearly all the residents knew that a girl of noble character and helpful nature had taken the knight selection exam eight times in a row without succeeding even once. This led people to suspect whether there was corruption behind the scenes in the Knights of Favonius, or whether Noelle had offended some high-ranking figures within the organization.
***
Inside Acting Grand Master Jean's office.
Lately, as the fallout from the Noelle incident grew larger and larger, the public credibility of the Knights of Favonius had suffered. The organization was even receiving a massive volume of complaint letters every day, demanding a thorough internal investigation. On top of that, an insider leaked a shocking secret: Noelle's mysterious disappearance.
People were naturally fond of gossip. Eventually, the incident spread by word of mouth among the populace, giving rise to numerous versions of the story. Some said Noelle couldn't accept the reality and jumped off a cliff; others claimed that a sinister high-ranking official within the Knights of Favonius had sent people to assassinate Noelle. Some even went so far as to suspect that Noelle's parents, who were away traveling, had also been murdered.
Kaeya entered Acting Grand Master Jean's office to report on the day's situation.
"Acting Grand Master Jean, today a lot of people are once again suspecting corruption in the knighthood exams. The complaint box of the Knights is completely stuffed."
Jean rested her head on one hand, temporarily at a loss for a good solution.
"Grand Master, seeing as Noelle usually works so hard, why don't we just recruit her into the Knights?"
Jean shook her head and said, "If we do that, wouldn't it just prove that our Knights *do* have shady practices? The people of Mondstadt would think that now that the corruption has been exposed, we had no choice but to admit Noelle. This would cause the credibility of the Knights of Favonius to plummet drastically. Go and issue an official announcement right now stating that, following an internal review by the Knights, there were no issues whatsoever with the knighthood exams, and the entire process was fair, just, and transparent. Oh, and find out where Noelle has actually gone."
As soon as this announcement was released, the City of Mondstadt erupted in an uproar. Some people believed this was proof of the Knights of Favonius's clear conscience, while others thought it was merely a clumsy cover-up.