Cyno

As the leader of all matra, General Mahamatra Cyno is well known to everyone in the Akademiya.

His duties are to arrest those who violate the Akademiya's rules and regulations, terminate illegal studies, and uphold discipline of the Akademiya. Nevertheless, researchers feel that this General Mahamatra does nothing but undermine academic progress and prohibit scientific research. Some even claim that he is "cutting off the path to knowledge" and can be seen as a dire threat to any researcher eager to seek knowledge...

Over time, researchers have come to shrink away from Cyno in silence whenever they so much as see him, wanting to have nothing to do with him.

But the General Mahamatra is hardly bothered by such things.

If this exaggerated public image can really deter some researchers, that will in no way be an inconvenience for his work.

Plus, in the words of that Forest Watcher friend of his,

"The research conducted by most researchers is nowhere significant enough to result in a talk with a matra."

Wisdom can bring enlightenment to scholars, but can also lead to utter arrogance.

In the history of the Akademiya, many researchers have used their "wisdom" to commit crimes.

For example, in order to test the limit of the Specters' body inflation, one Amurta researcher adopted an illegal catalyst and created a mega-sized Specter, which later exploded during the experiment and leveled the entire research center. Then, there was a researcher from Spantamad who had aimed to test a Ruin Guard's ability to cultivate fields, but lost control of the modified machine, resulting in the ruin of many farmlands and grave injuries for several farmers. There have also been numerous criminal cases concerning academic fraud and the abuse of intelligence for personal gain...

Such researchers, who do not abide by the law and pose dangers to others, will all be pursued and judged by the matra led by Cyno.

When they stand before the matra, these researchers will almost always spare no effort to justify themselves. Their reasons have included but are not limited to suddenly cut funds, the Akademiya's favoritism towards other researchers, the results of their work being stolen... Some may even accuse the matra of stopping them from completing their research out of jealousy of their talents.

Cyno's response to such sophistry is always to stay silent and press forward in subduing all those garrulous criminals and sending them to trial.

Those who violate the rules can always come up with a million excuses. However, only one ending awaits them.

The name of the General Mahamatra has traveled well beyond the Akademiya's walls.

According to a Forest Watcher in the Avidya Forest, he once caught a glimpse of this General Mahamatra quietly traveling through the woods in the middle of the night. A person living on the outskirts of Apam Woods can still clearly remember how a white-haired teenager asked them for a bowl of water, before venturing deep into the forest alone with just a traveling pack on his back. Adventurers resting in Sobek Oasis claim to have given directions to Cyno, though the area he was heading to had been packed with monsters. Even the proudest mercenaries and Treasure Hoarders in the Great Red Sand dare not make things difficult for the General Mahamatra, having learned this lesson well from the example of a mercenary group that was annihilated in the desert for sheltering wanted researchers.

However, for those criminals who have fallen into the hands of Cyno, their reverence for the General Mahamatra usually comes from another aspect of his character.

When escaping from the Akademiya, criminals tend to flee in an extreme panic, and can sometimes stray into perilous places. Yet, instead of letting them suffer the consequences, Cyno will come to their rescue without hesitation, just so that he can bring them back to the Akademiya to face their proper punishment.

Once, a criminal who had crossed the Great Red Sand with Cyno asked him about the point of doing all this. Cyno replied,

"Only the law can judge you, and my role here is to bring you to face the scales."

After being released from prison, the researcher, who had been a Vahumana graduate, turned their adventures returning to the Akademiya into a novel titled "The Goon," which remains a bestseller in the Akademiya. The researcher was even invited by Vahumana to give a lecture, during which they went into great detail about the portrayal of "justice" in the book.

If you ask Cyno, however, he would say that certain parts of the book were heavily exaggerated. In truth, they did not encounter any monsters created by the descendants of King Deshret, nor did they stray into a living labyrinth at the bottom of the desert or survive a sandstorm in the folds of a humongous Wenut.

Nevertheless, Cyno did appreciate the candidness with which the author described their own crimes, and would like to remind them to not commit such crimes ever again.

In the Akademiya, the mere mention of the matra's office can make any researcher's heart seize up.

Apart from the renowned "evil deeds" of the matra, what disturbs them even more is how creepy, dry laughter can be heard from the office whenever Cyno walks in...

Researchers firmly believe that this must be the matra's way of expressing smug satisfaction at the sight of Cyno passing judgment on some hapless researcher.

But only the matra know that the laughter is a response to Cyno's unique sense of humor.

"I once worked on a case where the researcher involved was under great pressure because his paper had been rejected multiple times at the review stage. He eventually rammed it through by successfully bribing the members of his review committee. However, the data in that paper was so wrong that it didn't even take long to be exposed as academic fraud. When I went to arrest this researcher, he asked me 'what have I done wrong?'..."

After a pause, Cyno continued,

"I answered, 'Your paper.'"

Seeing the matra all sit there in silence, Cyno seemed to be worried that they did not get the joke, so he went on to explain it with a serious expression,

"You see, the interesting part of this story lies in how, when he asked me what he had done wrong, he expected me to say that his fault lay with his bribing of the committee due to academic pressure, yet I told him that his error was in not reaching the correct conclusions in his paper. The clever part about this joke is that I changed the subject that was being discussed..."

After he finished explaining, the matra all exchanged looks before letting out a few dry, strangled laughs in concert...

The awkward laughter lent a strange sense of human warmth then to the often somber and solemn matra office.

However, to prevent such an awkward situation from ever happening again, the matra gradually came to a consensus that after Cyno finishes telling a joke, everyone in the room must force out a laugh or two in response so that he will not start explaining it.

On the other hand, any matra who attempts to imitate Cyno's style will be harshly punished by the others through extreme means such as confiscating their canteen meal tickets.

After all, one Cyno is enough for the whole division.

Cyno has always believed that the matra are not the enemies of those who seek knowledge.

Cyrus, a scholar who tutored Cyno before, once told him that without the Akademiya's laws, "wisdom" will soon turn into "calamity."

These floating scraps of out-of-control "wisdom" are like bait on a sea of ignorance, luring innocent knowledge seekers into the abyss.

They will make researchers far too arrogant and reckless, to the point where they may even attempt to tamper with life and death due to their lack of respect for human life. Eventually, they shall cause irreparable damage to the world.

The sages keep introducing new rules and regulations precisely to ensure that the knowledge seekers of the Akademiya will not be misled and go astray because of such bait.

The matra who hunt down those who violate the law and judge them according to those same laws are in fact the "guardians" of all those who seek knowledge in the Akademiya.

However, in the eyes of researchers, they are but a bunch of "demolishers" who constantly, violently cut off their paths to knowledge.

"Dumb humanoid Fungi," "Mr. You-Can't-Do-This," "Paper Shredders"... These are all nicknames they have come up with for the matra.

Among them, the most notorious one is "the Akademiya's Sumpter Beasts," a name coined by a Haravatat researcher.

When they first heard of this nickname, most of the matra were rather enraged, reckoning that the researchers thought too little of their hard work.

On the contrary, Cyno noted that he actually fancied it quite a bit.

"We matra are indeed Sumpter Beasts who walk the Akademiya's halls, carrying the rules and regulations on our backs."

"When exercising our rights, each of us must always keep that weight in mind."

After pondering the matter for a while, this General Mahamatra added,

"Plus, we could stand to be more like Sumpter Beasts in avoiding pointless arguments and focusing on, ahem, getting to our desired destination."

When the Akademiya was first established, its researchers wielded their boundless imagination and innovation to the fullest with the abundant resources available at their beck and call.

They had reshaped terrain, controlled the weather, recreated ancient relics... But when the knowledge of the earth could no longer satisfy their insatiable curiosity, some researchers turned their focus to the starry skies, whereas some others attempted to tamper with life and death.

However, these kinds of knowledge were not things they should or could have touched upon.

To prevent researchers from being devastated by their own knowledge, the sages laid out six cardinal sins.

They held that all the crimes in this world derive from these six sins.

The first is to interfere with human evolution;

The second is to tamper with life and death;

The third is to delve beyond the universe;

The fourth is to investigate the origin of words;

The fifth is to revere gods without acts of devotion;

The sixth is to attempt the forbidden and fear none.

Since then, the sages have been introducing new rules and regulations according to these six deadly sins while amending and revising old ones. The matra enforce the laws, and the researchers perform their roles accordingly as well.

In this way, everything in the Akademiya functions in a desirable manner, and the Akademiya and its researchers have been marching forward with thriving clarity of wisdom ever since.

As time has passed, the six ancient sins seem to have been forgotten by most, and ambitious people have been on the move since...

However, for Cyno, the current General Mahamatra, what he ought to do has not changed.

He will, according to the six ancient deadly sins, justly judge all the lawbreakers.

Even sages shall not be exempt.

This deck box, which contains Cyno's Genius Invokation TCG deck, is his favorite physical possession.

The exterior of this deck box is wrapped with multiple layers of high-quality leather, and every seam has been carefully handled. As long as the rope fixed on the leather remains tightly tied, the entire deck box will be completely sealed, and not even a drop of water can get through. The interior is padded with silk, which can minimize the bending of card corners. According to the shop owner, the silk used was all imported from Liyue and made from top-quality Silk Flowers. This deck box even comes with a tough leather strap, so the buyer can easily affix the box to any part of their body. The surface of the deck box is even engraved with the Genius Invokation TCG emblem and the name of one who purchased it.

Cyno has put his strongest deck in this box. He believes that as long as he gets to duel with this deck, he will be nothing short of invincible.

Of course, the next thing to do is to find a couple players who are willing to play against him.

Hmm... Would that Forest Watcher be available at the moment?

When it comes to how Cyno got his Vision, many versions of the story can be found circulating in the Akademiya.

Some say that he was once instructed to arrest a researcher who had been studying methods of making counterfeit Visions. The researcher had previously bought a masterless Vision for research, which then became Cyno's Vision. Some believe that Cyno is actually a descendant of King Deshret. They say that he grew up in a temple located in the Great Red Sand and was raised by a nameless Hermanubis priest who cultivated Cyno's will and strength before, when he was ready, bestowing upon him a Vision and requiring him to cross the desert all by himself to arrive at the Akademiya and enact Hermanubis' will. Of course, according to some conspiracy theories, Cyno's Vision is closely connected with certain forbidden technologies hidden within the Akademiya. Otherwise, how could this member of the desert ilk earn a spot in the Akademiya?

No one dares to check any of the stories' authenticity with Cyno in person, and Cyno himself cannot be bothered to waste energy on these ridiculous rumors.

The truth is that the way he obtained his Vision was rather simple.

It was the day before he was about to become the new General Mahamatra. As per usual, after finishing his work as a matra, Cyno went to the library to read books relating to the Akademiya's rules and regulations. He can still well remember that the book he was reading that day mainly talked about the six cardinal sins that the sages had decided on, which they held to be the origins of all crimes and thus served as the foundation for all the modern rules and regulations of the Akademiya. While he was reading the chapter on "to attempt the forbidden and fear none," he failed to fathom some chunks of the content depicted in the book, so he closed his eyes and ruminated. The moment he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a Vision, laid nicely on the page.

Cyno looked at the Vision and fell into contemplation. He first confirmed that there was no existing rule that prohibited someone from being granted a Vision. Then he went over several academic cases with Visions involved and ensured that this Vision was not some malicious trap. He went on to ponder the challenges he might encounter after becoming the General Mahamatra and how this Vision might help in these future trials... After carefully weighing up the pros and cons, Cyno finally accepted this gift from the gods earnestly.

By then, the morning light was already shining through the windows. Cyno left the library with the Vision and his as-yet-unfinished read in hand before heading over to the location where he was to be inaugurated as the General Mahamatra.

If all went well, in half an hour, he would become the Akademiya's new General Mahamatra.

He was about to be entrusted with the sacred power to judge those who had erred, and this Vision would ensure that this sacred privilege could be exercised as intended.