“You still have the nerve to come find me at a time like this? Aren’t you afraid I’ll settle accounts with you?” Aaron said with a half-smile, glancing at Lily as she knocked and entered.
Lily blinked innocently. “Professor, what are you talking about?”
Aaron just raised an eyebrow at her without saying a word, but the implication was clear: Try pretending again?
Lily immediately lowered her head. “Professor, I was wrong. I know you had high hopes for me…”
“Not really. I was forced by the principal to take on a student. I just happened to run into you.” Aaron said flatly.
Lily faltered for a moment, almost losing her rhythm.
But she quickly recovered:
“I do want to bring you honor, Professor. But to be honest, at this stage I have too many weaknesses. I don’t have the advantage to crush them yet…”
“You said it yourself—the path of magic is long, no need to rush. So my thinking is, so what if I don’t become the number one freshman? It doesn’t determine my future!”
Aaron just watched her quietly turn his office into an impromptu speech venue.
Once she’d said her piece, Aaron casually remarked, “Fine. As long as you know what you’re doing. As for me, I don’t really care about honor or glory. Don’t I have enough of that myself? Do I need you to win it for me? I just hope you don’t lose your edge.”
Lily suddenly looked up and met Aaron’s gaze.
She always had the feeling that her mentor knew a great many things.
She wasn’t truly an eighteen-year-old Lily. Compared to these freshmen, what edge did she have? If anything, she had the weariness of age—after all, she came from an era where people could be phased out at thirty-five.
She felt most people wouldn’t notice that difference. But Aaron had hit the nail on the head with one sentence. Was he just speaking casually? Or…
The two stared at each other for a moment, then Lily said with a look of regret, “Professor, are you really sure you don’t need me to win you honor?”
She drew out her words, “I was even thinking—I’ve memorized all those instructors who laughed at you in the arena. I could find opportunities to challenge their students later and steal their thunder.”
But if you don’t need it, then forget it? —Lily didn’t say this out loud, but they both understood.
Aaron felt his hand twitch. He finally understood the appeal of the principal’s magic staff—he’d have to get one custom-made too! It was an essential tool for dealing with students!
This little schemer! She was doing it on purpose!
He wasn’t really some aloof, indifferent person. Of course he’d be happy if his student shut them up on his behalf!
But he’d just said what he said—was he supposed to take it back? Did he have no dignity left?
Looking at this cunning student before him, Aaron suddenly laughed. “I really don’t need you to win me honor…”
He didn’t give Lily a chance to interject and continued, “But don’t think you can just coast by either. From now on, you’ll have to find ways to come out on top—otherwise, you’ll be in danger.”
Danger? What danger?
Lily was stunned.
“I told you before—you’re my only student.”
Lily was baffled. “Yes. And?”
What did that have to do with “not being top means danger”?
Aaron explained patiently, “The academy has teaching performance requirements for mentors. The requirements vary by mentor rank.”
Such requirements don’t mean you’re done just by taking on a student—otherwise everyone would casually take one and wash their hands of it, how easy would that be?
“What kind of results your student achieves” is what counts as your teaching performance.
If Aaron had many students, then as long as one of them met the requirements, he’d be fine. But he only had one student, so all the requirements fell squarely on Lily.
Aaron spread his hands at Lily: So, it’s not me pushing you to improve—it’s that if you want to stay comfortably as the only student of a senior mentor, you have to push yourself to excel!
Lily was dumbfounded.
After a moment of stunned silence, she immediately flipped open a small handbook—the academy manual.
The page detailing the teaching performance requirements for senior mentors was filled with dense rows of notes, enough to make anyone’s heart sink.
Lily decisively snapped the handbook shut.
She silently comforted herself: High returns require high effort—that’s only fair.
Don’t fixate on the bad news. Think about it—she was about to receive the resource allocation of a senior mentor! With resources in hand, finding ways to meet those requirements wouldn’t be entirely hopeless.
Lily looked at Aaron hesitantly. “Professor, a senior mentor’s resources should be pretty substantial, right?”
She was dropping heavy hints: Throw some resources at your poor student to nurture her, and she’ll go out and crush everyone for you!
“Not bad. I have a lab that many mentors would love to get their hands on.”
“Wow, amazing!” Lily exclaimed with enthusiastic support, then kept staring at Aaron: And…?
“I have a lab that many mentors would love to get their hands on,” Aaron repeated.
“…”
Lily and Aaron stared at each other, eyes wide.
A few minutes later, Lily had fully grasped the situation.
Aaron did indeed enjoy the privileges of a senior mentor, but he’d poured every last resource into his magical experiments. For all his impressive appearance, if you patted his pockets, he might be poorer than Lily!
Lily at least had ten gold coins from Avery!
Aaron felt a bit sheepish under her gaze and cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Ahem, my lab—you have access to it too. I’ll teach you a great deal, and my magical knowledge is nothing short of genuine. These are priceless treasures! Back in the day, plenty of people begged me to take them on, and I turned them all down…”
In short, aside from that, Aaron was nothing but a hollow shell of a senior mentor. He was even counting on Lily to perform well and secure more additional resource allocations for him.
Lily’s face went stiff.
At this moment, she recalled the three promises Aaron had made during the freshman assessment, and she felt like crying.
Resource allocation? True. But with resources at zero, no matter how much you tilt the scale, it’s still zero.
Not afraid of factional disputes? Also true. Because he’d isolated himself from every single faction.
Only the last point held any substance: Aaron did indeed have a higher sensitivity to new knowledge and a greater willingness to explore and verify it.
But honestly, for a broke Lily, that last point was pretty intangible—the first two were what she really needed!
Damn it. She’d changed worlds, and she’d run into another boss who sold her a dream!
Lily regretted it deeply. Even if she’d had to be shameless, she should have asked for the full picture!
Lily’s feet were quietly shuffling toward the door, as she considered the feasibility of switching mentors…
Aaron naturally noticed her little movements. Unhurried, he said slowly:
“You know? After the assessment ended, Student Jayne was taken away. He confessed quite a bit—things that even lower-ranked mentors might not have clearance to know…”
Hearing this, Lily didn’t hesitate for a second before returning to Aaron’s side.
She badly needed money and resources, but the issue of the mastermind behind the dark magic was even more critical—it might even be connected to her transmigration!
Looking at Lily, who had obediently settled down, Aaron asked with a smile, “Not considering switching mentors anymore? I’m sure plenty of other mentors would still take you in.”
“Professor, I’m not that kind of person! Once a teacher, always a teacher…” Lily said with solemn righteousness, then swiftly changed the subject, “So, what exactly did Jayne say?”
Aaron didn’t leave her hanging and laid out the investigation findings.
Shortly after enrolling, Jayne had suddenly received a package of dark magic materials.
Coming from Ryan nobility, Jayne was well-versed in various magical knowledge and recognized it as a dark magic ritual that sacrificed one’s soul in exchange for power.
He didn’t know who was behind it, so he kept quiet. And because the ritual was too sinister, he didn’t dare use it either.
That was, until the day of the combat assessment.
Jayne knew very well that his duel with Lily had made him famous—the kind of famous that served as a cautionary tale. From now on, instructors would probably use his case as an example when teaching new students.
Filled with shame and rage, Jayne was utterly despairing when he saw even Chris lose to Lily: How was he supposed to get his revenge now?
Then, suddenly, he received a transmission scroll.
[Lily is different from you—she used dark magic. The evidence is in the northwest corner of the rose garden behind the girls’ dormitory, in a black box.]
It was a one-time short-range transmission scroll that self-destructed after Jayne finished reading it.
Most people wouldn’t necessarily believe such an anonymous message. The secrecy alone suggested it was likely something shady.
But Jayne believed it! Because he’d received dark magic materials before! So that was it—no wonder a penniless commoner girl could defeat Prince Ryan!
Overjoyed, he grabbed the evidence and rushed back to accuse Lily. As for what happened after—Lily already knew.
“Jayne didn’t use dark magic himself; he only failed to report it. The academy didn’t expel him—just gave him a demerit and deducted points.”
“The school also investigated Chris. This matter truly has nothing to do with him.”
“Unfortunately, if Jayne had reported it immediately upon receiving the scroll, with so many mentors present at the time, there would have been a chance to pinpoint the sender. That person definitely wasn’t far away.”
Investigating afterward made the difficulty skyrocket.
There were already many people near the arena at that time, making it hard to narrow down the pool of suspects. All they could say was that the culprit was someone within the academy, not an outsider.
“The school suspects that a dark mage has indeed infiltrated the academy, trying to cast a wide net. Jayne wasn’t the only one who received dark magic materials—he’s just the only one who got exposed.”
Jayne had grand ambitions but limited talent, so he received the materials.
Lily was desperate for power, so she also received them.
What about the others?
How many more people received materials but kept silent?
“Professor, I—”
“You want to say you didn’t receive any? Heh, no need. The school isn’t stupid. It’s just that some things don’t need to be dug into too deeply.”
Take Jayne, for example—he’d hidden the dark magic materials he initially received instead of destroying them outright, and only produced them during this investigation.
Did he hide them because he might want to learn from them later? Very possible. But the academy wouldn’t convict him based on a “possibility.” The fact was, he hadn’t learned them.
Did Lily receive dark magic materials? Had she also been tempted? Very possible. But she’d passed the light magic examination—she hadn’t fallen—so that was fine.
So the school simply had Mentor Aaron talk to Lily. The message was clear: If the materials are still hidden somewhere, destroy them immediately. Don’t read them, don’t learn from them, and this matter is closed.
They judged actions, not intentions.
And to be fair, the school also bore some responsibility—they’d let a dark mage slip in! This time it was just slipping in some materials—what about next time?
“The school won’t let this go so easily. Until they root out the culprit completely, this isn’t over.”
“What’s the specific plan?” Lily asked with keen interest.
Aaron gave her a knowing half-smile. “What? Fishing for classified information?”
“Not at all!” Lily quickly denied. “I was thinking if there’s any way I can help. Professor, I feel like something doesn’t add up.”
“What doesn’t add up?”
“If the mastermind wanted to cast a wide net, why expose me? Wouldn’t it be better to quietly convert us into dark mages? By doing this, they’re exposing themselves too. You said it yourself—now the school is going all out to hunt them down. That works against them.”
“It’s not contradictory. They’re not gods—how could they account for every possible outcome?”
Aaron didn’t find it strange and casually explained:
“Isn’t there a possibility that they sent that message to Jayne to provoke him, to push him over the edge into becoming a dark mage? But Jayne turned out to be even more impulsive than they expected, and ended up exposing you directly.”
Lily paused: Oh right! That was a possibility too!
“They gave him the box—basically putting leverage over you in his hands, so he could blackmail you into serving his purposes…”
A flicker of thought passed through Lily’s eyes. That way, she and Jayne would be tied together, hidden in the shadows, capable of doing far more than either could alone…
Tsk, the mastermind truly was insidious!
“Professor, I have one more question.”
“You want to ask whether using dark magic will definitely be detected? Or whether it might not be detected this time but could be next time?”
Aaron’s words struck Lily’s mind like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
He knew!
He really did know everything!