Chapter 41: The True Good Student

It was a completely subconscious reaction.

Harvey didn’t even think; he took a half-step back.

Instinct told him to put some distance between himself and the instructor before him.

He had thought that Cedric had noticed him secretly reminding Lavia during class, and that was why he had tested him with that meaningful tone in the hallway.

He never imagined the other would so naturally change his words and say something so “appreciative.”

Cedric didn’t notice his half-step back. He just sighed with slight regret.

“Most students these days are too restless.”

His tone carried a resigned helplessness.

“These noble students are young, but their minds never settle where they should.”

“Instead of spending time training in magic, they care more about who wore a new dress today and who had a quarrel with whom.”

“Even Lavia, who has grown the fastest, often skipped class when she first entered the academy half a year ago.”

At this point, Cedric couldn’t help but smile.

“Especially my basic magic theory class.”

Harvey subconsciously raised his head and looked at him.

The sunlight cast a patch of light gold through Cedric’s messy hair, making his long-term tiredness from staying up all night even more apparent.

Looking at those obvious dark circles, Harvey felt a trace of respect rise in his heart.

As expected of a magic academy instructor.

It seemed that delving into magic was indeed a very mentally exhausting endeavor.

Cedric, unaware that Harvey was thinking about other things, continued expressing his dissatisfaction with that noble Duke’s Daughter.

“She has astonishing talent, but when it comes to things that require the most patience, she can never sit still.”

“She’s either late or asks for leave. If someone hadn’t forced her to catch up on the basics, I really would have thought she planned to just rush through by relying on her talent alone.”

He turned his head to look at Harvey, the smile in his eyes deepening.

Clearly, Cedric had already decided that Harvey was the one who had forced Lavia to study.

“That’s why I was so surprised earlier.”

“You are the first student I’ve met who listened all the way from the beginning without getting distracted.”

Cedric’s tone held undisguised delight.

Clearly, among that group of lazy and restless noble students, encountering one willing to listen seriously was enough to put him in a good mood.

Hearing this, Harvey bowed his head respectfully.

“I just usually like reading books.”

When he mentioned the class content, Harvey’s tone unconsciously became more serious.

“Instructor, your explanation of basic theory was very clear. Many things I never fully understood before all became clear today. Especially about node stability during spell connection—”

He started off restrained, but once he got on this topic, he gradually couldn’t stop.

From the few unbalanced structures mentioned in class, to his own confusion from reading books in the past, to some scattered questions that had never had answers—he blurted them all out.

Cedric initially just listened with a smile, but later, he followed up and explained them one by one.

When Harvey truly hit the key points, he would even stop walking and patiently add a couple more sentences.

By the time the two walked all the way to the instructor office area, the atmosphere had become much more natural than before.

Cedric pushed open the dark wooden door and gestured for him to enter.

Harvey looked up. The room was dimly lit, the curtains half-drawn, and the air carried a faint musty smell of damp pages.

Books were piled everywhere, along with half-written lecture notes and scattered parchments.

This place was more like a warehouse completely buried by books and research than an instructor’s office.

There was almost no room to step.

Cedric seemed long accustomed to this mess. He raised his hand calmly.

“Take a seat.”

He pointed to the sofa beside him.

The sofa was almost completely covered in books, leaving only a small space.

Harvey hesitated for a moment, then bent down to carefully move some books and scrolls aside before sitting down properly.

Cedric watched his movements and nodded quite satisfied.

“Compared to those children who have been pampered since childhood, it’s indeed kids like you from common families who are more suited to studying the mysteries of magic.”

His tone held undisguised admiration.

But Harvey fell silent.

His lips pressed together slightly, and in the end, he said nothing.

It wasn’t surprising that Cedric could guess he wasn’t a noble.

If he were truly a commoner’s child, those words might have counted as praise.

But he wasn’t.

Precisely because he wasn’t, he knew better than anyone that someone like him originally had no right to stand in this corridor.

No right to sit in that classroom and peacefully attend a whole class.

He could stand here not because of his background, nor because the academy was willing to give him any opportunity.

Only because Lavia had brought him in.

—That was all.

Cedric didn’t mind the lack of response. He simply assumed the boy was naturally taciturn and not good at handling compliments.

He pulled out several documents from the table and handed them to Harvey.

“These are the registration and regulation instructions that an auditor needs to fill out when entering and leaving the academy. Take a look first. If there’s no problem, sign at the bottom.”

Harvey took them and glanced down.

The pages contained nothing but the most ordinary academy rules, nothing superfluous.

It seemed Lavia’s earlier vigilance was indeed overthinking.

Cedric then handed him a quill pen. Just as he raised his hand, he seemed to remember something, and a rare hesitation appeared on his face.

“Can you—”

He stopped mid-sentence.

Harvey naturally took the quill and signed his name at the end of the document.

Hearing Cedric’s incomplete sentence, he looked up in confusion.

“What?”

Cedric stared at the written signature. A flicker of daze passed through his eyes, then he smiled as if nothing had happened.

“Nothing.”

“Your handwriting is quite good.”

Harvey nodded politely and handed back the signed document and the quill.

Cedric took the document. His gaze lingered on the signature for a moment. Then, as if remembering something else, he lightly tapped the paper with his fingertip.

“Speaking of which,” he said, looking at Harvey, his tone more serious than before.

“Which magic element are you more attuned to?”

Harvey was taken aback.

“Me?”

Cedric remained gentle.

“Since you’re so invested in these basic structures, you must be very interested in magic. I’m curious which element you want to study.”

The air carried the mingled smell of old books and ink, with a kind of rotten, faint woody scent.

Harvey sat on the sofa, momentarily unsure how to answer.

It should have been a very ordinary question.

Any person truly ready to step onto the path of magic would know which element resonated with them more after completing their initial Mana Sensing.

But he—did not.

Until now, he had never truly undergone a formal Mana Sensing.

He didn’t even know whether he had any aptitude.

For a moment, he almost wanted to confess the truth.

This instructor was gentle-natured; perhaps he truly wouldn’t take such a matter too seriously.

But the words reached his lips, and he still stopped.

After all, they had only just met.

He couldn’t be sure of Cedric’s attitude.

At that moment, more than when he had been stared at by so many people in the classroom, he realized more clearly—

He did not belong here.

The room was silent for a moment.

Seeing his prolonged silence, Cedric finally frowned slightly.

He looked at Harvey. The gentle smile in his eyes faded a little, as if he had suddenly realized something.

Cedric’s gaze fell on his face, making it feel hard to breathe.

“Could it be—”

“That you haven’t done a formal Mana Sensing yet?”

Harvey’s grip on his robe tightened.