After that reproach fell, the originally chaotic square fell silent for a brief moment.
The students, who had barely calmed down, all turned to look.
The male student was panting, blood still seeping from the wound on his arm, but his voice was even louder than before.
“Lavia, don’t you think you’ve gone too far!”
The faces of many students changed slightly.
Someone actually dared to call the Duke’s daughter by her first name in public, and in such a reproachful tone.
Harvey frowned and instinctively wanted to speak, but Lavia beside him stopped him.
Those ice-blue eyes stared coldly at the speaker.
“…What are you talking about?”
“Still pretending?”
He gritted his teeth and glared at her. “How could an ordinary person have pulled off ice elemental magic of that scale!”
As he spoke, he pointed at the fountain, which had largely shattered.
“There aren’t many people in the entire Academy who can use that kind of ice magic!”
“And here you are, completely unharmed. Who else could it be if not you?!”
The atmosphere became extremely strange.
The gazes of those who had only been watching now began to change.
Lavia stood still, her expression unchanged.
She looked at the male student like he was a fool throwing a tantrum.
“So what?”
She folded her arms and spoke calmly. “Just because I can use ice magic and happen to be standing here, you immediately decide it was me?”
That calm, almost contemptuous attitude made the male student’s face even uglier.
Lavia continued, “Then why don’t you tell me what reason I would have to do such a thing?”
He seemed to hear something utterly absurd and actually let out a cold laugh.
“No reason?”
“Aren’t you just angry because someone was singing those disgusting love songs for you?!”
Harvey was startled.
Lavia also slightly tilted her head and followed his gaze.
Not far away, the male student who had been playing the stringed instrument by the fountain was now lying on the ground.
The wooden instrument had fallen to the side, two strings broken.
He was slumped among the ice shards and water, half his body stained red, his face deathly pale. Whether he was still conscious was unknown.
The chaos had come too quickly; no one had time to look closely.
Only at this moment did the glaring red truly hit everyone’s eyes.
Harvey’s breath caught briefly.
And Lavia’s gaze finally turned completely cold.
“So what? Do you really think I’d bother with a fool like that?”
Her eyes were fixed on the one confronting her. “Instead of standing here like an idiot falsely accusing everyone, you’d better call the instructors before someone dies.”
The male student’s face turned livid at being called a fool. Blood was still dripping from his arm, but he stubbornly refused to back down.
“You are a noble! How can you say something so cold-blooded! Aren’t you afraid of bringing shame upon the Duke?!”
Lavia listened to his string of accusations, but her expression grew even more indifferent.
She gave him a cold look and suddenly spoke.
“Who are you?”
The male student was visibly stunned, as if he hadn’t expected her to ask that.
The people around also fell silent for a moment.
Lavia stood with her arms folded, her gaze containing no anger, only a condescending coldness.
“Since you have the courage to stand up and accuse me in public,”
Her tone was calm. “At the very least, you should state your name and identity first.”
The male student’s face alternated between green and white.
After a moment, as if forced into a corner, he stiffly lifted his chin and declared loudly,
“I am Edmund Vester!”
“The eldest son of the Vester Viscount family!”
He glared at Lavia without backing down an inch.
“Don’t think that just because you’re the Duke’s daughter, I’ll be afraid of you!”
“No matter how high your status, you’re not going to slip away easily after doing something like this!”
The expressions of many students around shifted slightly.
The House of Vester Viscount had been knights for generations, far inferior to the Duke’s Mansion.
But still, they were nobles with a title.
And now Edmund had openly torn the facade…
Lavia merely nodded.
“I see.”
She seemed to truly remember the name.
Whoosh—!
The sound of breaking air rang out almost simultaneously.
Obvious wind elemental fluctuations appeared in the sky, suddenly approaching from different directions.
Several figures swept across the square at extremely high speed.
The next moment, they landed steadily at various points around the fountain square.
The students who had been gathered nearby stirred, instinctively stepping back.
“It’s the instructors!”
“So fast…”
“The Academy’s high-ranking instructors have come—”
Harvey’s eyes fell on the first figure to act.
It was a female instructor in a deep blue robe, seemingly around fifty to sixty years old.
The moment this elegant, dignified lady landed, she raised her arm.
She turned her palm outward.
A large, highly present water-blue magic array rapidly unfolded in midair.
Dozens of fine, thread-like water elements streamed out from the array lines, flying precisely toward the injured students around.
Those moist, gentle water lights landed on the wounds, seeming to have a will of their own, washing away the blood and wrapping around the torn flesh.
The few students who had been crying out in pain quickly had their bleeding stopped.
The exposed wounds looked horrifying.
Harvey watched the miraculous scene in awe.
This was the first time he had so directly witnessed magic, and it was water-element magic, which was best at healing and defense.
On the other side, an old mage with pure white hair and beard was surrounded by students.
He wore a worn yet clean gray-white robe, his body stooped.
In his right hand, he held a small wooden staff, with a blue crystal embedded in its head.
“Instructor Wien!”
Facing the enthusiastic students, Wien’s wrinkled face broke into a kind smile.
“Relax, children.”
Then he raised his staff and lightly tapped the ground.
“Thump.”
A gentle yet vast wind silently spread from the center of the square.
Like flowing gauze, it quickly cleared the blood and rubble from the area.
The injured students were wrapped in the gentle wind and swiftly carried into the teaching building.
Harvey felt his heart tremble.
This was the strength of an Academy instructor.
Not only could they use magic for powerful attacks, but they could also overwhelmingly control any situation.
The female instructor quickly healed all the injured, then joined the other instructors in inspecting the shattered fountain.
The old mage swept his gaze over the crowd.
“What happened?”
The old man asked with a gentle smile. “Was some clever fellow testing a new spell?”
The square was silent for a moment.
Everyone exchanged glances, no one daring to speak.
Except for Edmund.
He stepped forward immediately.
“Instructor Wien!”
“The fountain suddenly froze and exploded, injuring so many people! And the person most likely to do such a thing here is Miss Lavia!”
As soon as these words came out, the expressions of many students changed again.
Edmund looked serious and continued speaking quickly. “There aren’t many people in the whole Academy who are ice-element affinity, and she not only came out unscathed but also cast an ice wall to block the attack first!”
“If she hadn’t known what was going to happen, how could she have reacted so quickly?!”
“That’s absurd.”
A voice suddenly sounded, directly cutting him off.
Edmund was stunned.
Everyone around turned to look at the source of the voice.
Harvey had stepped forward.
“Get back.”
Lavia, who had been watching the scene, frowned and gave a low order.
She clearly didn’t want Harvey involved in this situation.
But this time, Harvey didn’t stop.
He only briefly turned his head to look at her, then continued forward, standing between the old mage and Edmund.
His figure wasn’t especially tall among the noble students.
In fact, because of his thinness, he looked a bit frail.
But when he actually stepped forward, the square inexplicably grew quiet.
Harvey looked at Edmund. “You said the Eldest Miss knew what would happen, so she could block the attack in time.”
“Then let me ask you something.”
“If she really was the one who did it, why did she save me the moment those ice needles flew?”
Edmund’s face stiffened, and he instinctively said,
“Because she’s your—”
“Because I’m her assistant?”
Harvey finished directly. “So in your view, she creates a large-scale danger to hurt a group of unrelated people, but at the last moment, she only saves me and exposes herself?”
“Is that your reasoning?”
Edmund’s breath caught, and his face instantly flushed red.
“I—”
“Or perhaps,”
Harvey said, looking him straight in the eye, word by word. “You’re not trying to reason at all. You just want to find the person you most suspect and dump everything on her.”
“Is this the proper virtue of a noble? What about the noble etiquette you should have?”
The murmurs that had been floating around the square also quieted at this moment.
Many students looked at Harvey with astonishment.
No one had expected the quiet, almost inconspicuous young man standing next to Lavia to step forward so directly at such a moment.
And he didn’t back down at all.
Lavia’s eyes, which had been cold, flickered slightly.
She hadn’t expected Harvey to speak up for her despite her objection.
A brightness she didn’t even notice flickered in her eyes.
The old mage had remained silent the whole time, leaning on his staff, watching the young man with great interest.
After Harvey finished, he slowly spoke.
“What is your name?”