Twenty minutes later.
Fifth floor of the main building of the School of Magic Engineering.
Floor-to-ceiling glass windows flooded the entire corridor with natural light. Faculty members from the School of Magic Engineering walked by from time to time, while the carpet laid over the hardwood floors dampened footsteps and noise.
Dressed in a classic black suit paired with a white shirt and gold tie—diamond cross holy light emblems adorning his buttons and collar—Loren, Dean of the School of Sages, led Lanqi from the staircase up to this floor.
They walked along the corridor lined with glass curtain walls on the left, chatting now and then in clear, friendly voices, like an older mentor and his young pupil.
Passing various offices and classrooms along the way, they headed toward the dean's office.
"Dean Loren, could you lend me your [Original Slate - Wind] to take a look?" Lanqi asked with a smile.
The first slate holder Lanqi had ever met was probably the gentlest among the world's powerhouse figures; standing beside Loren, one felt no distance whatsoever.
"Sigh, I really can't do a thing with you. I have to rush over to the church shortly. The Northern Continent has been quite turbulent lately, causing the Church of the Goddess of Fate's affairs to spike. Once I have some free time in a few days, I'll have someone notify you to come to my office." Loren sighed helplessly, as if having anticipated Lanqi's request.
Normally, even a Gold-rank card maker wouldn't qualify to make such a request of him. Though Lanqi's status as a Platinum-rank card maker wasn't officially finalized yet, Loren fully recognized his talent, and he certainly wouldn't make things difficult for his own student.
A magic artificer studying a slate was not something done in a moment; Loren would likely need to carve out at least an hour or two for Lanqi.
"Thank you, Dean!" Lanqi expressed his thanks happily.
Soon, the two arrived outside the dean's office.
Loren didn't actually need to come in person today. Having an instructor from the School of Magic Engineering take Lanqi to see Professor Borao would have sufficed.
However, Loren was deeply uneasy, terrified that Lanqi might further offend Professor Borao, so he had accompanied Lanqi here.
Ever since the second round of entrance exams, when Loren had rushed to Magic Engineering to plead with Professor Borao to rush repairs on the artificial Shadow World launch terminal—and Loren hadn't managed to secure special reimbursement approval—he hadn't dared face Professor Borao for a long time.
This time, because of Lanqi—the culprit—and his Platinum-rank card maker affairs, meeting Professor Borao was inevitable after all. Loren felt another fierce scolding was inescapable.
Back when Loren was still a student in the School of Sages, Professor Borao was already the Dean of Magic Engineering.
Even though Loren had been the top freshman of Sages in his day, he had never dreamed of crossing faculty boundaries to provoke the Dean of Magic Engineering.
The more he looked back on his own well-behaved student years, the more absurd Lanqi seemed.
Halting his train of thought, Loren tapped lightly on Professor Borao's door.
Knock, knock.
"Come in."
Upon hearing the response, Loren turned back to Lanqi: "Later, unless I call for you, do not step into the dean's office under any circumstances."
Having instructed Lanqi, Loren braced himself and pushed open the door to enter the Magic Engineering dean's office.
Right after, standing outside the door, Lanqi soon heard a stream of furious shouting and apologies coming from inside—
"The repair costs this time will be at least 8,000 pounds! Who's paying this? You people or us? If it comes out of Magic Engineering's budget, one way or another I'm going to peel a layer of skin off that kid!"
"Please rest assured, I am already applying to His Majesty the King for special funding. If it really falls through, I will pay out of my own pocket rather than let Magic Engineering lose a single copper of research funds."
"..."
It seemed Dean Loren had been scolded even worse during the entrance exams.
"Let me see that kid."
As those words carried through the door from inside, Lanqi saw the door swing wide open. A gentle draft of wind lifted him like a cloud, floating him directly into the office.
Within this avant-garde building, the dean's office was likewise filled with streamlined designs and crisp geometric lines. Wide, transparent windows allowed daylight to flood the room freely, creating a dynamic canvas with the bustling campus scenery outside.
At the center of the office stood an operating-table-wide white work desk, neat and meticulously organized, gleaming under the light alongside sleek silver metal legs.
Professor Borao sat before the desk, brow slightly furrowed as he scrutinized Lanqi.
Standing to one side of the office, Loren looked dejected. A subtle gesture of his fingertips revealed that it was his wind magic that had carried Lanqi inside.
Lanqi's toes touched the floor, and he steadied himself on the carpet, flashing Dean Loren a pleasantly surprised smile.
He couldn't help marveling at how convenient Dean Loren's magic was; it would be wonderful if he could float around like this all the time.
Immediately after, Lanqi looked back toward Professor Borao, whose anger had not yet dissipated.
He actually understood roughly why the old man was upset, having heard the entire conversation outside.
At that moment, the atmosphere inside the Magic Engineering dean's office was extraordinarily dry and stifling, the air thick enough to cut with a blade.
The fury in the air—bordering on an explosion yet forcibly suppressed—hung invisibly like a wave of suffocating heat.
Loren's only prayer now was for Lanqi to behave himself and not provoke Professor Borao.
Yet, before Loren's astonished eyes, Lanqi did not shrink back at all. Instead, he walked openly and confidently toward Professor Borao.
He stopped before the desk, looked earnestly at the old magic artificer, and bowed politely: "Professor Borao, regarding the research funds, I actually have a solution."
"What?" Professor Borao asked suspiciously, crossing his arms.
The enormous sum of eight thousand pounds was not a trivial amount even for Loren. How could a mere student claim with such confidence that he could resolve it offhandedly?
Lanqi smiled with complete certainty, then said: "Here is what you do: First, have Dean Loren continue applying to the King for the research funding on your behalf, but instead of listing the reason as 'repairing the Shadow World launch terminal,' change it to 'further research and development addressing existing technical issues.' Then, you issue a fine to my father, Noe Wilfort, under the pretext of compensating for the damaged terminal, and mail it to him along with my written confession. If the King doesn't approve the funding, you can take the eight thousand pounds from my father. If the King does approve it, you take the King's eight thousand pounds first, and then we split my father's eight thousand pounds seventy-thirty—seventy percent for you, thirty percent for me. The two funds won't conflict with each other, nor will it count as fraudulently claiming an extra grant from the King."
Having finished, Lanqi clapped his hands together as though the problem had already vanished.
"Hssss—"
Professor Borao drew in a sharp breath of cold air and studied Lanqi closely with several keen glances.
With the critical funding issue resolved—and potentially yielding a handsome profit—the sight of Lanqi, a young man on the cusp of becoming a Platinum-rank card maker, looked increasingly agreeable to him.
Their School of Magic Engineering needed precisely this sort of talent who could make the electric meter run backward!
"You're quite something, kid. Looks like in the future I can invite you more often to help us inspect new magic items for safety hazards. You're undoubtedly the best candidate for a tester. I greatly admire your divergent thinking."
Professor Borao stood up, walked to Lanqi's side, and patted him on the shoulder, his tone carrying an added layer of appreciation.
Inferring from Lanqi's brazenly deranged proposal, his father, Mr. Noe Wilfort, had to be a man of considerable wealth.
"Professor Borao, I admire you immensely! I've long been a fan of yours. Back in South Vantina, I read through all the books you wrote. I'd love to take more of your classes in the future. Whenever safety testing is needed, I certainly won't shirk the duty."
Lanqi scratched the back of his head, naturally catching Borao's drift, and smiled with humble simplicity.
Let his old man consider it tuition, as well as an investment in the noble cause of magic engineering.
Besides, once his father found out later how splendid his academic performance was, he would surely be thrilled!
"Aside from your matters at the Card Makers Association, most afternoons you can find me on the second floor of the Old Liberal Arts Building, right beneath the student council. I spend most of my time in that lab developing new magic engineering items. Whenever you have free time, come lend a hand. If there's anything you don't understand about magic engineering, feel free to ask me directly."
After many years, Professor Borao had finally met another young man who showed real promise in his eyes.
Talent was one thing.
More importantly, he knew how things worked—that was what mattered most.
In the distance, in a corner practically forgotten amidst this sudden burst of cheerful harmony...
"..."
Loren just stood there, watching Lanqi casually discuss fast money-making schemes with Professor Borao, the most eccentric figure in the School of Magic Engineering.
For a moment, words lodged in Loren's throat like a fishbone.
What on earth had he endured that scolding for just now?
And why had he suffered that vicious dressing-down from Professor Borao earlier on Lanqi's behalf?
Loren now felt that life was simply not worth living.
He finally realized: whether during the entrance exams, inside the Shadow World, or in student council affairs...
Whenever faced with conflicts between people, Lanqi could always effortlessly devise a method that left everyone feeling as disgusted as if they had swallowed a fly, yet it genuinely resolved the issue and satisfied everyone's demands as much as humanly possible.
That this little bastard had survived safely to this day was purely down to having an unkillable constitution.
Chapter 120