Chapter 71
The Unlucky John Aiden
“No, no, class is over, students. If I continue, the Head of Department might cause trouble…”
Young Master Eivass, having completed his mission, waved goodbye with a cheerful mood and turned off the loudspeaker.
A wave of sighs rose from the students again.
“Why is it over already!”
“Will you come back and lecture next time, Eivass?”
“You’ll have to ask the professor about that!”
“Professor, why are you only using such a small hourglass today!”
“Yeah, didn’t you use one that was an hour and a half long last time?”
… Huh? Did that concern me too?
Professor Bard was taken aback upon hearing this.
His eyes widened instantly, and like a stage actor, he comically hunched his neck, spread his hands, and made the students burst into laughter. Seeing this, the old professor also chuckled.
“Alright, I’ll keep my word. I’ll bring you an hour-and-a-half one next time!”
The old professor rubbed his hands and said happily.
Because he didn’t use the loudspeaker when he said this, only Eivass, Lily, and Senior Haina beside him heard it in the noisy lecture hall.
Senior Haina smiled wryly and scratched her head, not knowing what to say.
But Eivass’s eyes lit up.
Professor Bard’s reaction was very important!
From this reaction, he had a good grasp of Professor Bard’s personality.
Since the students dared to joke with him, it meant he was probably very gentle in temper; and if that was the case, even though his class was so boring, none of the students were whispering, skipping class, or eating when Eivass entered. This showed that the students still respected the old professor.
Senior Haina’s attitude towards him was also natural and respectful—she probably didn’t have the brains or acting skills to pretend, so Professor Bard’s character was likely genuinely good.
And Eivass had deliberately introduced some knowledge unrelated to the class, yet the professor hadn’t reacted.
This showed that he wasn’t one of the old fuddy-duddies most common in Avalon, who liked to adhere to rules and seniority in everything.
Undoubtedly, he could be an excellent mentor.
This was Eivass’s second objective: to demonstrate his excellence and find a good mentor for himself.
Now it seemed this second objective could also be accomplished incidentally!
At the Royal Law University, students had to choose their own mentor and join a specific “class.” Otherwise, they would only be considered auditors and wouldn’t be able to obtain passes from their mentors to go to certain places.
This mentor had to teach them a specific course, and after joining the class, the students’ daily lives were generally managed by this mentor. Students affiliated with a professor’s tutelage formed a class.
The number of students in a class was usually not large, and they weren’t necessarily from the same grade.
Before, Eivass had planned to join Senior Haina’s or Princess Isabel’s class… but after thinking about it, with their personalities, they would likely find mentors for specialized courses, who definitely wouldn’t teach him.
Moreover, his actions might be monitored that way.
But Eivass wasn’t sure which people in the school owed allegiance to his foster father, so he was very cautious.
The fact that Professor Bard was called a “Professor” indicated he was a top-tier mentor, on the same level as his foster father, James Moriarty. He had the highest authority and could issue passes with the highest permissions. Eivass had heard clearly before… he could know the next day that he had attended a banquet at the Silver and Tin Hall the previous night, which showed he was part of Avalon’s upper echelon and had a wide network, at least.
Good personality, good character, open-minded, sufficient resources, and a wide network.
Most importantly, Professor Bard was not an Extraordinary—this was very important to Eivass.
Because Eivass didn’t need a mentor to plan his Ascension route, an Ordinary Person mentor would allow him more freedom of action.
—Considering this, he was the perfect mentor!
“Goodbye, Professor!”
Suddenly, a little girl with silver hair ran over and said with a bright smile, “And Teacher Eivass!”
Eivass waved his hand, smiling, but didn’t reply.
But starting with her, it was as if a switch had been flipped.
The other students followed suit, running over and cheerfully bidding farewell to Eivass.
“Are you free tonight, Eivass?”
A cheerful young man with red hair came over and enthusiastically invited him, “Want to go for a drink? My treat!”
“—Or do you want to go to the White Dance Shoe Club?”
A girl with long, dark blue hair approached and said with a smile, “Do I have the honor of inviting Teacher Eivass?”
“Do you play tennis, classmate Eivass?”
“I heard classmate Eivass used to be on the cricket team!”
Before long, the students were all flocking around. They easily accepted the premise of a “very capable mysterious transfer student” in their class, and were full of curiosity and enthusiasm, actively wanting to become friends with Eivass—although strictly speaking, Eivass was not a transfer student.
Eivass systematically handled conversations with everyone, but the answers were basically the same—he would refuse for now, but wouldn’t rule it out. He didn’t specifically answer anyone’s question, and soon a pile of people formed at the podium.
But Professor Bard didn’t take the opportunity to leave; he just stood at the back and waited. Senior Haina also didn’t dare to leave and stayed by his side, watching.
—This feeling was quite novel.
It was the first time she had seen a crowd so close to her, but not seeking her out. While it was novel, she also felt a little empty inside…
Although she usually found it troublesome, suddenly being completely ignored also made her feel a bit lonely…
When people asked, “Do you always read books at home?” or “How do you know so much history?” Eivass just smiled without answering.
“—Yes.”
But at this moment, Lily behind him couldn’t help but boast for him. She proudly puffed out her chest, raised her head, and earnestly replied, “Eivass read a lot of books at home!”
“…At home?”
Hearing someone softly question this, Lily suddenly realized she might have said something she shouldn’t have.
Was she supposed to continue hiding her identity…?
“Ah, that’s right.”
Under their surprised gazes, Eivass smiled and explained, “Actually, Lily is my personal maid.
Of course, she also has the qualifications to attend school here. She always likes to read books at home, just like me. Something happened to me last minute, which delayed her… otherwise, we would have come together two months ago.”
It was a white lie he told to protect Lily.
It wasn’t like that—
Lily, who knew fully well that she was only able to attend school through Eivass’s connections, subconsciously pursed her lips—because if she didn’t, she would once again be unable to resist defending Eivass.
It wasn’t that Eivass had delayed her. She was the one who was brought along.
This was entirely Eivass downplaying himself for her sake…
But what Lily didn’t expect was that on her first day of school, she had revealed her identity as a maid, yet the foreseen questioning and contempt did not arrive.
To her surprise, the students’ attitudes were very friendly and completely non-aggressive.
“It’s okay, I actually guessed it a while ago.”
“Yeah, what kind of friends would have that attitude… we just deliberately didn’t mention it.”
“Your name is Lily? You’re so pretty! Want to go dancing tonight?”
“Do you guys read together too?”
These students, with their Adaptability to the Path of Devotion, were relatively gentle and kind. In the six faculties, they also had the best average personalities.
Seeing herself so easily accepted by her classmates, Lily felt her eyes well up with tears for a moment.
She never thought that she, abandoned by her birth parents and even having her surname erased, would one day have the chance to interact with these friendly classmates…
This was entirely due to Young Master Eivass’s kindness to her!
“E-Eivass, long time no see!”
Just then, Aiden, with his almost eye-covering brown curly hair, managed to squeeze through and greeted Eivass, saying softly, “I need to talk to you later… I’ll wait for you outside!”
“Long time no see, Aiden.”
Eivass was not surprised, just smiled and nodded. “See you later, then.”
He did remember this person, and had even looked for him specifically during the lecture just now.
This person was called “John Aiden,” a relatively important supporting character. At least he lived a long time… much longer than Senior Haina.
Perhaps it was because fools lived long lives, but even when Eivass kicked the bucket, he was still alive.
Eivass called him Aiden and not John, not because of a distant relationship. It was because there were simply too many people named “John” in Avalon. In their middle school class of over twenty boys, eight were named John, and there were even two with the same full name.
Aiden had a rather important long-term mission. It involved the return of the Child of the Moon and even integrated into the main storyline later.
And “Eivass” himself had memories of him—he was one of Eivass’s few male friends in middle school, not quite a childhood friend, but certainly an acquaintance.
In Eivass’s impression, Aiden was a good-natured friend. Perhaps because his mother was a priest, he was taught from a young age to be gentle and kind to others. His father was an antique merchant, and his business wasn’t very large, but it was barely considered a modest fortune.
Even though his Pocket Money wasn’t particularly abundant, young Aiden was very loyal and always liked to treat others. And his gentle personality meant he would always apologize first when arguing with someone. His only two flaws were that he wasn’t very intelligent and was somewhat lustful… In simple terms, he was an easily hooked sucker.
Combined with his bad luck and poor judgment of character, he always encountered bad women. After being fleeced of his Gold Coins by bad women, he would usually be dumped by them and then fall for the next bad woman after a period of self-pity.
Players jokingly called him a “bad woman magnet,” to the point that it had become a plot cliché—every time they saw Aiden excitedly rushing over saying “I’m in love again,” they knew without even looking that the other party was definitely not a good person.
…Looking at him now, he was likely already being targeted.
Eivass’s noticeable, special response made others look surprisingly at the usually unremarkable Aiden.
But they quickly reacted: “Were you and Eivass classmates before?”
“Ah… yes.” Aiden, unaccustomed to being stared at by so many people, replied softly.
“Then take him for a drink, Aiden!”
“Invite him to hang out…”
“Do you know what kind of flowers he likes, classmate Aiden?”
“…Ah, wait, wait, wait… I’ll ask, I’ll ask…”
For the first time speaking to so many people at once, Aiden felt a tingling sensation in his scalp.
He quickly crouched down, flexibly moved to Eivass’s side, and then asked with some uncertainty, “Can I tell them about you, Eivass? Is there anything I shouldn’t say?”
“Yes,” Eivass nodded with a smile, “You can say anything.
Rather, please help me chat with them… I still have something to discuss with the professor.”
He trusted Aiden’s character not to slander him.
“Ah, no problem.”
Hearing that Eivass was asking him for a favor, he readily agreed.
The classmates also heard that Eivass had something to do, so they tactfully stopped bothering him and turned to chat with Aiden instead.
After all, no matter how unremarkable Aiden was, they were all young people of the Path of Devotion, their personalities were similar, and they had been acquaintances for two months. Even the most enthusiastic people always felt more at ease interacting with acquaintances. Asking simple questions to satisfy curiosity, or inviting him to hang out, was more convenient and polite with Aiden—an invitation was always needed for a banquet.
After most of the students had left, Eivass finally had time to turn back and politely asked the professor in a low voice:
“Professor Bard… do you still need students?”
