Chapter 89: Librarian Ernest (10). Strict Conditions
A great mage's house built atop a hill.
Mary Wiston, a teacher at the Aldridge Training School and one of Delphinaris’s disciples, was staring at the master she had long known.
“Did you really have to do that? I’m not particularly close with Eris, but even I know how desperately that girl has worked to be acknowledged by you. She’s a child who’s thrown away hobbies, the kind of games other kids enjoy, and has done nothing but study and train over and over again. You knew that. And still, you had to do that?”
The reprimand held more than a little blame. Delphinaris avoided her gaze as she answered.
“Taking in a new disciple isn’t a bad thing. It just means she’s no longer the youngest. Eris is still my disciple, unchanged.”
“If he were just any disciple, I wouldn’t say anything. But that boy, Malik—your attitude toward him isn’t the same, is it?”
A gentle and virtuous mage.
That was how Delphinaris was viewed in public.
Most mages who had reached the level of 6th-Rank were, to varying degrees, eccentric or difficult, but Delphinaris wasn’t so fussy or arrogant. Hence, the praise.
However, her disciples—including Mary—knew the truth.
Though Delphinaris was gentle by nature, when she determined that punishment was necessary, she could be uncompromising and stern.
Gentleness never meant she was soft or could be taken lightly.