Apology

Elven Script!

To everyone present, it was an extremely distant concept.

It was said that only the Empire's top-ranked universities were permitted to offer courses in Elven Script. It was also an exceptionally difficult subject; lacking pronunciations, it was particularly arduous to learn.

Everyone knew that compared to wizards, elves were a special existence.

Even before the Final Battle, they had been a neutral party that treated humanity kindly.

Elves were kind and elegant, and they wielded great power. Yet they had not rejected humans. On the contrary, quite a few elves had children with humans—names such as Wei Wei and Christine, which existed in the Empire today, were in fact due to their ancestors possessing elven blood.

A considerable portion of human culture had originated from elves. That was an indisputable fact!

Therefore, the people of the Steel Empire still held elves in great respect. There were even rumors among the populace that the Empire's upper ranks might still have some contact with the elves. However, such contact was not extensive. After all, the elves' homeland lay in the Western Star Region, and the Great Vortex caused by the Final Battle had practically torn the eastern and western star regions apart.

At present, neither the wizards nor the Empire had the ability to cross the Great Vortex on a large scale.

In any case, it was certain that no one in the Empire could read Elven Script.

There was nothing wrong with Ronan saying he could not speak it.

The entire hall fell silent.

Ma Haohai looked at the screen full of Elven Script. Given his knowledge, although he could not fully understand the characters Ronan had written, he could at least understand a small portion of them. From that glimpse, he could tell that Ronan was not trying to fool him.

At the very least, there was nothing wrong with this passage of Elven Script, and as the answer to the question, it was remarkably precise.

Who would dare claim to understand Chen Butcher better than his wife?

No one.

Therefore, Ronan's answer was flawless!

Ma Haohai clenched his fists tightly, and a faint sense of helplessness suddenly rose in his heart.

Many of the commoner students below were stunned.

Those who had mocked Ronan earlier turned bright red with shame!

Before this passage of Elven Script, everything they had said became a display of ignorance!

"Is... is this Guaranteed Admission?"

A young man raised his head bitterly and looked at the companion beside him. With a self-mocking smile, he said, "Were our perspectives too narrow?"

"The moment we heard the words Guaranteed Admission, we assumed he got in through the back door."

"Did hatred and our own sense of unfairness affect our judgment?"

"Maybe Guaranteed Admission was because his knowledge simply made exams unnecessary!"

His voice was not loud, yet every word reached everyone's ears with absolute clarity.

Everyone lowered their heads in reflection.

Ma Haohai took a deep breath as well.

Ronan, meanwhile, looked at the young man in some surprise.

To correct his attitude so quickly and make a new judgment of someone else—such a quality was exceedingly rare.

After all, most people in this world were easily constrained by their narrow perspectives.

To put it plainly, their vision was simply too limited.

An eagle could see the whole world. A frog could only glimpse a muddy pond.

Both were human, yet the difference between them was no less than that between an eagle and a frog.

Some people were born with a high starting point, such as nobles. They possessed more resources and thus broader horizons. Others were trapped in cages, like most commoners. They could only struggle desperately to carve out the tiniest space for survival beneath this vast starry sky. It was a sad fact.

Under this starry sky, nothing had ever been completely fair.

Ma Haohai thought of all this. Looking at Ronan beside him, his heart was filled with mixed emotions.

However, he did not let those emotions trouble him for long. Looking at the commoner students, he said firmly:

"Students, Ronan's answer was excellent. Perhaps some of you may feel inferior because of it, but there is no need for that."

"Each of us comes from a different background, but that is merely our starting point. It may limit our perspective and horizons, but I believe that as long as we are willing to break free of our own shackles, we will surely be able to see farther. Hard work may not necessarily bring rewards, but without hard work, failure is guaranteed."

"This Empire, at least on the surface, still values fairness. If you give up striving because you care too much about objective facts that cannot be changed, then there is no doubt that you are foolish."

"You—especially those students from disadvantaged backgrounds—must open your minds and work even harder. Because perhaps in the end, you will discover that those whose starting points appear higher than yours may actually have put in even more effort than you. That is the truly frightening part!"

"Here, I would like to apologize to Ronan!"

Ronan looked at Ma Haohai in surprise.

The young teacher's face reddened. Gritting his teeth, he actually bowed to Ronan. "Please forgive me for targeting you with such narrow-minded and childish methods. As a teacher, I truly should not have done so."

"Just as that student said earlier, the words Guaranteed Admission blinded me."

"I stubbornly believed that you had gotten into Bo Ning Academy through the back door, taking the place of a commoner student without connections... I am truly sorry."

Everyone fell silent.

Ma Haohai told the truth, but not everyone possessed his breadth of mind.

Quite a few commoners still stubbornly believed that Ronan had merely been lucky enough to encounter questions he knew how to answer.

They felt Ma Haohai's apology was undeserved.

Yet at that moment, they heard Ronan's calm reply:

"An apology? There's really no need. I didn't pay much attention to it anyway."

"A student answering a teacher's questions in class isn't anything remarkable. Besides, I've already signed up for Friday's exam, so I won't be attending classes for the rest of this week."

"So none of it matters."

"Class should already be over, right? If I'm not mistaken, I'll be leaving first."

With that, Ronan walked straight out through the front door.

All he left behind was the slender, immensely mysterious sight of his back.

Everyone was still reeling from Ma Haohai's in-class apology and Ronan's words!

He said he had signed up for Friday's exam!

There was only one exam on Friday—the Advanced Class Leap Grade Exam!

He was a student admitted through Guaranteed Admission, and it was only his second week. Yet he wanted to skip ahead directly?

If not for that passage in Elven Script just now, the classroom would probably have erupted already.

But by the time they came to their senses, Ronan had already hurried away.

They simply had no way of processing all the explosive information from that morning at once.

No matter what, the passage in Elven Script, Ma Haohai's apology, and Ronan's offhand response were all enough to spark heated discussion throughout Bo Ning Academy.

The name Ronan would likely become the most attention-grabbing term at Bo Ning Academy for some time to come!

However, no matter what others thought, Ronan still cared only about his own affairs.

Students taking the Leap Grade Exam could use exam preparation as an excuse to skip that week's classes. Ronan had previously followed the rules out of habit, but what happened that day struck him as troublesome, so he had clarified at the end that he would not be attending class.

In his view, it had been a waste of time to begin with.

After casually taking care of lunch, he returned to his dormitory and threw himself back into deconstructing the Triangular Device.

This was his top priority.

It was still extremely difficult to truly grasp the concept behind this blueprint. Even with Ronan's exceptional intelligence, he found it taxing. Yet if he wanted to use this knowledge to create an advantage for himself, he had to understand the blueprint in the truest sense.

Thus, over the following week, Ronan poured nearly all his energy into analyzing the blueprint.

Wei Wei came looking for him twice, but both times he turned her down on the grounds that he needed to study for the exam.

The little witch seemed to have heard that he was taking the Leap Grade Exam as well, so she was understanding enough not to bother him again.

He did not feel lonely alone in his dormitory, because he had long since grown accustomed to such days.

After a week of work, Ronan had finally figured out most of the blueprint. He estimated that once he worked through a few more details, he would have fully mastered it.

Unfortunately, Friday had already arrived, and the Leap Grade Exam would take place that afternoon. Ronan certainly would not miss it.

After all, the blueprint would not run away sitting there, whereas the Leap Grade Exam was something he had to take.

That afternoon, Ronan tidied himself up a little and prepared to head out for the exam.

As he stepped out of the dormitory entrance, he suddenly noticed that a new breakfast shop had opened across the way.

Since it was noon, there did not seem to be many people inside.

He saw only a young woman, an old man, and a listless dog.

Keep asking for recommendations!