At the apprentice recruitment fair, the crowd was indeed somewhat larger than it had been decades ago, but it had merely changed from "extremely sparse" to "slightly sparse."
This year's new students had barely surpassed four hundred. For such a vast Academy, there were still too many monks and too little porridge.
As he had every time over the past several decades, Benjamin sat steadily behind Alchemy Studies' recruitment desk, holding a thick tome in his hands.
He appeared to be engrossed in reading, but his mind had long since drifted away, pondering the details of an energy circuit optimization plan.
He had long since stopped expecting anything from this trip, treating it only as a routine duty that required his presence.
Yet fate always seemed to enjoy playing a little joke when no one was looking.
A small, somewhat timid figure who had lingered in place for a long while finally shuffled over to his desk.
The faint movement drew Benjamin's thoughts back to reality. Curious, he raised his eyes and studied the little girl before him, who looked to be only eleven or twelve.
She wore a clean but unadorned cotton dress. Her brown curls were somewhat unruly, her hands tightly twisting together before her, and her gaze kept darting away, unable to meet his eyes.
When she noticed Benjamin looking at her, the little girl shrank back like a startled fawn. Yet she finally gathered her courage, edged forward a small step, and said in a voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz:
"Hel-hello, Mentor Benjamin." She swiftly glanced at the nameplate engraved on Benjamin's chest, confirming his identity. "I—I want to join Alchemy Studies."
Benjamin looked at her calmly. His powerful spiritual force instantly traced back the fragments of information that had faintly drifted over from