Surprise

Philly was the last mage in the project to find out she had won the Golden Hourglass Award.

Asher and Forrest weren't given so much work by Fran. They easily learned from the newspapers that a person had recently won both the Hourglass Cup Gold Hourglass Grade, and that the authors of the two Paper were the same person.

They naturally recognized that the first author of both Paper was named Lai, and given that this was an award from the Alchemy School, and the reports mentioned the Northern Lands Society in various ways, they both recognized that this was the same ' Lai ' who frequently came to the project to provide guidance.

The difference was that Forrest only had a slight doubt, wondering why someone of Lai's skill level would participate in this competition, but he didn't dwell on it.

After all, this is Lai's business, and also the Alchemy School's business. What's more important now is the Mana Communication System project, which involves his hard work and is what he really needs to care about.

Asher was somewhat surprised. He knew that the First Order Mage working on the project was named Philly, but he didn't know her surname.

Philly didn't hide her name because there were always people outside calling her Philly, and no one could find out she was a member of the Felistin Family because of that name.

But today, the monk who usually works with her suddenly asked her a question.

"Philly, are you a member of the Felistin Family?"

This sent a shiver down Philly's spine. She was about to deny it, but she knew that her behavior just now was enough to let the other party know the truth.

Furthermore, since Philly knew that this project was also an asset of ' Lai ', she simply and openly admitted it.

"That's right, I am a member of the Felistin Family."

As she spoke, Philly looked up, wanting to see Asher's reaction.

Before her family's reputation became so prominent, Philly could freely use her surname, and since she had always attended the Yobner Society, no one cared about her background.

However, after she recently left the Yobner Society and her Paper on the Territory Mage was published, the other mages started looking at her strangely.

Especially in the first two days after she arrived at Fran's place, the mages of her generation didn't say anything, but the mages who were First Order higher than her had already started to make things difficult for her.

So she had no choice but to return to her family, follow their arrangements, and then come to ' Lai's ' side.

At that moment, she could see a look of shock and a hint of envy on Asher's face, as if Philly had done something extraordinary.

"Philly, you're so lucky to have won the Golden Hourglass Award at such a young age..." Asher said with a hint of envy.

He knew that given Philly's age and her position as the second author on the Paper, it was likely due to Philly good fortune in helping the mage ' Lai ' complete the experiment that her name appeared on the Paper.

Upon hearing this, Philly looked completely puzzled, having no idea what Asher was talking about.

As a member of the Elemental School, she had no idea what the Golden Hourglass Award was.

"Um, what's this 'Golden Hourglass Award' you're talking about?"

"Huh?" Upon hearing Philly's words, Asher was immediately taken aback, his first reaction being to wonder why Philly was still hiding it at this point.

But then he realized something was wrong. After all, Philly had even mentioned her family name, so there was no reason for her not to acknowledge that she had won the award.

The degree of conservatism required for the former and the latter is completely different. The former will cause trouble now, while the latter is something to be praised for every mage.

"Could I have made a mistake..." Asher scratched his head, handed a newspaper to Philly, and pointed to the front page.

"This newspaper says that Philly Felistin won the Golden Hourglass Award, and even won two at once. Is there another person named Philly in your family?"

"Besides, Mage Lai wouldn't have the time or inclination to recruit two people named Philly to his side."

Asher said with a slight joke, while Philly looked at the name on the list, her heart pounding.

There is no other mage in the family named Philly, at least Philly has never been heard of on Number Nine Floating City.

The newspaper article explicitly mentioned the Alchemy School Hourglass Cup Youth Competition, and Fran's recent statement that she would put her name second in the Paper further solidified her belief.

And just a few days ago, Fran inexplicably told her she would give her a gift as compensation for her hard work on the project, even bringing up family matters and her own feelings...

There was simply no other possibility. Philly immediately guessed that Fran had included her name as the second author before submitting the Paper.

Throughout the entire process, she felt little, and she hadn't even seen the first draft of the Paper. Now, she has no idea what the contents of the two Paper are.

Why did she do that?

Philly's eyes revealed a great deal of doubt. She couldn't understand Fran's motives for doing this, nor could she see any significant benefit for Fran in doing so.

Even though Philly was a member of the family, she had to admit that getting involved with the Felistin Family at this time was definitely not a rational thing to do.

Moreover, Fran did something so influential that Philly didn't know what to say or do.

To say I wasn't happy would be a lie. After all, it was a researcher's award, an award that was extremely precious to every mage.

Moreover, judging from the wording in the newspaper, this is probably a very prestigious award within the Alchemy School, otherwise it wouldn't have been discussed in such detail.

Philly was in a state of turmoil. Her complex emotions intensified as she bit her lip and then let go, until Asher reminded her that she seemed to be having a conversation with Asher.

After dismissing Asher with some ambiguous words, Philly left the newspaper behind and sat alone in her seat, pondering what to do next.

Although she received the Golden Hourglass Award, this award belongs to the Alchemy School, and she is a member of the Yobner Society.

Because she submitted her Paper to another School, will the society punish her for this, or even expel her from the society?

Philly started to have wild thoughts, then she thought of her family and felt that this would be helpful to them. But then she thought again and felt something was wrong: wouldn't this provoke a greater backlash from other mages?

Just as Philly's thoughts were clashing, footsteps approached from behind Philly.

Fran glanced at the newspaper, knowing that Philly already knew she had won the Golden Hourglass Award. She whispered behind her:

"Philly, how does it feel to receive this award? Do you feel like your future has become brighter?"

Philly turned to look at Fran, her emotions a jumbled mess.

She placed the newspaper on the table and subconsciously asked Fran:

"Master Lai, I ask you why you put my name second? You had no need to, and no reason to, do so."

Fran smiled and said slowly:

"That's because I have to do it, and I can do it. There's no rule in the Paper system that says a mage can't list participants in their Paper as authors."

"As for the reasons that prompted me to do this, I cannot reveal that to you."

Fran's words were vague and unclear, and didn't seem like she was trying to explain herself properly.

Philly lowered her head, giving up on pressing the issue, and only asked one question.

"Should I stay here with you?"

Fran blinked and said to Philly:

"Of course, your return time to Felistin will not change; it will still take about seven or eight months."

"During this time, I can teach you more knowledge..."

"If you have any questions, feel free to come to me. If possible, I'll definitely help you resolve them."

Philly could only sigh inwardly; there was nothing she could do about Fran's actions.

Fran needs to achieve her own goals, and the family will be happy to see Fran take such actions. Regardless of her motives, isn't it ultimately in the family's best interest?

Even if she were to step forward now and say that she had simply assisted and then inexplicably received the award.

She will not receive any support; everyone will oppose her, including the Hourglass Cup Selection Committee and academic oversight bodies, who will feel that this is an accusation of lax vetting.

So Philly could only accept this honor with tears in her eyes. It's just unknown whether Fran will change her mind and use the academic review mechanism to remove her name from the list.

This was something Philly couldn't control; she could only passively accept it.

Just then, Fran handed over a brand-new journal, placed it on the table in front of Philly, and said with a smile:

"Philly, don't you even look at what your award-winning Paper actually looks like?"

"I can guarantee that you will gain something after reading it."

She blinked, leaving the space to Philly.

Looking at the "Sandglass Cup Youth Competition Winners Special Issue" on the table, Philly picked up the magazine and flipped to the last page, the Gold Hourglass Grade.

She first looked at the Paper that used mathematics to prove the Aether. This Paper contained the mathematical parts that she was interested in, and she couldn't understand the other alchemical-related parts.

When Philly finished reading one of the articles and saw her own small part of the derivation process displayed on it, she couldn't help but feel excited.

Despite Fran's guidance, only a very small number of award-winning sections are able to publish special issues.

As she flipped through this section, she couldn't help but hum softly.

Finally, after hesitating for a moment, she opened the second article. This time, she carefully read through all the parts, but there was nothing she had participated in.

But when she finished reading it, her scalp tingled, and her hands trembled so much she could barely hold the special issue.

The reason lies in the following section, where there is a specially formatted Legendary commentary, with a font size significantly larger than the preceding text.

[This is a good theoretical derivation Paper, although I subconsciously felt that its reasoning was incorrect, but unfortunately, I couldn't find any examples sufficient to refute it. --Oinrich, ' The Sage of Time ']