Hill could barely keep himself from laughing aloud.
For the first time, he realized that playing the kindly old grandfather was no easy task.
Sometimes, he could endure stupidity by swearing inwardly and secretly rolling his eyes, but cuteness made it much harder not to smile.
Fortunately, Russell was so nervous that he never stopped to wonder why, after he had been speechless for so long, the person hidden behind the bookshelves had remained silent too.
He simply steadied his flustered, embarrassed nerves by taking a few conspicuous breaths and straightening his clothes.
Even now, Russell still couldn't understand why his first instinct had been to cover his top half. He wasn't Carpenter!
But Russell stubbornly restrained himself... all those stray thoughts could wait. The most important thing now was to determine whether the person opposite him was a friend or an enemy.
Still, rather than immediately lunging at him to devour his soul, the stranger had reminded him to put his clothes on. That gave Russell a faint glimmer of hope.
Perhaps his gamble had paid off.
After some serious consideration, Russell ventured a question. "Are you Mr. Pierre Heisenner?"
This time, Hill really couldn't help chuckling.
Pierre was the author of the notebook. The boy was testing him in the simplest way possible!
For someone with malicious intentions, impersonating the notebook's original author would indeed be the easiest option.
More importantly, that Archmage's name and identity from the Defense Tower had long since been automatically rubbed out of many people's memories by the eraser in their minds.
Anyone from this world would find it very difficult to impersonate him.
Hill spoke gently. "You don't need to worry about who I am. You only need to know why you were able to get in.
"I really never expected a