Both apprentices were quite well-behaved. Although they were not particularly outstanding in some respects, that also helped Hill understand why Adrian had found it so difficult to find apprentices he was satisfied with.
His Uncle Adrian was definitely not merely "fairly outstanding among ordinary people," as Falan often described him.
But given Falan's temperament, he certainly would not regard those lower-ranking mages as true mages... so from the very beginning, what Hill understood by "mage" and what Falan meant by it had been two different things.
In Falan's eyes, most ordinary mages were probably... people who studied spells?
Only those who mastered spells were mages.
After traveling through so many worlds, Hill finally came to truly understand what life was like for ordinary people... and these were still the relatively privileged ones.
In the past, he had only known that mortals suffered and had been willing to lend a hand where he could. Although he would not despise people who sold their bodies and souls to survive and make a living, he would not give them a second glance either.
Having thought through a great deal, Hill still would not associate with those people, but he would let go of a little of that lofty aloofness peculiar to his former self.
At least now, when Hill spoke to them again, his tone would probably be a little gentler.
He even reassessed his days in Oaises and recognized a few things he had handled poorly... the people of that world probably saw him much as they saw the elves.
Elves were not inclined to openly show people disdain either, but they still rubbed people the wrong way.
That look of "you are all mere mortals" could easily make some people want to attack the other person or tear them apart... Hill