Russell was miserable.
His teacher's personality was truly impossible to predict.
He had always thought Gilbert was somewhat extreme because of what he had gone through in the past, but how could an extreme person possibly come up with something like making apprentices copy life mottos as punishment?
Still, that put his mind at ease.
Even if Gilbert really intended to take a risk after he became an Official Mage, he seemed quite confident that he could get through that hurdle.
How should he put it... if it had once been a certain death, then by Russell's own judgment, it had now become something where even failure would not endanger Gilbert's life.
That was good. At least after entering Sia Tower, he and Carpenter would still have someone to rely on.
If Russell had once thought becoming an Official Mage would be enough, after entering Black Mystery Tower—especially after seeing Wester's conduct—the little boy truly understood that the Mage world was far crueler than he had imagined.
If anything happened to Gilbert, then even if Carpenter became an Official Mage as well, there would be no hope of the two of them protecting the family, much less giving it a chance to move to Sia Tower someday.
Russell turned to look at Carpenter, who was lying in the lounge with her head down, copying away.
Their time was actually quite tight. If they wanted to copy properly, they could only use the time during breaks.
Over the past two days, Russell had constantly seen the anxious expressions of those reckless people in the tower across from them... Carpenter wrote especially slowly, and she had not even had a chance to lift her head lately.
After pondering for a while, he softly called to his sister. "Carpenter, you're already an Advanced