Rute had, of course, noticed Oliva's obvious silence, as well as the faint mist that rose in his eyes before swiftly vanishing.
Even with a heart tempered a thousand times over and emotions that had long ceased to fluctuate much, once he understood what had happened to Aislin, he still could not hold back that sigh. His spirits had remained low for quite some time.
It was only in the past two days that Rute had pulled himself together again... He had long learned, through loss after loss, how to sort out his own feelings.
Otherwise, how could he have remained unshaken after so many blows?
But he could also understand Oliva's sorrow. That child Oliva... though somewhat rough-minded, did not have a bad heart.
Although Aislin had caused him plenty of trouble and had always treated him as an imaginary enemy... their rivalry had actually carried a certain unspoken understanding.
They had always regarded each other as their final opponent.
Yet in the Black Mystery Tower—no, in any place like a Mage Tower—there could never truly be a final opponent among rivals.
So Oliva and Aislin had actually been partners with an unspoken understanding, even while constantly competing.
No matter how poorly they got along, whenever they faced a common enemy, they joined forces with remarkable speed.
It was simply that Oliva disliked Aislin's attitude toward their own people, so he had often clashed with her head-on over such matters... and within a Mage Tower, the views of one's own people were the easiest to preserve.
If their common enemies had ever had the chance to leave behind their judgment of the relationship between those two, Aislin and Oliva could never have become Eighth Ring mages.
Rute's students, however, had never quite understood the situation between the two of