Although Hilbert could not understand what sort of mental state had led Richard Dreyfus to target outside mages like them while trying to wrest control of the faction from Pete.
Wasn't that just making more enemies?
Did he really think pulling a stunt like this would ruin the friendship between Pete and Rute?
After all, those two had once been fairly well acquainted.
But didn't that just mean they had met before?
Besides, unless a mage had water in his brain, who would put vague personal considerations ahead of his own interests when dealing with "an acquaintance whose name he knew"?
Rute was the master of a tower. If he did not want to get too close to Pete, it would only be because they were not a good fit to begin with, not because someone in the Neutral Faction wanted to make a covert move against his beloved student, prompting him to turn on Pete on the spot.
Just look at how the White-Robed Faction had treated Aislin!
Even though Rute and they all knew perfectly well what was going on with that "Aislin," they had handled it tactfully... at least they had left Rute some dignity, allowing people to believe Aislin had later been controlled and corrupted by certain means, rather than having been a problem from the start.
Losing a beloved student because he had been outplayed in their covert struggle was a very different matter from Rute having been blind for centuries, doting on an enemy spy.
But there was one thing Hill did know... there was no need to insist on understanding how an idiot's mind worked.
When acting, it was better to follow the sound logic of a normal person. Otherwise, that saying really would come true: "He'll drag your intelligence down to his