In the Dean’s Office, Finalais had her hands clasped together, resting on her desk.
Her expression looked somewhat helpless.
She glanced again at the blonde girl standing beside the young woman, who was bowing and apologizing frantically, and couldn’t help but sigh.
She looked at the silver-haired girl in front of her, who was hanging her head, not daring to say a word.
“Miss Eleanor, you can stop now.”
Her voice gave no hint of emotion, “If you keep bowing like that, you’re going to polish the floor of my office to a shine.”
“I’m so sorry! Dean Finalais!”
Eleanor straightened up, her face filled with apology and anxiety, “Helos didn’t mean to! She just…”
“I know.”
Finalais waved her hand, signaling her to calm down.
Her gaze went past Helos, landing on the puppet golem standing quietly behind her.
Right now, Gavi’s dark-colored dress was tattered and torn, with nine fierce-looking gashes running from her shoulder down to her arm. It was clear she had been damaged while protecting her master during the explosion.
“Ai…” Finalais sighed again.
She leaned back slowly into her chair, speaking in a world-weary tone:
“You Olivias Family members, you’re all a bunch of troublemakers. Young or old, male or female, not a single one of you is easy to handle.”
This female Elf, who had lived for over eight hundred years, said this in a flat tone, as if this wasn’t the first time she had experienced something like this.
‘Listening to her tone… did Father cause some major destruction here before too?’
Helos hung her head, unable to stop the internal complaint, but didn’t dare show a hint of it on her face.
Finalais looked at Helos’s posture, head bowed and ready for a scolding, and finally shook her head.
“Alright, it’s fortunate that this explosion didn’t cause any student casualties.”
Her tone softened a bit, “The Barrier only cracked; it didn’t shatter completely. I won’t hold you responsible this time.”
“Really?!”
Helos jerked her head up, a flash of pleasant surprise in her eyes.
“Of course.”
Finalais nodded, then revealed a slightly sly smile, “However… the bill for repairing the damaged grounds and the Barrier has already been sent by my assistant to your brother, Christ.”
“I think he’ll be more than happy to pay this little bit of ‘compensation’ for his precious little sister.”
The moment she heard “bill” and “Christ,” Helos’s face flushed bright red.
She could almost imagine the resigned look in her genius brother’s eyes behind his glasses when he received the bill.
‘Oh no… this is so embarrassing, all the way to the Imperial Capital!’
She truly hadn’t known the alchemy bomb’s power would be that exaggerated.
She had thought it would at most blow a big crater. Who could have guessed that thing’s power would affect half the testing grounds and nearly shatter the Academy’s Barrier?
If innocent students had actually been hurt, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
She wouldn’t have been able to explain herself even with a hundred mouths.
The fact that she wasn’t being held responsible, and that they were even helping to keep it from her father, made Helos heave a huge sigh of relief.
If Eisende found out about this, he’d probably send someone to drag her back to the duke’s mansion and ground her for life…
Just thinking about it made Helos shrink her neck into her shoulders.
But since Dean Finalais had chosen to raise the issue high and then set it down lightly, she quickly bowed in gratitude, her attitude as sincere as could be.
“Thank you, Dean! I promise! There absolutely won’t be a next time!”
“Alright, alright.”
Finalais waved her hand, “Miss Eleanor, take your sister back. And tell her, before researching something, it’s best to go to the Archives first and check the thing’s stability and power assessment. Don’t be so reckless in the future.”
“Yes! I understand! I’ve caused you so much trouble!”
Eleanor felt as if pardoned from a death sentence. She grabbed Helos and Gavi and fled the Dean’s Office as if escaping.
It wasn’t until they walked out of the Main Castle and breathed the fresh outside air that Helos felt like she had come back to life.
However, before she could finish that sigh of relief, a wave of “killing intent” emanated from beside her.
She turned her head stiffly to see Eleanor standing there with her arms crossed. Although a gentle smile was still on her face, her bright blue eyes were burning with raging fury.
Eleanor enunciated her name, one syllable at a time:
“He—lo—s—!”
“Uh… Sister? Listen, let me explain…”
Helos instinctively took half a step back.
“Explain? What more is there to explain?”
Eleanor suddenly reached out, grabbed Helos’s now slightly chubby cheeks, and pulled hard on both sides.
“Ow ow ow! Sister, I was wrong! Let go!”
Helos’s features instantly contorted, and she let out a muffled cry of pain.
“You know it hurts?!”
Eleanor was so angry she gritted her teeth, increasing the force in her hands, “Will you dare to conduct such dangerous experiments in the Academy again? Huh?! What if you hurt yourself?! What if you hurt someone else?!”
“I won’t dare! I won’t dare ever again!”
Helos shook her head desperately, tears almost squeezed out.
“Do you know how worried I was when Gavi rushed over to protect you?! Look at Gavi! Her clothes are torn, and she’s covered in scratches! What if the explosion had been a little bigger, you two—”
The more Eleanor talked, the more scared she became in hindsight, her eyes even turning a bit red.
Hearing this, Helos forgot about the pain in her cheeks.
She looked at Gavi, who was standing quietly beside her. Gavi’s dark dress was indeed tattered and torn, and the exposed metal arm was covered in fine scratches from flying debris.
A wave of guilt and belated fear instantly flooded Helos’s heart.
She lowered her head and apologized softly:
“I’m sorry… It’s all my fault. I almost got you hurt.”
Gavi tilted her head. She reached out and used her cold metal fingers to gently wipe away the tears that Helos had squeezed out from the pain.
The “light points” in her eye sockets flickered softly, as if saying ‘It’s okay.’
Seeing this, the anger in Eleanor’s heart gradually subsided.
She let go of Helos’s cheeks and sighed helplessly.
“Ai… I really don’t know what to do with you.”
She pulled Helos along, and the two sisters sat down on a bench on the Academy Lawn.
“Helos, I’m not saying you can’t study alchemy.”
Eleanor’s tone softened, and she spoke earnestly, “But can you please stop messing with such dangerous things? Your body has only gotten a bit stronger in the last few years. What if you got hurt?”
“And a lady doesn’t go around getting herself covered in dust and grime like you do.”
Helos hung her head, obediently listening to her sister’s “lecture.”
“You need to be more mindful of safety, and think more about the people who care about you.”
Eleanor was like a mother hen who had worried herself sick, chattering in Helos’s ear for almost half an hour.
It wasn’t until she felt parched and had to go to the divine magic academy for evening prayers that this “criticism session” finally came to an end.
“Alright, reflect on this properly yourself. I’m leaving now.”
Eleanor gave one last instruction before turning and walking away.
Helos slumped on the bench, relieved, and let out a long sigh.
‘Finally, it’s over…’
She looked around at the students coming and going, getting ready for dinner, and a genuine sense of belated fear did rise in her heart.
‘I really was too reckless this time.’
She rubbed her cheeks, which were red from Eleanor’s pinching, and reflected inwardly.
The power of that alchemy bomb had completely exceeded her control.
‘It seems I absolutely cannot test things randomly before I understand them clearly.’
She sat on the bench with Gavi, planning to return to the dorm a bit later to avoid being caught and questioned by that curious little baby, Agatha.
However, she had only been sitting for a few minutes when a figure walked straight towards her.
It was a middle-aged man in a gray mage’s robe. He was tall and thin, with a pair of thick glasses perched on his nose bridge.
His hair was a mess, and he had dark circles under his eyes, looking as if he hadn’t slept for days.
Before Helos could react, the middle-aged man had already walked up to her. He pushed his glasses up his nose and greeted her in a slightly hoarse and utterly lifeless voice:
“Hello, student. Are you, by any chance, Miss Helos Olivia?”