Mastery

Collins showed the exact expression Sphinx had predicted.

This young man’s mind was so simple that there was no need to understand it deeply—Collins just needed someone to bring up a topic, and he would follow the lead of that conversation.

Collins coughed a few times, tilted his head slightly, and smiled:

“Hmm, let me guess. Our Collins was born into a magical family, where moral education and etiquette training are both solid.

Generally speaking, the education within the family aligns with a person’s character and aspirations.”

“The partners that big families seek are actually quite similar. Collins, you haven’t shown any unusual behavior, so I’d guess the girl you like should be gentle and demure, dressed decently, articulate and elegant, and preferably with a graceful waist-length head of hair.”

Sphinx observed Collins’ expression carefully. For every adjective he described about the girl, he read it very slowly.

After each word, Collins’ expression changed slightly—sometimes embarrassed, sometimes strange, sometimes relaxed, sometimes hesitant.

After observing for a while, Sphinx concluded that only “gentle and demure” and “waist-length hair” were what Collins desired.

The rest, even Collins himself might not be aware of.

After pondering for a moment, Sphinx nodded as a girl from the campus beauty ranking appeared in his mind, then he chuckled lightly.

“If I’m not wrong, Mites should be the type of woman you like, right?”

Collins showed a puzzled look, then said something that Sphinx had never anticipated.

“Who is Mites?”

Sphinx’s expression stiffened for a moment, but this scheming young man (in cross-dressing mode) who was adept at controlling his emotions brushed away the awkwardness instantly.

“Mites, the top student of the Summoning Department. Although she isn’t a mid-tier mage yet, her summoned creatures have already reached the level of mid-tier combatants. In terms of combat power alone, she ranks among the top in our school.”

Collins nodded, then said, “I’ve never seen her.”

“That’s an oversight on my part. But Collins junior, your ignorance is really frightening. You don’t even know the well-known geniuses in our school?”

Collins shook his head without saying anything.

Sphinx turned his head toward Victoria.

“As I said last time, what happened this afternoon was just a misunderstanding. I hope Senior Victoria doesn’t misunderstand my morals or thoughts. My character and values are completely normal. Besides, my sister is here now, and Senior Victoria probably doesn’t want to ruin Collins’ image in her eyes, right?”

Victoria glanced at Tia awkwardly. Tia turned her head away, not daring to meet Victoria’s eyes.

“Hehe, maybe… it was just a misunderstanding.”

Victoria played along. Sphinx nodded secretly, then gave Collins a reassuring look that said, I’ll explain later, before continuing:

“Senior, are you eating ice cream? But, eating it like that isn’t the best way to enjoy it.”

“Eh? There’s another way to eat ice cream?”

“Probably because Senior hasn’t been in our school long, and Collins also isn’t very familiar with desserts, so you both don’t know what the best sweets in school are. How about this—since fate brought us together today, and it’s rare to meet like this, how could we part without enjoying ourselves?”

Sphinx stood up and walked over to a few food counters in the cafeteria. Soon, he returned with a lot of food.

“Here, Senior, this is my top recommendation: bitter tea milk-flavored ice cream.”

“Uh, thank you.”

“And for you, Collins junior, this is bitter tea. You should like it—your lab is full of this kind of tea leaves.”

Collins nodded. He did indeed like drinking this tea.

“As for you, my lovely little sister, here—this is a pork trotter stew. Eating it will make your skin fair and beautiful.”

Tia’s body trembled as she looked at Sphinx in astonishment.

“You…?”

Sphinx put a finger to his lips in a gesture of silence. Tia touched her rough face without speaking.

These past few days, due to long-term exposure to magical experiments, her skin had worsened slightly.

She hadn’t expected that Sphinx would even notice such a tiny difference in complexion.

“Come on, good sister, eat your pork trotters. Collins, you should now more or less know what experiment Senior Victoria needs to complete, right? Honestly, I feel bad—I’ll have to put my name on your experiment in the future, but my abilities can’t help much in terms of technical expertise. However, that’s fine. While I can’t help with technical matters, there are very few non-technical issues in this school that I can’t handle. So, if either of you ever encounter any non-professional problems, feel free to tell me—I’ll do my best.”

Sphinx said this with a humble demeanor, treating Collins and Victoria like honored guests.

No one sensed that his manner of speaking was almost like that of a leader.

His words and actions guided all the thoughts and emotions of the three-person group.

This meal ended pleasantly.