Anger

Collins was organizing his materials in his lab when Sphinx, who had somehow appeared beside him, looked on in confusion as Collins violently handled the lab equipment.

“What’s wrong with you since you came back from home? Did you swallow gunpowder? Why are you venting on the lab gear?”

“Shut up.”

Collins roared angrily.

Last night, when he had finally gotten dressed and gone downstairs to explain, Moxue had already carried out her plan.

Their parents had looked at Collins with strange expressions, and a bizarre atmosphere surrounded him.

Even if Collins had no sense of social nuance, he could tell this wasn’t the right moment to explain anything.

Even if he wanted to explain, his parents had to be willing to listen, right?

Collins silently returned to his room, packed up some clothes, and went back to school early in the morning.

He knew he was running away, but if running away worked, then maybe that wasn’t such a bad choice.

Rationally, he knew he had chosen the right course.

Emotionally, though, something told Collins he had to get revenge.

He would use everything he had to make Moxue regret humiliating her clever older brother.

Collins would make his sister regret mocking him.

“Hey hey hey, you’re grinding your teeth—are you okay?”

Sphinx waved his hand in front of Collins’s face.

Collins closed his eyes and swallowed the fire rising in his throat.

He tried hard to push Moxue’s image out of his mind.

It worked.

After more than ten minutes of deep breathing, Collins regained his composure and sat down calmly in front of Sphinx.

“What’s up? Did you flunk another class and need me to tutor you again?”

Sphinx grinned cheerfully.

He was a mixed-blood, with a large portion of his heritage coming from the fairy race.

His natural talent had given him a face that rivaled top human beauties, and his long family history included several legendary figures.

Not only was he strikingly handsome, but his background and status were top-tier.

People like him were born standing above the rest, looking down on the masses.

And only someone like that could afford to squander his own talents.

Sphinx’s innate magical lineage was even more impressive than Collins’s, but he had no interest in pursuing a magical career.

After obtaining his elementary magic certification, he began to indulge in a carefree student life.

“It’s different this time. I want you to team up with me for an experimental project.”

When Sphinx got his initial certification, it shocked their entire high school.

Many hailed him as a once-in-a-million genius.

But in college, after throwing his talent to the wind, his grades plummeted.

He was even at risk of being expelled.

Fortunately, Sphinx had no interest in magic, but he was good at working with people.

For every major exam or evaluation, he’d cling to a true genius, sign his name on their magic research projects, and once the results came in and were accepted by the school, he’d easily earn the course credits.

Without a doubt, Collins was one of those geniuses.

And the magical experiment Collins was working on was more than enough to earn a large chunk of credits.

Collins shook his head.

“No way. You don’t have the professional qualifications. My experiment has pretty high standards for mages.”

“Besides, this experiment can earn me a full 100 points of credit. Do you even know how much tuition that’s worth?”

At their university, credits were everything.

Besides counting toward graduation, extra credits could be exchanged for money, magical tools, and alchemy materials.

It was one of the only ways for students without financial backing to rise.

As long as your grades and results were strong enough, even those from humble backgrounds could live quite well.

Eckfis had once risen through pure academic excellence and, as a commoner, gained enough capital to stand toe-to-toe with wealthy elites.

Until Collins showed up.

Thinking of Eckfis, Collins’s expression twisted strangely.

He felt he should be angry, but when he remembered Eckfis’s final look of defeat, the way he was swallowed by darkness in silence, Collins felt a deep sense of guilt.

Collins wanted to do something for Eckfis, but didn’t know how.

With a sigh, Sphinx clung to Collins’s arm and pleaded.

“One hundred credits—how much money can that even get you? You already got 1,000 bonus credits for becoming a mid-level mage!”

“Do you really need more resources that badly?”

“I’m barely hanging on here. I’m about to be expelled. Are you really going to let your classmate face that kind of humiliation?”

Collins shook his head.

“Go ask someone else. I prefer doing magical experiments alone. I get really uncomfortable with others around.”

“That’s fine too. Just symbolically put my name on the final report. That’s all I need, right?”