Fortunately, I had taken this into account and was prepared for the possibility of him asking about it later—I hadn't deliberately used invisibility when I left my mentor's workshop, so this fact must have been clearly witnessed by those watching, whether openly or secretly. Leaving aside how effective invisibility is in an environment teeming with mages, even suspicious behavior would arouse suspicion.
Considering that the other party might already know that I had communicated with the dean in a way that was isolated from the outside world, I had to be extremely careful with my next answer.
"I did meet with my advisor and the dean today."
I first acknowledged the first part of Adrian's question, and after noticing the subtle change in his aura and the surprised look from Ale beside me, I slurped up a spoonful of cooled millet porridge and swallowed it as if I hadn't noticed anyone else. Then I calmly continued, "However, I made a special trip there to report on the progress of my research to my mentor who had finally returned to the academy."
"You probably know, Professor Adrian, that although she claims to be my mentor, she's always busy with other things besides her regular classes. Even I, as her student, often can't find her. This has caused some of my coursework to fall behind, making it difficult to resolve my doubts in a timely manner."
"If we hadn't seized this opportunity to ask, we probably would have had to wait a long time for the next chance, right?"
Faced with this well-known fact and a self-consistent explanation, even if Adrian wanted to deliberately find fault, he couldn't. He could only think for a moment and nod in agreement: "That really sounds difficult, Yumi."
"I never imagined that you could achieve so much under the almost laissez-faire approach of your mentor. I imagine we'll hear your name frequently in the world of magic and academia in the future?"
This simplistic tactic of feigning retreat is far too crude. How much do they underestimate me to expect me to fall for it? I'm not some naive child.
I glanced at the children across from me, all staring at me with adoring eyes, and was momentarily speechless. I lowered my gaze without showing any emotion and steered the conversation back on track: "As for the headmistress, she went to see her mentor with the same purpose as me, and she even arrived earlier than me. I don't know if they had discussed the future arrangements of the academy beforehand, but I clearly heard the headmistress complaining about me, specifically about my mentor."
As I finished speaking, a hint of schadenfreude unconsciously crept into my tone.
This isn't exactly a lie; it's just that I didn't tell the whole story. Even if he were right across from me using a lie detector, he wouldn't have noticed, which would have made me realize it immediately.
After a while, he seemed to finally believe my words, and deliberately muttered with a regretful look, "I also want to ask if my application to host the practical activity this time was approved," which aroused the curiosity of Grey and the others.
When they finally stopped and were about to leave the private room, he pretended to suddenly remember something, turned to the little princess, and asked a question.
"Grey, perhaps my question has offended you, but I need to go to the Wan Jin Merchant Guild for some business. Could you please show me the way?"
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