Chapter 290

Chapter 290: Fading Ideals

In the club activity room, several members were diligently reviewing, with only three days left until the year-end exams.

Lolan Hill planned to attend Fortress Academy under the identity of Lolan and Temple Academy under the identity of Lohil. As such, she would need to take more subjects. Fortunately, the exams were conducted sequentially, so she could manage her time accordingly. For the same subject, she only needed to take the exam once, after which the headmistress of Sealed Book Academy, Night Mistress, would handle the arrangements.

The eight girls from Bumansa’s and Lolan’s dormitories, along with Cafra, were all studying in the activity room now.

Although Letis had heard about the small club created by Lolan and others before, this was her first time visiting the club room.

After sitting down, Nia clasped her hands together and then gently pushed them apart, sending out a warm wave that made the room much cozier.

“If I had known, I would have brought the heating device from our dorm,” Letis tapped her forehead, belatedly remarking. Although Nia could use her abilities to warm the room, it required frequent use and drained her energy.

“We can get it in the afternoon. I’ll just make do for now,” Lolan Hill took out her notebook and first helped a few members who weren’t doing well in their studies organize the key points before returning to her own studies.

According to Lolan Hill’s understanding, this final promotion exam wasn’t too difficult since it was only for first-year students. The teaching focused on discovering students’ interests and strengths. More in-depth courses usually started in the second year when students would also be divided into five academies and five factions, competing against each other.

Various activities and competitions organized within the academy offered generous rewards, which could only be obtained by defeating other competitors. To teach students collaboration, members from the same academy could team up for some activities. Even if your team didn’t place in the top, you could still receive some compensation if a member from your academy won.

For example, during the recent academy competition, after Darci from Bridge Academy won, the other nine participants from his academy also received a Golden-Class Extraordinary Artifact as a reward.

The sages of Emanas intended to encourage internal cooperation among the academies for external competition because it was beneficial for talent cultivation. If all the benefits were taken by a single person, it would discourage students from cooperating, turning them into lone wolves.

While being a lone wolf sounded cool, it wasn’t actually good. The greatest advantage of human society lay in division of labor and cooperation. An individual only needed to excel at one thing and could obtain everything else through exchange. For instance, a fisherman, as long as he knew how to catch fish, could obtain everything else he needed through trade.

The community bought clothes, seasonings, a boat, nets, quilts, and other series of items instead of fishing this morning. In the afternoon, they were going to harvest cotton, and at night, they would sew clothes for themselves.

Multitasking sounds great, but in reality, it’s a waste because a person can only do one thing at a time. Specializing in one skill makes it easier to improve proficiency, making the process more efficient.

Several of the girls in the activity room had decent grades. They came here today to reinforce their knowledge. The ones truly worried were Lily, Nia, and Alena.

Lily had average talent and was often playful, so her grades in class were mediocre. Nia, though diligent, hadn’t had a strong foundation before, so this semester she was mostly catching up. As for Alena, she had some subject bias; her math wasn’t good, and the Magic Sequence required high math scores.

‘Lo Lan save me~’

After pondering over practice problems for a long time, Alena finally couldn’t hold back anymore. She stood up with a splash and ran to Lo Lan Shi, hoping she could help improve her pitiful math grades.

“I understand, sit down first.”

Lo Lan Shi held a warm teacup and helped Alena analyze the problems, slowly helping her identify gaps in her knowledge system.

On the other side of the academy, in an empty classroom of the central school building…

“Brother Rock, we’re counting on you today.”

Several boys surrounded the red-haired Rock. One blew hot air, another brought a soft cushion, one carried a pot of hot tea, and another laid out white paper. Each acted like a loyal dog, eagerly looking at the only student who had thoroughly reviewed, as if he were a divine being descended from the heavens.

These people had gone wild during the winter festival, only panicking when exams approached. Upon learning that Rock had already reviewed everything thoroughly, they immediately found salvation and invited this ‘god’ to impart his wisdom.

Though Rock’s talent wasn’t top-tier, his daily diligence and seriousness were well-known. Unlike the nobles who put on airs, he was approachable despite not speaking much. His roommates naturally knew his capabilities, so they specially invited him to tutor them today.

“Let’s get the unpleasantness out of the way first.”

“I can help you with your studies, but your grades still depend on your own efforts. Don’t blame me if you don’t perform well,” Rock didn’t want to be a pushover, helping others only to receive complaints.

“No problem, Rock. No, Leader.”

“Yes, from now on, you’ll be our leader in the dormitory. We’ll follow your lead,” the roommates said respectfully, ready to face any challenge for their leader.

“Hmph.” Rock looked at them, waved his hand, and ignored these sycophants.

The strange fellow took out his own books instead, asking them to mark the key points first. As for what they were talking about, it would probably only be relevant for three days; after that, who knew who would be the father and son.

Moreover, they were also approaching the time to part ways.

Watching these几位室友 quickly marking the key points, Rock sighed inwardly. After the new semester started in the new year, everyone would go to their respective colleges, and the chances of meeting would decrease. Perhaps over time, they would slowly become strangers again.

Back in his hometown, there weren’t many people his age around. Isaiah was the one he was most familiar with, while others had little to talk about. The nobles wouldn’t bother with someone like him, and commoners couldn’t relate to him either. His father was the captain of the guards and was close to the master’s family, making their household somewhat well-off. Children who grew up laboring and living in hardship naturally didn’t see him as one of their own.

Thus, from a young age, Rock felt quite lonely. That’s why even though he sometimes didn’t like Isaiah, he still came to practice swordsmanship with him because there simply weren’t any other suitable choices.

These几位室友, although a bit quirky, mostly retained the purity and loyalty of youth. They weren’t deep and scheming individuals. After a year of getting along, Rock gradually got used to attending school with this group, occasionally playing and practicing swordsmanship after class.

If they were no longer together, it would be a bit hard to adjust.

But such is life; some people will gradually get to know each other, and some will gradually leave.

Rock explained some important points to his roommates, but his thoughts wandered.

After coming to Emanas, he met people from all over, learned many truths he hadn’t known before, and his previous ideas began to waver.

Ideals are always beautiful, but reality made him slowly realize that unfairness might indeed be unavoidable. Killing one evil person could lead to another emerging, and eradicating evil completely was difficult. People have various desires, and even he couldn’t remain fair and objective towards everyone.

As for sages, they are rare exceptions.

Where would he go from here?

Continue fighting with a pale sense of justice? Or give up this laughable dream and pursue supreme power and authority like everyone else? Rock’s dreams were no longer as clear as they once were, and he found himself hesitating.

Thank you to Big Card 98, a wisp of smoke under the moonlight, Lingjue 123, Dr. GoregoL, Shimi Rishi, Fanxing Melody, Sword Inquiry Heart, and Love is a Thing of the Past, for your generous support.

End of Chapter