Wolf spent most of the day sitting on the floor of his and Wayde’s living room. He meditated while waiting for everyone’s classes to end. Shortly before returning to Silver City, Wolf had finished refining the seventh column and began working on the eight.

Thankfully, the seventh column didn’t draw Wolf into distracting fantasies. And, with the strengthening of his Mental Aspect, Wolf was quick with his work.

Before Wolf knew it someone opened the door to his room.

“I say this is a waste of time,” an aggressive female voice said, looking down on Wolf. “He’s just a peasant. What could he possibly teach us? How can you stoop so low as to believe such nonsense, Annabelle?”

“I think he’s very knowledgeable on the subject.” Wayde stood up for his roommate. “I think he knew all of this even before he entered the Mage Academy.”

“He’s weird. He could be telling the truth.” Anna pitched in.

In her opinion, wasting an hour by gambling on Wolf was well worth it. In all honesty, she didn’t really believe him, but she wanted to and hoped she wasn’t making a fool of herself.

Matilda remained silent as the four Mage Academy students entered the room.

Wolf looked at the new girl. She had an angry frown and glared at him with disdain. He didn’t recognize this girl with reddish-orange hair. She wasn’t in the few classes Wolf attended, and he most certainly hadn’t done anything to anger her.

“I’m not answering her questions. She can sit on the side and listen, but I’m not explaining anything to her,” Wolf said, looking at Anna.

After the initial inspection, he didn’t bother meeting the third girl’s furious gaze.

“Like I want you to explain anything to me! I’m here doing Matilda and Anna a favor! In fact, if you know something I don’t, I’ll run around campus with underwear on my head,” the girl said in a very unladylike manner.

“Wear something baby blue, it should make a good contrast with your hair.” Wolf said, then looked at Anna, Wayde and Matilda. The latter’s face was red from those coarse words.

“So, you guys think I can't help you? If—”

Wayde interrupted him then, “I don’t doubt your knowledge one bit.”

He actually meant it. Wolf felt touched by Wayde’s camaraderie and how the man had his back.

Anna awkwardly cleared her throat. She wanted to say something, but couldn’t be as supportive as Wayde. Luckily, Matilda came to the rescue.

“If that’s the case, I have a question,” Matilda said in her trademark, just slightly more audible than a whisper tone. “On page twelve, the author names some methods of enhancing the soul as dangerous, but there is no additional explanation. Could you explain what the dangers of each method are?”

“No problem,” Wolf said with a smile full of appreciation. “We can start with the most obvious one, potions of Clarity and similar Alchemical tinctures.

“These provide the greatest boost to a person's soul, but have two side effects. Firstly, the user builds up resistance to the drug with each use, thus halving the effect of the subsequent potions of the same grade.

“Due to that, using multiple potions of the same grade results in diminishing returns. The second side effect is the accumulation of toxins in one’s body which…”

Wolf kept talking for a while until he listed all the hidden dangers he knew about in each method of soul expansion mentioned in the book.

“He... he’s just saying random gibberish and using big words,” the disdainful girl said, but Matilda shook her head.

“I asked my private tutor about this and some of their answers are more or less the same,” Matilda confessed. “The difference is that what Wolf just said is much more detailed and easier to understand than what my tutor had told me back then.

“I’m convinced,” she said in a hushed, but steady voice, as she flashed a shy smile. As expected, this wasn’t a waste of time.

Then Wolf turned towards Anna. She promptly asked her question and got a lengthy and detailed answer.

“Well, is what he said correct?” the disdainful girl asked once more, but Anna shrugged her slender little shoulders.

“Wolf’s answer makes sense,” Anna said with a charming smile. “But I don’t know the answer. I wasn’t testing him. I just asked what I’ve found confusing about the impact of traumatic events on the soul, which was mentioned in the book.”

The other girl snorted and sat in the corner and listened.

Meanwhile, the other three kept bombarding Wolf with questions, and the youth answered every one of them without even pausing to think.

After two hours had passed, the disdainful young lady regretted her thoughtless words.

But she had her pride, so she stayed silent and listened. She knew that if she asked a question the despicable commoner would demand that she wear her underpants on her head.

Just the thought of it made her turn red with humiliation, making her face match her fiery hair.

“Wolf, how about cutting Barbara some slack? She’s not a bad person,” Anna whispered, but everyone in the room heard her.

Unexpectedly, Wolf ignored her and continued to answer the questions. Some of Anna’s anger suddenly flared up at being ignored, but she reined in her temper. She settled with silently gritting her teeth and fantasizing about smacking Wolf with an unbreakable stick.

Seeing the way Wolf treated her and Anna, Barbara harrumphed and folded her arms in front of her chest as if she was the one being insulted here. No matter what happened, she had no intention of caving in.

Time passed and soon enough evening curfew drew near. Barbara asked no questions, but still profited just by hearing Wolf clear up others’ doubts.

As the girls left Wolf’s and Wayde’s room, Barbara regretted her pointless and harsh words from before. If only she’d kept her mouth shut, she could have befriended this commoner. Even she could tell that Wolf was a genius, and that his rise was imminent, unless someone offed him.

“Um, Matilda,” Barbara said as she started coming up with a way out of this. “Thank you for inviting me. I was just joking when I said I was doing you a favor. It was, in fact, you doing me a favor. I just didn’t expect that your stubborn friend was…”

Barbara trailed off with what she was saying. She fumbled for words, because ending that sentence with 'smart', 'intelligent', or 'not lying' would be an insult to Matilda.

“Wolf invited me because of Anna,” Matilda said in a considerably louder manner now that there were no boys around.

“Oh? Anna, could you do me a favor and patch things up with Wolf for me?” Barbara asked in a manner considerably less respectful than the way she’d addressed Matilda.

“Sure, leave it to me,” Anna said with a reassuring smile.

There’s still enough time before the curfew, the young woman thought.

Now all she had to do was figure out how to get Wolf to forgive Barbara. She excused herself and went back to the boys’ room to sell the Count’s daughter a favor.

Anna knocked on the door, and a moment later Wolf opened it.

“Hey Anna, long time no see,” he said with a smug grin.

“Oh, cut the silly nonsense. You knew I would come back to talk to you.” Anna stood with her arms folded, fully showcasing her annoyance.

She expected Wolf to say something to help her out, but the blockhead was as helpful and tactful as a block of wood. He just kept smiling like the idiot he was.

“Look, Barbara really isn’t a bad person. So, could you please teach her as well? If you do,” Anna hesitated for a moment, unwilling to lose this trump card.

“I’ll forgive you for bailing from my birthday ball,” she finished after deciding that Barbara was worth losing the means of guilt-tripping Wolf.

“Huh? When did I bail from your birthday ball?” Wolf asked with a slight frown.

He knew nothing about Anna’s birthday. In fact, Wolf thought birthday celebrations were things which only happened in novels and stories.

“Weren’t you doing all of this so that I would forgive you?” Anna asked, frowning once more.

She believed that her blockhead wanted to win back her good graces. Not that Anna would be too cold to Wolf. Given the way his crazy head worked, he might end up snatched away by some other woman if she’d pushed him too far away. Anna was starting to consider dropping some more obvious hints, since the dunce was immune to subtle coquetry her mother had taught her.

“I just wanted to help you with the boring school stuff. Now, what was that about your birthday?” Wolf asked again.

Several emotions fought for dominance in Annabelle’s mind. Shame, since she took Wolf’s help for granted, and because she wanted to manipulate him a bit. Skittish about how she was supposed to continue this conversation. A bit confused at how could Wolf be so socially retarded, and finally angry a lot. He didn’t even bother to find out why she was angry with him and why she was pouting!

In Wolf’s defense, Wolf really tried to find out. He’d asked Wayde, who said she was angry with him too. He even guessed that it was just that time of the month, teaching Wolf that women were expected to be angry a week every month, even if nothing’s wrong.

Anna was about to erupt, but Wolf misunderstood that moment of confusion written all over the young woman’s face.

“You don’t owe me anything for the lessons,” he said gracefully, wanting to calm her down. “You are my friend and I want to help you and Matilda. Barbara is just there to fill up the number. I don’t know her and she was rude to me. If she wants my help, she can either come and apologize in person or you can find another fifth person. It’s all the same to me. Now, could you please tell me what this is all about?”

Anna was hesitant. Barbara was a daughter of a Count, meaning she was from a very important family. She was almost a full year older than Anna and had entered the class a semester before Anna and Matilda had.

The young woman was a slacker, who often skipped classes. Even if she passed this exam, she’d be in her fourth semester. If she failed to advance her Mage Order by the end of her fourth semester, she’d get demoted to a regular class. Her father would force her to drop school and marry.

As for Anna, her father had asked her to form two strong bonds in Mage Academy. One was naturally with Matilda. Marquess’s beloved daughter was the only reason Edwin had invested so heavily in Anna’s education. The other target to get close to was Barbara.

She was of far lesser importance to Edwin, but if Annabelle befriended her, Edwin would consider it a pleasant surprise.

He’d explained multiple times that forging a strong relationship with those two was important for Anna’s younger brother and for the future of Didot family.

Matilda was easygoing and easy for Anna to make friends with. Barbara, however, was a difficult person, so selling her a favor now was an excellent first step. Doubly so, since Barbara didn’t want to get married off and become an ornamental baby factory.

Anna had gotten an impression that the woman was intelligent, and knew how to return grace. It’s just that she was short-tempered, volatile and her tongue often lashed out before her brain caught up with the situation.

That tongue of hers was also the root cause of the issue this time. Initially, Anna also thought Wolf could be putting on a show, but she kept silent. Not just because he was her friend, but because there was always an off chance that his words weren’t empty boasting.

If Wolf knew I doubted him, would he be angry? Anna wondered. And what does he mean ‘explain what all this is about’? You ignored my birthday, shrimp!

Anna knew he didn’t really ignore it. She never told Wolf when her birthday was, but she didn’t hide it either. If he wanted to know, he could’ve found out!

“I turned thirteen two months and twenty-five days ago while you were on that stupid mission,” Anna finally mumbled. “I wanted to invite you, but you were chasing some stupid bandits somewhere where nobody cares about.”

Quite a few people cared quite a bit! Wolf wanted to shout, but even he knew nobody would want to hear that at this moment.

“I’m sorry,” he said instead. Wolf didn’t think he was guilty of anything, but he regretted missing Anna’s party.

“If you’re sorry then just forgive Barbara,” Anna said so eagerly, even Wolf knew what was going on.

“Sure. All she has to do is apologize sincerely,” he said thinking how he didn’t really have a choice anyway. Anna was obviously dead set on this.

“I think she’ll agree to that. She’s not as bad as she seems,” Anna said while nodding. “I’ll tell her she should apologize. Do you mind if I tell her you originally asked me to bring someone else tomorrow? That would make her more cooperative and less hesitant.”

Suddenly Anna realized something and her voice turned stern. “But! Don’t ask her to go around with underwear on her head! You shouldn’t bully girls like that.”

She said that of her own free will! Wolf thought, but acted civil. “All right. I won’t force her to wear her panties on her head. See you tomorrow!”

Even though she was the first to mention Barbara’s panties, Anna wanted to smack him after hearing the word. However, the young woman also compromised. She lacked a sturdy enough stick anyway.

“See you tomorrow then!” Anna said and ran off to catch up to Barbara and Matilda.

***

The next day, Barbara came over with the other three and sincerely apologized to Wolf in front of everyone. Like a perfect gentleman, Wolf didn’t mention panties and accepted her apology.

A day passed in study and questions from four hopeful Mages. Then Sunday finally came and Wolf wanted to go and have a peaceful lunch with his big brother.

Unexpectedly, he was accompanied by four people this time. The young man wondered how things kept escalating like this as he got out of Matilda’s private carriage in front of South’s alley.