Chapter 200

149 Part 1

Return of the 8th Class Mage

Chapter 149 Need for Chance (3)

“Oh, teacher!”

Princess Hailey Greenriver’s face brightened when she discovered Ian, and her already luminous beauty became even lovelier.

“Why is your highness here? You only had to ask first.”

“I- I had a question about the foundation. You’re next door, so…”

“Isn’t the Page Foundation completely under your highness and my mother’s jurisdiction? I don’t know whether I can give you sufficient answers.”

“I’m only helping. The official people in charge are you and Mrs. Page on paper.”

Ian felt the will to talk from the princess and wondered what she had to speak.

“Please sit down.”

Ian asked while he also pulled a chair, and Hailey sat on the opposite side to stare at him. Her face was closer than Ian had expected.

“I’m all ears.”

“Yes?”

“To what you have to say.”

“Ah!”

Princess Hailey looked tense, and she placed her tightly fisted hands on her lap.

“I first want to discuss the foundation’s budget…”

What the princess had to say was trivial because she did not need much advice or approval. She went on to talk about general issues regarding the foundation and small incidents that happened here and there.

Hailey seemed to have come to talk with Ian rather than asking him questions. She had to lead the conversation nine out of ten times.

“…and that happened. While my maids are like my friends, they can be very peculiar sometimes.”

“So, you did.”

The princess initiated the conversation, and her biggest motivation and obstacle was Ian Page’s indifferent response. Of course, Ian did not want to act like this, but he just did not know how to respond. He had no idea what a person should do or answer to carry on a conversation about daily life.

‘I have zero experience.’

Serious discussions, meetings, conversations in the process of achieving specific goals should not be counted. Conversations without any gravity, under a heavy atmosphere, and certain aims were a strange phenomenon for Ian. Moreover, he was talking with the princess, who was barely comfortable to him.

“……”

“……”

The result of his dry response, which hid the fact he had no idea what to do was ‘severance’ as expected. When the princess stopped her struggle to lead the conversation, they immediately became silent.

“Have you achieved anything new with your magic?”

Ian gathered his courage to say something, and the only topic he could think of was magic, which had formed the teacher-student relationship between them.

“Your talents will exceed the fifth-class level.”

“You overestimate me. Fifth class already?! It’s a level that senior magicians have not achieved yet…”

“Magic and experience are not related. Look at me.”

“But…”

The atmosphere became lighter as the conversation steered to magic, and they talked on smoothly.

“Are you taking the private lessons from the Ivory Tower? I should look after you once in a while, but there wasn’t any time.”

“I’m working hard as I have been late, and Ronan compliments me the most. He tells me I’m faster in learning the history of the Ivory Tower and other theories than you.”

“Faster than me?”

“Yes!”

Ian had perfectly memorized subjects that needed memory prowess, such as the history of the Ivory Tower and theories in his past life. In other words, his studies have been like having answer sheets in his head this life, but Ronan was saying the princess’s pace was faster than him.

‘Ronan, that cad.’

Archmage Ronan knew how to get in line since he already began to flatter the princess already.

‘He did not appear once when I was taking the lessons…’

Ronan despised Ian during his stay. Was not he who had been the loudest in shouting that Ian should be collared? A man like that was now trying to build a relationship not only with Ian but with Ian’s acquaintances. It seemed that Ronan’s true talent was not magic.

‘His getting in line is ninth class.” Ian faintly smiled and continued to speak.

“You’re amazing. I wasn’t so slow myself.”

“I seem to have inherited my father’s brains.”

“That’s disappointing for the crown prince.”

“Yes? That’s too harsh…”

Ian’s jokes were almost treason against the royal family, and the princess tried to soothe things down once she realized that it was a joke.

“My brother is working hard. While he had strayed for some time, he is becoming a better man now. I believe that he will be a king who will be hailed as a better ruler than my father.”

The princess spoke in a quiet voice, and her tone implied that she completely trusted her brother, the crown prince Hayden.

“Of course, I also believe that. I saw the crown prince during my walk, and he was reading a difficult political treatise. While books are not enough, they will build the foundation to becoming a sage king. I had not been able to greet him because he was so immersed in his reading.”

“You did not greet him?”

“I saw no reason to bother him while he was concentrating…”

“…He must have been disappointed.”

“Disappointed?”

“My brother would have been.”

Why would the crown prince have been disappointed? On what part?