"What a beautiful girl."
"How come we never noticed her before?"
"Mother, I think I'm in love..."
Under the gaze of the crowd, Aina walked up to Delyan.
Delyan’s expression shifted slightly, as if stunned by Aina’s beauty.
"Ahem... Miss, may I ask what your purpose for enrolling is...?" Delyan felt she had been coughing a bit too often today.
Aina chuckled softly. "I’m here to accompany my beloved, most important husband. He wanted to experience life at a magic academy, and I could never bear to be apart from him."
She deliberately emphasized the affectionate terms, as if making a point to someone in particular.
The white owl perched on Delyan’s shoulder remained motionless.
The hearts of the young men present quietly shattered.
"You’re accepted, Miss Aina," Delyan nodded. "Your husband must be the luckiest man in the world."
"No, being by his side makes me the luckiest," Aina replied with a soft laugh, shaking her head.
The owl still showed no reaction.
The already shattered hearts of the young men were ground into dust.
In truth, most people’s reasons for enrolling were quite simple—or selfish.
To gain power, to attain authority, to amass wealth... Most motivations passed the test without issue.
After all, Olifindor Academy only screened out those with malicious intent toward the school or ulterior motives... Other desires were simply fuel for learning magic.
Even the boy who had earlier declared he wanted to find a partner was merely teased by Delyan, not actually disqualified.
"Alright, next... Xia Lun," Delyan called out his name.
"What is your purpose for enrolling?"
Xia Lun answered frankly, "Because I wanted to experience life at a magic academy. I’ve always held a bit of longing and admiration for such a place."
As soon as he finished speaking, Xia Lun felt countless scorching gazes burning into his back.
Naturally, it was all because of Aina and what she had just said...
Xia Lun’s eyes met those of the owl on Delyan’s shoulder.
He had noticed earlier that the owl’s method of lie detection involved staring into a student’s eyes.
The owl’s eyes gleamed like dazzling diamonds, but instead of reflecting his own image, they shimmered with countless silver lights.
This was the true form of the owl—the Eye of Truth. The white jade sculpture was merely a vessel.
But this time... something unexpected happened.
The owl stared fixedly at Xia Lun, then its white body began trembling violently, its words turning nonsensical.
"No lies, no lies, I’m a little duck... quack quack... I’m a chicken, cluck cluck... la-dee-da..."
Delyan stared blankly as her owl began to lose its mind—this was something she had never encountered before.
The owl swayed unsteadily, unable to keep its balance, then toppled off Delyan’s shoulder.
Thud.
The owl stiffened on the ground like a corpse, reverting back to a jade carving.
Delyan suddenly grew alert, raising her staff and pointing it at Xia Lun.
"Who are you? Did you do something to the Eye of Truth?"
The tip of her staff was embedded with a precious Fire Dragon Crystal, radiating scorching heat as flames gathered, ready to erupt at the slightest provocation.
The smile on Aina’s face faded, her gaze turning calm.
Xia Lun remained still, not rushing to explain himself.
Yet, his confusion was no less than Delyan’s.
Logically, he had done nothing.
Now, the situation had become awkward.
Fortunately, before Xia Lun had to explain himself, someone stepped in to defuse the tension.
"Delyan, calm down." Wolund gently lowered her staff.
In this world, very few had the right to point a weapon at him.
"He is my student... I hope you’ll forgive her rudeness." Privately, Wolund was already sweating bullets as he transmitted his message to Xia Lun and Aina.
"She’s a good kid," Xia Lun reassured with a smile, signaling there was no need for concern.
Of course, Wolund knew Xia Lun wouldn’t hold Delyan’s offense against her—after all, he was the legendary hero... What truly worried Wolund was the other one.
She loved her husband far too much, and Wolund could no longer predict her actions... especially when it involved Xia Lun.
"Teacher! You’re here!" Delyan gasped, quickly lowering her staff.
"Mr. Xia Lun is... a friend of mine. He wishes to experience life at the academy as an ordinary student." To avoid raising suspicions among the other students, Wolund added in a private transmission, "Why is he taking the entrance test? Didn’t he show you the enrollment letter I personally wrote for him?"
"Teacher, I... I thought it was fake... so I burned it..." Delyan looked on the verge of tears.
Wolund: "..."
But he couldn’t blame her—he hadn’t warned her in advance.
Nor had he expected Xia Lun to arrive on the very day of the entrance exams.
Had it been any other day, the first person Xia Lun would have met was the elderly giant who worked as both janitor and gatekeeper... a man who had outlived several headmasters during his tenure.
But in the end, through a series of mishaps, things had unfolded this way.
"Ah... Mr. Xia Lun, you’ve also passed..." Delyan announced after collecting herself.
She glanced at the motionless owl on the ground, then turned to Wolund for help.
A flicker of light sparked at Wolund’s fingertip, and the owl jolted back to life, flapping and scrambling its way back onto Delyan’s shoulder.
With the issue resolved, Wolund quietly departed.
"Was that Headmaster Wolund?"
"What just happened?"
The new students, unable to hear the headmaster’s private messages, remained utterly confused.
Delyan cut through their murmurs. "Ahem... A minor malfunction occurred with the Eye of Truth, but Headmaster Wolund has already fixed it. Let’s continue the test. Next up... Mian."
Xia Lun returned to Aina’s side.
"Was it because of my eyes?" he transmitted silently.
He hadn’t forgotten—Aina had altered his body. His current eyes were the Eyes of Insight, taken from an entity known as Fictitious Truth.
Aina gave a slight nod. "The Eye of Truth saw Fictitious Truth through your eyes. It is an existence that cannot be directly perceived... If it weren’t severely weakened, the Eye of Truth would have exploded."
Xia Lun asked curiously, "What exactly is... Fictitious Truth?"
Aina gently wrapped her arm around his, refraining from anything more intimate due to the crowd around them.
"Nothing much. Just an eldritch god from beyond this world."