I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Chapter 241 Petrie Room 314

The next morning, Richard was dropped off at the gate of Imperial University.

Last year he came to visit the library, but only wandered around the perimeter and didn't dare to go in.

This year is different; we can enter the building openly and legitimately.

The campus of Imperial College is a world apart from Greenwood in Briston.

Greenwood is a high school in an industrial city, with its red brick buildings and playground, exuding a pragmatic spirit.

Imperial Capital University is an old school with hundreds of years of history. It has gray and white stone buildings, walls covered with ivy, a clock tower, corridors, and fountains.

Walking on campus, Richard quietly deployed his hidden spiritual vision.

The concentration of ether on campus is extremely high.

He had a vague feeling about it when he visited the library last year; there were small nodes everywhere, far exceeding Huayue Street, but he couldn't see them very clearly.

Now that he has unlocked [Perception] and raised it to Lv.2, and has also learned Spirit Vision, he can see even more clearly.

These nodes are scattered in various places, some under the foundation of old buildings, some in the water veins of fountains, and some coiled around the roots of a century-old tree.

The entire campus is built on an area of ​​high etheric activity.

For hundreds of years, generations of scholars have studied, pursued knowledge, and conducted research here.

A leap in rank requires a "declaration," a voice that needs to be heard behind the curtain in an environment where the ether is active.

The Imperial University area itself is the best place for scholars to "declare".

Richard found the Petrie Building by following the address his aunt had given him.

The origin of the building's name is inscribed on a stone tablet at the entrance.

Richard leaned over and took a look.

"The Petrie Building was built in honor of Professor William Petrie."

The next line of smaller print introduces Professor Petrie's life.

William Petrie is a tenured professor in the Department of History at the Royal College of History.

He devoted his life to the study of ancient civilizations in the Black Earth River basin and was one of the founders of the imperial "Black Earth River Studies," spending many years there conducting archaeological excavations.

He pushed open the door and went into the building.

A row of oil portraits hangs on the wall, and the last few are photographs taken with a camera.

The professors listed above are all outstanding professors from the Department of Classics throughout history, most of them with stern faces.

In the innermost photo, he found Professor Mortimer's wrinkled old face.

Old Mo didn't put on a serious face. He looked at the camera with his eyes half-open and half-closed, as if he hadn't woken up yet.

Richard walked down the corridor, passing several offices, most of which had their doors ajar.

He glanced inside; every room was piled high with books and documents.

On the table, on the chairs, on the windowsill, there were open files and manuscripts covered with annotations everywhere.

In one office, two middle-aged men wearing glasses were arguing heatedly.

Richard quickened his pace and walked over.

The scholar's daily life was not quite what he had imagined.

When they start arguing, it's more lively than a vegetable market.

He quickly found room 314, which had a sign that read "Associate Professor Isabella Ashford".

He knocked on the door.

"Please come in." A somewhat familiar young female voice came from inside.

Richard pushed open the door and saw a tall, light blonde girl organizing documents.

"Richard!" Sophia smiled as soon as she saw him.

"You've finally arrived! Your advisor has been talking about you for days. Come in quickly, your advisor is in the inner room."

The inner room was even more chaotic than the outer room.

Isabella sat behind her desk, looking down at a manuscript. The documents on the desk were piled higher than those in the offices down the hallway.

"Here you are." She put down the manuscript. "Was the journey smooth?"

"smoothly."

"sit."

The chair was already piled with books, but Sofia quickly carried them away to make room.

"Where is Clara?" Isabella asked.

"In the archives," Sophia replied. "She said the copy of the Alexandrian school manuscript arrived and she went to pick it up."

Richard glanced around his aunt's office.

Besides the mountain of documents, there were also several academic journals spread out on the table.

The margins of the journal pages were covered with my aunt's annotations.

The topmost copy was turned to a page in the middle.

Richard's gaze swept over and saw a line of words heavily circled in red by his aunt, with a note next to it: "This person is again using a fallacy of equivocation."

My aunt's academic temperament seems to be the same as those scholars arguing in the corridor.

Isabella noticed her nephew's gaze.

She closed the magazine and tucked another item from the corner of the table into the drawer.

Richard's eyes caught sight of the document's upward gaze.

An internal memo bearing the emblem of the Department of Classics.

He caught it too quickly, only managing to glimpse a few words: "Department of Classics...Theological Seminary...Black Soil River...Account Ownership..."

The drawer is closed.

"What are you looking at?"

"It's nothing," Richard said, looking away. "My aunt has a lot of stuff on her table."

Isabella glanced at him.

"There are some things you should look at less, especially those with the department's emblem."

"……yes."

She remained silent for a while, probably thinking that Richard would find out sooner or later, and then spoke again.

"The department is currently competing with the theological seminary for a document."

"What information?"

"Those cultural relics transported back from the Black Soil River Basin."

Richard's heart tightened; it was this batch of cultural relics again.

"The museum is having a major exhibition next month; you probably heard about it on your way here."

Isabella explained:

"Those exhibits were for the public to see; the truly important ones weren't exhibited."

A batch of artifacts are inscribed with priestly inscriptions from the Black Earth River basin, and no one has been able to fully decipher those inscriptions to this day.

The Classics Department wants the research rights, arguing that it falls within the scope of Classics.

The seminary also wanted it, arguing that the priesthood system of the Black Earth River basin involved religious rituals.

Richard understood.

On the surface, this is a dispute between two academic departments over the ownership of a research document.

Upon closer inspection, those artifacts inscribed with priestly texts are all rare objects.

Whoever obtains the research rights will also gain the right to use these rare items.

"Auntie," Richard asked tentatively.

"You mentioned to me on the phone before that there would be a practical assignment in the second half of the training program?"

"Um."

"Place……"

"It's in the museum," Isabella answered readily.

"Don't think too much about it yet, the training hasn't even started."

As for practical matters, I will naturally explain them to you when we reach that point.

Now you only have one thing to worry about.

"What?"

"Go into those twenty miles first."

She pushed the manuscript on the table toward him.

"Tutoring starts today."

The tutoring session started with a past exam paper in Ancient Greek.

Isabella first gave Richard a task: to translate a passage from Thucydides' original text into Albion.

Richard, with his extensive knowledge and erudition, translated at a fairly fast pace.

Isabella took the translation and read it from beginning to end.

After reading it without saying anything, he presented a second one.

The second part is conjugation, involving several extremely rare and irregular verbs.

Richard answered fairly smoothly.

"There are two mistakes," Isabella pointed out in red pen.

"The irregular conjugations in Ancient Greek cannot be memorized by intelligence alone; you have to memorize them."

"Yes."

"The foundation Greenwood laid for you was pretty good."

Don't worry too much about Latin; Ancient Greek is relatively easier, but I'll focus on improving it over the next few weeks.

Richard nodded.

After a morning of supplementary treatment, Isabella's attitude remained unreadable.

She sets the questions, Richard answers, she corrects them, and then sets the questions again.

With a cold expression, he pointed out every single mistake without missing a single one.

Richard was a little unsure of himself. He had worked hard for the past few months and believed he had made considerable progress.

But my aunt's cold face showed no sign of satisfaction or dissatisfaction whatsoever.

After catching up at noon, Sofia went to the cafeteria and bought four lunches.

Clara also returned from the archives.

Clara was still the same as always, speaking very little and extremely polite.

"Richard, it's been a long time." She nodded to Richard.

"Senior Clara."

Four people were having lunch in the office.

Sofia talked nonstop, vividly recounting all the gossip at the Imperial University.

Which associate professor has a grudge against whom? Which graduate student's thesis was rejected by their advisor? How arrogant those people at the seminary have been lately?

Clara kept her head down as she ate, occasionally offering a word or two in response.

Isabella ate while flipping through the manuscripts Richard had translated that morning.

After finishing lunch, Isabella pushed her plate away.

"Have you brought your empirical text?"

Richard took a manuscript out of his bag and handed over an independent interpretation of the twelve sets of inscriptions on the boundary stones.

Isabella took it and looked at it very slowly.

Sofia, being quite perceptive, stopped eating and joined Clara in clearing the dishes; graduate students are specifically assigned to these tasks.

Richard sat in the chair, watching his aunt turn the pages one by one.

Isabella flipped to the twelfth section and read it even more slowly.

The office was so quiet you could hear the ticking of the clock on the wall.

Richard's palms were a little sweaty.

After reading the twelfth group, she flipped back and read through the seventh to eleventh groups again.

Then he closed the manuscript, picked up the cup of tea on the table that had gone cold, and took a sip.

"Was the handling of this 'return' scene your own idea?"

"Yes."

"Didn't anyone give you any pointers?"

"Auntie, you gave me some guidance over the phone, but the argument for this part is something I figured out myself."

"Senior Hutton didn't get involved?"

"Mr. Hutton said he wouldn't guide me on empirical texts; he would only teach me the basics."

Isabella put down her cup of tea and looked at Richard.

Richard couldn't discern any emotion from his aunt's face; it remained cold.

Sofia came back after washing the dishes and winked at him.

Richard was somewhat puzzled.

Isabella remained silent for a while before slowly speaking.

"……good."

"Taking the 'Return' trigger from the perspective of 'curtain decay' is a new approach."

Traditional interpretations treat the "return" as a welded-on door, with the focus of research being on "how to weld it even tighter".

You, on the other hand, suggest, "Instead of welding it shut, let's use it."

"The argument is sound, and there are no major flaws in other aspects," she concluded.

Richard felt a weight lifted off his shoulders.

He realized that his aunt was praising him.

Although the praise was extremely restrained, with a cold expression and very few words.

Sofia was trying not to laugh.

Clara also looked up and glanced at Richard.

Isabella glanced at Sofia, who was trying not to laugh, and then at Richard.

I picked up the manuscript again and put it back in the drawer.

"I'll keep this draft for now. There are a few minor flaws, I'll point them out later, and you can fix them yourself."

She put her airs back on.

"It's not enough to just state your argument; the reasoning process needs to be more solid. There were a few places where you jumped too fast."

"……yes."

Richard knew in his heart that this "jumping too fast" was due to "reasoning".

The process of deduction and reasoning cannot be recorded.

What he can easily skip in his mind, he must provide readers with a stepping stone when putting it on paper.

We added two more hours in the afternoon.

As the sun began to set, Isabella put down her pen.

That's all for today.

Richard stood up and packed his schoolbag.

Isabella watched him pack and suddenly spoke.

"Don't rush back, I'll take you somewhere."

Sofia's eyes lit up when she heard that.

"Professor, which one are we going to?"

"Um."

Richard looked at his aunt.

Isabella was already packing her things.

With her back to Richard, she neatly stacked the journals on the table.

"Your empirical text and argument are sound. We tested your basic knowledge this morning, and you didn't slack off."

Her voice was flat and monotone: "Consider it... a reward."

His aunt wanted to treat him to a meal as a reward for not slacking off during this time.

But she insisted on saying it in a stiff, unyielding way, as if she was unwilling.

Sofia secretly mouthed something to the side.

"My mentor is just stubborn."