"What you just said about ’not wanting to know’ refers to..."

Zheng Qing wanted to ask more questions, but just then, the conference room door suddenly swung open. Along with a gust of wind sweeping through the corridor, the sound of overlapping footsteps followed, and Zheng Qing quickly turned his head, only to see a group of dark silhouettes silently walking in. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Leading them was Professor Yao XiaoMi, Dean of Jiuyou Academy and Institute of Philosophy of Magic.

He held lecture notes under his arm, a pipe in his hand, with a beaming smile, he waved his hand to everyone around, as if he had walked into a regular classroom.

Following closely were several other black-robed wizards — Vice Chairman of the School Works Committee Qian Jiuzhou, Vice Dean of Atlas Sister Margaret, Vice Dean of Starry Sky Academy Professor Simon, and Vice Dean of Alpha Professor Charles — Assistant Team Leader Zhang Yu quietly followed at the rear of the group.

Zheng Qing knew all of them and had interacted with them to varying degrees, but except for necessary public occasions like the school hunting party and opening ceremonies, it was rare to see them.

Seeing them all appear together at this moment, he immediately realized that today’s meeting, as rumors indicated, was quite peculiar.

"Ladies and gentlemen, good morning."

Old Yao placed the lecture notes on the lectern and raised his head. His opening was concise and straightforward, his gaze swept across the faces of every teaching assistant in the conference room, his eyes deep and penetrating. Zheng Qing felt as though his gaze momentarily lingered on him, instinctively straightening his back.

He was not the only teaching assistant who felt this way.

The Legendary Wizard on the stage, albeit restraining his aura, exerted immense pressure on these young wizards with just a single glance, causing them to hold their breaths and concentrate fully.

"Today’s meeting pertains to Edge Academy.

Earlier, the head of Edge Academy proposed a very interesting plan, which underwent review by the First University’s Professor Joint Meeting, the School Works Committee, and other departments of the school. It was considered valuable, so today I am here in this conference room, not to discuss problems with you, but to assign tasks to you."

At this point, Old Yao paused momentarily, seemingly to let the teaching assistants digest the content he had just shared. But Zheng Qing believed that, including himself, everyone was impatiently eager to know the specifics of the tasks, and no one spoke up, leaving the entire conference room eerily silent.

The professor chuckled, slightly dissipating the oppressive atmosphere of the room: "Since it’s about task allocation, I won’t waste your time.

Before that, I have a few more words to say.

I know you’ve heard a lot of rumors, this or that, but I need to tell you very clearly now that what you heard is incomplete.

The establishment of Edge Academy signifies the unveiling of a mysterious curtain to a brand-new world. Any wizard with an adventurous spirit longing to explore new worlds should not miss such an opportunity, and must also acknowledge the fact that, with the surge of the Magic Tide, the power belonging to the broader wizarding community is rapidly growing."

"You are the elite wizards of the First University Assistant Corps.

The Assistant Team only needs to focus on magic.

The so-called academy stance, division of interests — that is, the true nature behind news and events, or directly becoming elements of campus narrative — are all auxiliary products of the work of teaching assistants.

Each teaching assistant can have their own specific origin, a unique worldview, and specific methodology, so we do not interfere with your specific views on each matter, nor will we adjust the narrative style of the Assistant Team because of this.

The Assistant Team should include anyone and exclude anyone, depending solely on whether they truly care about magic.

All right, that’s all the nonsense I have to say.

The specific tasks assigned today will be individually disclosed to you when you receive them, and as usual, you will need to sign the corresponding contracts when receiving the tasks. Here, I need to remind you, the work assigned to the Assistant Team by the school is not easy, it will last for most of the semester, at least three months. The relevant work hours will be counted, and you will serve as the ’little hand’ for the wizard hosting this project, allowing him to focus more on the more specific tasks..."

Hearing this, Zheng Qing finally couldn’t suppress his inner astonishment and raised his eyebrows.

’Little hand’ — petites mains — is an ancient term originating from the conservative wizard community in Europa.

The traditional master-apprentice inheritance among wizards was very strict and arduous. Unindependent wizard apprentices lived in their teacher’s Magic Tower, practicing various magical skills day after day under the teacher’s guidance. But most of the time, this practice seemed more like an exploitation of cheap labor, and these wizard apprentices were more akin to indentured workers in the Magic Tower rather than actual apprentices.

Even so, not every ’indentured worker’ had the chance to be by the teacher’s side for personal guidance. More often than not, most apprentices could only stay at the bottom level of the Magic Tower, engaging in the most trivial and tedious processing of magical materials. Only those exceptionally talented apprentices had the opportunity to become the mentor’s ’little hand’ — assisting the teacher in drawing magic runes, preparing magic potions, inlaying magic stones while creating complex magic scrolls or high-level magic tools, freeing the teacher from those monotonous and repetitive low-end jobs to complete more complex tasks.

Ordinary magic scrolls required only one or two ’little hands’ to help, but advanced tasks like drawing the Magic Tower Base Array, engraving internal magic circuits of the Yellow Turban Warrior, or imprinting runes on Dragon Knight armor required dozens or even tens of ’little hands’ working simultaneously, day and night, to meet the requirements.

And now, it took the entire First University Assistant Corps to act as ’little hands’ for a task that would last an entire semester.

Zheng Qing couldn’t imagine the enormity of the workload — more importantly, the teaching assistants of this group of wizards could be considered the young elites of the entire wizard world. Each of them, except for a certain individual, was a registered wizard and had at least one impressive skill, making it not difficult for them to enter the school’s key laboratories.

Such talents being dispatched to serve as ’little hands’ immediately made many teaching assistants feel restless, but under the stern gaze of the Assistant Team Leader, no one ultimately spoke up.

"... Next, please come forward in order when your name is called," Professor Yao seemed entirely unaware of the slightly tumultuous atmosphere in the conference room. His voice remained steady as he pointed with a pipe-holding finger toward several vice deans beside him: "To collect your tasks... Andy Wolf!"

A tall Warlock seated at the edge of the conference room silently stood up and calmly walked to the front. A few vice deans beside Old Yao had already raised a translucent barrier, blurring the view of what was inside, while Old Yao stood outside the barrier, arms crossed and pipe in mouth, with a cheerful smile, appearing utterly idle.

Zheng Qing felt that the old man’s gaze fell on him once again.