Magic Academy Bans Harem

Chapter 326 Sophia's Research
I watched Little Ritas and Millie leave.

Inside the room, Xia Luoluo looked at the bath goddess who had remained, and couldn't help but look puzzled.

"What are you still doing here? Or rather, what are you all doing here?!"

Recalling the woman in front of her who had inexplicably thrown her over her shoulder, Xia Luoluo's expression became more wary. However, she didn't seem to have any intention of settling scores with the Bathing Goddess.

"Don't hate me so much, Xia Luoluo. You might not be able to tell, but I actually quite like you!"

"I'm going to call for help."

Xia Luoluo became even more vigilant.

"Huh? Did my sincerity not convey itself? Or are you doubting yourself? Don't worry, Xia Luoluo. Although you weren't particularly stunning at first glance, well, you're the kind of person who grows on you! The longer you spend time with someone, the more beautiful you become! Hehehehe—"

"I really have to call for help!"

Listening to the strange noises coming from the Bathing Goddess, Xia Luoluo felt a threat she had never felt before in her life.

The goddess of the bath scratched her head as she quickly stopped Xia Luoluo.

When it came to Millie, Charlotte seemed so easy to handle. Why is there so much resistance with her?
Is it a human problem? It really is a human problem!
"Well, thinking about it, I don't seem to have much time. So I'll just get straight to the point. Do you still have those paints you used for painting before?"

"Yes, there is."

Xia Luoluo still looked at the Bathing Goddess with suspicion, unsure of her true purpose. However, since the other party only wanted some paint, Xia Luoluo, seeing no reason why it was wrong, led her to a storage room in the mansion.

"They're all toys and dolls."

After taking a quick look around the interior of the storage room, the goddess of the bath sighed.

Although Little Ritas's storage room was mostly filled with books, which seemed rather unusual, Charlotte's toy room was also quite rare.

Roland's two children, one seems to have matured too quickly psychologically, while the other seems to never grow up at heart.

"What's wrong? Can't you?"

After subconsciously retorting, Xia Luoluo rummaged around for a moment and took out some paint from the corner of the storage room.

The goddess of the bathing room's eyes lit up. After examining the various paint buckets, her expression became slightly serious.

"Um...why isn't there any white paint?"

Why do we need this?

"."

The goddess of bathing felt a twitch in the corner of her eye.

When Xia Luoluo was little, her habit of always talking back and asking questions was definitely not a good habit.

Fortunately, these bad habits have improved somewhat as I've grown up. Perhaps.

After scratching her head, the goddess of bathing simply sat cross-legged on the ground and began to think.

She had anticipated that obtaining white paint might not be as easy as she had imagined. Or rather, if it were found too easily, she would doubt whether it could truly serve as an important tool related to the "mechanism."

So, what to do now?
Should we look for white paint elsewhere, or continue searching for a breakthrough with Charlotte?
The goddess stared at Xia Luoluo, who quickly gave her a "what are you looking at?" look.

Looking back on everything that has happened at the Elson mansion so far, the Goddess of Bath vaguely feels that the core of this area is less Little Ritas and more Charlotte.

Putting aside the strange occurrences related to the Shadow of the Black Mist, almost all the inexplicable events that happened at Elson's mansion were related to Charlotte.

The phrase that the goddess of the bath always hears, "Please find the real me," is very likely the voice of Xia Luoluo.

The fake Charlotte genuinely blames all her misfortunes on Little Ritas, hoping the "Cursed Child" will disappear. That's why she conjures up a black mist bird at night to attack Little Ritas.

But the real Charlotte didn't actually want these things to happen.

Thus, the death of Little Ritas triggers the cycle of reincarnation.

This state of conflict between the left and right hemispheres, combined with the occasional scenes that Xia Luoluo displays, resemble a dual personality, further reinforces this impression.

The goddess of the bath became increasingly certain that the root of the problem lay with Charlotte.

"Speaking of which, why do you have so much paint piled up here? When you asked someone to buy you paint, you couldn't have been planning to use it as a dipping sauce in the first place, could you?"

After some thought, the Goddess of Bath decided to learn more about Xia Luoluo's inner world.

"I want you to take care"

"Wow. You really fell down. All that guilt you'd built up is almost gone!"

"How dare you say that? Let me tell you, I haven't forgiven you yet!"

With one foot dangling outside the door frame, ready to run away and call for help at any moment, Xia Luoluo warned without backing down.

"call"

Although she had previously lectured Little Ritas, the Goddess of Bath now felt that ignoring Charlotte, such an extremely awkward little guy, might be the best solution.

After taking a few deep breaths, the goddess of the bath regained her patience, her eyes darting around.

"Let me guess. It's because you've read countless fairy tales since you were little, and you've always admired the fairy tale world and the people who created it. So, you want to be a fairy tale writer when you grow up, right?"

"No, I didn't."

"Your swordsmanship is always poorly practiced not only because you have limited talent, but also because you have absolutely no interest in it and don't want to practice at all. As for your eyes lighting up at magic, it's because you feel that the scenes created by magic have the fantastical colors unique to fairy tales!"

"Well!"

Xia Luoluo easily entered a state where she had no way to refute.

Seeing that Xia Luoluo was as easy to understand as she had imagined, the Goddess of Bath did not press further, but instead suggested,
"In that case, could I take a look at those fairy tales or picture book illustrations you've tried making? Since they're works of art, they need readers, right? I promise, even if I laugh, I won't laugh too loudly!"

"Why is making fun of someone a prerequisite?"

"Think it over carefully, Xia Luoluo. There are advantages to making me the first reader. If you let your close friends and family read it, they'll always be around you, constantly bringing up what you wrote and drew, making you incredibly embarrassed. Especially if that guy Xiao Li finds out, tsk tsk, I can't even imagine how he'll mock you. Even if you become a really great children's author in the future, your early works will always be a source of embarrassment for you. But I might just disappear one day! You don't have to worry about any of that."

The goddess of bathing was earnestly trying to persuade him.

Something just doesn't feel right.

Xia Luoluo muttered to herself, but she couldn't resist the persuasive offensive of the Bathing Goddess and was indeed somewhat tempted, wanting others to see it too.

In the end, after much hesitation, she finally called the bath goddess back to her room.

From under the bed, they found a small, locked box. After some effort, they opened it and handed the Bathing Goddess the drafts she had been saving.

Charlotte seems to prefer picture book-style fairy tales, so her drafts are mostly drawings.

Under Charlotte's tense gaze, the goddess of the bath nodded with an air of authority as she flipped through the paintings.

"I see. It seems these are the inspirations you've been accumulating since you were very young. Like this one, was it drawn when you were four or three years old?"

"The last one."

"Huh? Three?"

"Last week! I drew it last week!"

"."

Looking at the scribbles-like draft in her hand, the goddess of the bath fell silent. Did this child also lack talent in drawing?

That's so pitiful.
Give the goddess of the bath a handkerchief, and she feels she could almost cry.

In short, the Bath Goddess believes that *Charlotte* is definitely not something like a "bedtime story." After all, the fairytale world created by bedtime stories, and the illustrations that form the basis of them, are just more fantastical and childish in style. In terms of quality, it's quite exquisite.

"Well, I have to say, your drawing of that long loaf of bread is pretty good; it looks delicious."

"That's the main character I drew!"

"Uh, a fairy tale where food is the main character? So these aren't fillings but limbs? Pretty imaginative, aren't they! You might have a talent for this."

"He is human! He is a hero who saves the world!"

"."

The goddess of the bath opened and closed her mouth several times, seemingly wanting to say something but then stopping herself. She couldn't think of any words to comfort Xia Luoluo, and in the end, she simply placed her hand gently on Xia Luoluo's shoulder.

Xia Luoluo, who shook off the goddess's hand, seemed to be slightly overwhelmed.

After a short while, although the goddess of the bath, with great emotional intelligence, didn't utter a single negative comment, Xia Luoluo still curled up in the corner of the room, hugging her knees.

Meanwhile, the Goddess of Bathing finally gave up trying to make amends for Xia Luoluo.

She couldn't understand these fairy tales at all, regardless of whether they were good or bad.

For a moment, even the goddess of the bath began to doubt whether she was really getting old.

As she skimmed through the hastily written notes and messy drawings, the Goddess of Bath felt no inspiration strike her.

However, just as the goddess of bathing was about to give up, she suddenly noticed that the bottom of the small box containing these drafts, which looked like the bottom layer of the pavement, had its edges slightly curled up.

The goddess of bathing immediately realized that the small box had a compartment, so she opened it and took out a large sheet of drawing paper that was folded into four squares.

"This is."

"Aaaaaaah! Don't open it!"

The goddess of the bath wouldn't give Xia Luoluo a chance to stop her, and quickly unfolded the drawing paper.

What comes into view is indeed an abstract painting of free-form celestial beasts, whose gender is indistinguishable, whose life and death are uncertain, whose shape is difficult to describe, and whose true nature is difficult to discern.

However, looking at the barely human-shaped figure on the drawing paper, next to a roughly life-sized, floating gray bean, the goddess of the bath suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

"Could this be Mr. Roland?"

".Um."

Seeing that the goddess of the bath had already unfolded the painting, as if she had given up, Xia Luoluo replied softly.

"It's not a big deal, but I really hope someone can praise me."

The goddess of bathing sighed.

If it weren't for the Sword Saint's fishing rod and longsword leaving a deep impression on her, she might not have made that connection at all.

Since this lump is Rolande, then the lump next to Rolande that looks like a small beetle with a slightly yellowish top is...
"Then is this you?"

"Isn't it obvious? Why are you asking?"

"."

So, is there really no one who can praise her for her good eye?

The goddess of the bath clicked her tongue and continued to admire Xia Luoluo's masterpiece.

After confirming with Xia Luoluo what was depicted in the picture, the Goddess of Bath realized that Xia Luoluo might want to draw a classic family portrait with the whole family standing in front of the house under the sunlight.

However, even if you include the slightly dirty Gu Gu at Xia Luoluo's feet, the family portrait Xia Luoluo drew only shows the father and daughter plus a bird.

After staring blankly at the obvious empty space in the painting for a moment, the goddess of bathing seemed to know what she should do.

"Charlotte, how about we finish this painting?"

the other side.

At the residence of Little Ritas.

In Little Ritas's room, Millie looked at Little Ritas, who was standing in front of her, tidying up the notes on the table, with a complicated expression.

Is the day when I could teach Professor Ritas, whom I considered as an insurmountable mountain, truly gone forever?

Millie sighed inwardly.

There was a time when Millie even fantasized about what if the world she lived in now wasn't a created world, but the real past.

It would be incredibly interesting if she taught Little Ritas magic, and then Little Ritas grew up and taught her magic in return, creating a cycle.

But in the end, it was all just a dream!
Even if she could go back in time, she couldn't teach Ritas Elson.

"What I'm 'handing over' to you today is the research left behind by the deceased witch disciple, Sophia Elson. Although it contains some of my personal insights, it's not really related to me overall. So you can rest assured. At this stage, you are still the more outstanding one in terms of magic."

"Well"

Millie felt slightly embarrassed as she listened to Little Ritas's opening remarks, feeling completely exposed.

But at the same time, Millie also used this opportunity to readjust her attitude.

Regardless of age, Ritas was still the Professor Ritas she knew. Therefore, there was really nothing to resist about being taught magic by him. Moreover, what young Ritas was about to impart was a precious treasure from Sophia.

"Little Professor!"

Millie raised her hand with the proper attitude of a student, but since she hadn't been called on by the still-uncomfortable Little Ritas, she awkwardly continued on her own.
"You know my situation. There's a possibility that I might not understand anything about 'knowledge' at all."

"It doesn't matter."

Little Ritas's expression remained unchanged.

"Some things you can't truly understand, but having a corresponding 'feeling' is actually the right answer. Or rather, many things shouldn't be based on other people's senses and understanding. Even if that person is Sofia."

"Young professor, what kind of riddle is this?"

".Sort of."

After Millie's exclamation of "Eh?", Little Ritas continued his narration in a calm tone.

“You seem to still be focusing on ‘soul magic’ lately. Although it’s a rather outdated form of magic, I won’t stop you. And there happens to be some content in Sophia’s notes that can serve as inspiration for you.”

"Ms. Sophia, did you research soul magic before you died?"

Millie asked, somewhat surprised.

But Little Ritas shook his head.

"If I had to put it in perspective, Sophia's research is about the other side of soul magic, or perhaps the source and end of all magic."

"The real world, the illusory world, the surface world, the inner world, the other world."

"What she studies is the 'root' and 'essence' of the 'world.' It is the 'truth' of the world that will not change under any circumstances or premise—"

(End of this chapter)