Chapter 56

Lydia's blind trust made Ji Ran feel a lot of pressure, but he also quite enjoyed this feeling. How many people could enjoy the treatment of a cute little girl trusting you wholeheartedly?

It wasn't actually dinner time yet, so Ji Ran could take his time to do something more detailed. Of course, too detailed things were not feasible under the current conditions, so Ji Ran decided to steam buns.

Buns with celery and beef filling, a large pot of seaweed and egg drop soup, and two cold dishes, and dinner was pretty much done.

Making buns took longer than making fried dough sticks, after all, it also involved dealing with the filling. However, Ji Ran's sword skills were superb, and when he picked up the kitchen knife, it had the style of a sword dance. The chopping sound was consistent and pleasant to the ear.

Lydia, standing beside him, admired Ji Ran even more. As expected of Brother Ji Ran, even the posture of chopping meat and vegetables was so cool!

Ji Ran's hands were very fast, and with the help of his cooking skills, the aroma of steamed buns soon filled the open space in front of the old dormitory.

The aroma of buns was more invasive than that of fried dough sticks, making Lydia's stomach growl. After all, she hadn't eaten lunch, and the corn porridge and fried dough sticks from breakfast had long been digested.

The first batch of buns came out of the steamer, and the seaweed and egg drop soup was ready. The cold dishes were already on the table—Ji Ran had moved a table from his room out and set up a few chairs, which made the setup quite unique.

"Should we build a grape arbor here? It would look even more elegant," Ji Ran said, sitting by the table with a steaming pot of buns in front of him.

Lydia nodded vigorously while drooling at the buns. "Yes, yes, it would definitely look great!"

However, Ji Ran was now imagining the scene in his mind. He and a pretty Western girl sitting under a grape arbor, a large table that should be in a dormitory instead of an elegant round table, a few hard-backed chairs instead of wicker chairs, and on the table, not coffee or black tea, but a pot of seaweed and egg drop soup and a pot of beef buns...

The image was too beautiful for him to continue thinking about it.

Anyway, it was time for dinner. Ji Ran served a bowl of soup to Lydia and one for himself, then started eating the buns.

Compared to beef burgers, Ji Ran still found beef buns more to his taste.

These beef buns had no special effects, but the eggs used in the seaweed and egg drop soup were from a magical creature, which had the effect of making people more focused and temporarily improving memory. These eggs were nutritious and tasty, and even the natives of the other world liked to use them in cooking. Although they were a bit expensive, the production was high, so they could be used as regular food without any problem.

Ji Ran was pleasantly surprised to learn about the effects of the soup and decided to drink a bowl before his history and geography classes.

The two of them enjoyed their dinner, after all, it was one of their rare carefree moments. Ji Ran had been admitted to Azure Wind, where he could study history and geography and research alchemy. As for Lydia, she had taken the first step to break free from her original fate. Not only that, with Ji Ran by her side, she felt that her destiny would surely move towards a higher direction.

After dinner, Ji Ran prepared to send Lydia back to her dormitory. After some thought, he packed some of the remaining buns for Lydia to share with her classmates. He gave the few left to the old dormitory manager.

"Just a little snack I made, feel free to try it, don't be picky."

As usual, he placed it on the table and turned to leave.

Although he didn't need to flatter the dormitory manager, doing a favor like this was always a good thing. After all, the leftover buns wouldn't taste as good when cold.

The old dormitory manager put down his book, peeked at Ji Ran, and sniffed the aroma of the buns, a smile appearing on his face.

"This year's freshmen are interesting..."

After the course selection and class division, it was time for the official classes to start. However, before that, there were still meetings with the class advisor and classmates, as well as the distribution of course schedules.

These matters took up another day, so the official classes were scheduled for the third day. During these three days, Ji Ran went out to make a Yuan Gathering Qi Soup for Uncle Les, and the rest of the time, he stayed at school.

When meeting his classmates, Ji Ran carefully observed these future nominal classmates—nominal because even among these classmates, most only shared the practical swordsmanship course. Other courses were still taken separately with students from other classes.

In fact, the class division was mainly based on courses that could truly increase one's strength, such as practical swordsmanship and practical magic. Military and strategy courses might also have separate classes, as the ultimate key in this world was still martial power.

However, it was difficult to have separate classes for history and geography... how many people would dedicate their entire lives to these subjects? Even Ji Ran, in essence, was just dabbling...

What he also felt was the attention of the class advisor.

This advisor, named Handel, was a man in his thirties. He was slim but had very bright eyes. Ji Ran noticed that the advisor more than once directed his gaze towards him while speaking.

Others might not know, but the class advisor had no reason not to know his exam scores. It seemed that the perfect score had made the advisor pay more attention to him...

Fortunately, the class advisor didn't call on Ji Ran right away. Clearly, he was aware of the issue of class unity. Once Ji Ran gradually stood out, the advisor could show more attention without causing any problems.

On the third day, the official classes began. After breakfast with Lydia and Roy, Roy left alone, while Ji Ran sent Lydia to her classroom and headed to the swordsmanship classroom.

The first class was nothing special, basically just the instructor assessing the students' abilities. Ji Ran performed in a standard manner... he couldn't help it, his foundation wasn't actually as strong as the others. So he didn't attract much attention, only the instructor gave him a surprised look.

The instructor naturally knew the students' exam scores. In his view, a student who scored full marks in the swordsmanship exam shouldn't perform so ordinarily!

If it weren't for the fact that the entrance exam was conducted by a mysterious system of the academy, and the invigilators couldn't alter the scores, he might have suspected that Ji Ran had used connections to get in.

Ji Ran didn't care about the instructor's thoughts. He just needed to learn the basics. For more advanced content, he could always turn to Professor Lawrence. The swordsmanship instructor's strength was probably higher than his, but the guidance he could provide was quite limited.

After the uneventful swordsmanship class, Ji Ran glanced at his course schedule. He still had time for lunch, and in the afternoon, he had history and geography classes. Both were liberal arts courses, requiring no physical strength, so taking them consecutively was no problem.

After returning to the dormitory for a homemade lunch and a brief rest, Ji Ran prepared to head to the history class.

On the way, he suddenly encountered a group of unexpected visitors.

The aura of this group was clearly different from the other students. Especially the leader, who, although not intimidating, exuded a faint sense of authority.

Although still somewhat immature, it was clearly the aura of someone in a high position.

Next to this person, Ji Ran also saw a familiar face. It was Rex, who had organized a betting pool during his swordsmanship exam.

Seeing Rex standing slightly behind, Ji Ran roughly understood who the young man in front, who looked to be in his early twenties with a sunny and determined face, was.

If he was not mistaken, this was the Student Council President of Azure Wind Academy.

The Student Council President! A powerful figure who held the power of life and death over the students in the academy! A strong person who could stand up to most of the teachers and professors in the academy without losing! The best opponent for showing off and humiliating...

All these thoughts flashed through Ji Ran's mind, drawn from his experience with novels. If it were a female Student Council President, the scenario would be different, but for a man...

As long as he didn't come looking for trouble, Ji Ran would treat him as air. He told himself this.

Unfortunately, this group blocking his path clearly had more than just passing interest.

"Ji Ran, right? Hello, nice to meet you. I am the Student Council President of Azure Wind, Kurizalde." The sunny and determined young man extended his hand first.

...Ji Ran suddenly felt like he was part of a team where one member was there to support the others in a challenge. Kurizalde... well, it was just a name, he was probably overthinking it.

"Hello, I am Ji Ran." Ji Ran extended his hand and shook Kurizalde's.

Kurizalde's expression was very confident, and he had been confident from the moment he approached. He looked at Ji Ran with a sunny smile. "Ji Ran, we in the Student Council learned that you achieved excellent results in the entrance exam. Azure Wind Academy hasn't seen such scores in a long time. You are undoubtedly one of the outstanding students in this year's intake. Our Student Council is always eager to recruit talented individuals. I wonder if you are interested in joining our Student Council?"

The Student Council inviting a newly admitted student! This made the few students around them widen their eyes.

The Student Council! It was a significant organization in the school, arguably the top group among students. Joining the Student Council almost guaranteed a high status in the academy, with much greater access to resources and opportunities!

"Um, I don't have any plans to join any organizations for now, so I'm sorry." Ji Ran's response made the students around him, who had widened their eyes, open their mouths even wider.

He refused!

---

Page Break

---

Page Break