Steven was probably tasked by his father to entertain the guests at the party—specifically Vid—and he accompanied this young wizard without showing any impatience. The noticeable height difference between them seemed amusing to the guests who occasionally looked at them and laughed.
Steven pretended not to notice and continued to accompany Vid on a tour of the Soros Garden.
The garden was neatly maintained, with a long, pale yellow table laden with a variety of foods and drinks for guests to help themselves.
The party was held around a fountain, with a merperson statue in the center—a kind of legendary, beautiful merperson with a graceful figure and shimmering tail, singing enchanting tunes.
On the stone railings around, there were tiny dancer statues that danced tirelessly, golden orbs swirling around them as they spun. Vid reached out and gently touched one of the orbs, which burst like a bubble, leaving a slight chill on his fingers.
The surrounding green grass was freshly trimmed, resembling a lush green carpet. All around the fountain and within the flowerbeds, various flowers bloomed in splendor, huddled together in clusters, appearing extremely vibrant. Some of them were the types seen only in spring and summer, blooming here without regard to the season.
Tall trees with canopies like giant umbrellas lined the pathways, giving the garden its name "Soros Garden"—named after the soros trees. Steven proudly introduced these plants to him, saying they dated back over 200 million years, even older than dinosaurs, true living fossils, and a house-elf from the Morry family was designated to take care of these soros trees.
Halfway through their tour, a paper crane flew over and suddenly opened its mouth to speak in Professor Morry's voice: "Steven, bring Vid to the little stone platform."
"Alright," Steven responded, and the paper crane landed on his shoulder, tilting its head as if looking at Vid nearby.
Seeing Vid watching the paper crane, Steven chuckled and said, "This is my father's creation. He once exchanged at a Magic Institute in Japan and discovered that students there liked to fold these little paper cranes. After returning, he started using paper cranes to send messages. Later, it was adopted by the Ministry of Magic, but they found the paper cranes too troublesome and switched to paper planes—which were less flexible, couldn't speak, and lacked aesthetics, though the only advantage was their low cost."
"The Ministry of Magic?" Vid pondered and asked, "So what did they use to send messages before the paper planes?"
The Two-Sided Mirror was too expensive and hardly likely the Floo Network, right?
"Owls," Steven said, stifling laughter, "You can imagine—dozens of owls flying chaotically in the office or filling the elevator with poop and feathers—I witnessed it once as a child, and it was a disaster."
Vid finally understood why there was an unconscious tone of disdain in his speech towards the Ministry of Magic—anyone who had seen those officials in a frenzy because of owl droppings would find it hard to respect them.
The little stone platform was a small garden elevated by two or three feet, with white marble steps, light purple bellflowers swaying in the wind, larkspur, and geranium distributed unevenly, moss climbing on the brick walls, making the air particularly fresh and pleasant.
In the garden were only five or six people besides Professor Morry, each dressed in splendid attire and appearing of high status. Hearing the voice, they collectively turned to look.
Everyone's first glance landed on the tall Steven, then their gaze collectively shifted down to find Vid, who seemed like a dwarf compared to the former.
"Oh, Vid, my child!" Professor Morry exclaimed joyfully as he walked over, completely disregarding his actual child, placing a hand on Vid's shoulder, and leading him towards the group: "This is the student I just accepted this year—my true student—Vid Gray!"
Everyone nodded and smiled towards Vid, with a man with curly brown hair complimenting, "This child must be extraordinarily talented to be so highly regarded by you at such a young age, Professor."
Professor Morry nodded, saying, "He is just in his first year yet has already surpassed your level of alchemy skill, Machioni, when you graduated."
The others laughed knowingly, evidently aware that this man, Machioni, while having taken alchemy as an elective, didn't have much skill in it, and likely gave Professor Morry headaches during school.
Machioni chuckled but didn't seem embarrassed, earnestly sizing up Vid.
Since the previous statement didn't seem persuasive, Professor Morry immediately provided another example: "By self-study alone, this child memorized the entire contents of the 'Magic Word Sound Chart', 'Magic Rune Collection', 'Rune Dictionary', 'Ancient Magical Language Introduction'—and did it all in just two months!"
"Wow—"
Now everyone understood the weight of being "extraordinarily talented." They mostly had taken Ancient Magic Script Class or even alchemy classes and knew how hard it was to memorize those convoluted symbols and strange syllables.
Not to mention, at the very least, this child's memory and diligence surpassed ninety-nine percent of people.
"Not only that—"
Professor Morry dragged out the tone with pride, deliberately saving the most important part last, as everyone adopted a very interested listening posture.
Vid silently observed.
While he didn't yet understand the identities of these people, he clearly understood Professor Morry's high standing.
"He has been studying with me for just over a month and has already completed his first masterpiece! I swear, he completed it entirely on his own, and I didn't offer a single piece of guidance!"
Professor Morry boasted loudly, like someone announcing a winning lottery number, slowly taking out a brand-new 'Book of Friends', letting it hover amid the group, smilingly asking, "Can you guess its use?"
"Book of Friends?"
They looked at each other, surrounding the Book of Friends in an orderly manner, each taking out a magic wand to examine it, with various lights enveloping the book repeatedly.
However, the Book of Friends was protected by defensive spells from Professor Morry, and regular detection spells couldn't investigate the magical structure within.
Soon, two people gave up, having no interest in a child's creation and not believing it to be any remarkable alchemy product, only joining in the praise to curry favor with Professor Morry.
The remaining people continued their examinations when Machioni's eyes suddenly lit up. He transformed a leaf into a quill, writing a line on paper.
[Money is an endless sea, and I wish to swim freely in it.]
Then he quickly flipped through, and the more he flipped, the more fervently excited he became. Initially indifferent, the people around started widening their eyes and swallowing continuously.
Professor Morry wore a "everything under control" smile.