"Twenty years, planar pioneering, a Second-level Wizard..."

The professor with the goatee repeated these words, his fingers halting their tapping.

A suffocating silence fell over the office.

Another subordinate spoke up in a low voice, "Professor, maybe... we should just drop this? A Golem Wizard with a history of planar pioneering surely has more than just this one. The flier said this was his ’second one.’ If we keep this up—"

"Shut up."

The goateed professor’s voice wasn’t loud, but everyone immediately fell silent.

He was silent for a long time.

Then he slowly stood up, his gaze falling upon the document he had spent so much time meticulously preparing—the proposal to acquire shares in the New Western Education Group.

Profit analysis, administrative resource allocation, subtle pressure tactics—every step had been calculated to be watertight.

He rolled up the document and tossed it into the wastepaper basket in the corner of his desk.

"Back off."

He only said two words.

His two subordinates, as if granted a pardon, turned and left.

The goateed professor sat alone in his office, staring at the sliver of light filtering through the gap in the curtains.

He wasn’t stupid. On the contrary, he had clawed his way to the position of professor in the Seven Towers Alliance precisely because of his sharp assessment of risks and rewards.

A pipsqueak of a First-level Wizard from twenty years ago had returned as a Level 2, with a High-Level Golem to boot.

This was not a person he could afford to provoke.

’Forget it.’

’This deal is off.’

...

「Evening.」

Allen recalled the Cyclops to its demiplane.

All that remained in the square were a few deep footprints and a large area of shattered flagstones, along with a memory that hundreds of apprentices would never forget.

It had fulfilled its mission.

Not as a weapon, but as a calling card.

The next day, the academy’s logistics department sent people to repair the ground. After they finished, someone—no one knew whose idea it was—erected a small plaque right above the crater:

"Golem Exhibition Area—To use this area for displaying large Golems, please contact the New Western Education Group front desk to make an appointment."

Countless new apprentices, after enrolling, would be brought here by senior students, who would point at the plaque and say, "See that? The boss of New Western made this. Study hard, and maybe you’ll be able to build something like it too."

Of course, everyone knew just how much that "maybe" was really worth.

「New Western, Fourth Floor.」

Vera finished brewing the tea and sat down across from Allen.

"Is it taken care of?"

"Mhm," Allen said, picking up his teacup. "No one should be coming to bother you again."

He paused.

"If they do, just tell me their names."

He said this softly. Vera didn’t reply, only nodding.

Over the next two days, all the covert pressure on New Western vanished completely, like a receding tide.

The employees who had been poached received letters of apology, the wording sincere, claiming it was all a "misunderstanding."

The suppliers who had been given a hard time resumed normal deliveries. The business license renewal documents, previously "shelved" by the administrative department, were suddenly marked for "expedited processing."

Colin held the stack of normalized documents, roaring with laughter in the break room.

"The boss puts one Golem at the entrance, doesn’t say a word, doesn’t look for anyone, and that’s it? The problem that’s been worrying us for over half a year, solved just like that?"

Vera leaned back in her office chair and let out a long breath.

"You don’t get it," she said. "It would have been far more terrifying if he had actually said something, or gone to see someone."

It wasn’t unheard of in the outside world for a Golem Wizard, returned from a planar battlefield with a massive Golem Legion at his command, to completely uproot a Wizard Clan of the same level.

That Cyclops at the entrance wasn’t saying, "I am strong."

It was saying, "I have much more that you haven’t seen."

Colin’s laughter gradually subsided, and he nodded thoughtfully.

Vera said no more. She gazed out the window, her line of sight passing over the bustling crowds on the street to settle on the distant skyline.

Her thoughts drifted back to over twenty years ago.

Dorm A-7, Room 304.

The light was dim. A newly enrolled boy sat at a desk, flipping through a book. The desk was piled high with basic textbooks borrowed from the library, which he devoured word by word.

Back then, he had been unremarkable in an academy teeming with geniuses, but he began to distinguish himself within a few short months.

Now, he was back.

He returned with a forty-eight-meter-tall Steel Giant, and with an almost casual air, crushed all their troubles to dust.

He had changed so much. The boy from all those years ago had become a powerful and dangerous being, one she could no longer quite comprehend.

The curiosity and passion that once flashed in his eyes were now replaced by sheer calm.

’What in the world did he go through these past twenty years?’

Vera pulled her gaze back and picked up her teacup.

’I won’t ask. Some things don’t need to be asked.’

She only needed to know one thing—he was still the kind of person who remembered his old friends.

That was enough.