The revelation that Azul has been trying to beat his grades at school surprises Riddle, who explains that Azul is invested in too many things simultaneously to truly compete with him:
“Not only do you run the Mostro Lounge, but you also have your stock investments and such. And I hear you’re still doing your backroom ‘consultations’ as well. Jade’s also mentioned you often leave campus on your days off under the pretense of market research. Not to mention, I’ve seen your exam study guides when l’ve confiscated them from my dorm’s students. Helping so many other people must take a considerable chunk out of your own study time. You might get perfect scores on tests if you gave your studies your full attention. But you don’t. You spend your valuable time and knowledge doing analysis and crafting guides that help others get better grades.”
During Book 6 Riddle and Azul guess that the “nightmarish situation” at STYX is reality for Idia and Ortho, while their life at school is more like a dream. When asked if he is upset by the thought that crushing their dreams is he only way to get their own reality back Azul responds,
“One has to make sacrifices to make their dreams a reality…I have many dreams, and I’m not going to give up on any of them. Being valedictorian. Opening a second Mostro Lounge branch. Starting a delivery business. Selling tableware. Running a hotel. Getting into the leisure industry…”
When told he has a wide range of hobbies Azul responds, “Of course. You never know when something will come in handy for business further down the line. There’s no such thing as a wasted experience.”
We see an example of some of Azul’s various talents in Book 3, where he proves himself a talented singer, capable of both understanding and speaking animal languages, and formulating a potion that appears on third-year final exams.
It seems that Azul was also interested in being involved in the NRC Tribe during Book 5: he asks Floyd why he did not audition for the VDC, saying, “If you’d made the cut to be a member, I could have had a say in how the group was managed.”
When asked how he spends his days off Azul responds, “I get up early and make myself a drink of whatever suits my fancy that day, and then I often read business journals and newspapers, or check the news, or read about current trends.”
Jack asks how he can relax when “stuffing so much info into (his) brain” and Azul says, “It’s a favorite pastime of mine. Besides, it’s become such an ingrained part of my routine, it would actually be more off-putting if I spent the day lazing around in bed.”
It seems that Azul might be hurrying to try as many new things as he can before graduation, saying, “I need to do whatever I can to raise my valuation as much as possible before I make my way out into the world. So I can’t afford to be afraid of a little work. I have to try everything I can while there’s still time.”
Azul says “It’s important to make efficient use of one’s time” and he prizes efficiency above all else, and we get an example of this in his fifth birthday vignette: while working on “rather challenging magic analysis homework” he plays the radio in the background and turns on a movie, simultaneously, commenting on recent business happenings in the Queendom of Roses and the Shaftlands (from the radio show) and watching the movie to use it as a conversation topic with a manager he met at a seminar.
Azul declares that he will be finding “some way to loosen school regulations on excursions and work more plans into (his) weekends” so that he can “attend as many social gatherings as possible to expand (his) network even further.”
Azul seems to appreciate public transportation, saying, “The greatest benefit, of course, is allowing me to make more efficient use of my time. I can spend a ride collecting information, checking my email, studying, reading…what more could I ask for?”
Azul is displeased when he joins Rook in Fleur City, only for Rook to take a “spontaneous stroll” with no destination: “All this valuable time, just wasted. I could’ve been seeing so many other places…”
One of Azul’s issues with Riddle’s approach to Tartarus is his poor use of their time, saying, “When trying to score well on a test, it’s more efficient to look over the whole thing and start with the problems that are worth the most points.”
Riddle disagrees, saying that “in the time you spend choosing the problems, you could’ve just solved the first one and had more time for the rest,” shocking Azul with the revelation that Riddle starts his tests with the first question (Riddle; “Of course. I get perfect marks no matter where I start” – Azul: “So you and I have a fundamentally different outlook. No wonder we’re clashing so much”).
After being shown his dummy in Book 7 Azul declares that he wants one for himself (“With this dummy, couldn’t I potentially DOUBLE my productivity?!), and he says that his envies Cater for his signature spell: “I’d be able to book overlapping business meetings, attend off-campus seminars while in class, and so much more!”
Twisted Wonderland Reference Note 