The Genius Tamer of the Academy

Chapter 218

A week later, Adela and Yoon Haul were peeking out from the front gate of the academy.

Today was the day Han Siha was supposed to return.

It felt odd to say he had been to prison when he was only gone for a week, but still, they couldn’t just not greet him, so they waited there anxiously.

Adela checked her watch with a nervous expression and mumbled.

“When is he going to get here?”

Just as she was grumbling, a familiar silhouette appeared in the distance.

Yoon Haul, eyes wide with excitement, bounced in place.

“Han Siha! Over here! This way!”

Han Siha waved back at them and slowly made his way over.

“What’s this? You all came out here to greet me?”

“Of course we did!”

Anyone would think he had been gone for months.

Han Siha chuckled as he sensed the overwhelming attention from Yoon Haul.

“Solia and Won are coming in the evening. We planned to gather in the first-floor lounge today.”

“Oh, is that what’s happening?”

“Yeah, but Lee Han’s too busy to come. I’ll yell at him later on your behalf.”

Although the previously closed C-building had reopened, allowing Ardel Academy to gradually regain its sense of normalcy, many classes were still on hold, and the atmosphere on campus remained tense.

Han Siha’s mind was weighed down by everything that had happened.

Noticing the darkening expression on his face, Yoon Haul tried to change the subject with a smile.

“Anyway, that’s for dinner. For now, join us for lunch!”

“Huh?”

Han Siha glanced at his watch.

It was already well past lunchtime, nearing 3 PM.

Although he hadn’t exactly been starved during his confinement, he was feeling a bit peckish, but everyone else had surely already eaten.

Han Siha waved his hand dismissively.

“It’s fine, I’m good.”

“If you’ve been through something like that, you need a hearty meal to recover. Just tell us what you want to eat!”

“I keep telling you, he’s been living more comfortably than we have.”

“Hey, he was locked up! How could he be comfortable?”

Yoon Haul frowned and backed up Adela’s words.

Despite being told that the so-called underground prison was more like a royal guest suite, Yoon Haul still insisted Han Siha had been through a lot and patted him on the shoulder.

“Yeah, so what do you want to eat? It’s on me!”

“Oh… well, I’m never one to turn down a free meal.”

“I knew you’d say that! Let’s go!”

Han Siha laughed and followed Yoon Haul.

* * *

The meal was more extravagant than expected for the middle of the day.

Is this really what they’re treating me to?

I stared at the glistening steak in front of me, licking my lips.

They weren’t kidding about this being top-grade; just touching it with a knife made the juices ooze out.

My mouth watered, and I couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Wow….”

I stuffed a piece of steak into my mouth and couldn’t help but let out a gasp of delight.

The taste was overwhelming.

I hadn’t expected much, but this was incredible.

“Hey, this is really good.”

“Right? I told you this place was legit.”

Adela smiled and urged me to eat.

“Eat as much as you want.”

I hadn’t intended to go this hard, but before I knew it, I was devouring the steak like someone who hadn’t eaten in days.

Anyone would think I’d actually been stuck in a real underground prison.

My fork moved on instinct, and I had already given up on maintaining any semblance of composure.

After a few minutes of focused eating, I looked up and made eye contact with Adela.

So that’s where that feeling of being watched was coming from.

I held my knife and asked her.

“Aren’t you going to eat? Yoon Haul over there looks like he’s about to bury his face in the food.”

Just look at Yoon Haul.

He’s as serious about this steak as he is about his beloved red bean buns.

Adela rested her chin on her hand and answered my question.

“I’ll eat. I was just thinking about training.”

Only Adela would be thinking about training in front of a fancy, high-class steak.

Her unwavering personality really doesn’t change.

I chuckled at her words and continued cutting my steak.

Actually, there’s some good news they’d both be glad to hear.

During that week I was there, I couldn’t just sit around doing nothing with the Emperor watching over my shoulder.

I told them about how I had worked on adjusting the magic circuits.

“While I was there for the week, I did some work on the magic circuits. It’s not perfect yet, but I think I’ve managed to weaken the magic by about a quarter of what Natalie did with her circuits.”

“Really?”

That alone was already an impressive achievement.

Yoon Haul, who had been diligently working on his steak, looked up with wide eyes.

“With that level of adjustment, even with just one cube, it won’t be able to unleash its full power. Our goal is to minimize the damage, even if it means losing all the cubes. I’m planning to keep tweaking it little by little.”

“You’ve done well.”

“That’s really great news.”

But there was another piece of good news.

When the uprising first happened, I was furious, and then I’d been so caught up setting Abaddon’s garden on fire and causing a scene in front of the Emperor that I’d nearly forgotten…

“Oh, right. You remember that cube Abaddon took?”

I brought up the blue cube that had been stolen by the dark mages—the Cube of Emotions.

It was the most powerful among the five, amplifying its strength based on emotional intensity. Naturally, I had been extremely worried when it was taken.

“You remember Natalie’s first experiment, the one where she weakened a cube?”

That was the first successful trial where Natalie managed to lower the magic threshold by adjusting the circuits, even if it was just halfway.

“The one Abaddon swiped was that weakened cube.”

“…So they stole the weakened one?”

“Yep. It’s not drastically weakened, but once they find out, they’ll definitely scramble to try and restore it.”

Considering they took the most powerful Cube of Emotions and we had already halved its power…

Abaddon’s going to lose it when he finds out.

Tough luck, nothing we can do about it.

“It’s not something that can be restored anyway, right?”

We had severed the magic circuits, so how could they possibly fix it?

Adela laughed heartily at my words, looking thoroughly amused.

“Wow, of all the cubes, they took that one? They’ve got no luck.”

“They stole two, but one was a dud and the other was crippled.”

I nodded in agreement and took another satisfying bite of my steak.

The food you eat after messing with someone always tastes sweeter.

“Ah, I’m full. Shall we get going?”

* * *

After Adela finished her meal, we headed to none other than the souvenir shop in the plaza.

It was obviously a place selling a collection of “pretty trash,” something I had absolutely no interest in, so I planned to just walk past it.

But Yoon Haul was staring at it like she was going to lose her neck.

It seemed like there were quite a few things that caught her eye.

“Wow, what’s this?”

Once inside, it turned out to be more of a general store selling various odds and ends rather than a souvenir shop.

From kids’ toys to the pretty trash I expected.

I glanced around and waited for Yoon Haul, but she had disappeared somewhere. I turned to Adela, who was standing next to me.

“Where did Yoon Haul go?”

“She went over there- saying she found something interesting.”

“Oh, there she is… right.”

Maybe it was because Yoon Haul liked cute little things; she looked like she was having a blast.

I spotted her crouched down in a corner of the store.

But what was she looking at so intently?

Following her gaze, I saw a row of items hanging on one side of the wall that looked like pet supplies.

“For Joey?”

“Huh?”

Yoon Haul whipped her head around at the sudden sound of my voice.

“No? They just look interesting.”

Even to me, they felt oddly familiar, so I ended up staring at them too.

Well, since they paid for my meal, maybe I should buy her something she could use.

As I scanned the display, something particularly caught my eye.

It wasn’t anything special.

Just a flashy, sparkling cat fishing rod.

Wait, why is this here in a fantasy world?

This world doesn’t even keep cats.

I’ve rarely seen people walking their pets on the streets. Open a vet clinic here, and you’d go out of business immediately, given how terrible the location is. But here we have something resembling a cat fishing rod? I couldn’t believe it.

I widened my eyes and read the description written below it.

Magic-infused exercise equipment (For Monsters)

Oh.

So it wasn’t for cats; it was for monsters.

Would Basilus like it?

No.

He’d tear it to shreds.

I quickly abandoned the idea of giving it to Basilus.

Pointing at the peculiar fishing rod, self-proclaimed exercise equipment, I asked,

“Do you know what that is?”

Given that Yoon Haul had lived in Ardel longer than I had, she should have known, but she shook her head with wide eyes.

“Oh, that?”

Adela, who had just finished browsing, chimed in.

“It’s exercise equipment, isn’t it?”

“Exercise equipment…?”

Forget it.

It didn’t seem like she knew how to use it anyway, so it’d be better to explain it properly before buying it for her.

“If you’re done, let’s go.”

With that, I left the shop.

Yoon Haul kept glancing back with a puzzled expression but eventually followed us out.

* * *

The first-floor library of the academy.

Although it wasn’t as crowded as before, there were quite a few students who had come to study since it was a weekday.

Of course, not everyone was there to study.

Some came for relationship advice.

“Hey, listen to my story.”

“Okay.”

Today, the victim of Yoon Haul’s relationship counseling, as usual, was Philic.

Yoon Haul adjusted her posture and began her lengthy explanation.

“We went to a shop.”

“Yeah.”

“And normally, he’s not interested in stuff, you know?”

“Han Siha?”

“Yeah, he’s into cash, not stuff.”

But that wasn’t the point.

Yoon Haul waved her hand dismissively and lowered her voice.

“But that guy was just staring at that one thing. From the moment we entered the shop until we left, he didn’t care about anything else. He was fixated on one thing.”

“He must’ve wanted it.”

“You think so too, right?”

Worried about Han Siha, who had been down since the incident with the summoning and the riots, Yoon Haul wanted to get him a gift to cheer him up.

Despite how he seems, Han Siha is simple-minded enough to be happy when someone gives him something.

So she was picking out a present when she saw that thing at the shop… and she thought it was exactly what Han Siha would like.

Philic, who had been quietly listening, asked,

“So what was it? Was it the kind of gift a guy would like?”

“Uh… hmm….”

Honestly, she wasn’t sure just by its appearance.

It looked like a fishing rod and didn’t seem too expensive.

Still, it was classified as…

“They said it’s exercise equipment.”

“I don’t know his personality well, but he’d probably like it, right? You said he was staring at it like he wanted it.”

“Yeah, but. It doesn’t really look like exercise equipment.”

“Really? Maybe it’s for strength training or something?”

“No, it looks like it would snap if he tried to show off his strength. I told you, it looks like a fishing rod.”

“Hmm….”

Yoon Haul murmured with a worried look.

After a moment of contemplation, Philic shook his head and spoke.

“Hey, no. Even if it looks like that to us, people who are into that stuff have their reasons, you know?”

“You think so?”

“Just buy it. From what I see, it’s practical and looks good.”

“Okay.”

Having made up her mind, Yoon Haul smiled brightly.

“Since he trains so hard, I’ll get him that.”

He’d use it diligently, wouldn’t he?