Volume 13 Chapter 2:  (Patreon)

Volume 13 Chapter 2: 

"Understood!" His brother nodded, and he quickly headed outside to get them. Keith brought the bacon over to the table. And it didn't take a second before everyone had arrived at the table. Two lions laughed as the older one questioned, “Boy, what was that smell? It’s so incredible.” While he trained with his son outside, his nose couldn’t stop twitching from the delicious smell coming over at the island. He was itching to get something from there. However, his son told him it was worth the wait.

“It’s bacon, something with smoking, Mr. Othniel.” Othniel was none other than Herrick’s father, King of a beastman kingdom.

“You always do this.” Finrandir, another king, came into the room as well. There were so many kings in his home. Another one was on the side, getting scolded by his wife, 

"Dear, hold your tongue in!" He was panting like a dog as he stared at the cuts of meat. 

"Can't help it; it looks too delicious." 

"...I want to hide in a hole." Carolyn covered her face, trying her best to hide herself. How could her father embarrass her like this? James, the third prince, was the same. 

But that was not the end; one more had to show up.

“Sorry if I’m disturbing, child.”

“Good morning, Keith!” Muriel had come here. It was quite normal to see the family visit his home. But the one who was entering that surprised him was none other than Chelan. Keith smiled, “Good morning to you as well. It’s fine. Please sit down; we’ll have breakfast, so come join us.”  

“Thank you,” The family sat down at the table. That was when Julius muttered, “Mooch.” 

"Indeed." Othniel and Finrandir grinned. 

Virel grinned back, “Don’t want to hear all this from you guys.” All three of them were mooches. But Julius added, “That’s because my Carolyn is living on the island!”

“Same!” The two kings grinned as they stared at him. 

"..." Virel's eyes narrowed as he sat down. That was when Keith clapped his hands, "Let's eat." And that was when the shoving match started.

"So delicious!"

"The bacon is tender and juicy." Finrandir savored each bite like it was his last. 

Keith said nothing as he sipped his coffee, which was an everyday thing for him. But that was when his gaze turned to Chelan, “So, what do you want to talk about?”  

“To talk about the agreement of the bet.” 

“Oh, yeah, the bet.” Keith sipped on his espresso. But that only caused Carolyn and the others to tilt their heads, “Bet? There was a bet?” This was the first time they heard about this. 

“Yeah. Chelan and I made a bet that whoever made the least revenue would drop out of the academy.” 

The moment he had said this, half of the people spat out the food in their mouths! The other half choked! 

“Are you kidding me?!” 

“What the hell?!” 

“What?” Keith blinked as he stared at them. That was when Carolyn grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him! 

“What’s this about you dropping out? Have you gone mad?!” This was news to them. But this was even worse when,

“So if we would have won, Keith would have dropped out.” Alfia and the others grabbed their heads when they heard that. A realization just occurred for all of them. 

Keith nodded, “Yeah, basically.” That was the bet. If they won, he would have dropped out. 

“...” Why are you acting so nonchalant. But there was one person who was going crazy as he started to shake him like a dummy, “You stupid brat! How could you wager your academy life like it’s nothing!” Cadmus wasn't going to sit around! This was his livelihood on the line! 

“But it really doesn’t mean anything to me.” Keith tilted his head as he stared at the dragon.

“Eh?” The others tilted their head.

“Honestly, I don’t need to attend the academy.” Keith shrugged, “I got more than enough things to keep my life intact.” His company was going quite strong, strong enough that he could live on that alone! That was not accounting for the bakery. 

“But what about making friends?!" Connections were important as well. 

“Kinda don’t need to make connections.” He didn’t need connections when his influence was already huge enough. When you're this big, connections will flock to you instead.

“...What about all of this? You wouldn't have all this if you didn't attend the academy. You wouldn't have found any ingredients." 

"True." That was a fact. However, "We're looking at the lens of me never being here. Even if I wasn't, I could have come here through the gate and registered as an adventurer. Actually, would have found more ingredients faster." It was the opposite. Academy life took a lot out of his time. If he fully focused on adventuring, he would find more ingredients. 

“...” Cadmus’s head dropped when he heard all that. But that made the other think. Now that he mentioned it,

Did he really need to attend the academy? What he said was quite true. 

"...How much does your shops make, Child?" The people who were out of the loop questioned. The way it sounded made it seem like he was filthy rich beyond measure.

"Enough." Keith rubbed his nose, “Besides, I won that bet.” That was the other issue at hand; since Keith won this bet, Chelan would drop out of the academy. 

“Yeah.”

“To be honest, you really don’t need to drop out.” Keith shrugged, “Didn’t really care about the bet all too much.”

“You weren’t?”

“No, I was going to win, so there was no need to.”