Chapter 21: Trouble At Academy Gate

Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Trouble At Academy Gate

I need another trading partner.

Relying entirely on Evelyn wasn’t ideal.

There was a possibility that she had started questioning his source and she’d probably move to digging deeper about him.

That was understandable, considering the quality of the treasures he had been bringing to her. If he continued supplying her with rare resources at this rate, she would eventually learn far more about him than he wanted.

Evelyn hadn’t done anything suspicious so far, but Xavier didn’t intend to gamble his secrets on one person’s discretion.

Having several reliable trading partners would spread the attention around and make his activities much harder to trace. It would also allow him to establish connections with more powerful families.

The more influential people he had dealings with, the more cautious the Sinclair family would have to be about making trouble for him.

Still, there was no need to rush. People capable of trading for Third Tier and higher resources were already rare.

Finding someone who was wealthy, discreet, trustworthy, and useful would require careful selection. Xavier would rather take his time than make a careless decision.

As for the Phoenix Awakening Elixir, he wasn’t particularly worried. The Whitmore family was powerful enough that Evelyn should be able to find one eventually.

And once he obtained it, Mira’s dormant Frost Phoenix Bloodline might finally awaken.

Just thinking about the possible system reward made Xavier’s heart beat faster.

A Fifth Tier investment. What kind of return would it produce?

Xavier’s imagination ran wild for a while before he finally took a breath and settled himself down. He listened toward the room next door.

Mira was still awake, quietly practicing her recovery technique. Since there was nothing else he needed to do, Xavier sat down on his own bed and began his own training.

The night passed quietly.

By the following morning, Mira had already prepared breakfast. The couple ate together before going their separate ways.

Mira remained at home to continue recovering, while Xavier headed toward Arcadia Academy with Marcus.

It was their first official day of work. Neither of them expected that their first day would become troublesome before they had even stepped through the academy gates.

A group of people was already waiting for them at the entrance. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

Xavier and Marcus had barely reached the entrance of Arcadia Academy when they noticed the crowd gathered nearby. Several students were standing around them, openly discussing Xavier.

"Is that Xavier Kane?" one asked.

"So that’s Mira’s husband? The cursed man whose wives had all died mysteriously? He’s actually pretty good looking," another said.

"No wonder she chose him," someone added.

"Choose him? You really don’t know what happened? Mira was already cast aside by her family. The academy even forced her to leave. She has no future as a mage anymore," another student said.

"Yeah they fit perfectly. The cursed man and the abandoned mage. Quite a pair," someone else added.

"Oh he might be cursed but it seems he is slowly making a name for himself. He became an apprentice in the academy’s alchemy wing yesterday," a student said.

"What? An alchemy apprentice?" another asked.

"Apparently, yes," came the reply.

"Then how did someone like him get that position? I bet he had someone pull strings for him," someone said.

The comments continued. Xavier ignored them. He had expected some gossip eventually. There was no way his marriage to Mira would remain a secret forever, especially after they started working at the same academy.

Before leaving home, Mira had already warned him not to draw unnecessary attention to their relationship. Unfortunately, there was always someone willing to make trouble.

And that someone appeared very quickly.

Three young men pushed through the crowd. The man in front was someone Xavier recognized immediately.

Ethan Carter. He was the same man who had followed Evelyn around at the treasure pavilion the other day.

The moment Ethan saw Xavier, his expression darkened.

"So you’re Xavier Kane," he said.

Xavier stopped.

"Do we know each other?" he asked, pretending. In situations like this, pretending not to remember bullies like him was the best thing to do.

Ethan’s face became even uglier.

"How dare you pretend you don’t know me after making me and Evelyn fight, you sneaky rat." He gritted his teeth, his anger flaring.

Xavier frowned, visibly stressed out by all this.

"You were being too forward and Evelyn had to put you in your place. How is that my fault?" Xavier said out flatly.

The crowd gasped in shock as the comment sounded like Ethan had been shunned by the one person they thought he was engaged to.

Ethan’s nose flared in anger, his whole body was now shaking with uncontrolled rage.

"How dare you talk about something you don’t know about!" Ethan pointed at Xavier.

"Oh no no. This is bad." Marcus who was standing beside Xavier started to fidget and rugged at the sleeves of shirt. "Ethan won’t let this go, Xavier. Please control what you say or just apologize."

Xavier didn’t flinch nor make an attempt to reply. The murmurs from the crowd increased, which only fueled Ethan’s humiliation.

It felt like if he didn’t act or do something to cover up his shame by teaching Xavier a lesson, this humiliation would follow him forever.

"Look here, Xavier Kane." He started speaking with unadulterated anger.

"I’ll give you one chance to retract your words and kneel down to apologize now, and I’ll let this matter go," he said.