With a small enchanted bag that contained fifty thousand gold coins, Seth left Asphed's office. By betting with Asphed, he had cut down his expenses by half. Now, he'd only have to add another fifty thousand gold coins for Raiden's mother's treatment.
Even though this dragon should be happy, he was slightly pained. If he had known things would play out so easily, he could've made Asphed pay the whole bill for him.
Still, a victory remained a victory. Seth smiled as he walked back to class.
There was one more lecture period for him today before his private class. Besides, from tomorrow, he'd be spending a week in the library. His only escape from that place was his lunch break and personal class.
Seth planned to utilize today as he saw fit and one thing on his list was to attend the next class punctually.
He walked into his class with most of his classmates already present. His appearance turned most heads as many eyes became fixed on him.
No one was aware of what happened in the principal's office. None were even aware that they had gone there.
The only reason why they were looking at him right now was because Seth was the only student to have publicly challenged a teacher. His reputation in their hearts rose by a level.
Seeing so many eyes on him, Seth simply smiled and walked toward Taro. During the past few days, both of them had grown close and this closeness was growing with every passing hour.
"Where'd you go? You missed the last class." Taro said the moment Seth sat beside him.
Before Seth could answer, a familiar head popped up from beside Taro. "Yes, don't tell me you were serving punishment after all those talks." She quickly covered her mouth after speaking, noticing her voice was louder than intended but it was too late.
'Welp… she sure was loud.' Seth breathed deeply.
Once again, many eyes darted toward Seth who seemed not to care for them.
"Nope. Actually, I've been off for a really good reason…" Seth said for all to hear and as expected, after this, everyone lost interest and went back to their side talks.
After noticing that the class had lost interest in him, he whispered to Taro and Liz. "...and yes, I've been punished. Not by Mr. Asphed though. The punishment came from someone higher."
"The principal?" Taro guessed.
Seth nodded. "Yes…"
They were shocked by the turn of events and were even more troubled when they thought of what punishment the principal might've given to Seth. As if reading the mind, he spoke out. "Don't worry. He simply sent me to the library to study."
That's when Taro remembered Seth's bet with Asphed.
He smiled as he stared at this new addition to their room. "And here I was, thinking you had gone crazy placing such a bet."
Only now did it dawn on Liz too. "Wait, you mean…"
"Yes. I won the bet. Although the money already has a use, I'll treat you guys to an awesome meal once the punishment is over in a week." Seth wore a big smile.
"A week huh? That's a bit long, don't you think?" Liz asked.
"It's no big deal. Besides, you can always visit. He didn't say anything about friends not visiting." Seth shrugged.
"Sure. I'll do so then." Taro replied without hesitation.
Liz also opened her mouth to speak but the door to the classroom opened and the teacher walked in forcing her to swallow back her words.
♠♠♠♠♠
Seth headed to his assigned room for private lessons. The lesson would usually begin by 5:00 pm but Seth decided to arrive very early today.
After his last class ended by 3:00 pm, he headed for one of the cafeterias and purchased food to eat. He brought the food with him to his training room and currently, he was sitting lotus style on the floor as he ate from what he had purchased.
"Four hundred and twenty-five…"
"Four hundred and twenty-six…"
One hand moved food into his mouth and another hand oversaw the movement of gold coins from his private spatial bag to the one he received from Asphed.
In batches of one hundred, he would move the coins with mana from one bag to the other.
He still had about an hour before Raiden arrived so he just did whatever he wanted.
By the time he finished eating…
"Five hundred." His counting also ended.
Five hundred batches of hundred coins totaled fifty thousand gold coins. Now, the bag he received from Asphed contained a hundred thousand coins which would be landing in Raiden's hand in less than an hour.
"I should get warmed up before he arrives. Today's training should be less painful compared to yesterday since I'm yet to completely heal up." Seth rose to his feet and cracked his fingers and neck.
"Woah, I didn't completely expect you to show up but you did." Seth's attention was brought back to this new voice in the room after over thirty minutes of self-training.
"It seems I can't remain on the bed for long even after what you did to me yesterday." Seth smiled at Raiden while bringing his training to a halt.
"I can see you're not fully healed so today's training would be half as intense as yesterday's." Raiden said to Seth, walking closer and inspecting him.
"Before that…" Seth walked to a small bag on the floor, picked it up, and tossed it at Raiden.
"...the money as promised." Seth finished his statement which almost sounded foreign to Raiden.
He was too dumbstruck to even speak.
Yes, he believed Seth would do something about the money.
Yes, he had a thin line of belief that Seth might provide the money even though it would take longer.
Of course, he kept those probabilities at the back of his mind, this was all happening too fast.
"By any chance, did your parents come to visit? I'd like to personally greet them for this help." Raiden said, believing Seth could have only gotten this amount if his family intervened.
"The hell? No! They're not within two hundred miles in any direction of this place. I got it all by my means." Seth said with a bit of anger.
"Pardon but ho…"
Seth waved one hand to cut off Raiden's question which he had been expecting. "Don't ask how I got it. Just know it couldn't have been through illegal means. You're free to use it."
'Betting isn't illegal, right? Of course, it isn't.' Seth thought and answered himself.
"Now, back to the matter on ground. The treatment bill is covered so we should be good with the deal right?" Seth asked with a mischievous grin.
Raiden could now control himself, so he replied. "Yes, we can proceed but that's only after you're fully healed."
"Oh, lest I forget, I'll begin serving punishment tomorrow. Although it won't affect my training sessions, I just figured I'd let you know." Seth informed his private tutor.
"Now, let's begin. We can just fight like yesterday. Just don't kill me." Seth got into a fighting stance.
"Begin!"
Boom!
The moment he yelled, he found himself flying toward one of the walls as a result of Raiden's punch.