Chapter 148: One Drop
The first thing Cher and Darius did was send messages to Silas. Cher tried first, but when she received no response, Darius sent one as well, only to be met with the same silence.
"He doesn’t respond," Cher said worriedly. "Do you think he got into trouble?"
"What for?" Terio asked casually. "He was only going to see someone from the higher-year classes for help. It can’t be that difficult, right?"
Cher did not know how to respond to such carefree words. The reputation of the Fat Wealthy Cat Master was hardly known among ordinary G-clan students. If not for her father, who had once wanted to make use of his help several years ago, she would probably never have heard of him either.
"Let’s go."
Without explaining her sudden anxiety, Cher turned around and headed toward the shuttle.
"Did I say something wrong?"
Terio leaned toward Lara and whispered, though not quietly enough for Cher to miss it. She almost stopped to turn around and explain exactly how foolish his assumption was, but when she heard Lara whispering something back to him, she decided to let the matter go.
’I hope you didn’t get into a fight with him.’
Knowing Silas, Cher was certain he was not the impulsive type, but even he had a bottom line. She remembered what happened when Leopard and Rachel had tried to scheme their team out of the top positions. Silas’ retaliation had been satisfying, even touching in its own way, but it had also taught her something important about him.
That was why she felt even more worried now.
The master Silas had gone to see was clearly connected to solving his current crisis, and Cher knew how seriously Silas regarded that problem. To him, the worst condition he suffered was not merely a personal inconvenience. She could easily tell he considered it a liability that could eventually drag down the entire team.
’Hurry up, you two.’
Everyone followed Cher without asking further questions, though Terio and Lara were the only ones still walking at a leisurely pace. Eventually, Darius stopped near the front of the shuttle and turned around.
"You two, are you planning to walk there tomorrow?"
The moment he shouted, Terio and Lara’s expressions changed. They hurried toward the shuttle together, but even then, they remained close to each other.
Just as the shuttle doors were closing, Cher and Darius received messages at almost the same time.
[I know you are up there.]
[Send me the shuttle down right now.]
"He’s waiting for us down there," Darius said.
Cher nodded, her expression becoming strangely serious. For some reason, the more she thought about those messages, the more tense she became.
’He sounds worried.’
She looked through the shuttle window, but there was nothing unusual below them, only scattered clouds drifting over the distant green landscape.
The shuttle soon descended into the garden, and the moment the doors opened, the team was greeted by an unexpected sight.
Silas was standing several dozen meters away. And yet, he was not alone.
Beside him stood a fat, middle-aged man who was talking incessantly, moving his hands from side to side while his enormous belly swayed along with every gesture. From a distance, it looked as though the two were arguing, but it did not take long for the team to realize that Silas was barely saying anything while the man did most of the talking.
"Who is that?"
Alfred was the first to ask. He pointed toward the fat man before turning to Cher, and soon everyone else was looking at her as well.
"It’s the Fat Wealthy Cat," Cher sighed, feeling even more puzzled and restless. "He’s the infamous teacher of the Rune Rocks class."
"Infamous?" Darius immediately caught onto the unusual word. "What for?"
"Greed," Cher replied, clearing her throat as she prepared herself for what she suspected would be a long conversation with a man she had encountered years ago.
Before she could take another step, however, Silas’ irritated voice carried across the garden.
"Stay away from me."
He did not even bother looking back.
"I told you I dropped the entire idea."
"So go back to your class and forget about me."
Silas turned toward the shuttle, and when he saw his teammates emerging from it, the tension in his expression eased slightly.
At least now, he had support.
The moment he decided to play hard to get with that teacher, Silas had not expected to bring such a massive headache upon himself. He had assumed the man would either act aloof or send a few students after him to convince him to reconsider.
Instead, Silas had severely underestimated the man’s greed.
The teacher had not stayed behind for even a moment. Like a cat chasing the scent of food, he had followed Silas everywhere, talking without pause for nearly an entire hour.
Silas had tried to lose him several times, even wandering into the first-year class area in the hope that the man would finally give up.
But the man didn’t.
The teacher simply followed him with astonishing shamelessness, continuing to negotiate without stopping for even a second.
Finally, Silas gave up on the idea.
He had no scales to offer, and he had only intended to bargain with the flower the dragon was so desperate to obtain. Yet the teacher’s greed had somehow surpassed even the dragon’s desperation, forcing Silas to abandon the matter entirely.
’I’ll go and try making the Rune Rocks myself.’
He sighed inwardly.
’Or I could ask Cher, Darius, or one of their clans for help.’
He was certain the G-Clans had their own Rune Masters, but finding one and convincing them to help would delay his recovery even further.
’As if I could make it today anyway.’
The ten-day period had already passed. No matter what he did, he would join the mission while his body was still absorbing the dragon blood.
"Oh, isn’t that Cher Avaron?"
Before Silas could take another step, the teacher suddenly became strangely agile, darting past him toward his friends.
Silas remained where he was for a moment, surprised by the man’s speed, but after everything that had happened, he decided there was little point in being surprised by him anymore and followed.
"Hey, Fat Wealth Cat, stay away from Silas."
Cher showed no courtesy when she saw the teacher approaching. It was obvious that Silas had been trying to get rid of the man, yet the greedy cat had somehow managed to cling to him even more tightly.
"He is the one who came to ask for my help."
For a brief moment, Silas thought the teacher might possess enough dignity to take the hint and leave.
"And he said he was willing to pay with something extremely generous and rare, so naturally, I agreed..."
"I didn’t promise him anything."
Silas immediately interrupted him, his voice sharp enough to make it sound as though he were defending himself from an accusation.
"You..."
The teacher stared at him in disbelief before quickly recovering.
"I said I would do the job he wanted in exchange for that thing."
He spoke as though Silas had revealed some great secret that he desperately wanted to keep hidden from his companions.
"What exactly is going on?"
Darius stepped forward, his eyes moving between the two of them.
"What did you promise him?"
The teacher’s expression suggested that the situation was slipping out of his control, but before he could explain himself, Silas answered.
"He thinks I have dragon scales."
"Which isn’t true."
Unlike what the teacher expected, Silas said it openly, without even bothering to hide the matter from his companions.
The teacher’s eyes widened as they moved between Silas and the others. Then something seemed to click in his mind.
"Wait a minute..."
His expression changed several times in quick succession, from confusion to realization, and then to something dangerously close to excitement.
"I heard a team fought against the dragon."
His eyes widened further.
"So it wasn’t just you..."
He suddenly turned toward Cher.
"Then can you convince your leader to make the deal with me?"
His greed had been reignited.
"I’ll work for an entire month. No, several months. I’ll work exclusively for all of you in exchange for just one..."
"Forget it."
Silas was already losing his patience.
"I told you, we don’t have any scales."
The teacher’s face fell as though Silas had just personally betrayed him.
"But..."
He looked ready to start bargaining again, and Silas was beginning to seriously consider punching him in the face when Darius suddenly intervened.
"It’s true. We don’t have the scales."
His words immediately drew everyone’s attention.
"But we have something else we can trade with you."
The statement left no room for guessing, and for a moment, everyone stared at Darius in disbelief.
Even the teacher was stunned.
"What exactly is that?"
The man’s greed immediately returned. He seemed convinced that whatever Darius was about to offer might be even more valuable than the scales, yet he desperately tried to keep his expectations under control, fearing that imagining something too extravagant would only make the disappointment worse.
"Let me speak with my friend first."
Darius didn’t wait for a response. He grabbed the bewildered Silas and pulled him back toward the shuttle.
Cher was the first to follow, with the others quickly joining them.
"Are you out of your damn mind?"
Cher was the first to speak, storming toward Darius the moment they were inside.
"Do you know how valuable dragon blood is?"
She lowered her voice into a sharp whisper, afraid that the greedy teacher might follow them and listen in.
"Do you realize how dangerous it is to let that information spread?"
Alfred’s expression was equally serious, and everyone turned toward Darius. And yet, he remained completely unfazed.
"We need him."
The simple statement left little room for argument, while the true reason behind his decision remained buried deep within him.
"If he doesn’t help, Silas won’t get better."
His gaze settled on Silas before moving across the others.
"And if Silas doesn’t get better, he won’t be able to use the dragon blood."
Silence descended over the group.
Then Darius smiled.
"Who said we’re giving him the bottle?"
The smile on his face became almost sinister.
"We’ll give him a single droplet."
He looked around at the others.
"One drop won’t cost us anything."
’But that one droplet could make all the difference for us in the near future.’