Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 881 The Bill Comes Due

Date- 3 April 2321

Time- 10:26

Location- Sky Blossom City, Airstrip

”You, are you out of your mind? Where do you get off name-calling your teacher, senile and shameless? Are you trying to rebel?” Lorenzo yelled hearing me call him shameless.

”F you, get out of my way. Unlike you, I have places to be,” Saying that I decided to walk past Lorenzo and enter the carrier. But I had underestimated Lorenzoʼs shamelessness. Vanishing from his previous spot he appeared in front of me blocking my path to the carrier once again and said, ”Where are you going? I am not done talking and I donʼt permit you to leave the town.”

”I donʼt need your permission to leave town and I am done talking to you,” I declared and walked around Lorenzo towards the carrier.

With a burst of wind, Lorenzo once again appeared in front of me blocking my path saying, ”You donʼt seem to understand how this works, you are young, inexperienced, and lacking information so I will let this slide.

Your array mastery certification test is very important since you will be participating as my disciple. This means all the old crooks and fools who have contributed to the array association will come to watch and judge my disciple. Some may even go as far as to make things difficult for you. A lot of people hold a grudge against me and will not miss this opportunity to get back at me through you.

Therefore, there is no room for error otherwise you will end up embarrassing me in front of those old bastards. Do you know how shameful it will be for me if my disciple takes more than one try to complete his array mastery certification test? If that were to happen I will not be able to show my face around the array association again. And those old bastards will laugh at me for the rest of the eternity.

So stop being stubborn, donʼt roam around and crack a book. I need you at your best for the array mastery certification test.

Stop! Where are you going, I am not done speaking?” Lorenzo once again rushed to block the path of the promising array master.

”Is there no end to this?” I cussed looking at the sky and then glaring at Lorenzo, I once again repeated my previous stance on the relationship between Lorenzo and me, ”Oldman, get it through that thick head of yours, you and I are not mentor-mentee. That fact will not change no matter how many times you keep calling yourself my teacher.

And if you keep pestering me, I will not go through the array mastery certification test under the southern regionʼs banner but wait and enter the certification test under morningstar universityʼs name.

If you try to force me I will purposefully fail the certification test. Understand what is best for us and please leave.”

”It breaks my heart to hear that you feel that way, for now, let us agree to disagree that we are not mentors and mentees.

But how can you say that you will betray the southern region and work in morning star universityʼs interest? Arenʼt you ashamed? Donʼt let your anger for me let the third party get the better of you. We all are one family, you are marrying my niece for god sake. You need to be more tolerant towards your family.

I am not saying there is no fault on my part. I may have been eccentric before and my means to guide you could have been more hands-on than just giving you homework. But now, all that changes, you are free to ask me your doubts and what you want to learn, I will do my best to meet your requirements,” hearing me say that I would rather represent morningstar university than the southern region in the certification test or fail the certification test purposefully if forced, Lorenzo finally stopped throwing his weight around and tried to reason with me, more like confuse and burden me with patriotic rants and family values.

In a different situation maybe I would fall for Lorenzoʼs patriotism because thanks to Anna, Susan, Elliott, Cortney, and Kathy, I felt a strong sense of belonging to the southern region. But at present Lorenzo using patriotism to get his way only grew my disgust towards him.

And when was it decided that I will be marrying his niece? Fuck, this old bastard was willing to say and do anything to get his way, what I did not understand was why was it so important for him to have me take the array mastery certification test as his disciple. So far all I know was I showed promising talent in array mastery and Lorenzo wanted to use me to show off in front of his colleagues. But considering how cunning Lorenzo was I found it hard to believe that Lorenzo was being so persistent just because of such silly reasons. He must have another agenda, that I am unable to see from my side. There is no way this old Foxʼs tone will become so docile with a few threats. Something else was afoot here, this old bastard, by chance, does he plan to sell me to the array master association, does he?

Thinking of this I felt a chill on my back and forcefully stopped myself from immediately contacting Anna to know what nefarious plans Lorenzo was hatching with me at the crux because if Lorenzo was indeed planning something the chances of Annaʼs involvement in it were not low. I know with my history with Anna I should not be doubting Anna but feeling my life on the line it was hard for me not to doubt whether Anna knew about this or not.

When Lorenzo offered me his materials on array formation I should have known that nothing in this world was free. This old fox was working an angle from the start. During all that time I spent with Anna I started to think that the Southern royal family and their vassals were my allies. Therefore I ended up lowering my guard toward Lorenzo and walked right into his trap. Shit, lord only knows what those study materials lent by Lorenzo were going to cost me. Free stuff costs the most, these words couldnʼt be more true.

”Get lost, old man. You and I are not mentor-mentee, let alone one family. I donʼt know what gave you that idea but I hope you stop spouting nonsense for your convenience and be straight with me. Tell me what those materials of yours on array formation are going to cost me. If your asking price is reasonable I will pay you upfront and we return to being strangers,” I decided to put an end to Lorenzoʼs charades because I knew the bill came due. If I keep postponing the bill payment the interest will keep stacking on and I will end up paying twice, thrice, or even ten times more than the original bill.

…

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