The Genius Evolution Store

"We should do something with that brat who doesn’t know how the world works!" Madam Shelly demanded while placing her glass on the table, glaring at Supervisor Jacob. "He actually dared to interrupt you, Supervisor. You must have been enabling him, Instructor Maya. If not for you, his character would have been more decent."

Maya raised her eyebrows, but she wasn’t the first one to reply.

Instead, it was Supervisor Jacob.

He simply stated, "I don’t think so. The kid has done a great job. Rather than demanding an answer, I think we should praise him instead. I mean, out of everyone here, he’s the only one who can somehow pull off that kind of thing."

Mr. Green chuckled. "That’s a rather interesting thing to see. After all, even I didn’t expect that someone could hide the entire group’s presence from all of us. I mean, look at how many people are searching."

Supervisor Jacob nodded. "Yeah. So, just drop it, Madam Shelly. It doesn’t really matter anyway."

"Now that I think about it, Instructor Maya. As his teacher, have you noticed anything strange about him? I mean, is he, like... paranoid or something?" Mr. Green asked.

"Paranoid? Well..." Maya scratched the back of her head. "I don’t exactly want to brag, but there were 23 people—Rank 4 and Rank 5 humans—snooping around Thunderer City. I killed all of them, but there was no telling how many more were still lurking."

Mr. Green widened his eyes. "That many?"

"Yeah." Maya sighed. "It was truly hard to fend them off."

"You worked hard. I mean, Auric too. We know that a lot of people want a genius, but there are a lot more people who want to kill him." Mr. Green nodded. "I guess that was a bit insensitive to demand an answer from him. It was basically telling the others about his trump card that had been keeping him alive all this time."

When the instructors heard about the story, they couldn’t help but look at each other. Most people sympathized with Auric’s situation. Those who held a grudge against him began to drop their prejudice.

"If I were him, I would have died a long time ago." One instructor felt goosebumps.

"I know, right? It was amazing that the kid was able to survive for this long."

"Instructor Maya, did you really protect him?"

"I did. No need for your intervention. I’m working just fine, as long as you guys are not adding to that burden." Maya nodded calmly.

"We didn’t have anything against him from the beginning!" Some instructors laughed.

"It was indeed a rough life for a genius without a background." Mr. Green sighed. "Should I take him as my disciple instead?"

"No." Maya glared at him.

"Hahaha. I’m just joking." Mr. Green laughed. "I guess the Relesha family is working hard to protect him for now."

Maya snorted.

"He still needs to be punished. This is precisely the reason. Geniuses often do things they want. If the arrogance gets into their heads, they will end up causing even more mess than they are causing right now. We have to shape his character before that happens!" Madam Shelly slammed the table, trying to make her point.

Maya didn’t speak immediately. Instead, she glanced at the entire room, observing everyone’s expressions.

Mr. Green thought for a moment. "I don’t think there’s anything problematic about his character right now. Is it wrong to refuse to reveal the card that has been protecting you all this time?"

"Well, it was true that my student was out of line with his words when he demanded that kind of secret. It might have just been him talking back, but he had apologized for his action." Maya pointed to Madam Shelly. "Right?"

Madam Shelly gritted her teeth. "This is what I mean by you’re enabling him, Instructor Maya. It’s precisely because he’s a genius that you need to rein him in early."

Maya explained, "Why do I feel like you hate him? I’m more worried about you than him, Madam Shelly."

"What did you say?" Madam Shelly glared at Maya.

"That’s enough." As soon as he noticed that the conversation had gotten pretty heated, Supervisor Jacob raised his voice, putting a stop to it. "Madam Shelly, I have to stop you right now. As the one directly involved, your words are starting to get out of line. There are two things that I want to remind you of first.

"Auric Elfe is our ace. What do you think will happen if other countries know that you’re bullying our ace? Do you perhaps have another candidate who can be our ace, Madam Shelly?"

Madam Shelly said, "There are plenty of people. His strength is only Rank 2. We have plenty of Rank 4 students here, so they can defeat the students from other countries. What? Are you going to say that he’s going to represent us as an evolution master? He is still a silver-grade evolution master. He’s not our ace. We have five other silver-grade evolution masters."

Supervisor Jacob nodded in understanding. "If that’s the case, he’s our ace."

"Did you hear what I said?" Madam Shelly clenched her fists.

"Auric Elfe is not participating as a silver-grade evolution master."

"See? He’s no ace then." Madam Shelly shrugged.

Supervisor Jacob slammed the table, his expression turning grim. "He’s participating as our gold-grade evolution master!"

*Hiss!*

The room suddenly fell silent. The instructors looked at Supervisor Jacob in disbelief.

"Supervisor... I think I heard it incorrectly, but did you say he is going to participate in ETP as a gold-grade evolution master?" One instructor asked.

"Yeah." Supervisor Jacob nodded. "I’ve confirmed that he is going to participate in the test next week. According to Chief Lucas from the Evolution Association, he’s most likely going to become a gold-grade evolution master. His actual badge isn’t confirmed, but Chief Lucas is expecting something like a three-star badge."

"A 17-year-old, three-star gold-grade evolution master?" The instructors gasped.

"If other countries find out that we’ve been treating such a genius like this, what do you think will happen?"

They could imagine the kind of invitation Auric would receive. At that time, the government would look like a fool.

"Also, I don’t think I have to tell you this, but I’m going to warn you anyway. If this information is known to other countries, get ready because I’m going to investigate you all. No matter who you’re going to call, I’m going to ruin that person. The president will hear about this, after all."

They nodded with a serious expression. They wanted an element of surprise. It would be surprising to discover such a young gold-grade evolution master. This was their chance to beat the genius evolution master, Nicholas.

Supervisor Jacob raised one finger. "Also, the other thing is the possibility of him quitting in the middle."

"What? Quitting?" They looked dumbfounded.

"Yeah. Don’t you think so, Instructor Maya?"

Maya shrugged. "Well, knowing his personality, yes. It’s possible."

"Instructor Maya?! How can he quit? That’s not professional, right?"

"Kallarnos University once extended an invitation to him, but he rejected it. I once asked him, but he never really cared about the glory and stuff like that. That was why he rejected it. He had confidence in his own shop and his talent as an evolution master. It was the same for the Europe Training Program."

"Do you mean he didn’t intend to actually join this program?" An instructor asked.

"Yep, but after hearing about Tommiseus, I received a call asking me to have him participate. It was hard to persuade him, you know?" Maya sighed.

The instructors looked at each other. Judging from the situation, it didn’t look like Maya was playing around. If Auric ended up quitting, they would be the one getting judged.

Supervisor Jacob said, "In any case, you may have your own favored student, but don’t forget that this guy is our ace. You can make them compete, but I expect that all instructors will avoid abusing their own power to suppress him, okay?"

Most of the instructors agreed.

"Quitting is just like a child throwing a tantrum. He doesn’t get what he wants, and he’s threatening to quit?" Madam Shelly shook her head helplessly as though she was disappointed.

"What you’re doing right now is like an adult throwing a tantrum, you know?" Maya squinted. "You don’t get him to kneel to you, and now you’re trying to use everything to make him look like he’s at fault."

"How dare you!" Madam Shelly slammed the table.

"What? Are you going to suppress me as well? Do you think I’m afraid of you?" Maya glared back.

"Enough, both of you. I’m not here to play the principal." Supervisor Jacob sighed. "You should understand how important Auric Elfe is for this training program. Besides, the next time this happens, I won’t be the one to stop you. It will be Chief Lucas."

"What? Chief Lucas intends to get involved in this matter?"

"What do you think?" Supervisor Jacob shrugged. "The biggest genius in the Evolution Association is getting bullied. Do you think he will stay silent?"

The instructors looked away. Obviously, knowing Chief Lucas’s personality, the first thing he would do after learning about this incident was pull Auric out.

He would shame them for failing to cherish their opportunity and would investigate this matter closely. At that time, he would then impose a sanction on a few people, including their organization.

But once that matter blew up, other countries would sneak in to recruit Auric, which would also create chaos within their government.

The headache was simply too much for them, so it was best to just keep quiet. It was just a simple matter anyway. There was no need to escalate it.

Most instructors thought this way. Those who were angry at Auric earlier had decided to let go of their anger because it sounded petty and not worth the hassle.

Madam Shelly was still gritting her teeth, not realizing that Maya was still staring at her.

"Well, for now, just continue with the training schedule." Supervisor Jacob sighed.

"I’m going to catch him tonight!" Madam Shelly stated.

Supervisor Jacob raised his eyebrows, as though he was ready to fight it out with Madam Shelly.

However, Maya actually chuckled and said in a condescending tone. "Sure, you can do that. Just try to catch him if you can. I have no doubt that Auric can escape, unless you’re cheating. I’m just afraid that you’re going to use your incompetence to punish him again."

"You..." Madam Shelly glared at Maya.

"Enough, both of you. This is the final warning, or else I’m going to shut you both with force."

"Hmph." Madam Shelly snorted.

Maya just shrugged and drank her beer until the last drop before slamming the glass on the table. She stood up and said, "I’m full. I’m going to get some rest before tonight’s raid."

"..." Supervisor Jacob just facepalmed, wondering, ’Why the hell did the situation become like this from just a simple question? I didn’t even demand that he answer me. It was purely my curiosity. Why did all these people just assume whatever they want? Maybe I shouldn’t have taken this job.’

Meanwhile, Maya immediately took out her phone as soon as she left and sent a message. "Out of all the instructors, Madam Shelly is the only one who remains stubborn. She is the most suspicious since she’s trying to incite anger among the instructors. However, there might be more moles still hidden in this batch or in the other batch, which I can’t check for."

...

In their dorm, Vera was humming while taking a shower.

Auric was studying when he received the message from Maya. "Hmm. Katarina, it looks like Madam Shelly is indeed suspicious."

Katarina took a peek as Auric showed the message to her.

"I guess we’re going to run away from her tonight. It should be fine, right?" Ellia asked.

"Unless she tears the entire place apart, she won’t be able to find us. Just get a good night’s sleep." Auric smiled.

"Actually, we’re in luck, Auric. After seeing how she treated you during her lesson, I asked my family to check her information. You know what? We got a hit on her bank records." Katarina smirked.

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