Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

Chapter 163 Exchange Students

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"Staying on the defensive and waiting for the enemies to attack isn't my style, but it isn't like I have any leads on where to find them… at the same time, the whole world is looking for them," Ethan thought.

  For a change, and before the storm, Ethan was forced to exercise some patience and wait for what might happen instead of looking for the source of the problem. That was quite troublesome, but those thoughts didn't bother him for long. In the end, he managed to relax and then sleep until the next morning… It looked like he was more tired than he had expected.

  When Ethan had breakfast with his family, he confirmed that Hannah hadn't returned yet. Still, at least she sent a message that she would be back by dinner… the world was about to enter an age of chaos, apparently, but at least her boss wasn't planning to put all the weight of the problems on her shoulders.

"Well, I am leaving…" Ethan said, and then he recalled something that he had to do, and then he went to the garden of the house. "Hey there, buddy. I have something for you."

  Ethan carefully put a dark necklace on Milo's neck. That didn't seem like the kind of item that a dog like him would like to use, and it was different from the amulet that he got yesterday. Still, it was just an external layer that Ethan bought using his system to protect the real item.

"From now on, it will be your job to protect Mom and Dad when Hannah and I aren't around, got it?" Ethan asked. "I put a shit ton of mana in it, so you will get really strong."

  Milo barked and waited for his head to be patted, but Ethan just forced a small smile… he couldn't risk turning Milo into a shell of his forced self, so he restrained himself. 

"I will be counting on you," Ethan declared before he used his wristwatch to go to school.

  As soon as Ethan arrived there, he received a message through his wristwatch… It was from Ian. It seemed like a joke since he sent a message filled with angry emotions. He was asking why neither Ethan nor Emily was using the Telepathy amulet. He must be really stupid if he had to ask why…

"What do you want, Ian?" Ethan said after a long sigh.

"I really don't want to say since you two made me wait for this long… but it can't be helped under the circumstances," Ian said after a long sigh. "Miss Lyla wants to talk with all of us and it seems that it is about something serious. Come to the entrance of the main building right now."

  Ethan wondered what that was about… it seemed a bit too earlier for problems to emerge, and problems weren't supposed to emerge in the academy. Regardless, Ethan leisurely walked toward the main building.

  After five minutes, Ethan found Ian and Lyla, and while he was received by a look of anger coming from Ian, Lyla just smiled like usual. Ethan immediately realized that Ian had just made a huge deal out of nothing.

"Good morning. So, what is this about?" Ethan asked.

"Let's wait until Emily arrives. It will be better if you all are informed of that all at once," Lyla explained.

  That seemed like a waste of time, but Ethan felt that he didn't have the right to say that since those two had been waiting for quite a while. In the end, he had to wait for another ten minutes until a sleepy Emily showed up.

"My apologies for my delay…" Emily said while trying to recover her breath.

"No worries," Lyla said and then approached to fix a bit of Emily's hair since she still had a bit of a bed hair with her. Emily blushed, but at least she didn't push Lyla away. "The instructors and the director of the academy heard of your accomplishments, and while you left without our permission, things were sorted out already. Anyway, congratulations! From now on, you all are rank D students!"

  Congratulations! Your rank has increased from E to D. Your salary has also been duplicated.

Your current balance is: $ 705.995.00

  Ethan had used fifty thousand dollars in mana potions to fill the giantification amulet. He was barely using all that money, so he didn't feel anything when he was promoted. Ian and Emily didn't feel that happy about it either.

"What is wrong?" Lyla asked while frowning. "I guess I don't understand teens anymore… Anyway, while you all were promoted, you will have to endure some intense lessons in the courses that you chose recently, the tests to pass them won't be that difficult, so you don't have to worry about it. This is all a countermeasure to avoid problems since it is clear that your strength is way above your rank. Some people believe that your strength is already at the B rank, but skipping so many steps would cause even more problems. Just keep working hard as usual, okay?"

"Sure," Ethan replied.

  Ian and Emily nodded as well, and then Lyla explained a few other things to them. They had to keep quiet about their activities in Ghana and the other mission Ian's father commanded. Most likely, some other students already have Intel about it, but they didn't have to reveal anything to them. Also, their ranks had been increasing quite fast since Ethan arrived, so he had to be even more cautious in order not to draw anyone's attention… Lyla didn't confirm that, but she implied that he might be targeted by the returnees that stole the data from other countries.

  Lastly, they shouldn't do anything else suspicious… they escaped punishment now. Still, it will be hard to think that the same thing will happen again if they do something reckless. After saying all that, Lyla left the area since the lessons were about to start.

"I guess we will be busy for a while…" Emily said while imagining the grind that they would have to endure for that week. "Still, I can't say that I won't welcome this since all that fighting wore me out."

"You improved your stamina, but you still have a long way to go," Ethan crossed his arms and then declared. "Anyway, I might as well hurry up and finish these courses as soon as possible. I don't like the idea of postponing the inevitable."

"Hey, I bet that we can help each other and finish this pretty soon… if we use the Telepathy amulets," Ian said while grinning. "Ah, the tension of cheating during a test… that isn't something that I will ever get sick of."

"Unbelievable…" Emily furrowed her eyebrows.

  Ethan and Emily decided to ignore Ian's idea… he was indeed like a thief. That kind of idea was something that only someone like that would consider. Maybe Ethan couldn't say anything about it, thanks to his power, but he disliked the idea of cheating… he was a purebred warrior through and through.

  In any case, the group didn't meet much during that week since they focused on studying and passing the tests. In the end, they could have passed without studying, but showing their hard work spirit would also make other students realize that they deserved the promotion.

  During that week, Ethan talked with Hannah a bit about the situation in the whole world… she couldn't reveal much since Ethan was no longer part of the operation. Still, it looked like things didn't change much. That was confirmed since Hannah only had two days off before she returned to her job. Who could have thought that diplomatic work was that intense…

  Also, during that week, Ethan frowned a bit since he didn't see Dante and Aline not even once at school. They supposedly weren't working on that mission either, but it was hard to be sure. Regardless, Ethan just wanted to confirm if his training was going well or not.

  In any case, that week of grinding, those three decided to take a day off at school and just chill out in one of the simulators… Ethan didn't use a single one of them during those days, and he found himself in a weird spot since he wasn't that eager to train on it.

"It isn't like I mind hanging out with you guys… but I don't have any idea what to do to kill time anymore," Emily said once they entered the simulator.

"I also feel a bit unmotivated…" Ethan furrowed his eyebrows. "I guess we need to find motivation in some other way aside from training."

"Show me your motivation!" Ian suddenly raised his voice, and the others looked at him while frowning. "Anyway, I have some news for you all. You should have been wondering why you didn't see Dante or Aline this week. The reason for that is because they were sent to Japan as exchange students, and it looks like two students from Japan will arrive tomorrow as well."