Chapter 244: Going back to Balon City.

The group returned to Brandvel City some time later. Harold instructed some members of his group to bring the five teenagers back to their families, while he insisted that Alex come with the rest of them to the Union Core Centre, where he planned to sell the beast corpses that they had gotten.The members of Harold’s group had been in charge of storing the corpses of the birds that Alex and the other kids killed. Harold had made sure that they stored the corpses separately and did not mix them.

While Alex and the members of the Blue Cross group waited on the bottom floor, Harold went in with a middle-aged man to sell the corpses of the magic beasts.

He came back some time later with two black cards in his hands, he handed one to Alex after reaching him.

"Inside this card is two million and four hundred thousand Zen, it’s your share from the beasts you killed," Harold explained with a kind smile.

Alex was slightly surprised. He had expected this and guessed it was why Harold had insisted on Alex coming with them to this place. What he didn’t expect was for Harold to actually give him everything he got from the beasts he killed.

Thanks to the calculating function of the system, Alex knew how many magic birds he killed and after doing some calculations, the money was exactly 2.7 million Zen if any discount or service fee was charged.

Harold must have offset those charges by himself.

He knew why Harold was doing this so he didn’t bother pretending to be modest or refusing the money.

"Thank you," Alex said with a sincere tone while accepting the card.

Harold nodded, satisfied that Alex didn’t refuse the money. In his opinion, the kid was taking care of his expenses and most likely his university fees, so doing this would encourage Alex to join his group.

Of course, this was only one of his reasons; he really wanted to assist Alex, too.

After giving Alex the card, Harold said that he wasn’t returning home yet and couldn’t give Alex a ride home.

Alex said it was fine as he wasn’t going home directly either and wanted to go get some things at a nearby shop first.

Both parties departed outside the Union Core Center and Alex headed for the shop where he wanted to get an item.

It was a jewellery shop.

Alex had spotted a beautiful necklace some time earlier and planned to present it to Ellie on their date. It was a pretty golden necklace with a red gemstone locket.

The necklace couldn’t be considered a magic item, but the red gemstone had a cooling effect that would make the wearer feel cool even if the weather was very hot.

He didn’t want to get an expensive magic item, as Ellie would question how he was able to afford it; this necklace was okay.

After getting the necklace for two hundred and thirty thousand Zen, Alex headed straight for his place.

Alex reached home after some time. It was still early in the evening, and Alex didn’t really feel like staying indoors through the rest of the day. He decided that he would go out and farm exp instead.

At this moment, his phone rang. Alex brought it out and saw that it was his mother calling him.

"Hi, Mom. How are you doing?" Alex voiced out answering the call.

"My baby boy! Mom’s fine. How are you?" Freda’s excited voice sounded through the phone, causing a warm smile to form on Alex’s lips.

After spending minutes just asking about each other’s well-being, Freda finally said the reason why she had called.

Turns out that Alicia wanted to talk to him. Upon hearing this, Alex’s expression turned weird for a moment; he didn’t know how to react.

Although the windrend tried to hide it, Alex knew that she was still scared of him and wouldn’t want to initiate a conversation with him even when he was around.

So why would she suddenly request to talk to him and even make Freda call him?

The phone was soon passed over to Alicia on Alex’s request, though Freda was reluctant.

There was a moment of silence after Freda passed the phone, not a word was spoken.

"You know I can hear you breathing, right?" Alex asked with a teasing tone.

He could hear the sound of Alicia’s shocked gasp from the other side of the phone, followed by her forced, calm voice that said hello.

The first thing that Alex asked was if Emily was alright. His parents had the necklaces with them but Emily had nothing at the moment.

Alicia replied that Emily was fine, in fact everyone was fine for now.

Alex’s eyes narrowed after hearing how she phrased her words.

’For now?’

"What is it?" Alex asked in a deep voice.

Alicia told him to wait and proceeded to put some distance between Freda first. Only then did she report what had happened earlier to Alex.

A Sage rank mage has appeared in Balon City and from what Alicia felt from her, she wasn’t a kind person!

When Alex asked if there was anything particular wrong that she had noticed, Alicia said there was nothing.

All she had were her beastly instincts that screamed danger; her instincts didn’t even react like this when she first met Alex.

It was only when Alex wanted to kill her that she felt dreadful about him.

"Ok, I’ll come to Balon City tomorrow," Alex stated.

"Is that big brother’s voice? I want to talk with him too!"

Alex heard Emily’s voice in the background. It wasn’t a surprise that he spent the rest of the evening talking with his family, he ended up not going out to farm exp.

Early in the morning, Alex got dressed in his uniform and quickly got to the Magic University with the form that he was to submit when he wanted to apply for his one-week leave.

Reaching the University, Alex made his way to the administration hall and submitted the file after filling in the necessary information, he left right after.

Alex had barely gotten to the gates when he received a text on his phone, he checked and saw that it was from Ellie.

She asked why Alex had used his one-week leave when it was just the second week of resumption, and there were a lot of useful things to learn.

She expressed that she wasn’t in support of his going on a one-week leave so early and advised that he return as quickly as possible.

A student was allowed to use just a day or 2 from their one-week leave; it was up to them to decide. They just had to make sure that it wasn’t more than seven.

Alex smiled slightly and proceeded to write back. He said that something urgent came up at home and he had to return first.

Ellie’s response appeared shortly after. The girl was concerned for Alex and asked if everything was fine at home or if he needed her to come with him.

After all, she was an Archmage and could help to solve a lot of things.

Alex’s smile grew warmer after seeing the response, he then wrote back.

"Don’t worry, it’s not something that I can’t handle."