The Genius Evolution Store

Chapter 201: Suspicion

In the end, Auric returned to the class as if nothing had happened. He still didn’t know whose butler threatened him, so he shouldn’t act weirdly for the time being.

He had gotten close to a few people. If he had to include their backgrounds, there were four that he could suspect.

The first one was Katarina. Katarina hailed from a wealthy family. Her family might not be as big as the Relesha family, but they couldn’t be underestimated either. After having Katarina work for him, her family might feel embarrassed or ashamed and try to warn him.

The second person was Ellia. Ellia’s family was probably the biggest among those he was close to. However, he didn’t know about Ellia’s family or her relationship with her family, so he didn’t know whether it was Ellia. In fact, he hadn’t met Ellia after that day due to his busy schedule.

The third person was Ruka. Her situation was similar to Katarina, but he really doubted whether her family would even warn him. After all, he only spoke to her during the class.

The same applied to the last person, Vera. Vera’s background was similar to Ellia’s, but he hadn’t even met her. It looked like she was taking on a mission outside, so there was really no reason for her family to come to him.

That meant Auric could only suspect either Ellia or Katarina.

However, there was one thing that concerned him. Katarina mentioned the people who scouted his store. He wondered if the one behind them was the cause of all this.

If it were him, he could shift the entire blame by simply claiming one person was the young lady while he served another person.

That was why Auric couldn’t exactly determine who was actually the problem. So, Auric had to go back to the class as if nothing had happened until he had further information.

The class itself wasn’t hard. He managed to complete it before being dragged away by Professor Schad to start working on the paper.

He had to write down everything carefully and ask for further instructions, considering this was the first time he had written such a thing.

Professor Schad had promised to help him, and that was what he did. Whenever Auric asked, he answered everything until Auric understood.

When Auric asked him to check the paper, he reviewed it carefully and remained helpful with the revisions.

There wasn’t much time before the conference, so the professor wanted to support Auric so that he could finish rather than being too harsh with his revisions and causing him to be late with the paper.

Only after class ended did Auric have the time to do what he needed.

Still, Auric felt a bit clueless about how to start.

"Hmm..." Auric looked at the ceiling.

"Are you not doing anything? Shouldn’t you practice or finish your paper?" Katarina asked. "While we don’t have any customers, I’m spending my time practicing the fusion."

"It’s fine. He’s probably thinking very hard about something." Milinda chuckled before putting down the document on the table. "By the way, this is the list of materials we’re going to buy for the store."

"Isn’t that too much?" Katarina widened her eyes. "There aren’t as many customers coming to this store."

"Ah. This is not the list for this store. He plans to open another store outside the academy over the weekend."

"Seriously?" Katarina was surprised. She didn’t expect that Auric would actually take on more work with his schedule.

"Yes." Milinda nodded.

"In that case, I should also make preparations."

"Are you going to work with us as well?" Milinda looked surprised. She thought the deal was just for this store, not the one outside the academy.

"Of course." Katarina nodded. "The agreement is to help him for two weeks."

Katarina didn’t say it, but she also intended to practice the fusion. Practicing near Auric would allow her to get direct feedback from Auric, which would make her progress faster.

There was no reason to reject it.

Auric crossed his arms before saying, "I have been wondering about this. If the boss is asking his secretary to investigate something, what is the secretary supposed to do?"

"Hmm?" Milinda was dumbfounded. "What kind of question was that?"

Katarina tilted her head in confusion, but she still answered, "Depends on the kind of information you want or the resources you have.

"For example, if you want a person’s information, you can begin with their social media or any trace that person has on the internet. Then, you can check other records, such as bank statements, or anything that can help you find what you actually want.

"If you have a group of people willing to do anything for you, you can use them to tail that person. Or you can create a problem for that person and solve that problem so that you can get closer to them. This way, they will be grateful and lower their guard.

"If you have connections that can help you acquire the information you want, you can do that as well. If you don’t have anything like that, you can probably hire a private investigator."

Milinda asked, "Why are your thoughts so random? Are you in trouble or something?"

"Not really." Auric shook his head.

"Is it regarding the people I told you about?" Katarina narrowed her eyes. "Do you want me to find out about them?"

"I think it will be fine." Auric waved his hand. "By the way, does anything happen to our group? You are in the same class as Ellia, right?"

"Arina is taking the magic class, so I’m not with her. But I’m in combat class with Ellia." Milinda looked up, recalling everything that had happened. "There doesn’t seem to be anything in particular. She has been taking the class seriously, and I don’t really want to admit it, but her talent still works here. In fact, she has been dominating the class."

"Well, that is to be expected from someone who used to be the number one sword practitioner in the past." Katarina nodded. "Are you guys close to her?"

"Nope." Milinda rolled her eyes.

"Ahahaha." Auric just chuckled. It wasn’t like he could say that Ellia was managing his money from the Sun Store. "Does she have anyone bothering her or something?"

"What is this? Are you jealous?" Katarina chuckled.

Milinda frowned. "Not that I know of."

"Wait. You’re suspecting that she has something to do with all this?" Katarina had just realized what was going on.

Auric shrugged. "Well, who knows?"

"Seriously. Do you want me to help you with the investigation?" Katarina asked one more time.

"I can handle it for now. I don’t exactly like relying on others so quickly." Auric waved his hand. "Thank you for the offer."

Katarina crossed her arms, but if Auric had rejected her like this, there was no need for her to continue asking. "All right. If you need anything, tell me.

Auric nodded. "In any case, the break time is over. I have to handle this again."

Auric grabbed the paper and started scribbling on it again.

Katarina and Milinda just looked at each other.

"Is he always like this?"

"He is always like this." Milinda shrugged.

In the end, Auric couldn’t determine whether it was Ellia or someone else. He didn’t ask for Katarina’s help not only because he didn’t want to owe her but also because she wasn’t in the clear either.

If Katarina investigated it and found her family to be the one doing it, there was no telling what would happen.

Auric needed Katarina to still take care of the store. Because of her, the store had been running smoothly all this time, even though he was an outsider at this university.

Since he had just begun investigating, Auric continued his day. While there were no customers, Auric either fixed his paper or simply helped Katarina.

Katarina had a hard time turning active energy into passive energy. In fact, this was supposed to be the difficulty.

Without his eyes, Auric would struggle like her as well. That was why it would be better if he could somehow improve the technique further.

Unfortunately, unless he could improve the Dual Fusion Method, he couldn’t see any way to improve the technique.

Before he returned home, Auric reported to Professor Schad about his progress. Of course, Katarina came along with him. Katarina was the person who had the best elemental manipulation among the students, so he wanted to know how far a genius like her could go. It would also determine the difficulty for normal people.

As expected, Professor Schad ended up asking him to revise his paper again. Of course, he also asked Auric to read more books about the research. People could ask questions about them to discredit his theory after all.

Fortunately, Auric was good at studying. This was the talent he was born with, so he was confident that he could catch up on the theory quickly.

Looking at the current situation, Auric felt something was off. His original plan in coming here was to copy some elements, find out how they taught the students, and open a store.

All his plans had become a mess. He could still copy some elements, but he ended up having to do more because he was worried about another ambush.

He wanted to find out how the university taught the students, but he was currently busy with the paper.

The store could have been opened normally, but he couldn’t really focus too much on the store with everything going on.

Auric could only sigh. Thankfully, the Relesha family had been taking care of him, allowing him to focus on everything.

What he didn’t know was that the Relesha family had been keeping tabs on him.

Once Auric retired to his room, Mathias looked at the butler. "So?"

"Young Master Auric has been taking his classes seriously, but it looks like he has no problem completing the lesson. After checking into the matter, it appears Professor Schad Thikitaka is asking him to help with research.

"The young master is also writing his own research paper. I asked the professor about it, but he couldn’t answer me. The only thing he could tell me is that the young master will publish his paper in STEM."

"STEM? That STEM?"

"Yes." The butler nodded.

"Is it that good?"

"I’m not exactly sure, but the professor looks confident."

"I see." Mathias had seen a lot of Auric’s talents, but he didn’t expect that a freshman like him would be qualified to publish his paper in that place. Then again, Auric was already an amazing evolution master.

Mathias crossed his arms. "What about the man who attacked him?"

The butler shook his head. "I couldn’t find anything. It looks like the other party ambushed the young master in a blind spot of the academy."

"Investigate the people around him. See if there’s anything special about them. Also, do whatever it takes to find the person that ambushed him. I’m still wondering if I should chop off the arm that grabbed his neck or cut that guy’s neck to send a clear message."