Chapter 294: Academic Research Gone Wrong

Riley somehow forgot that Aya was relentless like this, and that the short woman had always had a knack for observing everything and everyone.

Maybe it came with her interests and passion, but she still seemed as tenacious as before.

Then again, it had been so long since he had last seen his friends that he couldn’t even help but be surprised by things that he should have known.

She leaned closer, lowering her voice conspiratorially. “And while I wouldn’t normally say shit, you know my sister right? She’s pregnant and what do you know?”

“She suddenly got jars and jars of pickles. PICKLES! And we both know that woman hated pickles with a burning passion!”

Aya straightened and wagged a finger at him. “So. Context clues, my friend. And really, I’m asking because I have to say something to Bailey or she’ll kill me if she finds out I bumped into you and didn’t say anything.”

Riley choked as his longtime block mate paid with her card.

“Thank you,” she said briskly to the barista as she took her receipt, then immediately resumed her tirade.

“We both know what happened the last time we tried not saying anything. I don’t know what’s with her but she could apply as a bomb-sniffing dog in case her current career path doesn’t work.”

“Haaaa…”

“I’m telling you now, we only managed to stop her from hiring some witch doctor by telling her to believe in you more than some magical gossip.”

“What?” Riley’s eyes widened. “A witch doctor? Why would she even want to hire one?!”

“Hello? It’s her we’re talking about here!”

The barista behind the counter continued punching in Riley’s admittedly long order of everything while Aya spoke at full speed.

“And why else? Imagine waking up to the whole continent blasting the face of your lifelong crush like he committed some horrible crime, only to learn it’s worse than that.”

“Obviously, it shouldn’t be worse. But her priorities have never been particularly normal, especially when it comes to you. So to her, the news was probably like an inquisition notice. So you could just imagine how pretty that was.”

“???”

“….Yeah, no. I also can’t relate,” Aya said flatly. “But Bailey sure can! God bless that woman! She was like a banshee! She woke all of us up while trying to find someone who could reach you for confirmation.”

Riley winced. And it wasn’t really a good sign that he could somehow imagine what that looked like.

“But as you know,” Aya continued, “reaching you these days is harder than finishing a thesis. So you can probably imagine how that went. We dealt with nonstop wailing for daaaaaays, my friend.” Aya made a gesture to emphasize just how many days.

Riley scratched at his cheek, exasperated. Of all things, he really didn’t expect that one girl to still be on that. He naively thought she’d end up getting rid of her unusual obsession after graduation.

Who could’ve thought it would end up worsening?

But it really wasn’t just that. Clearly, the others had been inconvenienced by his sudden disappearance.

“Sorry about going MIA,” he said sheepishly. “I’ve just been really busy with… a lot.”

And he really was. It wasn’t even the type of busyness that could be attributed to bad time management skills. Instead, it was the kind of bedridden busy where he had almost knocked on hell’s door who-knows-how-many times.

Aya waved it off. “No big deal. We could tell. With everything going on, it would be impossible not to. And it’s not like we aren’t used to her.” She sighed. “Thankfully, the incident with the Big D eventually subsided.”

“The Big D?” Riley echoed cautiously.

“Oh, you know,” Aya leaned in, lowering her voice like it was a secret. “The ultimate boss man. Very hunky. Very powerful. Very golden.”

Ah.

Shit.

Of course she was talking about the big boss dragon who just happened to be his fiancé and fated mate.

Cough, cough!

“We basically had to remind her about our current major,” Aya went on, rubbing her temples. “Only then did she finally calm down about the possibility of the rumors being true.”

“Well, that sort of worked out. As usual, nothing we told her counted for much. We were just lucky she took our advice to review. As you know, she’d have to come up with her own conclusion and only then would it be acceptable to her.”

“She actually turned to books, you know? Citing laws, tradition, and ancient culture. To think she didn’t even pour as much time researching her graduate thesis!”

Oh lord.

Riley felt the impending doom settle in his bones.

Surprisingly, he wasn’t particularly concerned about Bailey because she’d always been the type to scuttle around instead of approaching, but his real concern was someone else.

He opened his mouth hoping to correct Aya before he brought forth the apocalypse earlier than expected. “Actually—”

But maybe this was karma. Punishment for buying out all the remaining cake pops. Or punishment for disappearing on his friends for so long.

Because before he could finish, a very familiar voice cut in smoothly.

Well, he was probably imagining the “smoothly” part because appearing like a phantom was not smooth for an ancient dragon who was supposed to be blending in. That’s more like an emergency.

“Here. Charge it all here.”

Riley froze.

Aya froze.

They both turned to the right.

And were immediately met with a towering presence that made every piece of casual disguise completely useless.

Slitted golden eyes.

Imposing posture.

Unmistakable aura.

Kael raised a brow, one hand already outstretched, a sleek black card held between his fingers.

Beside Riley, Aya stiffened so hard she might as well have been petrified. Slowly, mechanically, she tilted her head upward from his chest level to his face.

Her eyes widened.

Her mouth opened.

Nothing came out.

Kael glanced between the two of them, then tilted his head slightly.

“Or,” he added calmly, “would you rather I just buy the whole thing, honey?”

The barista behind the counter visibly stiffened.

Riley closed his eyes.

Yep.

This was going to be a very long day.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep