Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 91

Chapter 91: Pancakes
About nine hours later, in the American academy…

Hans woke up, just in time to watch the rising sun.

He opened the window and took a breath of fresh air, watching the empty streets and fields of the academy..

The absolute quiet and emptiness brought back memories of the previous night.

“Sigh.. what a disaster”

With all the calmness of the world, he dressed up, and went to a bar to have breakfast.

When he arrived in front of the usual cafe, no lights were lit inside of it, making the dark glass reflect the outside.

Not only that, but also all the usual places he had been to in the past few months were closed.

And it didn’t take long for him to find out why.

On one of the poles, a single flyer was attached, stating:

“Due to the recently passed unexpected attack to the campus, all the secondary needs shops will be closed for the time being.

The shops won’t open again for the whole week.”

‘Oh, so that’s why, i had guessed so.’

Though Hans.

Still too hungry to give up his breakfast, he headed towards the 24/7 convenience store.

After a bit of walking, he finally saw the only opened shop, and entered in search of something to cook breakfast with.

While he was looking around the various departments of the store, a chatter arose, disturbing his peace.

“We should take this one!”

“No I think this one is higher quality”

“Do you know how to cook that then”

Argued two girls.

“Calm down both, will you? I think this time Lila is right Claire.

The one she chose does indeed look of higher quality”

“But.. but this one looks better, here watch!”

Said Claire, handing over to him a black package of pancakes batter.

“Claire.. it’s just a photo, they would obviously make it look better”

“But.. but..”

Hearing the familiar voices, Hans turned the corner shelf, and found four of his students in front of him.

There were two girls: Claire and Lila.

And two guys: Colton and Logan.

While two of them were busy arguing, Colton was trying to calm them down, and Logan was minding his own business, carefully checking the price tags on the two boxes.

“What are you guys doing here?” Asked Hans, causing all of them to turn around and watch him.

They almost teared up at the sight of him.

“Teacher! I thought you were badly injured, are you okay”

Rushed forward Claire first.

“Haha, how could I ever get injured, I’m still fine and strong”

“Anyway, back to the question, what are you doing?”

Colton replied:

“We are here to buy something for breakfast,

Since we have been banned from entering the academy buildings after what happened.

Also, the reason we are arguing is because our monthly allowance has been reduced to six hundred credits for each of us, so we cannot afford to buy everything we want.

But there is something even worse, even though right now we are the only ones here, I’m sure the others will have the same problem as soon as they wake up”

“And that is?” Asked Hans.

“None of us knows how to cook” said Colton in all seriousness.

“This…”

Hans thought about it, and indeed, almost everyone in this school was born with at least a silver spoon, meaning they never involved themselves in activities like cooking or doing laundry.

‘What a mess’ thought Hans, watching the guys that would’ve become the future of the nation fighting over which box of ingredients was more worth buying.

“Come with me, I’ll cook something for you”

Said Hans.

And brightest than he had ever seen them, the eyes of the four students shone for him.

“I’ll show you how it’s done so that you can do it when you want”

He left both the boxes down, before taking up a couple of eggs, a bit of butter, some flour, and a bit of milk.

“What do you guys want with the pancakes?”

Asked Hans to the four clueless students that were following him.”

The answers that came back were all different:

“Nutella”

“Strawberry jam”

“Peanut butter”

“Powdered sugar”

They all watched each other, and since it looked like they were about to start arguing again, Hans just took the initiative.

“Well go with maple syrup then” he said smiling.

The four dumbfounded faces watched his back as he raised his arm to take the bottle of syrup.

And they all thought:

‘Why did you ever bother asking then?’

Done with the shopping, Hans took the four of them to his dormitory.

When they entered, they began talking about how it was unfair for Hans to have such a big apartment alone while they had to share a small room in two.

“Take a seat, I’ll get down to cooking”

“Alright then”

Said Claire, that had already familiarized herself with this new room, while the others were still quite embarrassed of being inside their teacher’s room.

The relationship between Claire and Hans had developed a lot during the past few months, since he constantly kept accompanying her inside the gates in the outskirts of the forest around the academy.

He didn’t only do it to help her out as he had previously promised when she won the duel, but he also helped her growth to honour his words.

He had after all promised her dad that he would’ve found a fifth rank mage as her teacher.

So letting her get taught by a sixth rank one such as him would’ve been more than enough to validate his promise.

As Claire was about to seat down on the sofa, something beneath one of the white cushions moved, and a ferocious “hissss” was soon directed towards her.

A little white snake was slithering for her neck,

Keeping its mouth opened.

She screamed with all the air in her lungs, and when Hans heard her, he made it in time to stop Ember from biting his student.

“What happened?” Asked Logan agitated, running there from the other room together with Lila and Colton.

The only response was Claire’s heavy panting.

She was on the ground, since her legs had fallen.

“A… a snake tried to kill me!!”

“Take that away from me, I don’t want to see it ever again!” She begged Hans, that was calmly holding his pet in his hand”

He stuttered quite a bit, trying to explain her the situation:

“Ehm, so, actually… this guy is kind of like my pet, so you will have to bear with it while you’re staying here”

“What?!”

“Teacher! Is it perhaps a magic beast?”

Asked curiously Logan.

“Mh, I think it should be”

“Woow, I’ve always read about it, but it’s my first time seeing one of them tamed.

Did it take long to tame?”

“Hm, not really, I just beat up a snake and snatched its eggs, and I then waited for them to hatch.

That’s all, I didn’t really have to do much.

Anyway, her name’s Ember, and she’s a female.

But.. I’ve been wanting to ask you something for a while now.

Where are you going Claire?”

Sad Hans, calling out the girl that had been sneakily trying to get out of the room on the tip of her toes.

“Ha, ha, teacher, this, I- I don’t think I’m hungry anymore, how about I thank you for your courtesy and return to my dorm?”

They all watched her terrible acting skills.

The first one to speak was Lila, that decided to provoke her.

“Ah, my little Claire, are you so afraid of snakes that you can’t stand being in the same room as one?”

“Me? Wh-what do you mean, of course not, I just suddently remember I haven’t finished an essay for tomorrow”said the girl embarrassed.

Logan then joined the conversation, saying:

“Claire, I think you may have to practice your lie telling a little bit, you see, tomorrow there isn’t even school”

“Th-th-that’s obvious, I meant that the literature teacher wanted me to write an essay”

“Oh? What would he ask to the worst student in the class?”

“Th-th-that’s not what matters is it?

I’ll be going now, bye bye”

She rushed out, and ran all the way back to her dorm room, completely terrified of the white snake.

And in the meantime, the other three guys were laughing their souls out.

“Kids these days are so cruel”

Whispered Hans.

Sniff* sniff*, “what is this smell, mhhh.

Aaaackk, they’re burning, the pancakes are burning!”

He had to throw away the first batch, and remake them.

When he had finished, he left four boxes in the students’ hands, instructing them to bring away an extra one for Claire.

And that’s what they did, slowly walking away towards the students’ dormitory.

Only three boxes were left, and Hans took them all up before leaving the empty apartment.

The remaining ones were destined for Aiden and his friend.

Happy and proud of acting like a good brother, he walked all the way to Aiden’s dorm.