Races: Online - Chapter 352: The Problems of Overthinking

Han Jing didn’t want to think that he left problems to resolve themselves for later. When you were stuck in his position of juggling two lives—one of them would always get the short end of the stick. Regardless of the ‘favor’ he had in his Luck stat, if he was great at getting himself in trouble, then he’d end up in a place where he could no longer get himself out of the mess.

He knew where his priorities lay, and that meant his life as Han and his involvement were now more of a means to a certain end. The end being him having a much better life as Han Jing.

So when he woke up half-way in Professor Carnus’ class—he was relieved to say the least. He didn’t get “accidentally” killed or thrown into jail.

That was until he noticed the looks thrown at him.

Han shouldn’t be smiling at all, news of him getting chased and evading the Guardsman was apparent in all of their faces. That was what they were thinking, weren’t they? He wasn’t even sitting in the same circle as Ellynn anymore.

Han remembered that Russel was also in this class, but then failed to see the guy either. But Han wasn’t that concerned of the guy as he was of Ellynn, so that didn’t really matter. The same went for Penelope and Elliot, because they generally just hated his guts usually.

Finally, Han saw that Ellynn was sitting in front.

When he tried to catch her attention, he noticed that Ellynn was not even looking over her shoulder. That was enough evidence as any that the worst case of punishment that the Professor decided was this kind of torment.

Based on his memory, the Professor said that he was going to dole out a punishment for Han and didn’t even explain what it was going to be. He just sent Han back to his room last night.

Now that ‘he’ woke up and realized his circumstances, Han figured it out.

Who cared about being locked in a tower if you were cut off from your friends? Even if Professor Owen promised to not get him in jail as long as he cooperated, it didn’t mean that he’d salvaged his reputation. If it wasn’t Professor Owen, surely that Sybeth would have blabbed about him being some sort of evil person, wouldn’t she?

Maybe it was better that he attempted to escape than stay around the Academy and become ostracized?

Why did Han even decide to attend Kraelonia Academy in the first place? It would have been fine for him to do just about anything as long as he could do so. It was practically an Open World except for the Main Quest on Universal Peace that nobody was even bothering about.

He missed his chances of making it big by going off by himself to some other place or staying in the Rockfall Village until he became powerful.

Lone Han on his adventures and quests, sounded actually good. While the chances of becoming some King or Ruler was already out of his head because he knew that the Princess was Iola.

Generally, he’d rather not get himself in another kind of mess involving relationships.

You could almost say that he was destined to be Solo Han.

…Han tried to bury his hands into his face, until the Professor called him. The guy was surely aware of everything happening because the Battle Mage Carnus was frowning at him. “Han.”

“Yes, Professor?” he asked.

“Demonstrate to us the [ Fire Jet ] spell.”

Han blinked and found his mind blank… until his memory finally found the reservoir of that spell in what he read in the past few weeks. His memory seemed blotchy at best, but Han realized that he was still around a good area of the Academy’s walls and had access to mana.

He survived that class.

But next up was the part where everybody was going to ridicule him. A part of him was just awaiting for the others to approach him and then curse his name. Was bullying still a thing? Donovan used to give him a hard time when Han was becoming closer to Sir Leon, so it bothered him that they weren’t doing anything at all in Professor Uriel’s next class.

Sir Leon invited him over as usual.

Were they waiting for Professor Uriel to order them to ‘spar’ so he could legally backhand Han’s face and pretend that he didn’t do anything wrong?

Han glanced over his shoulder and wondered if he saw Sybeth sneaking around the Academy’s clearing and were keeping tabs on him. Instead of that though, he saw Teresa whisper something to Lu Rei and the two women giggled.

Were they laughing about him?

The two young women stopped when they saw his face, so Han quickly looked away and then finally caught Professor Uriel’s gut-wrenching smile. The man was usually caught up in retelling some tale when he was adventuring—but somehow, noticed that Han wasn’t paying attention.

“Is there something more interesting happening over at the back, boy?” Professor Uriel asked.

“Uh… no, Professor.”

“Unless you have anything more useful to share about how to duck, dodge and then use a shield to bash it against a Troll. I recommend that you pay attention,” Professor Uriel said. “Now, where was I…ah yes, ”

Han was tense and barely managed to pay attention to Professor Uriel’s lessons, dreading that if it wasn’t a public humiliation during class hours, then it was lunch time. Classic. Timeless.

Maybe Calum would bash a food tray over his head?

Until Han finally got it.

Once his morning classes were over, Han was prepared to see the worst case scenario, but instead, the rest of his friends simply pulled up to their feet and then stretched for a bit.

“Let’s get to lunch now, shall we?” Sir Leon clasped his hands together.

It made him sigh inwardly for a moment, until everyone stared at him still sitting down on the grass. The invitation to lunch was also extended to him. “Uh… aren’t you guys supposed to be upset with me?” Han asked.

“What’s there to get upset over?” Donovan raised a brow.

“Well, I’m jealous that you were excused for our afternoon classes.” Russel admitted. “Lucky bastard.”

Han scratched his head. “I didn’t get exactly informed about being excused…” Maybe Professor Owen wasn’t so horrible after all? While it was too early to say that as there were other established ways to punish a person, Han was relieved.

“Ellynn hasn’t been paying attention to me through our entire class together, so I assumed that there was something wrong.” Han sighed. “She ignored me all throughout.”

“Huh, seeing you spiral through conclusions just because Ellynn didn’t notice you is silly.” Diov chuckled. “Didn’t think that you were that much of a lover boy.”

“Well, Han must have done something wrong.” Teresa shrugged. “Why would she just ignore him? That’s not normal, we’ve seen her chasing you when you were in your ‘loner’ phase.”

“Hmm, have you not considered that she simply isn’t in the mood to talk?” Sir Leon offered. “That happens too.”

Han couldn’t think of anything that might have upsetted Ellynn. All he could remember yesterday was their conversation about her father before Kai and Theodore joined them.

Other than that occurrence, there was nothing else that seemed amiss.

…and even if Ellynn didn’t exactly want to talk,  she didn’t have to flat out ignore him, did she?

“Leave it to later. We can’t all put our heads together in trying to help you solve your lover’s quarrel now, can we?” Russel grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him forward. “I’m starving so let’s just eat first. You’re not really yourself when you’re hungry, you know?”

Maybe Russel was right?

What if it was just starvation playing with his mind? He didn’t remember getting any breakfast at all. That was how Han found himself in the dining hall and with his group of friends and with a tray of his own food that wasn’t going to get splattered all over his face. It made him feel a bit relaxed, until he saw Ellynn blatantly ignore him once again when he waved at her.

The Half Elf was currently situated in one of the far flung tables as usual.

First it was Penelope, then it was Sybeth and then it was Ellynn?

How many women did Han need to get on the bad side of before the world considered him free from unintentionally upsetting them? Han looked over at Penelope across their table and asked.

“Hey,  uh, so… is there anything that comes to mind about me upsetting a girl? Like any personal quirks that can unwittingly upset a person without me knowing about it.”

“What’s this about?” Penelope wrinkled her nose. “And why are you asking me?”

“You’re the only one who I can expect to be frank about this with me,” Han replied. Although, if there was any indicator, Elliot looked pretty smug enough to answer as well.

He wasn’t going to ask a kid about what he might  have done wrong.

“Ah. Han feels like he did something wrong but he isn’t so sure why.” Angelika explained to her sister and filled in the details.

“You know the easiest thing is just asking her yourself, you know?” Penelope clicked her tongue. “We don’t need to know about any of this at all. It’s yours and her problem to deal with.”

“Well, asking for advice isn’t too bad, right?”

“I think she’s right.” Han nodded. “If you guys could excuse me, I need to talk with Ellynn.”

If there was anything that any Asian raised child would know, everything that was supposed to be kept in the family was kept in the family. That included anything that was mildly humiliating and stigmatizing.

… Well, the same thing probably applied to everyone else—at least putting up a facade of order was like the best thing as one dealt with their personal issues and relationships too.

Everything was fine.

Until it wasn’t.