Chapter 196: Chapter 196 - Celebration?
Owen’s mouth hung wide open.
The plate he held tilted slightly, spilling fries all over the ground.
For several long seconds, he simply stared at Theo as if he’d seen a ghost.
"What the fuck?"
Theo slowly lowered his fist.
He cleared his throat softly, feeling a hint of shock and embarrassment.
"Hey," he said, forcing a smile. "What are you doing here?"
Owen quickly shook his head.
"The fuck you mean, what am I doing here?" he said, tossing the tray of food aside. "I want to know what the hell just happened!"
Theo opened his mouth but closed it just as fast.
There really wasn’t an explanation that came to mind for this situation.
’He clearly saw me appear back here,’ he thought, scratching the back of his head. ’What am I even meant to say?’
Just as he opened his mouth again, hurried footsteps echoed from the hallway.
A second later, the door burst open again.
Lyra rushed in first, followed closely by Iris and Jim.
Right behind them was Adrian, wearing an unusually serious expression.
The moment they saw Theo sitting on the couch, everyone froze.
Owen immediately threw both his hands up in the air.
"I swear!" he shouted. "He wasn’t here a second ago!"
Lyra blinked a few times.
"Huh?"
Iris let out a deep sigh of relief behind her, while Jim just remained silent.
Only Adrian stared furiously at Owen.
"These kinds of things are not to joke about," he said firmly. "Do I really have to increase your training again?"
Owen’s mouth fell wide open.
He pointed at Theo almost immediately.
"But he really just a—"
Thud!
Owen’s lips pressed together as something slammed into his shin beneath the table.
As he winced, Theo smoothly took over the conversation.
"It’s not their fault," he said. "My phone died, and I stepped out for a bit to report the broken lights."
Owen stared at Theo in pure disbelief.
Then he glanced down at his aching shin.
’Motherf*cker!’
Before he could protest, Theo casually looked around the room.
"Sorry for worrying everyone," he said with an apologetic smile. "But I really didn’t expect anyone to show up here either."
Adrian’s stern expression softened ever so slightly.
"It’s fine," he said, raising a hand. "I’d rather have ten false alarms than have something happen."
Before anyone else could speak, Lyra snorted.
"What a way to start a celebration," she said, shaking her head.
Jim couldn’t help but let out a chuckle as he nodded slowly.
Theo’s eyebrow slowly raised.
"Celebration?"
Lyra pointed at the abandoned food trays on the table and the spilled fries scattered across the floor.
"You won the tournament, Owen broke through, and we figured that was as good an excuse as any to bring food over and celebrate."
This time, it was Theo’s turn to be speechless.
His gaze slowly turned to Owen, who was still clutching his shin.
"You broke through?"
Owen puffed out his chest immediately.
"Damn right I did," he said, the pain in his leg seemingly forgotten. "Silver Core, baby!"
A wide smile appeared on Theo’s face.
He patted Owen’s back firmly.
"Congratulations," he said.
A grin slowly spread across Owen’s face.
"About time, right?" he said, grinning from ear to ear. "Now I can finally stomp everyone into the ground again!"
Lyra snorted, shaking her head.
"Don’t get so full of yourself."
Owen’s head snapped to her immediately.
As the two continued bickering, laughter slowly returned to the apartment.
Jim quietly cleaned the fallen fries off the floor while Iris began arranging the food trays on the table.
For the first time that evening, the atmosphere felt normal again.
Only Adrian remained apart from the group.
The instructor stood just outside the doorway, watching the students with a faint smile but making no moves to join in.
"How time flies by," he mumbled quietly, pushing himself off the doorframe.
Just as he was about to walk away, Theo suddenly spoke up.
"Wait."
Adrian paused and glanced back at him as Theo walked toward the doorway.
"You should also stay," he said. "I think we have more than enough food for that."
For a brief moment, the instructor didn’t know what to say.
"Besides," Theo continued, "we need someone to keep Owen in check too."
Adrian opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Finally, he let out a small sigh.
"Well... just for a little while then."
Within minutes, everyone had settled inside and started on the food.
The remainder of the evening passed by even faster than expected.
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves the entire time.
Even Adrian, who mostly listened in silence, found himself smiling from time to time.
Just like that, the worries and tension from the entire day slowly faded.
Theo almost forgot about what had happened too.
He reached over and picked up another slice of pizza.
Just as his fingers brushed against the crust, he paused.
CRACKLE.
A faint strand of pure white lightning danced across the back of his hand before slipping between his fingers and vanishing.
’What?’
He forced his expression to remain the same.
Silently, he lowered his hand under the table, completely out of view.
But as he stared at it, nothing seemed to be happening.
’Was I just imagining it?’
He flexed his fingers once.
Everything felt completely normal.
Across the table, Owen suddenly burst into laughter after one of Lyra’s remarks, drawing everyone else into the conversation again.
Theo instinctively glanced up.
The lively atmosphere in the apartment made the incident seem almost unreal.
Still, the image of that strand of lightning remained in the back of his mind.
As time slowly passed by, everyone started leaving one by one.
Eventually, even Owen was dragged away by Lyra, though he clearly wasn’t done with what had happened earlier.
Only after the door finally locked did Theo rub his temples.
’I’ll have to make up another explanation for that one tomorrow,’ he thought, his head already aching.
As he glanced around the room, he saw several trays and plates still stacked up.
’Screw that,’ he thought.
Without hesitation, he threw himself onto bed, utterly exhausted.
For a few moments, he simply lay there in silence.
Then, with a thought, a familiar translucent screen appeared above him.
[System space - one slot taken]
Theo stared at it for a moment, then closed the window again.
’Too much happened today...’
The battle, Elise’s spell, the system upgrade, Owen’s apparent breakthrough, and even the dragon.
There were countless things he wanted to investigate, but exhaustion had already caught up to him.
’I can’t even properly look through everything,’ he thought with a tired smile. ’I’ve got even more to do tomorrow.’
The final day of the tournament would finally be there.
’If I hold the title, I’ll finally be able to scratch the summoning off my list.’
With that thought, Theo closed his eyes.
Only seconds later, soft snoring echoed through the silent room.
