Chapter 247: 247 : Opening Shop and Increasing Harem Members XXIV
---
A few days later... The academy night was the kind that made rules feel like walls.
Lanterns along the dorm corridor burned low and steady. The stone floors held the day’s warmth for a little while longer, and then even that warmth began to fade, as if the building itself was settling into sleep. Doors were shut. The voices were small. Somewhere down the hall, someone coughed like they were trying not to get noticed by the curfew bell.
Inside Room B-17, John sat at his desk with a candle and a notebook and the stubborn habit of checking everything twice.
The candle flame leaned slightly toward the window. The dorm air smelled like chalk dust, ink, and clean linen that had been washed too many times. Ray Flame was already asleep on Bed A, sprawled as if the world owed him comfort. His breathing was heavy and uneven, like a man who had argued with reality all day and lost.
Fizz hovered above John’s desk, chewing the last corner of a cookie he had stolen from somewhere. His cheeks were puffed out as if he had stored the cookie inside them for later, like a squirrel with a secret.
John wrote one more line in his notes and tried to keep his hand steady.
Mana control is not forced. It is manners.
He underlined it. It looked like something Master Venn would say. It looked like something Snake would approve of. It also looked like something John needed to remember, because his life was turning into a collection of things that would punish him if he forgot manners.
Fizz swallowed. "I have decided," he announced softly, "that school is a scam."
John did not look up. "Because you have to read."
"No," Fizz said. "Because you have to sleep. School steals our night hours. Night hours are for snacks and plotting."
John’s pencil paused.
A faint shift rolled through his chest.
Not a sound. Not a movement. A pressure. The way you can tell a storm is coming even before the wind arrives.
John’s eyes narrowed.
Fizz stopped mid-complaint.
His whiskers twitched. His ears rose. His glow dimmed as if his body had decided that being loud would be a bad idea.
"Master," Fizz whispered.
John set the pencil down slowly.
His heart was still. But his void—his true void, the one that lived behind his ribs and inside his palm—stirred like a dark ocean being nudged by something deep.
He did not move. He did not speak out loud. He simply listened.
Ray snored and rolled over, unaware.
The candle flame flickered once, then steadied.
John breathed in.
Four in. Four out.
He forced his face to remain normal even though no one was looking at him right now.
Then the system spoke, as calm and cruelly timed as always.
[Ding! SYSTEM Notification-
Void Update: Stored Entity (egg) Progress Reached Threshold.
Ancient Egg Status: 100% Proficiency.
Condition: Void Nourishment Complete. The egg absorbs void energy to reach full proficiency.
Warning: Hatching sequence imminent. The egg needs to be inside the void to hatch.
Risk Advisory: If host mana reserve reaches zero during hatching stabilization, the egg may drift beyond retrieval range.]
John’s breath caught in his throat.
His hand tightened around the edge of the desk so hard his knuckles lightened.
Now.
Not tomorrow. Not later. Not "when he had time."
Now.
His mind flashed through the worst possibilities first, because his mind always did that.
The egg was in the void.
It was held there by a mana layer and a void layer that the system had taught him to maintain. It cost him mana constantly. He could feel that drain every hour, like a small tax on his life. He had accepted it because the egg needed it.
But hatching would require stabilization.
Stabilization would require him to keep his mana from dipping too low.
And tonight he had studied. Tonight he had used mana earlier in Mana Control drills. Tonight he had eaten, but he had not rested fully.
His mana was not empty.
But it was not full either.
If it drops...
The system’s warning wasn’t polite.
If his mana reached zero, the egg could drift.
And if the egg drifted, he would lose it in a place where even his own hands could not reach.
John swallowed once.
The void inside his chest stirred again, this time like something stretching.
Fizz stared at John’s face like he was reading a story there. Fizz had learned John’s expressions the way a thief learns locks. John could be calm and still be panicking inside. Fizz could tell the difference.
"What happened," Fizz asked, voice low. "Why do you look like you just swallowed a nail?"
John stared at him.
He did not want to speak. He did not want to involve anyone. He did not want to say the words out loud, because saying things out loud made them real, and this was already too real.
But Fizz was his partner.
Fizz was his first helper. His loud shadow. His warm problem.
And this was not something John could handle alone if it went wrong.
John spoke quietly. "The egg."
Fizz blinked. "The egg."
John nodded once.
Fizz’s eyes widened like someone had just told him a festival was happening. "Oh."
Then his expression changed.
Not joy yet. Not fully.
First came suspicion.
"Is it... about to..." Fizz whispered.
John’s jaw moved. "It reached one hundred."
Fizz stared.
Then he did something John did not expect.
He clapped both paws together softly.
Like a priest beginning a ceremony.
"Oh," Fizz breathed again, but this time it sounded like awe. "It is time."
John’s pulse picked up. His mind was already counting.
How much mana did he have? How much drain was active? How long would hatching take?
Where could he stabilize without being interrupted?
How could he keep this hidden from Ray. How could he keep this hidden from the academy?
How could he keep this hidden from Snake’s eyes, because Snake’s eyes were everywhere even when Snake wasn’t.
Comments