Chapter 106: Back To School
There hadn’t been any changes in the princess since Jason went to bed, and Jason just frowned at that before he reached out to Fenrir. Fenrir told Jason that the agent was still watching the house. The agent left sometime during the night and came back with food and drinks, so Jason was certain that she was going to be watching him for a while.
’It’s starting to get irritating.’
Jason frowned slightly as he considered his options. Jason couldn’t do anything about the agent watching him, but he didn’t like the fact that she was keeping tabs on him like this. Should he just confront her about this and ask her what she wants? No, that wouldn’t work. If he confronts her, then he’d only deal with the problem in the short term. Jason wanted to know who was behind the agent, and to do that he needed to be patient. Jason sighed and pushed off the wall. He couldn’t be impatient. He’d wait and allow the agent to make the first move.
During the celebrations last night, Jason spoke with his mother about whether or not he should drop out of school. Jason told his mother that he didn’t need to go to school anymore since he could make money by working as a superhuman now. But his mother was adamant that she wanted him to finish high school.
Jason could still remember the look on his mother’s face as she spoke to him in a hard tone.
"We had a deal, Jason. You told me you didn’t want to go to college, and I agreed because I know you’re mature enough to make your own choices. But you promised me that you would finish high school at least. I am not budging on my decision."
Mira was in the middle of dishing out Jason’s cake when the topic of high school came up. And Mira could immediately tell that Jason was thinking of dropping out. She knew that Jason could make money by being a superhuman, but that was not the reason why she wanted him to go to school. Mira wanted Jason to have an education, even if he wasn’t going to college. Why would he want to throw everything he had worked for away just because he made some money?
Jason sighed as he saw how angry his mother looked. It was obvious that this was a big deal to her even if he wasn’t really interested in it. If it had been anyone else who spoke to him about going back to school, then Jason wouldn’t have just ignored her. But this was his mother, and he had to take her opinion into consideration no matter what.
"Mum, I’m already making money –"
"It’s not about the money! It’s about education. Knowledge! I care about you, Jason! I want what’s best for you! Stop thinking that the only thing I want from you is the money you can make for us. I want you to go to school and get a good education before settling down and thinking about the rest of your life. You’re still so young, Jason. Stop trying to jump into adulthood so quickly."
That had been enough to give Jason pause. His mother sounded so serious at that moment that Jason couldn’t even say a single word to her! This was the first time that his mother would seriously admonish him for trying to make money. Even when he told her that he wasn’t going to college, she didn’t say much to try and stop him! Was it really that important for him to finish high school?
Maybe to Jason, it wasn’t important, but to his mother, it was very important! She knew that Jason was far too mature for his age, and she also knew that he was trying his best to grow up quickly so that he could just take care of everything by himself, but that wasn’t the life she wanted for him! If Jason left school now, then he would be thrust into a world of adults who all wanted to take advantage of him! He would have to learn how to be cunning, ruthless, and morally grey just to survive against all of them!
Mira didn’t want Jason to throw himself into that world so quickly! Jason was still a teenager! An eighteen-year-old! And no amount of maturity would ever change that fact in Mira’s mind! Mira was going to put her foot down and make sure that Jason listened to her about what she wanted him to do for now! After high school, Jason could do whatever he wanted, but for now, he was going to school whether he liked it or not!
And that was how the conversation had ended. Jason didn’t like seeing his mother look so tense. The entire reason why he wanted to drop out of school in the first place was to try and make his mother’s life easier, but it was obvious that the only way to make his mother’s life easier now was by going to school and finishing it off! If that was what would make his mother happy, then he didn’t mind doing it!
Jason knew that he didn’t have to go into Gates every single day. On the days when Jason had a Gate to dive into, then he would just skip school and do what he had to do, but on other days, he would go to school with the other kids. Jason was in his final year of high school and it was only three months until graduation. Even if he went to school nonchalantly and missed some of his classes, Jason would still be able to graduate with the others. So Jason decided to give his mother what she wanted and finish school at least.
Besides, going to school wasn’t going to be a complete waste of time. Jason had been thinking about what he would do with the Magic Crystals that he collected from the Orange Gate. He had more than three hundred of them, even after subtracting the ones he ate. And he wasn’t exactly planning on eating them all. Jason wanted to sell as many of them as possible, but to do that he needed an organization that was separate from the government. Someone who wouldn’t expose his identity.
The first person that came to Jason’s mind was one of the superhumans in his class called Fiona. She was only an E Rank, so she didn’t have much hope of ever going into a Gate until she got stronger, but she was extremely rich because her family was in the Magic Crystal business. They were a third-party company called Tenet that bought Magic Crystals from superhumans and sold them to those who needed the crystals. There have been many articles talking about how the business was suffering due to the SMD monopolizing the crystal market, but even if they were suffering, Jason didn’t care. The only thing he cared about was the fact that they were an independent entity. If he could get them to buy his crystals without letting the government know, then he wouldn’t mind giving it to them.
Jason also spoke to his mother about the money he made from selling the crystals he got from the Red Gate. His mother was obviously excited about him making so much money and she immediately refused when Jason told her he would send her some money later. Mira insisted that she didn’t have any need for the money since Jason was the one paying for most of the things they needed, but Jason wouldn’t budge. He was giving her the money whether she liked it or not.
Jason also told his mother that he wanted her to stop running her shop and retire, but his mother told him that she couldn’t.