Chapter 88: Outwitted

"What?" Margaret raised her voice and glared at Ray. "You dare demand payment when I’m inspecting whether you’re up to no good or not?"

Ray held a stoic expression on his face.

"Well, yeah. You want to see free stuff? Go pirate them instead." He said with the most nonchalant tone.

After all, he seriously despised piraters because they were so incompetent as to not pirate the Lord of Magic novel and caused him to lose so much money.

Had these pirates been more competent, it could have saved him so much money and heartache from reading a BL novel.

"Pirate them?" Margaret naturally wouldn’t understand his actual intention behind the term.

"We might be an island, but it’s a floating one. Even though there are sky pirates, they wouldn’t be foolish enough to target us."

’Oh, right... Sky pirates, Land pirates, and Sea pirates exist in this world.’ Ray nearly facepalmed when Margaret took him seriously.

"No, I mean pay us Stellan Points if you want to join our adventure." He clarified.

"Didn’t you earn over 3,000 Stellan Points already?"

"Yeah, but someone decided to force me to attend some welcome ceremony. Shouldn’t I charge you for that?"

"What?"

"Don’t act stupid now." Ray rolled his eyes. He wasn’t ignorant or stupid to not realize the intention behind the forced attendance of the welcome ceremony.

"Yes, it was me," Margaret admitted. "I’ve made some heavy changes in policy, and it will be announced in the welcome ceremony. I wanted Belva to witness that no similar incident would ever repeat."

"Oh, please. You’re not sick of mentioning it, but I am." Ray finally had enough of Margaret’s behavior.

He tolerated it for so long because he wanted to gain Villain Points and skills from her.

But he already obtained her skill; he no longer had any interest in continuing to farm Villain Points from this annoying character.

Like, jeez... get a freaking life!

Regret there and regret here. If everyone behaved like her, then the world would be truly doomed.

"How could you undermine my effort in redemption?" Sure enough, Margaret also snapped. Her action was toward Belva, and never him. Yet he repeatedly put himself between them and constantly undermined her dedication to redeem herself.

"Undermine?" Ray laughed coldly. "Look at Belva. If she really wanted to forgive you, she would have long told me to stop. Or did you seriously think your cherished protege had become a mute and can’t speak for herself anymore?"

"I-I..." Margaret tried to look at Belva, but was rendered speechless when the latter’s expression remained unchanged.

Truth be told, Belva honestly couldn’t care about what happened in the past aside from the culprits responsible. She didn’t blame Margaret, but that didn’t mean she forgave her either.

She was also just a human.

And humans tend to have emotions, even if they manage to conceal them very well.

Ray understood her, but not once had he coerced her to spill anything.

Of course, if Belva had known that Ray had already learned everything through another means, she might have had other opinions.

Unfortunately, she didn’t, and Ray wasn’t a dumb clown to expose his trump card either.

"See, she’s silent. Either pay up in points and stay quiet while following us, or you can scram." He coolly said, giving zero respect for Margaret.

"How much?"

"Ask Belva."

"Huh, what?" Belva appeared in dismay.

Why was she the one in charge of asking a price?

"How much do you want, Belva?" Margaret turned to her and asked.

Anyone would hate to be in Belva’s position right now.

The price she asked would determine whose side she was really on.

A very villainous tactic from Ray to test her.

Belva smiled bitterly and showed her pointy finger, which indicated the number one.

"100 points?" Margaret thought and was about to transfer some of them to her.

"1,000 points..." Belva cleared her throat and clarified.

Instantly, Ray’s lips curled upward in a devious grin.

OHOOO!

That was what it meant to be his maid.

Even though he only thought of extorting 500 points, Belva went ahead and doubled it.

Sure enough, Margaret’s face looked like she had swallowed a mouthful of maggots.

Her cherished protege... was willing to extort her many points.

It wasn’t that she didn’t have these kinds of points, but it just ached her deeply that she demanded so much on behalf of Ray’s.

"Either pay or leave us alone already. You are seriously wasting a lot of time."

Upon hearing that, Margaret transferred the amount directly.

"Now go." She clicked her tongue and demanded.

"Very well, my dearest sponsor." Ray’s attitude quickly changed 180 degrees.

Those who pay are the customers, and dumb customers like Margaret must be treated with utmost respect.

Otherwise, how else could he continuously scam her in the future?

Sometime later, the trio continued to search for the location, with Ray being the only one who actually knew what to look for exactly.

After the nth attempt, they finally reached another place, and Ray immediately halted his steps.

"What is it—" Margaret was about to complain about his stalling until Ray shushed her up with his finger.

His expression was extremely serious.

"Professor Margaret, I’ve got a question. If someone has a key, what kind of key could possibly threaten the Crestellan Academy?" He suddenly asked.

"What could threaten the Crestellan Academy?" Margaret nearly let out a laugh.

"With the Principal present, unless there’s a horde of enemies that continuously spawn, no danger could befall the academy."

"Right, only a horde of enemies that continuously swarm in would pose a difficulty."

Ray chuckled and facepalmed. To think he was outwitted by the system this time.

No wonder the system never confirmed anything with him regarding the timeline or whatnot.

He should have anticipated this a long time ago when an additional prologue was suddenly added to the story.

The novel he read overall might not be that much different from what happened. But the trajectory of the timeline could be affected.

"Lead me to the underground portal that the academy retained as a training ground for the students now!" He exclaimed loudly.