My head hurts. A wave of pain surged through, making me grimace as I exhaled briefly.

What I had hypothesized turned out to be correct, but I found myself in an unexpected place.

"Using your student’s back as a stepping stone in your old age, huh?"

Still, this was a better outcome than things getting more complicated.

It feels like I can start planning properly from now on. But...

"Ah, the Prize."

A competition I had forgotten about suddenly resurfaced in my mind.

I want to go meet that old man Wu Hua right away, but I can’t ignore the …