This Beast-Tamer is a Little Strange

Kain woke up after another 2 days straight of sleeping. Therefore, he had fully missed an entire week of events that he needed to catch up on, from the school to the business to his work as an Evolutionary Planner.

Groggily, Kain went for a shower and then cleaned up the now filthy sheets. He could see hundreds of unread messages on his phone. However, he wasn't yet awake enough to go through the overwhelming number of messages. Hopefully, there was nothing too important…

Kain went down to the first floor of the top 5 residence, and thankfully breakfast was still being served.

He filled up 3 large plates packed with hills of food and then proceeded to stuff his face with food.

Kain could occasionally see some of the catering staff refilling the food pointing at him and whispering. Even a couple of the upper-year students were staring at him in curiosity.

'What?! Has nobody ever seen someone be hungry after a breakthrough before?'

Finally, Kairos came down from upstairs and, after filling up a plate of food, sat across from Kain.

However, Kain couldn't ignore the fact that like the others, Kairos had his gaze fixated on Kain and wasn't even eating the food he'd brought.

"What?! Why are you all staring?" Kain said while taking a large bite of a sausage. Maybe his table manners weren't currently at their best, but it's not like the school cafeterias are some uppity high-end restaurant. Several of his seniors often come down to eat still in their pajamas. He was fed up with all of the stares. Can't he eat in peace?

"Ahem! Sorry…I think we're all just surprised by seeing the so-called Evolutionary Planner genius being constantly talked about online and on tv in person."

Bang!

Kain couldn't help dropping his constantly moving fork in surprise.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You know… everything that their saying would make anyone can't help but stare at you…" Kairos pulled out his phone and began to read out loud, "'The youngest person to ever develop a new evolutionary form!' 'A genius of the empire!' 'A first-year given a lab at a top 5 college.

Will he reach Assistant Professor status before he graduates?' Those are titles filling pretty much every site since yesterday. You really didn't know?"

'Ah! Looks like they announced the new evolution for the Lumifin!'

"No…I was breaking through to 3-stars and just woke up. I had no idea that they made the announcement already." Kain shrugged nonchalantly before going back to eating. Now with his curiosity satiated he was a lot less bothered by the stares.

Kairos still hadn't put his phone down and was continuing to scroll through his new feed. "'The secret behind the empire's latest genius'…Hey! Is this true? Did you already have a gift before the re-ranking that allows you to find new evolutionary forms?"

'Huh, no? Why the heck is that in the news?'

Likely seeing the confusion on Kain's face, Kairos continued. "According to this article, apparently you already had a reputation for helping to solve difficult evolutions. Several of your previous clients have even given interviews. Such as the Ashenclaw family, the Darkstar family, the Blueblood family…Hey! Do you only help nobles or something? How much do you charge?

Oh wait, nevermind! 'How much does the first-year newly talked about genius Kain Newman charge per consultation.'" Kairos continued to read out loud.

"What the hell?! Is there no privacy?" Kain yelled out loud.

He pulled out his own phone and began to scroll through what other articles were saying.

His school, his status as a double-major, his supposed gift, his known contracts, and even the orphanage had all been aired out for everyone one in the empire to see.

'What the hell is this… it's only been one to two days, hasn't it? How do they even have all of this information? Why isn't the college doing anything? They shouldn't want the details of my contracts exposed either before the National Competition.'

Continue exploring at m-vl-em|p-yr

Kain finally pulled out his phone to go through all of the messages he'd been putting aside.

He started with the messages from Barret and Collin about the business. Thankfully, everything was coming along smoothly.

In fact, they were even asking if they could use Kain's newfound fame to advertise the beer. Kain put off answering for now. He didn't originally plan to have his name and image tied with the company and would have preferred to be a silent investor. That way his personal image and that of the company would be independent from one another.

Now that he was in the public eye, if public opinion of him flips one day it could affect the business. He needed to think long and hard about it…

Then Kain saw the messages from a sudden influx of new clients wanting to connect with Kain as an evolutionary planner. Clearly whatever price was being quoted in those articles hadn't scared them away.

Then there were the messages from old and current classmates and acquaintances wanting to reconnect or asking questions. Strangely, it was the messages from Bridge and the others he was actually close with that were much less prying and pushy.

'Is this what overnight fame is like? I don't even remember the names of half of these people…did I go to elementary school with a Jared? How the heck did he even get my number…'

However, it was the messages from the orphanage that worried Kain the most. They congratulated Kain on his accomplishments, but Kain could read between the lines in the messages sent from the director and the older children that the newfound attention to the orphanage was stressful.

'This can't go on much longer…' Kain quickly sent a message to Professor Lume, the only one he had the direct contact information for within the faculty that may be able to help him. Maybe with some prompting, Kain could get the school to get everything under control.