After finishing his overtime and leaving Azar's office, Alhaitham headed straight home without looking back. Though his face was slightly pale, he could not let his air of effortless superiority slip.
Fortunately, he was used to walking with his head lowered over a book, and he had few friends at the Akademiya. With his book concealing his complexion, he easily avoided drawing anyone's attention.
Besides, his property in Sumeru City was less than a five-minute walk from the Akademiya where he worked, and it was a detached townhouse at that. Detached properties in such a location were exceedingly scarce in Sumeru, yet this property was merely one of the academic resources Alhaitham had obtained through an excellent research project during his student days.
For that very reason, although Alhaitham held only a scribe's position, he enjoyed extremely high standing within Haravatat in this city of scholars. If he wanted, he could easily obtain the title of Havak, but he had chosen to forgo it, wanting only to quietly live out his days as a scribe.
High pay, little work, and close to home-in addition, a scribe's work was very easy for him, perfectly suiting his philosophy of conserving energy.
As he deftly took out his house key to open the door, he suddenly sensed something amiss. There seemed to be strange noises inside his home.
As someone with a roommate, Alhaitham instinctively assumed that his hopelessly softhearted do-gooder of a roommate had finally deigned to return.
Tsk! Of all the times to come back, he had to return just when I'm showing signs of fatigue. If Kaveh sees me like this, he'll probably laugh at me for a whole year.
At that thought, Alhaitham felt the urge to leave home and lie low. *No, this is my house. If anyone