"It’s time for you to move out," Lumin said to Kir as they sat across from each other using one end of her ridiculously long dining table.
She’d invited him to dinner, partly to verify that his illusion worked as intended, but also to "let him know what would be expected of him" as a new teacher.
On the first front, she’d expressed some gladness that the illusion properly reinterpreted his eating so as not to make it look like he was passing portions through his head. After questioning him on it to her satisfaction, that announcement had followed with no preamble.
Kir raised an eyebrow. "Move out?" he asked. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel⦿fire.net
"Yes," Lumin replied. "All the remaining space from what was salvaged of the old Academy has been converted into classrooms. The former Knights facility will be even more classrooms, and the new buildings on the promontory will be even more classrooms. As such, I have decided to this mansion for student housing and teacher housing. This means the risk of you being detected is about to go up many-fold. Hence, I am mandating that you take the option to find your own housing, a luxury afforded to staff." She paused to sip her coffee. "Also I’m moving the mansion next week, so you have until then to get out of my hair."
Kir went immediately into planning mode. If he wanted to be close to the Academy he’d have to live in the city’s upper ring. If not, he’d have to put up with passing through two gates and walking two miles there and back for work. That or maintain a constant expense for air carriages...
"How am I supposed to afford that?" Kir asked. "You already have me working for free."
"I’m sure you’ll find a way. And it’s not free," she pulled a scroll out of her dimensional storage and rolled it across the table until the bottom end fell in Kir’s lap. "I’d say I’ve already paid forward for your services."
Kir looked along the list, finding an itemization of every meal, material, and damages he’d eaten, used, or caused. At the very top of the list was the twelve gold for his balance owed to the school. Returning to the bottom, he looked at the total, flinching because right above it was a listing for "destruction of the local forest".
Forty-eight Orichalc?! She’d even rounded down and it was still more than most people saw in a lifetime.
"Hehe, this bitch goes hard. Reminds me of the Dean back at the Tokyo Institute of Technology." He switched to a mock elderly voice, "’Either get a sponsor or figure out how not to starve. Someone with a Masters degree shouldn’t be useless.’" Kiryu laughed in his head. "Looks like you’re down to whatever this world considers ramen for breakfast, lunch, and dinner."
"You’re not helping," Kir thought back at what he was increasingly thinking of as his evil half. Evil because Kiryu was miserly with information and generous with criticisms that were rarely constructive. To Lumin he sighed and asked, "Do you accept payment in angel feathers?"
It wasn’t like he could bust out all four wings as a "wolfkin" without drawing a ton of attention. Foreseeing a lot less flying in his life meant he’d probably have enough time to grow them back if he wound up not needing to fly. But fifty-three Orichalc was a lot of feathers...
"I thought you’d ask that," Lumin answered. "Right now it’s four feathers to the gold. With all the angels fluttering about for the Heavenswar, the market is getting a little flooded, even here. Those numbers might be generous." She sipped. "Are you willing to pay that price?"
"Excellent. I’ll have Terry pluck you. He knows how to be gentle."
Behind her, the butler bowed.
"Wait. Right here? Right now?"
"Fresh catalysts are best, but I’ll settle for steel jar storage." Steel or iron jars kept most catalysts fresher, with only minor mana loss relative to the volume inside the jar and how filled it could get. "Since I’ll be busy for the next week, now is the only time I have to settle accounts with you. It may not seem like it, but I have given much to keep my position and the city in good order."
"You must really love Norneau to do so much for it," Kir said.
"It is not simply that I love this city," Lumin chuckled. "More like I am the city."
"Le state c’est moi," Kiryu quoted, his voice rich with sarcasm. "I’m sure no one who’s ever said something like that has been a delusional little tyrant."
"So you speak French now?" Kir sent a wave of annoyance Kiryu’s way.
"I speak whatever I goddamn like. Had the twelve most common languages downloaded into my head before I went for my first Ph.D. Then a few dead ones like Minoan and French. What you think of as ’Common’ is basically just a mash of everything."
Kir mentally popped out of the lecture in time to find Terry approaching him.
"When you say you are the city, what do you mean?" Kir asked.
"I mean it quite literally," Lumin said. "Without the Academy, this city would have folded up long ago. And without me, there is no Academy. The city leaders know this, which is why I was given some leeway in being pardoned for your father stealing an entire college. I would be absolutely livid if it hadn’t been so damn ridiculous and audacious." She laughed, but there was a tinge of subtle anger to it.
Kir had no doubt she’d absolutely try to kill Maledict if he ever came within her reach again.
"Now bend forward and pop out those wings. I assume you want to settle all at once?"
If Kir waited and the angel feather market became oversaturated, he wouldn’t be able to pull the same scheme. "All at once sounds fine," he said. "I don’t suppose you’d be willing to buy some on top of the debt?"
"Hm. I don’t think I can. But I can forgive the food debt and the excess will go back to you. That should give you about four gold to work with. Very generous considering how unstable trade has become."
Kir sighed, but there was little he had the power to do except blame Kiryu for using the soulstone he’d found at the bottom of a dungeon to sabotage Maledict’s theft.
"Hey, don’t blame me for that shit, blame Mom for giving me those instructions," Kiryu said defensively.
"Why did you follow them then?" Kir asked.
Kiryu went silent. Then after too long of a pause, he said "I had a body, and more than seventeen local years of boredom built up. I thought that maybe if I did what she said, I’d get to stay in charge."
That didn’t sound like the whole truth to Kir-
"That’s the whole truth, I swear. Now I’m going to fuck off while you get plucked like a chicken by the creepy butler."
Kir flinched as Terry tapped him on the shoulder. With a deep, deep sigh, Kir let out his wings.