"So boring…"
The table was a mess of plates and dishes. Having just enjoyed a delicious meal, Lorist leaned lazily against the wall and let out a sigh.
"Damn, you're a super-rich man now, so stop whining like you've got nothing better to do. It's disgusting,"
"Heh, Fatty, how am I disgusting you? Don't forget that feast you just devoured was my treat. They say those who take from others should be humble and those who eat others' food should be soft-spoken, yet here you are — stuff your face and then turn on me without a second thought." Since there was nothing else to do, Lorist didn't mind bickering with Fatty Shi.
"I'm not turning on you. I'm envious, jealous, and full of resentment! Last year you were still running around like the rest of us, risking your neck for a few gold coins. But now? You can afford a building — over five thousand gold coins, and you didn't even blink. You just bought it outright. Over forty rooms, and you can collect seven or eight gold coins a month in rent just by leasing them out. How can we not be green with envy! Telman,
The guys sitting at the nearby table all nodded in agreement, thinking Fatty Shi had a fair point.
Yuri asked curiously, "Locke, just how much money did you actually make these past few months?"
Lorist thought for a moment, then shook his head. "I honestly haven't kept count, but seven or eight thousand at least, I'd say. When Er asked if I was interested in taking over that building, I went home and realized I'd already saved up that many gold bonds. They weren't doing anything sitting there, so I just went ahead and bought the place."
"Let me do the math for you," Fatty Shi said, perking up the moment money came up. "In March and April, you swept through all twenty-seven academies in the academy district and won every academy duel. The old man called you into the principal's office and, in the name of a hundred gold coins per academy defeated, you pocketed two thousand seven hundred gold coins — right?"
"Damn, how did you know that?" Locke felt his teeth ache. The old geezer had given him the reward in private precisely because he was worried the amount would make people jealous. How did Fatty Shi know all this?
"Never mind how I know. It happened, didn't it?" Fatty Shi said smugly, wearing that punchable expression of someone who knew everything.
Locke nodded.
"That was the first income. The next big chunk came from the challengers. March had two hundred and forty, April had three hundred and sixty, May had six hundred and eighty, June had seven hundred, and last month—July—had five hundred and twenty. That's two thousand five hundred in total. At the end of each month, the finance department settles your account, and you get three gold coins per challenger. That income alone brought in seven thousand five hundred gold coins. Add it all together and it's over ten thousand, so this kid doesn't feel a thing about spending that much on a building." Fatty Shi really did have a detailed memory.
Damn, Locke suddenly realized. The academy's Enforcement Division under Fatty Shi also took a ten-percent cut from the challengers—no wonder he'd calculated it so precisely.
"Also, this month has already had eighteen open challenge days. Even though almost no one's signing up to be challengers now, the academy has decided to wrap up the event once they reach three thousand challengers total. The day after tomorrow morning is still an open challenge day, which would bring it to three hundred and eighty challengers. As long as they round up another hundred and twenty challengers after that, Locke hits three thousand victories. So he still has another one thousand five hundred gold coins sitting in the academy's finance department."
"So what if it is? The thing is, that thousand-plus gold coins is just for casting a statue of little Locke—it's not a cash bonus. What use is that? In my opinion, they'd be better off giving that thousand-plus gold coins to Locke as a reward and then having him stand around the academy pretending to be a bronze statue in his spare time. Everyone would be happy that way." Fatty Shi had always despised these vanity projects that didn't thicken anyone's wallet, and he didn't hold back criticizing the academy's plan to commission a statue of Locke.
"Screw off. You're the one who should stand around the academy pretending to be a bronze statue—I'm not Er." Locke cursed with a laugh. That remark had everyone remembering the time Er snuck into the women's baths and posed as a plaster statue, and they all burst into a fit of giggles.
Fatty Shi kept tallying Locke's finances for him: "Little Locke's biggest income is from the pool Er and the others set up. Even though he hasn't collected it yet, and hardly anyone's been betting against Locke losing lately, the pool still won't be settled until the academy wraps up the event. But last time Er and I went through the books, and this kid has at least twenty thousand gold coins in payouts waiting for him. Damn! Just thinking about how this kid will get to sleep on a pile of gold coins from now on makes me lose it—I'd have to slave away at this academy my whole life and I still wouldn't earn that much!" Fatty Shi was practically going crazy as he kept calculating.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't get cocky just because I called you fat. I earned every coin the hard way, fighting for my life in the arena. And don't forget you made a pretty penny off me too—you might not have made ten thousand, but a few thousand gold coins is nothing to sneeze at. Come to think of it, all you guys are little rich men with a few thousand gold coins each. Can't afford a whole building? What about a small courtyard? Fatty, if you want to sleep on a pile of gold coins, be my guest—after I step out of the arena, you can take my place," Locke said.
"Yeah right. If I had that kind of ability, you think I'd let you go up there in the first place?" Fatty Shi grumbled resentfully.
"Who among you would dare say you could last even one day up there? Iron-Black Locke, the invincible Silver—all the talk of our
"Damn it, Er—since when did it become your place to lecture your elders?" Fatty Shi flew into a rage and jumped to his feet.
The newcomer was indeed Er, who looked at Fatty Shi askance with a dismissive smirk. "What, not happy about it? How about we go to the back courtyard and settle this?"
"Like hell..." Fatty Shi cowed immediately. He sat back down in a huff and took a long swig of his drink. "I'm a civilized man. I don't stoop to brawling with some two-bit gangster."
Two months ago, Er's dark-attribute
Fatty Shi had advanced to Silver a good year before Er. After watching Locke put Er down so effortlessly, he figured taking on this freshly promoted newcomer wouldn't be much of a challenge. But Er's dark-attribute Combat Force was far more formidable than the standard types, and on top of that, Er had cobbled together a motley collection of rogue fighting techniques on his own. Fatty Shi got battered so badly he couldn't show his face for days. Three times he went up, three times he lost. Fatty Shi refused to accept it, and over the following month he sparred with Er seven more times in private. The officially announced results? Fatty Shi proposed settling for a draw; Er declined.
"Here, it's all done." Er handed Locke a brown paper envelope. It was actually made from real cattle hide, and inside was a property deed, a management fee receipt, a tax certificate, several gold-denomination bills, and a handful of gold coins.
Er picked up a bottle of blackberry wine from the table, pulled the cork, and without bothering with a glass, tilted the bottle straight to his lips and gulped down several deep swallows. "The owner's name on the deed has been changed to yours. The management fee is half a percent, the tax is ten percent, and that's it—no other charges. The rest of the money is in the bag. Count it."
Lorist raised his glass. "Thanks, Er."
"Don't mention it, we're brothers."
This was the first property Lorist had acquired for himself in Morant City — a U-shaped building on Rose Avenue near the commercial district, a four-story Gothic-style pointed-roof attic with twelve suites on each floor. It had originally been the manor of a count from the Mibia duchy, but three months prior, something had apparently happened in that duchy, and the count was in a desperate hurry to sell the building for cash.
When Er got wind of this, he recalled that Lorist had once mentioned wanting to purchase a building, so he privately took Lorist to have a look. Lorist thought it was a fine deal and commissioned Er to buy it on his behalf. The building, originally worth over seven thousand gold coins, was obtained for just five thousand four hundred — Lorist was quite pleased. Though the ten-percent tax on the property transaction and the half-percent management fee he had to pay at the city hall afterward made his heart ache. Still, the consolation was that once these two fees were paid, the building would truly belong to Lorist, and he would never need to pay any additional taxes or fees on it for as long as he lived.
"What do you plan to do with the building?" Er asked.
"Hand it over to Ledos. Isn't he setting up a guild that specializes in providing labor services? I'm thinking of entrusting the building to him — let him find tenants and manage it on my behalf, and just give me half the rent each month," Lorist said.
"Sounds good. I'll have Ledos come find you in the next couple of days to sign a power of attorney and a management agreement." Er nodded, expressing his approval of Lorist's idea.
"Uncle Locke, I want another big chicken leg!" The little girl Elisa ran over and tugged at Lorist's arm. She had been playing in the backyard of the Red Crow Tavern with her brother, Swade, just moments ago.
Lorist's fellow townsman, the peak-Silver middle-aged mercader Bodfanger, had stayed at Lorist's home for over two months recovering from his injuries. During that time, the two had struck up a deep rapport and become the closest of friends. And Bodfanger's two children had also won Lorist's great affection. The boy, Swade, was remarkably well-behaved and eager to learn, diligent and hardworking. On one occasion, Bodfanger witnessed Lorist instructing his squire
What had been said half in jest turned serious when Lorist asked him, with considerable gravity, whether he truly meant it. Bodfanger, puzzled, nodded. And then Lorist called Swade over, had him kowtow three times, and ordered him to perform a grand bow to Redi as well. Just like that, Swade became Lorist's second disciple whether he liked it or not, with his senior apprentice-brother being none other than the squire Redi.
As for his youngest daughter Elisa, she was even more of a treasure to Lorist. Every time he looked at her, he was reminded of his daughter from his past life, and so he doted on Elisa especially, granting her every wish. He even had craftsmen convert the small attic into a bedroom for the siblings, which sent Elisa and Swade into fits of excitement. It got to the point where Bodfanger grew jealous — his own daughter was closer to Uncle Locke than to her own father.
After Bodfanger recovered from his injuries, he wanted to take the children and leave, but Lorist forcefully insisted they stay. His reasons were numerous: first, the children enjoyed living here and the conditions were far better than trailing after Bodfanger from place to place. Second, Swade was already his disciple — what kind of sense would it make to let a disciple leave his master? Third, Bodfanger didn't even have a specific destination in mind; how could he drag the children through hardship when he hadn't even settled himself? The final reason was the most irrefutable of all — Bodfanger could leave whenever he managed to defeat Lorist.
Left with no choice, Bodfanger reluctantly agreed to stay a while longer, vowing he would take the children away once he found a place to settle down.
Lorist had originally wanted to recommend Bodfanger as a Silver Instructor at
It was currently August, and most of the Academy's specialized departments had already gone on break. However, Lorist's Combat Force introductory class still had several dozen students undergoing their final training — they would undergo their Combat Force awakening at the end of the month. That young master from the Peterson family was among them. The fellow who had once weighed over three hundred and seventy pounds had successfully shed half his body weight through a grueling, hellish diet and exercise regimen. Though at around a hundred and eighty pounds he was still slightly overweight, it was no longer an impediment to his Combat Force awakening.
When Guildmaster Peterson had come for a private visit last month and saw what his precious son looked like now, he had crouched among the shrubbery and wept with joy. At parting, he had frantically dug gold denar bills out of his pockets as a token of gratitude — if Lorist hadn't intervened quickly, he might have walked away with the three-thousand gold forde reward that Guildmaster Peterson had been on the verge of promising. As it was, the gold denar bills the man had crammed into Lorist's hands that day numbered a full nine.
The academic system at Galentea's academy was peculiar and remarkably relaxed. There were two semesters each year, one long and one short. The long semester began in March and broke at the end of July through the end of August. September was an immovable month-long holiday dedicated to celebrating the harvest. Classes resumed on October fifteenth and ran until December fifteenth, after which there was another break all the way until the following March. Lorist speculated this was because the people of Galentea had once had a tradition of holing up through the winter, which was why the winter recess was so extraordinarily long.
Furthermore, although Dawn Academy claimed to have over five thousand students, in reality having over two thousand actually attending classes in any given semester was considered quite good. The majority were students on the rolls who, like Lorist in the past, were doing part-time work within the Academy. Others couldn't afford tuition and had to work for a stretch until they had saved enough to return. Still others took advantage of the cheap student housing rents — the last time Fatty Shi had led an inspection of the student residential area, he had discovered several married couples who had even had children while still squatting in the student dormitories. A check of records revealed they were alumni from five or six years ago who had never graduated and had simply made the dormitories their permanent home. In short, the Academy exercised an extraordinarily laissez-faire attitude toward its students, granting them almost total freedom. This sometimes made Lorist feel the place was less an academy and more like a sprawling community.
Just as Earl had said, Lorist had truly become a celebrity in Morant City — "
In the months following July, the Silver swordsmen who came to Dawn Academy to challenge Lorist grew fewer and fewer — even when Rector Levins raised the prize to five hundred gold fordes. Garylando, the owner of the Red Crow Tavern, put it best: "Five hundred gold coins sounds tempting, but you've got to have the ability to claim them. Better to hold on tight to the ten gold coins you already have than to chase after some illusory bubble of wealth."
So Lorist was feeling rather bored. The dueling challenges of the past several months had become a routine, and now that the challengers were gone, he felt quite out of sorts — restless and with nothing to do. He couldn't very well go off adventuring with his mercenary companions like he used to, since there were still some loose ends to tie up at the Academy. So today, he'd brought the two children along with Radi and rounded up the rest of the Academy gang to head over to the Red Crow Tavern for a big feast.
He gently pinched the little girl's nose as she clung to his arm and acted spoiled, and Lorist said dotingly, "All right, all right. Uncle Locke will order our little princess a big chicken leg."
Lorist raised his head and called toward the counter, "Landlady, have Maidov bring us another plate of fried chicken legs."
Standing behind the counter was Louise, the former head waitress, who had become the landlady just over three months ago. Ever since she had agreed to marry Old Gar and gone to the Temple of Michila to purchase a potion of restoration, the newlyweds of barely three months already had a bun in the oven. Everyone praised Garylando for being an old hand at his craft — nearly sixty years old and still able to get Louise with child, truly admirable. Old Gar was bursting with pride. It was Er who had privately confided to Lorist that the old codger had swiped several bottles of Terence's donkey-whip tonic from him, and if that still didn't do the job, you'd just have to say the old man's equipment was truly useless.
The golden-brown fried chicken legs arrived at the table in short order. Alisa took two, saying she'd bring one to her brother Schwarz, and then skipped off toward the back courtyard. But before long, she came running back, wanting to grab two more.
"Huh? Alisa, how did you eat them so fast? Uncle's only had two bites. Does little Alisa have an even bigger mouth than Uncle's?" Er teased the adorable little girl.
"No I don't! Alisa's mouth is teeny-tiny — way smaller than Uncle's! Those two chicken legs, Alisa gave to a beggar. He was so pitiful." The little girl pouted, clearly unhappy about Er saying she had a big mouth.
Lorist picked up two more fried chicken legs and handed them to the little girl. "Make sure you don't give these to the beggar too. If he's that pitiful, you can just have your brother give him a couple of copper coins."
The little girl took the chicken legs and replied with pure innocence, "But Brother already gave him all his money! Brother said he's from Northland too, and came to Morant City looking for a young master named something Nordonlorist. Auntie Louise said she'd never heard that name, and she gave him a bowl of oat porridge because she felt sorry for him. Alisa only gave him the chicken legs because he didn't have any side dishes."
……