Chapter 123: Na ?
The sun was burning my face and I was walking in Arcadia City.
The cobblestone streets shone with a thin layer of golden dust, gravel, impregnable with mana, which made the city vibrate during the day.
The typical bustle of the capital engulfed ; street sellers shouted in the background of the mana-car stream, selling roasted wings of wyverns, as well as magical scrolls that would, they said, enhance your attractiveness by thirty percent.
Two guards in shining blue armor walked by, their halberds shimring faintly with runic wards.
A team of first-year adventurers was crowded around a bulletin board, debating a new dungeon posting. It was raving, noisy, alive--a world much farther away than the stifling courtesy of the Academy.
I pulled my collar and proceeded towards the town square.
The Sunflower Café could not be overlooked, being two stories of yellow paint, with vines clinging to the sides, and windows that were warmly illuminated. There was the slight odor of caral and roasted beans. The cafe was now a haven of both students and rcenaries--a neutral place where gossip, gold, and even secrets passed freely over cups of mana-brew.
When I pushed the door open the bell struck quietly and I saw him at once.
Victor was already sitting before the window, and he was vibrating. He was seated with a half-empty cup of coffee before him, a number of papers that looked like a battle-field map, and the sort of nervous vigor which might under normal conditions have operated a small mana generator.
The instant his eyes were on he jumped to his feet and made frantic gestures.
"Boss! Over here!"
A few heads turned. A fine girl at the counter looked at him as the circus animals do.
I sighed. I walked over, saying to myself, Victor. "Subtlety is a virtue, you know. We are an organization, and not a circus troupe.
"Right, right—’secret,’ got it." He bumped forward and spoke in a voice that was audible three tables distant. "So! The na! Have you decided?"
I sat down in the opposite booth and placed my satchel. You just could not wait, could you?
"Wait? Boss, this is economy Empire being born! Victor made a dramatic gesture; almost knocking down his coffee. "We need sothing strong. Powerful. Sothing that shouts, We possess half the continent! How about Phoenix Capital? Or maybe Apex Holdings! Sounds fancy, right?"
I drank a drop of water, and gazed at him vacantly. They are reminiscent of tax evasion sches.
Victor blinked. "...What?"
"Too loud," I said simply. Such nas are like screars of new money and draw auditors. We need sothing quieter. Strong, but subtle. The type of na that causes the nobles to nod and reason, Oh, they must be old money.
Victor slumped a bit. "So, nothing that sounds cool."
"Exactly."
He resembled the fact that I had just inford him that dragons did not exist.
Then what, he asked himself, pouting a little.
I leaned back, considering. "Aegis Holdings."
He blinked. "Aegis? Like... the shield?"
"Exactly." I t his gaze evenly. we are not making a sword to cut the nobles--yet. We’re building a shield. For us. For our allies. It is a stronghold of wealth and power that cannot be reached.
The look of Victor changed to bewildernt, and then to sick amazent, and finally to insane excitent. A shield... that is a shiner, Boss! Protective, proud, yet it is a vow of power! Aegis Holdings. I love it."
He took a napkin and started furiously scribbling. "Okay, so, Aegis Holdings—check. I have registration to do tomorrow morning. We will require legal coverage, treasury structure, perhaps a couple of shell companies to be on the safe side--
I have the money already, I interjected. Startup cost 3 billions of Ren. Recruit the top attorneys in Arcadia. I want everything ironclad. You will be the front office CEO and my na will remain concealed behind three layers of shell companies.
His pen froze mid‑stroke. "...CEO?"
"Yes," I said. "The face of Aegis Holdings."
Victor looked at as though I had given him the keys of a war-ship. "Boss... My final company I managed beca bankrupt within two months. I lost every investor we had."
And did you learn it, I said. "You have talent, Victor. You simply did not have a right supporter. Now you have one. Don’t disappoint ."
He gazed, with his mouth ajar, and his face broadened into a great grin--awe and half terror. Swear, Boss, swear, on my na, on my debt, on my addictive coffee habit, I will not fail you.
"See that you don’t," I said dryly.
At this mont the waitress, who was a young girl with auburn hair and mana freckles, passed by smiling. Would you gentlen care to order?
Victor panicked. Two of whatever’s hot coffee wait, I an expensive! I an—"
I will have a black roast, I said in a smooth manner. And a vanilla frappe he will have. With extra cream."
Victor looked betrayed. "Boss..."
Your personality, I said, and concealed a smirk behind the nu.
As the waitress went, he sighed lodramatically. You do like to bully , do you?
Take it as leadership training, I thought, leaning back.
He chuckled despite himself. The tension eased. Beyond the window, the skyline of Arcadia dazzled with small streaks of mana sweeping over the horizon--rchant highways, noble currents of power, strings of influence and money that could not be seen.
Victor turned his eyes in the direction of my gaze, and smiled. "You think we’ll really make it? This... company thing?"
"We won’t make it," I said quietly. "We’ll define it."
He looked at , and a slow fierce grin spread over his face. "Damn, you’re serious," he said.
I answered, I never take anything serious.
Victor laughed so hearty that so of the custors escaped towards us. I sighed. You will have us both thrown in jail one day.
It was, he said, and lifted his cup. To Aegis Holdings--the start of sothing mad.
To live, I answered, and banged my cup on his.
_________
The sun had gone down the horizon before I ca back to the Academy.
Mana light were fluttering into existence along the ways. Their pallid blue light was bounced back along the marble aisles. Pupils ran up and down the courtyards, and there was laughing and whispering in the corridors. The Academy breathed rather than stifled as it had not been breathing before.
Towards the Disciplinary Committee room I went. The door was open ajar and a piece of light trickled in the darkness.
I pushed it open.
Maria sat inside. Her hair, which was silver in the lamplight, fell upon her face and her eyes were fixed upon the paper as her pen flew rapidly. She didn’t look up.
"You’re late," she said evenly.
I was having an appointnt, I said, leaning by the door. She murmured, still writing.
"I know. The Committee maintains records of all the students who leave and co back. You were gone for three hours."
"Efficient as ever," I said.
Finally, she looked up. Her penetrating blue eyes t my eyes. llow and cool, yet with an air of slight interest.
There must have been so important eting.
You might say so, I said, as I drew nearer. Only getting so investnts in the future.
Her brow was a little raised, but she did not insist. Rather, she pressed a stack of papers, in a pile, in my direction.
These ca during the period of your absence.
I peeped at the pile--grievances, dozens of them.
She said that students are not afraid to speak up since the corruption scandal. Bullies, extortion, fixed duels,-- the dam has burst.
I took up the first file and stopped.
Na: Alex Ford.
The cronies of Russell Belnic, Maria said to herself.
They surrounded him close to the training ground. Apparently, they did not like their Baron have his family reputation dragged into the mud.
My jaw tightened. "Is he hurt?" I asked.
"No," she said.
"Soone intervened." She gave a witness report.
The third year--Jax Blackwood, of the Hunting Club. He and his friends stepped in."
I exhaled slowly. The Academy was already evolving. Citizens were behaving fearlessly. That was the true victory.
"Good," I said softly. ..
"Send a formal warning to Belnic group. Another accident and they will be suspended - family influence, hell."
Maria shook her head, and was already preparing the report. Her gestures were fine, elegant, nearly exquisite. Then she glanced up again.
You look weary, she said lowly.
"I’ve had a long day," I admitted.
I can tell, she thought, then stopped. Her lips smiled in an almost timid fashion.
"But you handled it well. You always do."
The room fell silent. The lamp was flickering and it gave a soft golden light on her face. Her eyes were different--they were not sharp but warm.
There was a mont of tension between us, thin and hot.
then she rose, and packed her belongings, the mask sliding over again.
Michael, do not keep too late. Professor Alastor has combat-training to-morrow morning.
I groaned. "Ah, yes. His hobby- turning the students into much. "
She chuckled softly. "Then try not to die. It would be dreadfully inconvenient of paperwork.
And so smiling a little, she walked away to the door. Her fragrance was very weak-- jasmine and frost.
Before she went, I called her na, Maria.
She paused, half‑turning.
"...Thank you."
Her lips curved faintly. "For what?"
To get things going when I am busy being a businessman.
Sobody must, said she with an injured kind of a laugh. Then, less vehently: You need not do all by yourself, you see.
I didn’t answer. When I had a good idea, she had vanished.
The room was quiet again. Scattered papers on the desk. There had been a slight warmth in the air.
I sat down and looked at the small light of the invisible ring on my finger.
"Shield, company, allies, foes--it was all like strands of a thread, weaving up sothing larger than myself. "
So far, however, I was permitted to have one mont of rest.
’I guess I am beginning to like this insanity’, I said to myself.
The moon was low over Arcadia Academy. The ga had just begun.
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