Chapter 210: Featherweight
"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.
"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 donate 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".