Inside the academy's exchange hall, Alex made his way to the reception desk where a beautiful woman in a black and white dress welcomed him with a composed, professional smile. She looked to be in her late twenties, and there was a practiced elegance to the way she held herself.
"How may I help you?" she asked.
Alex withdrew the glove he had received from clearing the gate from his dimensional space, then placed it carefully on the desk in front of him.
"I want to sell the glove," he said.
The lady raised her right brow at the glove and asked, "May I?"
Alex nodded. "Yes, go ahead and examine it."
She nodded and proceeded to examine the glove, but her eyes soon drifted to the golden bracelet on his wrist, the one he had received from the principal yesterday for being first in the written examination and tied for first in the battle royale final exam.
Alex did not miss the subtle shift in her expression. The slight sharpness that had crept into her gaze while inspecting the glove softened considerably the moment her eyes landed on the bracelet.
"May I ask where you received this?" she said, her tone carefully neutral.
"I cleared a gate and received it as a reward," Alex replied, keeping his voice low and unhurried, mindful of the other students scattered around the hall. Some were studying the noticeboard along the far wall, while others sat in the chairs nearby, flipping through the thick catalogues that listed the artefacts and treasures available for sale.
"May I ask which gate it was, and who permitted your entry?" The lady pressed forward with one question after another without pause, and Alex noticed a few heads beginning to turn in their direction.
Thankfully, there was no one standing behind him, otherwise the situation would have taken on an entirely different and far more inconvenient direction.
Just as Alex was about to answer, he heard footsteps approaching from behind. His ears, sharper now than they had ever been before, caught the rhythm of the steps that he would miss previously on any other day. Thanks to his increase in level, he wouldn't miss such things from now on.
Alex turned and found the princess walking in. She came to a stop beside him and looked directly at the reception lady, her expression composed and unreadable.
The princess produced a sheet of paper from her dimensional space and handed it across the desk. "This is the documentation for the gate that appeared yesterday. Student Alex cleared it successfully."
The lady quickly read through the paper, then looked up at Alex, her eyes wide with shock. She bowed. "My apologies for the questions, Student Alex," she said, and the way she said it told him she already knew who he was. This was not a surprising change of thing to Alex, many people in the academy might not have seen him in person, but by now they'd certainly heard the rumors about Alex, heir of the grand ducal house who was level one.
"I'll be on my way," Princess Eva said, her voice carefully neutral. "If you run into any problems, let the student council know. We'll do what we can to help."
There were too many watching eyes for her to act casually, and she was engaged to Lucian. If anyone saw an engaged princess speaking warmly with her ex-fiancé, it would only invite more trouble.
When they had parted ways on the dormitory roof, she had told him to exchange the glove for some other reward, or for points. If he didn't want to sell it, he would need to register it with the exchange hall, since unregistered weapons or artefacts that were brought from outside weren't permitted on academy grounds, though the rules were different for anything obtained inside the academy's own gates. He'd also learned that the academy had gates that were used for training, and that many students traded their rewards from clearing those gates for points or other items.
The princess had also told him they shouldn't appear too close in front of others, and he had agreed without needing to be told twice. If she hadn't brought it up first, he would have said it himself. He didn't want rumors circulating about the two of them. It could draw the emperor's wrath, and Lucian's father's as well, and put the empire in an unfavorable position.
The princess gave Alex a nod, turned on her heel, and walked away.
Alex turned his attention back to the reception lady, who had finally lifted her head.
"I'd like to sell the glove. How many points will I get?" Alex asked, noting that the lady seemed far more accommodating than she had been moments earlier.
The lady's eyes snapped to the glove. After one more careful inspection, she looked up at Alex. "Since the glove is of enchanted rank and in pristine condition, we can offer you one hundred thousand points for it, or, if you'd prefer, you can exchange it for a different reward with the same price instead." She answered with a smile and slid a catalogue across the desk toward him like some serial seller trying to rob the customer of all their wealth and leave them dry.
Alex, who already had plenty of points, picked up the catalogue and began flipping through its pages.
Dragonslayer Sword — Divine rank — 1 billion points.
Alex coughed and nearly choked on his own breath at the sight of the name and the price. A billion points. Were they robbing people in broad daylight? Who could possibly afford that?
Alex glanced at the lady, whose eyes seemed determined to avoid him, though her smile remained perfectly intact, as if she hadn't noticed his reaction at all. "Prices are set according to their worth," she said.
"A divine-rank sword capable of slaying a dragon justifies a price of a billion points." She had already noticed exactly what he'd been staring at, and with another practiced smile, as though she hadn't seen him frown, she added, "We have a wide selection of treasures and artefacts. Please keep browsing, and I'm sure you'll find something within your budget."
Alex felt as though he'd just woken from a nightmare. He kept flipping through the pages, and slowly the ranks grew lower and the prices more reasonable, at least after a few more divine-rank items he didn't dare read closely, not wanting to sour his mood any further by reminding himself just how poor he felt despite having nearly a million points from yesterday, with another hundred thousand on the way. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that the academy was bleeding its students dry.
Soul-Wrenching Whip — Rare rank — 150 million points
Crimson Shield — Rare rank — 100 million points
Stone-Breaking Gauntlet — Rare rank — 50 million points
Too expensive. Alex flipped through the pages faster. Everything was simply too expensive.
Just the day before, he had felt like a rich man with his million points. Now it felt as though the ground had split open beneath his feet.
Even the lowest rare-rank items there ran into the millions, far beyond what he could spare, and he wasn't sure whether the academy offered loans. When he tried to ask, the lady, seemingly used to the question, answered before he could even finish. "I'm sorry, the academy doesn't offer loans."
Not that it mattered. Even if loans had been available, he had no interest in starting his academy life in debt.
Shaking the thought from his head, he finally stopped at the enchanted-rank section.
He started reading through the enchanted-rank listings.
Bone-Breaking Whip — Enchanted rank — 1 million points.
Alex nearly turned to stare at the lady. How is a whip of enchanted rank worth a million points, while my glove is only worth a hundred thousand?
He skipped two more pages. Even at enchanted rank, the prices climbed into a million or two, and none of them caught his interest anyway, mostly because he couldn't afford them, though even if he ever had a few hundred million points to spare, he knew he wouldn't be spending it on buying a whip.
***
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