[The Abyssal Academy - The Faculty Boardroom]
The air in the Faculty Boardroom was thick with the suffocating stench of brimstone and cheap tobacco. Shadows clung to the rotting velvet drapes, and the massive circular table in the center of the room was scarred with burn marks and dried blood.
Seated around the table were the most dangerous dark mages on the continent. Professor Morbus, the Head of Alchemy, puffed on a bone-carved pipe, exhaling a cloud of sickly green smoke. To his right sat Lady Vex, a necromancer whose skin was as pale as cracked porcelain.
They were laughing, waiting for the new human Principal to either flee or die.
The heavy iron doors groaned open.
Victor Thorne walked in. His midnight-blue suit was immaculate, completely untouched by the damp, filthy atmosphere of the castle. His leather shoes clicked rhythmically against the stone, a sound of absolute, mechanical precision.
Behind him walked Seraphina, her violet eyes scanning the room as she tapped her silver pen against her clipboard.
And directly to Victor's right walked Princess Ignis. The fiery demon royal was vibrating with murderous rage, her teeth ground together. A thin, glowing golden chain made of pure financial law connected her wrist to Victor's shadow, forcing her to act as his bodyguard until her 500,000 Gold debt was paid.
The laughter in the boardroom died instantly. Morbus lowered his bone pipe, staring in shock at the demon princess acting as a human's escort.
"Take your seats," Victor said, his voice flat and devoid of any warmth. He stood at the head of the table, not bothering to sit in the dust-covered chair. He pulled the heavy, black leather Tycoon's Ledger from beneath his arm and dropped it onto the table.
THUD.
"We don't take orders from humans," Lady Vex hissed, her voice sounding like grinding tombstones. Several skeletal hands began to crawl out of the shadows beneath her chair. "The last Principal learned to stay in his office. I suggest you do the same, before you become an ingredient in my potion class."
Victor didn't look at the skeletal hands. He opened the ledger, the golden glow reflecting in his cold eyes.
"Professor Morbus," Victor said smoothly, ignoring the necromancer entirely. "Over the last five years, you have requisitioned three hundred pounds of Dragon-Bone dust for your alchemy department. Yet, the student lab has not produced a single potion above Grade-F. Where is the inventory?"
Morbus sneered, blowing a cloud of green smoke directly at Victor. "Magic is a volatile art, human. Materials burn. Experiments fail. It is the cost of education."
"Is it?" Victor tapped his gold-nibbed pen on the glowing page. "Because according to the Ledger's asset appraisal, you have been smuggling the Dragon-Bone dust to the Black Market in the Demon Realm, padding your personal offshore accounts to the sum of 1.2 Million Gold."
The green smoke caught in Morbus's throat. His eyes widened. "How could you possibly—"
"Lady Vex," Victor cut him off, his voice dropping the temperature in the room. "You have been claiming a salary for forty-two assistant necromancers. The Ledger confirms they have been dead for three centuries. You are committing payroll fraud to the tune of 800,000 Gold."
The skeletal hands beneath Vex's chair shattered into dust as she lost her concentration, her pale face turning stark white.
"This school is currently 4.2 Million Gold in debt to the Iron Bank," Victor closed the ledger, resting both hands on the table and leaning forward. His Tycoon's Aura suffocated the room, pressing down on the corrupt mages like a physical weight. "And you have embezzled eighty-four percent of the operating budget."
"You arrogant little mortal!" Morbus roared, slamming his fists on the table. A surge of toxic, boiling acid erupted from his palms, dissolving the wood as he prepared to cast a lethal curse.
Victor didn't move. He didn't blink. He just adjusted his cuffs.
"Ignis," Victor said calmly. "Protect the company's assets."
The golden chain flared. Ignis screamed in frustration as the debt contract physically hijacked her body. She lunged forward against her will, her flaming broadsword manifesting in her grip, instantly intercepting Morbus's spell with a blast of pure, demonic hellfire.