Haru arrived after the morning shift, mop returned, uniform still on his body because he hadn’t changed, coin in his hand.
The corridor was long and dull, the kind that exists in every large academy, connecting two buildings without any real purpose.
Posters stuck on the glass panels, so bent at the edges from being read too many tis, others still fresh, ink still slling. Students standing still reading, others pasting new ones over old ones, others calling out in low voices to whoever passed by:
"Hey. Cover your activity for 300. I don’t ask why."
"Basic mana tutoring. Fair price. Co today."
"Looking for information about the first test. Paying well."
Haru stopped at the entrance of the corridor.
Looked at its entire length.
"This wasn’t here last week."
He walked in slowly, reading as he went.
/Location information: 100 points./
/Activity coverage: 300 points./
/Previous test reports, 3 years: 800 points, ask the roommate in 412./
/Direct contact with specific veteran: from 500./
He stopped at a specific paper, small, lower corner of the window, almost hidden by the others.
/Access to restricted areas without escort. Price negotiable./
"As a cleaner I already have access to almost everything..." Haru thought standing in the corridor. "I already know how to spend my points until the exams."
he looked around, searching for paper and pen.
"Can I borrow a pen?"
"And a paper too?"
...
"Can I lean on your back to write?"
The student beside him looked at him with the expression of soone who had already calculated the price before the question even ended.
"For a hundred points... you can even lean on my stomach."
Haru wrote what he wanted, pasted it on the most crowded window corner, and went to rest.
...ROOM 217...
On the balcony, he checked the balance.
[CURRENT BALANCE]
◊ Haru Mizuki, Room 217
◊ Points: 14,830
◊ Category: Cleaner (permanent)
◊ Ranking: 1, Freshn
"Unnecessary that the veterans don’t care about that corridor."
he looked at the courtyard below, freshn scattered, so in study groups, others testing basic magic, two fighting playfully near the fountain.
"On the first day they were desperate people trying to survive. Now they already have a routine."
he opened the system.
[SYSTEM UPDATING...]
Just that. Always just that.
He picked up his notebook, turning pages comparing symbols. Those from Vandris’ diary and those he had copied from Lilithine’s notebook.
Similar patterns, repeating structures.
He accidentally opened the Eldrath book, flipping through it without urgency, searching without knowing exactly what for.
..
Japanese letters on a page.
狐 — Kitsune.
Before he could go deeper, he heard a knock on the door, and then paper sliding underneath it.
Haru stood up, opened the door.
A freshman with a delivery expression walking away down the corridor.
"Hey, who is it from?"
"No idea." he shrugged. "They paid and told to take it to 217."
"Everyone has a price now..." he thought closing the door and opening the paper.
"15h, Sacred Wing courtyard.
— L
P.S.: And yes, you’re going to pay."
"Huh."
...SACRED WING COURTYARD - 15H...
Haru was already there spinning Vorath, half aimless, half training, testing the weight of the sword without mana.
"Moving without mana still takes effort. If I rember correctly, I have a body update pending after defeating Arwin. I never activated it because it would take eight hours and hurt."
he looked at his own arms.
"If I update and gain more muscle the sword becos lighter..."
he removed his shirt, examined his torso, shoulders, abs that had appeared without him asking for it.
"When was the last ti I checked my full status?"
"Will it increase the size of my..."
"What will increase?"
"The size of my dick." Haru replied automatically.
he turned.
Isabela and Lilithine.
Two seconds of silence.
"Filthy bastard!" Isabela ca straight at him, grabbed his cheek and pulled. "Is that how you answer!? Didn’t you see there are two ladies asking!?"
"Nothing like ladies." Haru said with his cheek still being pulled. "Ladies don’t hit."
"Then I’ll hit you to prove you wrong!" she released him and started stepping on him.
"Ow..."
"Makes sense now, the P.S. of the letter." Haru said stepping back. "It could only be you."
"and you’re going to pay." Isabela drew her sword. "Useless bodyguard. What do you think this is?"
Lilithine ran in, grabbing Isabela’s wrist with both hands.
"You’re going to kill him!"
"Well he doesn’t want to die, so he talks too much!"
"That’s not logic!"
"It’s perfect logic!"
Haru used the distraction to take two steps back and put his shirt back on.
Caution..
...COURTYARD - MONTS LATER...
Isabela sitting on a fallen log, legs crossed, short skirt above the knee, posture of soone who won the argunt even without winning. Red hair loose over her shoulder, afternoon light catching it.
Beside her, Lilithine sitting with that involuntary elegance, simple white dress, long sleeves to the wrists, gloves. Hands on her lap, back straight, as if sitting required effort.
Haru sitting on the ground between them, no chair, no log, simply on the ground, looking at them with a smile that didn’t match the situation.
"Hehehehe..."
"What are you laughing at?" Isabela asked.
"boobs!" he thought. "Nothing." he said.
"Won’t you say sothing?" Isabela asked again.
Lilithine started. "We saw your request in the corridor."
"Huh. How did you know it was mine?"
"Your handwriting." she said simply.
Haru scratched his neck. "Well. My body doesn’t cultivate mana."
They waited.
"Like... I try. I follow instructions, I follow the book, several tis this week already."
"And?"
"Heart stops, muscle spasms, body rejects it like a transplanted organ." pause. "It’s like sothing internally says no every ti I force circulation."
"Could it be because you’re an Herald?" Lilithine asked, genuinely curious. "Maybe it’s a factor."
"Yeah. Because I’m a Gar."
Isabela looked slightly—
"Relax." Haru said. "She knows I’m a Gar."
"You told her?" Isabela turned. "Are you trying to commit suicide? There are people who care..."
"I found out." Lilithine said.
"Oh. Okay then." pause. "How?"
Lilithine and Haru exchanged a look.
"He and another one were in a Resonance at the Cathedral." she said.
"Wait, a Resonance!?"
"Yes."
"With who?"
"With Genius. From House Genials."
Isabela slowly turned to Haru.
"I knew he had sothing to do with what happened at the Cathedral." she said low. "Liar... and since when do you have a relationship with Genius Genials."
Haru just stared.
"Can you teach now?" he said. "How you cultivate mana."
And what followed was Haru trying...
Attempt 1: Inner Fla Technique. Isabela demonstrating. Haru copying. Mana didn’t circulate. Heart skipped a beat.
"Heart stopped again?"
"It just skipped."
"Progress."
Attempt 2: River Current Technique. Lilithine demonstrating, smooth, thodical, mana flowing through ridians visible through faint light in her hands.
Haru trying.
Spasms in the left forearm.
"Ow."
"Do it again."
"It hurts."
"Do it again."
Attempt 3: Isabela trying a more aggressive thod, "sotis the body needs shock."
Lilithine vetoing before she finished the sentence.
Attempt 4: Silent ditation. Ten minutes. Haru opened one eye after three.
"I’m ditating."
"You’re not. You’re thinking about food."
"How do you know?"
"Your stomach growls every thirty seconds."
they stopped for a snack.
Attempt 7: Lilithine trying to guide circulation manually, fingers on Haru’s wrist ridian points, her mana serving as a model.
It worked for four seconds.
Then Haru’s body rejected it again, not with pain, but sothing stranger. Like pushing from the inside out.
"The spirits..." Haru thought. "Sotis it’s like trying to fill a cup that already has stones inside."
He didn’t say it out loud.
Late afternoon falling, orange light across the courtyard, long shadows.
All three without strategy. Haru clearly exhausted, back curved, expression of soone functioning at the limit of politeness.
"So how do you get mana then?" Isabela finally asked, already out of patience, only honest curiosity left.
"I think I already explained..."
"Explain again."
Haru hesitated, looking at both of them.
then he looked away, not at anything specific, just outside their gaze for a second.
"Panties." he said. "I need your panties."
Lilithine froze, processing.
"..."
"..."
"How do you an panties."
Isabela, already used to that specific side of Haru, didn’t explode, she just turned to Lilithine with the expression of "you see what I deal with" and said:
"It’s a skill."
"A skill."
"Yes."
"A skill that requires..."
"Panties. Yes."
Lilithine looked at Haru.
Haru looked at Lilithine.
"It’s true." he said. "Touch of Goddess. Extracts mana from intimate female contact. The panties work because it’s..."
Pause.
"...close...and... and... the fresher... the better"
Lilithine stayed silent for a very specific mont, then looked at the ground, then at the sky, then back at the ground.
"I live in sanctity." she thought. "I took vows, I pray every morning."
"And now a Gar is asking for my panties to cultivate mana."
"Life is a series of choices leading to this mont."
"Isabela." Lilithine said calmly. "Do you have spares?"
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