The Crucible Campaign

26: Polar Express

.^^ the Phoenix ^^

— Teagan —

I gazed blearily at the large mammoth of steel that was banging on my front door ineffectually. "Well... that's rather annoying." I sighed, rubbing my face.

The boy we'd taken as an apprentice arrived, and grinned mischievously. "Okay, this is awesome."

"Yes, well, such is life, my little friend." I cracked my back, and opened the door, slapping the giant in the chest with my staff, letting a Rune glow. The force of the blow was increased as far as possible, and the giant flew back, tumbling ass over teakettle into the road.

He stared at me, mouth hanging open, and Caroline grinned, tapping his chin. "Try not to catch any flies, my boy."

I looked around for the elf that was controlling it, and found him across the street, staring at me in awe. I touched one of the stars on my robe, deciding to test it, and threw it at him. The elf yelped as a streak of starlight scorched the stones in a path directly into his face, knocking the crown off his skull.

The giant went still, and I walked over, picking up the crown and gazing down at the elf. "It would be wise if you spoke to me truthfully... who sent you?" I asked, and placed the circlet on my head, watching as the giant stomped over, and stood behind me menacingly.

He gulped slowly. "Uhm... is arrest an option?"

"No one arrests a Dead Man." I shrugged.

—

After the Academy was finished, construction-wise, I continued the process of finding teachers, people with an understanding of each of the Sciences, Mathematics, a little Art, (because expressing oneself is good for the mind and spirit,) and, of course, the Strategies and histories of military tactics and the realm itself.

After all, while I was excited to be teaching again, (or administrating, technically,) the purpose of the academy, which had started as a simple idea to train soldiers to sharpen their swords, had evolved into grooming leaders for Rank in the Military, possible Guild Masters, or even political positions.

The Bar had thus become even more refined than before, and the Casino as well. However, both were instantaneously big hits, and the money I was making in the first week was easily enough to pay the guild's Fee ten times over.

The apartments, which had been reconfigured once again, simply due to the massive size of the place, which I hadn't accounted for properly, were now placed in two rows, with one having a view of the Inner Garden, and a glass-walled balcony, (the ones for actual rent, on a monthly basis,) and the other having a view over the city, on the exterior wall, and those were designed like hotel rooms, meant for stays of a few days to a week, at most, but costing 1.5 times the rented apartments. That view really was worth it.

They were arranged in a ring, all around the building's apex, and numbered 400 in total. I had managed to rent a little under half of them, all interiors, to scholars from around the empire and even a few from outside of it, here to study in the city, or to study the horses that we would be taming soon.

With a reasonable rent of 1 Gold a month for the interiors, and 1.5 a week for the rooms with views, I made 315 Gold from them alone, in their first months rent paid up front, as well as the first week of people checking out the hotel portion.

Subtracting the teachers and employee's incomes, it became a little less impressive, but still in the Platinum range, which was good. Mother had seen our projected earnings, and after levying a small tax on top of our compound interest, said we would be debt-free in less than two years. Caroline, in typical Caroline fashion, multiplied the tax by ten, saying we'd be debt-free in three months, and ready to make actual profit, which was incredible in its own right.