Modeste Morgan walked out of one of the lecture halls that the Hundred Night Academy had scattered throughout the city.

She pulled down the headphones she was wearing and sighed. The last class had been...rough, and it had taken all of the young woman’s willpower to resist falling asleep.

Just as she stepped onto the sidewalk, she heard the sound of an altercation. She immediately tensed, her sharp owlkin hearing picking up nuances that hinted at a likelihood of things turning violent.

“Okay, you need to back the fuck off my sister before I make you back off.” snarled a voice.

“Oi, friend...No need to get offended. I was just making a little conversation and trying to help you out.” said a man in an HNA uniform. His long curly hair shaved at the sides.

“Well, guess what, friend, Ain’t no one here trying to talk to you. No one asked for you help. And stay the hell away from my sister.” said another student. A spiky haired half-goblin.

He stood in front of a female student, also a half-goblin, who hid behind her shorter brother while looking looking like she’d have rather been almost anywhere else in the world but where she was standing.

“Hey, hey, that’s not nice. Your not gonna get anywhere in this school if you’re not willing to make friends.” said the first student.

“Well, that’s fucking fine with me, pal. Us, Blackvale students, don’t need your brand of ‘friendship’.” said the second student.

The argument between the three students drew a crowd. Modeste included. Going by the conversation that the Hundred-Nighter had been making some unwelcome advances on the girl in mention and Modeste hated that sort of thing.

As the member of a clan of former-knights, Morgan’s sense of chivalry meant she had to least standby to see how things would go.

This was a fight between one of the Hundred Night elites, and a pair of Blackvale students. One of many fights that had taken place in the past few weeks.

Oddly enough, Modeste couldn’t be sure whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, it wasn’t pleasant to see the the Hundred Night students trying bully the Blackvalers. Taking advantage of the fact that many of them came from families that were struggling, if they even had families at all.

On the other hand, it was relieving to see that all the Hundred Night students could do was “try” to bully them. The Blackvalers circumstances have grown progressively more positive in the passing weeks. Making it so that that the Hundred Night students couldn’t take advantage of their desperation.

*************************************************************************************************************

Weeks passed, as Andrew finished getting himself, Sophia, and the students and staff of the Blackvale Academy settled in Nurari III.

It took a few additional weeks for Andrew to finish automating and streamlining as much of Housecarl Industries’ vital processes and operations as he could.

By the time Andrew was done, the company and the Oddvar-Luce clan that served as its backer, firmly had their feet planted in the Novem Empires military-industrial complex.

They’d been offered a number of contracts with the imperial military, a handful of noble clans, and powerful sects. Contracts that they’d been able to swallow on their own, without accepting the “assistance” offered by a number of the larger, more famous names in the industry.

This, and their status as the standard-bearers for the selkie-system, and the “Namazu,” or ripple-warp, engines, had allowed Housecarl Industries to go from being an up and comer, to being a nascent titan within the war mech and astral vessel markets.

Their turn-over rate and the consistently high quality of their work, might have actually created a few rumors concerning their production abilities. There were now more than a few folk postulating that the clan had likely had some breakthroughs in the field of manufacturing, on top of what’d they done with mechs and spaceflight.

However, Andrew and Sophia decided to just ignore ‘that’ . A man who finds gold gets rich, a man who bleeds gold gets dead.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

It wouldn’t serve the young eidolons to give away too much of what they were capable of. Besides, everyone knew that every clan in the galaxy with something special going on, kept the bulk of their secrets to themselves.

Thus even if people had questions, there were few who even made a piecemeal attempt at prying. Keeping their inquiries to futile, covert attempts at surveilling the company’s factories.

Now Andrew found himself with a sudden abundance of free time.

At first, it was just a pleasant surprise to find that his days weren’t as occupied with meetings and long sessions of design and construction. Then he started to worry that he might be forgetting something. Neglecting some crucial task that he should have been doing all along while he was goofing off, doing nothing important.

Then he realized at some point that he wasn’t the only one with a lot more free time. Sophia was hanging around their main estate a lot as well.

After the original unveiling of the selkie system, namazu engines, and a handful of other not-quite as groundbreaking but similarly impressive industry offerings Oddvar-Luce and Housecarl Industries pulled their metaphorical phallus and testes off of a bent table, zipped up their metaphorical fly, and returned to being just a hair more low key.

Andrew had a friend, or at least an acquaintance, that he’d met during his time in Abwickeln. The man liked to hear himself to talk but occasionally the man said things that made sense. Such as advising that beings such as themselves find a balance between making and impression and being part of the background.

Sophia had kept that advice in mind, and less than three months after she’d finished devastating industries. She and Housecarl Industries had turned around suddenly started making friends with a handful of their smaller and larger rivals.

Making a bunch of distribution and supply contracts to create a buffer between the company and the rest of the galaxy. Offering generous deals to a number of big and small names because any money they made off the products they’d created from cosmic detritus and their own otherworldly powers was basically pure profit compared to what it’d cost a normal company.

With those other companies pulled into the fold and given the task of selling and shipping, Housecarl Industries products, the young CEO suddenly found herself with a whole lot more time on her hands.

While neither was completely idle by any means, Andrew and Sophia were no longer anywhere as overworked as they’d been.

The two young eidolons spent their free time, wandering through in their spacious obsidian tower. Making love frequently, because they were young, attractive, over the moon for each other, and honestly, it was a fun way to kill an afternoon. Picking up and finishing various minor projects. However, ultimately, the feeling that there was something that they were forgetting persisted.

“Ah!” said Sophia. Sitting up in bed one day and closing the financial report she’d been reading through.

“What?” said Andrew. Pausing the game he’d been playing.

“School!”

“Huh?”

“We’re still students, hoheit...We haven’t gone to school in months!” said Sophia.

Andrew frowned.

“Does that actually matter though? This isn’t one of those planets that prosecutes dropouts, or ships them out into the imperial fleet.” said Andrew.

“True...But assuming we’re still adhering to your goal of following the social norms as best as we can...we’re going to need to graduate,” said Sophia.

“Uh…”

“Plus...Hundred Night Academy is far from cheap for those who don’t qualify for government assistance...And going by these reports I’m reading we definitely don’t qualify. So we’ve basically been throwing money down the drain by not attending despite being enrolled.” said Sophia.

Andrew put down the controller he was holding and furrowed his brow.

“Shit...Fine. I guess we’re going back to school.” said Andrew. Sighing wistfully. Suddenly losing interest in the game he’d been playing.

“Don’t be lazy, hoheit. Getting a good education is important. Besides, I think we’ve had a long enough vacation from academy life.” said Sophia. Teasing Andrew. Her long pale fingers crawling up his chest.

“Vacation?... We’ve been working our butts off this whole time!” said Andrew. Looking like he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

*************************************************************************************************************

The next day the young couple used the Dougal’s spatial-transfer gate to teleport down to Nurari’s surface. Then they let a housecarl industries’ self-driving shuttle carry them over to Hundred Night’s gate.

They could have directly teleported onto the school grounds, but Andrew was still feeling a little reluctant about the prospect of returning to school.

What’s more, he and Sophia were still big believers of enjoying their journey rather than simply being wherever they needed to be. Thus so long as they weren't in a hurry they’d still keep their policy of traveling like mortals rather than instantly transmitting themselves to their desired locations.

There was no meaning in going over what percentage of Baku city fell within the school campus and what part of the city didn’t.

In truth, depending on how you look at things, and where you stood, one could make a solid argument for saying that the entirety of Baku and its nearest neighbors were part of Hundred Night Academy, and the Hundred Night Sect that stood behind the school.

Having said that, the academy did have a central campus of sorts that was located within the city.

Hundred Night Academy, or “HNA’s” main campus didn’t follow the usual format of being a discrete but easily distinguishable city within a city like most academies. Instead, it completely with its surroundings and spread like alien-kudzu. It’s central campus took up only a few thousand acres. Occupying a small allotment of land within the heart of Baku city.

This central campus was made up of a number of administrative buildings, a portion of its luxury dorms, the lecture halls for the primary school students, and one dining hall.

All the other training halls, lecture halls, labs, parks, libraries, and facilities for the academy were spread out within the city itself. Radiating away from the HNA’s core, like the rings of a gas giant.

The school used its immense influence to mold the city to suit its needs so that there were always student shuttles running, and special taxis for its elite enrollees and personnel to make use of.

The Oddvar-Luce couple’s first stop of the day was at the main campus’ central administration building, to confirm that they hadn’t been expelled for lack of attendance. It was a tedious process. Due to certain spells the pair had in place to keep from getting recognized while they were in public, it took a little work for the woman at the desk to recognize that they were students.

Then once she recognized them and realized who they were, it took even more work to get the woman to let them go, because there were a number of senior admins in the school who wanted to chat them up in hopes of gaining some favor or the other from the up and coming youths.

Oddvar-Luce clan wasn’t that big a deal in the greater scheme of things, but the fact they hadn’t fallen under anyone’s influence yet made them an untapped resource. And as any tradesman would tell you untapped resources were always in high demand.

Thus the two tried their best to get themselves out of there without meeting anyone. It wouldn’t do to get swept up in the Academy’s politics before they’d finished their first week of classes.