“DAVID!” A woman's voice yelled nearly twenty minutes later.

We turned to look and saw Selena walking towards us with a purpose. She had six girls of a similar age around her. I recognized Becca and the girl that had noticed me when she had walked by earlier.

“If Emily hadn't been coming back from visiting the horses, I never would have found you.” Selena said as she and her friends came to a stop in front of me. She saw the pile of my things on the ground in front of the still closed door. “What are you doing here? The student dorms are on the other side of the campus.”

“This is my assigned living space.” I said and showed her the form.

“NO!” Selena gasped, then her face went red with anger. “Those... ignorant...” Her words drifted off into mumbles and what I assumed to be curses.

“It's not safe inside.” The girl that had noticed me earlier said. “We can't even go in to practice anymore. It's too dangerous because the place is going to fall apart.”

“I know.” I said.

“Then what are you still doing here?” Becca asked. “You have to go back to the office and get assigned to the proper dorms.”

“According to the man there, this is my proper dorm. He said that a marsh rat like me should feel right at home here.”

“No!” Becca gasped and as her face turned red with anger, the other girls looked scandalized. “That... ignorant...” Her voice trailed off the same as Selena's had with mumbles and curses.

“What are you going to do?” Selena asked and waved at the place. “You can't live here.”

“Not yet I can't.” I said.

“Then come with us. You can stay in my room until you find somewhere else to stay.” Selena said.

“You can't! It's against academy rules for you to let a guy sleep over!” One of the others said.

“I'm sure the dean of the building will make an exception for my future brother.”

“No, he won't.” Becca said. “He complains when we stay over. He'll never let a man visit you, let alone stay over.”

“Where would he sleep? In your bed?” Another girl asked.

Selena didn't respond and only let her slight blush speak for her.

“Wow, are you trying to steal him from your sister?” The same girl asked and looked at me. “I guess you are pretty handsome, even with the short hair.”

“It's growing back from my time in the army.” I said. “It was a mess before then.”

“I can imagine.” She said with a smile. “So, are you available?”

“No, I'm Helena's fiance.”

“You can still have fun, right? She'll let you, won't she?”

“No.” Hope said. “Unless you want to become a personal servant.”

“Hell, no.” She snapped. “I'm going to be the Lady of the House soon and...”

“Then act like one.” Hope said. “Would a lady talk about things like that with a betrothed man?”

The girl's face flushed red and she didn't respond.

“Why are you just standing here?” Becca asked.

“We're waiting.” I said.

“For what?”

“I doubt you'll stand here for the next two hours to find out.” I said and they all looked revolted at the thought, even Selena. “It's all right. Thank you for your concern.” I said and looked at each of them. “Please come back to visit in two days.”

“You want us to stay away for two days?” One of the girls asked, clearly surprised, and looked at Selena. “I thought you said he needed friends here!”

“He meant the room will be done by then.” Hope said.

“Oh. I thought he was telling us to get lost.” The girl said.

“If he was going to do that, he'd just say it.” Hope said. “My lord doesn't mince words. He asked you to come back, didn't he?”

The girl looked at me. “You want us to come back?”

“I want you to see what this place looks like when I'm done with it.” I said. “If Selena is to be believed, her group of close friends knows everyone here.”

The girl smiled. “We do.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Then tell them.” I said. “Tell them the insult of what I was given to live in, then come back in two days and you can tell everyone what I did with that insult.”

The girl's smile spread to a grin. “All right. We'll do that.” She turned to Selena. “Let's go to the buffet hall and see what they have on offer for today.”

Selena looked at me. “David, do you want to come along?”

“I can't today. I need to help with the under-structure of this place.” I said. “Classes start tomorrow, so we can eat together for lunch.”

Selena smiled and she started to walk away.

“Bye!” Becca said and waved.

I waved back and she smiled and walked after her friends.

“I think she likes you.” Hope said.

“So does her mother.” I said and Hope looked surprised. “She's also trying to bribe the workers for some of my potion.”

Hope shook her head. “She's approaching you all wrong.”

“Yes, and she'll figure it out soon.” I said. “If not, our families might have to remain strictly professional and not become actual friends.”

Hope sighed at my words. “I can't warn them, can I?”

“Even if you told Becca, I doubt she can convince her mother her current tactics are a mistake.” I said. “Nobles have a tendency to follow a strict course and won't deviate, unless they figure out that their attempts are failing and try something else.”

“Is that what happened between you and Helena?” Hope asked. “She tried one way and then tried another?”

I nodded. “She tried going for what she wanted, then she changed course and gave me what I wanted instead.”

“Which gave her what she wanted.” Hope said and I nodded again. “She's pretty smart.”

“She's also patient.” I said. “She didn't have to wait as long as she did before trying for me.”

“Would she have succeeded, though?” Hope asked and I shrugged. “That's why she waited. She wanted to make sure that you were going to choose her, and you did.”

We fell silent after that and waited for the work crews to show up. To both of our surprise, ten horse drawn carts showed up and were filled with materials. The work crews were right behind them in six carriages, with Frank in the lead.

“We came as soon as we could.” Frank said and hopped down. “We've got the crates of number ten potions spread out through the carriages.”

“That's great.” I said and glanced at the carts. “Please tell me there's foundation stone in here somewhere.”

“In the sixth one.” Frank said. “I'd be ashamed to show up to a repair job like this and not have foundation stone available!”

I nodded and the work crews quickly unloaded it. “I'll need the two surveyors from each crew to check over the bottom of the building. As far as I can tell, it looks like it's going to collapse if we try repairing anything besides the foundation first.”

“I agree. It's a shambles.” Frank said and waved, then twelve men took off to check. He motioned for Hope to approach and he smiled at her. “Madam, can you record the materials we used, what we fixed, and how long it took? Administrator Lannin isn't in good standing with the academy for some reason.”

“He's probably too low in magical ability and they blacklisted him as unworthy.” Hope said and started writing out what Frank wanted. “Or he's friends with David.”

Frank shook his head. “What else did the idiots here do?”

“I'll tell you all about it as the surveyors work.” Hope said and filled him in. She was done by the time the men came back and gave us the grim news. It was actually worse than I thought. The basement had already collapsed in on itself and the only thing holding the whole structure up was six of the main posts, because the other six had crumbled from rot and pressure.

Frank didn't look discouraged at all. “Well, we've got our work cut out for us, don't we, lads!”

“Yeah!” The men responded.

“We'll shore up the six supports with the foundation stones first. Once that's done, we'll replace the broken ones and shore them up as well.” Frank said. “We'll dig out and rebuild the outer wall of the dorm first.”

“We'll get the levering braces!” Two of the work crews said and ran back to the last carriage.

“I love those things.” Frank said and looked at his crew. “The floor's a loss anyway, so don't bother trying to dig down to the basement from the outside.”

“We'll get the sledgehammers!” Two of the men said and went to the third carriage.

“This is going to be so much fun.” Frank said and rubbed his hands together.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked. I wasn't stupid enough to try to go do something on my own and potentially mess up Frank's plan.

“As soon as we get to the front wall, you'll be the best for building the initial stacks. Even after all our practice, we still can't use the potion as fast as you can without making a mess or screwing something up.”

“You need to change.” Hope said and dug out one of my normal outfits. “Oh, damn. We're going to need a working bathroom for the morning, too.”

“As soon as the floor's got some cross bracing, I'll have a crew get the main downstairs bathroom serviceable.” Frank said.

“Thank you.” Hope said to him and handed me my outfit, then she helped me change and tucked my folded uniform into her bag.

With six crews of ten men, there was nothing that we couldn't do. We had the front of the building braced with the levered braces to lift it about an inch from the failing foundations. We quickly reinforced the existing supports and replaced the missing ones, lowered it, then went to the back of the building and did it again.

Once they were done and in place, the building was secured and we all dug down through the now smashed in lobby floor, thanks to the guys with the sledgehammers that had cleared it away for us, and we dug out the collapsed basement to the front of the building. Then the real work began.

The guys worked like a hand train and passed down foundation stones in a continuous stream for me and I laid them all in place. I really was very proficient with number ten potion and the whole front wall was built in less than an hour. Unfortunately, we didn't have tons of potion at the moment to do what I really wanted right away, so we built a second wall behind the first and left the gap empty.

We also left out a single stone at the top of the wall in each section, so we could add potion at a later time. I'd use the weaker version because it didn't matter if it took longer when reinforcing stone and filling in as bracing material to join the two walls together.

We dug out the two side walls next, since they were much shorter and quicker to do, then we dug out the back wall and replaced that, too. The double wall definitely made me feel a lot better about the safety of the building.

“All right, people! It's time to fix the damnable floor above our heads, now that we've got something to build on!” Frank said and the men shouted in response. “We'll worry about all the extra dirt down here later! Let's get those floor joists and braces in place!”

“Sir!” The men said and it was done even quicker than he thought was possible.

“You people are magic!” Frank exclaimed and the men laughed. “All right! Let's get upstairs and start fixing the floor and the walls!”

The men followed him, as did I, and we kept working. True to his word, Frank had one crew work on repairing the downstairs bathroom. Thanks to number ten potion, all of the broken things were mended and put back into place. They were cleaned and hooked back up, then the water was turned on. It actually worked, to everyone's relief and surprise, because a lot of them needed the bathroom and had been holding it in.

After a long line of bathroom breaks, we all got back to work.