A few hours after Luminus left, Cassandra arrived in the principal’s office. During that ‘free’ time, both him and Mirai went around dealing with their normal work while also trying to uncover anything about The Steps and what exactly they did. The Principal already had a good grasp on them but it wouldn’t hurt to double-check.

“Good evening Cassandra.” Mirai said as the girl entered. The principal just nodded.

“Hello.” Cassandra said somewhat angrily as she sat alone on the other couch.

“Anything wrong?” Mirai asked.

“When Am I going to be compensated? All my money and goods are still at Gish and I am losing chances to make deals because no one can send me back there!” Cassandra angrily shouted.

“...That will be arranged shortly, along with an auditor to make sure nothing is out of place. But first, we need a report about what happened during your trip.” The principal said in a calm tone.

“Alright. So first, the entire situation in the city was manufactured. Probably those crazy people that attacked us.”

“What do you mean?” Mirai asked, clearly confused.

“A city like that doesn't get to that state just because a big wave destroyed part of it. Someone was making sure that when that wave hit the city, everything would have gone to shit. Various businesses were being strangled way before that, food was being slowly being taken out of the city and when we got there no one could sell anything to the outside or buy things for that matter. You can’t do that by accident or incompetence.”

“That might explain various things…” Mirai said to herself.

“I can tell you want me to tell you everything I did but I can’t remember anything in specific. I mostly made sure everyone had a chance to buy things so I went around the town non-stop. The only thing outside the normal I did was a joint negotiation with Katia so those block-heads of Goliath merchants would help with materials to rebuild the city.”

“And what can you say about when you were attacked?” The Principal asked.

“That I don’t want to be anywhere near something like that again. It’s worse than a fight inside the mines.

“You look way more composed than I expected.” Mirai said.

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“Being afraid won’t help you unless you are a pretty princess who has a magic knight looking for her. Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely terrified of the people who attack us but living afraid will not help me. I always thought that losing an arm was the most painful thing that would ever happen to me but I guess I was proven wrong.” Katia said.

“You lost one of your arms?” Mirai asked, clearly worried.

“Yeah, not much after I left the mines. One of the first things I did when I had money was to pay for a healer to fix it.”

“And the situation with Mia?” The principal asked.

“...Yes, I tried to sell her to the enemy so I could live. I would do it again if given the chance. I like my life more than I like her.” Cassandra said after thinking for a moment.

“It saddens me that you would so easily sacrifice one of your colleagues so easily but those were extreme circumstances. I can’t judge you based on what I would or wouldn’t do.” The principal said. Clearly showing that he didn’t like the situation one bit.

“Thanks I guess. Now what?”

“What do you plan to do now?” Mirai asked.

“After getting my things, I hope to find an actual guard.”

“What do you mean?” Mirai asked.

“If there are people out there like the ones that attacked us on our little trip I need more than that blockhead to guard me. Not that he even looks at my general direction without wanting to take my head off.” Cassandra said, somewhat pissed.

“Who are you talking about?”

“Klaws. He is supposed to be working for me but he is simply ignoring me. I even said I would pay him more as an apology for whatever he thinks I did wrong but he just got angrier.”

“We already talked about this. You can’t resolve all of your problems with money.” Mirai said, worried..

“And what do you want me to do? I am not someone who will be able to live forever. I can’t fight, I can’t cultivate and I can barely use magic. I don’t have the time to do something that won’t benefit me, especially after finding out that there are people out there that can just explode half a city to kidnap a girl.” Cassandra said, exacerbated.

“Miss Cassandra. I see that we will not be able to make you see things our way so as your principal and as a professor I will ask that you try to find something that you would be able to do as a hobby that doesn’t involve you getting money in any way. Yes I know you can make money out of almost anything, try to find something that you wouldn’t mind doing for free and that wouldn’t give you advantages later in negotiations.” The principal said seriously.

“..Alright, I can at least try that if it will make you nag less about my choices. And one more thing. I am not going on any trips for the school unless I get a guard as strong as Mia for me.”

“We will probably have to get some anyway, so don’t worry.” Mirai said.

Soon after, Cassandra left.

“Things got worse.” Mirai said.

“In which way?” The principal asked.

“She was starting to open up a little, to forget about money, but now here we are.”

“Money is how she copes with her problems. Until she is shown that money is not the most valuable thing she can have, her opinion will not change.”

“Let’s hope we can do something…”