There was no one who won a match that received less than five gold. With one match ending in a tie, the money would normally go to the class pot, but Ayla saw the two student's appearances.

"Okay, group meeting!" Ayla shouted cheerfully. Her and Jill were the only ones will enough energy to add gusto to the scene, but others at least participated. "We discovered there is an extra fifty gold leftover! It means that whoever made that bet left without taking it! Since it works well enough, I hereby recommend that allocate one to everyone for uniform repairs, we can split five between Wendi and Mathias' match just this once, and then the last twenty goes into cake! Or cake-like cake-meeting-like cake-meetings!"

"Yeah!"

"... Th-th-th-that's f-f-f-fine, but w-w-w-why?" She was shaking violently. She had a boy's coat over her shoulder.

"Yeah, well, whose is that?" Jill asked.

"Ah, Church's. He had to leave. He had an important errand to run and he'll probably get in trouble... but... wait, why can I talk normally?!" Wendi asked hurriedly.

Mathias turned to look away.

She was still numb so it was easy to just step over to the side to ignore it.

"Well, you might've warmed up? Whatever! What does everyone else say?!"

"Yeah," Erik said. "I'm fine with it. I'd be interested in seeing if we could think of something different than cake though. Even just a different restaurant."

"Hmm... maybe! Any other opinions? ... Going once! Going twice! No complaints! Alright! We have officially received forty gold for the class after a successful inadvertent advertising campaign! At least three cake-meetings or something similar!"

They were feeling a little more spirited as they split up the rewards. Mathias did not say no about receiving something. It was something that meant he would be able to go a while longer without having to deal with troublesome treatments for money.

He whispered a few things in Lisanna's ear.

After agreeing to the first readily she was a little curious about the second but still relayed the message.

"Wendi, Mathias wants you to come will us afterwards. Also, he explicitly mentioned pre-conditions which I can think of, but did you want to come?"

"Where? It's strange that he invites me?" She said, looking for the reasoning behind feeling her limbs a little more now.

The water disappeared and only a few water mages like Jennifer or Fara noticed the tell-tale, if hidden, glimmer of water on her skin. He only did it since it was easier to avoid the damage from frostbite in this manner - it amounted to less work for him in regards to removing scars.

She would also be forced into helping carry furs, so it was a fair dealing, he thought.

"Well, you're finally done, too, hey?" Jenna said cheerfully as thirteen bodies were set on the ground in front of them. Four managed to walk; Lina, Mina, Stacy, and Tanner were all that could manage the task.

Notably, Hana was unconscious.

Surprisingly, Fara was the first to carry the nearest girl, being Hana, and set off. "What?"

"Oh. Nothing." Ayla waved it off, thinking that it would only piss Hana off more.

Lina smiled, having successfully signalled Ayla to stop. Yet, as if by karma, Lina has a healed scar running from the tip of her forehead to just under her eye. It looked like a glancing blow, so she was probably not blind. And, as if by a fated linked between the twins, Mina's mirrored it from the chin to just above her eyebrow.

The others had plenty of wounds, but they were so covered in mud, dirt, blood, ash, and ice that it hardly mattered much. No matter where they looked, there was a problem so it would be easier to judge them when they were clean.

Synthy helped Jasmine, Lisanna, a female water mage, and the others slowly took their loads. Mathias ended up with Kira for some reason.

"It's fine, isn't it? Deal with it if your a boy!"

He sighed.

He would reject her normally, but since he did not want to out himself for being able to speak, he just did the task.

Once they got home, dealt with the furs, and Wendi, he would have plenty of time to deal with the sculpture.

He only got half-way back before Kira spasmed on his shoulder. "N-no... n-no...!"

She was having a nightmare.

Lisanna looked at Kira sympathetically, noting there was a great difference between Kira and Jasmine. However, she did not want to let down her guard.

'Well... it's better to have him carry her than one of those other boys...!' Lisanna thought as she considered the likes of Eldrich who she caught staring at her many times.

Rather than being wolfish, the gaze from the otherwise timid boy was stifling in its seemingly all-seeing analytical assessment. She was not comfortable with it, but since his expression would occasionally shift lustfully to others, even Lisanna would prefer Mathias to deal with her enemy's friend than another, on account of said person being a fellow girl.

"Uh... n-no...! No- not...!"

'Did I cry on his shoulder, too?'

Lisanna did not know, but she suspected she did. The images faded a little, but they were certainly still there. With a sigh, she brought the female water mage to the front desk, asked her room number, and hoped her roommate was already there.

Mathias did the same. Through Lisanna.

Turns out they were neighbours. He forgot. And she roomed with Jasmine.

Since both were water mages, they slept in quite late; conversely, while he was also a water mage, he shared his room with Lisanna who regularly woke him up to such that they would have time to spare. Even too much time. They never really ran across one-another.

Elise looked at him as she stayed by the reception desk. "Natalie mentioned you two were looking for those desks, right? I can have them delivered to the door right now if you're interested."

He thought a moment and nodded.

"Once you switch them out, just let me know. I'll have a late shift night as well."

He nodded again.

Being mute had its advantages.

Since it seemed Synthy was waiting for him, knowing their rooming situation but not saying anything, she started up the stairs with Jasmine on her back. The size differences was massive; Jasmine was a solid head taller than Synthy, just two inches shorter than Mathias' height, and her body was filled out whereas Synthy's was compact. Compact with enough muscle to carry said girl without an issue, mind you.

"... Here. Let me take them from here on," Synthy said after dropping Jasmine on her bed. "I'll take her now."

"N-no!" Kira screamed right in Mathias' ear as he tried to let her go for Synthy to grab.

She grabbed tight to his neck.

It hurt, a lot.

He tried to run fatigue-reducing water across Kira's neck and shoulders. Her tension released, she stopped screaming, and he was able to gain his own freedom.

And then the desks came. It was quite convenient.

With Synthy taking over, Mathias just nodded to the guys bringing the desks over, lowered his head apologetically as he pointed to his throat, and went inside.

They left.

Even so, since he hardly used his desk, he just grabbed the ID card, his coin purse, and some stationary he left inside and dragged it out of the room.

After double-checking it was empty, he shifted the new one inside and got changed into casual clothes. He already scrubbed himself off thoroughly with conjured water, discarding it over the railing.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

And Lisanna appeared.

With a friend.

He waved to Wendi.

If it involved him obtaining furs, he was ready to go anytime. Anytime at all. However, since she had a guest, he politely gave her a note, went out onto the patio, and heard Lisanna quickly change into more reasonable clothes.

She had not taken a bath yet, but it was fine. It was humid after the rain, and it would be likely they would get sweaty on the long walk, especially on the way back, dragging heavy furs.

A knock on the window.

"We're changed."

'We're?'

... Wendi borrowed her clothes for some reason. Not thinking much of it, since Wendi was wearing a wrap or something that did not need to suffer from the other body-shape being different from the owner's, Lisanna immediately jumped to her feet.

"I just have to buy you a few furs, right? We'll take it back and then you'll deal with Wendi's scars, as per the agreement, right?"

"...?"

They seemed suspiciously excited over this. Even Wendy seemed especially happy. It was an exchange. Nothing more, he thought. Civility for furs; a fair enough bargain. Particularly since he derived both on his end.

He wrote, 'yes. I'll deal with it than. Deal with Church if he comes. Afterwards, I'm just going to work on the statue - right, change your desk.'

"Eh? Ok. Wendi, help, okay?"

"Yeah, will do!"

'Too eager,' he thought. After double-checking his fur was unharmed, he felt couldn't properly voice his suspicions.

They quickly swapped everything out and not a single item was left in the two battered desks they inherited.

Mathias finally started to guide them along the way after telling Elise that the desks were in the hall. Via a note since Lisanna was acting strange.

"Oh? Where are you three going?" Ayla asked with Jennifer at her side.

"...?"

Mathias' eyes narrowed.

He grumbled, but Ayla essentially invited herself. As Jennifer was there already changed, so she, too, joined.

Mathias walked quicker, clenching the bag he brought as he saw Erik by the door, talking to James.

"Oh? Mathias, where you going?"

'... Th-they're... they're after the f-furs...!'

Mathias opened his mouth to speak, willing to abandon his mutism, but Lisanna shrugged. "Ah, nowhere."

"Really? We were talking about taking a walk. Mind if we join?"

Mathias walked faster still.

Along the way, Hunter and Eldrich, Jack and Jill, and even Tanner and Stacy appeared in nonchalant pairs.

He kept walking as he weaved through alleys, talking the long way around, and finally found himself and twelve other people entered a small shop.

He raised a hand to remind Lisanna, the only one he addressed in this entire walk, and extended all five fingers. "I know, I know! You'll have the first choice, so it's fine, isn't it?"

"...!"

He grumbled and slipped into the shop with Lisanna and Wendi. Ayla and Jennifer waited outside for two minutes or so, talking quietly, but soon entered as soon as Mathias quickly identified the best five furs in the store.

"Treated?" A young woman asked curiously. "Same as before, right? With the lynx."

He nodded. He prepared many notes, complete with sample questions if need be to ascertain species, grade, age, and other such qualities.

"Five gold, but since you've brought a bit of business, mind if I show you some new stock? Feel free to choose between those. It's in the back."

Mathias nodded and almost cried with joy as he saw so many wonderous furs hanging tightly against one-another, separated by the animal origin, and he ran back and forth unsupervised as the woman laughed.

"Just like last time. Anyways, I'd recommend-" He grabbed five different ones. He even crawled under the hanging furs and his sixth sense for comfort already directed him to her finest. "I... Ah, I suppose I can sell those..."

She seemed averse to letting them go, but Mathias' pleading eyes won her over.

"Fine, fine. Ah, you two, may I recommend these?" She pulled two high-quality grey-wolf furs. They were quite large so he immediately recognized they were from the north.

"Uhm, I-I guess it wouldn't hurt..." Lisanna touched the fur.

The woman laughed. "Don't worry, I'll treat it. It lasts about a year, half-year if it's taken care of normally without any additional maintenance."

Of course, she was referring to the softness of the pelt since it was already tanned.

"I-I guess so." Lisanna took the woman on her offer.

Mathias, on the other hand, protectively clung to his.

Wendi took the offer and soon a bell rang by the door.

"Are you done? Let's go to the front."

Mathias also took a wolf fur, but his own was a rare black-wolf. While it was rough now... it was fiberous enough to carry the treatment for a long, long time, and accept more of the mana that softens it. He researched the subject intensely when he heard a client mention it in passing.

"Oh, we'll be paying together! So I'll take his."

Lisanna extended the six gold out.

"The four are fine, but the wolf... I'll part with it for two gold, okay?"

Lisanna had no idea what the market value was but since she was forced anyways, she just pulled the money out. She still had a few gold from her winnings just today alone.

"Okay! Me next!"

"Okay, okay. I'll take the money, but give me some time to treat it. More customers? Friends?" Mathias looked away since he saw them looking through his prized, secret fur shop. "Okay, so be it. Anyways, you all feel free to take a look around. I'll be with you after I finish this."

"Okay!"

"... What's this animal?" Erik said, poking at a snow leopard. "And this? Huh? This?"

Since this place specialized in furs, the owner was able to preserve them very well - and their treatments were second-to-none. Even Mathias had no way of adequately mimicking the effects the woman's water magic had on softening the furs. He could extend their use, at most, but the initial treatment? It was beyond him. The magic possessed similar inherent counter-measures for counterfeiting as parlour magic.

Human hair, probably, but fur? Anything less than perfection was a failure in his eyes for this task.

Since Lisanna's and Wendi's furs were the easiest, she dealt with the treatment in a few minutes. Mathias' main order was fairly quick as well, but the black wolf that both prized took a full five minutes. It would be his new bed cover.

Ayla overheard before so she and Jennifer grabbed some of the ones he left behind before. Sometimes it helped to just rely on another's expertise. Since Erik and James were quick on the uptake, they, too, took one each. Jill was given it by Jack, and he claimed another that looked interesting. The woman pointed him to another which he ended up buying, however.

"... So I just have to carry this back?"

She said, holding the bag he brought for the furs. She was given another for her own whereas the two noticed that the black fur was especially carefully rolled up, gently put in its own bag without him having to ask, and they glanced at it curiously. He took and hid it behind his back.

No one could touch it.

No one.

"Woah... It's just like the lynx..." Lisanna said, sneaking a quick touch to one she bought for herself.

Mathias snorted. The woman laughed and didn't disagree with Mathias. If she was the most knowledgeable about furs in the entire city, he was at least third or fourth after all the careful research he did involving the animals' environments, diets, behaviourisms, and even the magical aspects of how to mimic the effects with his parlour magic.

Having gotten the best that the store could offer, Mathias was smiling from ear-to-ear as Wendi was working hard on his behalf.

And it started to rain.

Mathias finally acknowledged that the others existed, having been lost in his own dreamings of the new fur, and pushed the rain aside from the two of them before it had a chance to fall on them. And him, of course.

One had his furs and the other was liable to steal his furs if he did not ensure hers survived the trip.

The others assumed rain was bad from them and they all came up with their own methods of blocking it.

"Hey, what's the deal with the bla-"

He hissed at Lisanna.

Lisanna reeled back - especially as he went out of the way to write 'never touch it' in the air using frosted ice.

"O-okay... I understand... Uhm, thanks again... for letting me know about this place."

He reverted to a cheerful mood since the fur shop was brought back up again.

As Wendi's hands were full and she resisted the urge to touch after it was bagged for her, she wondered what the chattering behind her was about.

"... Oh... I-I... s-see... Ok! I hereby decree that no one shall ever threaten than shop again - ever! I'll beat whoever does on the spot!"

Ayla shouted, dragging the cougar fur over her like a cape - with the wind pushing all the rain away from her.

Erik, holding a jaguar's fur nodded. "Tell Lina that it's off-limits! I wanna take a nap, but... I guess we have to work on those sculptures."

James nodded seriously, still fondling the over-sized bear fur that was safely stowed in the bag that was of exceptional quality. A white shield was formed over his head like an umbrella and James wasn't even touching the contraption: it was mounted to his shoulder after a little deliberation.

Eldrich just cast his eyes down on his own deer pelt in contemplation, stroking it mindlessly. An obsidian rice-hat covered his head and even encircled the bag. He shared a look with Hunter who seemed to look up just at the same time. Both recognized the value of the novel product.

The others talked quietly, mused to themselves, or otherwise stayed silent as they journeyed back to the dorms. Having successfully obtained the object of his desire, Mathias quickly set out to exchanging the fur on his bed.

He whimpered as he thought of binding it to the posts so he just gave a note to Lisanna detailing all house-rules involving furs, their consequences, and the fact that if she touched - or pulled - on the black fur, their friendship was over. In no uncertain terms.

"O-okay... Uh... Wendi...?"

"Hah... hah... I'm.. I'm fine...!"

She was heaving as she set the two bags of furs to the ground.

Mathias quickly reacted and safely stole his away to set down his on the desk - like a respectable human being - and saw Wendi savagely ignore the fact that hers was being so mistreated.

'... Whatever. Some people are uncultured,' he thought and scribbled a note to Wendi as Lisanna was laying her own on her bed.

"Huh...? Fine...?" She was exhausted and listened to the instructions he wrote to her. She took off Lisanna's wrap and undressed to her underwear before she stopped. "Huh? What...?"

Wendi was tired after being awoken early for an emergency meeting, school, training, being frozen alive, and walking for a half-hour with fifty pounds of furs after said experiences.

"Uh, uh, wh-what are you doing?!"

Mathias waved her off, guided Wendi to Lisanna's bed, and began working immediately. He did not want to waste a second on delaying his enjoyment of the furs, but he couldn't enjoy it under such circumstances.

"W-what?! W-why my bed?!"

"Ah... soft... warm...?"

Wendi was already stammering as the water ran over his exposed skin.

Lisanna blushed furiously at his impassive face passing over hers with longing.

It was on the way to his own bed with his fur, but she mistook it for something else. Until a minute passed as she saw he literally did not look at Wendi or herself - just the one fur. His neck was craned in an extraordinarily awkward fashion. Until she stood directly in front to confirm her suspicions.

He sighed and paid a little more attention to what could conceivably be a high-risk operation.

Even so, after a half-hour, Wendi was fast asleep, he did no miscellaneous treatments that were not necessary, and he finally jumped onto his black fur.

Lisanna stared at the two for a long while. One, in her bed, was moaning in her sleep; the other, in his own, was rubbing his cheek against the black fur with such glee that she did not know how to react. It was incredibly strange.

After a long time passed, Mathias finally begrudgingly got up. He got the fur out of his system - for now - and carefully set the others away in the closest, having already outlined their rules of use (under no circumstance) in a previous warning.

And sat at his desk.

And grabbed the stasis stone.

And looked at her again.

There wasn't longing. Just a small sigh before he began analytically scanning over her.

"... Uh... so, so... uhm... wh-what do we need to do fo-for modelling?"

"...?"