Chpt. 28) Yuna

I picked up my money from Geoff the day after the doubles win. My total winnings from the fights were 3,690 Lucre. Making the total amount of money, I had 4,031 Lucre. I did not have enough pockets to store everything, so I had to carry it all in two bags. Out in the open. For everyone to see. Not going to lie. I had a lot of people staring at me. Most looked shocked by the amount I carried. The rest looked like they wanted to eat me alive and take my money. To nobody’s surprise, one of those people was Cami, who accompanied me to the Colosseum.

As I walked out of the colosseum, Cami turned my way to greet me and stopped before saying anything. Her gaze turned to that of hunger and greed. “No,” I said sternly.

“No, what?” Cami asked melodically, as though she was hypnotized.

“No, you can’t have it.”

“But it looks so heavy. I’m sure I can help you carry it all.”

I tucked my money bags behind my back, and my tail bit into them, holding my coins in its mouth, “I can carry it just fine.”

“No, you need the help. Let me carry it for you.”

I turned and ran down the bridge, “No!”

“Give me your money!!” Cami yelled, chasing after me. I kept running, ignoring the strange looks people were giving us. And as I was running, I tripped on something and landed face-first on the bridge. Skidding on the ground for a couple of meters.

“Are you all right, Zeana?” a familiar voice said before me. I sat up and looked up at the smiling face of Orrin.

Rubbing my face and using my healing chakra to patch myself up, I responded, “Yeah, I’m fine.” Then I felt Cami pulling on the bag of coins in my tail and added, “Or I would be if this one would stop trying to steal my money.”

Orrin chuckled and said, “Cami, please stop harassing your compatriot. I would hate to get the guards involved and have you arrested for attempted theft. Even if the money were obtained through illegal gambling, it would still reflect poorly on you.”

Cami stopped pulling on the bags of money and pouted, clearly disappointed. I blushed and laughed nervously, “W-what? I didn’t get this through illegal gambling that-that would be against the law.”

“Why of course, it was legal. My apologies. I didn’t know Geoff had transitioned into legal gambling. In an empire where gambling is illegal.”

I broke out in a cold sweat and laughed nervously again, “Y-yeah, I-I was surprised too.”

Orrin chuckled and said, “Well, at least that’s settled. Would you care to join me for the fights?”

I thought about it momentarily, “No, I should get to training and figure out what my next chakras should be.”

“I’ll join you!” Cami exclaimed excitedly.

“Ah, very well. Cami will join me, and Zeana will count her coins. But I must insist you at least return for tonight’s fights. I will be in bracket fifteen, position two, if you would like to, shall we say, support me.”

I smiled and said, “Okay, I’ll try to make it for that fight.”

Orrin bowed and said, “Thank you, young Zeana. And if you need any advice for those cores, I would be happy to assist in any way I can. Come now, Cami. Let’s go watch the fights.”

“Okay, later, Zeana! I still want that money, so hide it well!” Cami said as she walked off with Orrin walking a few steps behind her, his unneeded cane clacking as he walked.

I smiled and muttered, “Yes, I can hide my winnings in peace now.” And jogged down the bridges that connected the monolithic buildings reaching the hotel within an hour.

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When I entered the building, I looked at the doorman at the reception desk. He was an older gentleman with a kindly face wearing a green suit and red tie, reading a book. I walked up to him and said, “Um, excuse me. Mister?”

The doorman put a bookmark in his book and looked over the desk at me. He smiled, “Ah, yes. How may I help you, little lady?”

“Do you have a place to store valuables safely?”

“Um, yes, I believe we do. Let me see here,” the doorman opened a desk drawer and pulled out a notebook. He flipped to a presumably blank page and asked, “Are you a resident here at the moment?”

“Yes.”

“And what is your room number?”

“Room two one eight.”

“Ah, one of the tournament fighters. Very good. Um, yes, we can store some things for you if you wish.”

“Yes, please,” I said happily.

“Very well, follow me,” the doorman said, walking out from behind the desk. I followed him down the hallway and a flight of stairs at the end of the hall. The stairs spiraled down a dozen meters before we entered a windowless corridor, five meters wide and three meters tall. A wall of steel bars and a massive steel vault were at the end of the corridor.

Along the corridor were dozens of filing drawers built into the walls, and jumping from drawer to drawer, opening, filing, and closing them was some of the ugliest creatures I’ve ever seen. The creators wore little tuxedos with black bowties, and their faces were covered in moles and pimples that looked close to bursting with puss, and their long pointy noses constantly sniffed up mucus that leaked out of them. Their long floppy ears had hair growing out of them and an overabundance of earwax. I had to fight to keep control of my disgust.

The doorman led me through the chaos to the steel bars, where one of the creatures sat at a small desk. The creature was half my height, and its big, beady black eyes looked between the doorman and I. It smiled, revealing rows of yellowed and blackened piranha-like teeth. “Hello, Mr.Barns. What can we do for you today?” the creature said, spitting saliva as it spoke.

“Hello, Grispnok. I have brought Ms.Zeana to deposit some valuables for safekeeping,” the doorman, Mr.Barns, said.

“Ah, of course,” Grispnok said, standing from his desk. He turned to the door and raised a wrinkled hand with long fingernails. He snapped his fingers, and the steel bars bent and opened into a door we could walk through.

Mr.Barns walked through first, and I followed right after him. He then produced a key the size of his palm from a pocket, pressed it to the center of the vault door, and turned it. The vault clicked, clacked, clanked, and clunked as it unlocked and slowly swung outward. He walked into the vault and said, “Please select a safe deposit box, Ms.Zeana.”

I walked into the vault and was sorely disappointed by what I saw. Each box was only twelve centimeters wide and three centimeters tall, with two keyholes and one key sticking out of them. There were hundreds of them, but none could fit my bag of money. “I don’t think these could hold what I need to be stored,” I said, disappointed.

Mr. Barns blinked and looked around the room, “No, these are more than enough to hold many things. Can I see what you’re trying to store?”

“Oh, sure,” I said and turned to look back at my tail, which used to have the money. Panic gripped me, and I exclaimed, “Goro, where’s the bags of money?!” Goro coughed, making a choking sound, “Oh, no.” Goro kept coughing, and I grabbed my tail, pulled it in front of me, and began giving it the Heimlich maneuver.

“I didn’t tell you to swallow the money! Get out already! Just— Get— out!” I said as I squeezed my tail. I could imagine how weird it looked from an outside perspective. A little fox girl, wrestling with her tail, trying to strangle it. I squeezed my tail several times before it finally threw up my bags of money. “There you go,” I said, panting, “those are what I need to store.”

Mr.Barns curled his nose at the slime-covered bags and said, “Very well. Those can easily fit in these boxes. I shall demonstrate for you.” Mr.Barns walked over to the right wall of the vault and pulled a round key from a box low to the ground, at about waist height for me. He then took the key he used to open the vault, put it in one of two keyholes, and put the other key in the remaining hole. He then turned the keys clockwise demonstratively, the box clicked, and he pulled the box out thirty centimeters.

He then pulled a handkerchief from a breast pocket and picked up one of my bags of coins. Opening the safe deposit box, he placed the bag within it, and the bag of many disappeared. My eyes widened in shock, and I looked into the safe deposit box. A jet-black void was all I could see within the box.

“What is that?” I asked, pointing.

“That, my dear, is a dimensional storage enchantment. It can only be placed on stationery items like chests or boxes. Anything that can move, it won’t work on. The point is there is more than enough space for your coins.”

I smiled and picked up my other bag of coins, taking out six gold coins and a platinum coin. I pocketed the coins and put the rest of the coins into the void. I reveled at the coins disappearing into the void and said, “Wow.”

“Wow, indeed,” Mr.Barns agreed, “If you ever need access to the vault, just ask the receptionist, and we will be more than happy to help.”

“Thank you, I will,” I said, nodding.

Handing me the round key, Mr.Barns said, “And don’t lose that. Otherwise, you won’t be allowed to retrieve your items. Is there anything else I could help you with, Ms.Zeana?”

I thought for a moment and whispered, “What are those things outside the vault?”

“Those are gremlins,” Mr.Barns whispered back, “and they have exceptional hearing.”

Recoiling a little, I whispered, “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Grispnok said from outside the vault, “We’ve heard worse.” Mr.Barns chuckled and led me out of the vault while I silently scolded my tail for swallowing my money.

***