Joram watched through his sphere of perception as the Trio went to bed one by one. As each retired to their room, he filtered out that space to give them their privacy.
He sat at his desk, reviewing the schedule Kinkade had arranged for him. Then he set about storing his various textbooks into his storage ring, along with ample stationary to keep up with any note-taking he might decide to do. It wasn’t necessary given his memory, and especially his skill in [Autohypnosis], but he found that teachers, instructors, or professors tended to notice the people who didn’t take notes.
As… attention grabbing as his entrance into the Academy had been, he really just wanted to learn what he could while in class. No complications, no distractions. Just a relaxing time learning.
Well, more relaxing than having Altaea as an instructor, anyway, he thought with a grin. The Academy should be, comparatively, a cakewalk.
Then his mind turned to Mo Yu’s unexpected request. He had been flattered that she not only wanted a guitar, but also for him to teach her.
It had only taken him a few minutes to design and create one for her, though with a narrower neck that would better fit her slender fingers. He had also enchanted it with the same [Repair] function as his, but left off the auto-tuning enchantment. It would be better for her development if she needed to keep it tuned.
He looked over at the hardcase her guitar now rested in and wondered if she’d bring Korean Idol level popularity to the musical instrument.
Doesn’t matter, so long as she treats it well, he thought with a faint smile that soon disappeared as he thought of his time playing guitar.
It hadn’t taken his family long to recover from their shock, and the subsequent catching up, before they’d asked him for more details. He still hadn’t been up to the task, so he’d sent Kinkade in to speak with them, which had gotten him a bit of grief from Gran at first, but she soon calmed as knowledge unknown to her had been shared.
During his acoustic only playing, he’d also spoken with Xixi and Zanth, letting them know that he needed a bit more time to recharge before helping their parents. It had gone better than he’d hoped, with their reactions only containing joy, hope, and gratitude.
Now, now he sat thinking about things he couldn’t change and frowned. He’d overindulged in reminiscence, wasting valuable time that he could have spent working on another project… or anything, really.
Maybe I’ll meditate a bit before bed, he thought, then quietly went upstairs and did just that.
*The next day*
Joram was half annoyed, half pleased that Bai Lian and Mo Yu had insisted that they walk him to his first class. Annoyed because of the attention and jealous looks it brought him, and pleased because he had been strangely nervous to head off alone.
Not that he was worried about doing well in his classes for the term, not at all. All five were the basic level needed to take the standard level of those courses. Needed: as in compulsory. It aggravated him that there were also compulsory classes in this world, but he understood the necessity of laying the foundation before constructing the building.
He’d memorized not a few spells over the years, but only that. If he wanted to start working on anything original, then the basics would be important… even if he thought he’d understood enough of what he’d read over the years.
No, he was just nervous being around so many strangers again. Even with his visits to Brightside growing up, he’d led a relatively isolated social life up to this point. A few people he was comfortable being around, and that was good enough for him.
And then they arrived at his building. He stopped and thanked the two young women for accompanying him, getting smiles in return before he turned around and made his way inside.
Joram turned and headed down the hall to his first lecture, filing in behind the uniform-clad students already there. Once inside, he looked around, impressed.
It wasn’t that it was an architectural marvel or anything, just that it would easily fit two hundred students in its amphitheatre-like design. Each tier of the lecture hall was wide enough to fit desks and chairs, and curved to slightly wrap around the lecture stage with a podium at the centre of it.
Most of the seats were already taken, including his preferred back row, leaving most of the seats in the first third of the room empty. With a shrug, he took a seat just left of centre, retrieved his textbook, a pad of paper, a pen, and then leaned back to wait.
After most of the remaining seats were taken, though strangely enough the ones around him were left open, someone who he guessed to be the lecturer walked in and stood behind the podium.
The man, dressed in what Joram suspected was the faculty’s dress code, looked to be in his mid thirties. He was of average build, though slightly shorter than average, with grey-green hair that reminded Joram of dried leaves.
“Welcome to Basic Magical Theory. I know that this is a compulsory class for those wishing to study magic in more depth, so I’ll endeavour to help make the topics of study less boring,” he said, smiling a bit at the end when he got some chuckles and laughter from a smattering of students.
“In this class, we’ll cover the nature of mana and how the languages of magic affect it to…”
I’m going to need another [Schism] going if I’m going to get anything from this class, he thought as he tried to keep his eyes open, briefly wondering if there was a [Sleep] array hidden in the classroom.
Basic Array Theory, Basic Artifact Theory, and Basic Alchemical Theory all went about the same, in almost every aspect, including his seating arrangements. The only class that proved slightly more interesting to him was Introductory Sapient Anatomy because that one covered things he wasn’t already familiar with.
They didn’t get into any great detail during the first classes, mostly having gone over the syllabus and answering silly questions like: “What is an array?” and “What does Mana do?”.
With classes taken care of for the day he made his way home, glad to be done with the large numbers of students.
For a first day, it was surprisingly dull. He’d half expected that lordling to arrange for some trouble. Or to be gawked at more for being that student, given how he’d been introduced to everyone. Heck, he’d even expected people to run at the sight of him since he’d publicly decapitated Stoneface 2 and all.
The closest thing to that had been the empty seats to his left and right, and that could have been explained away by people not wanting to be right in front of the lecturer.
He shrugged as he sat down at his desk, not really caring about it so much as being puzzled by it.
Then his eyes landed on the guitar case and something else occurred to him. If he wanted Mo Yu to practice while he was gone, he’d need to provide her with some sheet music. So, the next twenty minutes were spent [Copy]ing various chord charts and sheet music for beginners he’d used during his lesson with Altaea.
He really liked that Power. Its name was also slightly misleading, in that it didn’t make a whole new copy of something, but more worked like a photocopier. It would copy text or images from either memory or a sample and reproduce them on prepared sheets of paper. Simple, but handy if you needed a hard copy of something.
After shifting some staples over from storage, he manifested [Modify Matter] and had everything put together and ready to go. He sent Mo Yu a message over the Network, letting her know that her guitar was ready for her.
It wasn’t more than a few seconds later when she appeared in the doorway, bowing slightly. His eyebrow twitched at that. Even growing up in the Clan, people hadn’t bowed to him as much.
“Say, you don’t have to bow, you know,” he said lightly as he pulled the guitar case over with a bit of [Telekinesis].
“It is only right to do so,” she replied meekly, causing his eyebrow to twitch again; the movement not going unnoticed by her.
“Then what’s more important? What’s ‘right to do’ or what I want you to do?” He asked, realizing that the first part of the question could be misinterpreted.
Mo Yu regarded him for a moment before answering.
“Right is right. But if you do not wish me to bow, then I shall not,” she said.
With how she answered, he wasn’t sure if she’d gotten the intent behind the first part of the question or not, but let it go. At least there wouldn’t be any more bowing.
That out of the way, he opened the guitar case to show Mo Yu its contents.
She came forward, eyes alight with excitement, then paused before picking it up. He gestured to her, encouraging her to do so as he stood.
Mo Yu gently picked up the guitar and examined it for a while before giving her thanks.
“Thank you, it’s beautiful,” she said, a warm smile on her picture-perfect face.
“You’re welcome,” he said, then motioned for her to sit on the armless chair in front of his desk that he pulled out for her.
She sat, then awkwardly held the guitar that looked a bit large for her.
“Here,” Joram said, helping per positioning by shifter her arms a bit here and there. “That should be the most comfortable position to play in,” he said, nodding. “I’ve prepared some music for you to study and practice whenever you have the time.”
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She took the offered booklet and started going over them, but soon frowned.
“I’ve never seen this before,” she said apologetically, motioning to the sheet music.
“Ah, well. Let’s go over things then and compare notes,” he said, pulling up another chair.
* * * * *
“It’s how much to rent a space?” She asked the person at the desk, agog.
Alicia had gone to inquire with the Department of Business, the ones in charge of leasing, renting, or buying of property or space in the Academy, about renting a space for her café. But the quote wasn’t what she’d expected.
“Well, the space itself will cost six T1HGCs per month. If you cannot provide mana for your proposed business, then we can provide you what’s needed at an additional cost. There is also the cost of the business license as well as the taxes you’ll need to pay on any earnings.
“You must also remember that any staff hired will also need to have their wages paid. Which, incidentally, can be arranged to be paid through our bank,” the clerk said with a smile.
“Oh, right. Our student cards can act as a fast method of payment,” Alicia said, nodding at the same time as the clerk. “How much would a payment terminal cost to rent or buy?”
“Ah, the terminals can be rented for only one T1MGC per month,” he said, causing Alicia’s eyes to nearly pop out. “That said, purchasing a terminal outright is normally impossible due to the security risks involved in its potential loss.”
“And how much does the average part-timer usually make in a month?”
“That depends on the work, but for what you’ve proposed, I’d say about three to six T1MGCs per month,” he said, his head tilted back for most of it.
Alicia rubber her temples a bit. She could hire ten or twenty employees with what she would be paying in rent per month. And to cover the hours she planned on staying open, then she’d need at least ten employees, maybe even that full twenty.
“How much is the business license?”
“Ten T1HGCs, a one-time cost,” he replied, still smiling.
Let’s round up and say the basic start-up will be about twenty-three T1HGCs to just get the shop and permission to do business. Another six to pay the staff. Fortunately, I won’t have to buy furniture or appliances, so there’s that, she thought, tapping her chin as she slightly tilted her head to the left.
It wasn’t terrible, but if she wanted to at least break even, then she’d need to make at least thirteen T1HGCs per month, which meant that she’d need to gross at least forty-seven T1LGCs per day…. Which meant that if each customer spent two or three LGCs per visit, then she’d only need to get about twenty-four customers per day…. That wouldn’t be too bad.
“So, if I can arrange my employees to be paid directly through the bank, then can I also arrange for my bills to be directly withdrawn as well?”
“Yes, you may. That said, you may want to open up a business account, that way your taxes can also be automatically paid.”
Crap, the taxes….
“How much would I be paying?”
“For a business classified as a restaurant, you would be in the seven percent bracket,” he said without needing to check anything. Which, to be fair, wasn’t that hard.
Make that closer to thirty people per day… she thought with a sigh.
“Well, where do I sign, then?” She asked, surprising the clerk for a moment before his smile returned to his face.
After getting the paperwork signed and a copy of her own along with the key to her new space, she made her way to the bank and got her new account set up, along with another card. This one had the same basic design, but was bordered in a plain white substance that reminded her of hard silicone.
What really annoyed her about the new account was that she would need to keep a minimum balance of ten T2LGCs in it or she would have to pay monthly service fees. Which was so ridiculous that she almost told them to bugger off, but had cooled down before saying the words.
Instead, she’d handed the teller a stack of ten T3MGCs with a smile, getting a shocked look in return.
Anyway, the paperwork was all done, including the arrangements for her various bills to be automatically withdrawn from said account.
Alicia made her way to her new shop, humming happily along the way, causing not a few students to walk into things as they paid too much attention to her.
She arrived before the small shop, only about eight metres wide, but it looked to have a ceiling that reached almost three metres, and was quite deep, the back room not included. She looked at the front facing of the building and sighed a bit. At least there was space for some outdoor tables.
It would take a bit of work to remodel, but she was sure that she would soon have people lined up out the door. Tasty new sweets and drinks to go with them would draw many. The uniforms? If pop-culture was anything to go by, then a maid café would bring in a killing.
I’ll have to put up a “No Touching” sign, though. Too many entitled pricks out there, she thought with a slight frown before presenting the key that opened the magical locks.
Once inside, she took her time visualizing what she wanted the place to look like, manifesting [Cleanse] every now and then as she made her way to the back, ridding the place of the dust that had built up.
“Yes, this’ll work,” she said with another smile.
* * * * *
The weeks passed in a surprisingly pleasant way. Classes continued to be boring, but at least people didn’t seem afraid of him.
Mo Yu had been making terrific progress in learning the guitar which, after he’d learned that she played the guzheng, wasn’t too surprising to him. He also felt that her affinity and progress with the Law of Wind helped as well. How much? He wasn’t sure, but the Laws of Sound and Wind had good affinity for each other, so there was that.
Bai Lian surprised him by asking if she, too, could be taught how to play the guitar. Unfortunately, her progress was… minimal. To her credit, he noticed that she still practiced every day, going through the basics over and over again.
He wondered if she just didn’t have any musical talent, or if the guitar was just the wrong fit. Maybe something percussion based?
Wentian seemed to spend more and more time at the sparring arenas though, which Joram found curious, but didn’t question. He knew that Wentian focussed on hand-to-hand combat and body cultivation, so maybe the man thought he’d make better progress there.
Speaking of progress, he’d been happy to learn that Bai Lian would soon step into the Heaven Realm, or 5th Tier. Mo Yu had volunteered to oversee her efforts, so Joram had agreed. It only took her six days to break through.
They’d had a little party at the manor to celebrate, Alicia coming over with an assortment of cakes, pastries, cookies, and chocolates. He was sure that Alicia had instantly become Bai Lian’s second favourite person.
Alicia had finally shared her plans on opening a maid café, making Joram almost choke on his pain au chocolate. Both Bai Lian and Mo Yu had stared at him with pleading eyes when Alicia mentioned that she would need more staff for the opening.
He’d acquiesced since they had plenty of time on their hands anyway. And if they needed more time to accomplish their daily tasks, well, he could always just use [Sustenance] on them every day to reduce their need for sleep. Though, he wondered if they’d get angry with him when they discovered that they no longer got hungry under the Power’s influence.
Now that he was two months into the first term, he was approaching finals for his classes. Each term was only ten weeks long, but he found that they were reasonably packed with learning, assignments, and projects. Classes were also six days per week, giving only one day to run errands, do chores, and catch up on the study load.
For most people. He often finished his assignments between classes due to the instructors only handing them out at the end of class.
So, there he was, now the centre of attention due to his good work ethic being noticed by every struggling student in each of his classes. Sure, there was a bit of overlap between classes, so it wasn’t like he had hundreds of students crowding around him. Only about fifty.
“Please tell me how you understood that part!” Was the common theme of what they asked him, which gave him an idea.
“How about we reserve a study hall and go over it together?” He asked, needing to raise his voice to be heard initially. It didn’t take long for word to spread, though. Before he knew it, he was standing behind a lectern at the front of the small study hall answering questions.
As much as he hated large social gatherings, being in a teaching/tutoring role wasn’t so bad. Specifically, when the students wanted to be there. That said, he didn’t see any of the students in attendance that had kept their mouths shut when he’d been arrested. Which, honestly, was a relief. It would have been a hassle to ask them to leave.
That said, it had gone so well that many of the students, out of sincere gratitude, offered to pay him for his time and help, which was what he had hoped would happen.
“Why don’t we meet on our free day? How about in the morning, at the Starfall Café?” He asked, making it seem like he was just thinking about it now.
Alicia could use the boost in business, and it would wind up being cheaper than paying for a tutor. Which was probably why these kids were so desperate for his help.
Many eyes lit up at that suggestion, but he noticed a few heads drop a bit.
Ah, so it isn’t just kids from well-to-do families here, he thought when he saw their reactions.
As people began to leave, Joram asked each of those people to stay behind. The five of them gave him questioning looks but agreed to stay, perhaps thinking that they’d get extra help or something.
“Hey, so, I noticed your reluctance to meet at the Starfall Café,” he started, causing two of them to look away in embarrassment. “I’ll tell you what. I know that Alicia is looking for more people to help with another project she’s working on, so how about I put in a good word for you?”
They shifted uncomfortably, exchanging looks for a minute before one of them, Jasra, spoke for the group.
“It’s not that we don’t appreciate it,” he said, not quite meeting Joram’s eye. “It’s just that with how much studying and schoolwork we need to put in, none of us have the time for part-time work.”
“Ah, that makes sense,” he said, nodding. “I’m sorry that I didn’t consider that before speaking,” he said, dipping his chin slightly.
The five of them hurried to assure him that they hadn’t been offended, but had truly appreciated his offer.
After a bit more awkward conversation, he bid them good evening and beat a hasty retreat. That last part had been harder on him than an hour-long Q&A session had been.
On the plus side, he’d still have his evenings free… ish.
Alicia had approached him to ask permission to borrow Mo Yu. Which had been all sorts of awkward because, who does that?! Her next project, as he’d mentioned to the five students, was to rent out the space beside her shop and turn it into a sort of amateur musician venue where she’d serve savoury food, alcohol, and charge a cover fee.
The catch was that she’d need to have a lure to get things going, and considering that Mo Yu, or “Moyra” was on the “Goddess Ranking”- which was news to him-, she would be the perfect choice for the role.
He’d just told Alicia to go ask Mo Yu… who’d then come to ask him if it was OK. He’d facepalmed.
Shortly after that, he’d noticed that Bai Lian was… moping. She no longer practiced guitar as much, nor was she as enthusiastic about her cultivation.
He tried to cheer her up by giving her some books but even that didn’t cheer the lass up. Then it hit him as he watched her working while tutoring that group of students at Starfall Café. He caught the slightly sullen looks she occasionally shot Mo Yu’s way. It was especially obvious when Alicia, to promote her upcoming opening, asked Mo Yu to play a little number on her guitar.
That Mo Yu’s playing, and the “new” guitar, were so wildly received only seemed to make it worse.
Bai Lian was developing an inferiority complex when it came to Mo Yu.
He really wanted to help the poor lass but was at a bit of a loss as to what he could do. He knew that she wanted to play an instrument as well as Mo Yu, but didn’t seem to have any talent with the guitar, which might also include any other stringed instrument. He’d previous thought that maybe she might be good at percussion instruments, so he went with that.
It took him a few evenings of work, but he managed to whip together a full drum set after more tries than he cared to admit. He wasn’t very good with percussion instruments, mostly because he’d never been taught, only having messed around with them a few times.
On a whim, he’d also constructed a grand piano. That one had been a bit easier since it involved basically making a huge harp that you laid on its side and had padded hammers hit the strings. Now, that was beyond an oversimplification of one of the most fantastic musical instruments ever invented on Earth. But, well, that’s how it was.
As a side note. Because the grand piano had been such a pain to tune, that one also got the autotuning enchantment, along with the standard [Repair] enchantment that he now placed on every instrument he made for himself or the Trio.
Joram also worked on a variety of xylophones as well as different styles of drums, from steel to tribal. He wasn’t sure what might be needed, so he just went and made every style he could think of.
He stood in his workshop, staring at the standard rock’n’roll style drum set he’d made and wondered if Bai Lian would take to it. He was also starting to wonder if he had inadvertently stepped on the path that led to the first rock and roll band forming on this planet.
“Welp, in for a penny, in for a pound,” he said with a grin, then summoned his electric guitar and amp. “Let’s see how these things are made,” he said, then started [Delve]’ing them.