Chapter 80: Paying A Hefty Price

"From where did you get this medallion?"

At the gate of the academy someone stopped the team while checking over the medallion Temo gave minutes ago.

"The leader of the patrol squad gave it to me," Jim calmly spoke while gazing at that guard with a rhinoceros head and short thick tail.

"Temo?" the guard sneered before turning to his team of guards behind, "see boys, that lousy one gave his highest clearance medallion to just no one, hahaha."

Jim grabbed the medallion suddenly and hid it inside his ring in a move that gave him a glaring look from the rhinoceros.

But Jim had a premonition that this rhinoceros wouldn't let him leave with that medallion.

"Bring it back," the rhinoceros threatened.

"Or what?" Jim cracked a smile over his face before raising his sword again high in the air, "do you want to prevent a privileged inner disciple from entering the academy? Are you sure?"

The face of the rhinoceros suddenly changed before muttering:

"The cursed human of the fairy pantheon…"

"Yeah, it's me."

The rhinoceros turned his gaze around the team members. Saga and Tina wore thick capes to hide most of their faces under the instruction of Jim.

"Why are you going out so late?" the guard returned to Jim as he added, "and last time I checked you only have one Bulltor, not six. What? Are you planning to turn here into a Bulltor zoo?"

The tone and attitude of this guard were mean, but Jim didn't fall for his trap as he calmly said:

"We came from Dragon town. Can you let us in now? We just came such a long distance and already tired."

The rhinoceros moved his eye between the members of the team before saying: "Wait here for a minute."

He then turned to vanish inside the academy gate for long minutes. Jim noticed the other guards were giving him mocking glances but he didn't give heed to them.

After roughly ten minutes the rhinoceros came in slow steps. "Go inside and head directly towards the inner disciple affairs," he sneered before saying this.

"For what?" Jim wasn't fazed as he calmly asked.

"How can I know?" the look over the rhinoceros face told Jim otherwise.

"Alright," Jim then turned to his team as he shouted, "time to go in boys."

Jim didn't enter at first but waited on the side of the rhinoceros watching the expression over his face. When the six Bulltors crossed him, Jim noticed a mocking expression over his face.

"So this is all about," he muttered to himself before following his team inside the academy.

"Will we go now for the affairs?" Rick whispered softly while the streets inside the academy were lit with orbs on regular intervals.

"Sure," Jim sneered, "after all I know what this might be all about."

"The Bulltors, right?" Kro asked.

"Do you have any info regarding this?" Jim nodded while asking. He figured out it was about Bulltors, but he didn't have any info about it.

"I think it might be related to an old rule about the number allowed to follow any inner disciple," Roo said before turning to Kro who nodded. "Indeed it's about this."

"Is it bad?" Ashley asked with obvious worry.

"Only a money problem," Rick sneered, "they don't know how wealthy our master has become."

Jim thought for a moment before deciding to play a fool here. "Let's keep the matter of my wealth hidden for now," he said.

"for the arena?" Rick winked as he laughed, "I like this dirty brain of yours, boss."

"It's not dirty," Jim objected while laughing.

"Indeed, it's much worse than being dirty," Sag laughed while her voice attracted attention again towards her.

"We heard about you enlarging the number of your following disciples, is that correct?"

When Jim went inside the inner disciple affairs building, he found himself the only one there beside a werewolf master.

"Yes sir," Jim honestly replied.

"Good," the master cracked a smile before adding, "how many more did you bring with you?"

"I brought only slaves."

"Slaves are considered outer academy disciples," the master sternly said, "and we can't allow you to bring in any slaves to be disciples. Even for the outer disciples, there must be some criteria to be fulfilled."

"Like what?"

"Age, talent, strength… many things. We can't just allow for any outsiders to come inside the academy, right?"

Jim knew the purpose of all this. "Master is indeed correct," he said before adding, "may I ask how can I amend this?"

"By two options," the master cracked a vicious smile showing off his sharp fangs, "either they compete in the arena individually or in teams, or you pay the prices for them."

"Price?" Jim faked hesitation before asking, "how about the arena? How does this work?"

"They will assemble on the first day in the arena and will be challenged by other inner disciples' own slaves."

"This…" Jim faked struggling.

"What? It's fair, after all they will fight outer disciples of other inner disciples as well. Isn't it fair?"

"Sigh," Jim sighed deeply before asking, "what about the money? How much is needed?"

"Each inner disciple is allowed to have only fifteen slaves at max," the face of the werewolf showed how much amused he was, "I believe you have exceeded this, correct?"

"Master is indeed right as always."

"Hahaha, stop honey talking to me, I won't change my mind because of your praises," the werewolf laughed as he thought Jim was trying to get to the soft side of him by his words. "Rules are the rules, can't be broken not by me, not by you, and not by anyone."

Jim gave a dark impression as if he was caught up in action before saying:

"I have twenty new slaves," Jim said.

"I counted twenty-two," the werewolf master corrected.

"My team is only thirteen, so I'm allowed for two more, right?"

"But you have also gained five members from the outer disciples, right?" The werewolf tried to maximize the losses of Jim.

"They were recruited from the outer disciple circle of the academy. No rules were broken here, right master?"

The werewolf stayed silent for a moment before sternly saying: "It's amazing how you, humans, shift the sweetness of your tongues into rudeness the instant you fail to achieve your aims."

Jim only stayed silent while giving the werewolf a silent gaze in return. "Fine, it's twenty then. Each extra member will have to be paid a fee of one hundred academy coins."

A paper was thrown into Jim's face by the werewolf where Jim caught it before hitting his face. He glanced at it rapidly before asking:

"It says here the fee ranges from one coin to one hundred, why do I have to pay the highest fee then?"

"It's the rules kid," the werewolf sneered while adding, "you have to pay what I see fit and I see this as the right price for your insult."

Jim gave the werewolf a dark face while he reread the paper once more. He already memorized its content for the first time, but he just needed to make his act more acceptable.

"It says here I can pay this on the first day of the academy, right?"

"Sure," the werewolf master leaned his back to his seat while adding, "but you'll have to determine your decision here and sign this paper. Doing that won't allow you to change your mind and if you fail to pay, you'll have to work for the academy to pay the fees or let your slaves scram."

Jim didn't delay any further as he cut his finger and left a blood print over the paper. "Perfect," the master laughed as he stole the paper in a swift move that Jim never noticed, "now will you pay or wait?"

"I… I'll wait," Jim faked his struggle while turning around to leave.

"Just a reminder kid," the master suddenly shouted from behind, "your whole presence in the academy is a violation to its heritage and system. No one will be your friend and all will be your enemy. Try to break free early on from this and retreat with your life before it's too late."

"Thanks master for wisdom," Jim said these polite words in such a casual manner. He didn't even turn back to address the master while he went outside the building.

"Two thousand academy coins?"

Inside his mansion Deno screamed when he learnt about this extravagant price.

"But what I heard before is the fee ranging between one and ten academy coins," Tina suddenly said, attracting gazes at her. "We have many masters of the academy as our regular customers," she chuckled before Saga added:

"We didn't speak before as we thought this won't be a problem. But now…" she paused and everyone just sighed. Even when they were in guilt, no one here could bring himself to reprimand them.

Except for Jim.

"Next time don't hold any info off me," he suddenly said in a deep tone. The two girls felt sudden pressure off him and they felt quite nervous.

"O- Ok," Tina said.

"We won't do this again," Saga added while the others glared at Jim in blaming glances.

"What?" he turned to everyone before adding, "we are one team and should act like one. If some hid info from us at such critical moments, we might all pay a heavy price for that."

"Such like this current price," Jenny said while giving the two girls a side glance. For her she thought herself the most beautiful and sexiest person in the room and she shouldn't let any other girl to threaten this position no matter what.