I wake slightly dazed as i realize i fell asleep on the couch, what a way to spend your first night in your own personal mansion. The next 7 days are holidays to give people a break after the tournament and to thoroughly clean up after the festival. So today i have no pressing matters to attend to. I get up and fix myself a proper breakfast including pancakes and a few strips of bacon, then my morning shower routine. Afterwards i head to the infirmary to check on Vanessa, seems that the Queen isn't here so I'm all alone with Vanessa. The hibiscus are doing work, the room is filled with dense high quality mana. That should help her recovery and top up her internal reserves. The jewelry box hasn't been opened, looks like the Queen hasn't fell for her curiosity to open it.
I leave the infirmary and open my phone to contact Epsilon, i plan on filling the power vacuum that Mikhael left behind. Epsilon managed to snatch his espionage and weapons smuggling operation but the rest has been gobbled up by his rivals, things like human trafficking, drug production and distribution, and so on. Curiously those rivals have large branches or even heads of their operations here in the city, seems that everyone from large corporations to crime syndicates follow the trail of innovation coming from the Academy.
-Epsilon, hows progress on those syndicates?
-Nearly done sir, I'm sending you the intel. Anything else sir?
-How about we do it together? Breach and clearing isn't fun solo.
-Sure, but i get first pick.
-Fine, who are we going first?
-The human trafficker, "the Titan"
-Oh? I thought he was one of the few not based here?
-He isn't based here, but he his coming in for a meeting among his lieutenants and guess what? They booked the same hotel you negotiated with GRM.
-Great, i suppose you've already bugged the whole building?
-Yup, all we need to do is secure the conference room and transport them to the hydra nest.
-Then we "convince" them to work for us instead right?
-Right, we can improve the situation without simply crushing his operation.
-Good, gotta be somewhat ethical about this. So when's the meeting?
-Its tonight at 8, once it starts I'll pop the mute charges and we'll clean house. Then knockout the targets and chuck 'em on a ship.
-Right on.
I check up on what Claire is doing, her experiments have gone smoothly so she's free for the rest of the day. I find her walking back to her dorm.
-Hey Claire, how are you?
-I'm doing fine, what about you?
-Good, just checked up on Vanessa, looks like she's recovering well so it shouldn't take long before she wakes up.
-That's great! So what do we do till then?
-We'll for one i gotten my hands on a new living abode so I'll need to fill up the shelves with something more fancy than just basic groceries.
-Then... Hmmm... I think i know a place.
-You do?
-Yeah, not sure if we can get in but its pretty luxurious. It should fit your needs. By the way, why does it have to be luxurious?
-I got the top floor of the ivory tower, its basically a miniature mansion. I wanna customize it a bit, its fancy but still barebones.
-I see... Shall we go then?
-Lead the way.
I follow Claire to the MRT station before riding the train to the more fancier part of town, things like mansions, restaurants, and even stores are the usual here. We walk to a really fancy furniture store, but we're stopped by the door guard.
-Hey kids, i don't think you should be loitering around here.
-We came here to shop thank you very much.
-Yeah right, you look like students of the Academy. I don't think you got the budget for this place.
I take out my wallet and show off the sleek black credit cards in it, multiple cards of the highest class for all the major banks. The guard was about to ask if i stole them but before he could i pulled out my student ID that shows that its my name on all the cards. He quickly bows and apologizes and politely opens the door for the 2 of us then says something on his radio. I listen closely and it seems that the guard told the staff to be polite to us, saud we're a big spender couple here to shop. As we look around Claire is in awe of the quality of the furniture, and the price tags. We pick out a few items that catch my fancy, mainly a new set of leather chairs, a new chandelier, some ornaments for the swimming pool.
Once we were satisfied with our selection i went to the cashier and asked what bank they preferred. I gave them the card of the first bank that the lady blurted out and she quickly handled the transaction. With that done i stored the bought furniture into my storage and Claire and i rode the train back to the Academy. We managed to snag a pair of seats and Claire and i sat next to each other. The train was unusually crowded so we had to stick closely, Claire is quite nervous about being around so many people so i put my hand over her shoulder. That should scare off any tough guys thinking of trying something to Claire.
-... Thank you.
-No problem, besides this is nice isn't it?
-... Yeah... It is.
Soon we arrive back on Academy grounds and made our way to my floor. Once there Claire yet again was i awe of sheer size of the place. I set up the new furniture with her help then made us a slightly late lunch. Claire then went to read in the office and we chatted about things like stories, authors or more scientific papers recently published, we even discussed the happenings in the industry due to our patent. Eventually she fell asleep so i carried her to the guest bedroom and laid her down on the bed, after covering her with the blanket and setting the temperature to be comfortable i imprinted her biometrics to the door and locked it, time to fell a titan.
