Liora's expression darkened, feeling every pair of eyes on her.
She forced down the anger welling up and smiled once again.
"48 million isn't a small number to just give away. If that's what you need, I can show you ways to quickly earn points," she said in a tone that wasn't too fast, nor too slow.
Aramith thought for a moment, then shook his head
"I need to access this place today." If this ring doesn't work, I'll go back and explain to Lynnor.
The warden, noticing how bad things were turning out for Liora, stepped in.
"Who even asked you to come here when you know nothing?"
Aramith studied him, then replied curtly. "Lynnor."
"Teacher Lynnor?" He repeated, surprised. The fact that Lynnor sent him there didn't surprise him as much as the way he referred to her.
Every student addressed teachers by affixing the word Teacher, yet Aramith mentioned her name without any titles.
Even as a warden, he was supposed to add the title, as teachers were of a higher rank than wardens in the Academy.
Only teachers who were extremely close, or those with a higher position, could call them without the title, and that was frowned upon if it was done in the midst of students.
From that one word, the Warden's image of Aramith had plummeted down, falling even lower than low.
"If that's the case, then go back and tell her you don't have any points."
Liora wasn't going to let things go so easily.
"Seems my Junior here is serious about going in. Why don't you scan his ring first?"
Everyone turned to Liora.
"Warden, he wants to follow his teacher's orders even when we're offering him much-needed education. He won't be satisfied till you let him see things don't work his way."
The warden hesitated, unsure what to do.
It was pointless to scan that thing, but Liora was a respected student with good endowments. He didn't want to make things difficult for her.
"Lady Liora, I understand your concern, but it's still pointless to—"
"Until you take the frog out of the well, it'll never know how grand the sky is," she gestured.
The warden understood her intentions, and looking at Aramith, he knew the boy wouldn't leave just because he was told to. With his dangerous history, who knew what trouble he'd try to cause?
"Ring," the warden said.
Aramith raised his black ring.
There were two ways of knowing how many points one had. The first was for the person to voluntarily show it, and the second was to make a payment, where the points would appear, and the needed deductions would be made.
The warden reluctantly made the gesture to deduct, and what happened next surprised everyone.
A small glow appeared above Aramith's black ring.
"What?"
"It works?"
"How?"
Everyone was shocked to see that the black ring showed the glow.
The warden's eyes almost popped out, and Liora couldn't control her calm expression, showing a rare expression of surprise.
Something felt wrong
But then, someone pointed out.
"Wait, isn't that one point?"
And with that direction, everyone focused on the single digit glowing above his ring.
Laughter burst out, and the surprise that appeared earlier turned to ridicule.
Liora finally smirked, but the Warden still frowned.
Even if it's a single digit, it didn't seem possible.
How could a random ring possess the capabilities of their rings? Unless Lynnor tempered with it in some illegal way.
He smirked inside, preparing to go report to Father Ilthane after this.
Liora, already knowing what would happen, decided not to waste any time and turned to leave.
NO one noticed, but within her sleeves, her fists were clenched tightly.
I'll make you regret this, Aramith.
"Even if your ring holds a point, that cannot pay for anything. It would have been better if you hadn't come here."
Mozrael pulled Aramith's hand a little, and he nodded.
He didn't even believe in this ring, but just wanted to try it out just to be sure.
He was about to leave when the warden suddenly exclaimed.
"What? How?"
He pointed at Aramith's ring, and when Aramith looked down, something akin to a miracle happened.
The single digit on the ring suddenly became a ten, then another zero was added to it.
Right before their eyes, the numbers started increasing, and in seconds, it had reached a million points.
Everyone held their breaths, and even Aramith couldn't understand how the numbers could increase as such.
But it didn't stop there. After a few seconds of remaining still, the numbers increased again.
%(^&)*(& ()*^ &@*&^8)))^&* * )&^
5 Million….
"WHAT?"
6 Million…
8 Million…
All the earlier laughter disappeared.
10 Million....
20 Million….
Suddenly it stopped. No one breathed, unable to make any sense of what was going on.
Someone turned to the warden. "Ward-" His voice didn't even land before the numbers started moving again.
25 Million!
Someone stumbled back, falling.
30…40, 42, 48 Million!
"Forty-eight million..." Someone dropped to his knees.
Liora was almost out of the place when she heard gasps.
She turned around, and all she could see was the shocked expression on the Warden's face.
He stared at Aramith like he'd seen a ghost.
"What's going on?"
The moment the points reached the 48 million mark, they suddenly froze.
They all disappeared instantly, and a bad premonition rose within the warden's heart.
His hand trembled as he checked the register.
The warden stared in disbelief as the payment succeeded.
He checked several times and confirmed that the points were, in fact, real.
His throat went dry.
"The...payment w-went through..."
He gulped, then frowned at Aramith, staring at the ring. This has to be a mistake. I should have been informed if someone had this many points...right?
"What trick are you trying to pull here?!" He suddenly shouted at Aramith.
But he couldn't remain calm.
Cold sweat formed on his back.
He refused to believe it, but still...If it was real...
Then he had just tried to throw out someone who could casually spend millions of points.
Aramith was new, but from what happened, he could clearly see that the payment was confirmed.
He looked at the black ring, which was now back to having a single digit. Seems Lynnor was serious this time.
Before Aramith could open his mouth, someone suddenly exclaimed: "It's the Rector!"
