Rebirth of the Phoenix God

Comfortably seated in the simple chair, Fen finally had the moment to take a proper look at the man behind the desk. 

A storm of grey hair that seemed to live their own life and travel in all directions was the most eyecatching element of his looks during the first glance. Even without any form of force interacting with them, the dean's hair continued to flutter as if the man was standing against a strong wind current. Yet it was the second, closer look that allowed the young man to notice the most discerning feature of the man in front of him.

It was his eyes.

Fully filled with green, they seemed as if the man lacked the black dots that decorated most of the humans' eyes with how rich the colour of his aureolas was. But only once the man actually raised his sight from the papers before him and took a look at Fen, did the true insanity of his eyes reveal itself.

A single stare. It was all it took the dean to instantly harness Fen's respect. Looking into those eyes, the young man felt as if he could see the years worth of experience and wisdom lurking in the corners of the dean's sight, while his incredibly small pupils seemed to penetrate through the entirety of his with some insane lack of effort.

"Let's not make it any longer than necessary. Given that you are a token holder, I assume that your talents were recognised somewhere. Looking at you… I can guess that you came either from the empire or heptarchy… But you don't have any of the traits of that northern country, not to speak how you arrived here instead of the northern academy. And that means, you are from the empire, am I right?"

Dissolving Fen's entire self into just a bunch of information compiled in only a few sentences, the dean of the Gauna academy quickly proved that he had the right to hold his position. 

"Right on the point, sir."

Faced with a member of nearly the highest social circle in the entirety of the academy, Fen didn't dare to act haughtily. Even if he wasn't willing to just give up on the things that he wanted once the negotiations would start, the young man knows for the best what would happen if he were to make this man his personal enemy.

"That means you will need to have your basic necessities taken care off. A private house in Raven's home, a slight allowance to help you in the beginning, instant enrollment to the respectable classes… How does that sound?"

Right off the bat, the dean shoots Fen down with this insane proposal of his. Not even hesitating when listing out this clearly expensive stuff that would be included in the welcoming package for Fen, the man behind the desk proved to Fen that his own set of priorities varied greatly to what the young man believed in himself.

"I'm sorry for inquiring, but there is one more aspect that I need to take care off beforehand. When you said about providing me with a house, sir, did that mean that I can live there with any person of my choosing? As it appears, I came to this place along with a partner of mine, who sadly does not possess the token of promotion, so I need to know whether I can keep taking care of her or not in advance."

This was a rather tricky way to say it. In fact, the easiest way to keep an eye on Arla would be to just make her live with him either way, even if the house that dean designated for Fen was truly suited just for a single person. 

Sadly, doing so would easily way to the relationship between Fen and the officers of the academy quickly deteriorating. Even if there wasn't any official law that forbidden sharing the house that was given by the academy to the token holder, just the power of the spoken law was enough to dissuade Fen from trying to sneakily deal with the matter.

"A partner, huh… That indeed does change the situation."

Finally pulling out the dean's attention away from the documents he was writing on, Fen could see how this elder rubbed his chin, clearly busy with the thoughts that swarmed in his head.

"Obviously, living together is a big no-no. If I were to allow that, the entire district would turn into a single, huge party-house. Raven's house is not Ratheath after all!"

Surprisingly enough, the last sentence that dean brought up instantly gave birth to a quick idea in Fen's mind. Raising his eyes and looking directly into the man's eyes, the young man dared to ask.

"Sir, with all due respect, but if it's about keeping the prestige of the famous Raven's house area, then wouldn't it be easier to just locate me with my partner somewhere in the Ratheath?"

If it was problematic to allow him living with Arla in the prestigious district of the academy loyalists, then surely it wouldn't be a problem if Fen were to be given a place to stay on the other academy district, that dean already implied wasn't even nearly as prestigious and respected as the royalist area!

"You truly know nothing about the academy… While Raven's house officially belongs to the academy council, the same cannot be said about Ratheath. While nearly the entire place is taken over by the graduates and… unruly students, those lands fall outside of the academy jurisdiction. As such, renting a place for you and your partner there… Is sadly out of the question."

Hearing the dean's explanation, Fen quickly grasped the problematic nature of this issue. Yet, when compared how much the young man cared for the academy rules, tradition and prestige and how much he cared about being able to take care of Arla, the question of what he should do next became obvious.

"Sir, if allowing the academy to deal with this issue is so problematic, how about ignoring the housing problem and just granting me a bigger allowance so that I could rent something on my own? While it might be slightly inconvenient in the long term, I heard that renting a place in Khateria is not as expensive as people often believe it is!"

This bunch of sentences was nothing but a trap for the dean to fall right into. In fact, Fen just arrived in the city, and the small talks that he had with the leader of the military patrol that brought him and Alra to the academy gates were definitely not enough to learn about the housing prices in various districts.

What Fen aimed for with his words, was to push the agenda of letting him rent the place on his own. As long as the dean would agree to it, nothing would be able to stop Fen from renting a place in the Ratheath that seemed like the most rational location for the lodging!

"This is some kind of solution… But it would require a lot of paperwork to be implemented… Eh, why can't you just accept the beneficial terms that we are offering to all the token holders?"

Shaking his head, the dean looked through the sea of papers stacked on his desk, quickly finding what he wanted. Pulling out a goose's feather and dipping its tip into a small glass filled with dark fluid, the elder-man then proceeded to write some words on a clean part of the paper that he managed to scavenge from his own desk.

"Here, it's done. You will receive three silvers a week of the normal allowance along with six silvers a week for the housing costs. If you are looking for Khateria, this should be enough to rent a small but comfortable place."

Pushing the paper on his desk into Fen's direction, the dean instantly moved back to working on his papers. Sparing only a single moment to pull out a sheet of papers form below his desk and pass it to the young man with his spare hand, the dean clearly was done with the entire matter, putting all his attention back to his own work.

"Thank you for all the help, sir."

Nodding his head in gratitude, Fen accepted the paper with the schedule of his future lessons. Skimming through it, the young man realised that his first course would start only in three days from now, giving him some time to get used to living in this town and sort out all the possible problems.

Seeing that the dean didn't respond to Fen's respects at all, the young man considered himself to be dismissed, quickly leaving the strange office of the even stranger dean. As soon as the doors closed behind him, a soft piece of flesh smashed against him, instantly enveloping Fen's nostrils in a sweet aroma of Arla's body.

"How did it go?"

With her entire self showcasing how anxious she was during his negotiations, Fen couldn't help but smile at the perspective of getting to live with her. Even if their relationship started as nothing more but a mutually beneficial transaction, the more the young man spent with Arla, the more she clung to him…

At this point, to say that this silly girl managed to completely entrench him with her charm would be a gross understatement!

"Hey, if you give me a kiss, I will tell you some good news!"

With a mischievous idea appearing in his mind, Fen instantly moved on to put it into motion. Sadly, as soon as those words reached Arla's ears, she climbed up on her feet, closed her arms behind Fen's neck and latched on to his lips, as if his saliva was a cure to some kind of lethal curse of poison that was torturing the girl from the moment she was born.

In one instant, her glib tongue made its way inside Fen's mouth, turning their kiss sweeter and deeper with each passing second. In a matter of a single moment, the desperate slurps of the girl managed to turn on both of them, resulting in their hands quickly starting to analyze each other's skin.

"Disgusting…"

Only a passing teacher of the academy whose job could be clearly seen by the exquisite robes he was wearing managed to sober the two young people down. With Arla pulling herself away from Fen's embrace when she was struck by the realisation that someone saw them, Fen finally had the chance to spell out the good news that he brought for her.

"Hey, cutie…"

Bringing her attention back to his face, Fen grabbed Arla's head between his hands before his mouth uttered something that instantly made her eyes widen in a pleasant shock.

"We need to find a place where we will live together during our time in the academy."