Chapter 15: Does Your Brother Know?

The fatigue of the last few days hit them hard. The back end of the wagon was open and with their sleeping bags laid out, all five of her group mates were sprawled out, sleeping in the middle of the afternoon. Ewan’s legs were hanging off the back of the wagon as, in the shaded area right in front of them, Tori had dug another Dakota fire hole and was making coffee.

Mr. Henninger set up some wooden stools around the fire hole before going to lay down on the driver's bench to get some sleep before they were set to head back to Lycée that evening, once all the students were accounted for. After her team arrived, ten or so more groups had trudged back. Three groups of instructors and volunteers with injured students also returned.

Tori couldn’t help but be irritated at the sight. To her, these students were still children and their safety should’ve been given more consideration by the school. A three day hike was enough; did they have to make students cross a river unaccompanied?

She silently stabbed at the fire before removing the kettle and pouring it over some ground coffee. Across from her, Instructor Ignatius was seated on a stool and leaning back against the wagon, reading.

“Coffee’s ready,” Tori said. She put aside the kettle and handed him the metal cup once the water had dripped through the coffee.

“Thank you, Miss Guevera.”

Tori gave him a nod and then began to prepare the vegetable in wine stew with sausage. She didn’t know that the school would be providing dinner for the students, so had set aside food for her group ahead of time. She didn’t plan on cooking, until they found out dinner would be bread and jerky.

Five pairs of expectant eyes had turned to her and she sighed and agreed to make them dinner. She had just finished cutting, sautéing, and throwing everything else into their pot when a shadow fell over her fragrant little cookout. She looked up and rose to her feet.

“Headmaster Laurent.” Tori gave him a small bow of her head in greeting. Instructor Ignatius shot to his feet.

“Headmaster!”

“Ignatius, Miss Guevera,” Headmaster Laurent said, returning the nod. He looked at Tori and gave her a pleased smile. “Congratulations to your group for coming in third.”

“Thank you, sir. It was not our intention to place. I’m just happy we all got here safely,” she said.

The headmaster looked satisfied with her words. He glanced towards the wagon bed and chuckled. “Looks like they’re exhausted.”

“It has been a tiring three days,” Tori said. “Can I help you with anything, Headmaster?”

“Ah, yes, actually I wanted to speak with you,” he said. “I check in with each group once they arrive, but your wagon is at the end, so it took me a while.” He chuckled. “But I didn’t forget.”

“Please take a seat, sir.” Instructor Ignatius motioned to his stool and the headmaster gave him a nod before taking a seat.

“Would you like some coffee?” Tori asked

The old man’s eyes crinkled up and he nodded. “Yes, I would love some. I thought I smelled something good near here.”

Tori nodded and took out another cleaned drip cup and scooped out some ground coffee to pour over. As they waited, Tori looked back at him. “What did you want to talk about, sir?”

“First, I wanted to congratulate your team. Second, I wanted to commend you in particular,” he said. “Several students have reported you assisted them in crossing the river. The three missing students from the group Southwind said that you took them in last night, bound their injured group mate’s ankle, called for help, and even fed them.”

“How is he doing now?” Tori asked.

“Better. He was a bit feverish, but he’ll be fine. He will need to stay off his ankle for a few weeks.”

“I don’t want to complain, but I have many concerns with this year’s excursion, Headmaster Laurent. My brother told me that a few people get injured each year, but they’re minor. On any sort of excursion like this, I’m sure someone is bound to get hurt; however, students were clearly not prepared for the environment and especially not the river crossing,” Tori said. She handed the old man a cup of coffee.

Instructor Ignatius looked at her with surprise, but Headmaster Laurent took a deep breath and slowly nodded his head, as if acknowledging her concern.

“Truthfully, Miss Guevera, you are correct. While there is usually some aspect of difficulty in the excursion, the Daga River crossing was unexpectedly more difficult than we previously thought. Many students slipped and fell into the river. A few were washed quite aways before they could be rescued or managed to reach shore, even with volunteers on standby along the river,” the old man said as he took a sip of his coffee. His face was momentarily unreadable before he seemed to shake himself out of his thoughts. He lifted the cup and gave her a tired smile. “This is delicious.”

“Thank you," she replied with a small nod. “Are all the students accounted for?”

“As of last night and the several emergency signals that were traced, yes, thankfully,” Headmaster Laurent said. “We have more than a few injuries and several students caught a bad chill. A combination of the river and the night air. Surprisingly, of the students who have arrived so far that fell into the situation, Mr. Martin and his two group mates are - sprained ankle notwithstanding, fine.”

Tori nodded, relieved. “We had them change into spare clothes and dried their wet ones over the fire last night, when they found us. We also gave them ginger tea to heat them up from the inside and another group donated their spare blankets for them to use. Considering how cold it would get here, I was very cautious about keeping them warm after they fell in the river.”

Headmaster Laurent knit his brows together and lowered the cup in his hands. “Miss Guevera, you have been quite generous to your fellow students. You helped them cross a river, you gave them aid when injured, you even led three groups of them back today.” He paused and studied her face. “Why did you not help Mr. Guthry and Mr. Soleil's groups?”

She cocked her head. I’m sorry - what? Did I not give them fucking rations after they lost their all their food? Tori blinked and narrowed her eyes. “May I ask what has been said?”

“Mr. Guthry and Mr. Soleil reported that on the first night, you met with their groups and refused to lend them a spare tent when they asked. As a result, three of the young men in the Armada group fell ill that night and were having low fevers,” the headmaster told her.

Tori’s annoyance turned to irritation and then subtle anger. A voice cussed out that entire group in her head and all she could do was try not to show her rage. Instead, she replied in a calm, rational voice.

“Roughly an hour after sunset, my group's camp was set up and we were cooking dinner for the night when we heard footsteps from the forest. Ewan called out and we saw light crystals approaching. It was Summer Solstice and the Armada; Mr. Guthry and His Highness’ group. They said that they lost track of time after they lost one of their bags that contained their rations and were relying on Miss Hart to catch fish for dinner. Mr. von Dorn smelled our campfire and they followed the scent until they caught sight of us. Miss Hart asked to join us and we helped them set up a campfire a few paces from ours.”

The headmaster seemed to be mulling over this. “Why did you not share your campfire?”

“The campfire is about one pace across; there were three groups. One would not suffice,” Tori said. “It was late and they said they couldn’t see in the dark to gather wood for the fire, so we gave them a portion of ours.”

“What about the spare tent?”

“You were incorrectly informed, Headmaster. We don’t have a spare tent. We have three. We can show you our bags to confirm this.” Tori lifted her chin proudly. “What Mr. Guthry and His Highness asked for was one of the three tents. Each of our tents holds two people. They asked for one that the three female students in their group could use. I refused on the basis that the particular tent they wanted was assigned to Ewan and Henrik. They and JP carried the tents.” She leaned forward and had an almost demanding look on her face. “Why should the ones who carried it not be allowed to sleep in it just because another group decided not to bring any of their own?”

Beside her, even Instructor Ignatius looked surprised at this. They had to admit that she made a good point. One group did decide not to bring tents; what right did they have to demand the tent of another?

The headmaster thought for a moment. “What if the young men of your group agreed?”

Tori raised a brow. “Why would they?” The headmaster looked taken aback by her question and the corner of Tori’s lip smirked. “Why should my group members suffer after coming prepared because three girls had to sleep outside due to their group’s own negligence. Is it fair that my three boys should sleep in the cold so three girls they don’t even know can sleep in the tent they carried through the wilderness. You don’t really believe that’s fair, do you, Headmaster?”

There was an unreadable expression in Instructor Ignatius’ eyes and the headmaster was quiet, sipping his coffee.

“Headmaster Laurent.” Ilyana peeked out from the wagon, awakened by their visitor. “Did those two groups tell you that Tori gave them our two spare quilted down vests and her own in order to keep them warm that night?”

“Vests?” The headmaster squinted and Ilyana tugged on the blue vest she was wearing.

“These are quilted down vests Tori designed. Our sleeping bags are similar and the layers of cloth and down are put together to keep us warm, yet pack up light and don’t take up a lot of room,” Ilyana said. “Our tents were also designed by Tori.”

“All the tents and bedrolls, and practically all the suggested supplies on the syllabus, were sold out in all the surrounding shops before we even finalized the group. I designed and commissioned what I could in order to have what we needed on time,” Tori said, stirring her stew. She frowned. “That’s another thing I’d like to bring up. We weren’t the only group having problems getting supplies. The scarcity was surprising and in this case, life threatening.”

“Tori also planned and prepared our food,” Ewan said as he sat up on the edge of the wagon. It seemed that he had been awake and listening. “Did those other groups tell you that they lost all their food and asked us for some of ours? Tori gave them some of our own rations.”

From the look on the headmaster’s face, those details had not been reported to him. “I see....” He lifted the coffee and finished it off. “Thank you for the coffee, Miss Guevera.” He handed the empty mug back to her and sighed. “You and your team did much for this year’s excursion. If it weren’t for Miss Hart saving Mr. von Dorn’s life, I am sure you would be named the highest contributing student for this excursion.”

Tori froze. She lifted her head and frowned. “Mr. von Dorn almost died? What happened?”

The headmaster stood up and sighed. “It seems that he was bitten by a red bellied viper.”

“A red bellied viper?” Instructor Ignatius’ face turned serious. “That’s one of the most venomous snakes. Just a bite can kill a grown man.”

“I thought the venomous snakes in Alpine Valley weren’t fatal to humans,” Tori said.

The headmaster scratched his head. “It’s a shock to us as well. One of the reasons we selected Alpine Valley was due to the lack of large predators and fatally venomous animals.”

“So the red bellied viper isn’t native to this area....” Tori spoke her words slowly. Somehow, that was disconcerting.

Both the headmaster and Instructor Ignatius nodded. “Yes. It was in the brush and Mr. von Dorn got between it and Miss Hart. It bit him in the leg, but Miss Hart sucked out the venom. Luckily, they were in sight of the end point and we got him in time.”

Sucking out snake venom is a myth. It doesn’t even work, what the...ugh...game physics. Tori shook her head. She had more important things to consider. “Is Mr. von Dorn all right?”

“Yes, thankfully.” The headmaster gave them a nod. “We are just waiting for three more groups. In another hour, we’re going to start serving dinner.” He glanced down at the stew in the pot, made a little impressed nod, and began to head back. "Carry on, Miss Guevera."

“To think we could’ve run into a red bellied viper,” Ilyana said, lifting her hand to chest to calm her heart.

“Hmm...it is strange,” Tori said. She couldn’t help but think it was set up by the game as one of the protagonists’ encounters. She let out a breath and shook her head. Whatever, it has nothing to do with me. She looked towards Ilyana and Ewan and smiled. “The stew still needs to cook. I’ll wake you when it’s ready.”

Ewan gave her a tired nod and went back to sleep as Ilyana yawned. Tori silently sat by the fire, thinking as she stirred. With Alessa saving Fabian’s life, it would only strengthen the bond between them. Who knew how many romance points she racked up for ‘sucking out poison’. Tori already noticed that of the love interests, Dimitri and Gideon were the closest to her.

They were also the two that were noted as the favorite targets in the game. Fabian came in third. She didn’t know where the others ranked, only that Constantine and Fabian had to reach a certain level of romance points to keep them in the game by the end of the second year. Fabian would hit that level soon if he hadn't yet. Tori was sure she had to be more cautious around Fabian now. If she accidentally wronged Alessa, who knew what those idiots would do.

She was sure her previous actions of refusing to give her hiking pole and then tent were strikes against her. Tori ran a hand down her face and stared at the fire.

Don’t start none...won’t be none.... She recalled. Her interactions with them had been random and she didn’t instigate any of them. She narrowed her eyes. They came to her. Don’t start none...won’t be none....But what if these fuckers don’t leave me alone....

“Miss Tori, good luck on this week’s review exams.” The leader of one of the groups who followed them on the last day passed with a smile and wave. Tori gave her a nod and an encouraging grin in return.

“You, too, Miss Linda.” After the excursion, Tori found that her reputation amongst the first year students became more favorable. Not great, but better than before. She didn't become known as a warm or kind person, but considering she yelled orders at a lot of people, it made sense.

Students came to give her subtle respect after helping other groups during the hike. She came to be known as strict and rather intimidating, but ultimately dependable and responsible. The group leaders and the three boys who fell into the river dared to become more familiar with her and were pleasantly surprised that she wasn’t the hostile, arrogant snob the rumors made her out to be.

Tori was now on first name greetings with all of them after just two weeks.

Of course, people still thought she wasn’t very smart considering her rank was still 78 out 80 academic students, but it wasn’t as if camping competence raised academic scores. And there were still students who refused to acknowledge the observations made by others.

In particular, there was criticism about the tent debacle. She was called selfish and willful, if not downright cruel for refushing to share. She was sure those rumors were bolstered by Gideon.

The tent thing became a sort of ‘what would you do’ moral scenario after word got around. Surprisingly, considering her lukewarm-at-best reputation, a good portion of the students were on her side. Why should they share their tents when the other group was unprepared?

There were others insisting that it was just one tent and those girls could’ve gotten sick.

“But they didn’t and whose fault is it that they didn’t pack their own tent?” Sonia had raged about it for a few days. She was even more incensed when they heard that the second prince’s group had acquired their supplies from the Imperial Knights. It wasn’t as if they couldn’t get their hands on a tent. They chose not to.

This made the fact that the two groups arrived ahead of them even more irritating to Sonia and the others. While everyone else was struggling with the river crossing, the two groups used a fallen tree as a bridge before it was finally pushed down stream. Thinking about how fast the river was going and how deep, Tori questioned if it was possible, but Alessa's group did have Montan, the "magician" archtype. She knew that Montan was significantly skilled for his age, though didn't know the details. She'd have to look into that.

However, for Tori, the whole tent situation had happened and there was no going back. Nor would she change her decision if she could. It was better to focus on her classes and the upcoming review exams that were meant to prepare students for the semester midterms, which would be 30% of their grade. These review exams would be Tori’s first since she woke up and she was excited to at least prove she wasn’t as dumb as people thought.

As such, she took studying relatively seriously. It didn’t consume her life, but she put in effort. She’d gone through high school and taken standardized test after standardized test to get into a good university and even took two more tests during that period of time she considered graduate and law school. Unlike her previous life, the pressure to score well wasn’t as heavy this time around. Worst case, she was sure her family would let her be a bum at home.

Still, she was interested in the subjects, so she liked to study them. Wasn’t it always like that? A person became very interested in something and then absorbed all they could about it because they liked it. It was like being in a fandom or memorizing sports stats.

That was good enough for her.

But not good enough for Ilyana.

“Is this really necessary?” Tori asked as she followed her dutiful roommate towards the study rooms below their dorms. “We’ve been keeping up with the reviews daily.”

“It never hurts to refresh now that the test is the day after tomorrow!” Ilyana looked determined not to let Tori fail. The other day, Tori made the mistake of saying that even if she failed, the school wouldn’t kick her out. This apparently made Ilyana think she’d given up completely and she insisted Tori do review sessions with her.

Tonight, Ewan and Henrik were joining them. Henrik was also an academic student and was solidly in the middle. However, Ilyana was ranked second in the school and he knew it wouldn’t hurt to join a review she was having. Ewan was one of the special niche students. If one was to compare their test results, he wouldn’t have made the cut, but that was the case for most of the niche students.

Amongst them, he was surprisingly above average, but nowhere near his academic friends.

“Is it necessary for me to be here?” Ewan asked. Henrik had insisted he come from the training grounds and when his brother found out, he made him go.

“This is a good chance to increase your scores,” Henrik told him. “Besides, a lot of students don’t go to their activities during test weeks. Look at Tori.”

“Tori almost killed Vice-Captain last week.”

“I did not! He’s the one who came at me unarmed when he dropped his sword!”

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“You grabbed him and threw him on the ground!”

“Well, who told him to come at me?”

“Let’s just try to find a room.” Henrik got between the two of them. “All the ones in the west dorm are already full.”

Ilyana nodded, filled with an unnecessary energy, and peeked into the windows of each study room to find an empty one. She seemed to catch sight of a free one and quickened her steps to get to it. Before they reached it, another hand grabbed the handle and pulled it open. Ilyana came to a sudden halt, with Tori running into her back.

“We got here first.” Montan held the door open and looked at them with a condescending gaze.

Ilyana squinted. “Are you even in this dorm?”

“Study rooms in both dorms are open to all students, regardless of dorm,” Montan said.

“Sorry!” Alessa smiled as she clutched some books against her. “We tried the other dorm, but they’re all full.”

Tori nodded. Normally, she and Ilyana studied in their room, but male students were not allowed in female dorm areas and vice versa.

“First come first serve.” Gideon didn’t even glance at them as he walked by with Fabian.

“Do you want to join us?” Alessa asked.

“No...no, that room won’t hold enough people....” Ilyana said, aggrieved that there really wasn’t anything they could do.

“Alessa, you don’t need to offer,” Gideon said. He looked at Tori and sneered. “We shouldn’t have to sacrifice because another group was unprepared.”

Tori’s brows shot up. Excuse me?

The door closed on them and Ilyana scratched her head. “Should we try the library?” They all knew there was an even slimmer chance to find a place to study there.

Tori wrinkled her nose. “Who wants coffee?”

Cafe Fortuna was out of the way and relatively hidden. The multiple times she and the others went there, at most, there were two or three other customers seated far apart. Piers did say that it was mostly Université students, so they were the only Lycée students there. The Université only had midterm and semester-end finals, so chances were good that they’d have a place to sit and study and drink coffee.

They reached the plaza after just a few minutes of walking and heard someone greet them cheerfully.

“Albert! How’s your ankle?” Ewan asked as he grinned and lifted his chin at the young man walking towards them.

“I don’t have to use the crutch any more, but I’m still careful and not rushing anywhere,” the blond, brown-eyed student said. “Are you all going to eat?”

“Getting some coffee and then try to review,” Tori said. “You?”

“I needed to buy ink.” Albert shrugged. He looked at Tori and beamed. “By the way, when did you start selling your vests and sleeping bags? I’m glad you did; I want to buy one of the vests.”

She tilted her head to the side. “Selling them?”

He nodded. “Yes, I was in the fourth district this weekend and saw the quilted down vests for sale. I went to inquire, but aside from the display, they were sold out. I thought I’d ask you directly.” Albert was still smiling, as if knowing Tori would help him if he asked. He was right, but that wasn’t the problem.

The group of four exchanged looks. Tori’s eyes narrowed. “Albert...I haven’t started selling them yet.” She had decided to wait until after the new year, when they came back. That was when they’d get their multi-year long project and Henrik’s would likely involve something with business, so she figured he could start a business with her based on the down quilted vests that were extremely common in her original world, but novel in the game. They’d already started planning it, sourcing suppliers, finalizing things with Madam Midstrom, and even spoken to his father, the local guildmaster, about it and what they had to do to prepare.

Albert’s smiling face dropped. “What?”

“What’s the name of the store where you saw the vest and sleeping bags?” Tori asked carefully.

Albert knit his brows together. “Golden Cow Mercantile.”

All her friends could see was her shoulders start to shake, and feel the unexpected stifling aura of rage that emanated from Tori. What they couldn’t hear was the explosive profanity echoing in Tori’s head.

She should’ve known. She should’ve fucking known that she’d crossed paths with that rat bastard ho of Alessa’s somehow. She didn’t know when, she didn’t know how, but she should’ve known it would happen soon. And of course it would happen when she had exams to deal with.

“Tori?” Ilyana looked worried as she studied at her unmoving friend.

Tori took a deep breath and ground her teeth together. She closed her eyes. “Sorry, Ilyana...I need to go to the fourth district.”

The review session was cancelled and Ewan ran out to the plaza to wave down a shared carriage to rent to take them to the fourth district. Albert offered to come with them, but Tori told him it was too far and he was still recovering. She’d tell him what happened next time they met. He told them where to find the store and the four piled into the carriage.

The fourth district wasn’t far and Henrik told the driver to take them directly to Golden Cow Mercantile. Just as Albert told them, her vest and sleeping bag designs were on display in the window as a set. Tori silently swore up and down and grabbed the back of Ewan’s collar to stop him from storming in and trashing the place.

“But that’s your design!” He cried out as if he were the one wronged.

“I know, but we’re just four teenagers with no real business experience. No one is going to take us seriously and we could be reported and arrested for causing trouble. Not to mention that it’ll alert the owner that he’s been found out,” Tori said in a low voice. She pulled him back into the carriage. She sat by the door and crossed her arms over her chest, still seething. “I can’t fucking believe this....Driver, take us back!”

The carriage was quiet as Tori’s leg bounced in under her uniform skirt as she wallowed in her anger. The other three were hesitant to say anything. As they saw the main plaza up ahead, Ilyana finally broke the tense silence.

“What are you going to do?” She swallowed hard. She’d never seen Tori so angry, no matter how annoyed she was. “Those are yours and someone else is making a profit.”

“Yeah...let them.” Tori’s face darkened. “For now.” When they stopped, they got out of the carriage and Tori quickly paid. “I need a drink.” Without a word, they followed her to Cafe Fortuna. She was warmly greeted by a part timer and Tori ordered a round of their usual drinks and a wine for herself before plopping on the plush chaise by the hearth.

“Tori,” Henrik said. “Should we investigate?”

She nodded her head, still trembling with rage. “Get someone to get me a sample of that vest and sleeping bag. We need to find out where they were made, who made them, when they were made, and when they were first put on the market.”

He nodded. “I’ll ask around at the guild.”

“Keep it quiet. I don’t want him to know he’s been found out,” Tori said, narrowing her eyes.

“Are you going to go after him?” Ilyana asked. “You said you had that confidentiality agreement with the artisan.”

“How did he even get your design, anyway?” Ewan added. They'd only worn their vests on the excrusion.

Tori clenched her jaw. Albert had returned Ewan’s vest when the instructor and volunteers arrived despite her insistence that he wear it until the excursion was over. Of the three she lent out on the first night, two were promptly returned when they reached campus. “One vest never came back.”

“Huh?" Ilyana sat up straight with a perplexed expression. "Who didn’t give it back?”

“I can’t confirm it at this point; it could be just a coincidence.” It's totally not. Tori chewed on her lower lip for a moment. “I don’t want to make conjectures yet. Right now, the target is the owner of the Golden Cow. I’m not going to let him wrong me.”

“Someone wronged you?” A low, smooth voice asked behind her. She tilted her head up and saw a warm, handsome face with black hair falling around it smiling down at her. Axton raised a brow. “Does your brother know?”

Ilyana sat on one of the stone benches near the announcement boards in front of the administration building. A serene look was on her face as she closed her eyes and leaned back against her arms, listening to the surprised and somewhat alarmed and upset murmurs caused by the test result rankings that were posted.

“You look happy,” an amused voice came from in front of her, but she didn’t open her eyes. She just nodded blissfully. “What are you doing sitting out here?”

“I’m relishing their discomfort.”

In front of her, the twins looked at her strangely and then at each other. “Are you okay, Ilyana?”

“Uh-huh.” Her smile didn’t falter. “Check the academic rankings. They were just posted.”

JP and Sonia, still holding their bags from that afternoon’s riding practice, placed them at Ilyana’s feet before squeezing their way into the large crowd to find the rank list for the academic students.

It didn’t take long for Ilyana to hear Sonia’s yell of disbelief. “What!” A moment later, she jostled her way out of the crowd and stared at Ilyana. “Didn’t she barely test in?”

“Yes.”

“And she has the third highest score now?”

“That’s right.”

“She’s also at the top of her elective class,” JP said as he came out. “And congrats on first, Ilyana.”

She took another deep breath and exhaled, still smiling. “Today is a good day.”

“No! This can’t be right! I don’t believe it!” Someone’s shrill voice cut through the courtyard and Ilyana opened her eyes. “None of the other students who were ranked low scored that high. She must’ve cheated!”

“In her homeroom, she sits next to Agafonova and she ranked second and is now first. She must’ve cheated! How else can you explain the ranking jump?”

Ilyana’s pretty face filled with a frown as she snapped her head towards the crowd huddled by the board. JP and Sonia looked at her and she shook her head. “She didn’t cheat! Tori is smart and knows how to study. You know that.”

The twins thought for a moment and then nodded. They knew that Tori couldn’t possibly be as dumb as her ranking implied, plus she was a formidable leader and very competent.

“I’m going to lodge a formal complaint with the headmaster!” A moment later, the trio watched several people go off, towards the administration building.

“Does Tori know what her scores are?” JP asked.

Ilyana shook her head. “She’s been spending the last week after the exams running back and forth with Henrik to the Merchant’s Guild to set up their business.”

“How much longer will it take? I’m sure that Golden Cow place is making a fortune with Tori’s designs.” Sonia scowled. “Ewan should’ve ripped through that store.”

“I keep saying that, but Tori just said that she wants her enemy to come to her, so she has to be thorough. Besides ‘lions eat cows’.”

Sonia cringed. “What does that even mean?”

“It means it’s an easy meal,” a voice said behind them. Ilyana jumped to her feet and beamed.

“You’re back! Did you do it?” Ilyana asked as Tori and Henrik reached them. Henrik was grinning, as if he knew a big secret.

Tori nodded. “We’ve secured two storefronts and after they open, we’ll also be selling more rugged versions at Daybreak Garden’s storefront.” She almost giggled. They can’t really say no to me, though....

“We’re in the middle of hiring decorators and some guild contacts are helping us interview managers and salespeople from trusted sources,” Henrik said.

“Can you afford all of that at once?” JP asked.

“Ilyana invested a lot and Henrik also invested,” Tori said. “And I got some other investors.”

“Who?” Sonia asked.

Tori let out a defeated sigh. “Despite my pleas, Axton tattled to my brother about what happened and my family called me. My brothers were ready to come up and I only calmed them down after I accepted their investments.”

“Wow...money is a great resource,” Sonia said, impressed.

“Right?” Tori looked towards the board and the crowd that was still in front of it. “Are the grades up?” Before the others could answer, she and Henrik headed over to check their rankings. They didn’t seem to notice the strange looks other students were giving Tori.

Henrik suddenly choked. “Ranked third!” Ilyana smiled, not getting tired of the shock.

They saw Tori nod, seemingly unsurprised. “That’s about what I thought. How’s my elective...oh, nice! Top of the class!” She turned around and bounced back towards her friends with a big, toothy grin. “We’re celebrating! Dinner’s on me!”

Sonia grabbed her bag and grinned. “Now you’re talking!”

“We need to go pick up Ewan at practice, but they should be done soon-”

“Lady Guevera!” Someone shouted behind her, stopping the entire group in their tracks. Tori turned around. “The headmaster wants to see you!”

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