After a few hours, the results were published: Liebe, Alysa, Licht, M, and Hedin all passed. They returned to class.
Alysa said, "Congrats to the fact we all passed! How about I cook something tonight?"
Liebe said, "That would be lovely. I have something to do at the forge."
Licht said, "Again? What is it that you're making?"
Liebe replied, "Something that will boost my power from far away."
Licht asked, "Okay then. I hope it's as cool as you say it is. But what really is it? What makes you so confident?"
Liebe said, "I wanted to make it before, but I didn't have the key element needed. Until now. But I found the mask, and now it can be put together."
Licht said, "So the Mask of Ifrit, Mythical Model Ananke? One of the four you needed for this project? Where did you find it?"
Liebe replied, "Simple—the black market. But it was quite costly."
Licht asked, "So how much did you pay? And don't tell me it was more than 1,000 gold."
Liebe said, "Well… it was an auction, and the offers were rolling. With only five seconds left, I had no choice."
Licht asked, "How much?"
Liebe said, "…not much."
Licht demanded, "Tell me how much!"
Liebe replied, "900,000 gold pieces."
Licht shouted, "What the hell?! Why did you spend so much? And how did you even get that much? And when the hell did you even collect so much money? Or better yet, when did you even go to the auction?"
Liebe said, "Remember one month ago when I was casually wearing a suit? You asked where I was going, and I said, 'A very illegal underground auction.' You just said, 'Okay.' That's when."
Licht said, "What?! That time? It was so obscene I thought you were joking. I didn't detect a lie—I thought it was sarcasm. That's why."
Liebe sighed, "Yeah. Life doesn't work like that. Life truly is a tragedy."
Licht said, "And whose fault is that?"
Liebe replied, "I don't know."
Licht demanded, "And how the hell did you even get 900,000 gold coins to make a purchase like that?"
Liebe said, "You know… here and there."
Licht asked, "What do you mean 'here and there'?"
Liebe replied, "Welllllllll… you know how Baledia is trying to invade us by massing its fleet on our border and might attack?"
Licht said, "Yeah."
Liebe said, "Well, you know we are under strict orders not to attack or initiate, since it would make us the invaders?"
Licht nodded, "Yeah."
Liebe continued, "Well, I didn't like that at all. So I decided to attack Baledia economically."
Licht shouted, "You are—just tell me, what did you do?!"
Liebe said, "Since I needed money, I thought… how about I go fishing?"
Licht said, "Seriously? You planned to collect 900,000 gold just from fishing?"
Liebe said, "Let me finish. So I did a large-scale fishing operation. And, well, I did it inside Baledia's waters and sold it in their underground market under the alias 'Gilo.' And even though they now have enough food, because of me their entire fishing industry is over. I also made sure the fish would expire in a year, so they wouldn't be able to sell it to other nations."
Licht said, "Why?! Why are you so evil?!"
Liebe said, "Lemme finish. At first, I only got 2,000 gold coins per ton of fish."
Licht asked, "Per ton? How much fish have you been collecting?"
Liebe said, "3 x 3 is 19, 5 x 5 is 89, and 12 x 12 is 3… so about 200 tons."
Licht shouted, "That's 400,000 gold coins alone!"
Liebe nodded, "Yeah. It took a week. And I thought, 'I'm not a fan of the efficiency.' So I tried something else."
Licht said, "200 tons, a destroyed economy, and you're still not satisfied?!"
Liebe said, "Lemme finish, and stop interrupting me! Then I thought… how about I collect minerals from their territory and sell them here? I did that. I had my angels collect gold and platinum, since they are found in pure form. So I deployed 10,000 angels to look through the nation's rivers. In another two weeks, I made 350,000 gold coins under the alias 'Yale.'"
Licht shouted, "What?! Why are you like this?! You basically crippled an entire nation's economy just to fund your little side project!"
Liebe said, "Yeah. So, let me finish."
Licht muttered, "Let me sit down first…"
Liebe continued, "For the last 150,000 gold… here's the funny thing. After conducting so many interesting and possibly illegal operations, I got a bit carried away. One night, I thought, 'Huh. They might be getting too comfortable with their fleet at our borders.' It annoyed me. So I thought… huuuuhhhhh… and then I did a small raid, caused a distraction, and stole a few ships."
Licht shouted, "Why the hell?!"
Liebe said, "Don't worry, it wasn't much. Just ten ships. I sold them back to Baledia under the alias 'Grand Jester' for 15,000 gold each. That's how I made the last 150,000 gold."
Licht said, "Liebe… this whole story is a lie, right? None of it makes sense. I didn't sense any lies… maybe because I'm stressed. Liebe—don't tell me—"
Liebe handed him a piece of paper.
Licht asked, "What is this—? Frick."
Alysa asked, "What is it?"
Licht groaned, "The receipt."
Alysa asked, "Wait, underground black market dealers offer receipts?"
Liebe said, "Well, yeah. They're illegal dealers, not monsters. Plus, even they are scared of the IRS."