50,000 Fae

***Platina's POV***

The next morning, we were once again called to the Headmaster's office during breakfast time. Kaius was fully expecting a nice breakfast spread at the office and raved about how unfair it was that the Headmaster always get better food than the students. When we arrived, however, Kaius's face immediately fell when he only saw three teacups on the table. I rolled my eyes when he immediately leaned down to whisper in my ear, "The old man is cheaping out on us!"

Considering that I wasn't ravenous (unlike a certain elf I could name), I just sat down to enjoy the tea. The Headmaster had a congenial smile as always when he welcomed us. After exchanging a few pleasantries and congratulating us on winning the performance assessment, he then approached the main topic.

"Platina, do you still remember my offer to have you teach the school about your world a while back?"

I kept my face neutral, but inside, I was a bit surprised. I really had forgotten it after all and had not put any thought into it…

"Of course, I do remember," I gave a small friendly smile, "Was this the reason you have called us here today?"

"Well, yes. I must say, I was very impressed with your show of magic during the performance assessment. That was the first time I saw your kind of magic and it dazzled me. How wonderful would it be if the school could learn more about it."

"I do understanding where you are coming from, Headmaster, but I cannot guarantee that the people of this world could use this type of magic and vice versa. It would frankly be pointless if one learns about it but cannot practice it," I decided to be direct with him.

The Headmaster's smile did not falter, "I have, of course, considered this possibility. However, I speak for myself and many other magic scholars of the world when I say that gaining any information about your world would be invaluable. I have spent my entire life learning everything I could about magic, and to think that a different type of magic exists is incredible news. If you would give me and everyone in this school a chance to study it for our own intellectual curiosity, that is more than I can hope for."

When I was about to offer some other excuse (because I really did not want to spend time teaching), he spoke again, "And I did mention that the school will compensate for your time. How does 50,000 fae a month sounds to you?"

"I accept. When do I start?" Next to me, Kaius was rolling his eyes but I ignored him. 50,000 fae was an attractive offer, considering that my entire possession was a grand total of 0 fae right now. I didn't have any idea of the economy here, but it sounded like a good amount, since I remembered Kaius complaining about losing 5,000 fae during his duel with Rilche.

The Headmaster's smile widened (if that was even possible), "Very good, Platina! I am glad you agreed. I have gone ahead and set this up a few days ago. I have reserved the biggest lecture hall for you to conduct your lectures. How about the first lecture 2 days from now? And I hope that you can put up lectures once a week for two hours after that."

He prattled on about the logistics of gathering students and professors, and conducting the lectures at a regular time every week. I nodded, since everything sounded reasonable. The Headmaster promised to work out the details for me, and said all I had to do was show up to teach. Once the conversation was over, Kaius and I walked out of the office. The moment we were far enough away, Kaius immediately pulled me to a more private corner nearby.

"Are you seriously gonna teach magic?" He asked with furrowed brows.

"Well, I promised to give a lecture about my world and principles of magic, but I never said I would do anything more than that. In any case, it's just one lecture a week, it's no skin off my back."

"Still, I feel like things aren't as simple as that. The old man is more cunning than he appeared, don't be fooled by his friendly face."

I nodded, "I have that feeling as well. No doubt he has intellectual curiosity, but part of it may also be in hope that he could somehow learn to use the magic from my world."

Kaius scoffed, "Not just that! Do you realize what other benefits you could bring to him? Your existence here is an anomaly-"

"You made it sounds like I'm some freak of nature."

"You kind of ar- Ouch!" I pinched him and ignored the small electric shock I felt.

Kaius glared at me, "Violent woman! Anyway, what I was saying was that because you're a rare case, the old man will make use of you as much as he could. Magic scholars are fanatics, imagine what they would do when they heard about the existence of a mage from a different world. It may just be "lectures" for the school now, but I could see it extending outside of the school in the near future. For example, magic researchers will come to the school to meet you, and that would mean improve the school's prestige in the magic community. Faestar Academy is one of the top schools in the world, but it's not the top. The old man's mission is to make it number one, and he would use you to do so."