Seeing Bayne's sharply defined features, a dark-brown-eyed man among the group spoke in a foreign language.
"You're not from Hundred Battles Academy. This has nothing to do with you. If you pretend nothing happened, we'll be deeply grateful."
He quickly took out a card and placed it on the table.
"This is an anonymous stored-value card. It has ten million merit points on it, usable in every Undercity."
"As long as you leave, it's yours."
Bayne whistled. "Ten million merit points."
"How generous."
"That'll be enough to keep me going for a while."
As he spoke, he entered the archive room, picked up the stored-value card, and put it in his pocket.
But he showed no intention of leaving. Instead, he looked at the men with a beaming smile.
"I see."
"You used those idiots from the Jambudvipa Cult as your knife."
"They caused trouble in the school, attracting attention and spreading their crazy doctrine."
"Meanwhile, you took the opportunity to sneak into the Academy's archive room. What, were you planning to steal some files?"
The brown-eyed man said in a low voice, "Sir, you've taken our money. You should leave now."
Bayne sat down on the table and waved his hand. "No, no, no. I merely found an anonymous stored-value card that happened to contain ten million merit points and happened to be ownerless. That's all."
"Whether I leave or not has nothing directly to do with it."
"But you..."
"Hmm, you can serve as gifts to improve relations between us and the Easterners, easing the tension between both sides and helping establish a good relationship."
"See? You're still quite useful."
The brown-eyed man immediately pulled a pistol from his hand. It had clearly been modified—or was a specially made custom model.
Its caliber was terrifyingly large. Calling it