Generous Annan gave each of his companions one... silver coin.
His reasoning was that they might need money at any moment.
None of them complained. After all, Annan could have given them nothing.
Annan told Alice and the others to keep searching the Town Chief's Manor. The wealthy students of Gwen Academy might not care about the money, but Annan did.
Some of the food scattered across the hall was still untouched, though Annan wasn't sure it was safe to eat. "Are you hungry?" he asked. Everyone shook their heads.
Even if they were starving, they didn't want to eat anything from this place...
"Then we'll wait until we reach the upper level."
Who knew whether eating it would make them grow a tail or a second head?
"Are we really going to hunt students from other academies?" Amy asked. He kept his distance as he stretched out an arm to search the Town Chief's pockets. "That'll get Saurz Academy into trouble..."
"How big is the Tartun Empire?" Annan asked him.
“Big... very big. It would cover a fifth of World Island.”
"In an Empire that large, the nearest academy is hundreds of miles from us. They won't have time to bother us... Besides, if we win, the Dean and Vice Dean will handle whatever comes next."
Amy still hesitated, so Annan told him, "This was actually the Vice Dean's plan."
"...It was?"
Amy looked up in surprise and met Annan's enigmatic dark eyes. "If we thought of taking Golden Invitation Letters, the other academies will have thought of it too. We may already be a step behind. If we just wander around the Lower Hive looking for them, the academies that robbed other academies could end up with several times as many as us..."
"I... I understand." Amy's resolve