"Lend me some money?"
The North District Archwizard repeated the suggestion, looking strangely at the fist-sized kitten on the table. She held it in for a moment, but ultimately failed and laughed. "Um, sorry, I mean, there's no need. Thank you... I appreciate your kindness."
The Black Gemstone Cat's little face immediately fell.
"You think I can't afford it?"
It bristled with displeasure, looking as though it had been looked down upon. It wanted to tell the witch how much private money its main body had saved over the past few months, but worried that if the news got out, its main body would turn it into stone and stuff it into a little box with no light.
Colmar noticed the kitten's conflicted expression.
"At the Archwizard level, many things are no longer a matter of money."
After considering her words, she gave several small examples. "Take Dust-Drawing Wood, for instance. Do you know where it's sold? Or Soul-Crossing Fluid—at last month's internal auction of the Grand Wizard Council, the opening price was one hundred jade coins per milligram. Then there's Sea God Agate, a spiritual material that can only be harvested by the magic ships of those Great Sea Demons. It isn't that the places where it exists are especially dangerous or inaccessible. It's simply that its growth and harvesting processes are too bloody. Many wizards consider it filthy, so they let those Great Sea Demons act as 'white gloves.' As for how to obtain the agates from those white gloves—whether through wagers, robbery, coercive purchases, or straightforward trade—every Sea God Agate circulating on the market represents collusion between Wizards and Demons. Money alone can't settle such matters."
Hearing these secrets it had never encountered before, the Black Gemstone Cat was dumbstruck.
Back when it attended politics class, it