Chapter 523
“Greetings, welcome to the Grant Academy.” the person who greeted everyone on the wide, spacious and still kind of exquisite looking Anderson Plaza even with all the dark and irregular holes almost everywhere in sight, was a girl in green robe wearing a green brooch, and someone Jason and Caroline both knew - Tonya Evergreen, their guide when they first came to the academy.
“Hello Tonya.” Jason and Caroline both greeted Tonya back.
“Hey Tonya.” Garret Peyton extended his hand at Tonya, and Tonya gave him a gentle shake: “How’s it going here?”
“Well, you’re the second group for the special finals, and so far so good!” Tonya smiled at everyone, and took a nod at Jianmen: “This must be the famed Mr. Yu, pleasure to make your acquaintance. The headmasters and Headmistress Clarkson are waiting for you. It seems that Ms. Josephine Wong is not with you, when can we expect her to be with us?”
“It may take a bit, maybe one or two hours. You know how the Division meetings can drag on and on, especially with a bunch of old farts with tons of experience but zero ounce of grit or wit. But our meeting’s still in three hours right?” Jianmen nodde and asked.
“Alright, then let’s get settled first. Do you want to check out your places to stay, or do you want to have some food first?” Tonya clapped her hands and asked with a bright smile: “And, please don’t mind the holes on the ground, and the fact that we will have to walk to places - the battle that took place have caused a lot of damages to the academy buildings, and we are still in the process of fixing everything.”
“Yeah, I know a pretty handy fixer - I mean handyman.” Jianmen chuckled as he followed Tonya along with the team, including Garret Peyton himself: “He lives and operates somewhere in San Jose, and makes good matcha cakes, and from what I’ve heard, his prices are very very fair.”
“Well, Mr. Yu, since you’re here to meet with many members of the administration, I’m sure you can impress them in person and they will definitely give you a contract.” Tonya laughed and asked the team again: “Now, to your places to stay or some food first?”
“Our rooms first.” Aimee had a quick exchange with Thomas, Jason and Caroline, then got back to Tonya: “We’d like to lay down our luggages first, then we can go out for food.”
“Alright! Let’s go.” Tonya turned around and started leading the way.
Their places to stay were the same places where Caroline and Jason stayed when they were here earlier - the living quarters of audit students, the place with the most fantastical flare out of all the living quarters, with hundreds and hundreds of floating “bubbles” that were actually mini-realms in which the students can stay.
“Ah, isn’t this an interesting piece of creation with space magic?” Jianmen took a look at the whole “tree” of bubbles with a facial expression of interest and appreciation: “Very inspired work here. And nice use of obscuration and coordination arrays. The information matrix must have taken quite some ingeniousness.”
“Thank you!” Tonya smiled: “This is the design of a big team, consisting of members of all three houses. One could say it’s one of the best designed and built artifacts in the academy. It’s just pure luck that it was not heavily damaged during that heinous and bloody fight against the ghastly shapeshifting monster. So, everyone, I will wait here for you while you place your luggages and straighten up your rooms.”
After Caroline, Jason, Aimee and Thomas got into their rooms and straightened everything out, they took out the red wood boxes, took out several folded paper sigils made with a kind of special parchment-like paper with gold and silver patterns on them into the corners of their rooms, not the entire living quarters, but only their bedrooms in which they put their luggage and they would rest.
It only took everyone a few minutes, no more than ten, to be done with their rooms. After this, everyone followed Tonya to the diner, which had a few freshly patched holes on the roof and the sides of the walls.
“Alright, distinguished guests, in order to support our students during the finals, the diners will be open twenty four hours per day, and it includes almost every kind of cuisine that could be found in medium to large populations of the world. And our cooks are fantastic, you will definitely find authentic and refined food here so that finding a good meal won’t be a part of your problems.” Tonya showed everyone the interior of the Diner: “The finals take two days, after which you will have to go home. But please feel free to enjoy everything here while you are here.”
“Holy - they even have Szechuan Food!” Jason took a look at the wooden menus hanging on the walls: “Let me try that Drool Chicken.”
“Now, that is all of my time with you on this short guide - but feel free to ask me for help anytime.” Tonya gently bowed towards everyone and said: “Now, before I return to my post, do you have any questions for me?”
“No.” “No, I’m good.” “Nope.”
“Alright, bon appetit, and good luck with the finals!”
Halfway into their meal with food from five different cuisines around the world, Josephine Wong came into the diner following another guide.
“So, how’d it go?” noticing that Josephine Wong seemed more relaxed and relieved than she had been for the past few days when she sat down, Jianmen asked.
“Official permission to act and prepare for this war with some Division resources.” Josephine Wong picked up a loaf of bread and said: “Not much, but still nice. And some more agents and forces under my command, believe it or not, thanks to the last minute findings on that new relic. They’re not exactly here to help us fight the war, and more here to investigate and potentially fight Lucias Vyn, Carol Summers and Soren Lupei, but hey, manpower is manpower.”
“And they’ll tattle on you if you don’t fully convince or fool them that what you’ll be doing is necessary and in compliance?” Jianmen poured Josephine Wong a cup of tea.
“Yeah, I know.” Josephine Wong swallowed a piece of bread and said: “But, who the fuck cares right now?”