“As you can see, I’m a third-year, and the instructors put me in charge of this hangar.”
Irina · Watt clapped her hands with a bright, open smile and got straight to business. “You’re here to rent a slot for your Magitech Knight, right?”
“Yes.”
Lady Nal had explained when she handed over the machine: although the academy allowed students to bring their own Magitech Knights, hangar space was not free.
Think about it—an academy that took in tens of thousands of students from dozens of cities and several nations. Training resources were stretched thin.
Official records showed only three thousand training machines for the entire student body.
Those training units already occupied most of the hangar space. Slots were never going to be handed out for free.
On top of that, the maintenance costs for a Magitech Knight were astronomical. Anyone who brought their own had to foot the bill themselves.
“Hehe~”
Seeing a big spender walk right in, Irina gleefully rubbed her hands together, pulled off her thick gloves, stuffed them in her overall pocket, and took out a contract from the necklace at her throat.
“Slot rental: three silver coins per month.
Maintenance packages come in three tiers:
- Basic: monthly rust-proofing and cleaning only — five silver coins.
- Standard: full-body and armament maintenance on top of basic — ten silver coins.
- Premium: everything above, plus we cover all wear, tear, and hidden damage from daily use and training — thirty silver coins a month!”
Ye Xu took the contract and scanned it. Prices, terms, and conditions were all clearly listed. He frowned slightly.
At the sight of that frown, Irina and every student in the hangar felt their hearts tighten.
—Was this deal about to fall through?
“Hah! Someone brings in a cutting-edge Radiant Sun Type-14 and you still dare quote these prices?”
“As expected of Hangar 3—still fleecing people like always!”
Just as Ye Xu was thinking, a voice dripping with dissatisfaction rang out.
The next second, the crowd that had been surrounding Ye Xu and his machine parted again, this time making way for a group approaching from the opposite direction.
“What the—?! Hangar 1 trash, what are you doing on our turf?!”
The newcomers were dressed in noticeably more luxurious uniforms. The leader was another tall, tanned, muscular senior in work overalls.
But unlike Irina’s group, these people carried an air of unmistakable arrogance.
The blond, blue-eyed young man at the front looked like nobility personified.
The moment Irina saw them, her group instantly went on high alert and moved to block Ye Xu and the machine.
“Hangar 1… Hangar 3?”
Ye Xu recalled what big sister Nal had told him.
The academy offered all kinds of practical positions: research assistant at the Magic Institute, alchemist’s aide, apprentice in workshops or hangars, etc.
These jobs let students earn pocket money and extra credits while gaining real-world experience—so they wouldn’t graduate as useless theory-only bookworms.
Where there was practice, there was competition.
According to Nal, most facilities were nominally under a certain instructor but were actually run by the students themselves. The bulk of the profits went to the students and the facility.
And the competition between them was fierce.
This Magic Academy alone had twenty hangars, each capable of holding two hundred machines. Aside from servicing the academy’s training units, they also took external maintenance contracts from the magical city to fund research and studies.
Right now, it was obvious: his brand-new, top-of-the-line machine had drawn the attention of multiple hangars like a swarm of sharks smelling blood.
After all, the chance to study and maintain a cutting-edge machine like this was priceless for theory and hands-on experience.
“Hey! Edren, you’re here to sabotage us again!”
Irina glared venomously at the newcomer and waved her people to chase them off.
“Whoa, whoa, easy there.”
The young man called Edren remained perfectly calm.
The next instant, faint mana rippled around him. With a light leap, he shot four meters into the air and landed gracefully right in front of Ye Xu.
[Third-circle augmentation spell: Reinforcement]
Ye Xu instantly identified the spell from the mana signature.
Then, in the most flamboyant way possible, Edren produced a wildflower from who-knows-where, held it between his teeth, and grinned.
“Young man, bring that beauty of yours to our hangar!”
“As long as you let us study it,
all maintenance and repairs will be done to the highest standard—completely free of charge!”
Ye Xu instinctively took two steps back from the sheer audacity.
Irina immediately jumped in front of him again.
“Hey, hey, hey! Are you gay or what?! Look how scared you made the freshman!”
“And also—”
“You’re burning this much money for your studies—does your family even know?!”
She was furious. This was exactly what happened last year.
A young lady had enrolled with a military-grade machine based on the Radiant Sun Type-13.
Hangar 3 had the geographical advantage of being closest to the gate and should have locked it in.
But this same guy used the exact same pitch and snatched the Type-13 right out from under them.
To be fair, who wouldn’t want to do the same?
They spent all day in school dealing with ancient training relics. Getting their hands on a cutting-edge military model was an opportunity worth its weight in gold for knowledge and experience.
Especially this freshman’s machine—it was clearly no ordinary production model but a deeply customized version of the military-grade blueprint.
The problem was… she was merely the daughter of a marquis.
While the guy in front of her, Edren · Vixi, was the eldest son and heir of a bona fide duke.
His family owned over a hundred Magitech Knights and wealth beyond counting.
If the academy weren’t so far from the Radiant Sun Empire—making it nearly impossible to acquire usage rights for the “Type-14” blueprint the Night Princess had pioneered in the last two years—and if even a duke’s house that somehow got one would never hand such a precious machine to a student,
he would probably have been strutting around in a brand-new Type-14 last semester.
“Hm? They know.”
Edren shrugged at Irina’s accusation, utterly unconcerned. “I asked them for the money.”
He smiled, the very picture of a great house’s heir at ease.
Magitech engineering was an insanely expensive field.
To advance, one had to get their hands on as many different Magitech creations as possible.
Depending on materials, the craftsman’s techniques, and the intensity of infused mana, the final product’s performance varied wildly.
Those differences became critical during maintenance—one tiny mistake could cause catastrophic failure.
Repair failure was acceptable; secondary damage to the machine was the real disaster.
Especially with something like a Magitech Knight—the ultimate fusion of nearly all known magic, alchemy, and magitech engineering.
As students running the hangars for credits and graduation requirements, they needed exposure to every model they could get.
And right now, the machine this freshman had brought was the academy’s very first built on the Radiant Sun Empire’s latest technology.
Its value was incalculable.
—Even many instructors had never touched one with their own hands!