After running back and forth all night, trailing after the ever-curious Ayla and slightly more talkative Lisanna, Mathias and Erik heard the first of their names called.

Jennifer was already called up and her statue earned her three-hundred gold. Despite showing well in Natalie's eyes, the price was on the lower end. However, she was ecstatic as she returned.

"... I-I can't believe it even sold...!"

She said as she saw Silan take the statue from the man's hands.

"And for our next lot, I'd like to ask Ayla Argentine to the stage!"

"Wha-?! Already!? So fast!"

She said as she, herself, ran very fast towards the stage. Not wanted to waste time, she just cast Air Step a few times - ensuring each released a golden radiance once stepped on to add to a crowd appeal - and she promptly made it the Headmaster.

"Quite an entrance! But, yes! Ayla Argentine was very, very close to placing third. And her stature, 'The Follower', was a personal favourite of Jore Gena, our resident aesthetic expert. It is of extraordinary quality, and I'd like to ask Ayla to describe it for us a little more."

"I worked really hard! I hope you all enjoy it!"

Ayla said simply.

The Headmaster laughed and shrugged it off. "Okay, with that being said, we'll commence the bidding at...-"

"Five-hundred."

Silan started it.

"..."

"Five-fifty."

"Six."

"Seven."

"Eight!"

"Nine!"

Silan verified the valuations he was given earlier, approximated the increase in demand if he stowed it and pushed his profit margin down a little more.

"One-thousand."

"Oh! We hit the thousand mark!" The Headmaster exclaimed. "Now, anyone?"

The others seemed to stiffen at the sudden comma appearing in their minds.

"Going once... going twice... and... sold! To the man in the-"

"Where is he?!" Mina shook off some guards and appeared.

"To the man in the lovely eye-glasses!"

"Coat, eye-glasses?! Where?!"

Mina was thankfully detoured around the crowd and the Headmaster let Silan in the crowd as Mina was chased back out looking for the coat - but also eyeglasses since it sounded suspicious for some reason.

Silan had neither.

"Yay!" Ayla hopped up and down on the stage, inciting a small laugh from the crowd. She ran down through the clear path where the buyers appeared to finalize the proceedings and returned just in time to shout, "try to beat that!"

"Of course I will!" Erik huffed.

"Okay! We'll be moving onto the next, 'Claude Fellstone', by Erik Huntis. Erik, please come to the stage.

Since he was almost forced to at this point, he copied Ayla's entrance, sending the dark winds to disperse as he kept moving through the air.

"Erik, welcome." The Headmaster turned to the audience as the demonic Claude Fellstone statue came into clear view. There were many excited murmurs, but the Headmaster calmed them down. "Erik, if you'll please tell us about the statue?"

"I worked harder on it than Ayla - and it was accepted completely by Claude Fellstone!"

A section of the crowd cheered and Erik thrust out his chest.

"Okay, okay. I believe we best get this started. I'll be starting the opening bid at one-hundred gold!"

"One-hundred!"

"Idiot, he's worth at least one-hundred and five!"

"Shut it! One-hundred and seven!"

"..."

The Headmaster kept his smile, but while there were two dozen people fighting over it aggressively, the denominations were trifling. After ten back-and-forths, it reached one-hundred and twenty.

There was a lull.

While they came from the best mercenary group in the country, their individual fiscal values were quite low, in comparison to many of the other guests.

Silan sighed and said, "one-fifty."

"...!"

All the mercenaries were trying to find the source, but the Headmaster allowed him to remain hidden once more.

"And it's sold for one-hundred and fifty gold!"

"What!?" Erik shouted but even Claude at the bar laughed at the scene. "No!"

Ayla was rolling on the floor in the back as he fell to his knees in front of more than a hundred people.

"And that commences this lot, Erik please return to your spot as we invite the next student to the stage: Wendi Aliel, the winner of the competition with her maiden work 'Memories'-"

"One-thousand!"

The Headmaster laughed and said, "please let Wendi come up fir-"

"Eleven-hundred!"

"Twelve-hundred!"

"Thirteen!"

Wendi didn't make it three steps before she stopped, utterly paralyzed at the ridiculous sums people were offering for her statue. Church supported her soundlessly while Erik finally staggered off the stage in disbelief.

"... Fifteen hundred," Silan said as he noticed the Headmaster gave up on finalizing Wendi's arrival."

Ayla snickered as she jumped to the stage, "come on! She's cute! Super cute! You can do more than that!"

Wendi blushed and hid her face but the crowd was frenzied again.

"Eighteen-hundred!"

"Ninteen!"

"Two!"

"Twenty-one!"

Silan scowled as it long-since passed the retail value of about eighteen-hundred. It may be the Magnus opus of the batch, but his merchant blood told him to stop. Yet, he felt compelled to for reasons he couldn't logically justify - even if he knew it was a poor idea. Some of the statues simply called out to him and his adherence to his valuations on some just completely failed him as he waited to see if another bid him up.

Ayla grinned mischievously at Wendi who was half-hiding her face and half-staring at Ayla.

"Going once,"

"Going twice,"

"And going thrice,"

"... And it's sold! The last three bidders come to the stage at your discretion. We'll be verifying payments then."

The Headmaster clapped to get the audience's attention. "This time I request that you start bidding after I invite the two to the-"

"One thousand!"

"The sculptures aren't even up yet!" The Headmaster countered.

"Eleven!"

"Damn it, just bring them out!"

The Headmaster's role was usurped by the crowd as explained the piece over the crowd's shouts.

"The twin works 'The Warrior' and 'The Dancer'-"

"Twelve!"

"Are produced by-"

"Twelve-fifty!"

"Lisanna O'Clare and-"

"Thirteen!"

"Mathias Vandiese. And represent-"

"Fourteen!"

"The competition's-"

"Fifteen!"

"Second-place finish-"

"Eighteen!" A larger leap than normal made the Headmaster grumble and just give up.

"Eighteen-fifty!"

"Two thousand!" Silan shouted.

"..."

No one spoke up.

It seemed their resources were tapped. He had ensured he had a lot of liquid capital for this event, but even he did not expect to find pieces of such value. It was quite an interesting school. This one was actually fairly priced.

"... And now you finally let me finish," the Headmaster laughed. "Okay, going once, going twice, and it's sold! Please ensure you finalize payment. We'll be waiting for just a moment to ensure that everything clears before we finalize the event."

The Headmaster waited a few minutes and Silan's cheques cleared without issue.

He already warned an escort company of a potential request to help him transport the works which now rested in a suitcase he brought out of his storage ring. Of course, it would theoretically be safe inside, but there are mana signatures that may interfere with the stasis stone's operations so it was a poor place to put a completed work whose entire worth was tied in the mana housed inside.

It was cheaper to hire guards.

Erik grumbled as he looked at each at his side that cleared over five-hundred gold in a single-night.

"... Ugh... I should've kept my original design..."

"But this way you got to spend time with Mathias' dad, right?" Wendi offered.

"That... is true. Right! He invited me to train anytime next week with him! That's easily worth five-hundred!"

Ayla grinned, "well, either way, I won on this one!"

Erik poked her honourable mention medal and pointed to his own. "And this?"

"It just means we're even!"

"Ha, so you say. The competition involved the placements, right?"

"... That...! But still! Lisanna, Wendi, Jennifer! Let's go celebrate in your room! Oh... right, you two come with us to grab the stuff!"

"Fine, fine. We'll go."

Mathias nodded and went along with the group back to his table for some reason.

"Mama Vandiese! We've got to get going since we have school tomorrow! Thanks for coming - and thanks for all your help before this!"

Ayla was the first to thank her, but soon the entire class joined in. It seemed no one went back early as they predicted that the final statues were would set up for the end.

"It's okay. I was just bothered as I remembered one of my clients telling me that they were ugly uniforms. Anyways, please feel free to visit my Wednesdays, Thurdays, and Fridays at night."

"Will do!"

Wendi ran towards a sleeping Ali, a tired Alexi, and the alert Alyssa and Almer and hugged each in turn. "Thank you all for coming! I'm so glad you could make it!"

"No! Problem! I... Ali, Happy! Ma, Pa, too!"

"Really?! I'm glad!"

Wendi gave them another hug and then begrudgingly left the family. Erik said goodbye to his parents and the other students did the same, with a few notable exceptions. Lisanna thankfully had no obligation as Alexander was sleeping on the table, passed out, but she did give Lain a brief wave.

Lain smiled back and the two went their separate ways.

"Okay, we won't hold you," Irina said with a laugh. "Now go on, I don't want to be blamed if you're late for class tomorrow."

"Okay!" Ayla ran back to her parents, hugged them, and ran to gather the crowd of students centred around Mathias' table. Looking at two in particular, Ayla poked each and said, "isn't this normally your time? You're water mages! It isn't that late!"

Hana and Alfred glanced at Ayla before giving an exhausted sigh. "You don't know."

"... It was... scary..."

"Yeah. Now I just want to sleep."

Since they were forced to cooperate on the threat of punishment, Hana did not lash out at Alfred - much. Most of their energy was spent trying to keep their mothers from fighting.

After a bit of coaxing, they managed to gather everyone up after they said their goodbyes to their parents. At the door, Mr. Shields was waiting patiently.

"... You all didn't completely screw this up. Congratulations. A few close calls, but no one will be punished - unless you're late for tomorrow."

"U-understood...!"

"In that case, you're dismissed," Mr. Shield said before quietly adding, "good job."

Most pretended to not hear the compliment as they were scared of retribution. Others simply didn't, but everyone hurried out the door all the same.

Erik and Mathias first stopped over his room while Lisanna, Jennifer, Ayla, and Wendi went to each room, changing, grabbing whatever they would need, before moving on to the next.

By the time they reached Lisanna's, Mathias' formal uniform was cleaned, neatly folded, and every single one of his furs were removed from the room.

All of them.

Since he couldn't help but have a few trust issues when it came to that.

A pair of casual clothes were missing, too, but that was the least important part.

And back at the venue, the Headmaster looked at Watsan who finished calculating the sum of all costs and proceeds from the auction and ticket sales.

"It appears we've made about a four-thousand gold profit. Considering the added expenses from rushed contracts, costs will likely decrease. As will future revenue. I estimate the next two to be profitable, but the last will likely be a deficit, assuming a similar level of skill."

The Headmaster laughed. "So long as we're not losing money overall, then it's not a bad thing. And the others can do better! The shares for our participation is a little much, considering it was largely accepted as volunteer work, so I'll request a portion, say, two thousand gold, to be allocated in a separate account for future... spectacles for the class."

"Understood. I'll make the preparations. And how would you like to disperse their income?"

"Set up bank accounts for them. It'll be much more convenient for them if we just take the opportunity to give them cards for accessing it later, at their own discretion. I believe a few have them already, but not many. It won't inconvenience them, if nothing else."

"Understood."

Were Watsan not being paid generously, he would have long since complained about the tasks he was forced to do that had regularly gone beyond his job description. Many beyond his technical authority. Which is why the Headmaster had to sign a lot of things: Watsan dealt with them, but he needed the final seal of approval.

However, even for Erik, who had the lowest auction price, he still received a sixth of the sum pooled together. Just by placing third, he won over a thousand gold, doubling Ayla's likely proceeds, with Mathias and Lisanna receiving the same amount since they were sharing it. Wendi was walking away from that day with over four-thousand gold.

If she wanted to, she could drop out and live a life relatively luxuriously for the rest of her days without running out of money.

It was for that reason that they needed the bank accounts since it seemed ludicrous to just give that much cash to a teenager.