"H-how much?!" Carl's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"What, you think that's too little?" Lynch narrowed his eyes. "In that case, let's add compensation for my emotional distress, my lost wages, the cost of this lunch, and your ransoms... Let's just round it up to a nice, even five hundred thousand."
"You... This is robbery!" one of the students couldn't help but shout.
"Robbery?" Lynch laughed. "No, these are war reparations. Of course, you could also choose not to pay..."
He pointed to the three-headed hellhound licking its fangs beside him. "Red Rabbit has had a good appetite lately. I think it would be more than happy to taste the souls of the Imperial Capital Academy's elite."
"We'll pay! We'll pay!" Carl was scared out of his wits, nodding his head furiously. "I... I have my family's gold card. I can pay Fifty Thousand Gold Coins."
As he spoke, Carl barked a few orders at the other students, a mix of begging and coercion, getting them to take out their money as well.
