Ren's attention sharpened noticeably.
"Talk to me."
"I want an Array installed in my apartment. Same type. You set it up, I pay the labor fee, I provide all the materials." Asuna's expression was completely sincere. "Does that work?"
Ren thought through the logistics. "What's the going rate for that service?"
"Installation on a small residential Array usually starts around ten thousand Valis." She paused. "You might want to verify that — I only have a general sense of the numbers."
Ten thousand Valis.
For installing something he could build in a few hours. Without providing the materials.
He made absolutely no effort to keep the expression off his face. "That is genuinely an incredible amount of money."
Asuna didn't quite manage to hide her smile. "It's a specialized skill. Not many people have it."
"I'll research the exact rates tonight." He put that at the top of his mental priority list, displacing several things that had previously been urgent. "But yes. You have yourself an Array installer."
Money problem: at least partially solved. Timeline: soon.
Just as they'd settled the agreement, lights and voices arrived at the clearing — a patrol squad coming in with the systematic energy of a team that had been doing thorough sweeps. The squad leader looked at the scene, looked at Ren and Asuna, and did the math.
"You two kill these Goblins?"
"We came because of the Minotaur and found them here," Ren said.
The squad leader glanced at their uniforms — students, clearly. "Good work. Head home, both of you. Don't stay out."
They took the advice.
Passing the Minotaur's court on the way out, they saw the beast down and the squad already processing the site. Fast work.
"You live near here?" Ren asked as they cleared the park.
Asuna pointed toward a modern apartment complex that was just visible over the roofline. "That building."
He recognized it from his predecessor's memories. Premium complex. Well-maintained, good security, the kind of place that showed up in the higher bracket of local listings.
"We're heading different directions then. See you at school."
"See you," Asuna said, and they split at the corner.
Back in his apartment, Ren rinsed the Magic Stones and stored them carefully. Then he got his phone out and started researching.
Array Master rates. Material costs. Installation protocols. Available instructional texts on Array Magic theory.
The rates confirmed what Asuna had said. Installation fees started at ten thousand and went up fast with complexity and quality. A large commercial Array — the kind covering whole buildings — could run into the hundreds of thousands.
And the status of Array Masters is correspondingly high. He scrolled through several practitioner profiles. Years of training, formal certifications, waiting lists.
None of those barriers applied to him.
He found several comprehensive texts on Array Magic theory, downloaded them to his phone, activated the text-to-speech function, set it to triple speed, and propped the phone beside his pillow.
Let's see if I can learn by listening while I sleep.
He ran the sleep-replacement meditation Jin-sensei had taught them, let his breathing slow into a steady rhythm, and closed his eyes.
Morning.
He opened his eyes fully rested and fully loaded. The text-to-speech had run all night, and every word of it was sitting in his memory with the clear, organized quality of knowledge that had been properly absorbed rather than skimmed.
His understanding of Array Magic had advanced by a significant margin in eight hours of unconscious study.
Ren sat up, feeling unreasonably good about this.
It works.
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