Chapter 102: Stumbled into Heaven’s gates again

A thought hit Uriel like a brick.

Two brigades. Dozens of people. Core to periphery. Witch to Magical Girls. Top to bottom, every single member — except him. One man. And the only reason is that "Magical Boys" didn't fit Lumina's organizational branding.

The logic technically holds, but this is ridiculous.

He snapped his head up.

Wait.

He'd gotten so distracted by the Magical Girl chaos that he'd forgotten the actual important question.

He strode over to Galatina, tone sharper than when he'd been interrogating Lumina a moment ago.

"Mom. Why did we suddenly relocate all the way here? Did something happen?"

Galatina tilted her head, expression innocent.

"The lease ended. I brought all of little Uri's things over, too — didn't forget a single sock. I even paired them."

Uriel rolled his eyes. That answer was functionally useless.

"Thanks, Mom — but why did the lease end?"

"The academy arranged it." Galatina said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "The students are all on break now, so naturally they cleared the dorms."

Uriel pinched the bridge of his nose. His entire face scrunched.

The academy stopped using that building as a dorm.

That simple.

THAT'S IT?

The enemy's most devastating attack was summer vacation.

All that anxiety on the road back. He'd been bracing for Cult retaliation, or his mother's identity being blown wide open. Those idiots in the Knight Order couldn't interrogate their way out of a wet paper bag — expecting them to uncover anything genuinely dangerous was pure fantasy. He'd mentally rehearsed every worst-case scenario.

And the actual reason was that the school sent everyone home for the summer.

The Knight Order at least remembered to ask questions during interrogations. He'd just spent the entire trip interrogating himself.

His grimacing, forehead-clutching posture immediately caught Galatina's attention.

"What's wrong? Are you allergic to something?"

She leaned in close — very close — staring at his movements, genuine worry written all over her face.

Her hand was already rising, fingertips radiating faint warmth, aimed directly at his head.

"Did you touch a plant in the rainforest? Let me see —"

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine." Uriel leaned back, waving both hands frantically in front of himself. "Just scratching. Really. By the way — where's Little Tangerine?"

"In the rainforest." Galatina studied him for another moment, only lowering her hand once she was satisfied he was actually fine. Her tone carried the same matter-of-fact quality as before. "That's its home. Bringing it back here might make it uncomfortable."

Uriel nodded. He still had a belly full of questions about Little Tangerine — like when exactly his mother had met that cat, and what tier its Veteran Variant abilities actually fell under. But Lumina was still standing behind him, spine straight, hands folded in front, the picture of attentive readiness. Those questions could wait until he and his mother were alone.

"Does little Uri want to keep it? I can bring it back if you'd like." Galatina, watching him hesitate, offered unprompted.

"No no no, not necessary. Just asking." Uriel shook his head so hard it blurred.

He turned around, reassembled his composure, and faced Lumina again. Time to return to more pressing practical matters.

"You rented out this entire floor as the Brigade's operational base?"

"Yes." Lumina inclined her head slightly. "I acted on my own authority."

"It's a good location." Uriel scanned the opulent surroundings. "Luxurious. Prime district. But the upkeep can't be cheap. If you need funding, let me know. Or go directly to the Witch."

"Overhead and funding are not concerns. Please rest assured."

Uriel raised an eyebrow. Lumina's response had been too immediate. No hesitation, no consideration.

Something was off.

"What do you mean?" He took half a step forward, worried this girl might have learned some bad habits somewhere. "Are you rich? You didn't coerce the hotel owner into anything, did you?"

Lumina's expression shifted — an extremely subtle change, but visible. She'd been genuinely stumped by the question.

Her normally cool and decisive eyes showed a rare trace of confusion, as though she were struggling to decode the real intent behind his words. Her pointed ear gave a small twitch.

Uriel hadn't expected that reaction. It was a throwaway question. Why had it frozen her? He cleared his throat and tried a more concrete angle.

"How much does this floor cost per day?"

Lumina snapped back instantly. This time there was zero hesitation. "At market rate, exclusive rental of the entire floor runs approximately two to three hundred gold per night."

Uriel sucked in a breath. Two to three hundred gold per night. When he'd been living in the academy dorms, his entire monthly living expenses had been a fraction of that.

Which brought the question right back around — where did they get the confidence to say overhead wasn't a concern?

He decided to go more direct.

"How much operational funding do you currently have available?"

This time, Lumina didn't hesitate for even a second. She gave him a number immediately.

"Liquid funds available for direct use currently total ten million gold."

Uriel nodded, brain automatically converting.

Ten thousand. Two to three hundred per night. So that's about twenty or thirty days before they'd —

Hold on.

How much?

"TEN MILLION?!"

Uriel's composure shattered. The shout echoed across the hall.

The Magical Girls seated on the couches all looked up in unison. Even Fenria paused mid-chew on her jerky. Lumina repeated the figure without any change in expression. "Yes. Ten million gold."

Ten million gold.

That was two million more than his mother's entire Balance Treasure Chest.

What he felt wasn't excitement. It was horror. A few little girls who used to sit with their knees pulled to their chests in the old cottage, listening to him show off about business ideas — where did they get ten million gold?

He lunged forward and grabbed Lumina by both shoulders.

"Ten million!? You're saying ten million gold!? What exactly have you been doing!?"

Completely unhinged. The Scribe's dignity, the Observer's calm analytical demeanor — obliterated more thoroughly than the academy ruins in the face of ten million gold. But he couldn't care about that right now. He just needed a reasonable explanation from this green-haired elf.

These kids hadn't gone bad and turned to murder and robbery, had they? Or some kind of harmful alchemical operation —

Lumina's body went stiff the instant his hands clamped onto her shoulders.

This wasn't anger. This was disappointment. The Scribe was clearly disgusted that the Brigade had earned so little.

Something shifted behind her eyes — too fast to name, but there. Then, in the next second — thump — she dropped to one knee. Movement clean and efficient, voice carrying genuine self-reproach.

"This subordinate is at fault. Results have been inadequate. Ten million gold is indeed far too little, nowhere near sufficient to match the Brigade's scale."

"No no no no!" Uriel completely short-circuited and bent down to pull her up. "I'm not saying it's too little! Ten million is a lot — an absurd amount, do you understand!? Stand up first — I'm asking where you got this much money. What kind of business operations have you been running?"

Lumina let him help her to her feet, confusion still lingering on her face.

She straightened back into attention and began listing items one by one.

"Exactly according to the Scribe's original instructions, the Brigade established businesses in three areas. First: services. Second: blind-box sales. Third: real estate. We used our initial profits to acquire promising properties in major districts, including commercial zones in the capital and key locations in several major towns."

As Uriel listened, dead memories began their assault.

The old cottage. After dinner.

He'd probably been telling them some business case studies from isekai web novels he'd read, and in the heat of the moment had definitely said something like, "If you ever get startup capital, blind boxes print money — people love gambling on luck, and opening blind boxes is way more thrilling than taking normal guild quests." And something about "real estate is always a hard asset" and "service industries are the pillar of the future economy."

At the time, he'd just been showing off. Demonstrating how much he knew to three little girls staring at him with wide eyes. They'd ask questions, he'd answer. When he couldn't explain something clearly, he'd wave it off with "it's complicated, I'll tell you later."

And they'd actually gone and done it. And done it to this scale.

"Additionally." Lumina delivered another strike. "The Golden Iris Hotel itself is a Brigade asset. If the Scribe requires it, the entire building can be closed to outside guests at any time and repurposed entirely as a base of operations."

That strike made Uriel feel like his head was about to start glowing.

Then Galatina's voice came from behind him, carrying genuine admiration and a touch of goofy pride.

"So little Uri was already good at managing money back then. You've even earned more than Mom's savings now."