17 Chapter 6: Financial Woes (1/2)
Magnus sat on the ledge of the sixth floor of the old Memorial building with his feet dangling off the edge and a bottle of cheap wine to the side. On the twelfth moon turn, fourteen thousand seven hundred fifty of the Kirin rebellion, Magnus turned ten years old or seasons as they like to call it here in this world.
So in recognition of his birthday, Magnus decided to give the kids a day off to just relax, which he too could do with and while at it, he can get back to his new past time, stargaze.
There is a reason why this land is called the Starry Mountains and no it is not simply because of the mountains jutting out of everything. It is also because of the stars which light up the sky and the aurora borealis that appear whenever their mood strikes.
To a young man who grew up in the city back on Earth, where not even a lick of light appeared in the polluted skies. Seeing this wonderful show of lights is a real joy and it never gets old.
Magnus brought the bottle of wine to his lips and took a swig; the stuff was really bad. That was cheap liquor to you.
Magnus had no idea why he was stupid enough to waste good money on it, but these days his money purse was quite full. So just like any man who had way too much money on hand, he bought useless, nonsensical stuff.
Magnus sighed, he could have done with only good company, but the kids would ask where he got this weird tradition of celebrating your birthday each year. These folk of Pandora have the sense of it all, the only 'birthday' that they celebrate is when you become an adult; which is 14 seasons old.
It would take some time to get used to this world. It does have its own problems and all but which world doesn't, huh? No matter what humans fantasize about there is no perfect utopia out there. We could always work toward it and we should since that is our sacred duty.
But what would life be like without its difficulties?
Even though the wine was shitty as hell, Magnus took another swig at it. He was in a good mood lately; money flowed into his purse, the kids in the orphanage were happy, well cloth, and fed, and all was of no worry in the world.
But ahh, what a rude awakening Magnus was in for.
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The summer season came to a close and the autumn season began. Magnus made his way to the Matron's office, today it the day he has that conversation with her.
Magnus politely knocked on her door, three times like a gentleman would, immediately the Matron's voice came through as if she already saw him standing on the other side. ”Come in, Magnus.”
Once the Matron said his name, the thought that was a witticism joke immediately became a suspicion, but Magnus stored it away for a later date and opened the door.
”How do you do, Matron,” Magnus said as he nodded his head to the old lady who was going over a parchment while she sat in a rocking chair.
”Good, good, go ahead and have a seat.” The Matron said as she pointed to her bed, without looking up from her parchment. It would seem like this place acted not only as her office but her bedroom too.
Magnus did as he was told since this was going to be a long conversation, so he better make himself comfortable.
Once Magnus was seated on the edge of the Matron's bed, she looked up and asked, ”I believe you came here to have that talk with me, huh?”
Magnus stared wide-eyed at the old woman, shock written all over his face, maybe the title he gave her was more correct than he would have ever imagined.
The Matron looked at Magus with a raised eyebrows and asked in her snappy tone, ”Weren't you raised better than that boy? Do you stare at everyone with your mouth hanging open?”
Magnus instantly shut his mouth feeling slightly abashed, he had to give it to the old witch, she could give anybody a whiplashing with her tongue, but it is always the truth she speaks.
Clearing his throat, Magnus got into the meat of things since by some divine foresight she already knew what it was. ”I wanted to ask how is our finance?”
The Matron nodded her head as if she were waiting for that exact same question, then without a single word she handed Magnus the parchment that was in her hands.
Magnus took it and silently read it over; when Magnus said the kids were raised well he meant it. Not only were they all taught how to read and write but they also learned their numbers, history, civics, art, and much more. It is thanks to the Matron that they learned so much more than the average commoner.
As Magnus read the parchment his eyebrows creased together in displeasure and his face took on a brooding look.
Finally, Magnus finished reading the parchment and gave it back to the Matron, ”So,” Magnus started off with. ”The orphanage operating cost is 470 gold lions but we only get 400 from the Guild, where does the rest come from?”
”From the money, we saved up.” The Matron answered back, ”We were open for 18 seasons and we used to get 500 gold lions from the Guild four seasons back. So we saved up 420 gold lions but we had to dig in for 2 years, in the third year we used 30 gold lion, and in the fourth year we used none. Now we have 250 gold lions saved up.”
Magnus opened his mouth to voice his next question but the Matron got to it ”If you are wondering how we were able to cover the cost in the 3rd and 4th seasons, it was because you kids helped out a lot last season; you brought in a total of 32 gold lions. For the rest, I took on certain… jobs.”
At that answer, Magnus simply raised his eyebrows but did not push for an answer since in his opinion everyone deserves their own privacy and secrets. Also isn't Magnus carrying his own secrets, like ones about another world?
”Well you answered all my questions though I do have one more and I do not want to sound rude or suspicious of you and the Mothers. But…”
”You want to know where the money you kids donated went, huh?” The Matron asked or more like stated.
Magnus nodded his head, feeling like a douche for even asking that question. Still though, it was an unsolved mystery and Magnus hates nothing more than an unsolved problem. ”Also,” Magnus added on a lighter note, ”can you read minds because I am seriously getting the vibe that you are reading my mind.”
”To answer your silly question, no I can not read minds.” Then the Matron paused as she looked Magnus head-on with an eerie grin. ”But I do have other abilities.”
Magnus slightly felt uncomfortable under that grin, this old woman is getting more and more mysterious by the day.
”Moving on to your other question the answer is simple; the money that you brats collected went back into all of you.”
”Whaaat?!”
”Do you think that the operating cost covers treats, toys, clothes, learning material, and et cetera? You did help a lot when you brought clothes, toys, and treats but the 42 gold lions that you brought in we had to use 17 to cover other necessities.”
The young mech builder thought back to the parchment; it only covered the rent, food, and other small thing but not the things that the Mtron listed. Man, who knew that running an orphanage was so costly.
”Still though we are doing pretty good,” Magnus said as he adopted a positive tone. Even though things were not as good as he had hoped, they were still making a profit here and they will be able to carry out Magnus's crazy plan.
”Even though we have to cover 70 gold lion by ourselves and the hidden cost as well. We will be making 170 gold lions each season, you make what- 50 goldish and us kids are making 120ish gold lions.”
The Matron paused Magnus right there, she rubbed her forehead in frustration and said, ”That is good and all boy, but there is one piece of news that I did not tell you.”
Immediately Magnus did not like the sound of that but he did not interpret the Matron and let her continued. ”The Guild made another cut this season,” the way that she said it, in a defeated tone made Magnus blood boil. It was like she just declared that the orphanage's closure was written in stone.
Magnus did not know who he should direct his anger to was it the Matron for simply giving up like that or was it the Guild for cutting our funds, maybe it was this fucking cosmos that is out to get him.
”The inspector will be coming any day now just to tell us that.” The Matron continued with but Magnus wasn't listening anymore, his world just shattered right now. All the hard work he put in, all the plans he made, everything was now null and void.
”How much is the cut,” Magnus directly asked, cutting off the Matron rambling.
”Another 100 gold lions,” the Matron responded, ”now we will be getting 300 gold lions.”