You continue to lie lazily on your bed. But after a while your solitude is interrupted...

After half an hour, your lazy thoughts are interrupted. You hear the sound of a door opening. A skinny guy of average height quickly runs into the room, wearing an ordinary dark blue student mantle (you are wearing the same clothes). Without getting out of bed, you look towards this guy. Skinny build, narrow shoulders, a sloppy mop of blond hair on his head, grayish eyes, light pearl skin, a weakly defined small chin. This is your roommate Alfred.

Alfred looks excited and gesticulates emotionally.

He hurriedly tells you: “Dude! I managed to negotiate a discount with this guy! He agrees to sell us this book for just ten gold coins!”

You whistle in surprise and say, “Are you saying “just”? Ten gold coins is a lot of money! What was the original price?

Alfred sheepishly replies: “Thirty gold coins...”

You say irritably: “This is an unrealistically huge amount of money... Ordinary Academy students have no chance of getting that kind of money... Even ten gold coins is too much...”

Alfred timidly says: “This guy said that the book is worth much more... We can resell the book after reading it... Besides, you are not an ordinary Academy student, Jorin... Your adoptive father is the dean of our faculty. I'm sure you have the necessary capabilities. Come on, Jorin! I only need eight gold coins from you! I was able to save two coins myself... We will get this book and read it, we can learn unique spells! We will become cooler than any Academy student!”

Alfred's persuasion and his flattery towards you had quite a significant impact on your perception of the situation. You really wanted the opportunity to do something great. You wanted to interrupt the tedious routine of boring studying. The desire to acquire abilities that will distinguish your person from the crowd of ordinary persons has long been brewing in your mind. Perhaps purchasing and studying this book will be the beginning of your rapid development as a master of the magical arts.

You said, “Okay. I agree. I will go with you to this guy and give him my share of the money. Eight gold coins."

Alfred let out a cry of joy and jumped with excess energy.

He then continued to say, “I have agreed that we will hand over the money tomorrow. Early morning. Immediately after handing over the money, this guy will give us the book. But there is a small nuance..."

You ask, “What do you mean, Alfred?"

Your roommate replies: “Unfortunately, we will have to miss the lecture on the discipline “Fundamentals of Alchemical Art” tomorrow... Otherwise, we will not have time to meet this guy near the back entrance to the Academy library...”

You're not too upset about having to skip this lecture. The teacher of the course “Fundamentals of Alchemical Art” is an old, grumpy woman named Clotilde Letourier. You remember her long hours of tedious stories about the properties of various substances and plants. Many formulas that help calculate the effect of magical influence on substances of different types... Many tables of types of organic and inorganic substances... Various types of energy effects on substances... Forms of the state of substances... Just remembering lectures on the discipline “Fundamentals of Alchemical Art” makes you feel a little nauseous.

Clotilde Letourier was an unpleasant teacher for students. She received the offensive nickname Warty Toad from the students. This is due not only to the ugly appearance of the old woman Clotilde, but also to the properties of her character and to the manner of her teaching. A common joke among students was that every hour of attendance at Clotilde's lectures was equivalent to every second that a fly touched the tongue of a toad. After a certain maximum contact time, the fly will be eaten, will be digested in the toad's stomach and will simply become the toad's shit. The same was true for the well-being of many students after Clotilde’s lectures – the students felt like exhausted and amorphous pieces of toad shit.

So you responded to Alfred, “It’s okay. I don't mind skipping Warty Toad's lecture. Early tomorrow morning you and I will go to meet that guy. Now let's go to bed. We need to get a good night’s sleep so we can get up as early as possible tomorrow...”

Alfred nods and begins to get ready for bed.

An hour and a half later, you are both lying in bed. The lamps in the room are turned off. You are trying to sleep.

Suddenly, you hear a loud sound. The wooden door hit the wall. Someone opened the door with too much ****. This person did not turn on the light in the room. Judging by the sounds, this guy immediately fell onto the third bed in the room.

Half an hour later you hear the powerful snoring that this guy makes.

You do not need to closely examine this person to understand who it is. Judging by the smell of **** and sloppy behavior, this is your second roommate. This is Patrick.

You don't have the slightest desire to wake him up and ask him where he's been.

So you try to fall asleep again. An hour later you succeed.