"..You are not from this world, are you?"
Hans froze. His palm was still on the Soul Stone, his face was still wearing his best innocent smile, but inside his head a hundred alarm bells were ringing at once.
'Calm down, Hans.. Calm down.. Maybe it is just my imagination. Maybe I am hungry and the hunger makes me hear voices. Roland said starvation can cause hallucination..'
"I am not a hallucination, boy. I am older than the academy's wall, older than the academy's tuition fee, and definitely older than your Mr. Roland."
'It can read my mind?!'
"Of course I can, you are touching me. Do you think I am a decoration?"
'Actually yes, I thought you are just a big rock for dramatic effect..'
".."
For a moment the voice in his head was silent, and Hans could swear that the stone was offended.
"Three hundred years." said the voice finally, with a tone of an old man who just heard his own grandson say that he was boring. "Three hundred years I have been standing in this plaza, and every apprentice who touched me only asked one thing: how many lights? Nobody asked my name. Nobody said good morning. And now a small beggar thinks I am a decoration."
'I am not a beggar, I am a new rich guy.. with 6 gold, 40 silver and 69 bronze, minus 10 silver..'
"..You are counting your coins in front of an ancestor?"
'Sorry, sorry.. Habit.'
Hans took a deep breath, which was not easy when someone's mind was being read. Roland's knowledge told him something useful: when facing an unknown superior power, the first step was not to fight, not to run, but to negotiate. Not that he had any other choice either.
'Ok, Mr. Stone.. Sir.. Grandfather.. what do you want from me?'
"Grandfather? Hmm.. I like that. You have manners, at least compared to the last twenty generations." The voice sounded slightly happier. "Listen, boy. Your soul is strange. When the other children touch me, I see a cup, some big and some small, and I measure how fast the cup is filled. But yours.. yours is not a cup. It is a locked door. And behind the door, there is something that doesn't belong here."
'That is Roland..' Hans swallowed. 'A dead astronaut who was sucked into a black hole under Saturn..'
"I don't understand the words, but I can feel the weight of it." said the voice. "A lot of knowledge from a world that has no mana at all. Fascinating. Do you know how long it has been since I saw something fascinating? Since the academy moved my position near the donation box, all I see are the faces of crying parents.."
'Wow.. Even the stone is a victim of this academy..' thought Hans.
Outside, for the crowd in the plaza, time was moving normally.
So from their point of view, a small boy was standing in front of the Soul Stone with his hand on it, his eyes wide open, his mouth twitching, and not a single crack was lit. It had been a minute.
"Is he dead?" a participant whispered.
"No, he is just in shock because he got zero.. Poor kid. Red comprehension, zero mana, the heavens are cruel but also funny.."
"Magus Nemo, should we pull him out?" asked Erick, the senior apprentice, nervously.
"Wait.." Magus Nemo raised his hand. He had been a magus for forty years, and he had a feeling that touching the boy now would be a mistake. 'The Soul Stone never took this long for anyone.. Not even for the last Magus Supreme..'
In the back, the East Warrior Academy Headmaster was now holding a cup of tea which he did not remember bringing. 'Zero mana but the stone is trembling? Interesting.. Very interesting..'
Layla, on the other hand, was biting her thumb. 'Why am I worried about a stingy person? He owes me nothing.. wait, I owe him 10 silver.. Ah, that's why.'
"So here is my offer, boy." said the stone. "I will help you."
'Help me with what?'
"Think about it. If I lit seven cracks right now for you, those two old men outside will lock you in a laboratory by tonight and you will spend your whole life as a research frog."
'Oh no..' Hans really didn't think about it. 'Frog is not in my life plan.'
"If I lit nothing, you will be thrown out as a zero and you will lose your chance to study."
'That is also bad..'
"So I will show them something normal. Three lights. Average. Not too proud, not too poor. A quiet life for a small clever boy."
'Three lights.. That is a very reasonable offer, Grandfather. Thank you.' Hans was very relieved. But Roland's habit was awake and did not let him be too thankful. 'Wait. There is no free lunch in the universe. What is the price?'
"Hahaha.. Smart boy." the stone laughed, a strange echo inside Hans's head like a pebble thrown into a deep well. "The price is small. Once a week you will come to see me, and you will tell me stories."
'..Stories?'
"Gossip. News. What the apprentices say about the masters. What the masters say about the headmaster. What your Mr. Roland's world looks like.. All of it. I am bored, boy, so bored that I counted every crack in my body.. three million, four hundred twelve thousand and one."
Hans was silent. A mighty ancestral artifact, a treasure of the academy, was asking him to be a gossip delivery boy.
'Grandfather.. Do you have any hidden clause?'
"What is hidden clause?"
'Something like, I agree to tell you stories every week, and then one day you suddenly say that I must also tell you stories every day for the next one thousand years, all of them paid with my soul.'
"..You really are from a different world. In this world nobody is that suspicious."
'In my world a person who doesn't read the contract usually ends with a loan, a bad apartment, and a very bad marriage.'
"..I don't understand but I feel sad for you. No hidden clause. Once a week. Stories only. Deal?"
'Deal.' Hans nodded. 'But one more thing. If someone asks, you and me never met.'
"Of course. A stone does not talk to anyone." said the voice, sounding extremely proud of his own lie.
Hans nodded in his mind. 'Mr. Roland.. I think I just signed a contract with a rock.. and the terms are still better than the academy's.'
"Now keep your face straight, boy." whispered the stone. "They are looking at you. I will count to three.."
'Wait, count to three for what?'
"One.."