บท 18: A Common Trope
After waiting outside the bank for 15 minutes, Leo became the first student to enter the bank that day.
"I'm here to access my bank account." Leo said in a confident manner.
The worker there looked at him and said, "Go ahead and press your hand against the scanner in front of you. We'll need to confirm your identity first."
"Huh?"
Leo's eyes widened with shock.
'My hand? Don't tell me they require fingerprints?! Damn! I didn't think it would come to this!' Leo cried inwardly.
"Looks like it won't be as easy as you thought, huh?" Lilith chuckled.
Leo glanced at her with narrowed eyes.
'This vampire ghost! She definitely knew about this beforehand, yet she didn't even bother warning me!'
"What's wrong?" The worker behind the desk asked Leo when he only stood there in silence.
"Y-You see, I have amnesia, so I don't remember how things work here."
"Amnesia? Then you must be Sword Emperor Leo. I have heard about you." The worker said with a smile.
And he continued, "In order to access your bank information and withdraw or deposit money, we must verify your identity even if we know your face. After all, we cannot just rely on a person's face in a world where people can disguise themselves with magic, right?"
"Huh? Such a magic spell exists?" Leo was speechless.
"Of course. Although they're quite rare, there are magic artifacts with the ability to change a person's appearance out there."
Leo suddenly recalled what happened with his stolen package and wondered if someone had accepted his package using his face.
"If they can change their appearance, won't that apply to their fingerprints and such?" Leo then asked.
"Haha… Of course not. There are no magic artifacts out there with such power and accuracy. The best they can do is change their face, voice, and their body. Things such as their fingerprints and their blood type cannot be altered."
"I see…"
Leo swallowed nervously.
'Since I am technically Leo, that means I should have the same fingerprints as the Leo of this world, right?' Leo thought to himself.
'What will happen if my fingerprints don't match? That would be problematic… However, they would be suspicious of me if I just turn around now…'
Under such a dilemma, Leo decided to just hope for the best and pressed his hand onto the scanner in front of him.
Leo could feel his heart throbbing like drums as he waited for the scanner to scan his fingerprints.
A moment later—
"Okay, I have confirmed your identity, Leo. You may now access your bank account." The worker said to him.
'I-It worked!' Leo cried out in relief inwardly.
Leo proceeded to take a look at his bank account.
"500,000 dollars?!" Leo was ecstatic when he saw the amount of digits in his bank account.
In his previous world, 500,000 dollars was enough to buy an entire house, and a pretty good one in some places!
"Wow… It's worse than I thought…"
However, Lilith appeared to be disappointed by the result.
And she continued, "That's barely enough to buy a normal D-Rank artifact…"
'I'm not going to buy any artifacts! I just need some money for clothes!' Leo responded to her inside his head.
Sometime later, Leo asked, "By the way, do you guys offer debit cards?"
"Yes, we do."
"Can they be used outside of the academy?"
"Of course. Would you like one?"
"Please." Leo nodded.
"Give me a minute."
The worker went away for a few minutes before returning with a red card.
"You'll have to set a new pin for that card. Insert that card in the slot beside the scanner and type your desired pin when it appears on the screen."
Leo followed the instructions.
"All done. You may now use that card as you see fit."
"Thank you!"
Leo left the bank shortly after with a blissful look on his face.
"You know, you're technically stealing a dead person's money with identity fraud?" Lilith reminded him.
"S-Shut up… It's not like I am going to spend it all. I am merely spending just enough to get some clothes."
"What are you going to do, get a job? Students are not allowed to have jobs in case you didn't know." Lilith said.
"I know. This was also the case back in my world. With that being said, students could earn money through exams in my old world. Meaning the better your test results, the more money you can receive. Does it work like that in this place as well?"
"Sort of. However, instead of tests, you'll get paid a fixed amount based on your school ranking."
"School ranking? How does that work?"
"It's quite simple, actually. You just have to fight, and if you defeat someone with a higher rank than you, you'll get to take that rank and push everyone below you back one rank."
"I figured it would be something like that. It's a magic school, after all." Leo sighed.
"By the way, what was Leo's rank before?"
"This might surprise you, but Leo was only ranked 69."
"Huh? I thought he was one of the strongest in the academy." Leo raised an eyebrow after hearing this information.
"He was, but you can only take someone's rank through official matches. If you win an unauthorized fight, you won't take their rank, and Leo was someone who mostly fought in unauthorized matches, meaning that his rank would rarely rise, not that he cared about it anyway. After all, he earned most of his money hunting monsters and vampires as an Adventurer."
"Adventurer? This kind of profession exists in this world, too?" Leo mumbled in surprise.
"Yes, and it's a very popular one at that since students are allowed to be Adventurers."
"Let me guess, there are also Adventurers' Guilds and such."
"You seem very knowledgeable in this aspect." Lilith said.
"Well… It's a very common trope in my world. They exist in almost every fantasy fiction in existence."
"Anyways, tell me more about the Adventurers in this world."
"Sure."
Lilith proceeded to explain to him about the Adventurers of this world while Leo went to get some breakfast before heading to the Training Center.
At nine, Leo met up with Miss Camille outside the Training Center.
"Why are you dressed like that? I rarely see you without your white coat." Leo asked Miss Camille, who was dressed casually, almost like she was going on a date.
"I didn't tell you? We'll be spending our time outside the academy today."
"You did not…" Leo sighed.
"Well now you know. Go change into something that's not your school uniform. I don't want people to recognize you," she then said.
"Unfortunately, I don't have any casual clothes. Besides my school uniforms and some workout clothes that I got for free, I don't have anything else. Some bastard stole my— the old Leo's stuff."
Miss Camille sighed, "Fine, let's go buy you some clothes. There's a shopping mall in the academy that we can go to."
"All right." Leo nodded.
There was also a shopping mall in his old world so he was quite familiar with it.
Sometime later, they arrived at the mall, but it looked nothing like the one in Leo's memories.
"Let's be quick with your shopping. We don't have unlimited time because we actually have an appointment with someone."
"I understand. I'll go grab something really quick."
"Wait. Do you even have any money?" Miss Camille suddenly asked him.
Leo smiled and said in a prideful voice, "Don't worry, I can pay for my own stuff."
"Aren't you embarrassed of saying that when it's not even your money?" Lilith suddenly said.
"Aren't you being awfully snarky today?" Leo mumbled in a low voice.
"You do remember that I cannot leave the school premise, right? That means I won't be able to be by your side!" She reminded him.
"Oh, right. But there's nothing I can do about that, and it's not like I can refuse Miss Camille, so you'll have to wait until I come back."
"You better tell me everything when you come back! Every last detail!" Lilith exclaimed.
"If I remember them, sure."
Sometime later, Leo entered the nearest clothing store he could find and quickly picked a plain black t-shirt as well as a pair of black sweatpants. After paying for them, he immediately changed into his new clothes in the changing room.
"Let's go now." Miss Camille said to him afterward.
"What about my school uniform?"
"Just throw it out. It's all worn out, and uniforms are free," she casually said.
"What? But it's the only thing I brought with me from my old world! There's no way I can throw it out!"
"How bothersome. Give them to me." Miss Camille gestured for them.
Leo handed them to her the next moment, and she proceeded to throw it inside her spatial storage.
"There. Let's go now or we'll really be late."
Leo nodded and followed Miss Camille to the school entrance.
Although teachers aren't required to sign out whenever they leave the school premises, Leo had to do so because he was still a student.
Once that was all done, Miss Camille took Leo to her personal car.
"You own the same car as the 'you' from my world." Leo said to her as he casually took a seat beside the driver's seat in a single smooth action, almost as though he's done this many times before.
Miss Camille narrowed her eyes at Leo for a brief moment, but she didn't say anything.
Once they were on the road, Leo asked, "So… Where are we going?"
"The Adventurers' Guild," she calmly responded.
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