The big announcement

 The morning after the celebration, Hugo found himself laying in bed.

He had to slowly soak in the profoundness of such a statement, lest his entire worldview collapse. It was one of life’s greatest mysteries—how a person can go to bed at night, and wake up in bed come morning.

When faced with such a dilemma, how could he not dedicate all his mental faculties to analysing it?

Poke

When you are laying in bed it means you’re not moving. Meaning, since neither the bed nor the house it’s located in has moved, he’s stayed in place, still in bed.

Poke

When someone is sleeping, they are resting, and resting is an action. An action takes time to complete, which is what resting is, meaning resting takes time.

Poke

The passage of time takes time, and the changing of time also takes time, which is something that resting also requires. But the expenditure of time happens to everything at once, meaning, because he has rested, time has changed from yesterday night to today morning.

Poke

He may have just found the thesis of his statement.

Sleeping is resting, which is an action, and an action takes time. Time is spent to both sleep and to change the time of day, meaning the sun has risen, because the time of day has changed. In this passage of time, he’s not made the action of moving anywhere, nor has his bed or house.

Poke

Meaning, in conclusion, he’s still laying in bed, no different from yesterday night.

“How long are you going to pretend to be asleep? The merchant is still waiting for you downstairs.” Ellyn spoke in a deadpan tone, giving Hugo one more poke for good measure.

“As long as it takes for him to leave. Now quiet, dear sister, I’m contemplating something very important, critical to my continued survival.”

Ellyn poked him on the cheek once again, though Hugo remained firmly planted in bed— eyes closed, back turned to his sister.

“Are you not hungry? It's almost twelve at this point.”

Ah, it appears as though his previous assessment was incorrect. Twas not morning, but rather noon. Very interesting, he’ll have to rethink his entire thesis. When you are laying in bed—

Ellyn sighed as she stood. “You’re no different from dad when it comes down to it, both of you are such dramatists.”

Ignoring that scathing remark, Hugo continued to contemplate. His sister left the room without a word more. That’s one distraction taken care of, all that remained between him and enlightenment was now the emptiness in his stomach.

But one must triumph over material concerns if they wish to walk their path unbending. Hunger is to be ignored.

Sleeping is resting—

Ellyn walked back into the room. “He left, said he had something to do out near Thorn.”

Hugo promptly rolled out of bed,falling to the ground with a small thud before standing up. “Good morning dear sister!”

Ignoring the raised eyebrow on his sister’s face, Hugo marched out of his room with a small pep in his step…

“Good afternoon my boy! I hope the land of dreams has treated you well?”

…Straight into the face of Orin.

Hmm.

“It was quite a surprise when you ran off yesterday evening, you missed the lightshow!”

Hmmm.

“It was quite the beautiful thing, a novice mage from the western academy organized it.”

Hmmmmm.

“All bright lights and loud sounds it was! Anyways, about the whole academy thing.”

This was quite the predicament.

In spite of his best efforts, Hugo found himself in the kitchen nibbling on a slice of bread, four others sitting around him.

“Tis a good day to see you, Orin. I heard your venture in Thorn has resulted in a most glorious victory!” Though his father usually didn’t take up his theatrical tone when around strangers, the two weeks they spent preparing in Belan was apparently enough for the two to become well acquainted, especially so since Orin also enjoyed his overdramatisation.

“Indeed Rucio. The economic winds in Avelin blew strongly in my favor. A few of the guilds tried to form competition, though that mattered little when I had already driven up the price of the raw materials.” Orin slapped Hugo on the back with a jolly laugh.

“And of course, young Hugo here contributed greatly to our success!”

Hugo began to nibble his bread just a little harder. “I just wrote down some numbers…”

“Managed a fifth of our stores he did!” Each word was louder than the last, soon reaching ears outside the cabin.

“I just threw around some gold and that solved most problems…” His words were barely above a whisper at this point.

“He even invented a new method of production! We nearly doubled our output as a result!” The man began to repeatedly slap him on the back, as though he was forcing the praise into his body.

Hugo shrank in on himself. “Bram did most of the heavy lifting…”

Ellyn suddenly drove an elbow into his side, a strained smile clearly visible.

“Just accept the praise you fool. Why are you even making excuses to deflect compliments?!” She whispered, audible only to him.

“T-Thank you, mister Orin.” He finally said, which seemed to satisfy the merchant.

His mother chuckled softly. “I’m glad Hugo was able to exceed your expectations. Though I must wonder, why have you come all the way here today? I can’t imagine you have too much free time on your hands with your rapidly expanding business.”

Hugo nearly sighed in relief as the conversation shifted to another topic, having almost forgotten why he was hiding in the first place. Almost…

“Yes, let us get to the point shall we?” Orin cleared his throat, taking a moment to calm his barely held back amusement.

The man’s face suddenly turned serious.

“I wish to enroll Hugo in the Avelin academy, tuition fully funded.”

It was dead silent for a moment, shock appearing upon the face of everyone present. Hugo could only grimace and brace for impact.

“...”

Unexpectedly, there was no yell of shock or disbelief, nor were there cheering. Rather, Rucio narrowed his eyes at Orin with a stone serious expression.

“Forgive my rudeness, but you must understand such an offer is highly generous. It’s difficult to believe there would be no strings attached.”

Orin stared back for a few moments before shrugging. “Of course, your suspicions are valid. During this period he will continue to work under me with his usual wages. The reason I’m making this offer is more due to happenstance than anything. I have a bit of backroom deal in the makings with the headmaster of the academy, and he offered to rig the newly created scholarship program to pick someone of my choosing as a sign of good faith.”

He dug through his satchel for a few moments before taking out a parchment.

“All perfectly legal of course, just a little loop hole in the law. You can take a look right here if you wish.” His mother was the one to take the piece of paper, carefully looking it over for the next minute or so. Everyone at the table stared expectantly at her.

“...I see no sign of falsehood, there’s even the Avelin seal here.” She finally said.

All hell suddenly broke loose.

Over a dozen people cheered, flooding into their house at the heat of the moment. Fascinated by the arrival of the newly successful merchant, it appeared as though many of the villagers had been listening in.

“I always knew you could do it—” “Imagine that! Our Hugo among the aristocratic children—” “ “That’s incredible Hugo—” “He’s certainly the son of our talented duo alright—” “I always knew something was special about him—”

They all talked over each other as they surrounded him, patting him on the back and making talks of holding a celebration.

He knew all of them by name, he’s known them his entire life. Yet even then, he couldn’t stop the discomfort that quickly took root in his heart.

He suddenly stood up. “P-please give me a moment.” He struggled out weakly before rushing off, twenty pairs of eyes tearing into his back, piercing his soul.

In spite of being surrounded by people cheering for him, he’s never felt more alienated in his life.