Harem System novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: Clause Nine
The Gate steps were packed from the barrier to the street.
The whole queue had stayed to watch, and behind them stood half the city.
A table had been set at the top of the steps with a Registry banner over it, and the dry inspector sat at the center with his clipboard.
Ardith stood at his right hand in her gold-trimmed coat.
She smiled as Nils climbed the steps with Ruenna on one side and Liriel on the other.
"Mr. Halvorsen," the inspector said. "You entered the Trial Gate's third floor without a stamp."
"The door opened for me."
"And you opened a core in the heart-stone."
"I did."
"The Registry has a rule on this." The inspector turned a page. "An Earth man who opens a core must be registered under a sponsoring guild within one day. The sponsor is the guild of his first pairing."
Nils kept his face still.
"My first pairing is Veyra Solenne."
"Of the Mourne Guild," Ardith said gently.
A murmur ran down the steps.
"The Mourne Guild holds your pairing fee in trust," she went on. "It holds your first pairing's contract. It is therefore your sponsor. The rule is old, Mr. Halvorsen, and I did not write it."
"You wrote the paperwork that hid the risk sheet."
"I wrote nothing of the kind."
The inspector coughed.
"That is a separate matter. The question today is the sponsorship."
Nils looked at the crowd.
He saw the green-and-black coats scattered through it, more than forty of them, standing in a loose line along the lower steps.
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