I Have No Intention Of Training The Male Leads - Chapter 4 Part 2

04. The Secret Shop (2)

Translated by: ???

“Proof? I have proof. You would have given me nine grams, and in your sleeves, you have a one-gram stash. Aren’t you thinking, ‘I’m going to end this deal with a one-gram stash in my sleeves’, isn’t that right?”

“You’re writing a screenplay, you crazy brat ……!”

The wizard snarled, twisting to free her arm and baring her teeth but that proved impossible. That wasn’t the end of her sharp words.

Eve let out a contrived huff, and spat out a bandit-like cackle. The air rapidly turned strained. Eve and the wizard glared at each other, exchanging dagger-like words.

“Don’t move, or I’ll blow your hair off. Come on!”

“Wait, do you really need to see blood like that?”

“Didn’t you ever learn that if you get caught cheating, you will see blood?”

“Fine. I’ll bet you my life that I didn’t steal your Isolde’s Tears. If I get caught, I can go to hell.”

“You fucking asshole, where do you sell drugs?”

“Fuck, you’re a noble lady, why do you keep on cursing, are you a slut?”

Just like in the game, she had a vague idea of who she was. Eve felt herself laughing out loud at the situation, which she had seen dozens of times on the small screen, even without making it up.

The conversation between the two fair-faced women was very crude and undignified.

“You’re trying to take all my money, so I’m going to take all your hair.”

“Yeah, flip it, flip it, flip it!”

“Are you ready? Let’s see, I’m about to check it out.”

Eve hummed a tune that wasn’t part of the optional dialog but sounded very familiar, and without hesitation, she turned the sleeve of the wizard’s robe inside out. The inside of the sleeves was so clean that not a speck of dust could be seen.

“If you’re not sure, don’t make a bet. Didn’t you learn that?”

“…… it is a fake!”

That was the end of the optional sentences. To finish the job, Eve snatched the wizard’s opposite wrist like a lightning bolt, and then pulled down the sleeves of her other robe. A handful of tiny flower petals with five layers of pale, white petals fell out. The wizard’s face quickly turned pensive. Eve glared at Octavia with a sharp, fierce gaze that could have killed a man or two, and one corner of her mouth twitched into a smirk.

“I’m going to have to take a piece of you, aren’t I?”

Hik! And the young wizard let out a squeak of horror.

?

“Write it down straight, I, Octavia Crenou, do hereby transfer the rights of my body to Eve Therouanne.”

“Heok……. Can’t you just let me off the hook?”

“Hahaha. Damn, who says you can mess with customers’ stuff? Ugh, get on your knees!”

“Hiing…..”

“Ah, your hands are not moving. You think I’m being cheap, huh? Let’s just make a good deal. It’s not like I’m going to kick you out naked. I’m just saying, after running the store as well as you have, is it so difficult to ask you to do me a favor once in a while?”

“Heok…… heok…….”

“I know you’re pretending to cry right now, so just shut up and finish signing the waiver.”

“Huheok……. I’m calling the guards.”

“Yeah? Then I’ll report you for illegal business. You’re an unregistered business that’s not registered with the Central Merchants Association, right? I know all about it. Will you do me a favor or close your business for good?”

“Shi–.”

“Wow, I got the store for free. I’m so lucky.”

Octavia, who was feigning sobs, looked at Eve, who was humming with excitement, as if she were all that, but Eve gave Octavia a couple of affectionate pats on the back of the head, and then let her go back to writing her waiver in black and white.

“Oh, and that. Do that.”

“What?”

“That. That……. What’s that? Ah, the Wizard’s Promise.”

“No! Lady! Master! Ma’am! Please, not that one!”

“Do you promise, or do you want to die now?”

“Uhhhhhhh! My life as a wizard is over……! Please, just this once…….”

“Okay, so are you going to do it or are you going to die? Just so you know, I can send you to the other side with a snap of my fingers. Don’t you realize how fragile the human body is? A small hole in the skull is enough to get you on an express train to the netherworld. Even for a wizard like you, who hasn’t done much in the way of physical training, it’s ridiculous.”

“Huhu……. Hah…… I’ll do it…….”

‘A wizard’s promise was literally an oath that a wizard took with their mana. Far from being a simple process, it was a form of restraint that, if broken, carried with it the heavy restriction of never being able to handle mana again.’

Octavia hadn’t forgotten the dull bruise on her wrist from the young lady’s grip. Eve nodded, still watching the wizard sulk in frustration, but she had made a deal.

“In exchange, I’ll give you a time limit. Two years, no more, no less, just two years, and I will set you free.”

“Two years……?”

“Yes. Until the year I turn twenty-two. Of course, I’ll give you a salary for those two years, but after that, you’re on your own.”

“Uh……. Two years……. Okay……, I’ll think of it as enlisting in the army!”

“Good idea! Octavia, you’re smart!”

Octavia gave in to Eve’s coaxing and readily accepted two years of servitude. Unaware of Eve’s tactics of offering the worst and then the next best, the wizard picked up her wand with a determined look on her face.

Raising the wand to her eye, Octavia slowly opened her mana to create a circle. A wizard’s circle was a sort of indicator of the range of mana manipulation she could handle.

A red, round ball of light slowly rose from the ground, enveloping Eve and Octavia in an instant. Octavia’s flame-red hair fluttered in the air, resembling flames, in a room where there was no sign of wind.

“For the next two years, I, Octavia Crenou of Sacherdos, servant of Manus Regina, will subordinate Sacherdos’ freedom to Eve Therouanne. We ask for your prompt processing of the payment.”

The wizard’s words were less mystical and more stiff, like an office worker giving a report to her superiors. It wasn’t until Octavia’s voice trailed off that a red geometric pattern appeared on the backs of Eve’s and Octavia’s hands. It faded into their skin as if it were a necessary part of the process.

“Wow, I’ve never seen an appointment processed so quickly, my god!”

Octavia snorted in excitement, looking like she hadn’t been so happy in years, as she drained her mana and retracted the circle that bound them both.

“Even Callisto Langrada, the so-called bastard son of Manus Regina, took more than twenty minutes for his appointment to be acknowledged, and even that is a huge deal at the academy!”

“I see you’re sitting down to report. Anyway, we’re done, right? Give me the waiver. I’ll be back sooner or later, but in the meantime, clean up the shop. What is this? This is not even a pigsty, but I’m kicking up dust with every step I take.”

“Ehehehe…….”

“Don’t laugh. What is it……. Don’t you have telepathy abilities or something? Something to communicate with, other than a phone?”

“Heck, how did you know? I just invented a brand new one yesterday!”

Smirking smugly, Octavia suddenly ducked into the doorway to the basement behind the counter, but it didn’t take her long to pop up from the floor again. Eager to show off her newest gadget, her eyes sparkled as she showed Eve what she had in her hand.

“Voila, it’s a Mark 1 Mage Engineering Machine for Long Distance Non-Face-to-Face Two-Way Communication!”

It was a cell phone.

One of those button-pushing flip phones that Joo-young had seen when she was a teenager.

Eve quickly snatched the long-distance machine from Octavia’s hand and opened the folding phone. It was a folding phone, with a square screen at the top and twelve tiny buttons at the bottom.

“Two-way means there’s another one in each pair, right?”

“Exactly! Each machine is designed to be a pair, so that by entering a certain password, you can establish a communication link with the paired machine. Since the two machines are directly connected, there’s no need to pass through a centralized communications station, so there’s no fear of eavesdropping! I’ve been experimenting, and I can get from the end of East Plumen to the end of West Plumen with no problem, and by my calculations, it can reach from the capital to the northern borderlands.”

“Hmm……. That’s not bad. But do we really need to connect the machines in pairs? Instead, why not give each machine a unique number and let them communicate by simply typing in that unique number?”

“……Oh my God, you’re a genius!”

Octavia looked shocked, as if she hadn’t imagined it, but then her eyes widened and she lit up.

Eve ignored her admiration, thinking to herself that she had only suggested turning the long-distance machine into a phone…… and slipped the flip phone into the pocket on her dress.