PAHKE 29

…So this wasn’t the right time either?

Then just how much longer was I supposed to wait?

I was letting out a quiet sigh, wondering if I should seriously start threatening him, when Wit flew over carrying a tomato as big as his own body.

“Kiik. Master, I got rid of the bad jewel?”

Maybe because the tomato was too heavy for him to support, Wit wobbled through the air before collapsing onto the table.

Even then, he kept the tomato lifted high enough that it wouldn’t touch the tabletop.

I quietly slipped the Fairy’s Tear into my skirt pocket and asked Wit,

“Isn’t carrying that around heavy?”

He could just use magic instead.

But Wit always carried the tomatoes with his own hands as if he were handling treasure.

“Master, Wit can easily carry something as light as a tomato!”

Why was he getting so defensive?

Was this some kind of pride issue?

I clicked my tongue and rephrased myself.

“What I mean is, you could use magic. Why go through all that trouble carrying it by hand?”

Wit carefully set the tomato down on the table.

Then he placed his tiny palm on top of it and looked at me.

“Kiik. When using magic, concentration can’t break, Master. If Wit finds an even cooler tomato and the magic suddenly breaks, that’d be terrible. Kikikik.”

No, a tomato was just a tomato. What was a “cool tomato” supposed to mean?

And even if he dropped it, he could just throw it away and eat another one. How was that a disaster…?

“Wit, why do you like tomatoes so much anyway?”

“Hm?”

What was this?

I’d only asked casually, but Wit suddenly brightened up.

“Master, are you curious about Wit? Kikikik.”

“……”

Why did I suddenly feel like I’d asked the wrong question?

“Do you like Wit now?”

“Huh?”

Where had that come from all of a sudden?

“Wit knows. Human interest is proof of affection.”

Affection…?

“You became interested because you like Wit now. Right? Right? Kiik.”

“That makes absolutely no sense….”

How did asking a few questions suddenly mean I liked him?

If that logic applied, then Adrielle, who’d been bombarding me with questions earlier, must also—

“Master likes Wit! Kik.”

Me…

“Master likes Wit too!”

This was Stockholm syndrome.

One hundred percent Stockholm syndrome.

We’d spent too much time together, and now the symptoms had clearly gotten worse.

“Since Master likes Wit, Wit will tell you something special. Kik.”

“…Huh?”

While I was seriously contemplating my deteriorating mental condition, Wit suddenly grabbed my cheeks and stared straight into my eyes.

“Wit likes growing plants. Pumpkins, lemons, apples, strawberries….”

“…Oh. You’ve grown all those?”

A demon whose side job was farming. That was unexpectedly fresh.

“No, Master.”

But then Wit suddenly drooped his shoulders sadly.

“All the plants Wit grew withered and died….”

“Of course they did. A demon touched them, after all.”

At Adrielle’s comment, Wit flew up in outrage.

“Eek…! You called me a demon twice, idiot! Idiot Adrielle!”

I stroked the wildly flailing Wit’s head and asked,

“Then what was different about the tomatoes?”

“That’s right, Master! The tiny sprout, only this big, kept growing and growing until it bore bright red tomatoes!”

“Like Sir Knight’s eyes?”

“Kiik. Red like Adrielle’s ey—!”

The corners of Wit’s smiling eyes suddenly shot upward.

“Master! Even if it’s you, I don’t like people insulting tomatoes!”

Tch.

I smacked my lips.

I’d been trying to use the opportunity to get Wit and Adrielle closer.

“Fine. I won’t say things like that anymore.”

Still, so Wit liked growing plants.

Maybe I should buy some sweet potato seedlings later. I heard sweet potatoes were relatively easy to grow.

I roughly wrapped things up and rolled the magic contract back up before tossing it into the corner.

“Anyway, since everyone’s gathered, I thought we should talk.”

“Master?”

“……?”

Adrielle and Wit looked at me at the same time.

I faced them seriously and continued.

“I think we need to share our current situation.”

“Has something serious happened?”

At Adrielle’s question, I pulled out the money pouch I’d prepared earlier.

Then I loosened the strings and showed them the inside.

“What do you think this is?”

“…Isn’t that the money you treasure more than your own life, my lady?”

“Correct. Money. And precious money that’s almost gone.”

I stared gloomily into the nearly empty pouch before lifting my head again.

Adrielle still looked like he didn’t understand what I was trying to say.

I tied the pouch shut again and spoke gravely.

“My guild is about to go bankrupt.”

“What do you mean…?”

“I’ll explain simply. Paying customers don’t come. Forget making money—the last guy caused a scene and even destroyed property, so we actually lost money instead.”

When I first opened the Red Thread Information Guild, I thought customers would swarm in like bees.

After all, it was an unexplored blue ocean market.

So I’d been pretty confident about this business…

Never in my dreams did I expect to learn the lesson that there’s always a reason nobody else is doing something.

“So I think it’s time we came up with countermeasures. What do you all think?”

Neither Wit nor Adrielle answered.

Well, Wit aside, Adrielle was probably dumbfounded.

Being kidnapped was unfair enough already, and now he had to worry about household finances too.

“You’re probably wondering why you have to deal with this when you’re the one who got kidnapped, Sir Knight….”

But what else could I do?

“The food going into your mouth doesn’t just magically come out of the ground.”

If he hated this so much, he should’ve signed earlier. Who told him to keep resisting?

I’d already prepared my response in case Adrielle reacted in disbelief and protested.

“……”

But surprisingly, he said nothing.

With his eyes lowered quietly, he almost looked like he was seriously considering my concerns.

“Master, should Wit go sell tomatoes?”

When I looked down, I met Wit’s moist eyes staring up at me.

The hand resting protectively on top of the tomato was trembling.

My nonexistent conscience suddenly felt painfully stabbed.

“No, it’s fine…. Tomatoes are precious to you, remember?”

“But Master is more precious to Wit than tomatoes. If Master wants it, Wit can go sell tomatoes!”

“Wit….”

My god.

That was… actually really touching.

“Because Master is my woman! Kikikik.”

“……”

Ah, right.

The potion.

That was why he was acting like this.

I quickly shoved my emotions back where they belonged.

“If there is anything I can do to help, I will do it.”

At that moment, Adrielle spoke to me in a serious voice.

I stared at him in disbelief.

“No, what exactly do you think I might order you to do that you can say something like that so easily?”

“I can do anything.”

Seriously now.

What if I sent him to work in a coal mine or something?

“No, I mean… sigh, never mind. More importantly, Sir Knight, do you happen to know about academies? Ah, don’t misunderstand, I’m not insulting you or anything….”

Did academies even exist in this novel world?

“I do.”

So they did exist.

My eyes sparkled.

“Really? Is there a particularly famous academy? You know, somewhere with lots of students?”

The reason my business had failed.

After thinking about it, the biggest problem was probably my marketing strategy.

And that was why I thought of academies.

College, dreams, and love….

Love!

A place overflowing with potential customers.

Wasn’t it the perfect place to advertise a ‘Secret Crush Love Consultation Center’?

“You’re a count’s daughter. Surely you’re not asking because you genuinely don’t know the Empire’s most famous academy….”

Oops.

At Adrielle’s muttering, I laughed awkwardly.

“Among the academies I know, there’s only one with a large student population.”

Adrielle’s gaze shifted toward me slightly.

I swallowed nervously and waited for him to continue.

“Vincen Academy.”

“Vincen… do you know where it is?”

Adrielle nodded.

He immediately wrote down Vincen’s location in detail on a piece of paper. I asked Wit to go scatter flyers around the place Adrielle had pointed out.

About two hours later, Wit returned empty-handed after leaving with an armful of flyers.

“Kiik. Master, Wit earned his meal today!”

“Good work, Wit.”

I had a good feeling about this.

This time, we were really going to make some money.

Bang—!

“Welco…!”

“……”

At least well over two meters tall.

A huge scar stretched across one cheek.

A giant man stood firmly in the doorway.

Not a customer.

A bear.

There was a bear in front of my house!

I barely managed to force out the breath stuck in my throat and tried to close the door.

“Is this the Red Thread Information Guild?”

The bear talks!

“Pleasure to meet you. I am Daniel, Commander of the Holy Knights.”

“…Who?”

“I said I am Daniel, Commander of the Holy Knights.”

…Oh, dear god.