Chapter 9

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-Garan no Dou

3rd POV*

Aozaki Touko is handling her daily job answering calls from various clients. The workload has been piling lately that she started thinking of hiring someone to help her with it. 

"Sigh, another failure job huh?" Touko threw a file to the trash can while lighting a cigarette. Although this life is boring and monotonous, Touko love it. There is no greater joy than to be away from those maniacs who are searching for the truth. 

She used to have the same thoughts as the others but eventually stopped miday after knowing the futility of it. She has a more rational mind than normal magus making her unique, in her thoughts, pursuing something impossible is futile. She would rather spend her days improving her skills than to search for the meaningless.

Touko stared at the ceiling with blank expression, she started contemplating whether she should take another job to compensate the loss of the other one. Her magecraft eats a lot of money so she usually handles many job at once. 

She was about to take some files when the telephone suddenly rang. Touko grabbed it and placed the thing on her ears, "Garan no Dou, Aozaki Touko. How can I help you?" She asked puffing the smoke. She doesn't have any expectation in this call.

"Thank god it is really Aozaki Touko.." Touko heard a murmur from the other side making her confuse. "Were you perhaps searching for me? What can I help?" Touko asked but she already raised her guard up. She has been chased a lot in the past so it is normal for her to be on guard.

"Yes, I was searching for you. There is something I want you to see and if you are interested I want to initiate a trade or maybe we can even have a business transaction" she heard the other person speaking as it grabbed her attention. "Business? Can I ask what you wanted to show me?" Touko asked. She need to know whether this is a trap or not.

"I guess you do not trust me huh? Then I'll let you in on one information. I got your number from Ryougi Family. I am currently the lover of their heires-" Touko heard the last part being muffled as the sound of knife slashing was heard on phone. Touko was surprised by the information he released.

She shook her head and regained her calm, "Is that true? If so then I must take this seriously then" she having a small smile on her face. "Then can we meet?" the other person inquired which Touko did not respond as she was checking her schedule.

"Then let's meet later, it is the only time I am free" Touko said, she gave him information about the meeting place before hangin up the telephone. "Fuuh, Ryougi family huh? Its been a long time since I heard that name. I wonder what surprise they can give me" Touko muttered.

She arranged the files as she prepared herself. No matter how big the name Ryougi is, there is no reason for her not to be prepared. What if it is a trap and she was just lured in. However Touko's experience is telling her that there is no such thing in this transaction. Well, preparing for the worst won't hurt.

???

Lawrence smiled when he saw that everything went well. "How is it?" Shiki asked while eating breakfast on the table. She already treated this house as her own. "It went well I guess? We will be having a meeting later, will you come with me?" Lawrence asked Shiki taking a seat for himself.

Bea and Fujino also partake in the breafast giving a cozy feeling in the room. Shiki didn't immediately answer his question as she was contemplating whether to accept it or not. "Then its decided" Lawrence ignored her thoughts and decided for himself.

"Ha? Did I give you my permission?" she snorted at him. "Come on, its not like you have anything to do anyway. Just humor me at this one, I'll make sure its worth it" Lawrence said smiling at her. Shiki stared at him for a few seconds before responding, "Do whatever you want.." 

Lawrence grinned hearing that, it was her own unique way of saying I agree. They finished breakfast as Lawrence made his way to his room. He was followed by Shiki but he didn't mind it. He already considered her as his so there is no problem in showing her his items. 

And from what Lawrence know about Shiki, she is not the type to be greedy about this things, in the anime she is nonchalant about everything except for the main character. Though she won't reject it if she is given something nice.

They entered the room which was filled with various items laying on the ground. Shiki twitched her eyebrows seeing how messy the room was, visibly different from hers who only got a bed and refrigator on it. Shiki walked towards a chest and opened it, she saw many mango placed on it as she took one.

"Is this edible?" She asked gesturing at the mango. "Hm? Yeah, that's actually delicious" Lawrence just shrugged it off as he has more than thousands of that thing on the house. Shiki grabbed her knife and tried peeeling the mango only for it to fail. She can't even make a scratch on the skin. 

She deadpanned at Lawrence thinking he is just messing with her. "Sigh, don't peel it. Try taking a bite. The skin is also edible" he sighed before teaching her the right way to eat it. Shiki followed his instructions and directly took a bite on the mango. The juicy flavor instantly exploded on her mouth disrupting her taste.

It was so delicious that even hundred dollars mango can't be compared to it. Shiki who has the tongue of the rich was stunned by how flavorful the mango was, it was out of the world experience for her. Though what took most of her attention was her energy being replenished.

"Was that supposed to be magical mango?" She asked staring at her hands, without even knowing it she already devoured the whole thing. "Yeah, it instantly fill up the prana reserves of any magus. You could say it is a national treasure" Lawrence explained without care. 

Shiki also just nodded her head not really that bothered by it. She doesn't care about the moonlit world and would rather spend her time observing Lawrence than to mess with it. "I'll use this to trade with Aozaki Touko. She will surely be interested in this for no such thing was seen before" Lawrence said.

Without even asking for his permission, Shiki took more of the mangoes and went downstair. Their relationship looked like husband and wife sharing their items with each other. Lawrence is loving every moment of it.

When Shiki left the room Lawrence continued searching for things until he finally found the item he was looking for. He kept it in his pocket because it could help him in case there is a fight that will happen later. There is no problem with being guarded after all.

The four continued playing around until the clock finally hit 10. "Shiki, its time. Let's go" Lawrence said carrying a chest with him. Inside the chest were the items so chose to trade, all of them are miraculous items that will surely make any magus drool. 

"Its time already?" Shiki stood up as she wore her geta. Both of them said their farewells before leaving the house. They didn't ride any transportation as the meeting place is quite close. It is a cafe near a mall.

Shiki is just following Lawrence as she has no idea to where the meeting place will be but what she didn't expect is for Lawrence to bring her in a clothes shop. "What are you doing?" She asked squinting her eyes at him. "What do you think? I'm gonna buy you outfit of course!" Lawrence grinned.

His words made Shiki sigh, "Isn't it time for the meeting? Why waste time doing useless things?" she said reminding him of their purpose. "I wouldn't mess up with time. I deliberately came an hour earlier so that I could buy you new clothes. Always wearing kimono won't get you anywhere" 

Lawrence started browsing to the clothes while Shiki just stared at him. She saw her showing some clothes to her which she rejected. "This one is low quality along with this and this" Shiki brutaly denied them as she saw it was low quality. All of her kimonos are luxury items after all.

"Now, stop being picky. We are broke right now so we will stick with the norms" Lawrence said taking a black dress and giving it to her. He then pushed her to the dressing room as he waited outside. Shiki who was inside couldn't do anything as she was swept by Lawrence's flow.

She stared at the kimono before muttering, "How meaningless" that was what she said betraying the small smile on her face. She reluctantly wore the dress before getting out of the dressing room. When she came out, she saw Lawrence jaw open staring at her. It made her embarrased somehow.

"This is nice! We should buy this!" Lawrence gave her a thumbs up showing his favor for the dress. Shiki deadpanned at his actions but her ears was dyed pink on its own. They continue doing shopping until Lawrence's wallet was finally empty. He blasted everything for Shiki.

He is not that worried about it as he was confident in the transaction they will discuss now. They are now walking towards the disgnated cafe while eating ice cream on hand. "By the way Ranvil, why didn't you try negotiating with my family? You can surely gain a nice offer there if you show them that fruits" Shiki asked curious about it.

Lawrence didn't respond immediately as he hummed first. "Shiki" he said. "Hm?" Shiki replied. "The person I am seeing right now is Shiki, that is the reason" he said gaining a smile in response from Shiki. She didn't say anything but the smile on her face revealed her joy.

The two continued walking in comfortable silence, no one tried to break it as they loved how comfortable it is. Walking together with the person you care is a delightful feeling after all.

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