Ch46. A deal

Rei silently watched in amusement while the young ten years old magician gorged herself with food as if it was her last meal. Her jet black hair was quite unkempt with an odd branch or leaf sticking out here and there and her dull golden eyes were curiously glancing at him when she thought he didn't pay attention. It was quite cute.

The most surprising thing Rei found were the nasty black and dark purple bruises that peeked through the ripped parts of her one-piece. Rei wasn't overly aware of her backstory but he didn't expect abuse to be a part of it. Then again... she was supposed to be experimented on.

The girl still tried to keep her guard up, yet, the food was proving to be a sufficient distraction, making her inwardly torn between enjoying the tasty treat and being wary, causing her expression to scrunch in conflict.

Rei had quite fun watching her acting like a child. But that was natural, he supposed. After all, she was still young, inexperienced, weak, and desperate. There was a reason why Rei chose the use his ability on the young Merlin instead of the three-thousand years old one. The girl in front of him didn't have many attachments yet.

Rei's third wish gave him an ability he promptly called The Negotiation Room because its main function was to make deals. Through these deals, Rei will be able to cross to different universes, which wasn't nearly as easy as fanfictions made it seem. Universes had their own 'will', for the lack of a better term, and they did NOT like illegal immigrants without 'citizenship'.

Sure, some godly entities could insert souls into them while making them native to that particular world, which basically made the 'will' of the world appeased but these were beings far above Rei's current level. After the entity that reincarnated him in exchange for his karma explained how the system around this stuff worked, Rei spent hours questioning and finding loopholes in the system, exploiting them to make an ability with diverse usage. It was not perfect by any means but Rei had only so much karma left so he did the best he could.

Merlin finally finished eating and a sudden resolve flashed through her eyes as she asked, "Where are we?" She knew she was teleported so finding out where was priority number one for her.

The part of the Negotiation Room Rei was currently using was creating a small pocket realm in-between his own universe and Merlin's universe so answering 'nowhere' would basically be correct. Yet, Rei knew Merlin's appreciation for magic so he decided to humor her.

"This is a pocket dimension created by an ability of mine. You can relax, girl. One of the absolute rules of this place is that we can't harm each other in any way." Rei said.

That rule took a good chunk of his karma but it was worth it. Rei had no idea if one day he would use this ability to negotiate with entities stronger than himself so having a place where he was safe and could meet them as an equal was a must.

Merlin didn't immediately relax but her wariness somewhat decrease as the curiosity in her eyes was ignited at the mention of a pocket dimension. Rei expected her to start shooting a barrage of questions at him but surprisingly, the girl calmed down with great reluctance.

"Who are you and why am I here?" She asked, her expression showing this was not the thing she was most curious about. Merlin was happy and immensely grateful these people saved her from being captured but she knew there is no free lunch in the world. They definitely wanted something from her. Worse yet, if she was indeed in a pocket dimension, her chances of running away were effectively zero.

"My name is Rei Shiba and my lovely companion and maid is Solution Epsilon." Rei introduced them. "As for why you are here... I would like to make a deal with you." He nonchalantly added in a tone that suggested it was the most normal thing in the world.

Merlin pursed her lips... and Rei had to admit she looked positively adorable. Of course, he had no pedophilic thoughts about her ten years old body. He just found her a cute child... and decided that she could at the very least hear him out, hoping this 'deal' won't be unreasonable.

Seeing Merlin somewhat unsurely nod, Rei chuckled and took it as his cue to propose the terms of the deal. "Let's make this simple, shall we?" Rei started, "I am from a different... realm than you, and my ability can make something akin to an unbreakable contract between us that neither will be able to fool. With me so far?"

Merlin nodded, suspicion creeping into her gaze. If the man in front of her really could do that, she would have to make damn sure there is no hidden clause or anything that would make her effectively his slave. The man looked nice but Merlin would not be fooled by appearance and trusting somebody she just met was foolish.

Rei saw she had some doubts but he didn't pay it any mind, "I want a magic researcher and you want knowledge. I am not interested in making a hundred pages long list of terms so what I propose is making only two blunt stipulations. First, you will be loyal to me, unable to betray me, and in exchange, I will not be able to betray you either. Yes," Rei interrupted Merlin who was about to open her mouth, "make no mistake, girl. I am giving you chance at getting knowledge from different realms. Naturally, I would expect you to be my subordinate for that. The no betrayal clause will just make sure there will be no unnecessary drama between us during our long, long partnership."

Merlin's mouth closed shut and her eyebrows scrunched in conflict. "Okay, and the second?" She reluctantly asked after a moment.

"The second stipulation will be also straightforward. Since I want a magic researcher, you will be expected to share everything you find out about magic and its possible applications. Naturally, I will sometimes ask you to research something for me. In exchange, I will not hide any piece of knowledge I have access to." Rei said, thinking this was fair enough for a mutual exchange.

This caused Merlin's eyes to briefly lit up before her expression showed confusion. She clearly wondered why was the deal so beneficial for her. Sure, she would become Rei's servant for life but there was nothing demanding her to do anything she didn't like. Nothing restricting her in any way except the requirement of sharing her findings.

The bigger problem was... why her? As far as she was in no way special, except for her innate magic. The proposed contract didn't say anything about that, however. Asking someone who studied magic for just a few years to be his magic researcher? Merlin really had no clue why he would choose her instead of some archmage from her hometown.

In a way, she was correct. This young Merlin was useless for Rei but he had a plan. That was actually the reason why he had to pay three trillion Yggdrasil gold coins for using the Negotiation Room this time.

Rei chuckled then pointed towards the shelf with books. "Don't hurry with the answer. You will be here with us for a year in which I will give you a small sample of knowledge I am offering to you. I will teach you some basic convenience magic. At the end of this year, I will only want to hear if you are interested or not before I send you back." Merlin's eyes widened in fright but Rei didn't let her speak, "You are a clever girl and during this year I will make sure you have every tool needed to survive and thrive. Just trust me on this, okay?" He smiled.

Merlin had no idea how to answer that so she only mutely nodded, still inwardly anxious about being sent back.

"I am sending you back for... I don't know." Rei shrugged, "That will depend on you, to be honest. You will be required to reach a certain level before the contractual magic will finally activate and only then you will be given the choice of whether to join me or not. That shouldn't be a problem though. I know you love learning about things so just think about it as a chance to learn more about your own realm and magic within it."

"I... understand." Merlin whispered, accepting the offer while not really knowing how to feel about it. For now, though, this was the best thing that happened to her recently. For now, she decided to learn as much as she could from Rei since he offered her free knowledge that would make it easier for her to survive on the run.

After all, she could always refuse the contract afterward, no?