Chapter 3: By Groups (Six Years Old, Closer To Seven)

(First Person PoV)

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I dissaprovingly stared at the foot wear I'm wearing.

The Shinobi sandals, as it is called, is rather a disdainful one. Wearing Shinobi sandals has a lot of disadvantage — At least for me, I don't know much about the others though — especially with the sandal's open toe design, it'd be dangerous if one would have to lose their toes all because of it.

Ah fuck.

Right.

I click my tongue.

I placed my hand under my chin, a worried look took over my expression.

People, civilians and Shinobis alike, wear the open toe sandal. Although, from my observations, some of the people in this world also uses a wooden scandal. That'd be dangerous, since the Engineering Unit also wear these kind of foot wear.

Great, now I have to find a suitable foot wear for the Unit and I. With only 390k Ryo left, I'm not so sure if I'd be able to cover for the entire Unit.

Fuck, I'm gonna be broke!

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"Greetings to the Akamichi Patriarch," I greeted Chōza respectfully, bowing ninety degrees.

"Please, straighten your back Tobias! How's your brother doing?"

Chōza, who is good friends with my brother, would often visit the Clan district to take Inoichi out and get drunk. Of course, their little get together also includes the Patriarch of the Nara Clan.

"He's doing great, but with the new job assigned to him, he's been busy."

"Well, I hope you're not resenting your brother for his lack of absence."

I chuckled, "Oh no, I'm not, I know how much this job is important to him as the Head of the Clan. And besides, with the new business I'm running, I've also been busy."

"It's really impressive that you're starting a business on your own." Chōza bewilderedly said, "Especially at such a young age."

Chuckling to myself, I said, "Well, you know what they say? 'One's talent do not have anything to do with one's age's'."

"Yes, correct. Actually, I was suppose to visit you personally to order this Heating System of yours and hoped that you could apply it at the Akamichi District, but I have been busy with Clan affairs and all, ya'know?"

"Yes, I could relate to your situation. Sometimes, when brother is too busy doing his other job, the responsibility as the Head Clan would be pass onto me, but thanks with the help of the Elders, I've manage much." Oh, no, Actually, I made Vū sign all of the paper works leaving the decision-making to me.

"So, how much do our Clan owe you?"

I hummed turning around, not noticing that I was facing Vū. A devilish grin graced upon my face. This is it! This is the part where I take advantage of the situation!

"Hmm, according to my calculations.... it should be about 2.5 million Ryo."

I was met by a silence instead of the reaction I had expected.

"Uhmm, is there something wrong?"

"Oh, no," Chōza shook his head, "Its just that I didn't expect the price to be lower, if some other merchants they'd definitely, no doubt, make the prize higher."

What! My prize are lower than other merchants if they were the one to seal the Heating System?! Fuck! Well, since I had already stated the price it'd be too late for me to take it back and change the prize.

I gave a tight smile, tears slowly flowing out of my eyes, "Well, you're a family friend." I almost choked, "Consider this as a discount."

"Hohoho, thank you. Well, I know you're busy so why don't you just go and do your job then."

"Thank you, for your consideration."

The moment Chōza shunshin'd away, I fell on my knees and banged my fist on the ground.

Fuckkkk!!!! I should have known!

[You look pathetic.]

Shut up and mind your own business!

.....

(Tobias' First Person PoV Ending)

[Inserting]

(Third Person PoV)

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"Tobias-sama, get off of the floor, you look pathetic bawling your eyes out in public."

"Fuck you Vū!" Tobias screeched, throwing his escort the middle finger.

'This guy!' Vū threw curses after curses on Tobias' name.

He sighed and thought of the perfect plan to make Tobias get off the ground.

"Aren't you curious to see the construction?"

"WAWAWA!" Tobias didn't reply and continued crying.

"Who knows, with you looking after the construction, maybe it'd be done faster...."

"HUHUHU... MY! MY! MY MONEY!!" Tobias snobbed.

"And you'd recieve your money."

"Let's go!"

Vū's mouth twitch as he watch Tobias walking towards the construction site with no shame from his earlier behavior.

"How many houses have you applied the ondol?"

"About ten out of eighty-eight."

"What!" He screamed as he pivoted and glared at Vū, "What do you mean ten out of eighty-eight?"

"You heard right. Ten out of eighty-eight— there's not a single person in the Unit who specializes on Earth Style, nor do they have a single knowledge of the Earth Style."

"Fuck!"

Tobias exhaled, his hand dramatically — as the way that the System would put it — clunched his heart.

'No wonder the Engineering Unit, Vū is temporarily taking in charge of, only made ten ondols for a week. It was because they weren't— or rather, Vū wasn't efficiently making use of the man power!' Tobias thought, shaking his head for a few times before observing the Engineering team.

"Vū,"

"Yes, Tobias-sama?"

"You should consider taking lessons of how to be 'A proper leader'."

"I beg your pardon?"

'This formal speech of his really gets on my nerves, sometimes.'

[I should be glad that your subordinate is not as vulgar as you are. LOL.]

'Sod off.' He mentally talk back to his Virtual Assistant System.

"EVERYONE!" The green-eyed boy gathered his team's attention, making them pause their work, "ASSEMBLE!" At his command, the Engineering Unit let go of the tools they were carrying and assembled themselves.

'Hm?' Tobias raised an eyebrow. His eyes inspected the muscles that started to noticeably formed on his subordinates body. 'Seems that the so-called labor improved their physiques, although only slightly. But with Vū training these people to increase their stamina, endurance, strength, speed, and proper positions. All in all, their body components have improve a lot better than before.'

"It's totally un-fucking-believable that you are good at teaching yet sucks at leading...."

Vū pretended he hasn't heard a word that came out from Tobias' mouth.

"Alright, listen here everybody!" The Unit straighten their backs, "You will be divided into a group of six, and each group contains five members. A group, that I'll be picking, will accompany me to build the ondol under the Akamichi's Patriarch main house. Also, I will not be bothering to divide each of you personally as you can handle it by yourself, however, I will be personally picking out the ones who'll accompany me. And also, Vū and each of his Clones will be supervising you."

'To make sure you don't slack off', was left unspoken but the Unit, including Vū knew the reason.

"Inosuke, Inoe, Inoya, Inoshiki, and Inoki. Let's go! Vū," Tobias eyed Vū for a moment, making sure that his not-so-hidden-eye-message had gotten through Vū's brain.

The people Tobias called followed him diligently as they arrived at the Akamichi Patriarch's home.

Tobias took out Pochi out from his shirt pocket.

"Tobias-sama, that is...?"

"This is Pochi."

"Pochii!" The hamster greeted them with enthusiasm.

"He's my summon. He'll be taking care of the digging proccess so all you have to do is scoop out the dirt." Pochi hastily held out his small arms the moment Tobias took out the Red Seed. "He knows what to do, as I've already told him what to do."

Tobias turned around, looking at his clanmen's expression.

"The fuck you waitin' for? Start scooping up the the dirt."

"What?"

"Pochi had already finished his part." Tobias' right eye twitched in annoyance, "You assholes were planning on slacking off, weren't you?"

"NOT AT ALL, SIRE!"

The team entered underneath the hole Pochi made and began to scoop up the dirt.

"Pochi, do your part. I'll be back by, probably dusk? So go with wait with Vū, understand?"

"Poch-Poch!"

"Good."

...

"Hello my Dear Readers! Author-san here! I've been checking the progress of how many readers have read this book and I am surprised to say that there were a lot of you guys reading WOSIN!"

"So, Dear Readers— awkward laugh*— I, unfortunately, have bad news for you all! Sob* Sob*! My friends tricked me and force me to accept a bet that I have to recieve a 25k Readers and 25 collectors (I've successfully manage to change their mind by negotiating with them at such an unfair prize) until the end of April! And if I were to fail their bet, I'd have to postpone publishing chapters for a whole month! 😭 😭!"

"Everyone, please help me, this is my life's work! And if I were to fail to follow my schedules, no doubt I'd be breaking my schedules. It's be like— uploading two chapters per week and sometimes I'd upload one chapter per month!"

(P. S. They are currently holding my secret against me and tell You-Don't-Know-Who-But-Somehow-I-Got-The-Feeling-You-Know-Who about my attractions towards You-Don't-Know-Who-But-Somehow-I-Got-The-Feeling-You-Know-Who!)