Negotiating the partnership

'How can you ask about something again if you never asked about it in the first place?' For a second, I entertained the thought of playing the grammar-police with the clerk… Only to quickly abandon the idea. 

What would be the point of doing so save for irritating her? And while sure, I was curious just how would her pouting or annoyed face look like, this… 

This meeting, as weird as it already was, just didn't feel like something I was supposed to ignore. 

'Is this how it feels when I'm on the main quest, rather than some sub-routine only meant to increase the game's declared playtime?' I thought, recalling the terms I used to be familiar with back before I decided to put games aside and my life back on proper track only to then proceed to happily lose five years of it on a lost cause. 

"I'm Tim," I answered after giving up on all the shenanigans that popped up in my mind only to reach out for a handshake. "And you are…?"

The girl first squinted her eyes before looking down at my hand. 

That alone was enough to give my soul a shake, as certain unsavory flashbacks of my school life threatened to resurface. 

Then again, rather than putting on a disgusted face as certain 'class elite' of my dark past did, the girl actually reached out and accepted my hand. 

"Claire," she introduced herself right as she took me by surprise and twisted my wrist, a feat that didn't seem possible given her light physique and the sleeper build I've refined over the last five years. 

Still, as impossible as it might seem to be, she turned my head over with surprising ease only to instantly turn her eyes down. 

"This certainly doesn't look like the hand of a craftsman…" she muttered, only to raise her eyes as she gave me a sharp, suspicious look. "Could it be…"

My mind raced… but only for a moment. 

It didn't take a genius to figure out what she saw in my hand that would suddenly raise alarm in her cute head. 

After all, I caught this detail myself, of my hands befitting a thug or a martial artist rather than an artist or a craftsman. And in all honesty, the looks of my first proper creation only served to prove that point. 

"No." I shook my head. "I know what you are thinking, but I'm not some mule or proxy. The device I've brought, I created with the very hand you are holding," I've explained, only for the grammar-police mode to flash up in my mind once again. 

"Well, I made it with both of my hands, but you get the idea," I added as I corrected my statement. 

'Even if it's something that crude, it would take one hell of a genius or a world of determination to make it with just one hand!'

Hearing those words, Clarie raised her eyes to my face while putting a slightly weirded-out expression on her own, as if she wasn't exactly sure whether to be baffled, unamused or just to roll her eyes. Ultimately, she shook her head, resetting her expression to what seemed to be her default, passive and just slightly focused look.

"Moving on, what would you say about sort of… partnership?" Claire asked. This time, it was her turn to act slightly skittish as she quickly averted her eyes and leaned back in her chair, looking for something hidden on the inner side of the counter. 

Before long, she pulled out a relatively clean sheet of paper and some cheap, disposable pen that simply couldn't be more out of place in this place filled with expensive and mystical materials straight out of the cultivation world. 

"I know, I know," Claire nodded her head before I could even voice a single word of concern while raising her hands as if to imply she meant no harm, be it directly or in a business way. "Just partnership is an empty word, so let me elaborate on what I mean," she explained only to twirl the pen in her graceful fingers and then grab proper hold of it, making its tip stop just a hair-width shy of the paper. 

"You have the skills, passion…" Claire started rather unenthusiastically, "but more importantly, means to craft stuff unobstructed. And judging from what you brought," she cast a quick glance to my left hand where I still held my mana-thickening device, "you are happy to work with both cultivation and science materials." 

Rather than speaking first and then writing, Claire noted down a few points on the paper right as she spoke. 

"From what I can tell, though, you are extremely new to the world of cultivation," she noted something down on the other side of the paper, "you lack the connections necessary to sell your products, expand your crafting range, or get your hands on less common materials."

One by one, Claire's disposable pen continued to stack more and more lines on the other side of the paper. 

And then, she just stopped her hand only to raise her face and look me directly in the eyes. 

"Am I wrong? Am I missing something?" 

I didn't ask how she figured it all out. She didn't look like an idiot and, for how limited my knowledge and cultivation of common sense were, I liked to believe I wasn't one either. 

Between my extremely slim amount of mana when we first met, the lack of common sense I've apparently displayed while flaunting my device out in the open, and then countless other small hints I've served on a silver platter without even realizing it, it would be actually weird if she didn't figure it all out by now!

"I'm a complete amateur when it comes to cultivation, so if you want me to craft anything that requires manipulating it in the crafting process…" 

As stupid as it would seem to be to add another line to what was clearly the list of things she was willing to take care of in the partnership she was drafting, there was no point in working with each other if I were to hold such an important piece of information back. 

Whether I liked it or not, something like this would come out extremely quickly. In fact, it wouldn't be weird if Claire already figured that fact out all on her own! 

Hearing my words, the girl only smiled before, indeed, adding another line to her side of the paper. 

"I like your honesty," Claire admitted with a small smile, only for a small hint of mischief to appear in her eyes as she pressed the pen's tip against the paper again, "so, let's not forget the benefit of getting to work with a jade-beauty like me!" 

Hearing this, I couldn't help but roll my eyes. 

"Then, don't forget to add the drawback of attracting the ire of countless young masters who will come running to get their faces slapped only to turn my family into cauldrons in revenge," I countered, only for Claire to giggle at my joke. 

Instead of adding the "risk of young masters running amok" to my side, though, she simply crossed out the "jade-beauty" line on her side.

"That's a good point," she admitted, only to then turn the paper around and push it over the counter for me to inspect. 

"I'm not really sure if you lack money or not, but in the world of cultivators…" she started, only for an awkward grimace to take over her face. "Actually, just like you were honest with me, I won't be dishonest to claim money isn't important," she stated before shaking her head and looking right into my eyes again. "I won't claim money isn't important, but it's not like you can solve everything with it. Not here, not with how people deal with things on this side of the reality," she said before heaving a long sigh. 

"Money makes the world go round," I pointed out with a shake of my shoulders. "Just like you charged me for the materials, my landlord charges me rent and the grocery at my corner doesn't provide me with food just to accumulate good karma either." 

Claire smirked a little… Only to reach into her counter and… 

And bring out a stack of money the size I've only ever seen in movies before. 

"Ten thousand Esecs," she stated as she pushed the stack over the counter just like she did the draft of the partnership before. "Take it."

"And the catch?" I asked, strangely unable to even raise my hand for the money, sensing some sort of a trap. 

"There's none," Claire shrugged her shoulders. "Just a consultation fee, an investment or reimbursement for the materials you used, call it whatever you want."

Claire looked up at my face… and sighed when she noticed my reaction to the money on the table. 

"So you are poor, huh?" she muttered only to shake her head. "If you want, I can take your device for thrice as much…" she suggested, only to twist her head over to the side and give me the cutest smile of all the smiles she produced ever since I've met her. "Or, you can try to go and improve the design, make it… better looking?" she suggested only to rest her elbows on the counter and lean over it, resting her head in her hands while drilling holes in my face with her stare. "Then, instead of adding two more stacks like this one, I will add a zero to the bill instead."