Chapter 406: Borrowing a Bit?
The indescribable "special moment" ended rather quickly. After teasing Steven enough to pique his interest, the mischievous Centaurea slipped out of his room with surprising agility—clearly unwilling to let him take any further advantage of the situation.
"Talking with you made me feel a lot better. If we get the chance… let's continue next time, okay?"
Pressing a hand to her chest—still fluttering with embarrassment—Centaurea left only that line behind before hopping back to her own room. And just in case Steven had any ideas about a late-night visit, she immediately locked the door from the inside with a loud click.
Steven, who had halfway expected the sort of development that would definitely get the chapter banned from publication, could only sigh in disappointment. In the end, these things were best when both parties genuinely wanted it. He respected Centaurea's wishes.
"Flirting with someone and then running away… that's seriously irresponsible."
Muttering under his breath, Steven washed up and returned to bed—only to find his sword, Yamato, lying quietly atop the blankets. At some point, it had slipped out of his inventory on its own.
For a moment, Steven had the strange illusion that the blade was like a reserved young maiden waiting to be claimed.
But even he wasn't unhinged enough to try something as idiotic as testing Yamato's sharpness against his own oregano, so to speak. He could only let out a helpless laugh and place the sword beside his pillow.
What was even more ridiculous was Shoggy. The creature, which he'd assumed was fast asleep, suddenly curled itself up into a bizarre cylinder—something like a sentient lump of jelly—almost prompting Steven to grab it and toss it out of the room on instinct.
"Can you two behave already? It's not like I'll die just because I'm not surrounded by women every second. Keep messing with me and I'll shove you both into my inventory and never let you out again."
With a hand to his forehead, he scolded the two troublemakers. Only then did the chaos finally settle down, allowing him to get a proper night's sleep.
The night passed uneventfully. When Steven woke up, it was already six in the morning.
His internal clock snapped him awake. After washing up, he opened the door to his room—and found, unsurprisingly, a girl waiting outside.
Seriously, how many times had this happened now? Ever since coming to Rhodes Island, opening the door to find a girl waiting for him had practically become routine.
Still, he looked curiously at the girl before him, wearing a cute side ponytail and an oversized windbreaker that swallowed her petite frame.
Then his expression immediately shifted into open distaste.
"What's with that look? Do you have to glare at me like I'm some kind of pest? I know you hate dealing with merchants, but I've never ripped you off!"
Closure puffed up indignantly the moment she noticed Steven's expression. He was polite to everyone else—so why did he only show her that obviously annoyed face?
"Can't help it. Disliking shady merchants is in my bones. Anyway, what's an Engineering Department head doing at my door this early? You need something from me?"
Steven finally withdrew that look of disdain after hearing her complain. He'd only been teasing her anyway. He knew perfectly well that Closure wasn't anything like those Kazimierz capitalists. The reason she obsessed over making money was simply so the people of Rhodes Island could live better lives.
And besides, her so-called "shady business habits" never crossed any moral lines. At worst, she just liked squeezing out a little extra profit.
Still, Steven couldn't think of any reason she would show up outside his room at this hour. Closure might be Kal'tsit's number-one bootlicker, but she was also one of the busiest people on the entire island. She never came knocking without a reason. The idea that she was here simply because she missed him was… impossible.
"Of course there's a reason. Who would bother dealing with a weirdo like you otherwise?"
Closure rolled her eyes, then—without the slightest hesitation—slipped past him and plopped down onto the bed inside his room.
"Let me guess," Steven said, stroking his chin. "It's about my subordinates' Block Consortium, right? You just couldn't resist such a huge juicy chunk of profit shaking in front of you, so now you're here to try and squeeze me for something?"
Once the initial confusion passed, the possible reasons for her visit narrowed to just a few—and the most likely one really was the matter of his financial empire. As mentioned earlier, Closure was Kal'tsit's most loyal little minion; there was no way she didn't know he was the true power behind the consortium.
"H–hey, hey, hey! 'Squeezing you' makes it sound terrible! This is called bonding! Deepening cooperation! Reinforcing our long-lasting friendship through mutually beneficial transactions!"
Closure shot up from the bed like a startled cat, waving her arms as she tried to defend herself.
"Uh-huh. So my guess was right, then?"
Steven folded his arms, watching her far-too-dramatic reaction with a smirk that said he'd already won.
"...Fine, okay, yes, it has… something to do with that."
Looking more and more deflated under Steven's gaze, Closure sat back down with the expression of a bullied child, letting out a tiny, pitiful whimper.
"So? What's the matter? You've gotta tell me first. Otherwise how am I supposed to give you an answer?"
Steven couldn't help laughing even harder. Making this little gremlin of a girl lose momentum wasn't easy. Judging by her expression, whatever she came to say clearly meant a lot to her.
"Well, uh, how do I put this… it's just…"
"You know, since you basically control half of Kazimierz now… do you maybe have any interest in investing in Rhodes Island's infrastructure? Or like… joining as an official partner? Or—or maybe even… supporting us a tiny little bit?"
She raised her hand and made the universal "money" gesture, sticking out her tongue and flashing a cutesy, almost shameless expression.
"So basically," Steven concluded, "you came to borrow money from me. Right?"
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Note: Character Illustration is in this Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iuyfwNVFHzIi9H4rWNT_lAm7jTSiah_M
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