"Hah! Hahahaha!"
A chuckle, more like a surpassed gasp, exited the young girl's lips before gradually turning into a hearty laugh.
"You'll do what?" With emerald-colored eyes squinted to slits, and lips curled up to a grin, the merchant's daughter snorted at the blue-haired guy, sending him a mocking, humiliating look.
"Go tell your lies to the whole world and see who will believe your nonsense!"
"Oho! Quite a language for such a dignified young lady!" Ian shook his head with a chuckle, taking a step closer to the girl.
"So you are sure that no one will believe me? You know, the soldiers of the empire have many methods to find out the truth even if they are very well hidden."
A lot of people claimed to have Aether and requested an examination from the churches every day, hoping to gain some benefits or get lucky to be given a job even if they didn't have holy power. The examinees were quite busy all the time, yet they never half-assed their work. It was especially true for the cases where someone was reported to possess Aether. They would spare no effort to dig up the person's past and eye all their actions to find the truth.
"And what proof do you have that I possess Aether?"
"Proof?"
Ian reached out his hand, spread his fingers, and showed his palm to the young lady. A bright light lit up above his skin and golden particles scattered around before fading from sight.
"I can sense it, and so can anyone else with a bit of Aether." The young man's thin lips curled up, "I don't need to justify anything. Anyone looking at you can see the truth!"
Ian smiled at the young girl whose face was still awe-struck from witnessing Aether. Evelyn's jewelry-like pupils sparkled with an unknown emotion as they followed each one of the remaining particles of light until they vanished.
"Oh, and, unlike you, I can hide my Aether pretty well, so you won't be able to achieve anything if you try to expose me. You'll only embarrass yourself."
Ian was mixing truths with lies, giving the girl a half-true explanation that would only be beneficial to himself. The fact that he could sense the girl's power was true, but not anyone could do the same. Only the ones with the highest Aether sensitivity could feel the flow of Aether in other humans' souls. Ian was one of the few people, if not the only person, in the world with such sensitivity.
On the other hand, it was true that this young Miss Evelyn couldn't hide her Aether. She wasn't even trying to hide it, but contrary to her, Ian was a master at controlling this power and concealing it.
"...."
Finally waking up from her daze, a frown gradually warped the lady's fair features, letting her irked feelings surface on her face.
"You're quite daring to reveal yourself like this. Alright, I get it, you're capable of hiding your power very well and can mess up my life," the lady didn't avert her gaze from the young man who was almost in front of her face. "But do you really think you can leave this place alive? Our family has more than enough means to crush such a lowly human like you!"
The navy-blue eyes didn't shift anywhere else either, staring at the girl as if seeing right through her soul.
"Do you think your family is capable of murdering me, a mercenary? You must know what kind of people you've hired to look for your goods, don't you?" A disgusting smug smile hung from his lips. "Can your knights or anyone else you hire possibly defeat my good friend Raven? Will you kill me first, or will my partner who is currently standing guard murder your father before that? Hmm?"
Ian mustered all his courage in order to speak such a bluff. He wanted to hide in a corner and cry from even thinking about the possibility of Raven being his good friend.
"You!"
Two slender hands furiously grabbed his white shirt and yanked him back. Taken aback, Ian lost his balance and staggered slightly from the push.
"Don't mix my father into your shit! Did you hear that? Don't ever say anything to him or get close to that man!"
"Oh, so your father also doesn't know about your Aether!"
"...Tsk!"
Ian's body was shoved back by the girl who was clearly resisting her urge to beat him up to a pulp.
"What's that you want? Money? How much?"
"Hmmm~" Ian giggled as he spun on his heel, delighted by the fact that they were reaching an agreement. "Aren't you a merchant? Don't you have anything else to offer?"
Evelyn clenched her skirt and squeezed, releasing all her anger on the poor mattress. Ian's brows twitched slightly at the sight.
"What else do you want?"
"Let me think, let me think~" Despite wanting to run away before he was squeezed into a ball just like that poor skirt, Ian had to act up a little bit more to make things progress in the best way.
"Hmm, why don't we make a deal?"
"What deal?"
"Ey, don't be so impatient! You are so rude!"
'Kids these days, kids these days, so rude!' Ian sighed with disappointment.
"Speak. Your. Price. And. Get. Lost!"
'...And quite scary as well...'
Ian too, wanted to get lost as soon as possible.
"It's a one-sided deal. You agree to do me whatever favor I want just one time."
"No."
The girl didn't even hesitate a second to turn down his offer.
"We've already talked things through, you can't just disagree!"
The girl plucked a bunch of leaves as green as her eyes from a nearby tree before tearing them all apart. Her anger was falling on more and more innocent victims!
"Do you take me as a fool? A one-sided deal where you can request me anything? Who in their right mind would agree to such a thing?"
"I would agree."
"You are a fool, I'm not."
"Hey!"
"Ask for something else. Hurry up."
Ian folded his arms and leaned on a tree with a dejected expression.
"My request isn't something you can't afford nor something dangerous. It will in fact be beneficial for your business."
"Then tell me what your request is."
"I can't do that now."
Information about the future shouldn't be leaked to others so early in the round, or unexpected outcomes would ruin everything in the near future. That was why Ian couldn't directly state his request and wanted to save it as a future favor like a lottery ticket.
"Well," Ian straightened his posture and turned around, walking away from the girl. "That's the only thing I want from you, an open request for the future. If you can't accept it, then wait to be deported and imprisoned in the empire's churches for the rest of your life!"
"Wait up! You can't do that!"
Ian ignored the girl's slightly panicked shout.
"I'll give you until morning to think. Well, then, good night!"
Waving his hand, Ian bid the girl farewell and returned back to the inn.
'Man, to think that I'd scam people in this age...'
-Master, master, you looked so coooool! So cool! I wanna try it too!
-Scamming people isn't cool, Lior. And please don't take after me.
-No you looked super cool like a real villain boss and the worst scum in the world who is bullying a little, helpless girl.
-....
Ian wasn't sure if that was praise or disdain, so he decided to pretend he didn't hear it.
'Nevertheless, that girl was pretty sharp. I think her family business has a bright future with her as the next heir.'
Ian hoped she'd be clever enough to make a good decision till the morning.
-Master, that black dude is still staring this way.
-Ignore him.
Walking past Raven, he prayed that he'd never hear that Ian once referred to him as his good friend or that Ian might die, by a sword or of embarrassment.
Walking to his room, he went to his bed straight away and lay down while hugging the wolf pup, falling into the embrace of his dreams in a few seconds.
- - - - - - -
'Ah, another silly dream again!'
Ian woke up early in the morning to the commotion from outside and sat on his bed in a daze for a long while. It wasn't that he was having nightmares, but real, actual, silly dreams, ones that he could laugh about for a few days. Ian never hated his funny dreams but not when they were about a scary person such as Raven!
"Huuuhhh, whatever!"
Washing up and changing his clothes to the ones given to him by the merchant, he went outside to see what was going on.
"That's most of them. A few of the merchandise were sold before we could find them, but the rest are here."
A knight pointed at the various boxes on the ground. The middle-aged Mr. Golton praised in delight, checking the goods to make sure they were all alright.
'They've taken back what was stolen from them. I guess the mercenaries will be dismissed soon.'
Ian looked away from the boxes and glanced at the young girl standing beside the knights. Evelyn was looking back at him. The girl pointed in a direction with her chin before smiling happily at her father.
'Oh, so she wants to have a conversation.'
Ian strolled towards the hind garden at a relaxed pace. After reaching the garden, Ian sat under the shade of a tree, waiting for young Miss Evelyn to come over. The girl finally entered the garden and approached Ian who was busy tossing around a thin grass on his lips like a cigarette.
"What's your answer?"
The young man spat the grass to the ground upon her approach. Evelyn leaned on a tree with her arms folded.
"I can't accept your request."
Patting his clothes, Ian shook his head in disappointment.
"Well then, that's what you decided. I'll come to visit you at church later."
As he turned to leave with no regret or hesitation, he heard a sentence that made him halt.
"But I can change it to a fair deal."
Seeing him halt, the young girl continued on her words, "I'm a merchant. In our lives, there is nothing named a favor. The only thing my family relies on are deals, and deals must be fair."
Once Ian looked back, he saw a bunch of papers in the girl's hands. A slight grimace formed above his nose.
"I'll give you one request. A request that won't hurt me or my family, nor will it damage or endanger our business. It mustn't be something impractical or too costly. There are a few more clauses which you have to read and agree upon."
"...."
A sneer formed on young Miss Evelyn's lips upon seeing the blue-haired scammer's jaw drop, expression agape and dazed.
"In exchange for that, you'll agree to help me out in one thing until I achieve what I want. What do you say?"
The young man recovered from his daze soon enough. He snatched the peppers from Evelyn's hands with a twisting smile.
"And what's that you want from me?"
The clauses of the deal were explained in detail, written in order of importance in a fluent and neat way. Anything that could bring even the slightest amount of danger upon her or her family, as well as their merchant group, was banned while exceptions and clearances were listed.
'Seems like it's not easy scamming an educated and sharp girl, even if they are young and frightened...'
This was actually amusing to Ian.
"You said last night that you can conceal your Aether so that others can't notice it."
"Yes."
"Teach me that."
"Pardon?"
Evelyn repeated herself, "Teach me how to conceal my Aether. I don't want a similar situation to happen later. You must know quite a bit about Aether to be able to hide it from the others, right?"
"Well... yeah..."
In terms of knowledge of Aether, Ian was a master.
"But this..."
'To think that she would make such a request... She wants to prevent other people from scamming her in the future? There are only a few individuals capable of sensing her Aether and the chances of her meeting those people are slim, though, I can't tell her that... I said anyone can sense her power when I was bluffing last night.'
Plus, she was making use of the very same person who tried to trick her into accepting a one-way favor, by binding him with a contract and placing conditions on their deal. She must've understood that, from the way Ian approached her first and went so far to reveal his own Aether to threaten her, he must be in desperate need of something, so he wouldn't be able to refuse her condition.
"Aren't you quite smart?"
"I'm told that a lot."
"Haha!"
Ian flipped the pages in his hands one by one until he reached the end. Even his part of the deal was explained in the slightest detail.
"Then we must add one more thing to the deal." Ian's eyes shifted toward where the rest of the group was standing before turning back to the girl. A dazzling smile was plastered to her face.
"I've already made preparations for that."
"You are moving ahead of yourself."
"That's not moving ahead, I call it smoothing the way for future plans."
"Hmm, interesting."
Ian was starting to like this child. He'd heard before that the Golton merchant guild was an uprising star among the merchants with a bright future, but he didn't have a direct interaction with them up until now.
"Well, how should I sign these?"
"Here." A fountain pen was placed in Ian's palm. Using his knee as a table, he signed the contract form, each paper one by one.
"I didn't think you'd be literate, so much to have a signature as well."
"The world is full of surprises."
After the two of them were done signing the papers, Evelyn hid the contract within her clothes and walked past Ian, to where her father was.
"I hope you'll be a proper teacher, cause I'm a quick student."
"So full of yourself."
Even while saying that, the amused expression didn't wear off of Ian's face. He waited until the girl's back disappeared till he lowered his head towards the bushes.
-Master, you've gained a student! That's so cool!
The leaves fluttered as a chubby figure jumped out of them, excitedly hopping around.
-It seems like that. Anyway, let's go back.
They waited for a little while before going back to the group so that people wouldn't notice that the merchant's daughter was meeting up with a random blue-haired dude behind the bushes.
"So what do you mean is that you want us to escort you till you reach the empire?"
"Yes, miss Eleen. We are afraid of a similar accident happening and thought it's better to have more helpers with us. I've discussed it with my father as well, and he agreed with it. We'll make sure to pay you handsomely."
'So that's what she meant by having made preparations.'
Ian gradually walked to the merchants and stood beside Eleen.
"Well, we don't mind that but our friend here-"
"I think that'll be alright." Ian gave a smile to the doctor who was looking at him, asking with her eyes if it was okay if they escorted this merchant group instead of going after the two young masters.
"Me, my group, or these people, we are all going to the same place anyway. I'll be able to catch up to my group, maybe a little bit later than planned, but that's alright. Don't turn down a business offer because of it!"
The tension in Eleen's eyes smoothed upon seeing Ian's good-natured smile. Both of them disregarded the frowning Raven and turned back to the green-eyed lady.
"I don't think any reason to refuse a new job."
"Thank you very much!"
The group got ready and set out soon, moving towards the borders of the empire at a decent speed.
- - - - -
"You don't know how to use your Aether?"
"I said I don't. What's with that face you are making?"
Late at night, at a little bit of distance from the tents set out for the merchant guild members, Ian and Evelyn sat cross-legged on the ground opposite each other.
"I know nothing much about it. Even after studying Aether for a long time, I still can't understand. I just one day sensed that something in me was different from before and a feeling that told me it was a new power, but I've never been able to bring that power out to this day."
Usually, it wasn't hard to use Aether once a person was awakened. When their power reached the limited required amount, one could control it by their will alone. However, some people were always exceptions.
"You must not have pure Aether, but a blessing of it."
"A blessing of Aether? You mean, like some people who gain extraordinary abilities?"
"Something like that."
Aether wasn't only something that gave off light, but a powerful essence of this universe. The light was its simplest form that many saints could freely use. Among the saints, there were people who were gifted with other abilities by gaining the blessing of Aether. These people could do various actions, from prophecy to healing.
"It seems I won't be only teaching you how to conceal Aether. You can't conceal something that even you can't see."
First, they had to find out what kind of blessing this girl had.