"So that's how it is..."
Chihiro, Claire's father, muttered as he closely inspected the mana-thickening device he held in his hands.
Yet, even though one didn't need to disassemble it to realize it wasn't made purely with cultivation-related materials thanks to its outer shell being made with nothing else but circuit boards... he didn't seem to be displeased at all!
"You are not... angry?" Claire asked, while I had no other choice but to restrain my desire to wrap my hands around her neck to strangle her.
'Why would you ask him that?!' I panicked, gritting my teeth in a bid not to let my emotions show on my face. 'It's only going to invite...'
"Why would I be? This thing, it's quite marvelous," Chihiro proclaimed with a shrug of his shoulders. "Sure, we have better artifacts back at home, but that doesn't take away any worth from this thing."
With that statement, the man turned his eyes over to me.
"Still, I just couldn't help but wonder how you made it..."
'Here it fucking is.'
It didn't take a genius to realize that this sentence was merely a segway to either a lecture on how one should mix modern technology with cultivation stuff, or, even worse...
"What's the recipe for it?" Chihiro asked in a casual tone as if it was no biggie to just randomly answer such a question.
"Sir, with all due respect, I do not ask you to reveal the secrets of your cultivation techniques," I replied, bowing my head down to both show respect but also hide the anxiety on my face.
'I really shouldn't have turned my phone off!'
Cultivator or not, this man was still a member of the modern society! And what better could someone as poor, not connected, and outright meaningless person like me do against him if not fall back on the cushion of authorities?
But now, even this path of escape, the only one accessible to the common folk, was cut off...
All because of this damned, accidental stream!
'Thinking about it, I still have no idea what actually happened, do I?' I suddenly realized. 'Even if I ended up streaming...' I thought, turning my eyes over to Claire, 'How in the hell did she find this one, particular stream?'
Before I could even attempt to get an answer to that, however, Chihiro's small smile evaporated from his face, replaced with a glacial-cold expression.
"First you put your hands on my daughter and now you can't even humor a small question like that?!" Chihiro snarled.
"First, she invaded my home by kicking the doors out of the frame as she stepped inside uninvited," I countered the man, forcing myself to look up into his eyes.
Having my phone on or off didn't matter.
With the Landlady gone from the area, there was a witness of those two coming in here and acting all high and mighty, so even if this man were to put his hands on me...
"And now you are trying to threaten me into revealing my secrets?" I finalized my response, only to shake my head in an act of astounded disbelief.
"But you've already revealed them by streaming, didn't you?" Chihiro quickly countered while crossing his hands over his chest and raising his left eyebrow.
"Which is the very reason why your daughter rushed in so fast she didn't have the time to knock, all in a bid to make me aware of this accidental mistake."
Right now, we were still talking. And for as long as we kept talking, this man's power was fully and utterly meaningless.
'Just try to threaten me again,' I thought, preparing myself for the worst. 'Then I will show you what it means to sue someone to oblivion!'
By myself, I was nobody. Without money, contacts, or backers, I could only dream of suing someone capable of reaching the same heights of cultivation as Claire's father.
But...
For someone to grow so strong, they had to invest a nigh immeasurable fortune into all sorts of tonics, artifacts, and the upkeep for all the time they had to spend training.
And since we were talking about someone so considerably wealthy, I had no doubt there would be scores of potent lawyers ready and happy to jump on such a court case merely by getting a percentage of the potential payoff!
Even if Chihiro somehow found a way to stop this avenue of mine... All I had to do was to swallow my pride and give my uncle a call, asking for his help instead!
Yet, rather than pushing in...
Claire's father suddenly laughed out before backing off a step.
"Hahaha," his laugh while appearing perfectly honest and genuine... somehow felt weird; it didn't match his face if not his entire disposition. "I'm sorry, young man, but I had to make sure Claire isn't just taking advantage of you, nor that anyone else will."
'Wait, so... no court case for me to easily win?' I thought, thrown for a loop where all my mental preparations and predictions suddenly proved to be completely and utterly... pointless.
"With that said, though, I can certainly see the problem at hand," he then added, once again throwing me a curved ball.
"What kind of problem are you talking about, sir?" I inquired, still struggling to just take his words for granted.
"Well, for starters, I have to get your doors and phone fixed, isn't that right?" he stated, only to snap his fingers...
And for a middle-aged man dressed like a butler from an anime to appear by the broken doors, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Fix those doors for me," Chihiro ordered before turning back to Claire. "And you will wire him both the money for the new phone and the compensation fee for so rudely intruding upon him. Is that clear?"
In an instant, Claire's face went from anxious and observant... to one with hints of exasperation and despair.
"But...!"
"There will be no buts!" Chihiro cut his daughter off before she could even start protesting. "As for this tool..." he then turned his attention back to the device he still kept in his hand. "How about I get it off your hands for, hmm..."
In the short moment that Chihiro took to act out as if he actually had to think his offer through, I caught a glimpse of Claire's face. Or rather, the ugly grimace that spoiled her otherwise cute features.
But then again, judging just by her father's disposition alone, regardless of what kind of number he was about to throw out... It wasn't going to be something a simple, poor man like me could easily ignore!
Still, even with that in mind, what was this strange feeling of resistance boiling down at the bottom of my soul? It was as if... my guts were warning me about something that, just like when meditating, I just couldn't properly grasp!
"How does half a million Esecs sound like?"
That was...
I gulped my saliva down, suddenly realizing what it meant to be unable to catch a breath.
This number was so overwhelming... It pretty much turned my brain into a mush, stopping me from having a single rational thought.
But... This feeling in my gut...
"What's the catch?" I asked, opting to at least partially answer to my premonition. "I mean, we both know that this device isn't worth as much. So, what's the catch?"
If the amount Chihiro offered wasn't about the device... then what else did he want to actually buy? My silence? To ensure I wouldn't sue for the home invasion? Or was this his way of trying to get his hands on my device so he could reverse-engineer the recipe for it?
"You really won't allow anyone to take advantage of you, won't you?" Chihiro smiled. "But fear not, all I want is to have a priority on anything new that you craft, regardless if it's a successful project or not. Not that bad of a deal, isn't it?"
That... explained a lot.
Right now, I am merely a beginner. And judging by everyone's reaction thus far or by how desperate Claire was to stop my accidental stream, the things that I crafted... were worth more than their weight in gold.
What did the right of priority mean for Clarie and her father in the long term, then, if not the ability to lowball me like mad once I started to craft things that would be of much greater value?
On the other hand, however, what guarantee do I have that I could actually be crafting anything better than I already did?
And ultimately, why was Claire grimacing so damn hard?
"I'm sorry, but I cannot give you an answer yet. And while I don't want you to think of it as my refusal..." I shook my head before looking up and staring right into Chihiro's calm eyes. "The amount you offered makes me weak in the knees, so I need to calm down and properly think it through before giving you an answer."