12 Reaping Money[2]

Currently...

Keara and I are eating.

Well, I am, but Keara still has her head lowered.

"You should eat... The food will get cold."

I said.

Then looking at me, Keara picked up a spoon and took a bite from the meat in front of her.

Her eyes widened.

"This is so good!"

Then she exclaimed.

Keara's honest thought made me smile, I'm a human so it's normal that I like being praised.

"Really? That's good to hear."

"You cooked all of these?"

She asked, taking a bite of every food on the table.

"Yes, I did."

I replied with a light nod.

"You're..shoo...gooshd..at cooking!"

Keara's cheeks expanded, her mouth was full of food.

She's really cute.

"Slow down, there's enough for the both of us."

At my words, Keara got embarrassed and lowered her head again.

And after she calmed down, Keara looked at me again...

She's fidgeting.

"What?"

I asked her.

She was pretty hesitant to talk, but in the end, she opened her mouth...

"Are you gonna leave me now?"

She asked

My hand stopped moving and I looked at her.

She's serious about this, you can feel her worries and fears through her wavering voice and watering eyes...

Keara can't do anything if I decided to just leave her after a one-night stand. That's because she's a half-blood, and half-bloods' words are often ignored by the societies...

But just thinking of the idea disgusts me.

So with a calm voice, I asked Keara a question.

"Do you want me to?"

Keara who had her head bowed, tightly closed her eyes and shook her head.

"Then, why would I leave you?"

I asked and drank some water.

Though Keara's reply caught me by surprise.

"Because you already got my first time?"

"Keouk!"

I choked at what she said.

I calmed myself and looked at Keara.

"I will not."

I said, looking at her in the eyes with a frown.

'I'm not that kind of a scumbag!'

After letting out a sigh, I spoke again.

"But you can leave me whenever you want."

"Why would I do that?!"

Keara got agitated by my words. She stood up and slammed her hands on the table.

Not minding her actions, I replied with a shrug.

"Because I'm not that a good person."

Keara looked at me and frowned at my words.

"I'm a very greedy person."

I added.

Greed is normal to humans, and I'm no exception. I want to get everything I want, and I don't want to let go of what I have.

So it's better if the opposite party knows your greed...

With a sly smile.

"What would you do if I suddenly made my own harem?"

I jokingly said.

But Keara's next words almost made me choke again.

"Isn't it fine?"

She said casually.

My mind got complicated, but shaking my head, I remembered what I did to the story.

In this world, polygamy is normal. Many high-ranking heroes and important people have more than 2 wives, I did that for the protagonist, Alec...

But now thinking about it, it's weird.

'If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't put that in the novel...'

Now I'm questioning myself why I did that.

"If you got your own harem, would you neglect me?"

Snapping me out of my thoughts was Keara's question.

Glancing at her, I let out my honest thought.

"Well, no."

"As I said, I'm greedy. Once I have something I can call mine, I'll never let go of it."

"So if I do have a harem, I'll love them equally so they'll never leave m–"

In the middle of my proud and stupid speech, I suddenly frowned.

'It's like declaring I'm planning to have my own harem.'

Now I'm cringing at myself.

"Then it's fine, I'm just a halfling anyway. Worst case is someone will force me to be their concubine."

Keara said while smiling bitterly.

Seeing her lowering her value with a bitter smile, beat the shit out of my conscience.

Things like that do really happen, and it's a common occurrence.

In some of Keara's cases, they were forced into marrying someone by making their parents go into debt or by pushing them to the edge where they couldn't do anything else but agree.

And just knowing that that was happening, sparked an overwhelming anger deep inside me.

But I calmed down when I heard Keara's voice again.

"The fact that you are considering my feelings and you didn't discriminate against me means that you're already a good person."

Her words were too kind for me, it's hurting me.

So I rebutted.

"But there's a lot more better person than I am. More handsome, more kind, more—"

"But it's you that I want."

But my rebuttal was cut by Keara's words.

She blushed at what she said.

Her words were genuine and sweet.

'This... You're just not used to being cared for, that's why you quickly got attached to me...'

I thought as a complicated expression formed on my face.

Though, I'm blushing a little. I'm hiding it from Keara though.

Normally, I'll call this cringe, but when I heard it from Keara, and knowing that her words were directed at me...

The corner of my mouth twitched and threatened to rise.

Acting annoyed, I grabbed my spoon and spoke.

"Suit yourself. Let's continue eating."

Keara did as I instructed, she happily ate while grinning ear to ear.

***

After we finished eating...

I placed the dishes in the kitchen sink.

As I was about to enter the bathroom to take a bath, Keara pulled my hand and stopped me.

Looking at her...

"What?"

I asked.

"Umm... Emm..."

She seems hesitant to speak. So I urged her.

"What is it?"

But her face just reddened.

Seeing this, I kinda got an idea now what's on her mind.

Not to brag, but I'm pretty observative and can roughly tell what people want based on their actions.

So lightly scratching my cheek...

"Look... Tomorrow I'll go back to the Academy."

Keara's expression worsened at my words.

I smiled at her reaction.

I slouched down near her ear...

"So, do you want to take a bath with me?"

And whispered that softly.

Keara suddenly looked at me and got embarrassed.

But then, she slowly nodded her head...

And with that, we both entered the bathroom.

Today, it took me much longer to take a bath than usual.

***

"So, is it safe to say we're lovers?"

Keara asked me.

She's about to leave for work to the City Hall.

I was also dressing up because I had somewhere to go to.

"Well, the development is indeed fast. If my life was in a novel, many readers would be triggered..."

I said looking at Keara. She's confused.

"But I don't really care."

Even in the past, I just ignored the negative comments about my work, they just annoy me.

Being affected by them will surely alter the way I write, making the story in my head go bad.

Anyway...

A relationship with Keara wouldn't affect the story, she's an extra just like me anyway.

Keara just smiled.

And when she was about to exit the room...

"I'll wait for you tonight, take care."

I suddenly said that.

Keara halted for a moment, but she didn't say anything and just left.

Though, I can see her ears being rosy-red.

'Cute.'

After a while, I stood up from the bed and dressed up formally.

I now possess 2 black rings. One is the [Ring of Gluttony] and the new one is the [Celestria]. I reformed it into a ring.

I thought of putting it in the spatial storage at first but decided against the idea as I wouldn't be able to take it out immediately in case of an emergency.

So with that, I also left the hotel...

***

Not far away from the hotel I am staying...

I arrived at another hotel.

[Sunshine Hotel]

There are a lot of people already and I'm not even inside yet...

I actually planned to rent a room here, but I didn't because it cost too much.

I don't have a stable income yet after all.

But, that's why I'm here.

For my stable income...

Anyway, I entered the hotel with an envelope in my hand.

And as soon as I entered, a staff member greeted me.

"Welcome to the Sunshine Hotel!"

I just nodded in response and walked toward the receptionist.

Looking around, the inside is as luxurious as it was outside.

Everything was sparkly, it made me squint my eyes.

I like that it's clean inside, but this is just too much...

I can see a lot of colorful things everywhere I look. I personally like things more simple.

It's also crowded with people and it's noisy!

Upon arriving at the reception table...

"Hello Sir, how may I help you?"

The receptionist asked me

"I'm here to do business."

I replied immediately as I didn't want to be in this noisy place for long.

"Business?"

I nodded and whispered only for the receptionist to hear.

"Yeah, I have a business proposal for the [Paradise]."

[Paradise] is a black market...

The receptionist remained silent. He just tilted his head like he knew nothing about what I was talking about.

And seeing him acting clueless, annoyed me.

I scratched the back of my head...

"Look, I don't know the [Paradise]'s secret code, I'm new."

And said that in an annoyed tone.

Anyway, the reason I don't know the secret passcode is because I didn't put what is it specifically in the novel.

To be exact, in the novel, Alec can enter the black market because he has a VIP card that lets him in freely. He got it after killing a majin.

Majins are people who made contracts with demons. By contracting with a demon, they will be able to utilize a bit of the demon's power, and their stat will also greatly increase.

Anyway, the problem is that I don't know the secret code to enter the black market, but I know there's one.

I made it like that after all.

[You're the author but you don't know the code? Are you stupid?]

The system appeared, mocking me.

'Shut up, how the hell would I know that I will be transported inside my novel?'

I inwardly said to the system, it would read my thoughts anyway.

Looking back at the receptionist. He's just looking at me blankly.

I frowned and activated a little.

I'm a little taller than him, so I looked down at him.

And with a cold stare and voice...

"Contact the owner, I don't have that much time to waste."

I commanded him.

The receptionist flinched and unconsciously grabbed the phone.

But that's all he did. He immediately stopped moving and frowned at me.

"What did you just do, Sir?"

He asked me, intimidatingly.

Looking at his stat, he's rank, not too high, not too low.

Though, he's 8 ranks higher than me.

'He just unconsciously obeyed me because he was caught off guard, but now he can hold himself without any problem under my skill.'

"Tsk."

I clicked my tongue.

"I know a location of a dungeon that the [Heroes Federation] doesn't know yet."

"If you guys don't want it, then I'll just call the federation and make the proposal with them instead."

I declared, I really let him see that I was frustrated.

However, when I mentioned that, the receptionist's eyes opened wide.

He remained motionless for a brief moment. But then, he made a call in the end...

[Heroes Federation] is an organization filled with heroes that aren't part of any guild or clan.

They are what you can call the government among the heroes, they exist so the balance can remain.

If they didn't exist, guilds or heroes might start doing crimes and no one would be able to stop them openly.

As I said, I can make the business proposal with them instead, but the process would be annoying, considering my age and identity.

Anyway...

The receptionist is still talking on the phone.

And when the call ended, he looked at me and bowed his head.

"The master is waiting for you, please follow me."

His attitude changed immediately.

This annoyed me even further, but at least we're done here.

The receptionist started to walk away.

"What a fucking waste of time."

I muttered to myself...

I then took a deep breath and followed behind him.

We entered a VIP-only elevator.

There's no button to press inside that would bring us to different floors, instead, there's a card scanner.

The receptionist pulled out a card from his pocket...

Then he momentarily placed it in front of the scanner.

Beep-

Click-

Shhhhhhhhhh–

After that, the elevator's door closed and started to descend...

"Is it okay to leave the reception table just like that?"

I asked while the elevator was still moving.

"A new staff will naturally fill my spot."

And the receptionist answered without looking at me.

"Cool."

I'm not really interested. It's just that I'm bored.

***

After a while...

The elevator stopped and the door opened.

"Follow me."

Following the receptionist, we went out of the elevator...

And entered a small room, and in the middle of the room... There's a huge-ass portal.

Portals are rare so I looked at it with amusement, I was getting excited.

It's my first time seeing one after all...

Anyway, we entered that portal.

...

I frowned as a familiar nauseating feeling enveloped my whole body.

However, after a few moments, the discomfort was gone.

And fortunately, I didn't vomit...

Opening my eyes, I found myself in a completely different place.

And just by glancing a little, I can already tell...

The place is beautiful.

It's like I'm in an underground city, luckily, I maintained my calm while being amazed by my surroundings.

A lot of individuals are scattered everywhere.

There are a lot of structures and stores too.

It was exciting.

It's not called [Paradise] for nothing.

But not long after looking at the same place for about 5 minutes...

I got bored and just followed the receptionist quietly.

"..."

"Are you sure it's your first time here? First-timers tend to admire this place."

This time, it was the receptionist who asked me a question.

"I did admire it at first. But I got bored after looking at it for a while."

I answered in a calm voice.

"Why so?"

"I just easily lose interest in things that aren't mine."

"Hoh?"

The receptionist looked at me weirdly. I just shrugged and we continued walking.

I don't have a reason to explain things to him, I just answered because he answered my questions earlier.

Anyway...

I'm on my guard, Majins are also here after all.

This place is filled with heroes and majins.

There are also different races. Heck, some demons might even be mixed in the crowd.

But fighting here is prohibited, and in case a fight breaks out, all the individuals connected to it will be attacked.

Not just by the guards, but also by the customers and bystanders.

Why? Because you'll get a reward if you catch a rule breaker.

But even though I knew that rule, I didn't put my guard down, even a little bit...

And a few moments later, we reached a house.

'Nothing bad happened, good...'

I mumbled.

Then, looking at the underground house.

"This is good."

I whispered that to myself, the house is simple but stylish.

Well, the whole [Paradise] is really impressive... But this house just gives off a comfortable vibe.

And I like it...

We entered the house.

And just like on the outside, the inside is also simple and comfy looking.

Anyway...

I don't see any person, but I can sense someone's aura.

And they're incredibly strong...

After that, we entered a certain room. It's where I could feel the aura coming from.

Creak-

After entering...

"Welcome."

We were greeted by a foxy woman sitting on a blood-red sofa.

She has silky red-blood hair and ruby-like eyes. Her body has the right curves and her big bosoms... Unconsciously attract my gaze(I'm fighting it!).

Her lips are rosy and her whole figure is alluring.

She also has a unique aura, which makes him more seductive.

And the woman I'm looking at, I know her...

She's a rank hero.

She's also known as the most beautiful hero.

Her name is Ruby Skye...

Well, that's her English name.

I made her character a mystery and planned to slowly reveal it as the story progressed, but in the end, I couldn't. So even for me, she's somewhat mysterious as I don't know her past and future.

I just know some basic details about her and her habits.

And currently, she's a professor at Lunar...

Looking at her not wearing a mask, she's not even trying to hide her identity.

It looks like she doesn't know I'm a student in Lunar or she doesn't care and just sees me as a possible business partner.

Maybe, as Keara said, I do give off a mature aura that makes people think I'm older than my actual age.

Well, I'm actually 29 years old...

And this situation works just fine for me.

So I don't care.

Looking around the room, there are plenty of people dressed as maids and butlers. Each of them ranges from rank to .

'I should behave myself...'

Then, the receptionist I followed approached and stood behind Ruby.

My eyes met Ruby's.

Her gaze made me want to hug her, but I just looked at her calmly.

Maintaining my poker face.

"May I sit down? Walking was such a pain."

I said.

Ruby then smiled with a hint of interest in me...

"You may."

Then she said that.

"Thanks."

Sitting on her opposite. I crossed my legs and relaxed.

And looking in the front, I can see Ruby still staring at me.

I frowned.

"What?"

I asked her.

And her smile grew larger.

"Nothing, just that all men usually get flustered just by looking at me."

"Look at the men in this room."

Ruby stated.

Looking around again... I noticed all the men, no, even the women, were all blushing.

So what though?

With a shrug, I spat out my honest thoughts.

"That's because you're beautiful, when I saw you earlier, my heart raced and my body grew hot."

I don't like to hide what I'm feeling, so if possible, I always let out my honest thoughts.

"Hmm, so, are you saying that you like me?"

Ruby asked in a playful tone.

"Well, not really."

Which I replied in an uninterested voice.

"You're indeed beautiful, but I'll never like or love you just because of that."

I declared. All the people in the room displayed a shocked expression on their faces, Ruby just widened her eyes and smiled.

I don't know but... The people inside this room are all weird. (Raven doesn't want to admit it but when he said 'all', he's included.)