The Author's POV

Chapter 157: Setting up the framework [1]

"Thank you for your purchase, your order will be delivered to you in a week's time"

Coldly looking at me, Richard handed me a receipt and proceeded to ignore me. Rolling my eyes at his obvious display of jealousy I headed back towards the sofas.

Honestly, though annoying, Richard's behavior was quite amusing. Although he acted like a typical arrogant young master, he wasn't looking down on me nor saying things like 'how dare you touch my Amanda! you're courting death!'

It was sort of refreshing…I guess he was just a very frank person.

Either way, once again sitting on the sofa as a light sigh escaped from my mouth, I looked at the receipt in my hand and fell into deep thought.

20,000,000 U

I spent a total of 20,000,000 U on a sword today…

That was just about all of the money I had saved up excluding the budget for the mercenary group which was pretty much off-limits.

…I was now once again poor.

Still, I didn't regret my decision.

If this decision proved instrumental in keeping myself safer in the future, then it was a worthy investment.

After all, my life was more important than money.

Plus, I could very well make the money back in the future. Especially so since I now had a clear direction with regards to earning money.

"Ah!"

Suddenly recalling something I smacked my fist on the palm of my hand.

'Right, I guess now that Amanda is with me I may as well bring the topic of the company project to her'

…I had originally planned on doing this a long time ago, but since I didn't have a concrete product at the time, I didn't do it. However, now that a bit of time had passed since I gave the outline of the project to Melissa, the initial phases of the product were now completed.

From what Melissa showed me, it was now presentable for investments.

Thinking along those lines, my eyes quickly drifted towards the sofa next to me where Amanda was sitting. However just as I was about to bring the topic up, I stopped myself as what I saw and heard made me speechless.

With his elbow on the handrail of the stairs, leaning backward, Richard stared at Amanda who was sitting on the sofa next to me and casually said

"…So, Amanda how long has it been since we've last seen each other?"

Ignoring Richard as she looked through the tablet, Amanda bluntly said

"I forgot"

Not minding Amanda's cold tone, Richard chuckled.

"hehe, but I didn't forget, it's been a total of one month and three days since I've last seen you. Not once did I forget the moment you walked through the door and stole my heart, ever since that day I've bee…"

Completely unfazed by Richard's long love confession, pointing towards the screen of the tablet, Amanda said

"I want to purchase this and this"

Seeing Amanda point towards the tablet, taking his elbow off of the handrail of the stairs, Richard enthusiastically moved to where she was and said

"Oh, you're buying this one? A very wise choice…"

Watching Richard continuously try to flirt with Amanda, I was left speechless.

What sort of failed attempt at flirting was this?

Wasn't Amanda making it obvious that she wasn't interested? Even I who was terrible at dealing with girls could see this.

Facepalming as I cringed at Richard from where I was sitting, I thought to myself.

'…this guy is a total simp'

In the end, much to Richard's disappointment Amanda only spoke a few words to him as she placed her orders down. Regardless of how much Richard tried to shift the conversation, Amanda would just coldly ignore him.

After purchasing everything that she wanted, much to Richard's distraught, Amanda stood up and looked at me.

"Let's go"

"Alright"

Nodding my head, supporting my body with my hands, I stood up and followed Amanda out of the worn-down apartment. According to what I've been told, our orders would be automatically delivered to our dorms in a couple of days thus after we placed the orders we were pretty much done.

Seeing Amanda leave, a trace of disappointment flashed Richard's eyes. Thereafter looking at me for a couple of seconds, he raised his voice and said

"Miss Stern thank you for your patronage, I hope to see you again in the future…preferably alone"

Hearing the last part of his sentence, shaking my head, I followed Amanda out.

How petty.

Waiting at the entrance of the building was the same old man with a hunch back from before. Opening the door, the old man said

"Ignore that the lad, thank you for the patronage, I hope to see you again"

Nodding her head towards the old man, Amanda left the building. Following Amanda's example, I too thanked the old man and left the building.

"mhm"

"Yes, thank you"

-Clank!

Shortly after, as the large metal door behind us closed, we soon found ourselves back outside the streets. Turning towards Amanda, I softly said

"Amanda there is something I want to talk to you about"

Glancing at me, Amanda tilted her head and said

"Something to talk about?"

"Yeah, do you have time?"

Pondering for a couple of seconds, Amanda eventually nodded her head.

"Yes, I do"

…since today was her day off she naturally had free time.

Moreover, glancing at the black cat resting on my shoulder, Amanda bit her lips as she swore to herself that she would one day pet her.

Though she tried to hide it from everyone, Amanda had a weak spot for animals…and after seeing Ren's cat, Amanda couldn't stop herself from wanting to pet it. Fortunately, having seen how aggressive pudding was, Amanda refrained from doing anything.

…she didn't want to get slapped like Ren.

Unaware of Amanda's inner thoughts, glancing towards my surroundings, I quickly said

"…let's go somewhere else. This isn't really the most ideal place."

Snapping out of her thoughts, Amanda nodded her head.

"Okay"

However, just as we were about to move, recalling something, I glanced at Amanda and asked

"Ah, also preferably do you know any place that is secluded? Like where there aren't many people?"

Tilting her head to the side, a confused look appeared on Amanda's face as she asked.

"why?"

Seeing the look of confusion on Amanda's face, I didn't respond immediately.

…why?

Was she not even aware of her looks?

*Sigh*

As a sigh escaped from my mouth, I made up a random excuse.

"Because I don't like crowds"

After a bit of thought, Amanda eventually nodded her head and turned right to one of the alleyways.

"Okay"

Usually, Amanda would've immediately refused such a proposition as she wasn't comfortable with going to secluded spaces alone with a boy…however, strangely, she didn't feel that way with Ren.

Oddly enough, she wasn't repulsed by the idea.

In fact, this was probably the first time in her life that she felt this way…was it perhaps because of pudding? or was it because Ren gave her an odd sense of security?

…Amanda didn't know.

Although she knew her feelings weren't that of love, at the moment, she didn't dislike Ren.

Unaware of Amanda's thoughts about me, I smiled brightly and said

"Great, lead the way"

Nodding her head, after thinking for a bit, Amanda decided to go towards a certain cafe' that she liked to frequent with Emma.

"Follow me"

Thus, following Amanda around, after walking out of the alleys and heading towards the main street, we walked for a couple of minutes before soon arriving at a rather secluded area that had little to no people around.

Noticing a small shop that looked quite modern and had a transparent retractable door at the entrance of the store, glancing at Amanda I asked

"Is that the place?"

Nodding her place, Amanda headed towards the cafe'

"Yes"

As we made our way through the transparent glass door of the cafe', a blanket of warm air brushed past my skin warming my body immediatly. Subsequently, the rich aroma of the coffee invaded my nostrils prompting me to directly stare at the blackboard on top of the cashier.

Displayed on it, were different types of coffees.

"Welcome"

Welcoming Amanda and I at the register was a moderately beautiful young girl. Greeting the young girl back, Amanda and I quickly placed our orders.

Shortly after, as Amanda ordered an Americano and I took an espresso, we soon found a table in the corner of the shop and decided to go there.

-Squek! -Squek!

As Amanda and I were walking towards the table in the corner of the shop, the aged wooden floor creaked beneath our feet creating a subtle squeaking sound. Ignoring this, arriving at the table, I made myself comfortable and sat on a bulky wooden chair that had a small cushion on top.

Sitting on the opposite side of me, Amanda calmly took a sip of her coffee and looked at me. After a short pause, she said

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

Putting my espresso down, taking out my phone, and turning on the holographic function of my phone, I quickly played a video to Amanda.

"Here, have a look at this"

In order to convince Amanda, I had asked Melissa beforehand to send me a video of the current progress of her research…and the video I was currently going to show Amanda was a prototype of a magic card.

Staring at the holographic image before her, Amanda curiously asked.

"What is this?"

"Just watch"

As the video loaded up, pressing the play button, the scenery changed to that of a white room. In the middle of the room stood a red card that was about the size of a Tarot card. Two metallic pincers held onto the card from the top and bottom.

Subsequently, a crisp voice echoed from the speaker of the phone as the pincers holding onto the card glowed a red hue.

"Initializing flame psyon injection"

Thereafter, as the voice faded, the pincers became brighter as they soon injected mana into the card.

-Buuam!

Shortly after the card was injected with mana, a scorching red flame erupted from the card burning everything that was before it. This lasted for a couple of seconds before the flame soon disappeared and the card returned to its regular appearance.

After a brief moment of silence, a crisp voice once again echoed through the speaker of the phone.

"Test subject 749, prototype seems to now be able to successfully cast simple tier I spell Fireball. Referencing back with data analysis, efficiency loss is 42%, Power loss…"

-Plack!

Ignoring the last bit and turning off the phone, a faint smile appeared on my lips as I looked at Amanda before me.

"So, what do you think?"

Staring at the phone in my hand, Amanda's eyes were wide open as a look of shock appeared on her delicate face.

Seeing Amanda's reaction, I smiled.

Honestly, when I first saw the video I had a similar reaction to her.

Because I wasn't as talented in the field of magic as I was in swordsmanship, I could only look at mages in envy. Although I could learn magic, because I wasn't talented for it, it would probably take me a long time to learn the most simple spell.

…simply put, a waste of time. Thus I could only give up on my initial dream of casting fireballs.

However, now that Melissa was developing the magic card, people would now be able to cast spells. The idea was groundbreaking.

It was only after a couple of seconds had passed that Amanda was able to finally recover from her shock. Shortly after, starting at me she asked

"What was that?"

Smiling at Amanda, I proudly said

"A new product that I'm developing alongside Melissa, the magic card"

Taken aback, Amanda tried to make sure she heard correctly.

"Magic card? Melissa? Which Melissa? Melissa Hall?"

Nodding my head, I confirmed

"Yes, our classmate Melissa"

Seeing me confirm that it was indeed Melissa that I was working with, Amanda softly mumbled

"Her? how can it be her…"

Amanda was currently extremely confused.

She had known Melissa for quite a bit and from what she observed, she had never seen Melissa get along with anyone nor even interact with them.

Just finding out that she was working with someone else on a project, shocked Amanda.

Melissa was definitely not the type of person that would work with just anyone. Especially if it was something as big as this.

Halting her thoughts there, Amanda looked at Ren before her. Currently, a faint smile appeared on his lips as an air of confidence exuded from his body.

'Right, Melissa would definitely not be working with someone else unless the idea wasn't hers…'

So this meant that the one that came up with the idea was Ren!

Thinking along those lines, everything started to make sense. If he was the one that came up with the idea and had asked Melissa to develop the product then it was understandable as to why she was working with him…moreover, thinking back at the incident that had happened at the very beginning of the year, with regards to the mana poisoning theory, Amanda found the possibility of him being the one that came up with the idea more and more probable.

"Huuu…"

In the end, as Amanda thought along those lines, calming down and taking a deep breath, Amanda deeply looked into my eyes as she seriously said.

"So, why did you show me the video?"

Smiling and interlocking my hands together as I leaned forward a bit, I slowly said.

"Simple really…it's because I want to make a deal with you"