Chapter 17 - Workin’ Girl

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Author's Note: This work has passed a (personal) milestone of 50 collections~

Also before my next post (after this one) the total view count will probably surpass 10k (but for now it's at least OVER 9000!?)~

ALSO! for anyone perhaps wondering, the end of this chapter will mark the total so far as ~ 36k words. Averaging 2k a chapter! The messed up thing being a lot of the chapters (after the first which I made longer on purpose) were 1800 or a little less before I went editing happy with revisions. Way too many of them approach 2.5k...

That's *with* subtracting out the [Q&A] that I did! I may probably smash that into Auxillary Volumes while there are no comments on it (now that I know how to do that). So if that causes some shenanigans with new chapter notifs for anyone, I apologize ahead of time.

**Anyway!**

I felt like that combination of numbers would be a good time to tell current readers that I did submit this work a while back and successfully got contracted. Yay! All signed and finalized two days ago.

I'm currently planning for premium chapters to begin at [Chapter 26]. Am I dastardly enough to do it on ~somewhat~ of a cliffhanger? Of course I am.

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"Right this way~"

The wavy haired brunette smiled and gestured before walking ahead of the nervous older boy. Guiding him to a certain section of books in a certain Guild library was a simple affair by now. Whispering Winds, an exploration and cartography guild.

While it was only four hours, three days a week - Elua had more than grown accustomed to the place and where everything was in it over the last four months.

This was true in *all three* libraries she helped at.

She had been given a number of options to work and said yes to just about all of them. Interestingly, 'assistant receptionist' in varied departments of a few different Guilds were six out of the seven titles of (official) things she'd been doing to make use of her time… now that Qat was off 'having fun being an adult'.

The girl knew it probably wasn't all that fun, but couldn't help but be a *little* bitter!

'Still more than two years before I'm even thirteen. Some months after that for my own 'career' to stabilize and our ceremony to happen. Then comes sufficing with kisses and *cuddles* for years after that. Until we are both 'adults in our prime'.'

The ancient cultivator she once used to be had been patient in schemes and more… but that was developed over a lot of time and failures. She really wanted to live in the same household as her husband-wife after marriage, yet Elua er Goltbred now feared being idle and bored enough to be tempted into *certain things* one day.

Hence why, through this part-time work, she was researching and enacting ways to relieve that tedium a bit.

'Can't reach Breacher without alerting everyone because I can't find certain materials in this 'backwater' to help me hide the breakthrough. Which means I also can't proceed to Primalist in the lesser two without anyone knowing.'

She did hope that the little she was able to peruse public information at these places would give her some leads… but it was no surprise the region was simply 'poor' in cultivation knowledge. While she considered just 'disappearing' for a week to travel far enough away to not be discovered - that seemed like a drastic move. Just going missing that long would cause issues.

The main reason she wanted to break her two peaks in Enchanter was to relieve the boredom, but her multiple part-time 'jobs' were partially filling that role. They provided a schedule, a set of things to do, as well as chances for small new occurrences to witness or little problems that needed to be addressed. The only issue she had with them was-

'Out of all the acquaintances willing to do them favors, why don't they know anyone in Qat's Guild!'

She complained about this a dozen times a week. Her father was actually in the same Guild, but she decided she would ignore that fact and forgo referring to it by name and only prefix the organization with 'Qat's' when speaking about it. Doing so directly in front of the man had been satisfying!

She had come to the conclusion that Ondua - and maybe also Yatrel after their carriage discussion - had perhaps intentionally steered clear of letting her get too close to the Yecine for a while. It was true, but confirming it with them wouldn't have made 'detoxifying' any less painful the first month without having the tall girl around. She really considered herself 'envenomed' by all that lovely time spent in close proximity at the Youth Guild.

…

"Senior, if there's nothing pressing, it is that time of day again."

"Ah, very well. Take care, Miss Goltbred."

After notifying the older woman that acted as the head receptionist, the mint eyed girl gave a curtsy. She exited the library and joined the relatively young servant waiting to take her for a quick lunch between jobs.

It was one sort of nice change, in Elua's opinion, about all the work. She had more autonomy outside of her estate than in the past. At least her parents themselves didn't have to be around and delegated a near 'personal' servant to attend to her new comings and goings which were not tied to their off days.

'It's almost a shame that she is a mortal. I could have at least taught her a thing or two about cultivation as thanks. Though she is getting paid, so maybe I shouldn't worry.'

The brunette heiress too was receiving small wages for her work, with the occasional bonus for her 'effort'. The place she was traveling next after they ate especially wished the young girl would stay for longer than only three hours twice a week.

A merchant company headed by a man who Yatrel had, not surreptitiously, informed her daughter was a longtime admirer of the woman. It was even the one job that wasn't customer facing, but kept close to the owner like his assistant.

The scheming cultivator knew exactly why - so that if her mother was ever the one to retrieve her for the day or in an emergency, the man would see her! However, that wouldn't be reason enough for the older gentlemen to actually want the girl to stay for longer periods. She was a living reminder that Yatrel was happily married.

While it wasn't spread publicly, Elua had done three 'important' things for the company.

During her help filing paperwork, she had discovered and informed that a certain product obtained in bulk was being sold to them at forty percent over what her studies told her was average in the region. For the last year. It had somehow gone unnoticed in the paperwork. The money there was actually going to the place intended and the man could only grit his teeth and renegotiate at the next contract.

Using that as an example, she then eventually discovered two other incidents of 'likely' embezzlement with a member of the company colluding with an outside partner. One individual was fired and the other put on a sort of probation… because of nepotism. The merchant company owner couldn't reasonably get rid of the troublemaking cousin without upsetting too many 'related' investors!

"Miss Goltbred, have you come up with any more ideas?"

The shameless man asked Elua after the brunette began a short break an hour and a half in. She had been skimming all the recent contracts and other letters received since the last time she was there to help organize for the somewhat messy individual. Another reason she had been so welcomed was that his last secretary had quit - and the Young Miss came with a servant attending her that would fidget and help tidy up the personal office!

"Mm. Fifty percent profit take."

"As someone taking all the risk and providing all of the capital, I'm afraid the best I could offer is ten percent."

She'd only sought three for the last! He had only offered to write up a contract then because of her mother, as the girl had 'naively' just spoken about the limited seasonal venture in his presence. He of course didn't know it was a test.

"Well, I'm sure I could convince my mother to find another company with more sensible people leading it for this one. I did like everyone here, though." 

She had the gall to act saddened at the thought of going elsewhere over this. The pair got along relatively well despite their 'age gap' due to the fact that they were both shameless over different matters that just so happened to not conflict. 

"Twenty and your mother joins me for tea on one of her coming days free of her work."

"Twenty five and you work harder on finding those materials for my fiance's gift we discussed last week."

He gulped as her voice gained some severity by the end. While he had come to enjoy the time with the child more than he expected, as she was both smart and a very sweet little girl - there was just one thing that would ruin that perception… for most people. The owner had been attracted to the Dame Goltbred since the day he watched her icily pummel some 'no name' that was targeting her intended.

He didn't understand how come no woman would be so beautifully insane for his sake!

'But it is clearly a trait passed down…'

"Thirty and you'll have my apologies. My connections do not extend beyond this continent and… as I'm sure you've read in the letters I've been getting, no one has heard of goods with the description you provided."

The Goltbred heiress puffed out her cheek. She knew the local region was terrible for the future married couple's progression, but that the whole continent was that bad was an annoyance! Of course traveling a continent or seven to find materials wasn't all that out of the ordinary in her last life… but that was after reaching Defier and when things slowed down more drastically.

'All that I was looking for was to make a weapon that would be worthy of a triple-Primalist with her Aspects.'

While tools that would be appropriate for an Upper Realm cultivator would be stretching her abilities, something so 'basic' as the blueprint she had in mind for the swordswoman was doable. She had already been getting in the graces of a local artisan for access to a place that she could make it - as well as someone to do the labor for her 'new idea'.

Elua barely felt bad about the small illusion construct she implanted in her attendant and flipped active when meeting with the craftswoman… Or the modified life tracking sigil she carved deep into the jeweler's spirit without her permission. She was not exactly trusting of the Citrine Fang Society the woman was a rank-and-file member of.

'Any Guild whose main purpose was protecting the interests of artisans must have hidden rules and politics.'

"Okay, thirty percent. I'll tell you all about the new product as we sign a contract. But can you help me gather some other things?"

She sounded absolutely crestfallen despite potentially obtaining more passive income than most adults. At least temporarily until others horned in on the idea, if they ever could.

"Well…"

"Please? I still want to give Qat a gift. These next things shouldn't be nearly so difficult and I'm willing to pay whoever you assign the task a… a small bonus."

Mint eyes just like her mothers glistened up at the older gentleman and… he held himself back from refusing. It wasn't that he was unwilling to task a lower member of his company to shop for the young miss.

The only reason he wouldn't help the child was to see if she would start looking at him chillingly again! He felt his principles should be stronger than to do something like that - and lucky for him he was right.

"Scribble a new list and I'll see what can be done."

Elua nodded and went back to work. By the end of the third hour she had written the new items she wanted, signed a lucrative contract - that she secretly applied a spiritual mask that would fool anyone other than the pair of them - and explained the kind of thing his company would be selling. As well as the numerous secretive aspects that made him worry!

The description caused him to shudder in equal parts greed and fear. A wearable tool with an effect, even reduced, of a kind of ritual circle that was just hard to find specialists in sounded too good to be true. He'd heard some rumors, but finally 'understood' how the Goltbred heiress could be labeled as a 'medical fairy'.

'This is much more than I expected. If I don't do everything carefully, my company may be swallowed whole by a large family… or even some of the more aggressive Guilds. I definitely can't even risk selling them locally!'

It was such a wonderful headache he had when the girl left that he completely forgot about her other 'little request'. Which for her was the more important by far.

'I might have to ruin him at this rate…'

The look and probing questions he got for that mistake, on Elua er Goltbred's next work day, somewhat made him understand what Yatrel's 'opponents' went through as they were accused before beaten or killed! It was at that point he realized principles were *very* important… and that 'insanity' came in more than a few forms than physical violence.