“I… I don’t know who that is.” Velvet admitted. She had never killed someone, but she knew that the path she was taking wasn’t clean of blood. Sooner or later, her hands would no longer be clean.

“Good. Just remember his name.” She coughed, before letting out a coarse laugh. “Not like you can ever forget.”

Velvet was gonna retort when Couger came towards them running.

“Look, that kid never once puked.” Viroa didn’t waste a moment to make her remember that memory once again.

“Sponsor him then. Support the young talent!”

When he was close enough, he started talking. “We are deploying the nets, there’s a bunch of fishes ahead.”

“Couger,” Velvet started. “Captain Viroa says you are the best marine she ever had~ You should ask for a raise.”

Take that, you greedy hag. The greed paradigm would suit you the best. Velvet felt an intense joy seeing the sour face Viroa made, in comparison to the surprised but extremely happy face Couger made.

She knew that Viroa wouldn’t destroy Couger hopes, so she targeted the point that was going to bother her the most. The wallet.

“O-oh.” Scratching his head in embarrassment, he looked intermittently between them. “T-thank you so much! Ah! I need to be helping!” Bowing before leaving as fast as he came, Couger went to ready the nets, leaving the two scheming women behind.

“I helped before with the fuath, so I’m gonna go act as cargo!” Velvet ignored the glare directed at her. “Make sure the favors you’re owed get me a nice accommodation! Velvet’s Murder Services are worth that much!”

“I’d make you sleep with the fuaths if I could.” She whispered in a groan, not wanting Velvet to hear that and turn back.

…

The rest of the trip had no more problems. They arrived at Coris before midday, making a stop to sell a few things and buy some coal.

As a rather cheap steam boat, the Algae wasn’t made for long voyages into the ocean, usually just going from Casrey to Caris to Dodon and back.

Velvet always liked Caris. Different from the mountainous Casrey, it was a flat little island full of exotic and delicate flowers. Most of the people here worked as florists, beekeepers or pastissers, selling or exchanging their work to sailors like Viroa and others to be taken and reselled on the capital.

That meant she wasn’t gonna stay idle on the ship. She had made a few charms on the way here, planning to sell them before arriving at Dodon, since the capital had too much competition. Also, she wanted to eat a real Carissian breakfast.

She jumped down the ship, carrying her suitcase. She didn’t bother to hold onto her hat, since it had a charm to resist being stolen by the wind or gravity.

Caris harbor smelled better than Casrey’s, the sweets smells of flowers and cakes mixing with the smoke from the ships.

Velvet went to the shop with chairs and tables to eat, ordering some traditional foods.

After a while, a tray with one small cake filled with roasted goat cheese and dripping with honey, a glass with cold strawberry tea and an apple cut in slices resembling a flower with a bit of cinnamon on top (living closely to sailors made Velvet know the importance of eating fruits and vegetables on the regular), all of it decorated with some differents types of edible flowers, carried by a woman in a simple white dress was put in front of her.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Helping herself to the delicious and deserved food, Velvet licked her fingers clean from the honey, before opening her suitcase.

Bird repellent, worm repellent, goat repellent, humidity repellent, humidity attract… She checked her charm stash, before going to talk to some gardeners.

…

“Five goat repellents, that’ll be two auris and fifteen chalkins.” She had decided to raise her prices from six to fifteen chalkins, no longer needing to stay hidden from Madam Dorna. Still, she wasn’t gonna raise the price to a whole auri yet, since she preferred selling them fast and gaining experience from doing a lot of them.

Giving the charms to the gardener, she kept feeling an annoying sensation on the back of her neck.

“She keeps following me…” She communicated to Hyde, acting as if nothing was wrong.

“You really have a skill to attract old ladies.”

Velvet grimaced. “Don’t say it like that, I feel like being cursed by grannies.”

“Maybe you are.”

“You’re making me cry Hyde, look at me, I’m in tears.” Velvet gave up, turning around a corner, using the Fast stroll spell to circle around the houses and going straight to the old woman's back, without giving her time to prepare.

Making her bestest, nicest smile, she saluted from behind the old lady. “Hello! Can I help you?”

The woman jumped in fright, tumbling a bit and pressing a hand upon her heart. “For Arhontissa’s sake! You almost gave me a heart attack!”

Arhontissa, huh? So she’s not a Mirel believer… Velvet mused, a bit disappointed. Charlampa Archipelago had no official religion since the start of the third Maquia, but sometimes immigrants carried their own beliefs from the other four habitable continents.

She didn’t care about the gods, but most magicians warned her about Mirel followers, since, when the Inquisition had no power over a place, they tended to take matters into their own hands.

Her smile unwavering, Velvet continued. “Hm? Did I? Maybe you just were too distracted with something else~ I am currently selling homemade charms, is madam interest-”

“Shhh!” The lady shut her up, looking around alarmed. Then, when she verified no one was close to them, she turned to Velvet. “Yes,” She talked very low, making Velvet put effort on hearing her. “I want a charm.”

Velvet made an ‘okay’ gesture, opening her suitcase and showing her the remaining charms. The lady refused with her head, pushing aside the suitcase. “I need something to help my husband…”

“What illness does he have?” Velvet ignored Hyde’s scoff in her head.

“No, he isn’t ill. I need something to… ‘power’ him up.”

Trying not to laugh at the poor woman, Velvet kept pressuring. “Power him up? I have some strengthening talismans…”

“Stop acting innocent and bullying the poor woman.” Hyde scolded her.

“I wanna see how far she can go.” It was not like Velvet had experience, not being interested on Casrey’s options, but she had read some of the books Madam Dorna kept hidden.

“I want him to…” she put her hands closed together, with both index fingers pointing down, then, she made them point up, raising her eyes at Velvet, who was trying not to laugh.

“Oooohhh… now I understand,” She lied, pulling a blank paper. “I dont have one, but I can make it. Give me a few minutes.” After imbuing it with magic, she wrote some symbols and words with the homemade ink she had made, mixing some herbs and seeds that helped with channeling and containing magic, then she folded it in a five pointed star and gave it to the lady.

“Special charm, five uses, put it under his pillow before the act. The star spikes will break one by one after each use.”

She started picking up the materials, opening her mouth to tell the price of fifteen chalkings, but the lady, apparently in a hurry after waiting for the charm to be made, dropped three auris on her suitcase, before running away.

Velvet picked the money with stars on her eyes. “See? Acting innocent and not rushing things is a profitable business.”

She heard Hyde’s sigh on her head.