“You!” I turn to find Clodia’s mother, Marcella, with wide eyes. “What in the rotten name of the World’s Tree are you doing?!”

“Hello to you too,” I say, taken aback.

“What’s that on you?” Marcella looks possessed as she steps into the room and stops right in front of me, scanning me from head to toe.

“Lots of charm?” I reply cheekily.

She’s sensing the wheat, I think to myself. I had imagined that it would be something good since I found the huge bundle between the gifts from literal Gods, but I didn’t know Clodia’s mother would be able to sense it from wherever she lived.

“Mom, what are you doing here?” Clodia steps to the other end of the table and stands by my side.

“This Human has something of incredible value on him. What is it?” Her eyes blast a hole through me.

“Mother,” Clodia says in a stricter tone, “stop harassing Joey.”

“Don’t worry,” I smile at Clodia before looking at Marcella and taking a step back. I put my hand in my bag of holding and take out a few spikes of the magical wheat. “Check it out.”

Marcella takes it from my hand and looks at the wheat wildly.

“The Mana in this…” she mutters, immediately taking out a rectangular stone and placing it on top of the wheat. The stone shines blindingly, and I can see Marcella put it away quickly, focusing her gaze on the wheat before slowly looking up at me.

“If you use any skills on me,” I tell Marcella with a raised hand, “I’m not closing any business deals with you. I have plans, but I will not be manipulated into anything. If that’s clear, speak your mind.”

Marcella closes her mouth, and her lips become a thin line.

“Rotten roots,” she swears, “alright. What’s this, and what’s your price? I won’t use skills that influence our deals, but I am using skills to match the exact value of this.”

“Feel free to do that,” I shrug, “I don’t have a specific price for this. I will, however, welcome an investment from you. I’ll give you a valuation of how much I think my business is worth, then we can structure the company so that you can be the Chairman.”

“Chairman?” Marcella looks at me curiously.

“I want to open a business. You can fund it for a percentage of the ownership. We’ll run it in a very specific way that I will explain once I have gathered the consensus from the Three Roses. If they are in, we can call a meeting, bring in some [Lawyers] or whoever crafts legal documents here, and then, we can discuss the conditions.”

Marcella weighs my words for a few moments before nodding back.

“Can I have the magical wheat back?” I ask with a smile.

“Is that its name?” Marcella says, offering it back.

“I have no idea. I can name it later. We’ll need some highly experienced [Farmers] to cultivate this stuff.”

“Since cultivating this will be hard, I’m sure I can supply you with great terms for—”

“[Farmers] will jump on the opportunity to level up with this,” I say with a deadpan. “We’ll talk business after I’ve made the Three Roses to accept. Then, I’ll open the company, and you will have a share.”

That’s when Marcella raises an eyebrow.

“Oh, you want to open the company?” She says with a smile. “Human, you don’t know our laws, do you?”

“No,” I shake my head, “but I’m not afraid of bureaucracy anymore, Marcella. I’m ready to do whatever it takes.”

…

I enter the door of the very pink-looking bakery that has been a sworn enemy of Clodia’s for a long time – the Three Roses. The bell above the door rings gently as I step into a mostly empty storefront and get in line to talk with the girl at the counter.

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“Hi,” I say when it’s my turn, “I need to talk to Camilla.”

…

“Joey!”

I’m enjoying a piece of some very sugary cake when I see Camilla barging out of the kitchen with her arms arched at her sides like a caveman.

“Hi!” I wave at her and get up.

“Are you finally ditching Clodia?! Are you coming to work for me?!”

I laugh at the little blonde bundle of energy.

“Close enough, but no. Why don’t you sit?”

“Sit?! SIT?! How can I sit?! Spit it out!”

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I recoil at the scream that makes every head in the bakery turn. A moment later, I can see Amelia, the statuary Goddess – Clodia’s girlfriend – exit the double doors of the kitchen with murder on her face.

“Camilla! Stop shouting!” She shouts at her younger sister.

“I will throw a knife at you,” Camilla says, actually taking out a knife from a bag of holding at her side.

“Heeyyy, why don’t we all calm down? Hi, Amelia! Sorry for the ruckus; I came to talk business.”

The icy queen looks at me with narrowed eyes before pointing at the double doors.

“Let’s go to the back room. You have both bothered our clients enough.”

As we walk through the kitchen – I am still carrying the cake with me – I strain my neck to look for Irene. But she’s nowhere to be seen.

Maybe she has another shift, I think to myself.

Cleaning up the Irene fiasco is going to be yet another big problem. She thinks I have a thing for Flaminia while, in reality, the pink-haired woman was just hallucinating because of some problems she’d had in her personal life.

I rub my hair, sighing as I cross the pink door that leads to the back room of the bakery.

We take a seat at the table, and even though I’m here for business, I can’t help but ask the question plaguing my mind.

“Is Irene coming later?” I ask, slightly cringing at myself.

“She’s been fired,” Amelia replies in her icy tone.

“Wait, what?” I recoil.

“She skipped work for three days in a row, and when she was here, she was raving about chocolate.”

I stare at the two sisters with wide eyes, wondering whether I should say more or less.

“Ok, huh… that’s…” I scratch my head, not sure what to say.

“I can give you her address if you want,” Camilla says promptly, “as long as you accept to work with us.”

“No, thank you. It’d be too weird for me to just drop by. So, is she working anywhere else or…”

“Human,” Amelia chides, “are we here for business or your love affairs?”

“Shut up, Amelia!” Camilla shouts at her sister.

“It’s fine, she’s right,” I say guiltily. “I’m just worried about Irene, that’s all. I came here to discuss business.”

“If you want, we could put poison in her brother’s gruel,” Camilla says with nervous energy exuding from her. “I’m sure we can pull that off.”

“Sure, they are already accusing the Human of poisoning his opponent. Why don’t we actually commit a crime so that we can all end up in jail,” Amelia replies with an annoyed look.

“Wait, what? They are accusing… me?”

The two sisters look at each other.

“Yes,” Amelia replies, “some rumors say that the [Corporal] you faced was poisoned. Word through Amorium’s grapevine is that you are responsible for his death—that you might have poisoned him to win the duel since there was no other way for you to win.”

Something in me snaps.

“What?!” I slam my fist on the table, and the wood splinters with a crack. “Those lying, conniving little bastards! I can’t believe this! Why would I poison that little rat?! I could have cracked him like an egg!”

By the time I get to the end of the last sentence, I realize that my emotions have gone out of control. Amelia and Camilla look very tense, and I look down at my fist—then at the sturdy table that I punched through.

“Oh, shit,” I say, suddenly panicking, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I don’t know what took over me. It’s… it’s just been a very stressful twenty-four—sorry, twenty-seven hours for me. I’m sorry about your table. I’ll pay for it.”

But even though I’m apologizing, I still feel fiery hot anger coursing through my veins. I feel the same anger that I would when someone insulted my mother, but now, it’s been somehow triggered by something completely unrelated.

What the hell is happening to me? I think to myself, trying to give them a reassuring smile. Deep down, though, I’m imagining going up to the barracks again and wringing Plinius’s neck or whatever bastard has been talking shit behind my back.

I want to kill those motherfuckers, I find myself thinking before even realizing it. Wait, what the—what the hell is happening?!

“Hum, listen, ladies, I have a business proposal,” I squeeze the words out while my mind is still thinking about wringing Plinius’s neck, “I have already talked to Clodia. I have a merger proposal to get all of us to work together. We would split percentages based on our respective roles and the overall importance of what we do. I have some great plans to expand in Amorium. I want to help people get a nice job but also elevate the baking standards around here. There’s a lot of stuff I can do, but first, I need you to accept. Since you probably need to talk with your sister too, I can wait. But the sooner you decide, the better.”

“We accept,” Camilla says without even thinking.

“Shut up,” Amelia pushes her off the chair. “What, exactly, would be your offer, Human?”

“I want to merge the businesses and make you all work in the positions that suit you better. I have enough knowledge to dominate Amorium even on my own—however, I want to work with people I trust and respect. Also, can you stop calling me Human? I have a fucking name.”

“Luciani,” Amelia sounds out the name slowly, “we’ll discuss this between us.”

“Good. If you accept, nothing will be done yet. We need to sit down and talk it through with Clodia, Flaminia, and Marcella, Clodia’s mother. That said, I really need to go now. If you accept, we can talk tomorrow morning.”

I get up, ignoring whatever they are saying.

Something is bugging me—I can feel the same feeling as, perhaps, anxiety going through each of my limbs and my chest. However, as I step out of the Three Roses, it becomes very clear that this is no anxiety.

This is pure anger.