Chapter 38
Today, she had a long-distance commission from the southern region. If she used the teleportation stones sold at the temple, she could arrive at the commission site immediately without spending much time, but teleportation stones were too expensive for commoners to buy.
You don’t spend money when you’re out to earn it. With this mindset, Eden bought two train tickets.
Judging by how she did not hesitate to buy Bezel clothes, it was clear she was not a stingy person. For the breakfasts he’d been making in the mornings lately, Eden paid for the ingredients without fail.
But these comfortable spending habits were only possible because she had money. Eden believed in maximizing commission fees while minimizing additional expenses.
Come to think of it, speaking of incidental costs, she also needed to pay her new partner a daily wage. Originally, she had planned to count room and board as payment, but Bezel was proving more useful than expected.
‘How much would be appropriate?’
Eden glanced at Bezel sitting in the seat right next to her. They were on a train heading to the southern commission site. They’d moved so efficiently that they’d arrived a whole twenty minutes before departure time and were just sitting in their seats killing time.
Outside the window, pigeons were pecking at bread crumbs someone had dropped. Watching them suddenly reminded her of the crow demon she’d encountered before. That thing had been particularly afraid of Eden. No matter how low-ranking, demons inherently looked down on humans. They weren’t the type to get scared just because a Hunter who’d come to kill them showed up.
‘It was cowering so badly it couldn’t even fly.’
The crow demon had been pressed flat against the ground, its whole body trembling. It seemed to be in complete panic, babbling incoherently, unable to even distinguish whether she was human or demon.
Eden thought the demon’s reaction was thanks to Bezel. The only difference between her previous hunts and that day’s hunt was Bezel’s presence. They said exorcist priests with divine power could make demons tremble in fear just by appearing, and the crow demon’s fear seemed to be for that same reason.
‘He was pretty far away, though. To have that much effect from that distance?’
Maybe the kiss he had given her just before entering the forest had helped.
Bezel had bestowed a holy kiss shaped like a cross on her face. Like when priests made the sign of the cross during rituals, that act seemed to have granted her some kind of divine energy. She didn’t know if this was actually possible, but maybe his divine power had rubbed off through contact, like how scents cling to things.
‘Tch. If that’s the case, I might have to set his daily wage pretty high.’
Hunters usually handled commissions alone, but for big jobs or when they got along well, they sometimes formed teams. In those cases, the rule was to split the commission fee equally. Though rookie Hunters sometimes participated for just passion pay [1], it was rare to set different ratios outside of those situations.
So should she split half her commission fee with Bezel?
Her eyes narrowed more and more as she looked at Bezel, thinking about her income being cut in half.
Hmm, this won’t do. She couldn’t decide such an important matter after just one commission. The last demon might have been too weak, making the effect seem better than it was. She’d need to check today’s demon’s reaction too before reassessing Bezel’s value.
What did he think that look meant? Bezel, seated beside her, rummaged in his pocket and pulled out two well-boiled eggs.
“You must be hungry, right? I thought you might be, so I boiled some eggs.”
What does he take her for? This man seemed to see her as someone obsessed with eating. Though to be fair, she did eat impressively well whenever Bezel cooked, almost too enthusiastically…
Even as she thought this, Eden quickly took the eggs. She hadn’t realized it, but after Bezel mentioned it, she really did feel hungry.
“You didn’t have to go to the trouble. Thank you.”
“It is the least I can do when I am imposing on you like this.”
‘No need to thank me. After all, Eden gives me excellent life force every night that can’t even be compared to these eggs.’
Bezel added internally while outwardly showing a pure-looking smile. From what he’d observed over the past few days, Eden was terribly weak to food.
The method to win someone over was simple. Show them what they ideally want to see and shower them with what they like.
His face was already too outstanding without needing adjustment. His personality, well, maybe not at night, but during the day he faithfully acted meek. Having figured out that Eden liked delicious things on top of that, all that remained was to shower her with food.
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before Eden became his. It wasn’t just anyone, either. He was stealing the woman that no less than Marbas himself had chosen as his bride. He wondered if things were really meant to be this easy.
T/N: [1] ↩
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