Entrepreneurial Spirit - Chapter 9

“Wai-wai-wait!” Amity stuttered, waving her hands wildly, her wide-eyed gaze swapping between the Titan, myself, and Luz. “I didn't – I mean, I'm honored, but-”

“We kinda' just wanted to make sure it was okay to take your power away from Belos?” Luz asked, the way her throat was working and the slight shake in her voice the only signs of how nervous she was. “I-I don't know about... um, inheriting your power?”

The Titan chuckled, his muzzle-ish face grinning. “Well, it has to go somewhere, now doesn't it? And I'd just as soon it go to you than that parasite that calls himself Belos.”

Both girls flinched from the sheer vitriol in the Titan's voice.

“A-ah... please, sir?” Izuku began, stepping forward and looking between us as well, though with more resolve in his voice than the girls. “Er, sirs... Luz and Amity are my friends. I don't want anything to happen to them. Will, um... giving them your power hurt them?”

The Titan blinked at the greenette boy, then his eyes slid over to me as he scratched at his gut. “Brave kid you've got there.”

I grinned. “He is, could use a bit more common sense, but we're getting there.”

Izuku sputtered as Luz and Amity smiled briefly.

“It won't hurt them, kid,” the Titan replied with a shake of his head, “but it really does have to go somewhere, and as nice as your mentor is, I'm not willing to simply sell off the whole of my remaining power like that... plus, there's nothing I really get out of the deal.”

“You could come back to life?” Luz asked hopefully, optimistically.

Titan snorted and shook his head. “What I've got left isn't enough to even reanimate what's left of my mortal shell, child, let alone fully resurrect me. Even if it were, though, reviving me in any form or fashion would mean that the civilization sprawling atop my rotting remains would be unable to cling to me as I stood up.”

Luz and Amity's eyes widened again, both wincing as the penny fully dropped.

“And, even then... I would take being trapped in between life and death – as I am now – over being forced to lay down for an eternity as creatures comparatively sized to your ants crawled about on me, tearing off pieces of my flesh to use as they wished,” the Titan made a disgruntled rumble and shook his head again.

“I... never really thought about what we must look like from the Titan's perspective,” Amity whispered, more than a little disturbed at the analogy. “I'm... surprised you'd want to have anything to do with us, honestly.”

The Titan laughed, a full-throated and almost jolly thing. “Ah... do not worry, so, Amity Blight. I have had a long, long, long time to come to terms with what has happened to me, and this is the path I wish to take forward. Until Luz stumbled through Eda's portal, I had resigned myself to the likelihood that the witches and demons of the Boiling Isles would be wiped out by Belos' plots.”

The three teenagers all inhaled sharply together.

“And until Nova here showed up... I had contented myself with oblivion in exchange for saving both them and my son,” the Titan smiled, a sort of tiredness beyond even resignation in his voice. “But... now that you are here, Luz, and now that Nova is here... things could be different.”

Amity blinked, turning from the Titan to me, and I simply raised an eyebrow as her stare slowly intensified.

“You knew!” She barked out, some spark of insight flaring behind her eyes. “You... you knew this is how it would end! How... it needed to end, didn't you?”

“Amity?” Luz asked, her brow furrowing as she looked between us. “Nova? What's she talking about?”

“M-Mr. Sterling knows things,” Izuku muttered, frowning as I gave him a look of mild warning. “I-I know better than to ask, usually, but... sometimes, he knows how things in different worlds are supposed to go, if no one comes to the store.”

Luz and Amity both turned back to me, the former speculatively, the latter suspiciously.

“I can't either confirm nor deny such a thing,” I replied bluntly, then continued as Amity opened her mouth, “and when I say can't, that's what I mean. You'd have to ask me a specific question about your future that you wanted an answer to, and then be willing to pay the price. Feel free to take me up on it – that flask of Titan's blood is worth quite a bit... but I'd recommend against it unless you're very sure you need an answer you can't get anywhere else.”

There was a moment of hanging silence as the teens looked at each other, then the Titan began to chuckle. “Ha! I like you, Nova Sterling. You're a great deal more reliable than the usual stripe of character that shows up doing your kind of work.”

“Any good regard from a creature as old as you is worth more than its weight in gold,” I replied with a little bow.

“So... wait,” Luz frowned. “The answer to defeating Belos... it was always going to end with me getting your Titan powers or whatever?”

The Titan held out a claw and tilted it back and forth. “Once you came through the portal, that was a potential outcome, but not a guaranteed one. Most of the best endings involve that, though, even if the powers I grant you turned out to be temporary. Though with Nova here to do the transfer... I think we'll be able to make it more permanent.”

“Only if the kids want,” I replied bluntly. “My word is my bond, after all. I start screwing over customers and things get dicey for me real quick.”

“Another one of your rules, right,” Amity muttered, frowning as she rubbed at her chin.

“Hmm... I'm torn between wondering if this is, like... an old fairy tale-style power up where I'm going to be tragically cursed to start acting like a monster or eating people after I win the great battle... or if this is a more shounen-style power up where the curse can be overcome up the bonds of friendship and stuff?” Luz pondered aloud, crossing her arms as she speculated.

Amity sighed, the noise carrying both fondness and exasperation. “I'm going to pretend I understood more than half of your human nonsense, but... I get the gist of it.”

“Oh, um... the boss literally can't do either of those things unless he explains them to you beforehand,” Izuku stated, cautiously raising his hand.

I shrugged. “Fey deals and the like are fun and all... when they're happening to someone else. Beyond not being able to employ tactics like that, I honestly don't like them. I don't enjoy tricking people. The worst I can usually allow myself to do is allow them to trick themselves.”

“Like the slavers earlier,” Luz nodded, grinning slightly, then frowning. “Ah... Mr. Sterling? Could Amity and I talk with the Titan alone for a while? We just... I want to know what all 'transfering his power' actually means before I agree to anything.”

I chuckled and nodded, waving at the room. “You've paid more than enough to rent the space for the entire day and I don't have any pressing customers who need to use it. Feel free.”

“Ah, should I...” Izuku fidgeted, looking between us.

We both jerked slightly, stilling as we felt a customer enter.

“That... should be Sigrid,” I hummed aloud after a moment, then looked back to Izuku. “He's usually here for hardware supplies, food, and drink. Izuku, I want you to go see to him. He's a rough-neck viking type. If he gives you any trouble, look around and pick up the biggest thing you can confidently lift without breaking or tripping yourself up. That'll impress him enough to shut him up. And remind him that I can and will keep his soul from Asgard if he starts shit in here.”

“Right, yes sir!” Izuku replied sharply, dipping his head in a slight bow. “I'll get right on it!”

As he hurried off, I turned towards the two girls. “If you need anything, call my name with intent and I'll know to head your way.”

“Hmm...” Luz nodded absently, looking at the door Izuku had vanished through. “Must resist urge to meet real viking...”

Amity sighed and snapped her fingers in front of her girlfriend's face, “Luz, focus!”

I shook my head and headed off in another direction, chuckling under my breath. As I heard Amity begin asking about the details of the power transfer, I absently wondered if the Titan was going to tell them about his plans to repopulate the species with King. Ah, well... it wouldn't come to fruition for a few centuries anyway. Eh, there'd come a time when Luz and Amity would want children and I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise. It was partially speculation on my part, anyway, but I had met a few terrifying immortals in my time.

Also, it was none of my business, not really.

Hence, I didn't have to tell either of them about it.

“It's one thing if I plan some skullduggery,” I grinned, “it's an entirely different matter if I'm just facilitating a deal between two other parties. I'm not obligated to tell one group when the other is being underhanded... and this isn't even malicious.”

Dude just wanted grand kids.

I could respect that.

“In the meantime, though...” I hummed to myself, turning down a door that hadn't been there a few seconds ago. “Hmm, something's being a bit more obvious than usual today.”

Yeah, the store had moods.

I wasn't all that tapped into them.

Nothing like an emotional bond or anything, but I'd learned to notice when the store started 'acting' in certain ways. It tended to make things easier or harder on me, for instance, when it approved or disapproved of what I was doing, respectively.

It clearly approved of prioritizing Maomao, for some mysterious reason.

“The building I'm working in is shipping me again,” I sighed, rolling my eyes as I opened the door that had just appeared.

…

Could dreams come true and still be nightmares?

It was a question that Maomao was beginning to seriously ponder as she read through the 'basic primer' of 'germ theory.' It was amazing to finally have the words to describe why hygiene was important! No, not only that but to understand why!

“Microbial life,” the teenager whispered reverently, tasting the words as they flowed off her tongue.

Her eyes cut back up to the row of intimidatingly large books above the desk.

And the row after that.

And the row after that.

Her mouth was dry and, reflexively, her hand picked up one of the small cups she'd found by the water pump... that didn't have a pump. Just knobs. And a basin. And released water that was crystal clear with the slightest twist.

Hot or cold.

Either.

How? There had to be some source of heat secreted away behind the wall, perhaps a furnace of some sort? But then how was the water pumped without a pump? It just... flowed out, as if it was already under pressure within the pipe stem it gushed from. Which meant that the knob she turned was some kind of valve in truth, allowing water to flow and cutting it off at the user's whim!

Her fingers itched to return to the wash basin and experiment with it again.

Or the one in the room with the chamber pot.

The chamber pot which wasn't a pot. It was spotlessly-clean porcelain of a pure white she imagined that the Emperor himself might eat off of were it a plate.

A slightly manic giggle escaped her throat as she imagined that faceless and powerful figure dipping his head into the bowl of the waste-pot and eating from it.

Maomao twitched and quieted herself, furtively looking about to see if anyone had heard her.

No, she was still alone. The spirit-lord of this strange place had not yet returned.

Her thoughts returned to the strange man with the fox-like features, of colors that she had never glimpsed before. 'Nova Sterling.' That was the spirit's name. And... it felt strange to even think that. Maomao was no stranger to superstitions, many of the people she encountered in day to day life observed them pointlessly, but...

Her father was not a fan.

Luomen had never explicitly condemned such things, that sort of thing wasn't in the eunuch's nature. Still, whenever someone did something for no reason other than, 'that was always the way it had been done,' the air grew thick with quiet disapproval.

The conversations that followed, once they were in private, were often quite interesting as her father systematically dismantled such beliefs and practices to explain to Maomao the value of proper observation and consideration.

The teenage girl shook her head, clearing it of the idle yearning for her father.

Luomen wasn't here to help her, she had only the tools at her own disposal to see to her own best interests.

She frowned.

“What are my best interests in a situation like this?” She asked aloud, humming thoughtfully as she fought the temptation to simply return to reading the medical text before her.

No matter how much she dearly wished to.

More important matters needed her consideration first.

But the temptation lingered, even as she tried to recall all of the folklore and legends she'd heard before. So many of them had featured a spirit offering everything a poor fool had ever wanted, only for it to ruin them after they'd made a deal. The lesson, her father had explained, was clear. There were no shortcuts to power, knowledge, or acclaim. Trying to 'cheat' the world – the people around you – would only end in tragedy for yourself and others.

Because there was no such thing as ghosts, goblins, and foxes.

And, if there were, Luomen had argued, he had not met one his entire life... so Maomao was unlikely to meet one anytime soon.

“Tsk,” Maomao hissed, clicking her tongue. “Things didn't quite work out that way, Dad.”

She hummed and took another drink of water. That much was safe, she thought. Other food and drink was often tainted or magical in some way, when offered by a creature like the proprietor. But water was usually safe, if she recalled correctly. Was that because it was difficult to work enchantments on? Or simply to lull her into letting down her guard?

And this cup, what was it made of? Not any type of wood she'd ever heard of... nor metal, or anything like fabric...

“...and it certainly isn't glass,” Maomao muttered, holding the plain white cup up to the light as she gently pinched and distorted the thin material. No glass she'd ever heard of could warp and twist like this. “Maybe something produced by alchemy?”

Her father had told her that alchemy was simply the result of interactions between the natural attributes of materials around the world.

But, then... she'd just been sold to a fox spirit who ran a magical store.

So perhaps alchemy was real, too!

Maomao shook her head yet again, reaching up to slap at her cheeks and sighed explosively... helplessly. This was how it happened, wasn't it? How she signed away her soul. Luomen had been stern on his rule against allowing her to touch human corpses, not because she would be unsafe with any filth they produced, but because he knew her insatiable curiosity well enough to understand she'd never turn away from such things if given the chance.

She did not disagree, necessarily.

Then... what did she know, that she could use to her advantage, here? Her mind spun back to the short conversation she'd had with her... employer and ran through what she could remember of it.

He – appeared – to not enjoy taking slaves and – technically – she was not one, if only just barely. The terms of the contract her kidnappers had with the 'Fox Lord' were that he owned 'her labor.' Not Maomao in her entirety. She'd heard tell that the palace worked on similar terms. Young girls would be employed under contract for a term of some years, their salaries split between themselves and their families, and then they would be released once the contract was over.

Except her contract was rather open-ended.

Her toil was his for, 'as long as he wished to have it.'

Effectively, slavery by a different name.

Maomao frowned. Even if he appeared to enjoy their arrangement just as much as she did, he'd also said it was 'magically-enforced.' If it was anything like the agreements in the old tales told around campfires and candles, then either of them would be punished severely by some enchantment were they to attempt to break the terms.

...if she wanted to break them.

She twitched at the treacherous thought and tried to push it back down where it came from.

You have to spend your life doing something, why not this?

Maomao grimaced, physically turning her head, as if that would turn her mind from the thought.

He doesn't even look at you like the men who frequent the Verdigris House.

It was true. He'd barely glanced at her after giving her a perfunctory once-over. His eyes hadn't lingered on her bust, her waist, or her rear unlike so many of her elder sisters' clients. Those men would seek pleasure from anything with a feminine shape, even other men if they were pretty enough.

Maomao's eyes drifted down to her own body, the deliberately-chosen robes disguising her one 'female enticements,' as the madam of the brothel she'd been raised in called them. Speculation bubbled up as she glanced around the incredibly clean, well-lit room with some kind of smokeless-heatless orbs contained in the ceiling producing illumination even more steady than the sun on a bright summer's day.

Books lined the cabinet above the small desk she was sitting at.

Glass doors of perfect form and clarity showed off hundreds – perhaps hundreds of hundreds? - of pills, powders, liquids, and more raw ingredients. Some of them glowed, some of them were within even more tightly-sealed containers beyond that.

On another desk, there was a strange glowing piece of glass set in a frame. She ached to investigate it, but there was enough to sate her curiosity that she could ignore the (magic?) device for the moment.

Maomao swallowed and, feeling her throat dry again, drained the remainder of the small cup's worth of water.

If it comes to that... I will not be like that woman. I will have a binding agreement.

Maomao blinked, then groaned and scrabbled at her hair, frustration pouring out of her with the sound. “What am I even thinking...”

“I'm sure I don't know.”

The young woman froze up, her eyes going wide as she turned to stare at the slyly-smiling human with fox ears, two swishing tails, and a gaze that was now intent on her.

Ah... so this is what it's like to be a rabbit.

…

It took me a few minutes to get the girl settled into a seat with a serving of tea and cookies.

“Great One, I apologize for my previous outburst-” Maomao began, and I sighed.

My hand came up, flat and open towards her.

She stopped talking.

“Please. My name is Nova Sterling. You may address me by Nova, Mr. Sterling, Boss, Sir... but I am uncomfortable with too many airs or titles being laid upon me,” I explained intently as I sipped at my tea. “Originally, I was as human as you are-”

Maomao blinked, her eyes widening subtly.

“-and the culture I was born into was not one which emphasized the subordination of women to men, let alone the position of power which one individual can hold over another.”

“Ah,” Maomao muttered, wriggling in her seat as she looked off to the side. “I... that does explain some things, I suppose.”

Her blue eyes flicked back to me, taking a close measure for any offense.

I merely settled in to my tea, then thought better of it and added extra honey. I would have preferred soda, but that was probably a bit too adventurous for the girl just yet, and it would be rude and suspicious to offer her a different beverage than my own.

“So, I am to work as an apothecary's assistant?” Maomao ventured tentatively, taking a sip of her own tea and...

“Disappointed?” I asked, a small smile on my face as I flicked an ear.

“I'm sorry?” Maomao blinked.

“Your tea,” I nodded at the cup. “Disappointed I didn't poison it?”

She winced, obviously trying to come up with an answer that was both honest and did not offend me. “I, ah-”

I chuckled softly and shook my head. “Think nothing of it. But... yes, on the topic of your employment. You will be my assistant in the medical rooms. Izuku is still a bit clumsy and weak-stomached to help me in those affairs, I suppose.”

Maomao dipped her head, not replying verbally.

“For now, at least,” I belatedly added.

The young woman opposite me frowned slightly, then took the bait. “F-for now... sir?”

I gave her a nod of approval. “For now. The men who brought you in... they are not intelligent enough nor careful enough to manage the drugs I've given them. They leapt at the offer of a more powerful substance than the opium which they'd initially wished to purchase. Even though I explained the dangers of it thoroughly and fully, only a short time will pass before they convince themselves that I was being too cautious. Or that they are experienced with drugs such as these and know better. Or perhaps they will try to be as careful as they can be... and simply have an unfortunate accident.”

Maomao nodded slowly. “My father cautioned me about such things, especially when dealing with unfamiliar medicines.”

The fact that she'd contributed to the discussion at all was heartening. “More relevant to our discussion, though, is that regardless of whether it takes days or weeks, they will be dead soon. Or, I suppose, someone else will suffer their stupidity and the guards of your city will come knocking. In any event, any of these outcomes will functionally invalidate your contract.”

“Oh!” Maomao breathed in, realization coloring her expression. “Oh.”

A shade of disappointment settled in over the initial relief, and I hummed in thought. It was easy enough to understand my point... after all, if there was no one alive to collect payment for her services, then there could be no further contract. Likewise, if the person holding the other end of the contract was in jail and unable to collect... well, I couldn't carry on accepting her work without paying someone.

“What... happens, then? To me?” Maomao asked, her fingers reaching for a cookie while her eyes traced my face for any hint of disapproval.

“In the event the contract is no longer viable due to the death or imprisonment of the other party,” I explained carefully, “then the authority would devolve to you. In such a case, you would be free to decide your own fate after working off any extraneous debt from the initial contract.”

“Extraneous debt?” She asked, frowning and biting-

Her eyes lit up as refined sugar hit her tongue.

I smiled slyly and chuckled, to which I got a mulish look of irritation. “Please, enjoy. I simply take pleasure in honest expressions. I may have little in common with kitsune... or huli jing as your people know them, but... I am still a trickster in my own way. I just delight in the surprise of a customer realizing I have exactly what they need when they did not even know it was possible.”

Maomao hummed, nodding.

“But, to answer your question... if the contract holder dies tomorrow, for instance, you would still owe me enough work to compensate me for the drug they purchased,” I explained. “Which comes out to one month, since you're likely curious.”

She frowned, but nodded slowly.

“Not what you hoped for, but not as bad as you feared?” I asked, grinning.

“...more or less,” she nodded, taking another bite of her cookie. “What... are – or, will be, my options?”

“You could simply go home,” I nodded to her, and her lips pursed thoughtfully. Not displeased, but not pleased, either. “Or you could negotiate another contract to work for me. You would be trained to some degree, after all, even if you would be nowhere near skilled enough to allow you to operate on your own after just one month.”

The kitten bristled, hair standing on end as her blue eyes glared at me.

I snorted and nodded back to the pharmacy we'd left. “If you make it through that first book this month, I'll consider you an unqualified genius.”

That brushed away the implied insult to her skills and made her perk up.

Though she turned thoughtful after a moment, frowning again. “W-would I... if I made a new contract... would I be able to go home? To visit?”

I leaned back and nodded. “We'd have to discuss specifics, but that's fine. The only wrinkle in allowing you to go home is that time...”

I made a vague motion with my hand and shrugged. “Time flows differently here. Izuku – my assistant – is under contract to spend an entire year at a time helping me, then he returns a day after he left his home. A month later, he'll spend another year contained within one day.”

Maomao's eyes had gone very wide indeed. “I... ah, I didn't think those legends were true!”

“Which means we'll need to specify the exact terms of when you visit your home and when you're due to work here in the store,”I stated, looking up at the expanse of magical space around us. “The store won't break a deal, but leaving it to chance... well, it can get playful, if you know what I mean.”

The teenager frowned and shook her head. “I don't think I want to, actually.”

“Also acceptable,” I nodded. “So I take it, you're considering a position?”

Maomao stilled for a moment, then hummed. “I... I don't know. This... very much was not what I had planned today when I went out to gather herbs.”

I simply nodded as we sat there for a long moment in silence, each sipping our tea.

“Can I ask...” she started slowly, still hesitant, “how would I be paid?”

“It would depend on what you prefer,” I answered freely. “I've had a few employees before and they each had their own preferences. Some asked for hard currency, gold or silver coinage. Others asked for their country's local paper script currency. Though many of them asked me for store credit, admittedly.”

“Store credit?” Maomao asked, making a face, then pausing.

I chuckled. “It has a bad reputation, I know, but... I'm sure you can see why some people would prefer to spend their earnings here in the store where they work.”

“...you'd be willing to sell those medicines?” Maomao asked, her tone caught in the quiet realization of something that should have been obvious, yet she hadn't dared hope for.

“I would,” I nodded. “Between store credit and an employee discount, they could be quite affordable.”

Maomao bit her lip so hard I thought she was going to draw blood. “Do you do... samples?”

I snorted and shook my head, “Not for that sort of thing, no. But, I can offer you a meal, if you like, since it seems as though my customers are going to take me up on using the summoning room for as long as they like.”

Maomao opened her mouth, obviously going to ask... then visibly stopping herself.

Which, honestly, was probably for the best. I'd felt Luz leave for a few minutes, then return with another person. A particularly small one. Which meant that they were introducing King to his father. That... would probably take a while to get sorted out, and I didn't fancy explaining everything about the ancient eldritch godlike giant from a place called the 'demon realm' that was on the other side of the store from us. She'd need a few weeks to adjust to that reality, at the very least.

“I-hmm,” Maomao frowned, then nodded. “As long as it's normal food and doesn't obligate me to anything.”

“It probably won't be anything you've eaten before,” I cautioned her. “I find food from your period of development to be a bit bland and unappetizing, sorry. But I can promise that it won't be magical in anyway, nor will consuming it or the drink I offer obligate you to any service on my behalf or allow me to violate your free will or bodily autonomy.”

She hesitated a moment longer.

“And I can offer that in writing, if you wish,” I added with a smile.

“If doing so does not cause offense, that would be preferable,” Maomao sighed in relief.

I just chuckled and rose out of the chair to beckon her towards the stationery room. “Here, this way. Now, I was thinking about something spicy for our meal, paired with alcohol to help us relax.”

Maomao perked up at that. “I always enjoy a glass of alcohol, and I've tasted spiced dishes before at the brothel I do work for on my father's behalf. Not often, but I'm not unfamiliar with them.”

“Very good,” I grinned as she followed me along, the ice now thoroughly broken. “I was actually thinking about making nachos. While I cook, we can have a few drinks and I can tell you about how the parts of the plant which taste of spice affect the tiny structures on your tongue to produce the feeling of 'heat' in food.”

Her eyes sparkled as she nearly bounced in my wake, almost skipping. “Really? You know the mechanism – I mean, that's interesting, please tell me more!”

“Well,” I began with a grin, “it's a chemical called capsaicin, which was originally developed by plants as a way to drive off animals which might eat them. You might even say it's a poison or toxin!”

Maomao almost froze at my words, her eyes now fully gleaming.

~~~

Finished before Christmas, woo!

Ah, I've finally gotten some time to sit down and plow through this chapter after four long days of family activities.

Now I only have to buckle down and survive the big day itself.

Here's to hoping I make it to the new year and can blow a few things up to release the stress.

Anyway, the saga of Luz and Amity continues as Nova delves deeper into the new wage slave that's come under his tutelage.

Hope this chapter finds everyone having a happy holiday season, a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and an Enjoyable Kwanzaa.

Next update? Dealer's choice, not sure what it will be, but I'll post something after the Holly Jolly Storm passes. I haven't forgotten about that Industrious update this month.