“Okay, I guess we need to take care of the daily matters as well.” Falling back onto the soft mattress of their bed, Layn exhaled a mouthful of air with satisfaction. The moments he just shared with Irea were incomparable to what he knew from those few times he slept with Ortensia. ‘If I were to be forced to draw a comparison… It would be a difference between making love to one’s woman and just fucking with a brothel’s whore, I guess?’

“You stand up first. I might need… a few more moments to rest.” Gracing the archmage with a gentle yet uneasy smile, Irea curled up on the bed while moving her hands towards her crotch. Yet, rather than pleasuring herself or doing anything else that could pull Layn back into her embrace, she simply started to massage her abdomen, as if all the times the two of them went at it resulted in a residual pain in her crotch.

“Sure, it’s not like we need to get out of the room to deal with them in the first place.” Smiling widely, Layn stood up from the bed and approached the desk where the message from before was resting. Even though the translation spell Layn was currently using had nothing to do with reading, surprisingly enough the numbers appeared to be written in roughly the same way as they would be used in the future.

“A thousand grade-one stones and few hundred grade-two stones… If I were to ask you, do you think it’s a fair price for that treasure of ours?”  Putting the piece of paper back on the table, Layn sunk deep in his thoughts as he asked.

“Well… Given how that treasure outputs roughly two and a half grade one stones worth of energy per hour, it equals about sixty grade one stones in a day. If we talk only about the grade-ones they offered, then that treasure produced enough energy to cover it in less than seventeen days…” Turning silent for a moment, Irea moved her upper body up, turning from lying on her back to a sitting position where all the charms of her body were in a full display. Unable to stop his eyes from wandering all over her body, Layn shivered when he noticed a small bit of his sperm still flowing out of her secret garden.

‘It’s as if just this sight alone was enough to put me in a heaven…’ What could be obvious for others, for Layn was still a pretty new experience. Even though he wasn’t a mental virgin when he first laid with Irea, being able to see the proof of his conquest still made a thrill of joy travel down his spine.

“The same cannot be said about those grade two stones. The thing is… I highly doubt some random disciple or even a group of disciples could procure such an insane wealth on their own.” Shaking her head, Irea rubbed her chin when she suddenly noticed where Layn’s eyes were glued to. With her smile only widening, she moved her legs even further apart, allowing the archmage to stare at the effect of his hard toil in its full glory.

“Come on, I know I shouldn’t stare like that, but right now you are outright provoking me!” Theatrically moving his head away, Layn protested only to hear a joyous giggle in response. While it wasn’t anything much, it only proved that Irea was finally starting to relax in his presence, something that she had trouble with ever since she saw a small portion of his capabilities.

“As for the topic on hand, that’s just what I expected. I guess they are not actually trying to buy the treasure from us but do us in instead.” According to the usual ratios, a single grade two stone was worth roughly a thousand grade one stones. While the ratios depended on the size, intensity, and many other aspects of both types of stones, this was the commonly agreed turnover back in the past where humans had precise tools to measure the energy within each of the stones.

“While it’s just a guess… I think they didn’t believe I would know the value of a grade two stones, hence the thousand of grade ones in their offer. But just to confirm, what they proposed should equal roughly two hundred and one thousand grade one stones? Roughly, ten years’ worth of the treasure output, right?” That was the result of Layn’s calculation. ‘To think that they would be so shrewd… Thinking calmly, that’s about as much as I would offer if I didn’t know how to make such treasures in the first place…’

“Yeah. Not perfectly like that, but roughly yeah.” Finally done with teasing Layn by showcasing the attributes of her body, Irea managed to stand up and grab the clothes she previously threw to the side. Moving carefully towards the bail with water, she quickly washed all the residual sperm from her crotch before dressing herself up. Yet, as she made her way towards the table when Layn was sitting, her legs suddenly gave up, prompting Layn to rush forward and help her regain her stability.

“I’m sorry, I… It’s quite hard for me to walk yet. Unless we can wait a few moments for me to get used to it, I won’t be able to go out with you yet.” Lowering her head as if she felt responsible for her temporary weakness, the only thing that Irea achieved was putting an even wider smile on Layn’s face as he patted her head in an encouraging manner.

“Don’t worry. We are not going anywhere yet.” Placing a quick peck on her cheek, Layn guided her towards the chair he was previously sitting at before approaching the window of the room all on his own. Opening it up, he pushed half of his still naked body outside while holding the frame of the window as to not fall out of it.

“HEEEEY!” Shouting from the bottom of his lungs, Layn quickly caught the attention of a random passerby. “Do you want two grade one stones?!”

While this no longer applied to Layn and Irea duo, a single grade one stone was still quite a treasure for any random citizen of the city. While initially startled by the shout, once the potential reward reached the random’s ears, he quickly rushed towards the building, only to stand directly underneath the window.

“Sir, two grade one stones? What do I need to do?” Seeing how the random man didn’t bother multiplying problems, Layn smiled once again. ‘Thinking about it, aren’t I smiling quite a lot over the recent days?’ Pushing this thought to the back of his head, Layn shouted. “I need you to do two things. First, bring someone else here. All he will need to do is to make sure we are not leaving the building at all for as long as it will take you to fulfill your own job. I would say, a single grade one stone for roughly a few hours of doing nothing. As for you…”

Taking a moment for the random stranger to process his words, Layn gestured at the girl before pointing at the remaining grade one stones haphazardly thrown in the corner of the room. Noticing his intention, the girl quickly stood on her legs, only to take her time to get towards the pile of treasure and bring a grade one stone to Layn’s hand.

“Take some rest now, you shouldn’t walk freely yet.” Rubbing Irea’s head, Layn grasped the grade-one stone before throwing it out of the window, right to the random’s hands. “This is the down payment. I need you to find the third prince’s location and invite him, or at least one of his trusted retainers to this place. Once you finish both of the tasks, I will give you the other stone. Deal?”

To say that the random stranger was lucky would be a gross understatement. A job that would normally be paid with less than a few silver coins now turned to one lucrative enough for the man to live at least a few years of his live in luxury! As such, Layn wasn’t surprised in the least when the man only nodded his head before rushing out.

“Are you sure about this? While I’m not judging your plan here, do you really think he will come back?” Taking note of how reckless Layn was with their wealth, Irea’s sight turned slightly tense.

“All he needs to do is to find someone free and pass a message. I doubt he will ignore the opportunity to double his earnings.” Layn smiled. ‘It seems as if she still didn’t notice this one peculiarity.’ Normally, the archmage would keep his thoughts to himself, aiming to get an even better payoff of a reaction from the other party once all his schemes would come to fruition. But for some reason, right now, there was not a single thought or feeling that would stop him from revealing his plan to the girl.

“Tell me, don’t you find it strange that the offer was given to us, rather than to the prince? Especially when he is the only one to have his name written on the walls of the shrine?”