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***

Lumine wasn’t sure if it was okay. She wasn’t sure if she should have done something like this. To tell a random stranger about her problems, but she couldn’t hold it in anymore. She had to tell someone.

Disaster had struck and after she woke up, she was alone and lost for a long time. Then, she met Paimon by fishing her out of the pond. Her first friend, that helped her through difficult times.

Unconsciously, she was leaning on Paimon for support, no matter how funny it seemed, and she knew she had to stop, but now, once again, she sought some sort of pillar of support that would encourage her or at the very least help her deal with some of the stuff she was going through so that she wouldn’t be handling everything by herself.

Lumine was short of breath after venting all of the gloomy, miserable, and painful things that are tearing her up from inside.

She lifted her gaze and glanced at Yomite, who was deep in thought.

She was a bit surprised, as she expected him to mock her. The moment he started talking to her about why she was hostile to him, he came out as that kind of type that likes to prey on the weak.

“Ah fuck it…”

Lumine was startled by his sudden outburst and wiped her tears away.

Yomite looked at her plate full of food that was slowly starting to get cold and said, “You should eat that, didn’t you say you were hungry? Just eat.”

She did as she was told. She picked up her knife and resumed eating.

After being starved for three days, this moon pie gave her the energy she needed the most right now.

“Ok, look…I have a proposition.”

Lumine was silently eating as she asked in between her chewing, “What… is it?”

Yomite folded his arms and replied, “You will join my party. So far, it’s currently Me, Hu Tao, and the new addition will be you. With the broken Adventurers’ Guild party system, you can easily gain enough money to survive for months on end. As you are the third person, the benefits will triple easily, making us a fortune. Finishing some basic quests shouldn’t be too hard.”

‘It would be embarrassing if we weren’t able to complete basic quests with two isekai protagonists and Hu Tao, who also has a pretty strong Vision. There should be no issue with some slimes or wolves.’ Yomite concluded as he reached out his hand towards one of the bags full of Mora he received from the Acting Grand Master, Jean.

He decided to give her half of the earnings from the bag.

He put up about 500k Mora on top of the table, and with a solemn voice said, “You helped me distract Stormterror during his attack, also damaged him quite a bit, so I feel like only asking for posters of your brother is kind of nonsense, especially when you are in such a tight situation you described earlier. You need a better kind of reward. Take this.”

Lumine widened her eyes at his kind gesture. She was in disbelief from the sheer number of Mora.

Obviously, she was in the room when The Acting Grand Master gave him the money, so she knew he received quite a bit, but seeing it in person was a different thing.

“I…can’t accept this…”

He looked at her hesitant gaze and sighed. ‘Just how much of a goodie two shoes can she be? She is barely surviving in this unknown world for god knows how long. The last thing she should be focusing on is modesty.’

“Fine! If you want to be so stubborn and don’t want to take it for free… then I will lend it to you. You will pay me back with an interest of 100k… no…200k Mora by the end of this year, and if not, I will be taking Paimon hostage.”

“That might change your mind. If you won’t even accept that, then I will just leave the money here, laying comfortably on this table! I bet someone will eventually show up and get it for themselves!” Yomite scoffed as he stood up and tucked the chair in.

Lumine knew she was in a dire need of money, yet she still hesitated.

‘So stupid…’

He sighed, shaking his head, and somehow brushed off the tearful and thankful gaze of the girl in front of him as he glanced at her once more.

“Al…right”

‘Jeez…what a drag.’ He thought, ‘But it was all worth in the end. I just need to steal myself one more person for the bonus to quadruple. Unfortunately, I don’t think Paimon would count as the fourth member… Once I get the last member, I might be able to get back what I lost just now, within a week, maybe quicker.’

He read the rewards of the daily quests and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of Mora they will receive for the completion of each one.

This way he could earn at least 50k Mora each day he completed these dailies, not to mention the other quests that were laying around on the board as no one wanted to do them.

The quests were piling up, almost no one wanted to go adventuring due to Stormterror’s attack. As such, the rewards were also raised.

‘I am going to be filthy rich soon.’

He let out a small grin.

Lumine noticed his evil grin and wasn’t able to tell if he was actually a bad person or not, but he did want to help her, so he couldn’t be that bad, right?

“Alright! I am off to the Adventurer’s Guild to sign you into my team.” He glanced at the incoming flying fairy and knew that his time to discuss stuff has ended.

Before he left, he held up a finger and spoke with a buoyant tone, “This way you will be working for me, in my party to repay the money I gave you. Remember I will be taking Paimon hostage later!” he winked and left the area, heading straight to the guild.

Well, it was not like he knew what year it was right now or when it ended and he doubted Lumine knew either. He just wanted to get her a bit motivated so that he can get something out of her.

Lumine let out a sweet smile as she watched his parting figure.

“He definitely isn’t a bad person.”

Just then, a tired Paimon returned, heavily breathing, “This…Thief had…so much…energy…she escaped!” she glanced at the table and noticed the amount of Mora, “Woah! Where did you get all of this Mora from?” She inquired with her small eyes.

“This…We are joining Yomite’s party and he gave me this for helping with the Stormterror.” She didn’t mention the Paimon kidnapping thing as she was sure he was just joking.

Paimon rested her hand on her small chin and spoke, “Seems suspicious! The Tattoo better not try something or else he will have to deal with Paimon! In any case, we have money now and Paimon’s food is gone…can you buy Paimon something…please…” she outstretched her small hands.

Lumine nodded and once again pulled her into an embrace, “Only if you let me recharge my energy like this once in a while, maybe on a daily basis.” she rested her chin on Paimon’s small head and nuzzled against her.

“Paimon doesn’t mind hugging and acting friendly, so Paimon thinks you can do as you like. As long as you don’t eat Paimon that is…”