336 The Witches Meet
"Will you help me with this, Lord Emberweave?" asked Pride.
"I can, but it depends on whether or not you're willing to pay for our services," said Daniel.
"The money is not an issue, Lord Emberweave, or even if you want some rare magic ingredient, we are still able to provide it as payment," said Pride.
"You misunderstand, Ms. Pride. I don't need any monetary compensation or more resources. I have enough of it for now. What I need is a deal from you," Daniel started, projecting the map of North America.
"You see, I'm ready to dispatch our team from Astral Workshop and some Artificers to your country and build such an environment for you. Guarantee a 99% simulation that will be the same as the Era of God, and we are able to create a fake god target for you to test on. All of that, just for you to give Texas back to the USA," Daniel stated his condition, causing Pride's face to quickly sour, as this is something she didn't think would be easy for her to do, and she didn't like it at all.
"You seem to pamper Greed a lot," Pride said with a bit of protest in her voice.
"..." Daniel didn't say anything. He knew that Pride seems to like him. He's not that dense, and he didn't want to make it hard for her.
Pride continued to look at Daniel as if trying to discern something from his eyes, making both Heracles and Momotaro, who sat at the same table, feel a little uncomfortable but not daring to move, as they didn't want to be rude.
"We could renegotiate, but know this, I don't need monetary compensation or more mineral and metal resources, including all the magic material that can be found in hell," Daniel offered to avoid offending Pride. This is the first business deal he made with her after all. He wants to help his company and workshop grow from time to time.
Otherwise, he might get some gossip or whispers behind his back that he's just a lazy ass who didn't help the company.
Yes, he's just being paranoid, but the first time he worked in a company when he was just a graduate, he got something like this to his name despite the fact that he already finished all his tasks and more, then returned home on time when it was 6 PM.
"I don't think we have anything that could catch your eye if you said that. You should know that most of our resources come from the hell realm. Since it's the easiest place to go and conjure something up from there, if we were to invade someone's secret realm such as elves and dwarves, it would be taken as a sign of aggression," Pride explained.
Daniel smiled.
"Don't be so serious; maybe you will have an answer after this trip to mainland Japan," said Daniel before looking down at his wrist console.
The console emitted a beeping sound, alerting him with a "! " sign and the word 'arrived.'
At this moment, Pride's senses picked up someone walking into their magic barrier that they had created around this sushi bar to prevent normal people from coming since today it's only Daniel's group who is eating here.
The door opened with a ringing sound of a bronze bell, and the person walking into the sushi bar was a very beautiful woman with purple hair and a purple dress. Her iconic kind and motherly smile were plastered on her face. It's none other than Envy.
"Geh… t… Teacher," Gluttony stuttered upon seeing Envy, while Pride quickly jumped up and retreated near Gluttony, prepared to fight and willing to grab Gluttony to make a human shield out of her.
"Why are you here!?" Pride asked in an unfriendly tone.
"Pride? You're here? Aaaahhh!" Envy smiled jubilantly and quickly moved toward Pride, who seemed to be highly alert. She swiftly grabbed Gluttony, who was stunned at Envy's appearance and was about to create an ice dagger to make her a hostage.
However, Envy was slightly faster, melting the ice dagger with her magic and swiftly closing in.
Pride closed her eyes, expecting to get hit by something or burned by magic, but nothing came. Instead, she felt something soft, like a marshmallow hitting her face, as Envy hugged both her and Gluttony tightly.
"Ahhhhhhh Pride, I thought you had already turned your back on us! Thank you for coming! You really are a good girl. You dropped from your class in the middle of the semester and never appeared in my class. I thought you had gone astray and become a bad girl!" said Envy, venting her frustration.
"Arrrrrrgggghhh, this is why I don't like you! You treat me like a child! I'm not in kindergarten! Go pamper that sleepy head of yours! I…" Pride was about to continue venting.
Crack…
She felt like Envy had increased her strength in her arms before feeling something move in a wrong way. Her back experienced a sharp pain, and she fell to the ground within Envy's bear hug.
"Bad girl, in terms of age, you are the youngest, Pride. Give respect to your older sister; she is older than you," scolded Envy as Pride lay on the ground.
"Gluttony, it's okay. You don't need to come to work at the Hightower anymore," Envy said to Gluttony, who was still in her bosom.
"Wait… What!? Did I just get fired from the Hightower!? Am I the first one in the history of the Hightower's 7 witches to get fired!?" Gluttony exclaimed in alarm.
But then she noticed a teasing smile and an amused light shining in Envy's eyes. "Oh… You're kidding. This one is not funny, you know," Gluttony protested.
"Oh, I speak the truth because I'm not one of the Hightower Grand Councillors anymore," Envy revealed.
14:20
"What!? How!?" The shocking news made both Pride and Gluttony inquire in alarm at the same time.
"It's a long story; I'll tell you later," Envy said to the two, then turned toward Daniel.
"You arrived, Envy. How's it going?" asked Daniel as he waved his hand at Envy.
"I thought you were going to infiltrate the mainland first and do reconnaissance, but who would have thought that you're here with these two children," Envy said, looking at Daniel with a hint of admonishment in her voice and tone, then letting out a knowing smirk.
"Oh? Don't tell me you wanted to pursue these two? You should know that Gluttony already has her beloved, and Pride… well, Pride is still a child. If you make a move on her, I'll call a cop," Envy teased.
"I'm not a child! I'm already 18 last month!" Pride blurted out while lying on the ground, still trying to heal her back.
Daniel, Envy, Gluttony, and the people in the sushi bar turned toward Pride, and some of them started whispering. Envy and Gluttony were smirking and seemed to be having fun, while Daniel let out a sigh and shook his head.
"I… I… I mean… I mean… I just wanted to say that I'm an adult! That's all!" Pride said with fake conviction, her face blushing red, and her heart beating faster but still trying to hide it.
"Okay, Ms. Tsundere, let's see your back, okay?" Gluttony said with a wry smile while Pride pouted like a child and glared at Envy.
After everyone calmed down and Pride healed back to normal with Gluttony's help, Envy returned to the topic at hand.
"Daniel, Oceanos is ready. You can come with us now," said Envy.
"Okay." Daniel nodded and stood up from his seat, then went toward Gluttony to pay his and his people's bill.
"Going already?" Gluttony asked while keeping Daniel's money at her cashier.
"Yes, I need to help Koyuki after all," said Daniel.
Gluttony nodded, then went silent, her hand below her chin, thinking for a while before saying, "Let me go with you guys. I've lived here for some time, and I think I know enough about the landscape to help you. Don't think that mainland Japan is so easy; they should have some Oni and something more terrifying waiting for you. At least, those Yokai might have allied themselves with the current Shogunate and could attack you," Gluttony warned.
"Yokai? What's that?" asked Daniel.
"To be simplified… it's Demonkind, but the Japanese version," Envy answered.
"Teacher, that's too simplified. Never mind, I'll explain on the way; we have plenty of time," Gluttony commented.
"Are you coming with us? Maybe if you see the thing that I wanted to show you, you might change your mind about Texas. I still need an operation room to help your friend too," said Daniel as he invited Pride.
Hearing that Daniel can help her friend who got shot in the back, a bullet hitting her spine, and right now living in stasis with a second dose of stasis injection from Daniel, Pride didn't hesitate and nodded to follow him.
She doesn't care if she were to cut ties and destroy the deal they are about to make with the Hojo Clan; getting Daniel's goodwill is much better than dealing with the Hojo, who seem unwilling to let them do research on Orochi.
"Ok! I'll follow you!" said Pride.
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