Chapter 254: Crazed Shopping
Lukas pulled into the parking lot of the Golden Emporium and retracted his mana, turning off the car.
He stepped out, stretching his arms above his head.
Akira climbed out from the back seat, while Melody didn’t move.
"Aren’t you coming?" Akira asked, leaning down to look through the window.
"Can I just stay a little longer?" Melody asked, blinking her eyes in an attempt to be cute.
Akira stared at her. "Stay if you want to. You might as well turn the car into an apartment."
Melody sat up straight. "Wait."
Her eyes went wide. "Could I actually do that? Like, could someone modify a car to—"
Akira pressed her palm flat against her own face.
"Get out of the car, Melody."
Melody got out of the car, grumbling.
Lukas locked it, and the three of them walked to the entrance of the Emporium. They were barely through the doors when Melody spoke.
"Can I ask something?"
"Go ahead," Lukas said.
"Why do we have to start a business from scratch?"
Lukas glanced at her. "Have you forgotten? To make money, of course."
"Right, but think about it." Melody slowed her pace slightly. "Starting a business from scratch would take a long time. I know we’re Adepts, which means we’ll live double the lifespan of ordinary humans, but why do we have to take our time?"
"We’ll have to build a customer base, find suppliers, and get people to trust you. And the moment we start doing well, everyone already in that space is going to try to shut us out. They’ll work together to make sure we don’t take their share of the market."
Lukas said nothing, but he was listening.
"So why don’t we just buy one instead?" Melody said. "Find a business that already exists, already has customers, already has supply lines, and buy it."
Lukas stopped walking.
Akira stopped a step later.
They looked at each other.
"Why didn’t we think of that?" Akira said.
"I have no idea," Lukas said.
Akira frowned. "In a city like Salaria, the people running established businesses probably do look out for each other. If a newcomer tries to muscle in, they’d make it difficult by raising their own supply costs, cutting off contacts, and driving prices down to squeeze them out. I’ve seen corrupt people do it back in my own world."
"Exactly," Melody said.
"But if we buy something that’s already inside that circle," Akira continued, "we skip all of that. We walk in with the relationships already in place."
"This way, we’ll have a higher starting point," Lukas said. "And that means less resistance."
"Exactly," Melody said.
Lukas looked at her. "That’s a great idea."
Melody smiled. "Thank you."
"No, genuinely. That’s a very good idea."
"I know." She folded her hands behind her back as they started walking again. "So does that mean I can have a car that’s also an apartment? Since I’m clearly contributing good things to this group?"
Lukas laughed. "Maybe in the future."
Melody pointed at him. "That’s a promise. I’m holding you to it."
"I didn’t say promise."
"You said maybe. Maybe is close enough."
"It really isn’t."
"It really is."
Akira walked slightly ahead of them, scanning the shops as they moved deeper into the Emporium. "Can we focus? I have an actual list to get through."
"We are focused," Melody said.
"You’re negotiating a car apartment."
"I can do both."
Lukas smiled and followed Akira further into the store.
Before long, she stopped in front of a store and looked through the window.
"This is it," she said.
She pushed open the door and immediately her head started moving, eyes jumping from shelf to shelf. She walked fast, pointing at the components on display as she went.
"That. Those bolts, all of them. Those metal plates, the copper wiring, that box of gears—"
"Akira." Lukas picked up a price tag from the nearest shelf and looked at it, then the next one, then the one after that.
He did the math in his head.
"Stop."
She turned.
He was smiling, but his voice was firm. "If you grab everything you’re pointing at, we won’t even have money left for food."
"But I need all of it."
"You need some of it," he said. "Pick what you need for experimenting and for setting up the traps in the apartment. That’s the limit. Everything else can wait until we know what actually works."
Akira opened her mouth, then closed it. She looked around the store once more, slower this time, then gave a short nod.
"Fine."
Melody, who had been leaning against the doorframe watching the whole thing, let out a small laugh.
"You were worse than me in the dealership."
Akira turned to look at her. "Was I?"
"You were pointing at everything."
"Interesting." Akira tilted her head. "So you admit you were acting crazed in the dealership."
Melody blinked.
"That’s not what I—"
"You said I was worse than you." Akira smiled. "Which means you know exactly how you were acting."
Melody closed her mouth.
Lukas laughed. "Akira. The parts."
"Right." She turned back to the shelves and started moving through them again, carefully studying them this time.
Melody followed after her, offering suggestions like she knew what she was doing, while Lukas watched them, a smile on his face.
Then he turned away, drifting between the shelves and keeping his pace casual. He scanned faces outside the store, trying to see if he could find who had been following them.
He didn’t find anything.
By the time he made his way back to the front of the store, Akira was already at the counter, paying. She stored everything in her spatial ring, and turned.
"I’m done," she said.
They walked out together.
Melody looked at the stores around them as they moved through the Emporium. "Is there anything else we need?"
Lukas thought about it. Akira had her components, and the car was sorted.
"No," he said. "That’s everything."
They made their way out of the Emporium and across the parking lot to the car.
Then Lukas saw him.
A man was leaning against the dark blue sedan, arms folded, one ankle crossed over the other.
He was relaxed, and wearing a grin like he had all the time in the world.
He looked up as they approached.
"Lukas Valentine," the man said. "Took you long enough."
