"Afterwards, the teachers found the rib that was sunbathing nearby and immediately pulled the unlucky guy out and put him in solitary confinement. I heard he was in solitary confinement for about three years, and was also required to copy the lab safety manual a hundred times. Anyway, he should have been released long ago and passed the test again."
I hope that the little princess's huge lump of iron won't become the next one... I can't help but want to cover my face.
Soon, Rhodes responded to the request: "I can gather the items, but it will take some time."
"you say."
"Give me at least one day. I need to go to another place where I'm hiding things and get the breach."
“But I’m leaving this city tomorrow and heading west,” I said, casually swatting away Hikari’s raised hand as she added, “to go to the Sacred Tree Stronghold on business.”
"Where are you going? There's nothing big happening at the Sacred Tree Barrier lately... Oh, there is, but it's just a sword duel tournament to celebrate a festival. But you're not a mage specializing in combat, are you going there to get humiliated?" Rhodes looked at him with surprise. "It won't be until the afternoon at the earliest, so just tell me if you're willing to wait or not."
"I can only give you until the morning, you have to leave at noon." I shrugged. "Going is an order from my supervisor, and I can't even protest. If I could, I wouldn't even want to leave the house, okay?"
He slammed his hand on the table, tossed aside his notebook, leaned forward, and rolled up his sleeves again: "You think you can haggle? Think about it, from now until noon tomorrow, that's only eighteen hours! Subtract the eight hours of sleep you can get, then subtract mealtime—let's say two meals, two hours total—and the rest is just…"
“Eight hours,” Hikari interjected.
"Oh right, eight hours!" Rod paused for a few seconds, then slapped his thigh and continued, "And you also have to request pickup in the morning, which makes the time even shorter! Not even eight hours!"
He counted on his fingers: "Think about it, I'm running this tiny, run-down shop all by myself in the city. Not only do I have to do some business to make money and attract customers all by myself, but I also have to be careful not to get discovered by those guys who call themselves [Wisdom of the Stars], and then they'll skin me alive and bleed me dry. The [Mystic Research Center] and those orthodox mages won't come to my aid, and the official research stipend is just that one bag of money the academy gives me every year..."
"Then I have to rush around the city in the middle of the night and early in the morning, hiding from people's eyes and the scrutiny of patrols, while hurriedly moving the goods you need... Tell me, isn't your request a bit too much! This is already forcing me to lose my precious sleep time!"
"Add more money! You absolutely have to add more money! Add a hefty amount! Otherwise, you have to extend the time limit to the afternoon!"
I paused for a few seconds, glanced at the self-righteous expression on the other side, then turned halfway to look at the little fool next to me who had been tricked into secretly wiping away tears by this obviously sympathetic rhetoric. I sighed and slowly said, "...I didn't want to bring it up again, after all, there are occasional cases where some shops' newly developed products are completely consistent with the research direction of a certain mage."
"While in most cases everyone adopts a perfunctory attitude of pretending not to hear without informing each other, since you've chosen to act tough in front of me, the copyright holder, then..."
"Huh? What did you just say?"
Before I could continue, Rod did exactly that, jumping up from the small stool and spinning around the room, pulling on one ear and saying, "Hey, why did my ears suddenly stop working? I can't hear anything except a buzzing sound!" He even patted his ear, making a crisp sound as he spoke. "Hey, brother, what did you just say?"
Even Hikari, who had been secretly wiping away tears, was stunned. After a long while, she leaned over and whispered in his ear, "His acting is so fake."
"..."
Even my little idiot said you're fake! Rod, you jerk, you better reflect on your actions! Don't embarrass yourself with such exaggerated and fake acting!
"Instead of having time to act, it's better to get to work early so you can save more time to rest."
I rolled my eyes and asked one last time, "So, what's your final decision?"
After a few breaths of silence, Rhodes, his face flushed red, stood there with his eyes darting around, and finally slapped his thigh: "Damn it, I'll do it!"
He thought for a moment, then quickly added, "The earliest it can be is before noon. Come and pick it up before you leave!"
And so the matter was settled.
...
The next day at noon, under Shenxue's protection, we quickly quelled the commotion in the dome hall, retrieved the necessary goods from Rhodes, who had two huge dark circles under his eyes, and hurriedly left the transit hub through the west gate.
Now, it's time to go to the Sacred Tree Stronghold.
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