Chapter 46

✿

Entering the room looking restless, he asked back in bewilderment.

“No, what… You were Astel?”

“Yes, sit down on the sofa across.”

I nodded and handed him the sample vial I had prepared.

“First of all, you should try a sample.”

“I feel like I’m being scammed. No, it’s really a milky cream. It’s not magic…Oh, my really.”

While grunting like that, Warret carefully took the cream I had given with trembling hands.

Then, without hesitation, he took the medicine from the bottle and dabbed it into his arm.

A few minutes later.

Fluffy fur began to rise from his arm.

“It’s real! The- the-, the hair is growing! My fluffy fur!”

“Yes, that’s right. Strangely, even the wizards of the Empire could not create a magic potion in which hair can grow. But I can.”

Whispering like that really felt like a drug dealer, with prohibited drugs.

‘But it’s right to sell medicine, right?’

“It’s really, really true, the hair’s growing… It’s such a revolution…”

Warret with eyes wide open clenched his fists.

“Well, that’s not important. I’ll prepare my money so you won’t be disappointed, so please give me plenty…”

“I’m going to get something else instead of money.”

“…What? What do you intend to ask… from this raccoon?”

He shook his head and opened his mouth again.

“For now, I can’t live my life.”

I don’t even need your life…

I held out the 《Magic Contract》 that I had received from Bell, the silver fox beast.

Only the contract was special, but the terms of the contract itself were nothing much.

We can exchange what we want with each other.

In addition, the degree to which this contract and artifact can’t be leaked outside the party.

“No, you bastard! You’re almost trying to enslave me!”

“What?”

I didn’t even intend to make him a slave, but I just suggested getting on the same boat…

However, the appraiser shouted, glaring at the contract angrily.

“This contract is a slave contract!”

I read the contract carefully once again.

The part he pointed to was the content that requested silence about the contents of the contract.

“If I mistakenly leak about the contract, I will be burned to death, if that’s not a slave, then what is? Ha! Simple control?”

“You have to do that much.” I said to him,

Because this contract should be kept a secret and important.

“If you don’t tell anyone about it, it will be in very good condition. We will provide ‘Grow Up, My Hair‘ free of charge for the next five years.”

Instead of being curious and passionate about artifacts, he had no desire to honor in inverse proportion.

“Besides… I have a lot of interesting artifacts.”

He opened his mouth, unable to hide his sparkling eyes.

“Then, can I take a look at it?”

Soon after, he checked my office strangely.

I nodded at him. In order to meet the appraiser, I have been collecting all the artifacts that seem to have been specially requested to the maid from early on.

However, even though I had collected several rare artifacts in the office, they looked completely terrible in his eyes.

“There’s nothing much.”

He clicked his tongue and crossed his arms over his chest.

‘Hmm, I have to find another way.’

Almost all of them have passed, but I think it only needs to be over 1% more.

It was just when I was stamping my feet out of regret.

He glanced at the 《Astel’s Happiness Diary》 that was quietly lying on the left side of the office, and then his eyes widened.

“Oh, this is kind of tempting.”

“What? It’s not an artifact. It’s my diary.”

He’s eyes gleamed insidiously like a raccoon.

“Do you want to insist that it’s just an ordinary diary? That’s understandable. There’s this kind of power in it.”

“…?”

“Hmm…”

He looked me up and down and nodded.

“Okay. Let’s sign the contract. I can’t wait to stand in front of Lily!”

…It was in a slightly different direction, but it seemed that I had caught the raccoon well anyway.

“What the heck, yeah. Come to think of it, we just don’t have to talk about the contract, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“If you think about it, if I use the hair product of ‘Grow up’, this raccoon will be reborn with a shiny furry…”

“Do you like it that much?” I said brightly.

“Oh, that’s right. You don’t know, but as soon as my hair fell off, everyone mocked me. I’m weaker than a toothless tiger, a hairless raccoon!”

I nodded and played his rhythm.

Then he read the contract again, signed it, and rambled on.

After a few tic-toc, I got his signature perfectly.

Now this raccoon has boarded the ship I operate.

He doesn’t even know what boat he’s on.

“Anyway, I signed the contract. What do you want to entrust to me?”

I quietly pulled a brooch artifact out of my pocket.

“It’s this brooch…”

“Ugh, I can feel the energy of darkness.”

Excited by the dark artifact, the appraiser fiddled with the brooch.

“Hmm…” He nodded.

“How long do you think it’ll take?”

The swordsmanship competition is just 15 days away, so it should be within 15 days.

I stared at him intently waiting for his answer.

“It won’t take half an hour.”

“Then can you do it right now?”

“I can’t do that. Artisans cover the tools.”

Aren’t craftsmen not picky about tools?

But Warret said it so seriously that I simply responded, saying yes.

“For now, I have no intention of bringing some magic tools.”

“When will you be able to come?””

“It won’t take a week.”

The raccoon and I held and shook hands.

“I look forward to your kind cooperation.”

After finishing the contract, I went out to see the raccoon out of the castle and then came back.

‘Will I really be able to catch the swordsman properly?’

He must also know that Sam’s artifacts have disappeared, so he was more likely to get caught up in my plan.

‘Or because it can be handled in another way.’

I’m about to enter the castle again thinking deeply. Jenny, who was following me, carefully spoke.

“Astel, doesn’t it seem like someone is always staring at us?”

“…Did you feel it, too?”

When Sally and Jenny responded, I began to feel a sense of crisis.

Because beasts have good senses.

Nervous, I looked around carefully. Then, an unfamiliar face came into sight.

A very tall man dressed in a neatly knight uniform.

Restless, he even avoided my gaze!

‘Who’s that man?’

He was a sturdy man with a ferocious impression that I’ve never seen before.

With black hair, he’s golden eyes gave off a rather threatening and chilly atmosphere.

‘I can’t believe a knight appeared near me when I was about to catch the swordsman.’

On one side of my mind, my guard rose. I strode towards him, glaring at him.

✿

Meanwhile, Sir Retro, a man looking at Astel approaching, was trembling as he remembered his master.

I will be 30 this year.

He’s a skilled knight who has been serving his predecessor’s Excellency, the Dukes, since he was ten years old and participated in the Monster War, and was a leopard in the form of an animal.

It’s not just that. As a knight, his nickname is ‘Criminal’s Sword of Judgment’.

In fact, he served as a police officer to detect and deal with the disturbing atmosphere existing inside and outside the Duke’s Fortress.

Of course, he had in his arms a flyer of a heinous criminal named ‘Ibor’, who’s widely known as a great thief today, but…

Now wasn’t the time to act as a police officer.

While the Duke was away, he was hiding to serve and take care of Astel, a human being the Duke cherished.

He’s confident that he has been through all sorts of hardships, but in fact, there has never been a day when he was as nervous as today.

-‘With you, I wouldn’t dare but ignore Astel for a while.’

Clearly, Retro’s position was exceptional even within the Knights.

He was recognized for his contribution to the war of monsters from a young age for over twenty years.

-‘I like that ugly face that everyone’s afraid of.’

When he said that, my master’s appearance absolutely didn’t look normal.

Of course, it was difficult to describe the original Duke I knew as sane…

Retro trembled.

It was because I remembered the Duke’s last warning.