Chương 83: 69. Principled Rich Man

Omen: 8, 11 Jurot lay there, ruminating on what Adam had told him last night. Jurot wasn't sure what to make of it, and after a few minutes of thinking about Adam's tale, he let out a soft sigh and let it go from his mind, sitting up to see his mother, Adam, and Lucy.

"Whoa! Whoa! How are you so juicy?" Lucy asked, grabbing onto Adam's arms and his pecs. She hadn't noticed his physique, which was quite powerful for someone with elvish blood.

'I need to make him my General!'

"Anyway," Adam said, trying to push her away from molesting him.

"Now that the emergency has been settled, we should probably figure out our next steps."

"Our next steps?" Jurot asked, staring at the pair of them in their comedy act.

"Aunt and Lanarot are safe, and we can't spend all our time in the Iyr. Didn't you leave the Iyr in order to adventure?"

"Jurot decided to set out on his own," Sonarot said.

"Usually Iyrmen leave with another, adventure until they rank up and then part ways, but he wanted to go alone." Jurot nodded.

"I was a little older than the others, so I wanted to go alone and leave them in their preferred pairs."

"So it should have been Amokan and you, but since Timojin is close to him, you let their bromance develop?"

"Yes," Jurot replied, assuming the definition of bromance.

"Instead, I will follow you."

"You want to follow me?" Adam blinked.

"Your story is interesting. There is no Iyrman with a story like yours. If I am beside you, then I will be the first Iyrman to have such stories." Jurot smirked, revelling in his ingeniousness.

"Well I'm going to stay here!" Lucy declared.

"This is the best place to train. Once I'm strong enough, I'm going to…" She fell silent and thought about what she wanted to do.

"Do something?"

"Alright." Adam smiled.

"We'll stay here for a little while longer, and then we'll leave." He had thought about how he was going to adventure with Jurot, but since he decided it himself, Adam didn't need to think about it.

"Oh, right. Since I'm a nephew of the Rot family, is there something that's expected of me? Do I need to pay dues? Do I need to help around the Iyr?" He wasn't sure how the relationship worked with him as a nephew.

"We Iyrmen must pay at least one tenth of our treasure back to the Iyr, though we usually send more," Jurot said.

"You are just a nephew of the Iyr."

"So I don't have to pay dues?"

"Yes," Sonarot said.

"There is no need for that." Adam crossed his arms.

"It feels weird that I won't be paying dues. I'll send back a tenth of my earnings back too." He narrowed his eyes.

"Though that involves maths." He shuddered.

"What if I created magical weapons now and again for the Iyr?" Sonarot stared down at the boy, wondering why he was so eager to pay them.

"You can speak with an Elder about the matter, and they can discuss it with the Great Elders and the Chief."

"I'll do that, then," Adam said, nodding his head.

"First, let's go play with Lanarot. She probably forgot our faces." Jurot and Adam surrounded the tiny basket Lanarot slept in.

"Hello little Lana," he said.

"Did you sleep well? We didn't get to talk properly yesterday." She stared up at him.

"Did anyone bully you while we were gone?" Adam asked. The Iyrmen threw him a curious glance.

"Just a bad joke, don't mind me," Adam said, noting how they were glaring at him.

"A joke?" Jurot asked.

"How is that a joke?"

"It's like if I were to say our fighting power has gone down now that an Iyrman is here. It's a ridiculous thing to say, obviously wrong, which is why it's funny. It's more a joke about the person saying the joke being an idiot." Lucy stared at him.

"You are an idiot." Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Exactly."

"So this is Lanarot," Lucy said, staring down at the baby.

"You did all that for her?" Having heard his tale, Lucy wondered why he had done so much for someone he barely knew.

'Was he really serious about helping Mara?'

"Of course," Adam said.

"She's my precious little sister, and Jurot's precious little sister too."

"She is fortunate," Sonarot said, and almost immediately, Lanarot began to cough and cry.

"And hungry." She pulled her baby up to her teet and began to feed her.

"She'll grow up the best too," Adam said.

"Jurot will teach her the ways of the Iyr, and I'll teach her some stuff too. She'll be the greatest Iyrman to ever be born."

"That is a difficult task," Jurot said.

"Difficult, but not impossible," Adam quoted, smirking at Jurot. Jurot narrowed his eyes, fighting off his own approaching smirk. Lucy continued to glance around the Iyr.

"I really didn't believe you when you said the Iyr was full of hunky men and women." She scowled.

"Curses! If only I wasn't in this tiny form!"

"Give it a few years and I'm sure you'll be fine," Adam said, reaching up to pet her head. Lucy was about to slap at his hand, but then realised it would only be fair if she got to touch him too, so grabbed his bicep.

"It's not that, I just need to consume some magic. My body is lacking it right now, which is why I'm so small."

"That's how that works?" Adam asked.

"How do you consume magic?"

"Someone can send their Mana into me, or I can suck it out of them," she said, grabbing his hand and biting the side of it gently.

"I can try and send my Mana through you," Adam offered.

"Really?" Lucy blinked at him, shocked by his offer.

"You would?"

"Of course. Aren't we friends?" Adam asked, tilting his head.

"Oh, right. I let you be my friend." Lucy smirked.

"Then I'll accept your Mana!"

"So how do I do it?" Lucy grabbed his hand and formed it into a fist with a finger sticking out. She placed it up to her forehead.

"Now, where can you feel your Mana?"

"In my heart?"

"Your heart is a lake of Mana," Lucy said, before stopping. Her mind wandered off to another time for a moment before she caught herself.

"Now, imagine a stream of Mana flowing out of that lake, through your finger." Adam inhaled deeply and concentrated on the magic in his heart. Arcane Lore D20 + 4 = 24 (20) Mana: 8 -> 5 The magic flowed from his heart, through his arms, and into her head. It was easy, and gave him a strong sense of relief as his magic left out of him. His arm felt so tingly.

The little demon girl shuddered under the feeling of the warmth which filled her, before she pulled back, sighing as though she had finished a can of fizzy pop.

"That didn't feel too bad," Adam noted.

"It didn't take as much as I thought."

"Do you have more magic?" Lucy asked, sniffing at him.

"Yes," Adam replied.

"Do you want more?"

"Gimme! Gimme!" Lucy grabbed his hand again and brought his finger to her forehead. Mana: 5 -> 0 Adam gasped as his magic was drained by the demon girl, causing him to drop down and pant. His heart felt cold without the magic he was used to feeling.

"I need to digest it all," Lucy said, dropping down under the sun, and she rubbed her bulging stomach.

"Is that how that works?" Adam asked, staring at her. She hummed in response, already zoned out as she began to digest the magic which had been poured into her.

"Let us train," Jurot said, with the other Iyrmen beside him, who were excited to hear more about the tale as they trained. The children all stared up at Adam, wondering if he was going to play with them. It was rare that the older children played with the little ones, so even if Adam sometimes crushed them, it was still nice to play with him.

"Why don't we all train together this time?" Adam offered.

"Ooh!"

"Ya!" The children bounced excitedly, and Adam glanced over to see the disapproving looks of Jurot and the others, who wouldn't be able to train as hard with the children. Adam cleared his throat.

"I need a little bit of a break today, so I'll train with the children. I will show you some exercises from my home." Upon hearing that Adam was going to reveal exercises from his home, even Timojin's eyes began to gleam. It was on this day Adam introduced the Iyr to star jumps. Timojin glared at Adam, his hopes dashed. It was on this day Adam introduced the Iyr to burpees.

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked from beside the half elf. She was sitting in the stream, admiring the bodies of all the hunky Iyrmen about.

"I hate burpees," Adam admitted, having refused to lead the exercises after revealing the technique. He understood why the Iyrmen would like the exercise, but he hated it with a deep passion. Once they returned back to the estate, Sonarot revealed a large pouch.

"Adam, your axe has been sold."

"My axe?" Adam asked.

"Cool Weapon." Adam coughed slightly, nearly taking damage from hearing the name.

"Oh, right. How much I make?"

"One thousand and five hundred gold," Sonarot said.

"We've already taken what you owe us."

"Nice. So that would be…" Adam tried to do the maths in his head.

"Three hundred gold to Jurot, and one thousand and two hundred gold for me."

"Jurot's share?" Sonarot asked.

"Isn't it too much?" Jurot asked, noting the look from his mother.

"It's what we agreed on," Adam said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Jurot, you will accept so much coin?" Sonarot asked. Jurot began to sweat under his mother's stare. It was as though he was being crushed by a heavy weight.

"No." Adam glanced at Sonarot.

"It's fine," Adam said.

"It's a fair price. Jurot's wood work is amazing, and he also checks the quality of the weapon. His experience with that sort of thing is worth a lot. It might end up that I make something awful, in which case, I probably won't auction it."

"Won't you lose lots of gold?" Sonarot asked.

"I will create decent weapons. If I end up making basic weapons, I might be sell them to the guild or another organisation, as basic gear for adventurers rather than auctioning them."

"Very principled, aren't you?"

"That's the goal." Adam smiled.

"I'm principled, even if I am poor. Well, was poor." Currency: 65GP, (16) Tiger Eye -> 165GP, (38) Tiger Eye'I'm freaking riiich.'