...

"*Haa*" Zoe sighed as she leaned back in the carriage while thinking about her experience at House Gatmia in the past few days.

Currently she after the terrible negotiations with Count Gatmia had finally managed to come to an agreement with the Count.

A few days ago the Gatmia's opened a clothing store called Gatmia RRP, so far so normal, but the clothes they sold were enchanted with alchemy, now, she was not an expert in alchemy by any means, but she knew that currently that was almost impossible to achieve so she quickly sent a message to the Head of House Gatmia to negotiate and obtain an exclusive trade between the two house.

The deal was that House Flumin would export one little three-star Catalysts every few months to House Garmit in exchange for them doing the same but with enchanted clothing.

At first she thought that everything would go smoothly and calmly, after all the former Head of the Family was always a reasonable and kind person, it could be said that they had a good relationship between the two houses thanks to him.

Unfortunately the joy was short-lived, when he found out that a new Head took control of the House after the old one died mysteriously a few months ago.

With that news alone his mood was already ruined, but the bad news didn't stop there.

Apparently the New Boss thought he was on top of the world or something, as he not only disrespected her more than once, but invited her to join his "women's entourage" several times to "serve and play" under him.

That already tempted her to kill the bastard several times, but she kept it to herself, as she knew that the Nobles would always look for a beautiful woman, they didn't care if the girls were of higher or lower rank, or even if they were underage, except for royalty if someone tried to snatch a Princess without the permission of the King, Queen and the Princess herself all hell would break loose in the House that attempted such an act.

Back on topic, the worst part of the negotiations was that the stupid Count expected her to give him 30% of her magical branches, a large amount of money and on top of that knowledge in unique medical spells, just because "House Flumin is already extremely wealthy, a little bit of this won't hurt them much".

Obviously I refused these conditions and suggested he change them.

But the Count continued to insist that these were the MINIMUM conditions he could afford.

I tried to negotiate further with the Count but the bastard just wouldn't budge, at this point I had given up with the negotiations and was seriously considering and assassin or something like that.

But try one last attempt, because, if everything is already going bad, one last time can't go any worse.

Apparently I was wrong.

And that was a big mistake...

...for the Count.

Let's say he made a certain comment that triggered my anger on him...

"If you are not going to give me what I ask then perhaps if you give me your two daughters as slaves for my... service... I might reconsider your terms."

Heh...

I don't think I've ever been so enraged in my life.

Lie, maybe there was a time when I was angrier than I am now... but that's not the point.

It seems that the Earl didn't know his place not the way to address another Head of a House, so I kindly decided to help him.

Heh...

I may hate my Mother but I have to admit that the Mind Torture Magic she taught me is a gem for moments like these.

Watching as he rolled on the floor, crying and screaming, as the blood slowly drained from his eyes and ears, as he begged for mercy while he watched his wives, children and friends betray and murder him over and over again to near insanity was splendid to my eyes, the best thirty minutes I had in this dreadful House.

When he finally stopped I asked him if he regretted his words, but it seemed that he could not answer coherently, poor creature, maybe ten more minutes would make him come to his senses.

And indeed it seemed that after ten more minutes, he was now willing to negotiate.

In the end I got more than I originally wanted, every two months House Gatmia would export high quality custom clothing to House Flumin, while we... would give them nothing.

It's amazing what a little Magic can do, isn't it?

Maybe I should use it more often in these kinds of negotiations.

"I can still remember that look on his face...haha" I said with a chuckle escaping my lips as I remembered the look of fear and how his face seemed to be very haggard.

"*Haa* that was really funny...I wonder what Sophia and Flora are doing right now" I said as I looked out at the beautiful spring scenery.

"Maybe Flora is training as usual or fighting someone to test her skills, her battle talent is monstrous" I whispered to myself as I remembered how Flora had beaten three people two years older than her at the same time with just her fists at the beginning of the new school year.

"Sophia has already started watching magic classes for sure, I wish I had been there to see her first spell" I said as I caught a glimpse of myself in the carriage glass.

"Maybe some sleep wouldn't be bad at all..." I said as I leaned back in the comfortable seat and closed my eyes.

...