After the ceremony, Ciel was met with the smiling face of Cedric back at the base.

Beside him stood Dominic, who was still wearing the clothes he had worn at the ceremony. However, his majestic air had completely melted into the aura of a baby chick protecting its mother.

“Cedric will be entrusted to you until we go to Ouroborus academy four years later. During this time, please protect him.”

However, it seemed that Ciel was the only one bored enough to notice that, as Jadiel and the rest nodded seriously. But from the look in Jadiel’s eyes, Ciel concluded that Cedric would definitely not be having a relaxed life.

As he had expected, the next day, everyone was summoned, including the men Dominic had injected into Fatalite.

“It’s been a good amount of time now, and the rescued children need to be sent home. The explosion had halted smuggling and according to the information we received, that’ll last for quite some time. So in this mission, every one of you will go. It’ll be a good experience for all of you. You have today to pack, and all twenty of you will leave tomorrow.”

Jadiel’s face was bright and full of bad intentions. 

‘I can tell what he’s thinking right away.’

Ciel thought as they were dismissed. 

Jadiel was definitely glad that he was about to get some time away from certain headache-inducing people.

(Ciel: Definitely not me.)

Slipping away from Erin, Ciel revisited the black market after counting his remaining funds. He had enough money from his mother and his trips to the gambling hall so there was no need to visit it and annoy the manager so often.

Otherwise, he might really get banned and his source of income would be cut off.

“Huh, isn’t that Lapin?” Recognizing a familiar bunny mask in the middle of the crowd, Ciel stopped. Going closer, he realized that Lapin wasn’t alone. He was currently grabbed by the collar at the hands of a tall person wearing a simple white cloak.

Such a pure, and eye-catching color was rare to see in the dark, underground black market.

Lapin sounded panicked, though he usually was a coward. So that wasn’t anything unusual.

“I-I really don’t have it! I sold it months ago!”

Rolling his eyes around, Lapin caught sight of Ciel standing quietly away from them. The murky red eyes under the bunny mask instantly lit up as he pointed at the young boy.

“I sold it to the customer right there!”

‘Tsk. He instantly sold me out.’

Ciel tsked in his head when the man let go of Lapin and walked to him. Lapin, freed, sank down onto the ground limply.

‘Ah whatever, I was bored anyway, I need something stimulating.’

But just before he bit his fingers, Ciel remembered how Lilian had tried to shield him from the bomb and Jadiel’s words. He sighed and took out his metal cards instead.

‘Guess I can’t ignore his instructions anymore.’

This was why Ciel avoided having people close to him. The reason was simple—once someone made it past a certain line called family in his heart, even if he still gave them some minor headaches, he would be very, very weak to them. 

That was why he had only two such people in his past life. Now he had two in this life too. Lilian and Jadiel. The others didn’t have such authority yet, but he had a feeling that with time, they would also cross that line.

Dammit. Why did this world have so many uselessly nice people? 

Reconsidering his choices in this life, Ciel injected mana into a card and threw it casually like a dagger.

The man quickly bent down, and two-thirds of the card was embedded onto the ground right before Lapin’s feet.

Startled, Lapin quickly crawled backwards, running away.

That had been aimed at him. That had definitely been aimed at him. If it had been aimed at that tall man, it would’ve hit the wall behind him.

Lapin cursed in his heart as he quickly disappeared into the shadows, hoping that Ciel would be too busy to deal with him at the moment.

Watching the rabbit’s back disappear, Ciel turned away disinterestedly. He was all too familiar with Lapin’s cowardliness after visiting the black market a few times. He had only managed to stay alive here because of that trait of his. Ah, and his connections.

‘I’ll get him back for this later.’

Ciel narrowed his eyes. In the black market, he never wore his blindfold because the underground lighting was perfect.

His blue eyes glinted with warmth as he looked at his new playmate. This was definitely more passerby-friendly than bombs.

This time, four cards were thrown, each aimed at the man’s limbs.

Grunting, the man did a weird star-shaped jump, barely avoiding all four cards that eventually ended up embedded in the walls behind Lapin’s stall.

A sweat drop rolled down the man’s chin as he looked back at the cards deep in the wall and in the floor.

Both the wall and the floor were reinforced with multiple layers of condensed ores to support the black market from falling because of disputes.

Yet a paper-thing card had easily pierced through them.

“Wait! I think you misunderstood something. I just want a conversation!”

Ciel didn’t believe him. Who was the one grabbing Lapin’s collar just now?

“A conversation?” Between fists?

Another card flickered metallically between Ciel’s fingers.

The man quickly shielded his head. “A conversation, a negotiation with words! Don’t throw another one! I can’t dodge anymore!”

Disappointed, Ciel put the rest of his cards away. “Pick up my cards and we’ll go somewhere else to talk.”

‘He surrendered too fast. I haven't had enough fun yet.’

But he didn’t have the motivation to continue when he saw how quickly the man scrambled for the cards.

Even one sided beatings weren’t fun when the opponent wasn’t hostile.

.

In one of Taq’s reinforced testing rooms, Ciel sat down face to face with the man. One hand was meticulously cleaning the five dusty cards he had thrown earlier.

“So you want the old staff I bought a few months ago?”

‘This guy doesn’t seem to be from the church. Why does he want it? It's only useful to the heroes chosen by Delmira?’

The man was silent, before pulling his mask and hood down. Underneath the mask was a middle aged man with mint-green eyes and light brown hair.

“I’ll be frank with you. I’m Michael, a wandering priest searching for lost relics of the church. A few days ago, the Pope sent me a message that he had received a revelation from Delmira.”

Ciel glanced at the sparkling mint green eyes and his thoughts went astray.

‘Are rare shades of eyes common in this world?’ Then he remembered how the protagonist had pure gold eyes and fell silent. This was a fantasy world after all, he shouldn’t be surprised anymore and actually process what this man had said.

‘Wait, he really was from the church?’

Ciel’s eyes lit up. This was like handing him a pillow when he was sleepy. Didn’t Jadiel say that wandering priests were very hard to find?

Reciprocating Michael’s sincerity. Ciel also pulled down his mask. Priests of Delmira advocated honesty and balance. They heavily believed in the give and take relationship.

So with his innocent face, Ciel took full advantage of that belief.

“I can sell it to you in exchange for a few favors.”

“Sure.” Michael’s eyes lit up like he had gotten a huge favor.

‘Anyone who sees your reaction will definitely scam you. This is why the church isolates itself.’

Ciel thought as his harmless grin on his face radiated kindness.

‘Well, I’m not scamming him. The staff is a priceless treasure after all~’

He had a meat shield to show Jadiel now~hehehe.

“How about we sign a mana contract first?”

“Sure! I have one right here.”

Michael sounded even happier. A mana contract took the mana of both contractors and could not be broken. Otherwise, the mana would turn on the person who violated the contract.

The consequences of your own mana turning on you was not pleasant, and most people would die.

Therefore, mana contracts were unshakable.

For now.

Ciel could easily see what had transpired before now.

‘He came prepared huh? I bet Lapin tried to scam him, saying that he had the staff until Michael wanted him to sign a mana contract.’

As he filled out the details of the contract, Ciel’s gaze towards Michael radiated more kindness than before.

Ciel liked smart and obedient people like Erin, but his favorite type of people were those who owed him favors. Especially an unspecified amount of favors written up on a contract.

Michael: I suddenly feel a chill up my spine?

Verdalite: I feel you bud. 

Ciel: I don’t know what you’re talking about? OvO

Watching Michael sign the contract happily, Ciel felt that he must be smiling like an angel right now.

“However, I’ll be going on a trip tomorrow. So I’ll have to trouble you to wait for a week or more. Is that ok with you?”

Michael nodded kindly, not even questioning why Ciel couldn’t hand the staff over right now.

“It’s fine. I can wait.”

Ciel’s face immediately blossomed into the sweetest smile he could produce.

“Thank you so much, you truly are a generous priest.”