Cross-plane?
Allen was taken aback.
’I have so few acquaintances. Who would send sothing?’
’Could it be...’
He took the box and glanced at the sender’s information on it.
Sender: Vera Campbell.
Sender’s Address: Panorama Corridor Plane - Seven Towers Alliance - New Western Apprentice Service Center.
Allen’s eyes widened slightly.
"Thanks." He casually tossed the staff mber a Mid-Level Magic Stone as a tip, then strode to a rest area in the fortress. He found an empty corner and sat down.
The box wasn’t heavy, and it still had the faint radiation unique to spatial transport.
Allen took a deep breath and tapped his fingertip on the Rune lock on the box’s lid.
CLICK.
The tal box popped open.
Inside was no world-destroying weapon, nor any priceless treasure.
There was only a light-blue mory crystal and a small piece of alchemy paper with numbers written on it.
Allen picked up the mory crystal and infused a trace of Magic Power into it.
A soft blue light projected a screen of light into the air.
The image was a bit shaky. The background was an office piled high with docunts—it was his old office at "New Western." The layout was almost unchanged, only the piles of files on the desk were higher.
A familiar face squeezed into the fra.
Vera.
He hadn’t seen her in three years. She had cut her hair short, making her look even more capable, and an Advanced Apprentice’s badge hung on her chest.
Although she had dark circles under her eyes that she couldn’t quite hide, her eyes were still astonishingly bright.
"Hey, boss!"
Vera waved at the cara, her smile radiant. "When you see this, it ans this ridiculously expensive cross-plane delivery didn’t rip off. God knows how much it cost to send this thing; the shipping fee alone was enough to buy two Spider Slayers!"
Allen couldn’t help but let the corners of his mouth lift. ’Still the sa Vera, pinching every penny.’
"Don’t push ! I want to talk too!"
The image shook, and Colin’s big face leaned in close.
Colin was chubbier than before, but his eyes had lost so of their simple-mindedness and gained a hint of shrewdness.
"Boss! I missed you like crazy!" Colin howled at the cara. "With you gone, those noble apprentices are so hard to deal with! But don’t you worry, our ’New Western’ is the gold standard in the academy now. If anyone dares to default on their paynt, I’ll have Ah Fu curse them out!"
"Get out of the way, we’re talking about serious business." Vera pushed Colin aside and reclaid the center of the fra.
Her smile faded, and she said seriously, "Allen, everything’s fine on our end. According to your plan, the Spider Slayer production line is stable. Although we’re splitting off a portion of the profits, we make up for it with high volu. A lot of apprentices are buying our products, and so even buy them for their Wizard Clans to use in wars."
"Colin and I... we’re doing well. It’s a bit busy, but we have more than enough resources. I can already see the hope of becoming an Official Wizard. My ntor said I can try to advance after another three years of consolidation. That guy Colin is a bit slower, but he’s almost at the threshold too."
At this point, Vera paused, and her gaze softened.
"We all know the place you’ve gone to is very dangerous. Even though you didn’t say anything, we’ve heard a lot of rumors. The war front... that’s a place where people really die."
"We can’t help much, and we can’t risk our lives like you. What we can do is guard our business for you."
Vera picked up a sheet of alchemy paper from the desk and waved it.
"This is your share of the dividends from ’New Western’ for the past three years. After deducting operating costs and necessary expenses, it’s a total of seventy-one thousand, four hundred and twenty Low-Level Magic Stones. I know you must be in urgent need of resources over there. The transfer code is written on the paper. You should have a bank over there, right? I hope you can withdraw it."
"Allen, don’t be frugal. Spend what you need to spend. Staying alive is what’s most important."
The image froze on Vera and Colin’s radiant smiles, then slowly faded away.
"Boss, over there... you have to take care of yourself."
The screen of light flickered a few tis and went out.
Allen sat by the bustling roadside in the fortress, clutching the mory crystal tightly in his hand.
’Seventy thousand Magic Stones.’
’What was that to now?’
’My mine, operating at full power, could earn that much in four days. I’d just thrown around two hundred thousand a mont ago.’
But Allen felt that the piece of parchnt in his hand was heavier than the Crystal Card that held his millions.
’That was what two apprentices, still struggling in the greenhouse of the academy, had scraped together, bit by bit, from transactions where every last coin was counted.’
’It was what they had earned by checking ledgers through countless late nights and fighting for every advantage at the negotiating table.’
’They could have pocketed the money, or used "business difficulties" as an excuse to give less.’
’After all, I’m far away in another plane and have no way to check the accounts. If I died on the battlefield, the money would have been theirs.’
’But they hadn’t.’
’They were even worried I was having too hard a ti on the front lines, telling "don’t be frugal."’
"Those two idiots, they don’t act like Wizards at all..."
Allen cursed under his breath.
’I’d always thought I’d grown accustod to asuring relationships by the exchange of benefits.’
’My initial partnership with Vera and Colin was purely for profit, after all.’
’But now, it seed sothing else had mixed into that purely transactional relationship.’
’Sothing... that made a cold Warlord like feel a long-lost warmth.’
[Abnormal emotional fluctuations detected in the Commander.]
Dseek’s voice rang in his mind. [Humanity Value is rising. It has reached a two-year high. Recomndation: Take a deep breath.]
"Shut up." Allen took a deep breath, solemnly placing the mory crystal and the parchnt into his Space Ring.
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