‘Deal? Just like that? Wasn’t that way too easy? Too quick?’ Severin was taken aback and couldn’t suppress the doubts that crept into his mind when Magda, all too willingly, agreed to his offer without so much as batting an eye.

Luckily, no contract had yet been signed; they had just been going through the details for one last time before the actual signing. Nothing was yet set in stone.

‘But I can’t just change my mind like this. Not when it was my own proposal, right? Besides. She very well might just want to get this all over with. In that case, me wanting to change the terms again would only complicate things. Well. Things would get complicated either way.’ That aside, ‘just wanting to get things over with,’ was certainly a sentiment he could get behind; Magda wasn’t the only to have lost most of her energy.

Ultimately, he decided against reopening negotiations. Not least because of the nagging voice in his head which told him that if he went against his words simply because he was not yet bound to it and because of his personal greed, he wouldn’t be any better than those Society scoundrels. And even if it was quite the sum of money in his eyes, a few thousand more would hardly be worth the hassle.

‘Especially not if I have to deal with them on a daily basis from now on.

Shouldn’t dwell too much on this. Just get the contract ready and that’s it.

Now let’s see.’

With that mindset, he opened the System, ready to use his most recently acquired feature.

Setting up the contract was done in just a matter of seconds. It was of especially great help that the moment Severin tried to remember a clause they had agreed upon, the exact words they had used suddenly appeared on the bluish glowing screen in front of him.

He was irritated when thinking about the implications, but mollified when his eyes reached the end of the contract. An additional line, something they hadn’t previously agreed upon, had appeared. His safety net.

[A breach of the contract, or its spirit, by any of the involved parties, will cause the enforcement of an appropriate penalty.]

Something to that extent had already been included in the notification message that had popped up earlier when the contract feature was unlocked. Not only was it a large reason for his change of mind and his willingness to accept a cooperation with Magda and the faction she represented, more readily, it was also why he didn’t worry too much about the more vague sounding clauses.

Until now Severin had accused the System of many things, but not sticking to the rules was not one of them. In that regard, he had complete trust.

He took a last look at the contract before him, after which the next thing for him to do would be to fill out the one field at the bottom, which asked him to specify the other party involved in the contract. He imagined this would trigger the words to become visible for Magda as well and to allow her to partake in the actual signing.

His heart suddenly skipped a beat.

‘Fuck me! What a blunder that would’ve been. I almost ruined it all!’ His hands started to tremble ever so slightly and his face lost much of its color.

“Something the matter?” The change was so sudden and apparent that there was no way for Magda to miss it. No matter how tired she was.

“It’s nothing.” He answered with a forced and stiff smile on his face before addressing the issue he had just thought of. “Say, where exactly did you want to establish the branch?”

“Didn’t you say you didn’t really care? Changed your mind?” She immediately became suspicious.

“No, no.” he immediately denied. “Just curious.”

“Well. As said earlier. Somewhere about here,” she said and pointed. “We would stake it out, but…”

“That won’t be necessary! Was just curious. Really.”

“I was just teasing you. No need to be so on guard.”

‘Yeah right.’ His smile became even more stiff in response, evoking a surprisingly lively laugh from the woman.

He returned his attention to the System. But this time he navigated to the editor again, not to the contract drafting menu.

…

[Please confirm your purchase.]

Click

[39850/50000 gold spend.]

With this purchase, the counter for his still outstanding quest which required him to spend some of his gold made quite a big jump.

He had almost forgotten its existence as he had originally spent as little as possible before building his inn, but since he was already reminded when he had ordered the two accommodations for his future [Employees’], he had already expected it to pop up again. What did come as a surprise, however, and quite the unpleasant one at that, was the cost of subterranean land he just bought.

When a square meter of land had cost him twenty-five gold, a cubic meter was slightly more than double that amount. Considering that he had to purchase an area of hundred-fifty square meters times a depth of three meters, it would basically require all of the Society’s first monthly installment to make up for it.

At any other time Severin would have probably let his frustrations run free, no matter if there were other people present or not. But not this time. Not because he had matured, but because of the feeling of relief that washed over him.

‘Phew. What a close call. Don’t even want to imagine what could’ve happened. Trying to lease land I don’t yet own. Best-case scenario, the contract couldn’t be established in the first place.

Worst-case, the System would’ve punished for not being able to fulfill my part. And that’s not all. If I hadn’t bought the additional layer of land as well, nothing would’ve stopped them if they ever decided to go beyond the depth of three meters and grab my land. I don’t even know whether or not I can purchase land already claimed by others. And I certainly don’t intend to find out. On a different note… once they sign the contract, they should get access to the land to do as they please. But doesn’t that mean if it wasn’t for the contract menu, I now would need to build them their outpost or branch or whatever myself?’ Severin shuddered at the thought of all the hassle, and possibly even extra expenses he would have to deal with if it wasn’t for the System to conveniently provide him with this new feature.

“I guess you might not be all that bad after all.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said it’s time we finalize the contract.” Severin said with a straight face, but the red color on his face betrayed him.

“I’m sure you… Aaah?!”

Not in the mood to go through the trouble of making up excuses to resolve the misunderstanding his words had caused, he instead filled out the empty field at the bottom of the contract menu.

“This… Ohoho! This is…”

‘That’s more like it!’

That was exactly the kind of reaction he had originally anticipated when he had issued the construction of the two new rooms. The wide-open eyes, the gaping mouth, and, most importantly, the welcome distraction.

“…[Contract magic]?! Really?“ Severin wasn’t sure if it was apprehension or excitement speaking, but he was pleased either way.

“This should make things easy!”