a级黑粗大硬长爽猛出猛进

"No… Without my Creas… I\'m worse than dead, Aster…"

Geez woman… I know you love money a lot but really?

Then again… Considering her position, she might have lost a shit ton of money so I guess feeling grief about it was natural.

But come on! There\'s so much more to live for in this World! It\'s not just all about Creas, Emilia!

I patted her on the shoulder, "It\'s alright, Emilia! There\'s other things you can do, you know!"

"What\'s the point? I\'m… I have no money… No assets… Nothing that could even get me back to where I had been before this… I lost everything, Aster."

"You still have me though?"

She looked at me with eyes filled with despair, "It\'s alright, Aster… That night on the ship… I had already resigned myself to die on it… If you don\'t want to dirty your hands with my death, you can just toss me out. I\'ll just find somewhere to kill myself."

Uwaaaa!! Seriously!! Snap out of it Emilia!!

I started shaking her shoulders, "No, no, no!! What are you even saying?! There\'s no way I would do that, you know?! Why would you even think I would do something like that?!!"

She blinked at me, "I… Can no longer fulfil our contract… I have no capital… No value… Nothing… I am worse than useless you… Just kill me…"

Ok, now I\'m getting a little mad.

"Did you think I only associated myself with you because of money?" I huffed at her while placing my hands on my hips. "Do you really think I\'m that shallow of a person?!"

"But… But I… I have nothing…"

"Haven\'t I told you before? I don\'t choose my friends based on what they can or cannot do for me and that includes you as well!"

She sighed, "Aster… The people around you are talented beyond normal people… Do you not see it? Lisa could be counted as one of the top tier alchemists in the capital. The only reason why she\'s not making a name for herself is because she would rather spend more time figuring out how to get you in bed.

Odeta has shown she has the potential to probably become one of, if not the, strongest Amraps amongst their race. There\'s definitely no Amrap in her age group that could stand against her."

Err… That\'s the first that I have heard of that… Lisa\'s actually pretty awesome eh? But for Odeta… I already know she had that potential I guess?

Wait, what am I talking about? I already know she\'s awesome. Same goes for Odeta of course. Her abs are especially awesome, ehehehe~

Emilia continued, "Then you have Delmare, who is a literal Siren. If you wanted to, you could just ask her to brainwash an entire city and she would even gladly do it for you. And Katsuki… Do I even need to say anything about that maid of yours?"

Yeah, I guess if you put it that way…

I shrugged, "I\'m going to be honest with you… I never actually thought about all this. I like them and they like me, that was good enough of a reason for me to be with them."

"\'Like\' huh? Are you sure something that low in value is a good enough reason for you to let your guard down?"

I blinked at her, "What do you mean?"

She pointed at herself, "I like you, let\'s be friends."

Oh! Is she actually offering me a way to help her?

I was about to stretch out my hand to offer a handshake to cement our friendship when she looked away and continued.

"Now I am offered a lot of money which overshadows the value of my \'like\' for you. Now I like the money more and I\'m willing to give you up for it because it\'s worth more than this \'like\' I have for you. Do you not see the problem? A relationship forged on nothing but emotions is cheap."

I wagged my finger at her, "Ah, ah. Not at all! It depends on the people who are involved!"

"Everyone has a price, Aster."

"Then you just need to make sure your relationship is so good that it\'s priceless! Look, I\'ll prove it to you right now! Katsuki!"

"Yes, Mistress?" The Inugami maid appeared almost immediately when I called her.

I grinned at her, "How much does someone have to pay you to betray me?"

"That will never happen, Mistress," She answered immediately.

Awww~ She\'s so cute!! Headpats for you!! And I\'ll even fluff your tail while I\'m at it too!! Ahhhh~ You\'re so cuuuute!!

Emilia stared at me with expressionless eyes, "You do realise that she\'s a slave right? She couldn\'t betray you even if she wanted to, the collar would have prevented that."

…

I actually completely forgot that Katsuki had a collar on her…

Also, just saying, Katsuki is the one who insists on having the collar despite me offering to remove it for her before.

Alright, fine. If you want to play it that way…

"Katsuki, can you get Lisa, Delmare and Odeta here, please?"

"Right away, Mistress."

"Don\'t bother," Emilia interrupted before Katsuki could leave. "I can already tell you that they would have the same answer as Katsuki but for another obvious reason."

I turned to her, giving her a look that she should explain.

She sighed before raising up a finger, "Let\'s just start off with Odeta. She was the one who initiated you into their family, correct? Even though she has relegated herself to a wanderer, it would bring her shame if she were to betray you and she could end up being excommunicated from the Amrap community if anyone were to find out.

This already puts the idea of betraying you as something that is very unprofitable for her."

Err… I\'m very sure that Odeta never had any of these in mind… If I had to guess, she just feels indebted to me for teaching her how to be stronger? Maybe…

She then lifted up a second finger, "Lisa. Do I even need to say anything about her? You\'re practically her sexual fantasies come to life. She already knows she can\'t get the same level of sex from anyone else and to her, that\'s more important. To lose you would be to lose that and she definitely does not want to lose that."

I mean… There\'s the thing about me being her soul mate as well but I guess she doesn\'t know that?

Emilia then lifted up her third finger, "Delmare. You\'re the only one who can listen to her songs without going crazy. And we already know how important that is to her. So there you go. All of them have something they need from you that money can\'t buy. This isn\'t just because they \'like\' you, Aster.

The only way you can forge such a strong relationship is when both sides have something that they need from each other, nothing else. And for me, I just happen to put money first."

Ugh… I don\'t even think I can talk sense into her… This Nekomata just loves money more than even her own life…

Not gonna lie, I\'ve grown quite fond of her and… And…

Err…

I wanna pat her again… And touch her ears… And stroke her tail… She\'s just so cuuuuute!!

Ahem… I mean… I want to help her as a friend! Yeah, that\'s it!

She helped us a lot as well so I want to help her too! There\'s not really any deeper reason to this!

That\'s why…

I turned to Emilia, "Well, in that case, I have a proposition for you."

She looked up at me. Though she still looked a little disheartened, I could see the flicker of interest in her eyes when she heard the word \'proposition\'.

I dug into my Pack of Folding and took out all the money I had, all of them packed away in coin pouches.

I then deposited them in front of the Nekomata who was looking at the pile with a confused face.

"What\'s this?" She asked.

I pointed at it, "That is all the money I have. Close to twenty five thousand Creas all gathered here!"

She shot me a dirty look, "What\'s this supposed to mean? Are you showing off?"

"No, no~ We\'re voiding the earlier contract that you made with Mother! Now, you will sign a new contract with me! You work for me now and this will be your starting capital! I expect you to take this money and double it within the next ten years! How about that?"

She stared at me and remained silent for a good long minute.

Her face was so inscrutable that I thought I might have given her some kind of impossible task.

I was just about to change the terms to just having her manage my finances when her lips suddenly curled up into a grin.

"Ten years? Fufu… Fufufu… Ahahaha! I will double, nay, triple it in just three years! Watch me, Aster!! Pleased to be working with you, boss!!"

Oh wow, that was easy. I should have just done that from the start.