I Level Up With In-app Purchases

I Level Up With In-app Purchases – 80

EP.80 A Man Being Tempted (1)

“Miss! Someone’s here with a business card looking for you. What should I do?”

Just as she thought!

The tension instantly melted away.

Taking his sweet time, that man!

“It’s my guest. Show them in!” she said.

Of course, her beauty wouldn’t fail to attract.

When would a commoner ever get the chance to meet a woman like her?

Rushing over with money in hand was only natural.

She touched up her makeup in the mirror before the guest arrived.

She painted her cherry-like lips an even deeper red, and when she tried a smiling eye expression, her slightly upturned eye corners curved beautifully.

‘Hehe! My makeup looks especially good today,’ she thought.

Her heart was already fluttering thinking about what she’d buy with the commission fee.

As she was contentedly gazing at the cute beauty mark under her eye that seemed particularly prominent today, the door opened, and she quickly composed her expression.

“Oppa~ Why are you so late? I thought my neck would fall off from waiting…”

She turned around, twisting her body with a deliberately pouty attitude.

But the person standing before her when she turned wasn’t her client.

“Ugh, what’s this?”

The facial expression she had been carefully maintaining for the man completely crumbled.

“Hello.”

The person who came as her client wasn’t a man.

No wonder something felt off when they said a guest had arrived!

If it was a woman, they should have said so from the start, that stupid girl!

Thinking she’d give her a good scolding when that woman left, she spoke.

“Who are you? How did you get my business card? There’s no way a woman would have my card in the first place.”

She had never given her business card to a woman even once.

Since she didn’t give her card to just anyone, she couldn’t help but feel wary at the appearance of this unfamiliar woman.

‘Come to think of it, doesn’t her face look a bit familiar?’

Since she didn’t usually bother remembering women’s faces, the fact that she looked familiar was puzzling.

“Ah~!”

Click!

White hair that made her want to soil it just by looking, and a face that appeared pure and innocent.

Looking at that overly gentle face made her feel sick to her stomach.

Then she suddenly remembered where she had seen that face.

“I thought you looked familiar, now I remember where I saw you. You’re the woman I saw when I met the general store oppa, right?”

She only remembered because this was someone she had been waiting for. Otherwise, she would have been irritated for a while, wondering who the woman was.

“I thought you didn’t recognize me, but I’m glad you remember,” the visitor replied.

“Why should I remember a woman’s face? I thought you might have stolen my card from somewhere, but you actually stole it from the card I gave to oppa. No wonder he wasn’t coming, you sneaky little thief.”

“I didn’t steal it. I just picked it up when I saw it in the trash can.”

Her business card was in the trash? She wanted to sprinkle pepper in the eyes of this foolish woman who was speaking through gritted teeth.

“Oh, is that so? As if I’d believe that. Do you think lying like this will hide the truth?”

This wasn’t the first time a woman had come all the way here while she was living as a courtesan. It was unavoidable since most of the nobles she dealt with were married men. She assumed this woman must have come all the way here to protect her man too.

“You’d better leave before I call someone. There’s nothing good that will come from causing a scene here. We have many nobles protecting us.”

The visitor was clearly a young lady of noble birth. ‘No wonder the request came with such a high price,’ she thought. Just the fact that a young lady like her had something going on with the old man running a shabby general store was enough to guess that this request wasn’t expensive for nothing.

‘That old man, I thought he was ordinary, but he’s hiding something, isn’t he?’

“Me, cause a scene? That’s not why I’m here.”

“What other reason would a woman have for coming to a place like this, if not to warn me to stay away from her man? And I can tell just by looking at your eyes. What state you’re in?”

The madness was visible in the visitor’s eyes, or so she thought. She imagined the woman had probably come here with her eyes rolled back like that, anxious about losing what’s hers to someone else.

‘It’s so tiresome. If you didn’t want to lose him, you should have done better from the start,’ she thought, showing the visitor a blatant sneer. It meant that the man was straying because the visitor was incompetent.

“Could we sit down and have a calm conversation?”

Unexpectedly, the young lady didn’t fall for the provocation easily. Even that became a reason to irritate her. After all, the visitor was overflowing with a nobility and grace that a woman like her could never hope to imitate.

Perhaps that’s why she wanted to tease the young lady even more. ‘I want to make her cry her eyes out,’ she thought. How should she speak to distort that calm face? She wanted to hurt the visitor deeply.

“I hope you won’t misunderstand. The reason I came here is because I wanted to tell you something good.”

“What? Something good?”

That’s why she couldn’t even dare to imagine it. The fact that this woman’s visit wasn’t because of a ‘man’.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

“So, I was wondering if I could ask you to connect me with your father?”

“Was this bead yours, boss? I want to try the bead too!”

I finally brought up the topic I had been holding back with Ariane.

I wanted to do the bead business in connection with Ariane’s family if possible.

“You… wait a bit. I’ll find a bead that suits you and give it to you. You don’t need to go through them one by one like the others.”

“Ooooh? Really? You’ll give me a bead that suits me?”

“Yeah. But it takes quite a long time to pick out the right bead, so I can’t promise when I’ll be able to do it.”

“I’m satisfied just knowing you’ll do it~ I can wait.”

Ariane smiles brightly.

“But, is that bead your ability, boss?”

I liked that I could speak comfortably with Ariane since she knew I had awakened.

“Yeah, it’s my ability.”

“That’s an amazing ability! I’ve never seen anything that permanently increases someone else’s ability before.”

“The reason I’m making this contract is because I’m curious to see if people can artificially change the beads I created with my ability.”

“Hmm… We’ll try it, but I’m not sure if it will work.”

If it works, it’s a huge success, and if it doesn’t, it’s just a shame, but I don’t think it’s a big loss.

I didn’t feel burdened by the Duke’s family experimenting with my beads.

Even if all attempts failed, it’s not like the Duke’s family would be petty about it.

“I’ll ask my father.”

Ariane cheerfully accepted my request and left.

It seemed like a good idea to investigate the beads as soon as possible.

I know that strong energy has been put into them by the dean.

‘I gave them to the kids, so I should at least know how durable they are.’

Since the beads were created with this ability, I think they won’t break easily.

I told them to be careful, so they’ll manage them well on their own.

Still, there was a need to investigate and confirm how safe the beads were.

That day, Ariane immediately contacted her family by letter.

And the family responded quickly.

It seems they had already secured information about the beads on their side.

Someone from the Duke’s family came faster than I expected.

“Hello. I’m Mades, who had an appointment to visit.”

“Mr. Mades. Welcome. Nice to meet you.”

I told him to come to the general store since he insisted, and he really came quickly.

My first impression of Mr. Mades was that of a typical office worker.

And not just any office worker, but more like a very competent team leader.

“So these are the beads you mentioned. They seem to be the same type of beads. It’s clear that there’s a very intense energy inside the beads. How many do you have?”

“I have enough that I won’t run out of supply to provide you.”

“And you can’t tell us where you got them from, right?”

“That’s right. I can’t reveal that.”

Mr. Mades checked the condition of the items and took out some documents.

“Here are the contract documents we prepared. I’ll explain them in detail now.”

He kindly explains the parts in the contract documents in a way that I can understand.

The contract content was simple: I, the ‘party of the first part,’ would provide enough experimental materials, and the Duke, the ‘party of the second part,’ would be obligated to investigate the beads using various methods.

Our goal was to increase the versatility of the beads and discover ways to use them in various ways.

There was also content about how to divide the profits when starting a business that generates revenue from the experimental results.

“What I’m most curious about is the safety of the beads. I’d like you to focus your investigation on that part. Using the energy comes after that.”

“Yes, I’ll convey your wishes to the Duke.”

The contract wasn’t so unfair that I’d be taken advantage of, so I put my seal on it.

And since he was already here, I filled a bag with beads and handed it over, telling him to take them.

“…Are, are all of these beads?”

“If those explode, you won’t even be able to recover the body, so you’d better be careful.”

Gulp—!

“Understood. We’ll move carefully.”

Mr. Mades nervously received the bag.

“And lastly, could you tell me how you know our young lady? We were quite surprised because our young lady has never contacted the family about such matters before.”

“Ah~”

That’s understandable.

Don’t I know Ariane well enough usually?

If I hadn’t brought it up first, it would have never happened.

For Ariane, who was raised with such care and affection, business wasn’t an area she needed to pay attention to.

“As you can see, I run a general store. That’s how we got to know each other. Among the students I know, she’s from the best family, and I thought the Duke’s family would be the best partner, so I asked her, and she readily agreed to talk about it.”

“…I see. That’s simply all there is to it, right?”

“Should there be anything more?”

“There shouldn’t be. Haha. I asked about something obvious. Our young lady is such a troublemaker and tomboy that we’re constantly worried. She recently caused quite a big incident, didn’t she? That’s why we’ve been keeping a close eye on her movements.”

Ah, so in the midst of that, when a business proposal came in involving some stranger, they must have wondered who on earth I was.

“You must have been uncomfortable with some stranger suddenly popping up in the middle of all this.”

“…It’s not something the Duke needs to worry about, is it?”

I nodded at his words, which implied, ‘You’re not that close to our young lady, are you?’

“That’s right. I’m not someone to worry about. Now that we’ve made a contract, I hope we can maintain a good relationship going forward.”

“Would it be alright if I visit the store occasionally regarding the beads?”

“Of course.”

I shook hands with Mr. Mades and saw him off briefly.

How could I have known?

For me, the contract was the main purpose of this meeting, but for them, the contract was just an excuse.

The questions they casually asked me after the contract was signed were their real purpose.

Using the contract as an excuse to approach me, they began to watch me more actively.