Mage Manual
Chapter 485 - 399 Don’t Touch Me

Chapter 485: Chapter 399 Don’t Touch Me

Two days passed, and Ash hadn’t found any leverage over Belladett.

It wasn’t because the Yvalin sisters were squeaky clean, but because the work list now included high-paying jobs specifically naming them, paying a staggering 30 shell points per hour. By grinding for 10 hours a day, he could earn 300 shell points, and in just a few days, he could redeem himself from debt and escape the abyss.

This wave, ah, this wave is the alienation of capital over people. Ash vigorously wiped the statue while joyously watching his own savings grow.

At dinner time, Ash saw Igula dining tonight with Harvey, and the fiery-haired angel Anfeier was nowhere in sight. These past two days, Igula had always dined with Anfeier, even picking out two-seater tables, making it impossible for Ash to join unless he was willing to pull up a baby chair next to their lovers’ seat.

Seizing the opportunity, Ash immediately sat next to the Swindler with his tray, "Yo, Igula, you’ve sunk low tonight, stooping to dine with Harvey?"

The dark-skinned Necromancer glanced at Ash, "...You’ve arrived right on time, Ash, we were just discussing you."

"Discussing what about me?"

"Discussing your future." Harvey said, "I will become Mongfera’s chief forensic scientist, Igula will become the mayor’s secretary in Mongfera, and you will become an unemployed single dad in Mongfera leeching welfare and sucking your daughter’s blood. We all will have a beautiful future."

"Though I don’t really mind leeching welfare, I’m not from the Blood Saint Clan, so why would I suck Liss’ blood?"

"Don’t you think Liss has the potential to be a child star?"

"Hmm..." Ash pondered, "Liss does have quite the talent for performing, and according to the Gospel’s educational philosophy of teaching students according to their aptitudes, letting her try out acting isn’t a bad idea. But I won’t be sucking my daughter’s blood; I’d rather invest the money she earns into starting a business for her, and when she’s older, I’d give her a bunch of assets!"

"Oh," Igula nodded, "So you’re saying you plan to drain Liss dry, even the Blood Saint Clan isn’t as ruthless as you."

"I said I’d invest it!"

"For a guy whose cult businesses could go bankrupt, claiming your investment acumen and managerial skills are zero is already sugarcoating it for the shareholders."

"But why are you discussing living in Mongfera?" Ash inquired, "Shouldn’t it be you staying, Igula, while we two leave?"

"How are you two going to leave?" Igula asked, "Have you gathered enough shell points to redeem yourselves?"

"We haven’t gathered enough, but we still have you, right?" Ash said affectionately, slinging an arm around Igula’s shoulder, "Once you marry Anfeier and take over the corporation, I won’t ask for any benefits, but canceling our contract should be no problem, right?"

Igula glanced at Ash’s arm on his shoulder, gently brushed it off, and spoke deliberately, "Not to mention that after I become one of Belladett’s people, you’d turn from ’useful taunting companions’ to ’sheep ready for shearing.’ Even if I suddenly fell ill and decided to do good, a contract is a contract; unless a party breaches the contract, it cannot be dissolved."

"What!" Ash exclaimed, "I thought for sure you would help us—damn it, today I couldn’t help but buy Yvalin’s products. What if Hanna and the others ask about my savings!?"

"You deserve it," Harvey said, "I even resisted when Yvalin brought out a perfect human skeleton."

"For problems like these, you might as well consult Liss," Igula suggested, "Both of you have similar IQ levels, she could probably offer you some sound advice."

"Wait though, Igula, you’d definitely pull your brothers up with you once you make it big, right?" Ash said, "We’re brothers in arms from our prison days!"

"Weren’t we immediately fighting each other after breaking out?"

"But we’re also repeatedly victorious comrades!"

"Escaping from Gerard’s sword twice and you call that victorious?"

"We are also empathetic friends!"

"You have empathy with him?" Igula coldly pointed at the Necromancer.

"In any case!" Ash steered the conversation back, "Big brother Igula, you really can’t forget to help your little brother!"

"Why should I?"

"Because there’s still a debt of gratitude between us!"

"Wow," Harvey exclaimed, "Ash, you actually have such an ace up your sleeve!"

"Yes!" Ash said proudly, raising his head and chuckling, "Back at Shattered Lake, to persuade Igula to join my great prison escape plan, we signed a mutual wish Contract, using up wishes to force him to devise strategies for me, so..."

"Let me owe you another wish then!"

"It turns out you’re the one who owes Igula a wish..." Harvey curled his lip.

"I’m full, you take your time," Igula said, paying no mind to Ash, as he picked up his tray preparing to leave.

"Igula, wait..."

Slap!

Igula forcefully slapped away Ash’s outstretched hand, towering over him and said calmly,

"Don’t touch me."

...

...

"That’s the situation," Harvey explained, "I’ve spoken to Alice, and even Alice feels embarrassed for Ash."

In Ash’s bedroom, the Funeral Service Office crew gathered again.

"Aunt Bokin really treats Dad like that!" Liss pouted, indignant, "Dad, don’t cry, we won’t play with Aunt Bokin anymore!"

"Don’t move," Ash told Liss, holding her in front of the vanity, carefully drying the water from her hair.

"Is Mr. Bokin really such an impatient man?" Banjee mused, "He hasn’t even officially joined Belladett, yet he’s in such a rush to sever ties with you, Mr. Harvey?"

"Once he got power, he became incomprehensible," Hanna shrugged, "But you could also say he’s smart, after all, the two of you are purely negative assets to him, associating with you benefits him nothing. Rather than increasing sunk costs on you, he might as well clear your acquaintance early."

"Ash, do you regret not sabotaging their date with us the night before?" Hanna turned and looked at Ash. "Now you suffer the backlash, huh?"

Ash’s face showed no discomfort as he slowly said, "I just feel like Igula is a bit strange..."

"What’s so strange about that?" Hanna, propping her chin with her hand and smiling, said, "Bokin wants to come ashore this time, naturally she doesn’t need us old colleagues from the sea. Everything in this world will betray you, even a Technique Spirit can sneak away. Why not a Swindler?"

"Is it my illusion?" Ash suddenly said, "I feel like, Hanna, you don’t seem to care much about Igula’s desertion."

"Who said that, I care a lot, okay?" Hanna said, "I even thought about whether to use a honey trap."

"You? A honey trap?" Everyone was stunned, then Ash immediately shook his head, "No way, absolutely not!"

"Why not?" Hanna blinked her eyes, her corners of the mouth curling up as she mused.

"Because you’re bound to lose!"

"Why would I lose? I’m in the top ten on Azura’s Beauty List, can’t I compare to that shortie’s sister?"

"Yes, you indeed possess beauty on par with Anfeier," Ash spread his hands and said, "But the problem is, your spirit is ugly."

While Hanna rushed over to wrestle with Ash, the Necromancer slowly said, "The Swindler is indeed very strange."

Banjee asked, "Why?"

"A Swindler won’t cut off communication with others actively, that goes against his habits," Harvey said. "Just like me, I hate my enemies, but I won’t refuse to deal with their bodies."

"Could it be that Aunt Bokin feels that she no longer has to tolerate you, so she finally revealed her true nature?" Liss speculated, "Didn’t Aunt Bokin always say that chatting with Uncle Harvey is just like sleeping in a coffin?"

"Umm...?" Harvey looked puzzled, "But... isn’t that a complimentary metaphor?"

Liss, looking at Ash in the mirror, suddenly asked, "Dad, do you think Aunt Bokin has really abandoned us?"

"These things aren’t useful just because I feel so," Ash said while combing and blow-drying Liss’s hair. "If it’s raining, if a woman wants to get married, everyone gets married except me still single..."

"What do you think then?" Liss hesitated for a moment, deciding to say what the White Queen had told her to say, "I think Aunt Bokin wouldn’t abandon us."

If anyone in the Funeral Service Office truly knew Igula, it wasn’t Hanna nor Ash, but the White Queen who had negotiated with Igula before.

"Why do you feel that way?" The Purple Moth asked with a smile, "Just because he can make nice braids for you?"

Liss ignored that aunt with ill intentions, gazing earnestly at Ash in the mirror, "He values you more than you think."

Ash lowered his eyelids, "I actually don’t care whether Igula will abandon us or not."

To everyone’s astonished gazes, Ash slowly said, "I have seen three forms of Igula; the first is a Swindler who uses sweet words, this form represents his desire to deceive something from you; the second is a Swindler who deliberately oppresses you, this form shows he wants to use you."

"And the third, the one I just saw, a Swindler distant a thousand miles away from us."

Liss asked, "What does that represent?"

"I don’t know," Ash said, "I just saw him acting alone, he was forcing himself."

Amidst a silence, Hanna said, "So you still believe in him until now? You just throw away your trust like that?"

"No," Ash slowly shook his head, "Of course, trust should be given to those who deserve it."

...

...

After everyone went back to rest, Liss still lingered in bed and wouldn’t leave. Since arriving in Belladett, Liss had become increasingly clingy, but Ash thought it was understandable since she was in a strange environment and worked every day, so he let her be, as he was about to enter the Void Realm anyway.

"Can you not put your feet on my stomach tonight?"

"Then let Daddy hold me while sleeping!" Liss excitedly raised her hands.

Ash felt it was feasible; given Liss’s astonishing sleeping posture, she would roll away smoothly within an hour, so his arms likely wouldn’t go numb. He allowed her to rest her arms on him and snuggle up, then he opened the "Mage’s Handbook" and started "Void Realm Exploration."

As his consciousness connected to the Void Realm, Ash slowly opened his eyes to find himself holding a Witch.

Diya opened her eyes and found herself sitting on the lap of the Observer, looking up to see the Observer’s blurred, foggy face!

"Wow!"

Both screamed and quickly separated, simultaneously looking back—Sword Maiden sat in the back seat of the car, having witnessed their entire interaction!

"Sword Maiden, that was just an accident from entering the Void Realm—" Diya quickly desperately explained, "Really nothing to do with me, if there’s a fault, it’s the Observer’s—"

"Did we arrive in the Star Hall area tonight?"

Sword Maiden seemed not to care about their recent activities and calmly said, "Don’t waste time, hurry up and plan the best route according to the map to scavenge resources, we have limited time tonight."

Ash and Diya blinked at each other and hurriedly nodded. Diya carefully sat next to Sword Maiden, but Sword Maiden seemed utterly uninterested in her, constantly gazing at the golden rain outside.

Soon, Ash drove to a gem mine resource spot, guarded by a Violent Slash Dragon and a group of lesser dragons. Although these were monsters that could defeat most Mages, for the three of them, even unarmed, annihilating them and plundering was as easy as flipping a hand.

After a glorious victory, Ash and the others firstly gathered those gems their Technique Spirits could consume. Ash found a ’Sharp Gem," the best nourishment