Chapter 178: No More Deducting Points

“Captain! Captain!!”

“Get up! I’m rich!!”

“This is amazing!”

“The God of Justice must have seen how unfairly you treat me and decided to give me this as compensation!”

“Hurry, hurry!”

Early the next morning, Lu Wei was shaken awake by Bai Ya.

“Alright, stop shouting…”

He sat up groggily and grumbled, “I thought there was an earthquake.”

“Not an earthquake, a fortune!”

Bai Ya’s cheeks were flushed with excitement. She immediately opened her palm, where five Gold Coins glinted alluringly in the morning light.

“Look!!”

“…”

Huh???

The sight of the Gold Coins instantly jolted Lu Wei awake, all traces of sleepiness vanishing.

“Where did you get so much money??”

“I just found them on the stove when I was about to make breakfast!”

Bai Ya declared smugly, “A Divine Spirit must have been moved by my daily diligence and given me this reward!”

“A reward? For real?”

Lu Wei stared blankly at the five Gold Coins. For a moment, he almost believed her nonsense.

After all, this was the Fantasy World. If mushrooms could walk, it wasn’t impossible for a Divine Spirit to just hand out money.

But on second thought, he realized her reasoning was completely baseless.

‘Diligent?’

‘Waking up early to make one meal counts as being diligent?’

‘By that standard, Anna and Zovir would be filthy rich by now.’

‘Forget everyone else, even I’m more diligent than you are.’

‘I worry myself sick over the general store every single day.’

“Don’t be ridiculous. Mirana must have left it.”

Having snapped out of it, Lu Wei quickly figured out the truth.

“I left a message for her at the inn yesterday, telling her to come find me.”

“But she must have been busy with something, because she came very late.”

“We were probably already asleep by then, so she just left the money on the stove.”

“It’s the exact price for that pair of Giant Troll Eyes. It adds up perfectly.”

“Huh? N-No way…”

Hearing Lu Wei’s analysis, Bai Ya’s eyes widened as if she’d suffered a critical blow.

Just then, Hess hopped in from outside, whuffling and grunting as if reporting something.

Bai Ya immediately used [Beast Language] and listened for a moment.

Then, she completely deflated like a popped balloon.

“Fine, it really was Mirana. Hess smelled her last night.”

“Told you so.”

Lu Wei hopped out of bed, gloating as he got dressed.

“Why would a Divine Spirit have nothing better to do than give you money? If they were going to give it to anyone, it should be me.”

“Besides, if the God of Justice was truly everywhere, there wouldn’t be so much injustice in the world.”

“So, it’s better to rely on yourself than on the gods. You can mull that over.”

“Hmph, that’s ridiculous…”

Bai Ya quietly pouted, convinced his words made no sense.

‘How could praying to the gods be useless?’

‘If it was really useless, then why would people still pray? Why would churches hold regular services?’

‘So it must be useful.’

‘The reason injustice, oppression, war, and slaughter still exist in the world is obviously because in addition to good Divine Spirits, there are plenty of evil ones, too.’

‘Even a child knows that, but the Captain doesn’t.’

‘He’s so dense.’

Pressing her lips together, Bai Ya grumbled to herself for a moment. Then she decided to get back to making breakfast, hoping to get noticed by the possibly non-existent “Diligent Goddess” and receive a Goddess’s blessing.

But she had barely turned around when Lu Wei called out to her again.

“Wait, aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Huh? What is it?” Bai Ya turned back, looking lost.

“What do you think!”

Lu Wei pointed irritably at the Gold Coins in her hand.

“Is that your money?! Were you planning on pocketing it?!”

“…”

In an instant, Bai Ya’s face turned visibly crimson.

“I-I just forgot!!”

“You can’t dock my points for this!!”

…

…

Since Mirana had already paid, Lu Wei couldn’t be bothered with Kairos’s problem anymore.

If Mirana had arrived earlier last night, he might have feigned concern, inquired about the situation, and offered all manner of verbal and moral support.

But now, he could save himself the trouble of even pretending.

So after breakfast, he went to pick up yesterday’s order from Old Yor, then headed straight to Mill Lane to find Clara.

“Did you bring the sexy outfit I told you to prepare?”

“Let me see… I guess it’ll do. Though I think the neckline could be a bit lower.”

“Anyway, whether or not you get that huge compensation comes down to this final shake-down.”

“Huh? A dirty joke? When was I making a dirty joke?”

“Oh, oh, I don’t mean you shaking it, I meant…”

“Never mind. Damn my choice of words…”

On the road out of town, Lu Wei had been lecturing Clara on “how to make Furen completely unable to resist her.”

Clara had initially been listening intently, looking like an earnest student.

But as he continued, her expression soured into disdain.

“You’ve been talking all this time, but isn’t it all just about seducing a man?”

“I know far more about that than you do.”

“Uh…”

Lu Wei paused, suddenly realizing she was right.

After all, to work as a bartender in the Adventurer’s Tavern, Clara must have plenty of experience handling men.

‘Hm?’

‘Come to think of it, is it possible Furen’s just being taken for a ride?’

“Speaking of which, do you actually like Furen?”

The thought prompted Lu Wei to ask. Afraid Clara would misunderstand, he quickly added,

“Don’t worry, whether your feelings for him are real or not won’t affect our collaboration.”

“I may be his captain, but my responsibility is his safety on adventures, not his romantic affairs.”

“Of course, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. Just forget I asked.”

“There’s nothing to hide.”

Clara mumbled nonchalantly, “Of course I genuinely like him.”

“Can you be more specific?”

Lu Wei asked curiously, “Do you like his money? Or something else?”

“I like the man and the money, of course.”

Clara answered with a sigh of resignation, “But if we can’t be together, then walking away with some money would be an acceptable consolation.”

‘Hmph, a little late for damage control, aren’t we?’

‘Why didn’t you have this realization when Freya was talking to you?’

Glancing at Clara, Lu Wei thought to himself that she was, in a way, a refreshingly straightforward “gold digger.”

‘At least she went for the person first.’

‘It wasn’t just about the money from the very beginning.’

‘You have to know, even in the Otherworld, there’s no shortage of women like that.’

‘In fact, just being scammed out of your money is considered getting off lucky.’

‘If you run into a Succubus, they’ll scam you out of your very life.’

“Alright. I’ll do my best to help you keep the guy. If we really can’t, then we’ll fight for the biggest compensation possible.”

After a moment, Lu Wei shook his head and promised, “In any case, I won’t let you walk away empty-handed.”

“Okay, then I’m counting on you!”

Seeing how loyal he was, Clara was deeply moved and declared,

“If you ever need my help with anything in the future, I swear I won’t refuse!”

‘Anything?’

‘Well, if you put it like that…’

Turning to look at Clara, Lu Wei gave a slight smile.

“In that case, have you ever considered a career change?”