“Yes! I’m ready! Everyone is so kind and teaches me so well.”

In these few days, Ginger’s face was always shining like the sun. She was a person whose goal in life was money, it must be exhilarating to receive money from Kairos and from me for something that wasn’t even difficult.

“That’s great. I hope you will work here for a long time.”

As Ginger’s face turned red, I was surprised because I knew her true personality.

“You can call me Ginger, boss!”

“Can I? Thank you, Ginger.”

“No, it’s okay, boss!”

Now, should we get down to the main topic? Time was running out to get Ginger to my side. I could only coax her for several days since Noah might be planning to get rid of me tomorrow.

“So, the thing is…”

With my fingers clasped together and my chin resting on them, I glanced at Ginger, who stood up straight.

“Yes?”

“I was wondering if I could give you a job from now on, Ginger. Would that be okay with you?”

“Yes, please tell me anything!”

“I know you’re very talented.”

“Ahaha, thank you for thinking highly of me.”

“Can I ask you something before that?”

“Yes! You can ask me anything!”

“How much did Kairos Hadid pay you for this job?”

Asking that, I toyed with my pen.

Ginger Perian, with her wide open eyes, tilted her head. It seemed as if she was thinking about my words, blinking her innocent-looking green eyes for a while, so I decided to call her name.

“Ginger?”

“I’m sorry, boss. I didn’t understand!”

Ah, that could be possible.

I decided to explain again calmly.

“Oh, really? Let me ask again. How much did you receive for this project from Kairos Hadid? How long have you been working under him?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Kairos… Hadid? Who is that? If you need me, I’ll go find out right away!”

Ginger continued to fidget, using her innocent face as a weapon.

“You don’t need to find out.”

I put down my pen and stood up from my chair, facing Ginger. Seeing me like that, she flinched and her shoulders shook, but she stood her ground as though she knew running away would be suspicious.

I approached her until she was within arm’s reach. As soon as I reached out my hand, Ginger tried to step back.

“…Huh?”

Ginger, who was unable to move as if her legs were rooted to the spot, looked up at me with surprised eyes.

I usually wouldn’t use magic unless it were an emergency. No matter how much I could control it, mind manipulation magic was a power based on black magic, its root was black magic, so I barely used it for my people. Of course, this included my employees.

Ginger was an exception because she may or may not be my person.

When I smiled and brought my hand to her neck, she grabbed her necklace and shoved it toward me.

It was a cross-shaped gem embedded in a pendant that was sparkling like an opal.

It was not like her job was to ward off an evil spirit…so why was it shaped like this? I mean, it was not like she was fighting a demon or something… why did it have to look this? A mind manipulator mage being a demon?

As far as I know, Ginger Perian was an atheist as well…

“Sigh…”

A sigh escaped Ginger’s mouth.

As I infused a little bit of my mana into the necklace, it burst out, rebounding my magic. It was an elemental stone that reacted to dark magic. When I put in a little more mana, the gem split in half with a cracking sound.

“Did no one tell you this wouldn’t work on me?”

Ginger had an elemental stone around her neck, which acted like a spell that protected her from mind manipulation magic. She must have heard from Kairos that I could do mind manipulation, so she must have prepared this.

However, she must not think this kind of thing would not work on me.

Back then, I read about Hazel Love, who was always busy, unable to refuse any of the requests. I thought that she was only a powerless extra who only worked hard. However, after experiencing it firsthand and using her abilities, I realized that she only used her full strength in battles and subjugation, and wouldn’t properly use the power for those requests.

Even though her magic abilities were top notch and couldn’t be stopped by ordinary elemental stones, I realized that she had a strong desire for learning and had traces of learning other types of magic as well, albeit not very proficient.

Of course, she couldn’t handle all four elements, as her body was already filled with the energy of elemental magic.

The power of a strong mind manipulator also worked against black mages who used the same fundamental power. Therefore, I wasn’t afraid of anything in the world… but I wanted to avoid the villain, Kairos Hadid, as much as possible after realizing that my magic didn’t work on him at all.

…I failed miserably, however.

When Ginger held out the necklace in front of me, she avoided eye contact and immediately lowered her head, buried her face in her free hands, and muttered.

“Ugh… why are you suddenly like this, boss?”

“Hmm…?”

Tears fell between her hands. Several drops fell onto Ginger’s uniform pants in an instant.

Was she crying now…?

I stared at Ginger in astonishment.

“Is that your parents’ heirloom?”

Ginger nodded her head vigorously.

“Yes, it’s the only heirloom my parents left me when I was young. Sniffle! Even though you’re the boss, you shouldn’t handle it so roughly…! I don’t know what I did wrong, but if you tell me, sniffle, I could have fixed it—!”

I stared at Ginger holding the broken necklace for a while. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand, as her nose and eyes were already red. Her face was full of sorrow, injustice, and surprise.

Hmm, I didn’t intend to make her cry like this.

“Ginger… first, try to calm down.”

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“Huhu, you’re too much, boss! What did I do wrong? If you tell me, I’ll fix it! Please, please give it back. It’s really, really precious…”

I had no choice but to speak up.

“Ginger, I’m sorry. First, please stop crying.”

“…Sniffle.”

“Will you try to stop now?”

“Yes, I’ll try.”

“Stop crying. Your parents are still alive and well, right?”

“Huh…? What does that mean—”

A tear fell from Ginger’s blinking eyes.

“Father Legos Perian, mother Julie Perian. They currently operate a large tavern in a village in the western Castalt region. Was the tavern’s name perhaps ‘The Night of No Memories?'”

I recited the brief information I saw in the original story.

“Wh-what?”

Her eyes shook violently.

“You ran away from home a few years ago because of family discord, right? After your father got caught stealing your identity a few times and caused a big fight, your parents had several records of fraud, so they ended up going to Castalt. You also had some hidden debts that you didn’t even know about, didn’t you?”

“No, wait…”

“And then after reconciling, I heard you visited them once or twice a year. Isn’t that right?”

Ginger closed her mouth. Her face was wet with tears, but her crying suddenly stopped.

“You’re using your real name, so I guess you didn’t even think about deceiving me. Ah! You probably thought there was no way I’d know who Legos Perian or Julie Perian are since they’re not famous.”

I held up the broken necklace, swaying it back and forth. Smiling, I pointed to the bottom of the broken pendant and added.

“And below here is the signature of the maker. Lynn Carter. It was made in January of this year. It’s brand new and not even secondhand, I bet you spent a lot of money on it.”

“….”

“So what heirloom?”

I said incredulously.

Silence fell for a moment. Her mouth, which had been hanging open in shock, finally closed. She scowled and exclaimed.

“…D*mn it.”

“Hmm…?”

“He told me to watch you but not say anything about how dangerous you are… Shi$^(#&$.”

She trailed off, muttering a curse under her breath.

I raised an eyebrow.

“I’m not dangerous.”

Then, Ginger Perian looked back and forth between the broken necklace and me and then glared.

“How did you know?”

Her gaze was defiant. Even though I didn’t feel like it, if Ginger was going to continue to be loyal to Kairos, I could erase her memory of today and send her back or turn her into a fool.

“Say it nicely. Or do you want me to turn you into a fool?”

“Okay.”

Satisfied, I put the necklace back on Ginger.

“Never mind that, tell me how much Kairos paid you. You haven’t been working there for long, right? I just want to do some calculations.”

Ginger obediently revealed the amount.

“50,000 gold per month.”

“Wow.”

I had a rough estimation, but maybe my calculations were off. As expected, Kairos Hadid gained loyalty from his subordinate through money.

“50,000 gold?”

I was surprised.

…So much money?

No matter how much money it was, it was too much! It was difficult to give it as a salary for such work. It was even more than the basic salary I received when I was a senior knight!

Of course, since I also received additional allowances, I received much more than that though I could only receive it by working hard with overtime, night shifts, and expeditions. Besides, that was as a senior knight!

Remember how much money was in my purse when I was about to create a mercenary guild?

I only had about 400,000 gold. Even thinking back now,e it was a questionable amount of money for a senior knight, but anyway, before the mercenary guild became prosperous like this, it was difficult to earn 100,000 gold in a month.

Well, Nigella must be getting much more that was why she was loyal.

I thought, trying to understand her.

After a moment of hesitation, I walked over to the safe behind my desk and took out a small gold bar. Then, I shook a pouch filled with two million gold coins and took out a large gold bar.

Thump.

Ginger gazed at me as I placed the gold bar on the desk, her neck tensing and her mouth gaping as if her eyes were about to pop out.

Finally, saliva dripped down on her mouth and she hastily closed it.

“Advance payment of two million gold coins.”

I spoke as I shook the heavy pouch.

Ginger’s throat made another gulping sound as she watched me shake the bag of coins. Her eyes were already fixated on the gold bar rather than the bag of gold coins. Then, her mouth opened again.

Look at her…

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