Niala's offer of free potions for the poorer residents had been well received by the town hall and healer's clinic.

  Mayor Caleb had personally thanked her for the initiative, but had imposed a few terms; For one, the potions had to be of basic grade at most, to curtail potential reselling, as the poorest would often prioritize money over their own health. The town would also provide the flasks and some of the ingredients, as a form of subsidy to Niala, and all potions had to be distributed by the healer's clinic or the town hall, without exception.

  They had shaken hands, signed a small non-binding contract, and Niala was now using her distiller to brew a large batch of basic-grade energizers. She was checking the dials on it when she heard a plonk.

  She turned, observing the room, and heard the plonk again, which she determined to be a small rock that had been thrown against one of the high-set windows facing the courtyard.

  When she opened the door, she found Totori, dishevelled and sweaty, her business suit askew.

  “Niala! Am I the first one? They didn't get to you before I did, right?!” The fairy blurted out.

  Niala blinked, trying to parse what Totori was talking about. “First one of what? You're my first visitor today, if that's what y-”

  “Oh, thanks the cupcakes! Listen, I need to see David right away, before anybody else does! It's really important! Where is he?” Totori rapid-fired, her words almost overlapping each other.

  “Totori, slow down! He's with Leandro, training. What's wrong? Why do you have to see him so badly?” Niala asked with rising dread.

  “The numbers, Niala! The mana numbers!”

  Niala's ears went lopsided as she tilted her head. “What numbers?”

  “That's it, boy! Use those leg muscles, feel how they struggle! Can you picture how they move, sliding against each other? Control those movements! They are your muscles, make sure they move how you want them to!” Leandro bellowed at David, who was on his fifth set of squats, his arms holding steady the yoke with six full buckets of rocks attached to it.

  His legs trembled under the strain, his muscles and sinews begging for surrender. He clamped his will upon the dissenters and pushed up once more, eminently aware of every single inner voice that cried out as he did.

  It was torture, plain and simple, but he could not deny the result.

  Sure, he was getting stronger, bulkier, but not overly so. Leandro wasn't sculpting a bodybuilder; he was building a warrior, and warriors needed their whole range of motions, and that meant strong muscles, not big muscles.

  But just as the grizzled veteran had told him, getting stronger was just a side benefit. He had become aware of it barely a few days back, the way he had begun feeling his muscles pull and push under his skin whenever he strained them.

  He was becoming...aware of his body in ways he hadn't thought possible.

  And it felt amazing.

  He didn't want to admit it to Leandro, but he could tell the man knew anyway. Perhaps it was in the way David's movements were more deliberate, more precise, more efficient.

  He took a deep breath and bent his legs once more, the yoke doing its best at crushing him into the earth, his legs fighting back, fuelled by sheer willpower.

  “David!” Niala's voice rang out. He tipped to the side, his balance broken, but he didn't fall; Leandro's hand had grasped the yoke, steadying him.

  David nodded his thanks and bent down, letting the buckets hit the ground, removing the weight from his body. He unsteadily stood back up and turned to face Niala, who was running towards him with... Totori on her shoulder?

  Niala reached him and put Totori down on the ground, who took a few more steps and retrieved a crumpled piece of paper from her briefcase, thrusting it at him.

  “David! Let me be your agent! Sign this contract!”

  He blinked, slowly taking the paper she was holding up, bringing it to his eyes and squinting to read the tiny letters it contained.

  “...Managerial contract... Fairlands strategic resource... sole approved agent of David Wayman...” He mumbled, following along the text, before looking down at the small fairy.

  “Totori, what is this? You want to be my agent for what?” He asked, brow furrowed.

  “The numbers!” Totori said, throwing her hands. “Because of the numbers! We need to lock you down before they arrive!”

  “What numbers?! Start making sense!” He said, with a bit of exasperation.

  “I...!” The flustered fairy forced herself to take a deep breath, closing her eyes in the process. She had managed to stop jittering when she reopened them.

  “The amount of mana you fed the city, David. It wasn't possible. It took three weeks to figure out that the system wasn't glitching.” She stared into his eyes. “David, in thirty minutes, you pushed in ten years' worth of mana into the city's grid! Trillions upon trillions of manawatts! That's just not possible, and yet you did it!”

  Leandro arched an eyebrow, while Niala proudly stared at her amazing boyfriend, who could do the impossible, as David tilted his head.

  “And?” He asked.

  “And? AND!?” Totori shouted, before taking another calming breath. “And now I raced ahead of every single interested party from the Fairlands, and considering that mana pretty much equates to power, that's everyone! They're all coming here, for you, to sign you up for whatever deal or scheme they can pressure you into!”

  “Oh.” He replied, looking up at Niala, who gave him a thumbs up.

  He looked back down at Totori. “And you being my sole agent would mean...?”

  “That they'd have to go through me to get to you! Otherwise, they'll be swarming your house every day, forever!”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  David groaned. “That does sound annoying. Doesn't that mean they'll be swarming you instead? What's in it for you?”

  The fairy woman grinned. “Five percent!”

  “Of what?”

  “Of any contracts you agree to! I'll filter out the worthy ones from the chaff, and I'll listen to any requests you have. I'll limit everything to something you can live with! Just, please, sign it! I promise I'll be the best agent there ever was!” Totori pleaded, hands bunched up in front of her, up on the tip of her feet.

  David looked up at Niala once more, who was now giving him a double thumbs up.

  He sighed, holding out his hand for a pen from Totori, who squealed and fished out the biggest one she had, depositing it in David's hand.

  He placed the tiny contract against a flat surface and, tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth, surgically signed it with the tiny pen, handing it back to Totori, who stuffed it in her briefcase and extended her hand.

  David gently held it between two fingers, as Totori shook as vigorously as she could.

  “Pleasure to work for you, boss!” The little fairy said through a beaming smile.

  “Boss? Don't you work for, what was it, Diamond Horse?” David asked.

  Totori shook her head. “Crystal Unicorn, and nope, I quit just before coming here. Those losers can stuff it! I'm a high-roller now!” She walked up to David's legs and patted one of his shins a few times. “I'm the one who has a Diamond Horse now!” She said, smiling up at him.

  David belatedly realized the little fairy probably hadn't raced here only out of the goodness in her heart.

  As he observed her smile and glinting eyes, he was less and less certain it had anything to do with the goodness of anything.

  Leandro watched David go back home with his girlfriend and the Fairy, having given him the rest of the day to deal with... whatever this was.

  He thought back to what the fairy had said. Ten years' worth of mana? He wasn't all that knowledgeable about the Fairlands, but he knew that their bigger cities probably consumed more mana in a year than the entirety of the Amerbfall kingdom did.

  And David had been able to provide ten times that amount in half a bell?

  He had been told by the Wardenfels that the boy had immense reserves of mana, but this wasn't immense, this was... impossible.

  His brows furrowed, his mouth drew into a hard line.

  He had told the boy that, with an immense amount of mana to power his imbuements, he could become the strongest warrior on the continent.

  What if... the boy didn't have a limit? Someone who could empower every single one of his imbuements, all at once, all the time, without repose? The mere thought made him shudder.

  Nothing made him shudder.

  Until today.

  If he kept training the boy up, have him master his abilities...

  Would he unleash upon the world its guardian, or its conqueror?

  When David turned the last bend and came into view of their home, he patted his own back at the prompt and wise decision he'd made when signing Totori's contract.

  The place was swarming with two-foot-tall fairies, and he could hear the Weldtree ringing continuously, back in the courtyard.

  It only took one fairy in the throng to recognize and point at him, and the plaza went silent as all pink and purple-haired heads turned his way in unison.

  And then the swarm was upon him.

  It took about a bell to get the situation back under control, but once the message spread that he already had an agent, and that the contract was exclusive for the first year, about half the hopefuls left dejectedly, some crying, some cursing.

  Totori then descended upon the remaining crowd, all fairies that David understood wanted to hire him for one reason or another. She cut the chaff out, as she'd said she would, and sent most of them packing, telling them to come back with an offer worth David's time, or they'd be blacklisted forever.

  His agent then set up a temporary office within Niala's kitchen and interviewed the remaining fairies, a few minutes at a time, creating a list of all the offers available to him, before retreating up to their living room, where she went through the list with him.

  The process took quite a few bells, all the way to dinner, when Niala excused herself and enlisted Linzy's help to prepare food for the hundred or so Fairies that were still milling about, waiting to hear back on their offers.

  Thankfully, they were small people, so a normal-sized portion would feed quite a few of them. On the other hand, there were a hundred of them...

  As for the offers, David quickly rejected anything that was oriented towards martial concerns, such as the military or weapons research, and equally so anything that was purely capitalistic, as he knew Niala would balk at both types.

  That left the more socially-oriented and academic ones.

  He readily agreed to offer free mana for social programs aimed at the less fortunate, not asking for anything in return, much to Totori's dismay.

  The final short list came down to universities and laboratories. He asked his agent to reject anything that pertained to research on him, which eliminated almost all of the remaining offers.

  With the restriction that nothing could be directly related to weapons, he agreed to meet the few parties whose offers had passed through his filters.

  The most interesting one was from the Cherry Lollipop Applied Sciences Institute, an internationally-recognized centre of learning that regularly produced some of the most renowned fairy names within the scientific community.

  Their offer was for David to provide cheap mana for power-intensive experiments, studies, and machinery, and in greater quantities than the grid could normally provide.

  David would be required to travel to some remote locations from time to time, although travel expenses would be covered, including for up to three guests of his, and everything would be planned at least one full season in advance.

  The offer seemed genuine, and Totori was herself very excited about the travelling aspect, but then came the question of exactly how he would be paid for his services; The fairies' principal currency was manamints, and he did not need any more mana.

  The faculty dean pushed up her glasses and matter-of-factly answered. “We can offer a great many different benefits or goods, but I'm told that mundaneworlders more usually prefer fairy dust as payment, something we can easily offer.”

  Totori's brows arched as she asked the dean. “Is it ethically procured Fairy Dust?”

  The dean flinched back, the question visibly offending her. “What kind of question is this? We are a reputable organization! Of course it's ethically sourced Fairy Dust!”

  Totori turned to David, eyes sparkling. “That's a really good offer! Fairy dust is so useful! And it's ethically sourced too! I think you people most often use it in alchemy or for imbuements!”

  “FAIRY DUST?!” Niala exclaimed from halfway up the stairs, the catkin rushing up the last few steps, staring at David. “Did she say Fairy dust? David! We need Fairy Dust! It's impossible to find!”

  Totori looked at Niala, then back at David, and nodded.

  He tilted his head before shrugging. If Niala said it was a good idea, it probably was. Although...

  “What is Fairy Dust, exactly?” He asked.

  Totori waved at the question. “Nothing special, it's just ground up fairies.”

  David and Niala froze, staring at the fairy woman.

  He forced his thoughts and mouth to work again. “Ground up... fairies. As in, you, fairies.”

  Totori nodded. “Yep, that's it. Pretty simple, right?”

  “I'm terrified to ask, but what does ethically sourced mean?”

  Totori turned her eyes up, tapping her hands together. “Well, Dead fairies without any surviving family, death row criminals, dying fairies who agree to the process, usually to provide funds for their surviving families, and the terminally indebted.” She looked back at David, smiling. “All very ethical!”

  David slowly nodded, unblinking. “And what does terminally indebted mean?”

  “Oh, well, when a fairy's debt reaches a point of no return, which means the interest on their debt is greater than what they can pay back, they're declared terminally indebted, and their dust is used to pay off their debtors.”

  David looked at Niala. She looked back at him. They both silently agreed; Fairy society was really scary.

  you want to live in Fairy society?