Now, I don't want to say that Karuiz has been annoying during our journey, but he has been annoying during our journey. He's been nagging Laself all this time and it's starting to piss me off. Seriously, what is this man about?

  So what if she and Howaph came to the shoreline together? That's literally none of his business!

  Personally, I wanted to ignore it as much as I could since him acting like an asshole will only push Laself away but then I heard something that made me raise my brows.

  "Your parents have been saying that I'm going to marry you! He hasn't done anything! Why can't you see that I'm the better option?!" Better option my ass, you're literally whining like a little bitch as we speak. A better option would stop acting like that.

  But enough about Karuiz, I already know that he's an asshole.

  There are bigger problems at hand, like Laself's parents are pushing her to be in a relationship with someone who isn't my brother? Okay, I know that it isn't my business to butt into family affairs of other people but goddamnit this is my family affair too!

  I pushed down a scowl as my mind churned with ideas on how I can realistically turn this around. There are multiple ways to stop her parents from settling with Karuiz and getting Laself with my brother but I think the most efficient way to do it would be to act as an emotional anchor for her.

  My plan... Hinges on a friendship that I feel would be too exhausting to keep up– I'm not a stranger to female friends and I know damn well they're a pain in the ass. Even if they're not overtly mean. – but if I want Howaph and Laself to get together then I have to use my non-existent social battery to talk to Laself.

  And besides my previous experiences, hanging out with Laself doesn't sound that bad. She's a good girl even if she's the boring kind of basic. I'm sure we can find a topic that we both like along the way too. Cooking maybe?

  She also has some bite to her.

  Laself actually did lash out at Karuiz after his outburst and the guy received a well needed verbal lashing but he's such an asshole that he was about to slap Laself for defending herself, hand raised and all.

  "Oi." I glared at him, the frigidity in my voice making him freeze. "If you're gonna act like an asshole, you can go back to the village. I'm not paying someone who will only hurt other people in this group."

  "Hurt other people? So what if I do it? What are you gonna do about it?" Karuiz smirked, clearly seeing me as someone who he can beat without issue. "You're just a kid!"

  "Sure, whatever. I'm just a kid." I rolled my eyes, does he not see that the two thugs behind me are glaring at him? "Leave or you'll be forced to."

  "What?" He looked at me like I'm insane yet he still didn't move. Does he think I'm joking?

  "Leave. Go back to Flotol, I'm not asking twice after this. Leave." My voice was stern, I'm done with his bullshit. "Well? What are you still doing here? We haven't gone far so you can run back without issue, I'm not paying you anymore either so staying is pointless. Leave."

  Karuiz's eyes went to Maldon, his friend, only for the guy to look away. "What, you're just gonna stand there?" He scowled. "She made us leave!"

  "He only said you do it." Maldon still refused to lock gazes with his friend. "I wanna get paid, sorry Karuiz. This is too good for me to leave."

  With how things developed my way, I made sure to control myself and not to give Karuiz a smug look. See that? This is what happens when you're a generous hirer who feeds and pays their employees! Of course Maldon wouldn't leave, I pay him 15 silvers at the end of each day!

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  With one last glare towards me, Karuiz stomped off. We watched him go in silence.

  Once he's out of earshot, I decided to villainise him.

  "Sorry you had to deal with that guy Laself." I gave her a sad look and I'm actually being genuine for once. "He sounds like a piece of work, I can't believe he was going to slap you for arguing with him."

  ... But just because I feel bad doesn't mean I won't take advantage of this situation. "What would happen if you married him? I bet he'd hit you all the time."

  Laself looked down at the ground. "It's not my choice if that happens."

  "But it can be." I shook my head at her, it is literally her choice. What? "If you want a place to stay, you can come to our house and I can ask mom to give you a room. Okay?"

  "I'll... Think about it. Thank you for the offer." Laself smiled lightly and I knew then that she wouldn't take my suggestion to heart. But why hesitate?

  When I commit to this, my biggest problem isn't going to be Laself's parents, that would be too simple. The thing looming over the horizon is a ruined reputation, which will cause the entirety of Flotol to turn on me for being too nosy.

  Karuiz's father is a [Village Watcher] so he can definitely paint me as a bad person and everyone would go along with it. I'm already seen as weird, it wouldn't be far fetched for them to believe that I'm cursed as well.

  Guess I need to move on my own then, my family shouldn't be responsible for my choices.

  Making sure that Karuiz's family won't have a single say when they complain about my behavior is for the best. I'm already quite amicable with some people in Flotol so it should be easy to get those guys on my side.

  I'll have to start with the butchers first, they always get stuff from me while the [Villager Watcher]s take taxes from them. I have an advantage, really. Wait, should I start with everyone who has a profession in Flotol?

  But then again, no one in Flotol is a bum so it's pointless to think like this. Only the people in the pier can be called bums since they don't help the small community on the raft. Even I contribute to it in the form of the aberrants that I hunt.

  But more than Karuiz and his family, I think the church would be my biggest problem since they'd want to keep the peace in Flotol and the [Village Watcher]s being irritated does anything but that.

  How do I get the church to like me so much that they're willing to shun Karuiz's family and put the blame on them for ruining the village's peace? My side is more than fine since I know Karuiz can only complain about me firing him and I did that for a good reason.

  Karuiz can only complain about one thing so he'll sound petty– or better yet, insane. – and if the church is on my side then I'll easily win this thing so I definitely want the head priest to defend me.

  But how do I do that?

  I'll figure it out, for now I should probably focus on selling stuff. Everyone else is already distracted by what happened and I can't fall to the same mindset.

  When we reached Ghorise, we went through the same motions as yesterday; we set up the stall, I cooked, and people started buying stuff from us. With Wardcruncha helping Laself haggle, I continued earning a lot of money.

  I've been practicing my [Basic Transmutation] and used it on my tools and kitchen supplies, I made them tougher than they normally would and even made them tasteless? I guess? Iron has a certain taste to it and it can affect the food so I removed that.

  And I don't know if it had any effect but people came back for second and even third servings. It's insane what a little bit of transmutation can do to my profits, I like it a lot.

  For today, no one seemed to have chosen to disturb us so everything went by smoothly. We're gonna have to leave by noon though so I told Wardcruncha to tell the people buying from us about it.

  They decided that they'll buy more food, which is good.

  Slowly, the things I placed on the stall got fewer and fewer. Even my ingredients started to go away. Halfway through 2 o clock, I no longer had anything to cook so we left. After counting the money and then paying everyone, I concluded that it was a pretty successful day.

  When we came back to Flotol, I searched the faces of the villagers for any signs of unease and got nothing. No rumors for now? So Karuiz just came back here and did nothing? Fair enough.

  I'll know if peer pressure starts to build in Karuiz's circle if Maldon doesn't come with me tomorrow, after that I'll have to think up a plan to deal with Karuiz.

  I don't want to involve my family any more than they already are so if things truly get dire, I'll have to find Ifera and get her on my side. With the daughter of the lord of Ghorise thinking highly of me, not even Folsan can push me around. Headpriest or not, Ifera's family has far more influence than he ever will.

  Nothing seems to be happening for now so I chose to sit back and wait.

  Right now I'm going to hunt an aberrant. Or rather, I'll check the traps I placed near mud lines, then I'll study runes again.