"See you then. Next time have Marcus show you directly to my place. Let's not do this in public anymore. Meanwhile, take this." She swiped her hand and a menu appeared in his vision.

Ginny O'Connor has authorized a loan of 1000 credits with a 15% interest rate. Repayment must be made within 7 days, or the interest will compound daily at an additional 2% per day.

Accept? Reject?

Cass instantly rejected it. "Come on Ginny, I'm not dumb. I'm not taking a loan with those terms when we already established that I wasn't coming back for a week."

"Bah, that was a mistake," she waved it away. "Those are the default terms, I didn't even think to review them. Here, how about this?"

Ginny O'Connor has authorized a loan of 1000 credits with a 15% interest rate. Repayment must be made within 14 days, or the interest will compound daily at an additional 2% per day.

Accept? Reject?

Cass looked at her with irritation and rejected it.

"Come on kid, you're going to need some walking-around money if you want to hire anyone to help you. This is for you, and you'll make it back if your stuff sells."

"It's the 'if' I don't trust. You seem to be in full control of when you'll sell what, which means you're not in any rush to sell it. You obviously clocked that I'm not that experienced with contracts or selling, but I'm not an idiot. Let me ask you this: Is there anything in my contract that says I can't take my items back?"

Ginny narrowed her eyes. "No, but you won't be able to sell anything. You're stuck for six month and you still owe me 500 credits a month. You could cancel, but that's still 500 a month plus the fees."

"Yeah, you're right. I'm starting to see how much you got me with that contract. Thank you for making it super clear. Now please return everything I gave you." He held out his hand.

Ginny's mouth dropped open. "What?" She spluttered. "You want it back? All of it? Why? You can't do anything with it."

Cass shrugged. "I can't right now, but in six months I can find someone else to sell my stuff. I'd ask Marcus to show me where they are but I'm starting to see what the racket here is. He brings you dumb 'rural folk' who don't know nothin' about tradin'," Cass affected a slow, plodding accent. "You run the quick car salesman racket on them and make them feel like they don't have any choice, they fall for it, then you loan them money at interest rates worse than a standard car loan. Like I said, I'm not an idiot. My parents made sure that I knew my way around finances. You had me flustered and that made me act rashly, but no more. Give me my stuff back."

Ginny was sitting straight-backed, hands flat on the table in front of her, face unreadable. "You can't." Her voice was a whisper. "You'll still owe me the 500 a month."

"Sure," Cass said. "I'll give you whatever you think will sell for 575 credits a month. If my stupid yokel brain is correct, that's 500 credits plus your 15% commission, right? In fact, the contract doesn't say I owe you 500 plus commission, so maybe I should just make it 500 exactly."

"But you don't know what anything costs. How do you know if I'm cheating you?"

"I'll make it easy then. If you ever sell anything I give you for more than 500 credits I will only bring you low cost items. I will bury your table in Arcane Scamperer coats. I don't care if they're one credit each, you'll get 500 of them on the first of every month without fail." He placed his hands on the table and leaned forward, enjoying the feel of his inner enforcer coming back. "I'm fast, Ginny, really fast. Maybe not the fastest ever, but fast enough that you will never, ever, even for an instant, see me coming. Speaking of, let me check something real quick…" his voice drifted off as he paged through something in the air.

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

"I don't see anything here about owing the money after your death. What happens then?"

Now Ginny stood, hands pressing onto the table hard enough to turn her fingertips white. "You fucking child, you listen to me. Do you think you're the first person to ever threaten my life over an owed debt? Do you think I don't have skills that protect against that very thing? Do you really think for one fucking second that The System would create a class like mine, one that loans money to people a whole lot more dangerous than you, without protections? Do you REALLY want to start this relationship off with that kind of threat?"

The two stared each other down, gauging each other's seriousness. Neither saw what they wanted and both realized they needed to back down.

Cass stood slowly, dispelling the moment with a heavy sigh. "Okay, fine. No one is killing anyone - but I meant what I said about the Scamperer coats. You're trying to screw me and I don't appreciate it. I came to you because I need help, and all I've gotten since I arrived was you and Marcus trying to pull fast ones over on me. People I love are at risk of dying very soon and you're doing your best to make sure it happens, all over a few credits."

"I'm not doing anything to your family, kid. These are standard terms."

"Well you're not helping either." Cass didn't like emotions this tense. He felt worn out and spent. He thought about what Gabriel would do, turning his voice soft and plaintive. "Ginny, please. I need your help. I'm not trying to screw you out of any money - I really am fine with you taking your commission. I just don't want to find myself in a situation where I can't come back for a month and find that I owe you…" he did a quick calculation in his head, "1500 or so credits. Suddenly I have to triple my normal payment to you just to break even. At that point I have to either leave my family and friends during the Cryptid Challenge to go off collecting debt money, potentially getting killed myself, or find myself losing levels when I need them the most. If that's the choice then I'll just reject every loan you ever offer and try to figure things out on my own."

He'd played on her emotions, exactly like Gabriel would have, and now it was time to bring out the threat. He kept his voice gentle, pretending to be distracted with his thought process. "Now that I'm thinking about it, the contract only talks about selling through other vendors. It doesn't mention anything about trade. I guess if I really need someone and don't have enough cash I can always find another broker and bring them back to my place and offer them one of the power rods."

It took all of his self control to keep his face neutral when her eyes shot open. She restored her expression instantly but his enhanced speed couldn't have missed it. She sighed. "Fine, kid, fine. I wasn't thinking about the situation you're in - we're pretty removed from all of that here. Sometimes it's easy to forget that it's not all the same as before, and that people are out there risking their lives to survive. How about this, I will give you an advance on your sales - no interest. You will still owe me everything you agreed to, but you won't take any profits until you've met the 1000 credits. Is that fair?"

"Is that enough money to hire someone good?"

Ginny shrugged, the tension leaving her frame. "Depends on the person or team, but at the very least it's enough to get them for a few weeks or months. Everyone charges their own rates."

"It's a start, I guess."

Ginny O'Connor has offered an advance on future sales in the amount of 1000 credits. All credits earned from sales will go towards the repayment of the advance until it is satisfied in full.

Accept? Reject?

Ginny sighed in relief as he accepted.

"Okay, I'm going to go find Marcus."

Ginny nodded and Cass turned. He only made it a step before she called out to him.

"Cass," her voice sounded more real in that moment than any time since he'd met her. He stopped and looked over his shoulder. "I am sorry. I really wasn't trying to screw you, they really are standard terms."

"Who set the terms, though?"

He nodded at her silence, walking away without another word. He had one more lesson to teach tonight.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.