Stalled Transactions
It’s about time I returned to my real profession.
What? My real job is running an orphanage? No, no, that’s the side business. My real profession is selling gir—… no, that sounds bad. Let’s say it properly: sending children with bright futures to environments suited to them.
It has social value. It’s a perfectly respectable business. And it makes money.
That said, I’d taken a break from that line of work recently. Because I’d been certified as a Saint, I couldn’t move carelessly, and Lily had been sticking to me around the clock. I couldn’t even meet merchants properly. But the guards rotated, and the one here now is—
“You’re still doing that, huh~”
That voice cut off my thoughts. I looked up to see a small figure lying across the back of the sofa. Pale green hair spilled toward the floor, the tips shimmering gold.
Salvia. The newly arrived Saintess. Her tiny body wrapped in a black sheer frilled one-piece dress, a black beret with a big ribbon on the back, looking even younger and more doll-like than Lily, and those moist, slitted red cat eyes stared right through me.
She was one of the few girls who knew the truth—namely, that I wasn’t protecting them for the children’s sake.
“What? I’m sweating and working hard for the kids, so it’s basically a wholesome business.”
“… You move for money, but that ends up benefitting the children as well. So there’s no contradiction… but to me it just sounds like sophistry, or an excuse~”
Salvia said something incomprehensible like that, smiling faintly as she closed the thick book in her hands. A glimpse of intricate magic formulas showed between the pages. She was reading that complicated thing while lying down—wasn’t that advanced magic theory?
“You really do take things at your own pace. Can you actually work properly?”
“Of course I can— I may look like I’m always sleeping, but I’ve put a barrier around the orphanage, and I’m preventing all dangerous things. For example—”
Before she finished speaking, a small scream came from the dining hall. Peeking in, we saw Riko about to fall from a chair—but her body floated softly and was gently returned to her seat before she hit the floor.
It seemed to be an application of a Saintess barrier technique.
“See~”
“That’s convenient. But that’s definitely not the proper use of that ability.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment—”
After saying that, she burrowed deeper into her blanket on the sofa and fell asleep again. She’s definitely not working. She didn’t used to be like this… or maybe she did.
Lazy and arrogant, but smart and extremely cheeky—that’s how I remember her.
Now she’s apparently called the “Saintess of Wisdom.”
Yeah, when she found out about my real goal, I really thought I was done for.
(I see~ so this is why you raise us~)
That was the day before I sold her off…
□
“Alright. At this level, even that witch will buy her…”
Three years searching for a girl who met the conditions. The witch who appeared three years ago had only one demand: send her a smart kid.
She’d heard rumors that the girls I sent out were exceptional and came specifically to find a successor.
Honestly, selling to a witch I’d never dealt with before felt extremely criminal.
I mean, she’s a witch, right? Who knows what she’d do.
But in the end, I agreed to help her find a successor. The reasons were money and… a contract magic.
The payment: 10 gold coins up front, and 30 more if the girl’s abilities met her standards. Converted to Japanese yen, that was enough for a commoner to live without working for about three years. For one girl. An insane payout.
And the contract magic required that the witch never harm the girl’s life and that she raise her responsibly. Breaking it meant death. The witch accepted those terms.
I pretended to hesitate but eagerly agreed in my heart. Still, to avoid being underestimated, I waited a week before signing.
At the time, she found no suitable candidate, but months passed, and eventually I managed to prepare a girl who met the requirements.
At first, it was rough. The conditions were abstract: under seven, talented in magic, possessing general education, quick-thinking—the standards were unclear.
So I made magic talent testing mandatory for girls we took in, and after about a year, I found a girl who shattered the magic-measuring crystal the witch had given me. A cheat-level talent.
That girl was Salvia Nocturne.
Apparently Nocturne was a name inherited from her master.
At the time, she was four and couldn’t even write. Teaching her from zero should have been difficult… but it wasn’t.
Once she learned how to read, she understood everything perfectly. As for general knowledge and basic magic, giving her books was enough. In short, she was a genius.
For the witch’s back-end payment, I poured every scrap of knowledge I had into her. If her intelligence increased and I earned more money, I’d teach her anything.
Mystery novels, puzzle toys, weird steam and chemical experiments whose purpose I didn’t understand…
I crammed my half-baked modern knowledge into her, and she became a true genius.
The uncontrollable kind.
Outside study hours she did nothing but laze around, never helping with orphanage chores. And if you tried to scold her, she’d completely dismantle your argument with flawless logic. Totally unmanageable.
Well, that would end today. I’d sell her to the witch tomorrow and finally be free.
Or so I thought.
“I see~ so that’s why you raise us~”
She had read my diary, where I’d written in Japanese about my life in this world and the orphanage’s purpose.
Who would expect her to have learned Japanese?
Apparently she’d been decoding it little by little until she mastered the language. Is language something you can decipher from writing alone? That’s practically a different field of expertise.
Cornered as I was, she said nothing, simply left the room, and the next day quietly let the witch take her.
She didn’t say anything to the other children.
And ten years later, she’d become a strange existence—Saintess in public, witch in secret.
□
And that brings us back to the present. She knows what I’m doing, but since she doesn’t say anything, I can go wild.
Why she trained as a Saintess at a monastery after becoming a witch is unknown to me, but I doubt it was for some noble reason like protecting children. Which means I can conduct business openly.
Three girls are ready to sell, and considering their future goals, the places to send them will be…
“This one, this one… and this one.”
A noble, a merchant, and a monastery—good reputation, good payment.
I’ve worked with the merchant and monastery before, but the noble is a new client. Ever since rumors of my Saint certification spread, I’ve been flooded with orders from new customers.
There are countless new offers better than those from the merchant or monastery. So why, with three girls ready, is only one new client on the list?
The reason is simple.
A site inspection is required.
What do you think about this chapter?
