"Now," I said, looking at both of them, "I’m gonna make you an offer you cannot refuse."

Mitsuki’s hand found Garek’s arm, and I watched her fingers close around it once, briefly, and then release. Neither of them spoke. They were both looking at me, apparent in their faces that their gut had already told them a thing before their brain had caught up to it.

Peko was now standing still, watching the exchange with her hands folded and her violet eyes on me. She didn’t know what I was about to say either.

Nom-Nom had moved up beside me and was looking between the couple and my face with her head tilted, working out from my expression alone whether this was going to be exciting or complicated, and probably arriving at both simultaneously.

"Iron Vanguard takes Nom into the dungeon daily," I said. "Look, I’m not asking you to fight beside her... you’d just get in her way. What I need from you is access to B-Rank Dungeons and logistical support. As for the cut... Nom keeps 70% of all slain monsters for herself, and 30% gets cashed out at the Guild. Out of that 30, you get 15."

Garek looked at me for a full beat before-

"No. I think I’m going to refuse." 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Even Mitsuki pressed her lips, trying to hold back her laughter.

"4.5% of the total haul is... peanuts." Garek continued, flatly, "Even porters make more than that."

"Indeed, it would be peanuts," I nodded along, feeling the grin on my face widening, "... if I weren’t talking about Nom killing a thousand plus monsters daily in the deepest floors of B-Rank Dungeons while you lot stand back and watch."

The moment those words left my mouth, I saw something behind his eyes shift. His jaw moved slightly as though he had started to say something and then decided against it while his brain ran the number.

Mitsuki had gone completely still beside him as well.

The dungeon arithmetic was not complicated once you had the actual scale of it, but the scale was the part that took a moment.

A thousand monsters on the deeper floors, the kind of floors that sent B-rank parties home more than a few members short if they pushed too hard.

The floors which meant a dungeon response, meant the dungeon would start throwing organized waves, variants, and things that did not die easily.

Which meant the thirty percent being cashed out was not thirty percent of standard floor mobs at standard rates.

It was thirty percent of deep floor creatures, and just a few of those were worth way more than anything the Iron Vanguard had been touching on their own grind.

Fifteen percent of that thirty, for standing back and providing logistical support, was not peanuts.

I watched as Garek slowly got there.

And then I watched him get somewhere else.

His eyes went slightly unfocused, and I knew that thought went back in time to the moment when I had planted the crops that are now ready for harvest.

And I saw the moment it arrived because his jaw set and he straightened slightly, and his gaze came back to me with a different quality in it than it had carried a moment before.

He was thinking about the conversation in the mess hall at the mine. I could see that he was, because I had been thinking about it too, and the things he had told me over terrible ale were the exact reason this offer was structured the way it was structured and why he cannot refuse.

Berant’s daughter and the potions that kept her alive.

Selenne’s sister and the money that would buy her back.

His people, and the weight he had been carrying for them, because that was simply what you’re supposed to.

He looked at Mitsuki.

And she was already looking at him and gave one small, barely perceptible nod, for she too had read the same situation and arrived at the same place.

Garek turned back to me.

His fists were closed at his sides, and he took in a deep breath, carrying the weight of a leader making a decision that would either solve everything or thrust them into a quagmire that would swallow their everything.

"I have three questions," he said.

"Ask four~"

"What do you plan to do with the 70% of the kills you’re keeping?"

"Oh, that?" I chuckled and lied through my teeth. "Nom loves to eat monsters, but she’s very self-conscious about it."

Nom-Nom turned to look at me, and her expression went through several things very quickly, and what it settled on was her eyes narrowing at me in a way that communicated clearly that she would need to be thoroughly compensated for this.

Garek and Mitsuki both looked at her face, saw her narrowed eyes, and arrived at exactly the conclusion I needed them to arrive at, which was that she was displeased about her closet preference being disclosed to strangers.

"She’s a Greater Dragon, after all..." I continued, as though I hadn’t noticed the circus of facial expressions all around me, "My big girl’s gotta eat, y’know."

Peko, standing off to my left, was looking at the whole exchange like a masterclass in foresight, and creating opportunities where none had existed.

I was taking an old system and upgrading it before it outlived its usefulness, all the while without giving the other party anything of true value.

"My second question," Garek said. "After the incident at the mine, Entropy may be looking at you. If we associate with you, they may come after us for information or more. How does that get handled?"

"If they grab any of you... Give them everything you know about me. Don’t hold anything back, and don’t be heroic about it. Each of you will receive an artifact that activates without mana. So, the moment you trigger it, I’ll get your exact coordinates... We’ll be there in no time. So just talk and buy time." I paused, tilting my head, and continued. "... You will also be signing an agreement that prevents you from sharing information about us with anyone outside your party. That protects both sides."

What they knew about me was not exactly too destructive, and the information I would eventually let settle into them naturally over time will be selected with the specific possibility of Entropy extraction in mind.

They would be given a version of me that was accurate in the broad strokes and strategically useless in the specifics, or manipulative in a way that’d benefit me in the event Entropy nabbed and interrogated them.

Garek nodded. "Understood. Third question. Even with Lady Nom-Nom’s capabilities, the logistics of moving a thousand or more monsters around an active, hostile floor... We cannot haul that kind of volume."

"And you won’t," I said. "Nom has a spatial storage. She will carry her personal share herself. That thirty percent is what gets physically transported, and that volume... well, that’s your job."

The husband and wife fell silent, both of them absorbing the full picture now that all three pieces were in place.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot," I said, snapping my fingers. "... I also want you guys to share your knowledge with Nom... the decades of it... and the experiences you guys have accumulated... I want it transferred to her. Tactics, monster physiology, weaknesses... and everything in between. One more thing, I may join you guys if and when the situation allows... but don’t worry, I won’t ask for a separate share."

I took one step toward them, extended my hand, and continued-

"So, what’d you say? Do we have a deal?"

Garek looked at Mitsuki.

Mitsuki looked at him, and the nod this time was not barely perceptible.

"Deal," Garek reached out and took my hand.

"Lovely," I said, releasing the handshake and turning. "Be at my place by nine sharp tomorrow morning. The address is..."

I looked sideways at Peko.

After all, I had been in the temple hospital for two days, and the week the General had given us in the mansion was long past.

"The Crane and Cedar Inn," Peko said, without hesitation. "Eastern merchant district of New Shinkotsu. Third floor, rooms six through eight."

"There you go~" I said, pointing at Peko as I started for the stairs.

"Berant and Selenne are still recovering," Mitsuki’s voice came from behind. "They still haven’t recovered from the aftereffects of the Outsider’s mental influence. They need a few more days..."

"Yea, no. Don’t have that kind of time... or patience." I turned back and activated Metal Manifestation, and within a second, a fist-sized piece of pure gold had grown out of my hand.

Pulling it free, I held it for a beat, and tossed it underhand toward Garek.

He caught it on reflex and just stared at it. So did Mitsuki. Then they both looked at me.

"Handle it," I said. "Buy some potions and stuff... and be there at 9 sharp."

I turned around and started down the stairs, leaving the frost prints my leg left in my wake.

Peko silently fell into step beside me while Nom-Nom hopped down two steps at a time with the wheelchair still tucked under one arm and a grin on her face that communicated she had found the entire exchange considerably more entertaining than she was letting on.

Behind us, at the top of the stairs, I heard nothing. No footsteps or murmurs.

Just the sound of two people standing in the afternoon light above Old Shinkotsu with a fist-sized piece of solid gold between them, working through what had just happened to their lives.