Earth's SSS Pornstar to SSS Combat God in Another World-Chapter 59: Small Talk While Burning Money for Strength

"I want to grow strong enough to marry Daisy. Is that so terrible?" Joji said, righteous to the core.

"If that is what it takes, I would not mind becoming a skeleton, much less a troll."

Fufu was left staring.

"Fufu, do not tease him anymore. Please believe him," Daisy said.

There was pleading in her eyes, yes, but not the pleading of a woman trying to cover for a man she did not trust.

It was the look of someone speaking plain truth.

Fufu saw the confidence in the way she held herself, the subtle ease in her stance, the small details that spoke louder than words ever could.

For all that he was queer, he was not blind. Some things were obvious at a glance.

At last, he waved a hand as if to drive the whole matter off.

"Sheesh. Sheesh. You lot just want to sweet-talk me into a discount. Fine, then. I will cut the price in half."

Then he stepped close to Joji.

He was a few inches shorter, but there was nothing small about him.

Fufu was a newly ascended Rank-Five Great Knight, and that alone gave him the right to set the tone in a place like this.

No one here would dare make trouble while he stood guard.

Joji, however, knew well enough where knights were weakest.

He dropped to his knees.

A few tears came at once, as though summoned on command, and then he struck his chest three times with loud, ringing blows.

"I, Joji, will never forget this kindness bestowed upon me by the Great Knight Fufu!" he declared with booming sincerity.

Fufu froze again where he stood, thoroughly dumbfounded.

For the first time, he truly believed it. Joji had changed. Not just in rumor, not just in Daisy’s hopeful eyes, but in some way that could be felt.

He looked from one to the other, saw the closeness between them, and then only shook his head.

"Pay. Just pay. I do not want to see your faces in here any longer," Fufu muttered. Then his tone shifted, turning more serious.

"And Daisy, do not go chasing children yet. Times are turbulent."

Sadness touched Daisy’s face at once, but she nodded.

She understood. Her heart longed for a warm household, for peace, for children and a life that could finally be called simple, yet she knew longing alone did not make the world safe.

For now, she would keep that dream tucked away in the quietest part of herself.

Lena, on the other hand, did not know what sort of turbulence he meant.

Still, the word sat ill with her. Ominous. Heavy.

She nudged Joji with her elbow.

"Hey, what is happening? Is there a war or something?"

Joji only shook his head and looked at his former co-star.

"Truthfully, no one knows," he said. "But imagine all the worst people back on Earth suddenly having magic. Do you think anything after that would go smoothly?"

Lena went quiet. The answer was obvious enough.

Now, though, seeing Joji wear such a grave face when he himself was still, by her own standards, little more than a lackey in this world’s hierarchy, she turned fully toward him.

"Joji, look. You know I can do business. Maybe not like you. You’re way smarter than me. But I know how to work hard, so just tell me what to do."

She paused, thought a moment longer, then decided she had not said enough.

"Joji, I do not want to be a prostitute in this life. That job is dead to me. Modeling, maybe, if this world has anything like that. But not that."

Joji nodded.

"Alright. I got you, Lena."

Joji, Daisy, and Lena went next to Everhart Magics, Swords, and Necronomicon, one of the supplier companies owned by the Everhart house.

There were no guards at the entrance this time. None were needed.

Duchess Rosalind’s Golem Constructs stood watch instead, tireless things of stone and spellwork, and so the three of them passed straight inside.

Once within, Daisy all but came alive. She began gathering the items on her list with quick, certain hands.

This was the first time Joji had truly asked for her help in such a matter, and she meant to do well by him.

With two hundred thousand gold to work with, she moved through the place like a woman loosed into her favorite market, swift and bright, choosing not only what was best, but what was most efficient, and always with an eye for value.

Lena sat down off to the side and watched her for a while before nudging Joji with her lips.

"Look at her. I never saw her like that before," Lena said.

Joji looked over at Daisy, who was busy comparing ingredients with a seriousness almost sacred.

"We’ve been fucking every day," he said. "You really did a number on her. Turned her into some submissive little masochist."

Lena clicked her tongue.

"I just wanted her to be liked by her husband. Is that so bad? And those were only books. I didn’t even tease her that hard."

Then Lena tilted her head and asked, plain curiosity in her voice.

"How was she compared to me? Not now. Back then."

Joji did not even need to think long.

"She beats you by a margin," he said flatly. "She was built to be a sex machine."

Lena stared at him.

"I don’t believe it. How is that even possible?"

Joji gave a shrug.

"She never made me pull away when her body started shaking. To be honest, it was my first time bedding a woman who trembled like that."

That answer struck Lena harder than she expected.

For a moment, she felt strangely downcast.

This had once been her ground, the one place where she had moved with complete confidence, and now even that seemed to have been stolen from her by some noble girl from another world.

Worse still, Joji had been her senior in the industry. If he said Daisy felt that good, then it meant the girl truly was monstrous in that regard, the sort who could ruin ordinary men without even trying.

’Damn,’ Lena thought. ’I need to stay relevant somehow. If war really comes, Joji might not value me much otherwise.’

Joji, meanwhile, let her stew in that while he watched Daisy continue her work.

He already knew some of the ingredients by heart, but with nothing pressing for him to do at the moment, he simply began reading each item as she picked it, one by one, letting his eyes move over names, properties, and uses while Daisy built their little pile with growing confidence.

{Orc Vampire Blood}

{Details: Born of the blood of orcs who gave themselves over to the power of vampirism. It is highly contagious, and if not handled with due care, it may reduce a man to thrall.}

{High Grade Bloodstone}

{Details: A mineral formed in places where battles were fought and blood ran in rivers. Primeria, being no wasteful power, drew upon the prana, mana, and aura left lingering in that blood, and from them shaped crimson hollows in the earth.}

{Distinguished Healing Potion}

{Details: Created within the walls of the Everhart Magics, Swords, and Necronomicon Company, this draught heals wounds and aids recovery. Its taste, however, is bitter.}

"How much are these?" Joji asked, lifting one of the potions for her to see.

"That is two thousand a bottle," Daisy said. "I am planning to buy thirty so you can heal properly."

Joji glanced at the potion, then back at her.

"Daisy, I do not need it. I am not going to run crying for a healer, so do not worry about it," he said.

Daisy nodded and let the matter drop.

She trusted him enough to know he understood what was at stake. They could not keep leaning on her mother forever.

In Primeria, young men and women were expected to leave home by eighteen and begin standing on their own.

Had Daisy not been an heiress, she likely would have been renting some modest place already instead of living under noble protection.

Healing, too, was no simple comfort in this world.

A single session from a Rank-Two clergy member cost at least a hundred coins, and even then there were limits.

If the healer missed something, some small damage buried beneath the rest, the pain might linger afterward with no easy remedy to be found.

Potions were different.

There was a reason they were called medicine. They did not choose one wound and ignore another.

They worked through the body as a whole, seeking out injury wherever it lay.

Once they had chosen everything, Joji instructed the staff to pack the purchases into a box and leave it ready for collection.

Then, when no one was watching, he opened a portal at his side and slipped the Heart of the Troll Chieftain through together with the materials he would need for his magic circles.

It was done in a blink, neat enough that no eye caught it.

Elsewhere, the thieves who had seen them coming and going through the VIP-exclusive exits scratched their heads in confusion.

They assumed the goods were still inside the shops, waiting to be collected.

Some lingered in patience, hoping for an easier opportunity later.

Others drifted off to hunt more careless prey.

Joji, Daisy, and Lena simply kept strolling through the city as though they carried nothing at all.

By noon, hunger drew them into a fine restaurant, the sort that dressed its tables better than some men dressed themselves.

Joji paid for the meal. Afterward, they made their way toward the Industrial Zone.

One of the abandoned Cutler factories stood there.

The farther they walked into that quarter, the uglier the streets became.

Rust, soot, broken brick, and the smell of old work left to rot.

It was not long before the local thugs began to show themselves, one by one, stepping from corners and alley mouths, their eyes measuring the women first.

Daisy and Lena were disguised to look deliberately ugly, and the sight of them drew sour looks.

One of the thinner men, all nerves and need, seemed too desperate to keep himself in check.

Lust had him itching beneath the skin, and he chose to make trouble.

Joji had expected as much.

He reached into his pocket, drew out a pebble no bigger than a black peppercorn, and flicked it with his thumb.

The stone flew. The thin man was hurled back several steps, his hand struck hard enough to make him cry out.

He staggered, clutching at it, and suddenly the heat in him vanished.

He looked around and found no one near enough to blame, no guard, no witness, no easy answer.

Fear replaced desire as swiftly as nightfall.

Then the one who seemed to be their leader stepped forward.

"Welcome to the east side of the Industrial Zone," he said. "Name’s Sid. You lot, even you, big fellow, need to pay protection money. Gang wars are the norm these days."

Joji did not so much as blink.

"We are not opening any business," he said, calm as still water. "We were only sent to look around."