The refined Orichalcum remained sitting between us, so did the tea, having long gone cold.

Nobody seemed particularly eager to move.

Kisho's merchant brain had clearly taken over his host brain, and the two of them were having a vigorous internal debate that I was watching play out across his expression in real time.

His ears had come fully forward, and His eyes kept moving between the refined block of jade-green metal and me as he calculated the consequences me revealing manufacturing the finished product of his entire industry while drinking tea.

Eventually he looked up and cleared his throat.

But you can't produce it at the rate I'd need. You wouldn't be able to sustain this to-"

"I can," I shrugged, and the moment I did, both eyes of both men snapped at my face.

"I recover mana faster than I can spend it. I can do this all day."

The silence that followed was the kind that arrives when everyone in the room needs a moment to truly understand the words that had just been spoken.

Kisho looked toward the Orichalcum block.

Then his eyes returned toward me.

Then they drifted back once more.

I did not need telepathy to understand what occupied his thoughts.

His ears moved slightly, the involuntary kind of movement that happened when someone's mental arithmetic was producing numbers too large for their face to fully conceal.

He had been calculating what I could produce in an hour.

I watched him revise that estimate upward into the territory of one day, and then further into what one week looked like, and then what a month looked like, and the expression that came to his face as the implications settled was one of genuine terror.

He exhaled slowly.

"So that's how you fought all night…"

"Uh-huh…"

His ears twitched beneath greying red hair as he finally popped the question, "So what exactly are you proposing?"

And before I could speak, Kisho spoke again, "I'm not sure you understand this, Nico. If we flood the market…"

He did not finish the sentence. He did not need to. We both knew what happened to markets when the scarcity underpinning their pricing structure evaporated overnight.

While Kisho was building toward his next point, I activated my Domain and let my awareness run a quiet pass across the room. And thanks to Phantom Imposition, the invisible ten-meter sphere was entirely undetectable.

And I settled my attention on the Chief.

The Chief had been comfortably sitting beside me the whole time.

One hand rested around his teacup, posture straight yet relaxed, and with an expression that looked mildly thoughtful.

And the part of my brain that had been filing into Chief's folder was sending some really mixed signals.

The Chief was the Union Head.

He was the most senior adventurer in Shinkotsu.

He was the man who had pulled me aside specifically to warn me about Kisho Hikaru possibly trying to recruit me before offering protection by coming with me, clearing an entire evening for a guy he had interacted with only twice before. One of which was the said guy insulting him in front of his entire community for no good reason.

While here I was, sitting right beside him, proposing what was, from any reasonable external perspective, economic laundering.

I was introducing a source of refined Grade 9 metal with no traceable origin into legitimate commerce, attached to a private deal with a wealthy businessman.

The Chief should have had thoughts about this.

He should have had several thoughts actually, delivered sequentially, in the direct tone I had come to associate with him.

[Maybe he'll give me an earful later…? But still…]

"Look," I turned my attention back toward Kisho. "I'm not here for money."

The fox beast-folk blinked once.

"Nor am I looking to become your next mine." Continued as I lightly drummed my fingers against polished wood. "What I actually want…is for you to buy me thirty hectares of forested land west of Shinkotsu."

The silence that followed qualified as its own form of communication.

…I don't follow." Kisho said.

Even the Chief lowered his teacup.

I scratched awkwardly behind my ear.

"I don't actually have a home."

Kisho continued staring toward me.

"I'm tired of living out of inns."

His expression failed to change.

"I've got a Greater Dragon that occasionally needs to stretch."

The Chief nearly inhaled his tea.

I ignored him completely.

"I need somewhere private."

"Somewhere I can train properly."

"Somewhere I don't have neighbors filing complaints."

"I just want a place that's ours."

[Somewhere Nom can swing that stupid sword...]

[Somewhere Peko can do whatever horrifying rituals she wants...]

[Somewhere I can actually breathe and practice Time Magic without anyone watching the space around me crumple…]

Kisho stared at me several moments longer.

Then his shoulders visibly relaxed.

"…So you simply want to buy land using Orichalcum." He confirmed as a relieved laugh escaped, "You scared me for a second there."

"I have that effect on people." I chuckled.

"For a moment there, I thought you intended to overturn entire industries."

I glanced toward the Orichalcum block.

"…Technically speaking…"

"Nico."

"Right. Land."

My attention drifted back toward the Chief via the domain, and he had already resumed drinking tea.

[Even if he was fine with it…] I thought, [He wouldn't just sit there like that… Maybe he just wants to give me face? Let's see…]

"Chief," I said, and he looked toward me immediately. "I don't really know much about the documentation side of things. You know… making it look legal. Can you take over?"

I watched the Chief carefully while I said it, keeping my face neutral, watching him fall silent.

But Kisho spoke before he answered.

"Indeed…" the fox said smoothly. "Young Nico is new to Shinkotsu. He would likely feel more at ease if someone he trusts handled the coming negotiations."

The Chief looked toward him.

Then he nodded almost immediately.

"Very well. In that case, I'll handle it."

[Okay… that was fast… kinda he was waiting…]

Something tightened uncomfortably inside my chest.

Suddenly, I found myself becoming an observer instead of a participant.

"Thirty hectares will attract attention," Kisho observed.

"You buy it to make a vineyard or something," the Chief replied.

"Then Nico would purchase this from me and pay for it in instalments… records would still be necessary."

"Then you maintain a notarized repayment ledger."

"The authorities may inspect."

"They'll only find Nico's home. Besides, you have connections...." the Chief went.

"Indeed… At least the forested land outside Shinkotsu remains inexpensive."

"The quantity still raises questions."

And so, the back and forth they continued.

They covered land ownership documentation, forest rights boundaries, and the structure of a private transaction and repayment ledger requirements for a fake private loan.

While I sat quietly, listening carefully.

Kisho raised practical concerns repeatedly.

The Chief resolved those concerns efficiently.

The Chief introduced complications occasionally.

Kisho refined workable solutions immediately.

Everything sounded reasonable.

And perfectly normal.

But I could instinctively tell this was not a back and forth.

Back and forth had friction. Back and forth had one party conceding ground they had actually been defending.

[They're disagreeing…]

[...But not really. Like they're both the same person in two bodies talking to themselves…]

The Orichalcum gleamed softly on the table.

The tea sat untouched.

The Chief reviewed a point about documentation timing, and Kisho raised a mild objection, and the Chief adjusted, and the shape of the adjustment fit a little too close to what Kisho had been steering toward before the objection arrived.

[Something's definitely up.]