...
'Wow. She really was hungry.'
Two burgers, generous in size, with juicy layers of meat, melted cheese and sauces dripping off the edges, had disappeared from the plate in less than fifteen minutes, accompanied by two cans of soda that now lay empty next to the tray.
Theo watched her in silence, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands intertwined, his chin tilted slightly in her direction. His half-closed eyes followed her every move with an almost contemplative curiosity. It was hard to say what intrigued him most at that moment: the fact that Yoo Yeonha, always so impeccable in public, was so at ease there, in front of him, or the stark contrast between the public image of refinement she bore and the almost childlike naturalness with which she had devoured the hamburgers.
Yeonha, for her part, only noticed his gaze when she had finished the last bite and wiped the corners of her mouth with a paper napkin. Her movements were quick, as if she had only just come back to the realization that she was being watched.
"...What is it?"
She asked, arching an eyebrow as she stood up a little to throw the cans in the garbage can next to the table. Her tone was defensive, but not aggressive, like someone who knows there's something comical about the situation but is trying to keep it together.
Theo shrugged, a discreet smile dancing on his lips. There was something almost provocative in his gaze, but without any malice, just sincere amusement.
"Nothing. I'm just impressed... I didn't think I'd see you devouring two hamburgers with such ferocity. I thought for a moment that hunger was going to kill you."
Yeonha crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side, feigning an offended expression. The blush that slowly crept up her cheeks, however, betrayed her completely.
"Are you calling me hungry?"
She retorted, raising an eyebrow theatrically.
'Never."
Theo raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, but his tone remained light and teasing.
I'm telling you, you're amazing even when you eat.".
She rolled her eyes, but there was a small smile at the corner of her mouth that she couldn't, or wouldn't, disguise.
After a brief silence, in which the mood between the two was suspended in a tenuous balance between the comical and the intimate, Yeonha sniffed discreetly and pulled herself together.
" ...So. Shall we get down to business?"
Theo leaned back, leaning on the back of his chair with a deliberately dramatic sigh.
"Tsk! Tsk! And here I thought I was going to get a thank-you kiss."
Yeonha paused for half a second, surprised, not by the boldness of the phrase, but by the way it was said: without pretense, as if it were a private joke between the two of them. Even so, her eyes narrowed slightly, and the answer came with the same sharp subtlety as always.
"B-kiss?"
She repeated, as if testing the weight of the word on her tongue.
That word hit her straight in the heart, even her pose in the chair wavered.
That word hit her straight in the heart, until her pose in the chair wavered. It was imperceptible, a slight adjustment in her shoulders, a repositioning of her legs, as if she was trying to disguise the impact she didn't want to reveal. But Theo noticed. He wasn't the type to let details like that slip.
Yeonha took a deep breath, pulling herself together quickly.
"That's... Can we finish everything first? Then we'll see if you deserve it or not."
Theo didn't answer. He just smiled, one of those smiles that didn't just come from his mouth, but also from his eyes, a middle ground between charm and expectation.
He straightened his body, standing a little straighter, indicating that he would accept the change of subject, but not without keeping that answer somewhere special in his memory.
"Just..."
Then, as if to mark the turning point, Theo reached out and activated his creation magic.
A sword appeared before them with a faint, perfectly balanced glow. It was nothing fancy, a simple blade, but impeccably forged. He let it rest on the table, the metallic sound resounding briefly through the room.
"...I was wondering if Essential Arsenal is looking for weapons to put up for sale."
"Uh?"
Yeonha tilted her head, looking at the sword lying on her desk and at Theo without understanding what he was getting at.
"I can create as many weapons as I want... Even high-ranking weapons, at masterpiece level."
He didn't need to say any more.
Yeonha looked at the sword, then back at Theo. His eyes widened almost imperceptibly when she understood what this meant. A creator of infinite armaments, with freedom of design, quality and scale.
The kind of advantage that any guild on the continent would sell their soul to have.
And he was offering it here, right in front of him.
"Is this real?"
The question escaped in a whisper, before she could control it. Her eyes were fixed on the sword on the table, but her mind was racing in multiple directions, as if trying to keep track of all the implications of that revelation at once.
She knew that Theo possessed a Gift, which gave him multiple abilities, and she had already witnessed some of them, whether in that training session in which she fought against herself, or through internal reports, combat recordings or even the countless rumors that circulated through the Cube's corridors. But to hear him say, with such naturalness, that he could create as many weapons as he wanted, and that these weapons could reach the High rank, was a reality that was difficult to absorb, even for someone like Yoo Yeonha.
"I'll supply you with a fixed number of weapons from time to time, and what I ask is only a percentage of their sale."
Yeonha took a deep breath. The entrepreneurial instinct in his blood was already starting to turn gears, calculate margins, predict reactions from the market, the press and the government. Nothing on this scale would go unnoticed, they would certainly come to ask where these weapons that didn't come from any factory came from. But there would also be incalculable gains.
"And why Essential Arsenal?"
She finally asked, her eyes firmly fixed on his.
"Why not found your own guild, or ally yourself directly with the government? You know you could trade it for a fortune. It would be treated as a strategic asset of national class."
Theo leaned his elbow on the table, his face relaxed, as if that question had been expected.
"I could. But that would tie me down to commitments I don't want to have. I just want to find a way of earning an easy income."
...