BXBX NOVEL Chapter 52: Now that I'm your clan's slave, how about we talk?
There were quite a few points drawing my attention in what Claire said so far... but one thing stuck out more than all the others.
Contrary to what one would expect from this scene, it wasn't anything law, contract, or business-related. Instead...
'Our company?' I thought, only for a small smile to appear on my lips as I looked up and locked stares with the girl.
"What?" Claire asked, squinting her eyes when she noticed my stare.
"Our company?" I asked out loud, opting to go through with the small tease I planned out in my head.
"Huh?" Claire nearly jumped, taken aback by the nature of my protest. "Are you really that petty to be catching my words like that?" she then asked, her face filling with a look of distant disappointment.
"Wait, no," I quickly shook my head, taken aback by the way she spun the situation. "It was the other way around! I was hap..."
With my eyes already locked on the girl, I just couldn't miss the small twitch of her mouth that just momentarily formed a small grin on her face.
"Wait..." I muttered as the girl quickly recollected herself and retook the reins over her facial muscles. "You are playing with me!"
At first, Claire opened up her eyes wide and puffed up her chest while straightening her back and raising her chin, all in a bid to make herself look bigger and more serious...
Only for her serious expression to collapse when it broke into a genuine smile of amusement. A smile with a proper dose of warmth in her eyes.
"Just a tiny little bit?" Claire excused herself, her smile only growing wider on her face.
"If so, then I'm happy again," I bounced the ball back, refusing to give in even an inch in this battle of who could tease the other more.
In the end, though, we didn't go to the study to play around but to get some business and some talking done. And with that in mind, I turned my eyes down before quickly scanning the writing of the contract.
'It seems to be pretty much the same as what she offered me back before the shit went down,' I thought, going back with my thoughts to the kidnapping attempt.
Once again, I had no other choice but to marvel at the things I did all by myself... even in a quasi-meditative state.
'It's a pity I don't have any recording of what happened,' I thought, 'it would make it all the easier to figure out what actually happened...'
In theory, I could imagine using my power to dismantle a gun... or a whole damn car. But in practice, if someone asked me to do it... I wouldn't even know where to start!
And so, despite my desperate desire to take ownership of this ability too, I had no other choice but to leave it atop the pile of matters that I was not yet ready to tackle.
"Where do I sign exactly?" I asked once done checking the contract.
"It's at the bottom of the third, fourth, and then seventh page," Claire hurried to provide an answer.
Three turns of the page and a few scribbles later, my fate was sealed.
"Done," I announced as I put the pen away and removed the contract from my mind, fully focusing on the girl ahead. "Now that I'm your slave, can you tell me what made your father decide to go through with this?"
There was no need for me to be any more specific. Even if there was a great rift between how I looked at this contract and how someone rich like Claire or Chihiro would see it... But there was no denying the fact that my terms were far, far too generous for a simple contractor's work.
Those terms were even better than anything a proper specialist could ask for!
'Then there is the point of my creations breaking all sorts of taboos just by existing...'
This was the one thing that I just couldn't figure out.
If it was just about hiring me, I could attribute it to Claire's personal curiosity and her father doting on her too much.
But with the terms that Chihiro offered, this could no longer be classified as a matter of the father merely spoiling his daughter as he fulfilled every of her wishes.
"That's one hell of a topic to pick out for an ice-breaker," Claire sighed, her face revealing that I either made quite the mistake by bringing this question up... Or maybe, proving that I hit a jackpot of a story that while obviously lengthy, would reveal not only Chihiro's reasons but also motivation behind those.
"Should we talk about something else, then?" I suggested while leaning my head over to the side.
If Claire wasn't comfortable talking about this topic, I had no plans of forcing her to do so.
At least, not during the very first full day of our shaky cohabitation!
"No, it's actually fine, just... It's a long story," Claire stated as she put all of the papers out of her arms and back on the table. She then stretched her hands out and took a step... Only to suddenly wobble in the air as if she lost her footing.
'Shit!'
Following nothing but my instincts, I jumped out of my chair and grabbed the girl by her waist, all just to make sure she wouldn't topple down on her feet.
"Thanks..." Claire muttered as she stabilized her footing. "It seems that I'm..."
Before she could finish her sentence, Claire wobbled again, as if unable to keep her hips properly stabilized... Only to end up falling down on me and pushing us both onto my chair.
"Are you okay?!" I cried out right away, my hands already moving Claire's hair to ensure she didn't hit her head anywhere.
"Y-yeah, I just..." she put on an embarrassed smile, "I just lost stability for a second, so I should be okay now..."
"No, you are not," I denied her attempt at standing up, grasping down at her shoulder before pulling her right back down onto my lap. "Just sit still for now. You don't need to be across the table for us to talk, do you?"
Claire hesitated a little bit at first, not exactly comfortable with taking my lap for a seat. Ultimately, however, she swallowed her objections and regathered her thoughts while lifting her fist to her mouth and clearing her throat.
"For you to understand my father's motives..."
'She moved on that quick?' I thought, taken aback by how swiftly Claire managed to pass over the issue of sitting down on my lap, and moved ahead to the actual topic of our conversation.
"...I need to start all the way at the beginning of my own story. What you likely are not aware of, in certain circles, I'm hailed as the bastard daughter of the clan's great elder," Claire revealed, only for her face to grow darker as she seemed to shrivel down on my lap. "But it's not my father that this title refers to."