Chapter 285: Buyer
"Hmm... I’m bored. Can’t I be lazy for once?" A 19-year-old young man muttered as he looked at the ceiling.
"Young Master, the master is about to return, and he requests your presence once he’s here."
"Geh!" The young man glanced at his old butler. "Why do I need to do that? He’s going to lecture me again."
"Young Master, you are definitely a genius. However, the master is concerned because of your lack of discipline. You are already 19 years old, and your strength has reached rank 3. If you were even more diligent, I have no doubt that you would have reached rank 4. You may become the first rank 7 human in this country, Young Master."
"I don’t really care about all that. I’m progressing just fine. You pushing me to train like this is stressing me out. What if I suddenly commit suicide because of all that pressure?"
"Please don’t joke like that, Young Master."
"Hey, look. I’m just lying around like this in our home. It’s me bonding with my own home. I don’t play around with women like those guys, I don’t do drugs or other things that will endanger myself. I even participate in banquets once in a while. So, can’t you just leave me alone?"
The butler let out a long sigh. "The master is concerned about your motivation, Young Master. In Esfrata, there is a new genius named Auric Elfe. He has a unique element that allows him to control eight other elements. It looks like he’s not bound by the limitations of a unique element.
"With his talent, he might become a rank 7 human in the future. In addition, he’s even more talented as an evolution master and researcher. At this rate, not only will Esfrata have a new rank 7 human after Joker, but it will also gain a world-class researcher and a rank that no one has ever attained before, beyond adamantium-grade evolution master."
The young man looked at him. "Look, I get it, alright? Just leave me alone. I will meet my father after this."
"Doomscrolling is not the best way to spend your day. It will make you dumber, Young Master." The butler sighed again.
"Hey, did you just call the person you serve dumb?"
"I’m sorry, but the master has given me the right to handle you in any way I see fit, Young Master. You haven’t made me kick you in the ass yet, but at least you’ve forced me to stop being polite to you." The butler squinted.
"..." The young man’s eyebrows twitched. He couldn’t say anything if his father had given the instruction personally.
"Fine, fine. I’m standing up right now, okay? You go out first. I want to change my clothes."
"That’s more like it. Very well, don’t take too long, Young Master. Please get it done in five minutes!"
"I get it already!" The young man raised his voice.
The butler then bowed politely before leaving the room.
The young man sighed, and his vision returned to the screen.
"Hmm? What’s this?" While walking toward his closet, he stumbled upon an online store. "Sun Store? That’s funny. This is a gathering technique? Something that we don’t even know? It’s only a local store, but... There are actually a lot of reviews."
When he read the reviews, he was stupefied. "What the fuck?"
[The Great Sun has graced me with this technique. I shall praise the sun for three days and three nights.]
[I’ve been served, now I shall serve the Great Sun.]
[Holy Sun, Sun God, Sun Deity, I pray to the Sun, so the Great Sun will grace me again with a new technique for rank 3.]
"Why is the review like this? Are they a cult or something?" The young man couldn’t comprehend what they were talking about.
The reason the butler didn’t say much to him was because of his competence. It was true that he was lazy and he might have been using too much of his time to doom scroll the internet.
He might have taken in too much useless information, but there was a lot of useful information as well.
Before the butler warned him, he was already aware of the fact that Auric Elfe had become a new star of Esfrata.
He just never told anyone about it. The butler knew he was already aware of it from his reaction, which was why he retreated without saying much.
When he saw the Sun Store, he couldn’t help but say, "It will be funny if there is something that is the opposite of this store, right? Maybe something like the Night Store or the Moon Store..."
"..."
"..."
"Right?"
The young man fell silent. He was a bit addicted to just searching for something random on the internet. Unable to contain his curiosity, he ended up searching for it on the internet. "Oh boy, the things I search for when it’s not even 2 in the morning."
To his surprise, the moment he searched for the Moon Store, he actually found it.
"What the—" The young man gasped. "It exists. It’s not even in Esfrata. It’s actually located in this country. Let’s see... What does it sell? Household goods?"
He opened the link, only to be surprised further. "It’s a technique? Artificial Heart Method? There are eight books? Is it like a rivalry or something? If they have the same owner, they will just merge the store, right?"
The young man fell silent. In the end, he opened one of the books and read it. "Let’s see. This is the Green Heart Method. By using this method, you will be able to increase your absorption rate, which will affect your affinity grade directly. What a bold claim..."
The young man put down his phone, but he hesitated for a few seconds before continuing. "And I’m falling for it!"
"This is a technique that is only useful for a person with a wind element with a rating of 3.4. Any other rating will make this technique unusable. Well, it’s definitely something I won’t use, but... No, wait..."
He closed the book and looked at the other books. He eventually stumbled upon one book.
"Great Ice Method. A technique that can only be used for an element with a rating of 4.5. This..." He hurriedly read the rest of the contents. "The explanation is rather convincing. This might be the solution... if it truly works as claimed..."
He rushed toward the door as the butler suddenly opened it. "Young Master, it’s been five minu—"
"Where is my sister right now?!"
The butler was confused. This was the first time he had seen him feeling such excitement from this lazy young master.
"I don’t mind telling you, but could you please dress yourself first, Young Master? What if the other servants are thinking you’re sexually assaulting the young lady? However, Master has told you not to bully the young lady too much."
"Huh?" He looked down and realized he had taken off his clothes, leaving him in only his boxers. "Kyaaa! Wait, how dare you make me scream like a girl! Stop staring at my dragon!"
"The nerve and audacity of calling that a dragon... Because you don’t even act like a playboy like your friends, the master is even thinking you are a girl, Young Master. But at least now I know you are interested in women."
"Wha—I don’t even know where to start refuting you! But that’s not important!" He slammed the door shut and hurriedly put on clothes before rushing back to the door. "Let’s go. I need to go to my sister first."
"I... understand." The butler was a bit taken aback by his enthusiasm. Although he didn’t know what was going on, he led him to the young lady who was practicing in the garden.
She was accompanied by her maid.
"Haaa!" The young lady had tied her blond hair on her back. Her sharp, light-blue eyes showed determination to never give up.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the towel hanging around her neck. She rolled up a drenched black t-shirt while adjusting her shorts as she prepared herself for the next round of training.
"Irine!"
"!!!" She raised her head and saw her older brother. In a way, she had been hating this older brother.
Despite possessing so much talent, he didn’t work too hard. If she had that talent, she would work as hard as she currently does and reach even greater heights than he ever could.
All he did was disrupt her practice.
She had been working hard because she was always compared to her brother. Today was no different.
The best way to handle him was to just accept whatever he threw at her and be done with it. As long as she finished it, she would have her free time back.
Even though she was tired, she regulated her breathing and politely greeted him. She might dislike him, but he was the hope of the family and the country.
Her father had specifically told her not to cause a mess that would stop him from getting stronger.
"Good evening, Brother." She politely bowed.
"Look at what I’ve found. This is a technique that will increase your affinity grade. To fulfill my role as a good big brother, I’ve bought it for you. I will send the key to unlock the content. Make sure to learn it in a week! I won’t tolerate it if you take any longer than that." He laughed.
Irine was dumbfounded. She was in her second year, but she barely managed to reach rank 2. It was true that she had a powerful element, but her affinity grade was B. This meant that she not only had to face the difficulty of finding materials that matched her element, but she absorbed less energy from each material, unlike her brother who possessed a powerful element but also S Grade affinity.
She didn’t want to use her precious time this way, but looking at how determined her brother was, he would annoy her to death if she failed.
Irine bit her lower lip, forcing herself to smile. "I understand, Brother. Thank you for your great love. Irine will definitely learn it."
"Very good. As expected of Irine, my good sister!" He laughed and sent the information to her number. "Work hard. Bye!"
"Young Master..." The old butler panicked. "This... I don’t know what kind of technique you’ve given to the young lady, but isn’t this too much? It’s a technique that hasn’t been proven. If the young lady were to suffer from this..."
"Don’t worry too much. I’m sure of it. If you keep saying things like this, I will become even lazier. And don’t tell Father about this. If you snitch, I’m really going to get angry."
"..." The old butler was speechless. He could only add in his mind, ’What did she do in her previous life to deserve suffering like this? To have a brother like him was a torture in itself.
’I still remember the reason the young lady refers to herself in the third person is because the young master saw someone call themselves like that and said he did it because he was the younger brother. Calling oneself by one’s name would make it look more intimate and cute, according to the tradition of his lineage.
’He decided to have the young lady act like that because he found it cute, and now the young lady has gotten used to it. The moment she tries to return to normal, she finds it awkward...’
The old butler shook his head helplessly. He couldn’t exactly say anything because it might hurt the young master’s motivation further.
He could only pray for the young lady to somehow leave this house in the future so she didn’t have to suffer like this anymore.
"Let’s go. I have to meet my father after this!" The young man shrugged and continued walking.
Little did they know, what the Moon Store offered was actually real. Even Irine wouldn’t expect that she would actually benefit from this ’torture.’