WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

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◈ I Became a Genius Engineer That Mega Corporations Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 34

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As I Was Saying

"Why don't you invest in me?"

Even after I finished, Rayden said nothing for a long while.

Those snake eyes ran over me from head to toe, like someone checking what an item was worth.

It was a different kind of gaze from any of the bigshots I'd met so far.

Old Man Gordon's had been the look of someone weighing how useful I was, and Valeria's the violent stare of an absolute ruler pressing down on me. Rayden's was, how to put it... the feeling of someone appraising the value of me as a person.

I stood still and took it.

Just like when I'd endured Valeria's killing intent.

In front of bigshots, you never looked away first or tucked your tail.

How much time passed?

"You."

Rayden finally opened his mouth.

"What do I look like to you? What kind of man?"

"A merchant."

"That's right. A merchant."

Rayden tapped the core on the shelf.

"A merchant's job is selling goods at a fair price. Putting up capital for someone else is what the back-alley financiers do. You're asking me to change my line of business."

"..."

"Do you know what an investment is? If I sell this thing, I walk away clean with five million credits, on my own strength. But the moment I invest in you, the fate of my five million rests entirely on your ability. If you drop dead in the gutter tomorrow, my money goes down the sewer with you."

Rayden grinned.

"Why should I? For some broke small-time operator from District 4 I met today? I lose not one credit if I sit here and sell at the fair price. So why would I bet my precious asset on your hands?"

Cold sweat ran down my spine at his words.

I couldn't even answer right away.

Because first of all, there wasn't one thing wrong with what he'd said.

A moment ago, I had been the one to refuse any connection with Old Man Gordon.

Which made me nothing but an ordinary engineer who paid rent and ran a garage in District 4 of Ground Zero. A penniless engineer with no assets and no collateral.

Against Rayden's flawless merchant logic, I felt my composure start to slip away for a second before coming back.

Dangerous. I was standing in front of a bigshot on the level of someone who represented this district's whole market.

'Okay. Get it together. You can do this.'

I took a deep breath and started studying the Patron.

Going by the conversation so far, Rayden seemed to hold fast to the mindset of a thoroughgoing merchant.

But... I quickly ran back through everything the Patron and I had said earlier, and the situation around it.

If the Patron really were a merchant who wouldn't tolerate a loss of even one credit, this android core should never have been in this shop.

It was already a sold item, wasn't it? Bug or no bug, he could simply have refused the refund.

Yet the Patron had taken it back all three times and gone out of his way to set the core on display again.

Odds were that this man wasn't working as a merchant just to sell goods.

Once my thoughts got that far, I also recalled that a bigshot of this caliber had been hiding in a small shop like this, selling goods. Even more, he'd done it with a prosthetic hiding his real face.

If making real money had been the goal, he wouldn't have gathered his goods in a tiny shop and waited for customers.

Good goods like these would sell like hotcakes the moment the Patron put his own name behind them and announced what they were for.

Which meant the Patron was running this shop for some purpose other than money. As the puzzle clicked perfectly into place, my held breath came free and a smile spread naturally across my lips.

"Patron. Just one question."

"Hm? What is it?"

"A merchant who can't take a loss of even one credit. Why did you accept refunds on this one item, three times over?"

Instantly, the shop went completely silent. Rita, pressed up close behind me, flinched and held her breath. I could feel every bit of it.

Rayden said nothing either, his snake eyes still fixed on me.

As if telling me to keep talking, see where it got me.

But I didn't back down. I met that gaze head-on.

"You didn't want this thing sold, did you? To be exact, you didn't want something like this thrown away or ruined in the hands of people who don't know its worth. So..."

One of Rayden's eyebrows twitched slightly. I rested my hand on the android core.

"I'll use it, since I know its worth. How does that sound?"

"...Ha."

A short breath, almost a sigh, escaped Rayden's mouth.

For a while, Rayden said nothing at all.

His eyes just stayed on my hand resting on the core.

How much time passed?

Slowly he raised his head, and those snake eyes turned to me.

Neither a grand merchant's calculation nor a ruler's arrogance was left in them. Only pure admiration remained.

"You. Did you pick all that out just from what I told you?"

"...Not exactly. There were a number of factors, and a bit of luck helped."

"Remarkable. I nearly thought you'd looked straight into my heart. Enough that I wondered whether cyber gear or magic like that might exist. Well then, bring that along and follow me."

At that, I lifted Zino's core and started after Rayden.

The place Rayden led me was a door at the back of the shop.

From outside I'd taken it for an ordinary storeroom door, but a short corridor ran on the other side.

Just before following him in, I turned my head without thinking.

A corner of the shop.

Someone stood in the dark corner.

A person in a heavy black combat suit, wearing a smooth mask with no markings on its face.

Even without sizing up the prosthetics, the presence alone told me this was a tremendous powerhouse.

How to put it. Like standing in front of a tiger?

Even though the mask made it hard to read their gaze, somehow I could tell that he was staring right at me.

'Is that the one they call Nachal?'

Either way, he seemed to be the bodyguard in charge of Rayden's safety, so I deliberately raised both hands as if stretching and showed off my bone-thin arms.

See? I'm fucking weak.

Feeling Nachal's gaze on me, I followed Rayden.

We arrived at a room neatly decorated in an Eastern style.

Most of Ground Zero was done up in the Western style, so it had been a really long time since I'd been in a room like this.

"Come, sit. Make yourselves comfortable."

Rayden sat down cross-legged on a cushion as if it were nothing.

I sat cross-legged just as easily, facing Rayden.

"Mmm..."

Only Rita, who seemed to be going through this for the first time, was having some trouble getting seated.

"Oho. You seem rather used to sitting this way?"

"Ah. Well. I've sat like this a bit when I was little."

Glug. Glug.

Green tea filled the cups set in front of Rita and me.

"Now, have a cup each."

I raised the cup to my face. The fragrant smell of tea leaves filled my nose.

After so long without a proper cup of tea, I felt my mind settle a little.

"Wow. It's been forever since I had green tea like this. My whole body's going soft."

Rita seemed to be enjoying the tea completely too.

After we'd savored it for a while, Rayden spoke.

"Well then. Let's get to business first."

At that, I shifted my posture a little.

"That item was actually given to me by an old friend. The bastard worked at Nova Mechanics."

"An item from your friend... so it has deep ties."

Even as I answered, part of me felt uneasy. Items with that kind of history usually come with some hardship attached.

"A few years ago, he came to me with that thing in his hand. Not to sell it, but to leave it with me. What was it he said."

Slurp.

Rayden took a sip of tea and continued.

"Don't sell it. Pass it on to someone who knows its worth and will treasure it, he told me."

Rayden set down his cup.

"And the next day he was found dead. I waited quite a long time for people who'd buy it, but most of the ones who took it away didn't understand its real value. So I got every one of them back."

That got my ears perking up, I couldn't help it.

The unease I'd felt earlier scattered completely at those words.

What? The original owner said in a dying wish not to sell it? Then wouldn't it come to me for free?

"I can tell what you're thinking right now, but once something has come into my hands, giving it away to anyone for nothing is not in my dictionary."

"...Isn't it you, Patron, who's using a mind-reading spell?"

Patron Rayden waved a hand and gave a hearty laugh at my words.

"This guy has no talent for being funny, yet he's got a gift for pleasing people. Keeps making me laugh."

"Oh my. Now that you say it, he really does."

"...I'll take that as a compliment."

After a little while of that, Rayden said,

"Just as my friend took no money from me, I won't take any from you. You're the first customer to know exactly what this item is worth."

"...Huh? But a moment ago you said you never give anything away..."

"There's a condition, though."

"What is it?"

"Since you know its worth, handle it with care. I believe it holds that much potential. And as for my investment, someday I'd like you to show me how you've been using this android."

"..."

"That's my condition for investing. And... it's also a way of keeping my friend's last wish."

Hearing that, I held the android core close and tight against my chest.

"Of course. I don't handle what's come into my hands carelessly."

"Heh heh. Anything coming out of your mouth sounds plausible. Yes. An engineer ought to be that way. Absolutely."

Seeing Rayden regard me so favorably, I wondered whether I should push one step further.

I'd just made up my mind to go for the peak anyway.

"Thank you for seeing it. So, as I was saying..."

"Hm?"

"Um... I happen to need a heart core drive, so... could I get a little more investment?"

Rayden's eyes went round at that, and in the end he burst out laughing once more.

"You're a complete lunatic. Hahahaha!"

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