Chapter 40: One sly system caught.

Zyra almost laughed when Beauty wilted, dramatically fainting. [...What?]

"I didn’t say yes. I realized I was about to be tricked by you, so I changed my answer. You jumped the gun."

Beauty’s virtual body rose again, back to its size. The two fangs of the little system snake had grown longer. [Impossible. My sensors detected a 90% probability of agreement. That’s basically a yes.]

She replied flatly, "Probability isn’t consent."

[Don’t get technical with me.] Beauty snapped.

Zyra scrolled through the shop, eyes widening. "Hold on. This shop should have been open all along. You hid it from me." The date of operation was right there, showing the first purchase of healing serum she got from the system.

[Nonsense, I was.... protecting you. Yes, I was protecting you from relying on external things as your source of strength and reckless spending. Look at your debt already, it is beyond the milky way. You humans can’t resist shiny things and this shop is full of them.]

Zyra sneered "You were scheming for points, squeezing more out of me than needed."

[That’s slander, Host.]

And yet Zyra could see it for herself, that the cost of things was not as high as Beauty had been charging her. The healing serum was a basic on, only costing 2 points. The candle was also a basic item, costing 1 point. The system had been swindling from her!

The system began to fume, its voice vibrating with static. [I was not stealing; I was saving your points for a rainy day. Do you realize what you have done? You tricked me into opening the shop without bonding! That’s against protocol! Against....my dignity!]

"Poor you, how much does it cost? Do you need me to buy you some dignity from the shop?" She replied.

Zyra was engrossed in her conversation with the system, meanwhile, the Magistrate was calling her name, waving his hand before her. "Miss Scorpion...are you signing or not?"

Her bizarre behavior made Hunter narrow his eyes. He didn’t know what was going on with her, but he knew one thing, he didn’t want this unpredictable woman changing her mind at the last second. He rushed back, grabbed the official marriage certificate, snatched the pen, and slapped his signature down on the groom’s line.

He shoved the pen into Zyra’s hand. "Sign."

Zyra’s attention returned, she violently scribbled her name on the bride’s line.

The magistrate didn’t even wait for them to breathe. He stamped the document with a loud thud, stood up, and grabbed his briefcase. "By the power vested in me, I pronounce you husband and wife. Goodbye!"

The poor man hurried out of the office so fast his shoes practically smoked. He had met delusional, weird couples in his career, but this specific pair was on a whole different level of psychological trauma.

The heavy door slammed shut.

Zyra felt like her chest was burning with glee. She marched over to the table, picked up the opened bottle of expensive wine, and began to gulp its contents straight from the bottle like a starved rogue.

"Very not so Soul maiden like." Achilles murmured

She pulled the bottle away from her lips and let out a sharp, angry hiss, her eyes watering from the alcohol.

Achilles walked over to Hunter, leaning in close to whisper in his ear. "Hmm... your new wife looks like she is deeply regretting her life choices already. Look at her chugging the wine."

Hunter watched Zyra’s flushed face, a look of pure, unbothered satisfaction in his eyes. "I, on the other hand, have never been happier."

Achilles’ tone shifted, turning crisp and professional. "What about the fight tonight? The lady made it quite clear that there won’t be a honeymoon."

A low, amused laugh escaped Hunter’s lips. "My intention was never to take her to bed, Achilles. She has much bigger roles to play in this layout. Cancel the fights. After all,... I’m my wife’s bodyguard, remember? She handles my schedule from now on."

Achilles nearly fainted!

As for Zyra, inside her own mind, a massive war was still raging.

[Warning: Host is not allowed to mock the dignity of the system.]

Zyra chuckled. "You deserve it. Anyway, what’s done is done. The shop is open and I will buy every shiny thing I see and like as soon as I earn enough points. And I need to see your loaning policies because I have a feeling you have been twitching the interest rates." She had been naive enough to think that a system from a highly advanced world would have ethics. As it turns out, crooks came from everywhere. "Why aren’t the mystery eggs labeled, by the way?"

[Because the egg could hatch into a dragon or breakfast. Eggs are like a blind box. You don’t know what you are getting.]

Knowing this, Zyra changed her mind on buying them randomly. They were expensive, the cheapest costing 1000 points. If she purchased one and it turned out to be an ordinary breakfast egg, wouldn’t that be a loss?

"Do you sell any technology?" She asked curiously.

[Of course. As long as it helps your beasts, this system can acquire it.]

Zyra smiled slyly. It looked like she would do some conning of her own. She set the expensive wine bottle down on the table with a hard thud and stood up, smoothing down her clothes.

Hunter walked closer, his tall frame instantly blocking out the light from the window. "Are we leaving already dear wife?"

Zyra looked up at him, her expression serious. "Call me Zyra....just Zyra. And yes. I cannot stay in congested places like this. Anyone could recognize my face, report me to the guilds, and then we will have a horde of greedy bounty hunters on our tails. It is better to move now."

Achilles leaned against his desk, crossing his arms. He looked at Zyra with genuine curiosity. "So, what is your first move? Are you planning to go straight to the capital to rescue your brother first?"

"The capital?" Zyra froze mid-step. Her head snapped toward Achilles, her eyes widening. "Ian is in the capital?"

Hunter and Achilles exchanged a quick look and nodded together.

A memory from her past life flashed through her mind. Even back then, Ian had been invited to the capital. He had gained admission to a prestigious academy, and that was exactly how he managed to woo a Soul maiden or catch the attention of one. She wondered what he had given in exchange for what he got. Academies were not cheap in the capital.

Achilles straightened up, his tone becoming serious as he laid out the facts. "After you run away from home, everything turned upside down."

Hunter chimed in, his deep voice calm and steady. "Your other relatives are all being held under heavy guard at the Nutchinson Fortress. If your plan is to rescue your brother from the capital, we cannot just barge in. We need to come up with a very tight plan. A reckless ambush will only get you caught, or worse, killed. You say the word, do we go for him now or later?"