Money is Daddy

"So the original story really was all lies..."

Watching Erza's industrious back as she looted the corpse, Ul stared blankly, muttering words he'd already said countless times since arriving in this world.

Let's be clear!

In the original story, Erza was a maiden who strictly upheld a knight's sense of justice—looting a corpse was hardly fitting for her identity at all!

This kind of trivial matter could have easily been left to Ul!

Ul's heart was deeply disappointed.

But whether that disappointment was aimed at Erza's character or something else entirely was hard to say.

For now, though!

The most urgent thing Ul needed to do was loot Jeris's corpse himself.

Maybe because his experience was too lacking, Ul had momentarily forgotten the classic saying, "Kill, burn, and gold-belt gain." After defeating Jeris, he hadn't bothered to loot him at all.

That kind of behavior was hardly worthy of a proper cheater!

Jeris had very few belongings on him, and the most suspicious part was the backpack wrapped in his black cloak behind him...

While Erza was busy "looting the corpse,"

Ul quietly opened the backpack behind Jeris and peeked inside.

And just that one glance instantly made Ul's pupils contract, his heart nearly stopping. He hurriedly closed the backpack, took several deep breaths, and only gradually recovered from the shock.

Once calm, Ul's eyes began to flicker...

What was in Jeris's backpack wasn't anything else—it was a pile of gold coins. And judging by the quantity, these were exactly the proceeds Jeris had gained from the auction.

Jeris was clever.

He knew that converting the money from the auction into cash or using a stored-value card was risky either way.

So he simply chose to turn all that money into gold coins. This made them easy to carry, and their value wouldn't fluctuate too much.

What Ul was thinking about now was how to embezzle these gold coins in a reasonable way.

The guild wasn't a charity or some public welfare organization!

It was just a place for transactions.

You pay a certain price, and the guild handles a problem of that scale!

Among the tasks Ul had accepted, there was only the item for capturing the thief Jericho. So the reward for this task was just a few tens of thousands of J. If the task had also included "retrieve the gem," the reward would definitely have been far more than that.

Ul didn't know if the wealthy client who posted the task had done this deliberately or simply overlooked it!

But none of that mattered anymore.

Because Ul's eyes were now blinded by these gold coins. No matter what, he had to find a way to reasonably take them for himself.

Come to think of it!

This kind of thing really wasn't something a "righteous Mage" should do. But Ul had never claimed to be a "righteous Mage" in the first place!

Because compared to the other Mages of Fairy Tail, Ul was more like an ordinary Mage from an ordinary guild—only recognizing tasks and money, not people.

"System, can these gold coins be used to top up?"

After discovering the gold coins, Ul quickly called out to the system in his mind.

Ding-dong!

[Reply to Daddy Host: Using gold coins to top up is perfectly fine! And if you use gold coins to top up, there are plenty of other benefits too!]

Although the system couldn't speak, from the words displayed on the system panel, Ul could clearly sense the flattery and sycophancy.

As expected!

Money makes you daddy!

"Good, then help me top up with these gold coins first. We'll talk about the rest later."

[Sure thing!]

Two words quickly appeared on the system panel, and then the system busily scurried off to work.

Before long!

A crisp sound rang out.

A few lines of text appeared on the system panel.

[Congratulations, Host! Successfully topped up one hundred and twenty gold coins. Would you like to...]

"No!"

Before the system's text had fully appeared, Ul cut it off directly.

Recharging all these gold coins was a helpless move.

After all, a hundred and twenty gold coins wasn't much to speak of, but it certainly wasn't a small amount either.

But carrying that many gold coins around in a place like this—Ul absolutely didn't have the guts for that yet.

Not to mention anything else!

Just looking at Erza right now—if she discovered the gold coins on Jeris, a little bit of pressing and she'd definitely hand them all over to the guild or return them to the original owner.

Who could blame the fact that "Fairy Tail" had way too many goody-two-shoes.

When it came down to it, Ul wouldn't even have a chance to resist.

Erza's current strength, though not yet as formidable as when the story began, was still far beyond what Ul could contend with.

After all, this woman's talent had already surpassed S-class aptitude, reaching the level of "self-awakening."

A freak with this kind of "self-awakening" magic—their speed in training magic was far, far too fast compared to others.

And this woman adhered to the knight's spirit; though she could be pretty cute sometimes, her mind was basically a straight line—stubborn and serious, with absolutely no tact in her actions...

emmmm!

And she didn't hold back when she struck, with no idea what it meant to show mercy!

"By the way, Ul, why did you kill all these people?"

Just as Ul finished recharging the gold coins, he saw Erza finish "looting the corpses" and slowly walk over toward him, a hint of interrogation in her eyes.

"Nothing much. These Black Mages were a menace anyway. I figured it was better to kill them all."

Although this was just a makeshift excuse Ul came up with on the spot, his words weren't exactly wrong—after all, the attitude of other mages on the continent toward Black Mages was: better to kill the wrong one than let one go!

After hearing Ul's words, Erza stared at him for a long time before finally letting out a faint sigh. "Since your mission is done, you should leave here quickly. This place is too dangerous for you."

"Uh... okay!"

Ul nodded. Though this seemed to conflict with his plans again, he didn't refuse.

But just as Ul turned to leave, he heard Erza speak again, her back to him, her gaze complicated. "Ul, I don't know what you've been through, but... I hope you won't let hatred and killing blind your eyes and lose yourself!"

Ul: "?????"