The Author's POV

"Thank you for your purchase, your order will be delivered to you in a week's time"

Coldly looking at me, Richard handed me a receipt and proceeded to ignore me. Rolling my eyes at his obvious display of jealousy I headed back towards the sofas.

Honestly, though annoying, Richard's behavior was quite amusing. Although he acted like a typical arrogant young master, he wasn't looking down on me nor saying things like 'how dare you touch my Amanda! you're courting death!'

It was sort of refreshing...I guess he was just a very frank person.

Either way, once again sitting on the sofa as a light sigh escaped from my mouth, I looked at the receipt in my hand and fell into deep thought.

20,000,000 U

I spent a total of 20,000,000 U on a sword today...

That was just about all of the money I had saved up excluding the budget for the mercenary group which was pretty much off-limits.

...I was now once again poor.

Still, I didn't regret my decision.

If this decision proved instrumental in keeping myself safer in the future, then it was a worthy investment.

After all, my life was more important than money.

Plus, I could very well make the money back in the future. Especially so since I now had a clear direction with regards to earning money.

"Ah!"

Suddenly recalling something I smacked my fist on the palm of my hand.

'Right, I guess now that Amanda is with me I may as well bring the topic of the company project to her'

...I had originally planned on doing this a long time ago, but since I didn't have a concrete product at the time, I didn't do it. However, now that a bit of time had passed since I gave the outline of the project to Melissa, the initial phases of the product were now completed.

From what Melissa showed me, it was now presentable for investments.

Thinking along those lines, my eyes quickly drifted towards the sofa next to me where Amanda was sitting. However just as I was about to bring the topic up, I stopped myself as what I saw and heard made me speechless.

With his elbow on the handrail of the stairs, leaning backward, Richard stared at Amanda who was sitting on the sofa next to me and casually said

"...So, Amanda how long has it been since we've last seen each other?"

Ignoring Richard as she looked through the tablet, Amanda bluntly said

"I forgot"

Not minding Amanda's cold tone, Richard chuckled.

"hehe, but I didn't forget, it's been a total of one month and three days since I've last seen you. Not once did I forget the moment you walked through the door and stole my heart, ever since that day I've bee..."

Completely unfazed by Richard's long love confession, pointing towards the screen of the tablet, Amanda said

"I want to purchase this and this"

Seeing Amanda point towards the tablet, taking his elbow off of the handrail of the stairs, Richard enthusiastically moved to where she was and said

"Oh, you're buying this one? A very wise choice.."

Watching Richard continuously try to flirt with Amanda, I was left speechless.

What sort of failed attempt at flirting was this?

Wasn't Amanda making it obvious that she wasn't interested? Even I who was terrible at dealing with girls could see this.

Facepalming as I cringed at Richard from where I was sitting, I thought to myself.

'...this guy is a total simp'

In the end, much to Richard's disappointment Amanda only spoke a few words to him as she placed her orders down. Regardless of how much Richard tried to shift the conversation, Amanda would just coldly ignore him.

After purchasing everything that she wanted, much to Richard's distraught, Amanda stood up and looked at me.

"Let's go"

"Alright"

I stood up and followed Amanda out of the worn-down apartment. According to what I've been told, our orders would be automatically delivered to our dorms in a couple of days thus after we placed the orders

Thereafter looking at me for a couple of seconds, he

for your patronage, I hope

sentence, shaking my head, I followed Amanda

How petty.

the building was the same old man with a hunch

the lad, thank you for the patronage,

her head towards the old man, Amanda left the building. Following Amanda's example, I too thanked

"mhm"

"Yes, thank you"

-Clank!

as the large metal door behind us closed, we soon found ourselves back outside the streets. Turning

there is something I want to

tilted her

"Something to talk about?"

you have

of seconds, Amanda eventually

"Yes, I do"

was her day off she naturally had

the black cat resting on my shoulder, Amanda bit her

she tried to hide it from everyone, Amanda had a weak spot for animals...and after seeing Ren's cat, Amanda couldn't stop herself from wanting to pet it.

didn't want to get slapped like

glancing towards

somewhere else. This isn't really the

her thoughts, Amanda nodded her

"Okay"

just as we were about to move, recalling something, I

that is secluded? Like where

the side, a confused look appeared on Amanda's face as

"why?"

on

...why?

even aware of

*Sigh*

a sigh escaped from my mouth, I made up

I don't

a bit of thought, Amanda eventually nodded her head and turned right to one of

"Okay"

would've immediately refused such a proposition as she wasn't comfortable with going to secluded spaces alone

she wasn't repulsed by

this was probably the first time in her life that she felt this way...was it perhaps because

...Amanda didn't know.

her feelings weren't that of love, at

Amanda's thoughts about me, I smiled

"Great, lead the way"

Amanda decided to go

"Follow me"

Amanda around, after walking out of the alleys and heading towards the main street, we walked for a couple of minutes before soon arriving at a rather secluded

small shop that looked quite modern and had a transparent retractable door at the entrance of the store, glancing at Amanda

"Is that the place?"

place, Amanda headed towards

"Yes"

made our way through the transparent glass door of the cafe', a blanket of warm air brushed past my skin warming my body immediatly. Subsequently, the rich aroma

it, were different types of

"Welcome"

at the register was a moderately beautiful young girl. Greeting the young girl back, Amanda and I

I took an espresso, we soon found a table in the corner of

-Squek! -Squek!

shop, the aged wooden floor creaked beneath our feet creating a subtle squeaking sound. Ignoring this, arriving at the table, I made myself comfortable and sat on a bulky wooden chair that

sip of her coffee and looked at me. After a short pause, she

what did you want to talk

phone, and turning on the holographic

have a look

to send me a video of the current progress of her research..and the video I was currently going to show Amanda

image before her,