ART Of Survival - Chapter 9

“Don’t tell me you are here to sell it” her words were like swords that stabbed his soul.

“I….” Mal was still unable to process what was going on, it was as if, a person who hadn’t eaten pizza for years, suddenly gets presented with a large size pizza (Auth:- Yep pizza is my favorite, you can imagine your favorite food in place of pizza.)

“Nevermind, even if you are here to sell this, I won’t be able to buy it.” The girl said as her tone became sad.

“But why?” Mal questioned.

“Because I don’t have that much money on me currently.” She said with a wry smile on her face.

Hearing that, Mal felt his whole world crumble as dreams he had before fell apart. ‘I am done for’ Mal thought, as he aged 50 years at that instant. “OOK..Kay…th..then, Th..thankyou for apprais..sing this for me..” Mal said with a shaky voice. He turned around and left the shop.

The girl got stunned for some reason at the time all of that happened, the moment she came to her senses, she ran outside and screamed “Chotto Matte” (Auth:- ;)) “Please Wait!!!”

Mal stopped in his tracks after hearing the somewhat familiar cute voice. (Auth:- I am telling you this mc is a man of cul…I mean a lolicon, someone call the FBI :))

He saw a familiar figure at the distance waving her hands at him. He hesitated for a second, then started making his way back towards the Alchimia, the loli’s shop.

“What do you want from me?” Mal asked in a voice that was filled with sorrow and grief, his eyes were hazy from the crying session he just had 2 minutes ago.

“I…” The girl got stunned looking at his eyes and the change of attitude in his voice from before. *Cough* *Cough* she coughed a few times trying to ease up the awkward situation, then she continued- “My name is Natalia…” before she completed her sentence, Mal interrupted her by saying “Hello Natalia…I am nobody, and I have no powers, so you won’t get anything from me, I can give you my life if you want but, I won’t give you the herb.” Mal was still not right in his mind after the back to back shocks he got before, after speaking all of this he slipped own and sat on the ground as if saying that ‘You Can Do Whatever You Want With Me’

Natalia was having a headache, she was even contemplating her decision from before of stopping the guy and bringing him back into her shop. Looking at the dead-looking person in front of him, she took a deep breath and continued, “As I was saying my name is Natalia and I am the shop owner of Alchimia.” again, she was interrupted by Mal, “As I said, I am not going to give you my herb for free…” “You fuckin…..calm down Natalia” *Phew* *phew* Natalia was trying her best to not bash the guy’s head in the wall.

“I don’t want your herb, so can you please listen to me for one!!!” she shouted, making Mal look at her with his hazy hazel eyes, he had an expression of ‘As I would believe that’ on his face. “You can choose to whether believe me or not after I am done with what I am going to tell you.” This time not wasting any more time, she continued. “I want to sign a contract with you, that contact would be a pure contact between you and my shop. After that, I would be able to buy your herb and all other things you would like me to buy, other than you will be my shop’s VIP customer, that means you will be provided with special discounts and maybe if you are lucky you will able to win special rewards through the lucky draw system of our shop.” She paused and looked at Mal for a second then continued, “What you think? It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you. Don’t think much and sign the contract.”

After listening to her, Mal started to laugh maniacally, while laughing, he abruptly stopped and said in a chilly voice “Do you expect me to believe that? How can there be such a good contract in the world? And how do I know, that the contract would be legit, and weren’t you saying before that you didn’t have the money to buy the herb? Now you suddenly you the have money?”

“Wait! let me complete my offer first…the offer has one major setback for you that is, after signing the contract, you will get bonded with the shop that means, you won’t be able to buy and sell things from other shops, and we will sign the contract on the name of the ‘Mother Eye’ that will prohibit us from not breaching the contract or from cheating. What do you think? Isn’t the contract much more believable now?” Natalia stopped as she went behind the table and sat down on the chair with her legs on top of each other, with the expression of ‘I Win’ on her face.

Mal was in deep thought as he was trying to find loopholes in whatever she just spoke of so that he doesn’t get scammed again. “Is the contact for everyone who will be entering your shop?” After thinking for a good while, Mal asked a question that he was most troubled with.

After listening to Mal’s question, a smile as fresh as a flower bloomed on Natalia’s immature yet cute face. “No, as the contract is only for the person who will enter my shop first,” she said with a slight grin on her face.

“Doesn’t that mean you have not gotten a single customer for the past one and a half-year?” Mal was now more baffled after hearing what the girl just said.

“Yes, that’s true…” Natalia said with the same smile on her face.

“Doesn’t that mean your shop has nothing attractive for the hunters to buy?” Mal asked questioningly.

“Oh by attractive you mean the sluts that were in the shop that scammed you before?” Natalia asked as her smile grew wider and disdain flashed in her eyes.

“How?…how do you know that?” Mal gulped as he asked in a careful tone.

“I know everything that goes in this market, and about your previous question, it’s not that no one wants to buy something from my shop, it’s that no one is worthy enough to even look at my shop. It has been 5000 years and there only had been 5 people ever to set foot in my shop and out of those 5 only 1 was worthy enough to make me offer the contract that I am offering you.” Natalia said with a sad smile on her face. (Auth:- A legal Loli, I can see that smile on your face reader san 🙂 ]

“Five…five thousand years? That’s impossible! no human can live that long! Mal said and after speaking he himself realized that the answer to his question was in the question itself!

“You aren’t a human, am I right?” Mal asked

“Right! Quite an intelligent person aren’t you!” Natalia said as she jumped from her chair and once again came in front of Mal. “So, are you interested in the contract? Mister?”

“But why me?” Mal asked

“I don’t know? You entered the shop yourself, but after you left, I heard a voice telling me to stop you. It can be that you are worthy enough Who knows…” she said while shrugging her little shoulders.

“I am worthy?” Mal said as the chunni thoughts from before started to surface in his mind once again.

-End Of Chapter-