---
title: "Chapter V - Being Friendly · Vol 1 - Failed Experiment"
url: https://deovandski.github.io/HusbandOutWorld/novel/vol-1/chapter-5/
section: Light Novel
spoilers: public layer first, Behind The Scenes after
sources: [Legacy/Behind The Scenes/Light Novel/Arc #1 - Dubious Contract/Vol 1 - Failed Experiment.md]
---

<!-- PUBLIC LAYER: as published for readers -->

# Chapter V - Being Friendly

*Vol 1 - Failed Experiment*


## 1

![Subchapter illustration](Vol1/5_1.png)

“Convince him—” With her chin up, and an absolute tone, Neferteri’s usual elegance seemed to vanish in place of an autocrat-looking queen, handing out a bucket with a rolled contract, nari gels, towel, and utensils.

“Ehh—why? Sora said she was gonna do it\!” Eiri’s hand reached out to the bucket on its own, grasping its thin handle, just as Neferteri’s hand released the weight of it into hers. Her wide mouth kept open, peeking into the contents of the bucket. “But why do you want me to do it? I’m being impartial\!”

Neferteri closed her eyes for a few seconds, releasing a slow breath. Opening her eyes, she stared down Eiri with the same intensity as if she was aiming at her with a rifle. “Impartiality? —you’re really no different than Coema.”

“What does my mother have to do with it?” Eiri furrowed her brow, still holding the bucket mid-air, apparently forgetting she was carrying it.

“Everything—for I dealt with her meddling as king-maid for nearly as long as you’ve existed in this world. I know what you are capable of, and I am here to curb those flaws of your genes for the sake of our kingdom,” Neferteri spoke clearly, and firmly.

Eiri brought the bucket close to her chest, and hugged it with both hands. Blinking faster than normal, she replied. “What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything\!”

“If that is indeed the case, then please—entertain me in explaining why he looked up to you for answers.” Neferteri’s head slightly bent to the side, holding her hands in front of her, seeking for an answer that she already knew.

“Ahh—*hmmm*—I dunno. I just talked to him early today.” Eiri quickly replied, glancing around the office for an answer or two. She saw the bookshelves in the middle of the room, looking like they were specifically intended to triage documents. The bookshelves on her right looked more like they contained bins of documents had been dumped on them, while the ones on her left looked progressively more organized. On the left wall, there was a large steel door that looked like a bank’s safe. “I told him to read books, and stuff like that. What’s the big deal?” Surrounding the walls, there were mannequins displaying previous Sanbi kingdom maid uniforms, with progressively aging paintings of previous king-maids matching above them. She looked at the one closest to her, a king-maid outfit that resembled her own image, with a similar haircut and single white flower in her head—kinda had a vibe of chanteuse, one that you see sexily singing on top of a piano in a random VHS cop drama nightclub scene. The painting showed a more bodacious, revealing version of Eiri’s uniform on the shoulders and breasts. Looking back at Neferteri with a slight grin, she seemed to feel the soul of the painting being infused into her. “—or maybe he thought I was hot?—I am just like my mother after all\!”

Neferteri glanced over at the same painting with ire coursing in her eyes, and a slightly wrinkled forehead, “Indeed you are—then make good use of your so-called charm and make him sign it. If you need any incentives, then be aware that Kibe does listen to the voice of reason.” Still standing close to Eiri, invading her personal space, Neferteri looked like a vicious cat, entrapping a mouse in the corner, ready to enjoy tearing it limb by limb.

Coema’s charm, or rather Eiri’s attempt at mimicking her mother’s charm, suddenly evaporated as flashbacks of previous meetings came to her. In the latest meeting she was outvoted three-to-one on nearly all votes, specifically how quickly Kibe only took a vote after Neferteri’s, barely making a peep about his own opinion—even less than usual given his personality. She then remembered that when Gabiro was the courtroom scientist, the dynamics were clearly different—more chaotic, sure, but the certainty of who would win in an argument was far less certain. Her memories were now filled with instances where she raised her voice, and Gabiro, sometimes even Itagiba sided with her. Feeling a chill run down her spine, she took a step back, resting her lower back on the edge of a large table by the window, and held her bucket with a firmer grip. “What do you even want from me?”

“Fairly simple. Procure a way for him to sign, and avoid indulging in your mother’s tendencies. Commit to those, and we shall be more prosperous than any other kingdoms. Otherwise, you should look forward to an early retirement.” Neferteri began walking away, turning back slightly, “Ensure you have enough blood for the badges as our contact will be waiting by the castle door at Monnolow.”

Eiri, seeing Neferteri walk through the packed bookshelves towards the door, felt a grip on her heart. She swallowed her words at first, but then they came out raw, “But why do you want him specifically? It’s not even what Maiara wanted\! Just—just let the poor thing go\! He didn’t have a choice\! Can’t you see he knows nothing?” Eiri slowly raised her voice at the queen of Sanbi. “That’s not fair to him\!”

Neferteri stopped, but did not turn back. She held her hands at the door, but did not open them. “Gabiro enhanced him.”

*Enhanced?* Eiri felt an eerie vibe.

Neferteri continued speaking with her back turned to Eiri, “We shall not let Gabiro’s passing be in vain. He is supposed to have some sort of quality useful for this great kingdom of ours. Perhaps it is just hidden under the surface, and we might see it shine tomorrow—” Neferteri opened the door “—or during his time as Sanbi-eye.”

“So we’re ignoring the fact that Gabiro messed with his soul?” Eiri shouted slightly higher, using the last ounce of will she had.

The door softly closed, with Neferteri not saying a word.

Letting a long breath, Eiri relaxed her shoulders. “Didn’t even knock on my office—” Eiri, now alone in her office, sat on a visitor chair by the table and put the bucket in her lap, holding it like an infant. Eiri began imitating Neferteri’s voice, but added a shrewish spin to it, including curled up lips, “The procedure the courtroom scientist decides to perform our monarchy department’s—shit—does not—does not concern me. Argh.” Eiri let out another sigh, taking off her blue cap and throwing it on top of the nearby table, sharing space with something akin to an abacus, feathers, inks, seals, and piles of neatly organized papers.

Eiri, looking back at her mother’s painting, remembered when she was a girl, coming home from playing with her friends after fundamental school, and would see Coema at the dinner table by herself downing beer, wine, spirits, or a combo of it all in a given day, nearly passing out as she basically only talked about Neferteri, and what she did to *pay back that bitch* as she would eloquently often say as Eiri went to the kitchen to start cooking dinner. “No wonder you kept on talking so much about her—so what do I do now?”

The painting of her mother appeared to stare back with a smirk, as if taunting her. “Don’t look at me like that\! I can’t just start doing whatever I feel like\! You had Gabiro on your side\!—these maids depend on me\! Can’t you imagine how terrified Sora would be of Neferteri?”

Eiri let a long breath through her nose, clenching her teeth as she remembered Neferteri’s checkmate expression, as her elegant smile and soft expression complemented her chin-up attitude. “Fine\! Have it your way, but I’m gonna make sure Harry has everything he needs. There you go, you happy now?” Eiri looked back at Coema’s painting on the wall, but no response came back from it.

“I miss you.” Eiri recalled her and all the other maids giving her goodbyes at the port to Coema, as she sailed away in a large boat to Newland.

Tears formed in her eyes, vividly picturing that day as if it had just happened.

## 2

![Subchapter illustration](Vol1/5_2.png)

“Sorry about dinner—it’s just—” Eiri, with slightly dull eyes, and weaker smile, stood by Harry, holding the bucket Neferteri had given her—“It’s just that I wanted you to make a decision for yourself.” The room had a background noise coming from the fost lamp steaming, showering the room in a while light.

Seated at the corner of the bed, as if he was waiting at the lobby of a doctor’s office, Harry looked back at Eiri, nodding before returning his gaze to the ground in front of him. “But—I don’t know what to do.”

With a short sigh, Eiri lowered her gaze as well, and noticed something reddish in the bucket she was holding. With a renewed smile, she stuck her hand into it, and took out an oval-shaped glass with a large corkscrew on top. The corkscrew had *Fake Eye* written on it in dark red ink. The contents, meanwhile, were rather macabre: a blood-red liquid with jelly-like consistency, filled with suspended grains of what appeared to be sand, plus the crème de la crème of it all, four blue human eyeballs slightly squeezing one another into the sides of the glass, each staring in a random direction. With such an appetite-inducing thing in her hand, she brought it closer to Harry. “Hey—can we start by fixing your vision?”

With curling lips and blanching face, Harry looked like he made deep eye contact with one of the eyeballs—like he was being stared at by a lone drunk obese girl at the last call of a bar.

Bursting into a tense, yet mischievous short chuckle, Eiri thoroughly enjoyed Harry’s pure revulsion at what she had to offer, even taking an extra step to shove it towards his face. “What?”

Harry immediately evacuated towards the other end of the bed, looking back at Eiri’s grin with a suspicious gaze, and tensed up posture, with hands ready to slap it away from his mouth. He groaned, then held back a gag as if he was on the brink of puking.

Eiri placed the bucket on the ground, then cutely held the back of her skirt as she sat down. With the macabre artifact in her hands, she uncorked it, making a nice pop sound. “What are you afraid of?” Eiri again brought it up closer to Harry, “It’s just fake eye nari gel\! It doesn’t even taste that bad. C’mon\!”

Sitting away from her, Harry forced a groan as his body refused to come closer. The slightly vinegary and salty scent of the nari gel exuding from the open bottle probably didn’t help matters either.

“Don’t you want good vision?” Eiri’s tone did not sound as amused as before, scooching halfway closer to Harry, getting the nari gel about an arm’s length from his mouth.

Exchanging gaze with the eyeballs immersed in the liquid, Harry looked like a skittish animal, waiting to be executed on the spot. His hands were still prepared to slap the macabre thing away, but they seemed to become less defensive as Eiri kept pushing it.

“You’re gonna love it when it is all said and done. Just be a man, and swallow it whole. Just one large gulp to be done with it.” Eiri scooched even closer to Harry, offering the nari gel right in front of him. “You can do it. You will thank me later.”

Gulping, Harry shook his head, holding back another gag as he stared at the nari gel.

*I guess he has never seen that before.* Eiri’s smile waned; she cradled the fake eye nari gel with both hands in her lap. “These gels are an interface to use the soul energy within us. How exactly? I have no idea, but if you swallow it, your eyeballs will be replaced with these ones—they are just like the blue of your eyes, so you can thank Eori for going the extra largeadi.”

“Interface?” Harry still had a blanching face, but his furrowed brow and curious eyes no longer looked so averse at looking at the jellied eyeballs.

“Eh—basically a way you interact with soul energy—like Sora\! The Darfaries veins on her arms. That’s another interface.” Eiri pointed to the skin of her arm, but she did not have the same red veins—or nerves to be technical about it. “There are many ways—I personally love watching trunk people glean their show of flames. It’s beautiful.”

“Is that really the best way to fix my sight?” With a thin lip, Harry sounded rather begging for an answer—a specific one.

“I can tell you it is the most economically viable one.” Eiri grinned, thinking of how much the bottle cost as she imagined passing by a Sanbi market stall with quite a few nari gels on display. “I’d say on the Sanbi market you can buy that for one amethyst and twenty pearls.”

Letting out a grunt, Harry slowly picked up the nari gel from Eiri’s gloved hands. “One amethyst and twenty pearls?” He brought it up close to his blurry eyes, likely noticing a slightly translucent grainy suspension mixed in with the gel. Not exactly the most palatable thing ever, but the cold touch of the glass probably didn’t help either—or did help since a warm glass would suggest a fresh batch, and that was clearly a human eyeball that had to come out of a possibly nearby human.

“Maybe more if it was from a famous person, but that’s more of a Forway thing—definitely from someone born with supernatural eyesight. That could cost another amethyst. For sure.” Taking out a picker from the bucket, Eiri handed it towards Harry “Use this to swallow one eyeball at a time—and please don’t drop it on the sheets.”

Following suit, Harry took the fork end of the picker, and with shaking hands, prepared himself to stab the blue eye in the jar.

“No—use the other end. You need some of the jelly too. Like this—” Eiri switched sides of the picker in Harry’s hand, and then held his hand to correctly spoon the nari gel. “Just take it out slowly.”

Harry did as told, and carefully took out the spoon from the glass, bringing out a hearty amount of the coagulated jelly, with the eyeball perfectly in the middle—looking like a true *hors d'oeuvres.* His hands slightly trembling caused the jelly to wave around, making it extra appetizing as he crossed sights with the iris of the lone eyeball, moving back and forth as well. With a visible gag, Harry clenched his jaw tightly shut, holding back something—possibly the late afternoon snack and dinner he recently had.

“I’m not forcing you to do it, but this will help you tomorrow, and after\!” With a cheery voice, Eiri sounded as honest as she could be. “Just do it quickly\!”

Gulping again, Harry brought the spoon towards his not-so-enthusiastic wide mouth, and popped the eyeball in like a large pill. A loud gag immediately came out of him, belching forward, but somehow stopping himself in the last second from actually emptying his mouth. Next, a small tear came from his tightly shut eyes.

“Quick\! This is not a tasting event\! Just swallow it\!” Eiri placed her hand on Harry’s bent forward upper back, rubbing her yellow gloves back and forth on Harry’s back, where a yellow and blue refined, stretched-to-the-limit dress shirt hid his hairiness. “There\! You know, actually, some people don’t mind the salty taste.” She loudly chuckled, picturing the bustling end of some personal adventurers she had had with members of the opposite sex.

Nearly choking in the process, Harry managed to swallow the eyeball, making his throat bulge as it rolled down his esophagus. He massaged his chest, probably feeling the eyeball slowly travel to his stomach.

Eiri, with a proud tone, stated, “Do the next one real quick\!” She slowly tapped Harry in the back. “You will make it easier to feel both of your eyes change at the same time\!”

Harry hesitated at first, but with a deep breath that felt like a battle cry, he angrily shoved the spoon inside the nari gel, took another *hors d'oeuvres,* closed his eyes, and shoved it down his mouth in a sudden jerk motion. Immediately letting out another gag mixed with a groan, he gulped it down faster than before, then readied his spirit with an upright, firm sitting stance to repeat the process.

Eiri placed her gloved hand above the nari gel. “That’s okay. Two is all you need. Here.” Eiri grabbed it from Harry, and used both hands to tightly shove the large oval cork back into it.

Cleaning his tongue with his teeth, Harry looked like he had just tasted soured milk. “So what—*hmmm*.” Harry scratched his right eye as if he was growing sleepy, then he started scratching both as he struggled to keep them open.

Comforting Harry, Eiri said in a motherly tone, “Oh\! Sorry, Harry—I forgot you don’t know about the change itself. It’s all gonna be over soon. I last used a nari gel quite a while ago, so I forgot about that too. The pain was a bit intense after the light sensitivity—yeah. There you go. That’s probably the peak right now. Just breathe—it will be over soon. Relax—yes, and don’t press your hands too hard into your eyes.”

Bending forward, holding back his face away from the nearby fost lamp, tears poured down Harry’s eyes as he groaned. “Why?” A faint voice slipped out of him.

“It’s okay, Harry.” Eiri gently smiled as her hand slowly rubbed his hair. “I know it sucks for a bit. Sorry for not telling you, but it really will be over soon.”

Still bending forwards, a sniff came out of Harry, still protecting his eyes, but no longer whimpering.

Eiri had a faint look of glee on her face, imagining Neferteri. *There you go. I’m gonna show you how much I can be just like my mother.*

Harry, with a tear rolling down his face, slowly opened his eyes, apparently trying to get his bearings of the room as if he was on a stage with a stage light pointed right at him. “Ohhhhhh\! WOW\!” Pure awe suddenly smeared across Harry’s face, as he observed over every single detail of the room, slowly moving his head and sparkling eyes around.

“I know, right? See? I told ya so\!” Eiri chuckled, patting Harry’s head from the back.

“How—how does that work?” Apparently having an epiphany, at least by the sudden jarring motion of his head, Harry continued “Glasses\! I just realized I wore glasses\! I don’t need them anymore\!”

“I don’t know what you're talking about. Like you had a magnifier or something like that stuck on your eyes?” Eiri imagined two magnifiers, about three times the size of an eye stuck to one another above the nose—each looking as thick as if someone cut the bottom of a glass bottle. Continuing her imagination, she saw Harry wearing them, and his eyes enlarged by them, all before the whole apparatus suddenly felt forward for not having any way to stay in place.

“Yeah, like that\! But more rectangle-like—” Harry used his index fingers to stare at Eiri with a much smaller looking glass, at least compared to what she imagined.

Imagining a smaller rectangle magnifier, she now envisioned a tape that covered the eyebrow and upper part of the magnifier, seemingly to hold the glasses back from failing, but then touching the eyeballs if the person bent the head backwards since there was nothing stopping the glass from moving back and forth. “*Pfff.* Why would you ever wear something lame like that? There are so many fake eyes available out there\!” Eiri’s tone suddenly took a downturn, her trembling eyes realizing just how weird that was. “You really have no memories of home?”

Letting out a saddened hum, Harry left behind a vacant stare towards the contract in the bucket. “*Hmmm.* I tried to remember, but very vaguely—” Scratching his faint neck beard, he continued. “I can’t remember any details, but I have this feeling—that I did have a home—or maybe more like an apartment—I think. Maybe it was before I was in the slums? But I just have no feeling that I've ever been in one\! There’s just something—”

Eiri felt her lungs tightening, but she could breathe just fine. “You okay?” She asked, carefully watching over Harry’s conversation turning into a monologue.

The corner of Harry’s lips held back something, but soon after it dropped as he looked through the assortment of stuff in the nearby desk before pondering a drawing on the wall above it. The drawing itself was simply of a gentleman like Itagiba, but older, fishing in the clouds, resting in a boat pulled by what appeared to be a horse. “Is that a horse?”

“Horse? No. That’s an egua. Why? Are they like—the same thing?” Eiri looked towards the drawing as well, remembering how Itagiba’s father loved fishing by himself to recoup from dealing with everyone’s bitching.

“I’m not sure how to say this, but everything feels off—” Harry bit his lips, seriously staring the wall painting down as if he was an art connoisseur.

“Off? Like what?” Eiri eyebrows slightly raised, while her beautiful green eyes kept seeing Harry’s eyes growing droopy.

With a breath through his nose, Harry continued “I—I—just—I don’t know exactly. So many things feel normal, while others do not. It really feels like I’m not from here.” With trembling lips and chin, Harry’s eyes moistened. “I don’t know anything, and everything I read today did not make any sense either—honestly, I—I—just want to go home.” He paused for a second, dropping his head. “I don’t even know where it is.” His tone grew sadder, almost teary. “I don’t even know where I am—”

Eiri let out a long exhale. Her green eyes wandered the floor. “I really don’t know what you are going through, but I promise I will help you.” She took Harry’s head, and brought it to her shoulder, only to hear a sniff, which then turned into more sniffs, that then evolved into a crybaby. *I guess that’s what mothers do? But if he is this much of a crybaby, then Maiara will turn him inside out—for sure.*

## 3

![Subchapter illustration](Vol1/5_3.png)

*Procure a way for him to sign, and avoid indulging in your mother’s tendencies. Commit to those, and we shall be more prosperous than any other kingdom. Otherwise, you should look forward to an early retirement.* Neferteri’s voice echoed in Eiri’s mind. Straining her eyebrows to purge the thought out, she slipped out a soft thought, *Everything will work out.* She hugged Harry tightly from the side. “I will help you find where you came from, and I promise I will even get some PTO to visit it with you.”

Harry took a deep sigh of relief, cleaning away the tears on his arm. “Paid time off?”

“Exactly\! Even I need to take a break once a while\!” Eiri let out a slight pout that quickly turned into a smile. “Anyway—just give it time. Just live in the present, and take one step at a time. I’m not a scientist, or a historian—I’m an accountant, and a chef, but I made a few friends along the way, and I promise I will reach out to everyone I know.” She took a long, reassured breath. “There has to be someone that heard your strange words—maybe a village hidden past the four kingdoms\! I will even ask Mom when she comes back from Newland\! I guarantee she must know someone who can help.”

“Thank you—” A mutter came out of Harry, still enjoying Eiri's comforting shoulder as he cozily breathed like a baby being cradled by his mother.

“You know, I’ve been king-maid for about a year and a half now. I thought my mother taught me everything.” Eiri let out a long-winded breath, letting Harry go, seriously glancing at his drooping eyes. “But even I feel lost at a times, too. I’m sorry, Harry, but I’m gonna come clean—”

Harry kept looking, listening silently to Eiri’s saddening tone.

“Neferteri pressured me to make you sign the contract. That’s why I am here instead of one of my maids—she’s gonna vote me out of my position if you don’t sign it. I was thinking some more, too, and I think I might have scared you more than helped—I mean, the contract is not the worst thing ever, except you would be stuck with tier one wages doing Sanbi-eye work for like thirty-nine years, with no freedom to do stuff other than what Neferteri, and Itagiba tell you to—”

Letting out a strained hum, Harry looked at Eiri as if she just handed him out a life sentence—including appearing to have listened to the sound of a judge's gavel’s snapping and the rumor of the present jury.

Eiri stopped herself, crossing her arms as she bounced her neck around “—okay. That sounded bad. It’s not that bad; trust me. There are people living way worse lives than that. I mean, for starters, you would have a badge, which not everyone has. Plus, you could think of it as having a stable job for the next thirty-nine years, just traveling around the countryside in a peaceful job which does have its own charms.”

“Is that what a Sanbi-eye is?” An intrigued curiosity arose out of him “So, what I would be doing?”

“Collecting information and grievances from the village elders, and maybe from the people themselves if the village elder is acting too high and mighty. Nothing too hard from what I understood—basically acting like an official listener for the kingdom. You would travel a lot, just like an adventurer, but you wouldn’t need to deal with the grueling stuff that they do. Well, not to say you wouldn’t be attacked by a bandit or wild animal at some point, but you would also get to know a lot—at least within the Sanbi kingdom as I don’t you see you being able to travel outside it—” Eiri held her gloved hands on her chest. “I promise you. I will fight to improve your situation, and I will get in touch with any findings that I have.”

With a heartwarming, toothy smile, and still moistened eyes, Harry cheerfully replied back “Thank you, Eiri.”

“Well, that’s not to say you wouldn’t win, but Maiara does pack a punch—but I guess I never asked, is she even your type?” Eiri leaned towards Harry, curiously awaiting.

“*Hmmm*—I dunno.” Playing with his thumbs, Harry deviated his gaze towards the ground in front of him, slightly flushing at the face.

Eiri nonchalantly spoke, with a confident truth in her words. “That’s a no—which is okay. I mean—not everyone likes a strong, independent type. Sora though—I heard a bit from Itagiba—she tickles your fancy, huh?” A slight grim shone on Eiri’s face, as her hands went to pinch Harry in the belly.

An embarrassed preemptive giggle came out of Harry, pulling his belly away from Eiri’s powerful pinchers. “I—I guess so.”

“I knew it\!” Eiri pinched his fat belly, making sure to attack his thick love handles.

Harry cackled, trying to defend his hands from Eiri’s pinchers, but it was to no avail.

Laughing alongside, she retreated to let Harry breathe. “You know, you can just fake the duel, too. No harm, no foul\!”

Harry seemed to start recalling something. “Duel? Is that the same as a Gandew duel?”

Narrowing her eyes, Eiri crossed her arms, trying to juggle her memory “Ahhhh—there is a Forway duel and a Gandew duel. A Forway duel is when two or more people just start fighting until a winner comes out on top. A Gandew duel is two people, taking turns, either attacking or defending a single attack. Whoever dies first, loses.”

Opening his eyes wide, Harry froze up, probably imagining his fate coming to an end—at least based on how he reacted.

Eiri looked back at the tensed-up Harry, “It’s okay. The winner must revive the loser, or the audience will kill the winner—oh\! Actually, this duel is a hybrid. It is Gandew, but Itagiba will declare the winner instead—so no death.”

“Does the duel have actual weapons? Like guns?” Harry seemed hopeful for a certain type of answer.

“If you’re talking about wasters, then no. It will be actual weapons, but guns? What’s that?” Eiri’s ears were carefully listening, assuming she misheard something.

“It’s like a blackish thing you hold in your hand, and move your finger like this—” Harry pulled a fictitious trigger with his index finger. “And then it makes a loud boom, and whatever you point at gets a hole about this big.” Harry used his index and thumb to make a circumference close to of a coin.

“*Hmmm*? Never heard of that, but that sounds more like an interface than a weapon—except you can’t use it. Gandew rules only allow weapons, and I am pretty sure that’s what Maiara wants, too.” Eiri grabbed the nari gel, half-consumed with only two eyeballs left inside, and held it up. “Even nari gels are forbidden too, but I’m sure a simple fake eye will be spared.”

“Will it hurt?” Harry looked at the remaining two eyeballs, staring at him macabrely.

“Yeahhhh, but look on the bright side\! It’s a one-time thing.” Eiri put away the nari gel in the bucket. “You might still whoop her ass though, and if you do that, you would instantly become richer than I am. If you think about it, she does have a cute ponytail that you can pull on when you ride her.” Eiri giggled, making a tugging hand motion.

Reddening in the face, Harry smiled, but did not say anything.

With a stuck-out pinky, Eiri smiled. “Don’t tell them I said that, but you get it—she does have her own charms too, but at least you have a way out if she’s not your type.” Eiri pulled out the contract, and smilingly handed it towards him. “So—can you please sign it? For yourself—but also for me?”

With a bright nod, Harry reached out to the contract, exchanging a smile with Eiri.

## 4

![Subchapter illustration](Vol1/5_4.png)

Holding the contract, Harry read out loud, “The contractor will have full control over contractee’s state, and will remain doing so until the aforementioned debt is repaid.” His eyes scanned the next line, while his mouth slowly spoke the words, trying to correctly enunciate its floweriness. “Repayment shall be done at reimbursement of leftover market tier one daily wages for each day the contractee submits his state, and will to the contractor. In the event of contractee’s unwillingness to partake in his responsibilities to said contract, punishments can be given at the contractor’s discretion, unless said discretion violates Prosperity Law Section Four, Sub Three and Four. ” Looking at Eiri with a dead stare as if he had just read some ancient curse, Harry eagerly waited for a translation.

“Basically each week you will be given something like—” Eiri looked upwards, pausing for a second “—forty-eight pearls to do your job. Whatever is left at the end will be used to pay back the debt.”

“I think this makes more sense now. So, if I work to repay the five hundred sapphires debt, then I will be free?'' Harry scratched his head.

“Yeah. If you economize a lot, or have someone else pay your expenses, or get more budget to begin with, then you could be free of it in less time. You could try to make money as well, but it will be tough since you will be busy doing Sanbi-eye stuff. Still—we’re talking thirty-nine years—which is half of your entire lifetime, if you make it to eighty. Actually—do you know how old you are?”

Harry silently shook his head.

“Well, I will try my best to push for contract amendments.” Eiri fondled Harry’s head. “Maybe we can get it down to fifteen years in the next few years.”

With a slight head bobble, and half a smile in one of Harry’s corners, he continued. “This contract is void if both parties imprint their blood in the respective section located in the back of the contract.” He flipped the page to check out the void section, completely unfilled, then he flipped back. Looking at the empty space in the bottom right of the contract, he saw his name written out *Harry Sanbi.* Broodingly, he twisted his neck, saying under his breath, “I think I’m ready to sign.”

“You sure?” Eiri bent forward, close to Harry’s level, to see his face.

Harry’s flimsy eyes contrasted a firm silent nod, carefully laying out the contract on the table in front of him. “What should I do now?” His tone started to have a certain resolute air to it.

Eiri’s tone grew serious as well. “Okay—now, move the contract a bit here, and bring the plate with the knife closer.” Eiri pointed to a short knife, with a highly detailed carving of a Sanbi fish appearing to jump in the air.

Harry followed suit, then grabbed the short knife, observing its sharpness, and the woodwork required to carve and paint the Sanbi symbol.

Eiri continued her instructions, “Before you do anything with the knife, put that cloth aside, and open that glass jar, and bring it closer, too.”

Doing as told, Harry put the soft white cloth where the knife was resting aside, and with a nice cork sound, Harry also got the glass jar open.

“Now, on the plate, make a cut on your thumb, and spread it on the bottom right—Harry\!” Eiri let out an anguished cry.

Harry was following along, but placed more force than needed on the knife, slicing his thumb deep, almost cutting it in half. Blood squirted all over the table, including the contract. He groaned in pain, dropping the knife, and letting it clink towards the ground in despair.

“Here\!” Eiri grabbed Harry’s bleeding hand, and quickly smeared it on the bottom right of the contract with a swipe, then placed the sliced thumb on top of the opened glass bottle. “Just hold still a little longer\!”

Harry saw Eiri massaging his hand, pushing the blood towards his thumb as if she was emptying out a toothpaste, making it heavily drip into the glass bottle. Continuously staring at the vivid red blood, Harry mustered a few words amongst the pained groans. “Wha—what is this for?”

Eiri continued massaging, with some of the blood staining her yellow gloves. “This is for the badge. Usually you would do this at an embassy, but Itagiba said he knew a contact that would cut some corners.”

“Ohhh\!” Harry seemed to forget his sliced thumb, excitingly saying, “So I will really have my own badge? Just like yours?”

“It’s not explicitly mentioned on the contract, but you need one to sign it\! Now grab that cloth, and wrap your thumb—squeeze to keep the wound closed, too.” Eiri smiled at Harry, grabbing what appeared to be a saltshaker, and doused the blood on the bottom right of the contract with it. Instead of salt, translucent bluish grains, the same color as the nari stone, mixed with the blood, and started drying on the paper. She then grabbed the contract, and carefully tapped the lower end onto the table to let the excess blood fall out, then began fanning it around. With her hands busy, she pointed her head towards the bottle, filled to about one fourth with blood. “Can you close that?”

Harry, still trying to hold the blood-soaked white cloth around his thumb, used his free hand to carefully plug the cork.

Eiri paused, fanning the contract around. “Mostly there.” She laid out the contract back on the table, then went to the bathroom to wash her bloodied gloved hands.

Harry, meanwhile, tightly held the white cloth with his fingers, watching it getting soaked in blood. “My—my finger is still bleeding. It’s starting to drip, too.” He kept being a soldier even though it started to look like he had lost a decent amount of blood.

Coming back to him, Eiri dried her gloves and hands on a blue towel. “Use this while I get the Body Restore working” She gave him the blue towel, and placed the mostly dry yellow gloves on top of the bed.

Harry relaxed his hand for a bit, which was enough for a pool of blood to ooze out of his sliced thumb. Quickly, he replaced the cloth with the towel. Seeing Eiri rustle her hand on the bucket, his eyes could not help themselves. “That’s a sigil ring?”

“Oh? You know this?” Eiri showed off the sigil ring in the middle and ring fingers of her right hand. The front contained two logograms, one of a body, and another of a circle with a broken piece being glued back together.

“I don’t know what the symbols mean—body pie?” Harry’s new eyeballs could see the details of the logograms, but apparently their meaning remained elusive—like taking an inkblot test.

“Close\! Body Restore. So this isn’t weird for you?” Eiri asked, grabbing one of the standalone nari stones resting on top of the table to infuse its soul power into the spell she was about to cast.

“It is weird\! But you told me to read a book, so I glanced at a few.” Harry, with mesmerized eyes, pointed to the five white rings around Eiri’s forearm, then at the single red ball of double helices that suddenly appeared, and spun around the smallest ring when she infused the power from the nari stone. “Wow\! That’s pretty cool\! It’s exactly like the drawings\! I actually did not believe it at first\!”

“Next time I will let you do it yourself\!” Eiri winked, releasing the spell on Harry’s arm.

“Ow\!” Harry looked like he was shocked in the arm—at least based on his jerking motion. He removed the towel around his thumb, and saw the flesh, blood vessels, and fat reconnect to one another from deep within, and reconnect to each other as the wound became shallower and shallower, while his thumb grew red and swollen. Apparently not believing what just happened, Harry touched the healed thumb, then squeezed it—apparently trying to see if it would split open again. “It feels warm and sore—is that what Maiara will do to me as well?”

“Don’t touch it too much. It will go away shortly, but yeah—she will heal you, or you will heal her instead. Depends on who wins\! Can you roll the contract for me?” Eiri, putting on her yellow gloves, grabbed the contract from Harry, and stashed it away in the bucket. “The glass bottle as well, please\!” Stashing the bloodied bottle as well, she then walked over to the bathroom, and pulled out a timekeeper from one of the drawers. “I’d say I will be busy until at least Sunnilow, so you might not be able to see me until the duel starts.” She then walked back to the bedroom, and pointed the timekeeper to the glass window. “I believe the duel itself is at Sunnolow, so you can sleep in as much as you want.”

“So now you’re checking the time, right?” Harry stood up, and approached the timekeeper still facing the window. He saw a deep green section near three o’clock light up, with a slight light appearing to ooze into the next chunk of time. “Monni—high? Right? Wait. I’m seeing a bit of—Monnolow light up too. That’s different from when Sora showed me.”

Eiri looked at the timekeeper. “Oh no\! It’s that late\! This means that we’re in between half timehunks, so I gotta go\! The contact will pick up the blood at Monnalow, but I also need to give the contract to Neferteri.” She placed back the timekeeper in the bathroom drawer, then grabbed her bucket.

“So what do I do now?” Harry stood motionless in the room, looking like a dog seeing all family members leave for the day, knowing he will be alone.

Eiri opened the door, “Just hang tight until tomorrow\! Don’t worry about the desk, the maids will clean it in the morning. Just go to sleep\! Good night, Harry\!” Eiri was about to close the door when she stopped herself. “Do you know how to put out the fost lamp?”

Harry gave a thumbs up, with the same thumb that was previously sliced, now looking just fine.

“I see\! Already mister independent, huh? Just don’t let that confidence go to your head and woo Sora away from me, okay? Or at least don't go too hard on her if you become Sanbi-eye\!” Eiri waved goodbye, winking as she closed the door, and began to fast walk towards the spiraling stairs. Passing by one of the closed windows, she saw the city she called home bathed in a familiar green moonshine. She bit her cheeks, looking at the sleeping city, except for a bar in the distance where a live band played, and people danced around as if it was just another day.

“I’m gonna find his home\!” The words slipped out under her breath as she saw a reflection of herself in the window.