Looking over the IOU, everything spelled out in black and white, the debt and repayment terms crystal clear, complete with Lucy's signature and thumbprint, Sorano gave it a satisfied flick with her finger, folded it carefully, and tucked it safely inside the front of her collar for safekeeping.
But simply saddling Lucy with a massive debt wasn't nearly enough to satisfy Sorano. Now came phase two of her plan.
"Twenty four million. Let's say you pay me back a hundred thousand a month, sound fair?"
Between the hundred thousand J she already paid in rent each month and now another hundred thousand toward the debt, Lucy would be shelling out two hundred thousand a month total. The thought of that kind of monthly burden hit her like a ton of bricks, but she gritted her teeth and nodded anyway.
"I'm being quite generous here, you know. I'm not even charging you interest. Though even so, at a hundred thousand a month, that's one point two million a year, which means it'll take you a full twenty years to pay it all off."
"Twe, twenty years~"
Lucy's voice trembled. By that math, she wouldn't be debt free until she was practically forty. Suddenly, she began to regret her earlier recklessness quite a bit.
"But, well, I'm a kind person, and locking you into twenty years of debt does feel a bit cruel. Tell you what, I'll let you work off part of it through chores instead. Cleaning my room, doing my laundry, taking over my share of the weekly communal housework, that sort of thing. I could see my way to knocking fifty thousand off your monthly payment for that. And carrying my bags when we go out, warming my bed before I sleep, waking me up before breakfast, things like that. You could work off your entire debt over time without spending a single J."
Sorano, like a black widow who'd already spun her web long ago, bared her fangs at Lucy, now hopelessly tangled and unable to escape.
By this point, Lucy had finally caught on to just how thoroughly she'd been played. But with the signed IOU already in Sorano's hands, there was no wriggling free of her grasp now, no matter what she tried.
'That's terrifying. Sis Sorano turned Lucy into a functional slave with nothing but a few sentences.'
Meredy, catching on a beat too late, felt a cold sweat run down her back, her eyes now carrying a fair bit more wariness whenever they landed on Sorano. Still, what she felt most of all was deep sympathy for Lucy.
'Poor Lucy. Three days into the guild and she's basically sold herself to Sis Sorano.'
'I hope you've learned your lesson and don't act this impulsively again.'
Silently offering a prayer on Lucy's behalf, Meredy spotted the train pulling into the station and quickly stood up, calling out to the other two.
"Sis, Sis Sorano, Lucy, the train's here, let's get on board. We can sort the rest out once we're home."
Lucy: "Uhh... buh..."
Someone had clearly taken too heavy a blow and had, for the time being, lost all ability to process the outside world.
With no other choice, Meredy let Sorano board first, then hauled the still dazed Lucy along behind them with an awkward laugh.
The next morning, the three of them showed up at the guild. Laki, who'd been flipping idly through a magazine at the bar, spotted them and closed it with a smile, calling out a greeting.
"Welcome back, Sorano, Lucy, and Meredy. I got Mr. Kabi's thank you letter, by the way. He sang your praises the whole way through, he's incredibly grateful to all of you."
None of the three reacted much to this. Sorano and Meredy were already used to that kind of thing and didn't feel much either way, while Lucy was simply too emotionally drained to care about any of it right now.
After exchanging a quick greeting with Laki, Sorano was about to order some food, planning to eat and then head home for a proper nap, when a commotion broke out behind her.
"Erza, I've gotten even stronger lately, spar with me!"
"Sorry, Natsu, I'm not really in the mood to fight right now."
"Then Mira..."
"Get lost, don't bother me!"
"...Ultear, come spar with me instead."
"Would you please go bother your good buddy Gray instead, and leave the rest of us alone."
Getting rejected three times in a row would make anyone's blood boil, let alone Natsu, who was hotheaded and none too sharp to begin with. Seeing all three women brush him off without a second thought, Natsu decided to settle it with his fists.
"Damn it, underestimating me like that. I'll show you my Fire Dragon..."
But before he could even finish, with his fist still raised, Sorano, walking up from behind, casually kicked him aside. He tumbled across the floor several times before crashing straight into a crowd of guild members, setting off a chorus of curses.
Ignoring Natsu, now buried under a pile of complaints, Sorano walked right past him and greeted Erza and the others warmly.
"Hey there, been a little while, you three. Mind if I introduce you to a new face?"
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