Chapter 44 – They stole my Ideas (Aria’s POV)

Beatrice’s shop is set to open in a few days in our city. From what I’ve heard so far based on rumors, they claim to sell superior-quality mana-comm devices as well as many ‘never-seen-before’ gadgets. They’ve made it clear that they want to create something rivaling my company. And I need to retaliate. Especially after what she did to my poor Letty.

Honestly, I was tempted to ask Dad to cancel their permit or something. But he explained why it was a bad idea. He could abuse his authority as the president of the Business Association of the province as well as the lord of the land and deny their shop a sales permit in our city. But if we were to do it, it would reflect poorly on our company, ‘Alteria Innovations’.

In the general public’s eyes, it would seem that we were scared of them taking over our market.

So I decided to wait and see what they had to offer first. If I see her, I won’t be able to hold myself back from confronting her about what she or her masked friend intended to do with my Letty. I even asked Mom and Dad to deliberately busy themselves on the opening day. This way, it would be clear that we don’t want anything to do with them.

“Aria, what’s wrong? You’re making that scary face again”, Letty, who is sitting beside me, said, bringing me back from my thoughts.

Oops, I might have leaked some hatred on my face.

Currently, I am having one of our sweet dates with Letty in a sitting room. I’m not much of a sweet lover, but I know that Letty loves them. But she wouldn’t ask the chef to make them for her. So I occasionally act like I want some so that she can have sweets to her heart’s content.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just lost in thoughts”, I replied, giving her a pleasant smile.

“It can’t be nothing. Look at what you did to your pastry”, I looked down at my plate and found a distorted mess of what seemed to be the remnants of a pastry. Sigh, I should work on controlling my emotions. I don’t want Letty to see me like this.

“Were you perhaps thinking about my kidnapping again?”, she asked, looking me in the eye. “It is, isn’t it? I’ve told you so many times that I’m okay. And we are both safe now. Nobody can harm us in our own home. So please don’t let this affect you so much. I miss the old, cheerful Aria”, she said.

She’s right. I need to get over it. I’ve decided to crush her financially, and I’ll do it.

“Thanks Letty. I’m sorry for bringing the mood down. But I’ve got to say, you’re way too chill about this. Come on girl, it was you who got kidnapped in the first place. Shouldn’t you react a little bit like me?”, I asked.

“Hehe, I know. When I was kidnapped, I was scared, but I also knew that you or Teacher would do everything in your power to save me. I’m sure that if Lady Beatrice hadn’t arrived when she did, it was only a matter of time until you would have come to save me”, she said, dropping her spoon down and holding my hands.

“Aww, thank you so much for believing in me. Honestly, when I found out that you were missing, I wasn’t thinking straight, I was panicking, and I felt desperate. If we hadn’t found you when we did, I would have used all the power I have to search for you… You know, at times like these, I realize how lame I am… Maybe I should have asked your System to grant me some real powers… That way, maybe I could have saved you on my own…”, I hung my head down as I lamented.

Letty pulled my arms towards her, which made me look at her, and she said, “Don’t say that. My girlfriend is not lame. You’re the coolest person in the world, you literally made the most widely used and most important invention of the century. And that’s not lame”.

Well, I didn’t ‘invent’ it… Wait, now’s not the time.

She kept pulling my hands, asking me to scoot towards her, so I complied. She then continued, “I love you, just the way you are. And this situation had nothing to do with being weak, you couldn’t have possibly known that something like that would happen. So promise me that you will never say such things again”

I brought myself closer to her until our faces were mere inches apart. “Mm, I promise”, I said, as I loosened my hands from hers and held the back of her head. I stood up slightly while pulling my knees up beside either side of her legs, causing her to lean back on the couch.

I slowly closed in, “I love you, too”, saying so, I kissed her… fiercely. I poured all my emotions into the kiss. As we kissed, I could feel her responding to me with equal intensity.

I could feel her hands making their way across my back as she pulled my body closer to hers. I could feel her warmth as our bodies pressed together.

I took this opportunity to open my mouth slightly and gently flicked her lips with my tongue, probing her to open her mouth. She responded by opening her mouth, allowing my tongue to explore her mouth.

Chocolate…

We kissed each other deeply and passionately, as our tongues danced in a rhythmic and sensual manner. My fingers were getting tangled in her hair, and neither of us was willing to stop.

Unexpectedly, I felt her hand press against my butt, which earned her a rather embarrassing squirm from me. Eventually, we pulled apart, leaving both of us gasping for air. Our faces were still close together.

“You’re aggressive today. I had only read about such kisses in books until now, it was a very pleasant experience”, she said.

I smiled at her, my heart still racing from the intensity of the moment.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it", I said, still breathing heavily. "But I don't think I was the only one being aggressive"

I lowered my body to sit on her lap, making sure to distribute enough weight on my knees while still facing her. Her cheeks were burning hot, and probably so were mine. After the last time on the carriage, it just felt right to go for it.

“You’re looking so cute right now. I’m having a really hard time controlling myself”, I said while playing with a fringe of her hair, causing her to look away in embarrassment.

“Y-you don’t have to hold anything back. I’m all yours”, she shyly added, closing her eyes.

God! I can’t! She’s too precious!

I couldn't resist the urge to taste her lips again, so I pulled my face closer and kissed her passionately… Again.

***

Letty’s POV:All four of us, Aria, Lady Carolina, Lady Sophia, and I, are gathered in the lab to discuss matters regarding Lady Beatrice’s shop’s opening. Ever since we’ve returned, and especially after we made out in the sitting room, Aria has been a lot more open about skinship in public. Earlier, she would rarely hold hands or hug me in front of others. But now, it has become a common occurrence throughout the mansion.

Also, I managed to save up a whole bunch of SP in the middle of it all. I had mentally turned off the alerts at that time, but I earned well over +1500 SP after the kidnapping incident. And kept earning a steady stream of +50s and +100s throughout the week.

In total, I’ve managed to accumulate,

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Satisfaction Points – 5350

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And not to mention how paranoid she gets about me lately. She actively tries to keep me from staying alone. Either using work as an excuse or emotionally attacking me by saying that ‘I’m getting bored of her’. Honestly, I don’t mind staying with her all the time, in fact, I would love to spend more time with her. But if things continued, she wouldn’t be able to get anything done. So after having a little talk with Teacher, we managed to convince her to let things go back to how they used to be.

Anyway, I’m here to read the report on the shop’s services and products as reported by one of the guards.

“Rose Emporium primarily targets the upper class of society, the rich and nobles. Miss Beatrice and Professor Primos held the opening ceremony, followed by an exhibition of their products. Their main product is said to be an improved version of Mana-comm, which provides enhanced security and clearer sound quality. The device itself is gilded in gold, which gives it a rich feeling. Apart from that, they showcased various new inventions, such as:

A self-heating teacup, a cup that uses fire enchantments to automatically maintain a constant temperature of tea.

A portable fan, it is a device with rotating blades that creates a stream of wind powered by low grade mana stones.

Tracker marker, a small jewel-like marker to track it using magic. Can be used to find lost pets, slaves, or anything really.

And there are some more under development”, I said.

“Aria, isn’t this…”, Lady Sophia said.

“Yes, those are all my ideas that I discussed with the Professor about. How dare he!?”, Aria said.

What! This is straight up theft!

“Damn, the old man’s got some nerves. I still can’t believe that he joined Beatrice’s company instead of yours”, Carolina said.

“Well, actually…”, Aria started, seemingly stuck on the next word. I decided to complete them for her. “She rejected his application to join”

“What? Hahaha, you actually did that! I thought you were kidding when you talked about it at the academy. Hahaha, I wish I could see the look on his face when his favorite student rejected him. You’re something else, Aria”

“It’s not like that. I was really joking back at the academy. It was an impulsive decision… But I don’t regret it. And if it’s about these new inventions. He’ll probably run out, but I’ll keep coming up with more. Let’s see how far he can keep up”, Aria said.

“Carolina, I’ll make a list of topics for you to research and solve. So be prepared. Letty, we are going to work on a self defense device in parallel, so drop all your company work to Sophia and collect these materials that I’ve already prepared”, she said while giving me a list of books, scrolls, and research papers. Well, off to the library I go. I’ll likely not find most of them in the library, but it’s worth a shot.

Before I headed out, like a sweet cherry on top of the cake, I got this quest,

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Quests –

1)   Help your mistress’s research:

Your mistress is struggling to come up with a suitable self defense device. Help her as much as you can. Extra rewards will be awarded for doing more than bare minimum.

Clear Criteria:

Aid her research

Rewards:

20 EXP + Extra

Failure Penalty:

SP gain will be debuffed for a month

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That’s easy enough, and it would even get me closer to leveling up. And to see how much progress I’ve made, I recalled my status,

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Name – Letica

Level – 3 (50/100 EXP)

Sex – Female

Age – 19

Class – Pleasure Slave

Talent – A (S)

HP – 20/20

MP – 20/20

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Stats –

STR – 10

AGL – 12

INT – 10

DEX – 13

CHA – 15

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Satisfaction Points – 5350

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Skills (+)

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Quest (+)

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Shop (+)

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After years of training with Betty, all of my stats were either average or slightly above average. With the highest being charm, 15. It comes in real handy while negotiating with businessmen or nobles.

For the next few weeks, Aria extensively researched the existing self defense device as well as worked with Lady Carolina on some new products. It was really exciting to see this side of her. Lady Sophia commented that she hadn’t seen her like this since the time she worked on Mana-comm. It filled my heart with a fuzzy feeling knowing that both times when she was in her serious mode, it was somehow related to me.

I promised myself that I would keep doing my best to help her.