Defeating Magic Chapter 26: Additional Negotiating Conditions   

Chapter 26: Additional Negotiating Conditions   

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Kiramekineko

“Be gentle. Only just put the nails in, or do you want to nail through my roof?” Zhou Yan, standing below with his arms crossed like a boss, ordered Luo Futu, who was sitting on the roof, gritting his teeth and swinging his hammer head to drive the nails in one by one. 

Luo Futu’s voice was not loud; he was muttering viciously to himself, “Just nail it in, yes, just nail it in, damn omega, one day I will nail you through… I’ll make you cry for my little brother…”

Zhou Yan could not hear his voice, just saw him moving harder and harder, and was very dissatisfied. “Have you ever repaired a roof or not?”

Luo Futu smashed the hammer on a tile with a bang and looked back at him with a smile. “What do you think?”

Zhou Yan stared at him and narrowed his eyes, sneering, “Oh, I almost forgot, you are a noble high priest, how would you need to repair the roof yourself? Even if it was your fault that my house had a big hole, I should take care of it myself.” He rolled up his sleeves and made a move to climb up. “No need for you, I’ll do it myself.”

“Don’t you dare come up here, I’ll smash you to death!” Luo Futu raised the hammer and shouted at him, “I don’t need you! I can fix it in no time!”

Zhou Yan was provoking him, trying to prove by his actions that he was the ruler of the four limbs and the five grains. Ridiculous, would he need him to guide him on how to do things? He was all-powerful!

Zhou Yan heard him say this and did not climb the ladder after all. He would have just used the provocation to stimulate Luo Futu, which would really motivate him to work—no one could eat the white rice for free, not even Luo Futu. If he wanted to eat, then he needed to work. And, after always giving him a chance, he tried to do nothing, so he was too useless.

Zhou Yan then sat down in the courtyard and took a pen to write and draw the design, looking very serious. He was designing a mecha, only in its initial form. This mecha design may be able to deal with Thomas’s group of mystics, but wanting to deal with the Lurian was still iffy.

In fact, after knowing that there might be Lurian monsters in this world, Zhou Yan became a little impatient; he had personally fought with the Lurian and knew how terrible they were. And they were now closed to all information: Kohl Town was located in the wilderness, so even if Lurians really appeared on this continent, they could not get effective news.

The sound of tapping on the roof suddenly stopped, and Zhou Yan stopped his pen and looked up. “What?”

He saw Luo Futu was looking into the distance with a wary expression, so he also stood up, but Luo Futu then lowered his head again and pointed into the distance. “It seems that a guest has come.”

Zhou Yan frowned slightly, and Luo Futu sat on the roof and looked at him with a smile. “I can tell you’re not a bad person.”

If he was really well liked, he wouldn’t be the legend of Fifth Street.

Zhou Yan put down his pen and paper and walked towards the door, while Luo Futu kept his head down and pounded nails. The visitor ran out of breath and pounced on the gate outside the courtyard. “Zhou Yan!”

Zhou Yan opened the door. “Xiao Ban, why are you here?”

“Of course, I have something important to ask you!”

Xiao Ban was probably the only person in Kohl Town who was close to Zhou Yan, this kid had a big heart; although he knew that Zhou Yan was powerful, because he has not done anything to him, he often comes to see Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan’s house has good food.

Xiao Ban entered the door and started talking. “Didn’t you ask me to help inquire about the iron ore plant? I found out that a new one has opened not far from the town, and it has recently started recruiting workers, and many people in town are going to work there.”

Zhou Yan raised his eyebrows in surprise—Kohl Town was known to be full of lazy people, how could anyone be willing to go out to work?

“Don’t people here not want to leave town even if they die?”

“Hey, because this year’s winter is too long, people exist at home to eat almost all the food, and do not know when the government will allocate emergency rice, so they go out to work.”

He finished rubbing the tip of his nose and said, “I’ll go there in a few days, I heard the food is good.”

Zhou Yan nodded, but asked, “Are you sure it’s an iron ore factory this time? Don’t fool me with the blacksmith store again.”

Xiao Ban exclaimed, “Of course! The mine is similar to what you described, just… It’s about half the size of our town, and it’s full of people!”

Zhou Yan listened to his description of the area, a little relieved. He used to ask Xiao Ban to help keep an eye out, but he always found the kind of blacksmith that can only make hoes. He knows a few of that kind of blacksmith, and he let them help make guns for old acquaintances, but this kind of store’s iron storage capacity was simply not enough.

Before he met Luo Futu, Zhou Yan had wanted to build a mecha, but because the amount of metal needed for a mecha was so large, he hadn’t been able to find a suitable place, so the plan had been put on hold. As if he had an inexplicable dependence on guns, Zhou Yan naturally wanted to build a mecha, something that would highly reflect the interstellar civilization.

After Xiao Ban finished, Zhou Yan asked him for the address of the newly opened iron ore plant. The map showed that it was surprisingly only two mountains away from Kohl Town, so it should be convenient to take the time to go there.

“Get your own stuff from the warehouse… By the way, there’s dried bread that you like.”

This was the payment for Xiao Ban.

Xiao Ban was familiar with Zhou Yan’s house and ran to the warehouse with a cheer. Zhou Yan opened his mouth and bit the pen cap to pull it off, then looked down at the markings on the map and made a few marks on it. Luo Futu noticed the moment Xiao Ban entered the door and somehow climbed down from the roof to stand behind Zhou Yan to look at his map.

“Found the iron mine… I’ll go on a trip in the next few days, so you can stay home.”

Zhou Yan looked back at Luo Futu. “If you move fast, you can still make it to the Chinese New Year.”

Originally, he did not intend to go out at this time near the Chinese New Year, but it was more important than the iron ore, so he would talk to them about cooperation as soon as possible.

Luo Futu asked curiously, “Chinese New Year?”

Zhou Yan laughed briefly. “Nothing.”

There was no Chinese New Year in the Zedoary Continent, but with Luo Futu, this year’s Chinese New Year could be a little more lively. Luo Futu raised his eyebrows; he felt that Zhou Yan had a lot of secrets, but he seemed reluctant to tell himself at the moment. These secrets should be related to the strange theories and origins that Zhou Yan knew.

“I’ll go with you.”

“Why?”

Luo Futu looked him up and down and curled his lips. “After all, we are now considered collaborators, and the search for the iron ore plant involves the export of weapons at a later stage, and this matter is closely related to me, so naturally I should go with you.”

Zhou Yan was slightly upset because Luo Futu’s eyes were telling him that the reason he wanted to go along was because he felt he would be bullied if he went out alone. This guy always treats himself as an omega in need of protection; although he doesn’t show how obvious it was in normal times, when it came to this kind of critical moment, he would still show the hints. The relationship between alphas and omegas in this era was still so primitive that it was disgusting, and he was afraid that he would encounter trouble if he went out alone… Considering the limitations of the times, Zhou Yan did not want to forcibly correct Luo Futu’s view of himself.

Anyway, he would understand later.

“Wow! How did Zhou Yan’s house become like this, finally robbed?” At this moment, Xiao Ban’s voice intervened. He appeared carrying a small bag of dried bread while walking his way, looking around the compound. “Who has the guts to…”

Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly saw Luo Futu standing next to Zhou Yan, and the rest of his words stuck in his throat, as if he had lost his words.

Zhou Yan glanced at him expressionlessly and said silently in his heart, What a loser.

Xiao Ban stared at Luo Futu for a long time before he came back to his senses and exclaimed, “My god, my god, my god… How can there be such an extraordinary person in the world… And an alpha?”

Luo Futu seemed to be used to people making a fuss about his real appearance, keeping a smile on his face as if he was very approachable, but Xiao Ban didn’t seem to want to leave after watching, and asked Zhou Yan secretly. “Are you going to live with an alpha? You can, as a beta can still pick up an alpha…it’s really worthy of you.”

Like omegas, alphas were also a scarce resource, and in the eyes of ordinary people, it seemed impossible for betas to be with either gender. After all, betas were so ordinary, they were not attracted to pheromones, and they had no pheromones to attract alphas or omegas.

But if this happened to Zhou Yan, it seemed to make sense again, after all, he was so powerful.

Luo Futu looked at Zhou Yan and smiled strangely. Zhou Yan glanced at Xiao Ban with no expression. “Stop nagging and go now, I have things to do.”

Xiao Ban would like to know the identity of Luo Futu, but because Luo Futu was in a special situation and cannot let more people know his identity, Zhou Yan was in a hurry to shoo him away, naturally it was impossible to explain anything to him. The good thing was that Xiao Ban understood Zhou Yan: he did not want to talk about things, no matter how long he pestered him, he would not let go. He looked regretfully at Luo Futu, and said, “Well, then I’m going back. I’ll talk to you if there’s any more news from the iron ore plant.”

Zhou Yan nodded, and Xiao Ban turned around and went outside the courtyard. At this moment, Luo Futu suddenly stretched out his hand and seemed to flick out something towards Xiao Ban. Zhou Yan didn’t even think about it, but knocked hard on his hand reflexively, and the green spark that was flicked away deflected and flew into the wall.

Xiao Ban hummed and left. Zhou Yan looked back at Luo Futu with a frown. “What are you doing?”

Luo Futu smiled very brightly. “What?”

“You just flicked a spark at Xiao Ban… What’s that? Don’t say I was wrong.”

Luo Futu let out a laugh. “That’s nothing, just a curse for him.”

“…” Zhou Yan looked at him incredulously. “This is the first time you two met today, right? How did he provoke you to put a curse on him?”

Luo Futu looked calm, as if he did this kind of thing all the time. “I don’t like to be stared at.”

“…He doesn’t mean any harm.”

“Heh.” Luo Futu sneered, “I also do not have malicious intent, this curse is not long-lived, three days he will see everything as maggots and rotting flesh, at most, he can not eat. Just to teach him a lesson, so that he will not stare at others. No manners.”

“…” Zhou Yan looked at Luo Futu and sighed deeply. This was the first time he saw him treat people with this kind of attitude, and suddenly realized that this was what the infamous black wizard should be like: cursing people just because they stared. He suddenly realized how he must normally act.

No wonder others were afraid of him.

Zhou Yan put away the pen and map in his hand and stared seriously at Luo Futu. “It seems we have to make a deal, your spiritual power is gradually recovering, but the people living around you are ordinary people, so you can’t do whatever you want as before.”

Luo Futu was not interested in this at all. “I’m not doing whatever I want.”

“You just put a curse on Xiao Ban right in front of me, and you still say you didn’t.”

Luo Futu snorted coldly and turned around to go back to his room. “That’s what he deserved.”

Zhou Yan quickly followed. “The first chapter of the agreement, no abuse of spells on ordinary people, let alone cursing others.”

“You’re so annoying, don’t follow me…”

“I won’t follow you if you promise.”

Luo Futu, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped and looked back at Zhou Yan. “It’s not that I can’t promise you, but we have to talk about a condition.”

“What condition?”

Luo Futu smiled strangely. “If you kiss me, I’ll listen to you.”

“…” What an idiot!

Luo Futu stretched his hands towards him. “Look, you don’t want to kiss me, and I don’t want to make a deal with you. Don’t do to others what you don’t want.”

Zhou Yan almost laughed at his sophomoric reasoning. “What’s the comparison?”

Luo Futu raised his eyes and gave him a look. “In my opinion, it is the same: both are forced to do what they do not like, in exchange it is fair.”

Zhou Yan stared at him in silence for half a day and said, “…Or change it to something else, something else I don’t want to do.”

Luo Futu was very good at talking. “Okay, change to something else. Be marked by me.”

“…” Damn you. Zhou Yan sat down on the side, and after a long time of silence, he said with a cold face, “How about letting me eat garlic raw. I hate garlic.”

Luo Futu pinned his chin with his hand and laughed. “The way you can think of must be an acceptable way to take a step back, but I would be very upset if I didn’t use the spell. We have different levels of difficulty to overcome, it’s not fair. Either you kiss me, or be marked by me, or you don’t care if I use spells or not.”

Zhou Yan was tempted to say that another option would be to kick you out and let you live on the streets, however he couldn’t because they were now in a partnership and he couldn’t always threaten his partner, which would break the partnership and thus create a lot of hidden problems.

No one wanted to be suppressed unilaterally.

Zhou Yan thought for half a day, exhaled heavily, and came to Luo Futu. He stared at him, but for a moment did not know how to start. Luo Futu looked up at him, smiling more and more bizarrely. Zhou Yan closed his eyes, suddenly lifted his head and kissed him on the lips. He then immediately tried to back away, but Luo Futu fiercely pressed the back of his head, pressed Zhou Yan to him and kissed back heavily.

Zhou Yan was like a small tit that fell into the bird net, struggling to escape, but Luo Futu was like a snake, his body wrapped in a dense wind, pinching Zhou Yan’s waist as he pressed him in his arms, fiercely prying open his teeth, recklessly stirring. The tip of his tongue was caught by Luo Futu and sucked hard; Zhou Yan felt as if his soul was being sucked out of his mouth.

After a long time, Luo Futu finally let go of him. Zhou Yan panted like he had just run a thousand meters. Luo Futu looked at him like he was nothing, and said seriously, “Say it, the three rules of the contract.”

Zhou Yan panted and pushed him. “First, no abuse of spells.”

Luo Futu licked his lips, his eyes greedily stared at Zhou Yan’s lips, and smiled. “No problem.”

Zhou Yan’s mind was in chaos, especially when he stared at him like this, his noble brain seemed to have been hit by a virus, half-organized. “…I’ll think about the rest.”

Luo Futu nodded tolerantly. “Yes, but you have to be quick, this kiss can work for three days, but after three days it will not work.”

Zhou Yan gritted his teeth and squeezed out a few words between his teeth: “…Why didn’t you say so at the beginning?”

Luo Futu acted like a traitor. “You didn’t ask at the beginning either.”

“…”

Luo Futu saw Zhou Yan’s face darken, so he moved forward, and his fingertips gently hooked Zhou Yan’s jaw. “You want to control me, fine, but the statute of limitations depends on how much you can satisfy me. If your kiss can be more serious, my mood will be good. The statute of limitations can be extended to seven days. If the quid pro quo is to be marked by me, then I can go three months without using spells on mediocrity at will until the mark wears off.”

As Luo Futu said this, the hand that wrapped around Zhou Yan’s neck gently traced over the glands at the back of his neck and landed on the roots of his hair, a fleeting touch that was neither flirtatious nor threatening, as if… It was a real negotiation.

Luo Futu looked at Zhou Yan. “How about that? Fair enough?”

It was only then that Zhou Yan reacted to the fact that he had been tricked by him. He violently pushed Luo Futu away and climbed up from him. “Why should I do that?”

As if Luo Futu had already guessed his reaction, he lazily spread his fingers towards him. “That is, why should I do this for those people I don’t know? It’s not like I’m going to make a move on them for no reason, but if they provoke me, of course I have to punish them, and if I have to hold back from making a move, I’ll feel very aggrieved and unhappy. Don’t forget, we are partners now, and the cooperation does not include that I have to listen to you.”

He did not hide his superior attitude, and Zhou Yan had no reason to contradict him, he himself would be rude to ordinary people when he could not stand it. Luo Futu was just more vindictive, he was a flammable and explosive madman… Yet from a fair point of view, he really had no reason to restrain his behavior.

“…” 

Zhou Yan stared at him and silently turned away as Luo Futu’s voice came from behind. “But I’m willing to commit myself for your quid pro quo as an additional condition of our negotiations, for the duration of our cooperation, in perpetuity, and you can always come back to me if you change your mind.”

From the distance came a “Get out!”

Luo Futu laughed low twice and touched his lips like a pervert. “I mean it.”