Chapter 54: Taking out a 'Loan”

Words : 1413 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

Chapter 54: Taking out a “Loan” Luca decided to head back to their original location. He didn’t have much time to inspect the source of the beasts earlier and wasn’t sure if there were any more. For someone who fought those for the first time, D-29 wondered how its Host could stay this calm. Well, of course, his heartbeat earlier was really fast, and D-29 was very concerned about that. "Host, are you not scared of the corrupted beasts?" "Very scared, who wouldn’t be?" "Then how come you’re so calm?" "Honestly, it’s because we dealt with 100 units of their bodies. If not for having to see various body parts and getting used to the putrid stench, I probably would’ve panicked like crazy, too." "But remember the sizes of the claws we packed before? I kind of expected these to be the same, but they looked like babies in comparison. I wonder why?" D-29 was surprised to know that it was because of their earlier dealings with the bodies that he was like this. "Then again, that was just three of them. The simulations we use at school always had 50 or so! Maybe it’s why they opted for manually piloted mechas." It made so much sense now that he’s seen how fast the corruption could spread. And if he hadn’t had the ability to vacuum out the corruption, how fast would it have been able to contaminate the whole place? Luca shuddered at the thought, but more than that, he trembled at how terrible he was with weapons. Had there been more than three, or if there were bigger ones, he would’ve been so dead. He felt so embarrassed that he was thankful they hid somewhere far away. When Luca got there, he saw vendors crouching before their stalls and attached houses. They were lamenting about the goods that were now contaminated. Luckily, none of these were live goods that could turn into corrupted beasts. But no one would buy them after what happened. It was the same for Noah, who was now back with his Grandmother and father. They were assessing the condition of their shop, and Noah knew how terrible this would be for them. They used up all their funds to start this business after moving here. This was everything they had. So, he wasn’t surprised to see his Grandmother crying silently. What was a bustling place earlier was now filled with the silent sobs of sellers who may have lost their livelihood. And that was just because of three relatively smaller corrupted beasts. This made him understand the gravity of the situation. If more of those were present, it wouldn’t just be the goods. "Host. I think we should be able to recycle all these goods. They’re all corrupted with contamination as it is." Luca straightened up in surprise. His drooping shoulders suddenly hiked up. "Are you serious? Would that be possible?" "Yes, Host. That should be the case." "Do you think I could possibly buy them? Or will that look weird?" "Maybe we could just think of a proper excuse." Luca knew of the Empire’s problem. Once contaminated, such items would not only be useless but would have to be disposed of because they could inevitably contaminate other things the moment a whiff of energy was felt. He had a thought, but he wasn’t sure if it would fly. He just hoped he wouldn’t be disowned for doing something this crazy. "Excuse me, Ma’am. I’m a student of the Military Academy. I’d like to apologize for being a bit late in responding, which caused your shop to end up like this." Luca sincerely apologized to Noah’s grandmother, and Noah just stood there catatonic. He couldn’t understand why Luca would even apologize when he had already saved them earlier. "Young one, it’s not your fault. We are already very thankful for your help. It is a very unfortunate situation, but this is not for you to bear," said the teary-eyed Grandmother, holding Luca’s hand in thanks. "Uhm, Ma’am. I’m not sure if I could afford it. But my family had recently been working on a way to safely dispose of contaminated items." "And a way to save things that haven’t been contaminated." Both the elder and Noah gasped at this. Only Noah knew that Luca was Luca Kyros. While his Grandma might have wondered about the authenticity of this, Noah knew that Luca had enough backing to make something like this. So, he couldn’t help it and finally spoke. "Do you mean it?" Luca nodded, praying that the people of the duchy wouldn’t find out what he’s been up to for now. "But since it’s rather experimental as of the moment. I’d prefer to buy the goods instead of asking for them." His eyes were clean, and Noah’s brain couldn’t cope with all the changes. "Though it would be better to ask how much it would cost first since I didn’t bring that much money from home. I apologize." "But if you’re willing to sell, then I would buy whatever I could afford." "Are you sure about this, son? That would be like buying junk!" Noah’s Grandmother was concerned. She felt that the boy had already done too much for them, and now he was even offering to help them financially by buying the items, so she made a decision. "Young man, if it is alright with you, we can sell them at a discount. You are basically helping us by doing this already, and you shouldn’t take too many losses." She just wanted enough for them to survive. In fact, when she saw their shop and house, she already knew they’d lost it all again. But then, his grandson’s schoolmate offered to help out. "Then, if you could sell it at least at cost, then maybe I could afford more of it?" Luca smiled sheepishly because he was really poor, too. His money barely reached a million, so he was afraid he’d only be able to buy a few parts. Especially after he learned of how much mecha parts actually cost. It was Noah’s father who pulled out his terminal and showed Luca all the purchase orders they had made for all the products in their shop. This was all the money they had when they came here, and they used it all to buy products they could resell. It was less than 2,450,000.00 Star Coins, give or take. Luca noted how much this family’s entire fortune was and wanted to keel over after realizing the value of each Star coin. The duchy sent him 100 million Star coins for this month’s allowance. He felt a bit dizzy. All the while, he thought that his 1,023,000 Star coins were too small because he compared them to his allowance. It wasn’t inflation. The duchy was just loaded. "Host, maybe we could borrow some funds from the duchy’s allowance and just return it by earning it back?" Luca actually thought the same. He barely had half the money, so his only solution was to buy it like this. Noah saw Luca contemplating after seeing the price and wanted to interject. Pretty sure this was too much money to be spent buying junk. He was of the same mind as his Grandma and thought this would be too much of a loss. Even if he generally disliked Luca, even he understood their current position. But before he got to answer, Luca nodded and transferred over 2.5 million Star coins. "Son, this is too much? You gave 50,000.00 more!" Noah’s father exclaimed, shocking everyone. "About that, Sir. I was wondering if you’d allow me to clean up the goo around the shop and the house?" "What?!" Noah exclaimed, unsure if he heard it right. Normally, they would have to blowtorch the house to sanitize it, but Luca said he would clean it. What the hell was he going on about?! "Yes, it’s something that we have been working on, and I was hoping it could help." Meanwhile, Luca was just too happy to get this contaminated item. Although his heart hurt a bit when he took that loan, he realized this was the only way. The family of three was admittedly skeptical, but Luca paid them so much more than expected and even offered to clean their house. If it didn’t work, they should still be able to blowtorch the place, right?

Chapter 54: Taking out a 'Loan”

Comments (0)