Thankfully, the margrave took everything in stride, even motioning for the maids to stand down. Good thing too, since the blue haired one looked just about ready to tear Natsuki limb from limb. And judging from the small tremors and glances he shot at her, he noticed it too.

Fuck's sake, if you're going to do this shit every time, at least own up to it.

"My~!" Mathers chuckled, as if he hadn't just stopped a bloodbath, "Youth these days have su~ch a way of introducing themselves."

"Margrave Mathers," I tried to regain control of the situation. Partly to try and make my own requests heard, and mostly to keep my head from exploding from Natsuki's idiocy, "Please pardon my companion's actions, he's new to the customs of Lugunica."

"Oh that is quite alright, Hikigaya-san." Mathers must've had the patience of a saint, despite him dressing like a clown.

"Hmph." Conversely, the red haired maid had the temperament of a bull despite her delicate features, "A dog like him shouldn't be allowed to perform on the table."

"Hey, I'm right here!"

"All the more important that I say it then, unless you're unable to understand something that simple, dog?"

"At any rate," I spoke louder this time, trying to prevent any more interruptions. I gave a quick glare at Natsuki, who at least had the decency to keep quiet this time, "I would like to formally request a favor as payment for services rendered."

"Payment, you say?"

"In my assistance against the assassination attempt against Emilia-sama." I wouldn't normally call her -sama for almost anything, but greasing up some gears was one of the exceptions.

"Oh, that whole fiasco? H~ow sure are you that that was against my charge?" Mathers narrowed his eyes in apparent scrutiny. If I was anyone else, I would've assumed that he was accusing me of being the one that hired Granhiert.

Thankfully, my situation was fairly well known across the kingdom.

"Granhiert hired a thief to steal something from Emilia-sama. It's not a leap of logic to assume that the Bowel Hunter was doing that to lead her out into the open and kill her." And it really wasn't.

The theft of whatever it was was enough for the girl to run around the entire capital. It would've only taken one wrong step, one wrong alleyway, for Granhiert to drive a blade into the candidate.

Hell, if Natsuki didn't come with his frankly bullshit protagonist timing, then it's likely we wouldn't have heard of it until after the fact.

I knew this. I knew that Mathers knew this. I just don't know if either Emilia or Natsuki just knew how lucky they were.

My presence itself was pure luck. Had Natsuki not mentioned offhand that the mass murderer wouldn't be there, then I would've been under no obligation to help. Had I not done so, then Astrea would've caved and let Natsuki handle it by himself.

Really, a lot of things had to go right for everything to come as relatively clean as it did.

And I was milking it for everything I could.

"Ind~eed!" Mathers clapped heartily, but in his eyes, beyond that facade of joviality, I could see the gears turning. As much as he looked otherwise, I had to remember that this was a man that many considered beyond human.

His abilities were considered beyond the scope of human capability. No normal person could feasibly achieve that without a mind for it. As thick as I was laying it on, as well as it would've worked on any other politician, I had no doubts that Mathers saw through it like glass.

"However," And there it was. His tone shifted to something more business-like, "You must understand that my library is filled with knowledge that I would not easily part with, even if you've done us quite the service."

I nodded. Contrary to how I phrased it to both him and Emilia previously, I knew that my access to the single most powerful magic user's library would take more than saving a life. As callous as that sounded, this was all too true.

The Mathers library was one that dated back to the original Mathers - Roswaal A. Mathers. Literal centuries worth of knowledge, right there for the taking. Not even the kings and queens of Lugunica had been able to pry it from them, despite the family technically being under them.

To them, a single life, even if that life could be the next ruler of the entire kingdom, was worth less than the knowledge stored inside that library.

As such, when I asked for my reward to be given access to the library, I already knew then that I wouldn't get it so easily. Instead, this opportunity was reward enough.

"I understand. Which is why I'm proposing that you be given copies of all the findings of my research."

An opportunity to barter.

If there was one thing that I knew about any magic user, be it Spirit Arts or what not, is that most of them were always trying to find ways to better themselves. For some, physical training. For others, academic research.

Considering his secluded nature, and only coming out when he was really needed, I figured the margrave was of the second case.

With my offer of what amounted to be a joint research venture, with me doing all the work, I was sure that he would accept it.

Greed, as was always the case, was a defining trait amongst the upper class. One that I will exploit as much as possible.

And just like that, I could see a spark of real interest in Mathers' eye. Where before, he regarded me with thinly veiled disinterest, one that I can't really fault him for since, let's be real, I'm a fucking blacksmith and not a mage. Well, as far as he knew.

"Research, you say? Would you be so kind as to elaborate, Hikigaya-san?" His smile was a bit wider, his eyes focused on me. Hook.

"I'm sorry, but that information is something I want to keep to myself. Unless of course…?" Line.

Mathers hummed as he closed his eyes in thought. It lasted for around a minute. In that time, I forced my face to remain as neutral as possible. I wasn't stupid enough to not know that he was trying to make me nervous through the wait.

Ha. Jokes on you. I've had to sit there waiting for Hiratsuka-sensei to finish reading my essays more than once. Nothing could make me as nervous as waiting for a random gut punch from the Christmas cake.

Finally, he opened his eyes, a feral smirk gracing his features, "Very vell, Hikigaya-san. I shall sponsor your own research."

"My findings will be on your desk by next week." That was a promise that I intended to do anyway. I couldn't be gone from my shop for that long, after all. As much as I trusted - wait no. No, I didn't trust either Felt or Rom to keep my shop up to my standards.

As much as one can argue that they're good people, albeit also technically being criminals, Felt was an underage thief who gets high from drinking too much milk, and Rom was a drunkard who drinks at seven in the morning, maybe even earlier than that!

Really, now that I think about it, why the fuck did I even leave my shop to those two?!

Pushing back my sudden bout of internal screaming, I breathed as Mathers continued to speak, "Although you'll have my permission to do so, you will still have to ask Beatrice for full access to the library's works."

"Beatrice?" The name was unfamiliar. I hadn't been introduced to anyone by that name. Perhaps the guard of the Mathers' library? It would make sense to have one. A library like that would've had more than one attempted theft.

The margrave's next words all but confirmed my thoughts, "Yes, she is the Spirit that protects the mansion's library. While I do technically own the library itself, it's in Beatrice's prerogative to be asked for permission as its guardian."

"I see." A Spirit as a library guard? That wouldn't exactly be a good guard, now would it? Most Spirits were only wisps that floated around everywhere. They couldn't really do anything, nor did they really want to, not without a Spirit Arts user casting spells with them.

Was that just another of Mathers' abilities? To have a contracted spirit be capable of defense without him? Hell, just the idea that the man was also a Spirit Arts user was absurd. If he was, then that's just another title added onto the already long list.

"Alright, Hikigaya-san!"

I couldn't hold back the sigh in annoyance. Somehow, Natsuki managed to ruin the serious atmosphere that had started to echo in the room. An atmosphere that I liked, by the way.

"Don't worry, I'll help you look for Beako later!" For fuck's sake, he hasn't even met the Spirit and he's already given them a nickname. I just pray that whoever's listening that they don't take offense and kick us out when Natsuki inevitably opens his damn mouth.

Once more, Mathers displayed his patience by laughing off Natsuki's words. The margrave turned his attention fully to the boy, "Subaru Natsuki. You, I assume, are here to also ask for a reward?"

The NEET put one hand on his hip, before pointing towards Mathers, a confident look on his face, "Yep, got it in one!"

…That's it. We're both going to get kicked out, our asses wiped on the floor, with nothing to show for. Not by Mathers, no. But by his maids. Where they had been placated earlier by the margrave, now, they had started to almost literally foam at the mouth.

See, what this dumbass needed wasn't a damn reward. It was to learn some basic fucking etiquette. You don't just point at nobility, nor do you do any of the dozen or so things that Natsuki kept on doing. And yet, this single moment was perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back.

An introduction was somewhat fine, if a bit out of the norm and gross to watch. A point straight at a man that was on a higher social standing than you? You'd be lucky to be eaten alive by the politician in question.

What Natsuki just did wasn't just the equivalent of not bowing to your boss in Japanese culture. It was ignoring everything he said to you, acting like you do at home, without any social grace whatsoever.

The more that Natsuki does things like this, the more that the 'why was he a NEET' was being formed in my mind. There's no way that someone like this would be socially acceptable to normal, reserved Japanese school kids. Sure, there were the outliers like the chuunis, but Natsuki hasn't made any indication that he was a part of that little club.

"Give me a job! Maybe as a butler or something!"

Intelligence comes in many flavors. You could be intelligent in one area, and be complete and utter trash in the other. You could be like myself, where I excelled in Modern Japanese, but suck ass in math.

Granted, I eventually fixed my mathematics deficiency out of necessity, but not everyone could be like that.

Case in point, Subaru Natsuki.

I don't think he's smart in the traditional way. He's never given any indication that he's had any schooling beyond highschool, and even then, he seems like the type of guy to just get the bare minimum to pass.

However, there's moments where he's made the best possible thing he could do, regardless of it being the option that the fewest people would think of.

Natsuki could've asked for almost anything he wanted. He could've asked to be taught magic, be given a shit ton of money, laze around as a guest in the mansion. A whole load of other desires that were so intrinsically human, that I wouldn't have batted an eye if he asked for all of those combined.

And yet, it was him asking for a job that took me aback.

For the longest time, I hated working. To work was to lose, after all. But that was in context for the modern Japanese economy that I would've been part of. A cog in the machine, forced to comply with whatever my boss would want.

Where some days, you would've done nothing, waiting for the slow, agonizing pace of your company to do something.

Work like that was designed to suck the life out of you. I'd rather been a househusband than be subjected to that.

But here, in this world, that was not an option. I needed to work to feed myself, that was unchanged. The work itself was what was different.

Despite all my grumblings, all my complaints, all of the damn monologues that go through my head during it, this was work I enjoyed doing.

The sight of a sword being made right in front of me was a sight I'll always be satisfied with. The feeling of accomplishment, pride that I feel whenever someone buys even just a single blade was enough. A job well done. A genuine bit of work that I did.

Heh. If only Yukinoshita could see me now. She'd look at me like I was some sort of damn imposter.

All that to say, when I looked at Natsuki, I didn't see someone who was trying to feed himself. That was trying to find work for the sake of it.

I saw someone that was genuine in his desire to work. There was a look in his eye that I've never seen, a look of determination and concentration that I didn't expect from the kid.

It was like looking into a mirror, to a version of myself that was just being taken in by that blacksmith.

It was why, when he asked for a job, despite it being beyond rude, beyond stupid, beyond what a reasonable human being would ask for without any preamble, I stayed quiet. I stayed quiet as Mathers only gave a small laugh and accepted the boy into his service.

Who was I to deny someone like that?

And so, after Natsuki started celebrating with Emilia, I calmly walked through the hallways in silence.

Natsuki, though I still found him as annoying as all hell, was a person that sought something genuine. He hadn't found it yet, but he was determined to do so.

I could respect that much.

A/N: If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.

And a special thanks to: Oliver vazquez, brutalcrab and Tassimo. All the best.