MTL - Don’t Confiscate My Citizenship

 Chapter 3 Lan Qi knows how to play with contracts

Even though the golden color of dusk has long since completely disappeared, the night view of the city-state illuminated by lights still appears as beautiful as before.

 Beside the ancient buildings on both sides, pedestrians dressed in various clothes had leisurely smiles on their faces.

 The corner of a residential area a few hundred meters away from the city gate.

There was no other light except the torches placed by the guards on the walls and the lamps coming out of the windows of the residents.

 After Lanci's eyes adjusted to the darkness, he slowly approached his destination.

 He could see something crouched under the wall at the corner of the street—in fact, there were many crouched creatures.

 A fragile-looking guy shivering from the cold.

Lanchi continued walking towards that place, and he could hear the sounds of those lives.

 “Meow~meow~”

 Stop, squat down, and open the lunch box in his hand.

Just by doing this, the fragrance begins to spread.

 When Lan Qi threw the cooked chicken on the ground not far away, kittens gradually began to approach him.

 At this moment.

He didn't seem to notice at all. Not far across the street, there was a figure sitting against the wall. She looked like a homeless person in a slum.

Although this street corner is not a good place, it is lonely and there are only some wild cats.

 But there were no other vagabonds, and there were few guards.

Thalia hates humans, so this place makes her more comfortable.

No one would have thought that such a girl dressed as a refugee could be a former demon princess.

 Time passed like this.

　　Nearly all the kittens around him were attracted to Lan Qi.

Lanqi watched the cats eating with a happy face.

 He learned from the housekeeper that Thalia had been sleeping on the streets here for the past two days.

So Lan Qi asked the chef at home to prepare a sufficient amount of special aromatic chicken for him before dinner. Cats can eat it and it tastes more delicious to people.

 Then a little later, I deliberately found this place to pretend to feed the cat.

　　　…”

　　Although in these few minutes, Lan Qi never looked at Thalia.

 But Thalia had already noticed this human who rashly broke into her "territory" early.

If he just stayed here honestly, Thalia might treat him like air.

 But why would that **** human feed such high-grade meat to wild cats?

Looking back on her years of eating and sleeping in the open, Thalia could only come to the conclusion that even the cats ate better than her.

 Finally, she couldn't help but look towards Lan Qi.

But due to her dignity, she seemed unable to say any words of rebuke for a while.

 Can only stare at Lanqi with a death gaze.

 But Lan Qi still didn't seem to notice her for a long time.

 “Can you go somewhere else to feed the cat?”

 She opened her mouth and said coldly.

Lan Qi raised his head in a daze and looked blankly in the direction of the voice. After seeming to roughly understand the situation, he responded calmly:

 “I come to this place more often than you.”

He is just like declaring his sovereignty, stating the fact that "he often feeds cats here".

Hearing this, Thalia snorted coldly and ignored him.

 Because this human being did not lie.

Lan Qi didn’t say anything more.

 What he just said was indeed true.

 As a native of this town, he came to this place more diligently than Thalia.

Thalia had just arrived in this town not long ago, so she naturally wouldn’t have seen whether Lanqi had come here to feed the cats in the past few days.

But Thalia is stubborn.

She hated Lan Qi, but she was also unwilling to walk away and give up the place where she had been for two days.

 Whoever gives in at this time will look like she has lost.

So she sat in the corner, enduring her hunger while trying to fall asleep.

 It went on like this for a while.

"Can you give me a hand?"

Lan Qi's cold voice sounded in the quiet street.

Thalia raised her head slightly and looked in the direction of Lanqi to make sure he was talking to her.

"What?"

Thalia originally wanted nothing to do with him.

 But according to the rules of the human kingdom, since someone asks her for help, she must be rewarded.

 She needs all kinds of remuneration now.

 “Help me feed the cat and don’t let the big cat bully the kitten. I’m sleepy and want to go home and sleep.”

After speaking, Lan Qi raised the box in his hand and added,

 “He who has many will return to you.”

　　　…”

Thalia was silent.

  If it is not a charity but a transaction, she can consider it.

However, for demons, it is extremely important to abide by the rules of the transaction.

 It’s even a matter of their dignity.

The more noble the devil, the more he would rather die than break the rules of the transaction.

Even if this human doesn’t know she is a demon.

But as a member of the demon royal family, even if she really starves herself to death, she will never violate the rules of the transaction and covet even a little more of the kitten's food.

 She counted the cats in her mind, making sure that she should still be able to eat some chicken in the end.

"make a deal."

Thalia had no problem accepting the deal.

Although she doesn’t quite understand what kind of happiness humans can get from feeding cats.

Lan Qi temporarily closed the lunch box, put it on the ground, stood up, stretched his back, and left leisurely.

 …

 The next morning, there was a wealthy businessman's house in this town.

Today is another day of self-discipline. I got up early and left home after breakfast.

The plants in the courtyard seemed to be given a layer of mist by the rising sun, and canaries were singing in the surrounding trees.

　　Can't help but make Lan Qi feel happy while walking in the yard.

However, he stopped as soon as he walked out of the courtyard.

 Because he saw Thalia sitting across the street, as if squatting on him.

 But he was not panicked at all.

It's unlikely that Thalia would have figured out what he was doing so quickly.

Thalia, who was in the distance, quickly arrived in front of Lan Qi, and behind Lan Qi, the guards standing at the door of the mansion suddenly became alert.

Lanqi raised his hand to signal the guards not to be nervous.

 There's no point being nervous. If she wants to go on a killing spree, no one here can stop her.

"Box."

 She just raised her hand and handed the lunch box containing last night's chicken to Lan Qi.

She found Lan Qi so quickly because she could learn about the deeds of this young man with a bad reputation by just asking around for the "black-haired, green-eyed boy" in this town.

However, she always felt that the rich young man that the humans in the town said was a little inconsistent with the young man she saw with her own eyes.

Although he looks a little stupid and lazy, at least he doesn't look like a bad-tempered human being.     “You can sell it, I have no intention of getting it back.”

Lan Qi looked at her doubtfully.

 Sell the high-end tableware at home and get at least half a pound.

 “This is outside the transaction.”

Thalia said expressionlessly.

Lan Qi nodded after hearing this and reached out to take the box.

This demon princess must have put in a lot of effort to disguise herself as a human, and she strictly followed the rules of human society.

Before Lanci could say anything else, Thalia turned around without stopping and left indifferently.

 “Didn’t you eat much?”

Lanci looked at Thalia, who was left with only his dark gray cloak back, and asked.

 “I delivered on our end of the bargain.”

Thalia said without looking back.

 “That’s it.”

Lan Qi lowered his head, looked at the box and said to himself.

This demon seems to emphasize that this is a "deal" rather than a "favor".

Her arrogance does not allow anyone to give her charity, and she does not want to repay any kindness. She knows very well that free things are actually the most expensive.

Then his little plan of giving Talia a favor was shattered.

 Even the boxes that might become "favor traps" were returned as soon as possible.

Lan Qi sighed and handed the lunch box in his hand to the guard beside him.

 As expected, it is far from easy to offset the "hatred with her" by "granting favors to Thalia".

but.

 At present, all this is within his expectation.

 Lanqi signaled to the guards following him not to be on guard, and that he was going to talk to the lady alone.

The guards did not dare to say anything and followed Lan Qi's instructions to guard the door of the mansion.

　　Ranchi then jogged and caught up with Thalia.

Thalia turned her head and looked at the human who came to her again, her expression became a little confused.

She didn't understand what this guy who seemed to have a high status but was weak wanted to do.

“I would like to propose another deal to you, and I will use my family’s reputation to guarantee that it is fair.”

 Lanchi preached respectfully and politely.

Thalia's golden eyes stared at Lanqi, as if she wanted to look into his pupils.

  It’s not a lie.

 She has the magic ability to judge the authenticity of the other party's words.

  And have had one trading experience.

 It seems that this wealthy human is not too bad, and should be able to give her the reward she needs now.

"tell me the story."

Thalia stopped and responded.

“As for the transaction, I hope you don’t ask me why.”

 Lan Qi’s expression became a little serious.

 Thalia nodded.

 She didn't need to explore much because no one could fool her with lies.

"There is a guy in this town who wants to kill me. So I want to entrust you to help me pay attention to whether there are suspicious people near my home, help me eliminate danger, and protect me. I will give you corresponding rewards."

Lanchi looked a little embarrassed and looked directly at Thalia without concealing the worry in his eyes.

 “It’s not that difficult.”

After listening to Lanqi’s suggestion, Talia was convinced that what he said was true.

“Your family should be very rich and powerful in this town, and there should be no shortage of people in the house who can protect you.”

 She thought for a while, then looked at the not-so-weak guard in the distance, and raised her doubts about Lan Qi.

“Because the killer may be around me, I can’t absolutely trust anyone around me, so I need as much and reliable insurance as possible.”

Lanchi looks like he is particularly fond of Thalia.

His eyes made no secret of his admiration for Thalia, because of Thalia's honest behavior of returning the box, and her lack of prejudice against him because of his identity, status or rumors.

“So you think I am more reliable than the guards around you?”

Thalia seems to have acquiesced in the fact that she is not weak.

 She understood that Lan Qi had the unique vision of some shrewd businessmen.

 “Relatively speaking, yes.”

 Lanqi nodded.

 “It’s expensive to hire me.”

Thalia just said this.

 She has been judging the truth or falsehood of every word spoken by this human being.

 But he has never told a lie to her so far.

 Among all the humans she has met so far, this is rare.

According to her judgment, he should be an honest, upright and kind-hearted human being, and would be a good trading partner.

“It’s three pounds a day, and this agreement will be in effect as long as you stay in this city.”

Ranchi had already taken out a check book with the words "Wilford Chamber of Commerce" and a pen from his pocket.

It seemed that the one-pound and half-pound coins were too troublesome for him to carry around.

 Generally, 30 pounds is enough for an ordinary family in the Nanwantina Border Territory of the Kingdom of Hutton to live for a year.

Thalia was obviously stunned.

It wasn’t just Lan Qi’s rich temperament that impressed him.

 For her, who had not encountered the unit of currency "pound" for a long time, and was still a black household in the kingdom, this was a business that was difficult to refuse.

 However, she has absolute confidence in her own strength.

 So this is not a "favor", but a "transaction".

 The most important thing is that she also has the initiative to terminate the deal, and it will not affect her freedom.

"…make a deal."

Thalia whispered.

 “Then I’ll trouble you.”

Lanchi handed the checkbook and pen directly to Thalia, leaving her stunned again.

Thalia looked down at the check in her hand thoughtfully.

Does it mean, let me fill in the numbers on it every day and then cash it out?

 He is indeed a rich and generous human being.

 There are also many qualities such as kindness and integrity.

However, this kind of human being is often the least compatible with their demon clan.

 …

At this time, Lan Qi turned around and walked towards the street on the other side.

The corners of his mouth twitched, and he could hardly hold back his smile.

Thalia still doesn’t know that the person who wants to kill Lan Qi is herself.

 Even if Talia discovers the truth that Lan Qi hunted down her familiar, she will not be able to attack Lan Qi.

 Because she must follow such a rule—

“As long as she is in this city, she must protect Lan Qi and get 3 pounds a day”!

 (End of this chapter)