God Of Crafting

Chapter 52: Now that I'm your clan's slave, how about we talk?

"Here are the papers," Claire announced in a formal tone as she passed me a stack of documents roughly the side of my old type of personal computer.

"You can read through all of it if you want, but all the important bits are on the first seven pages. The rest is just the codification of the business relationship between my father's estate and our company designed to match the laws of both material and spiritual worlds."

There were quite a few points drawing my attention in what Claire said so far... but one thing stuck out more than all the others.

Contrary to what one would expect from this scene, it wasn't anything law, contract, or business-related. Instead...

'Our company?' I thought, only for a small smile to appear on my lips as I looked up and locked stares with the girl.

"What?" Claire asked, squinting her eyes when she noticed my stare.

"Our company?" I asked out loud, opting to go through with the small tease I planned out in my head.

"Huh?" Claire nearly jumped, taken aback by the nature of my protest. "Are you really that petty to be catching my words like that?" she then asked, her face filling with a look of distant disappointment.

"Wait, no," I quickly shook my head, taken aback by the way she spun the situation. "It was the other way around! I was hap..."

With my eyes already locked on the girl, I just couldn't miss the small twitch of her mouth that just momentarily formed a small grin on her face.

"Wait..." I muttered as the girl quickly recollected herself and retook the reins over her facial muscles. "You are playing with me!"

At first, Claire opened up her eyes wide and puffed up her chest while straightening her back and raising her chin, all in a bid to make herself look bigger and more serious...

Only for her serious expression to collapse when it broke into a genuine smile of amusement. A smile with a proper dose of warmth in her eyes.

"Just a tiny little bit?" Claire excused herself, her smile only growing wider on her face.

"If so, then I'm happy again," I bounced the ball back, refusing to give in even an inch in this battle of who could tease the other more.

"That's one hell of a topic to pick out for an ice-breaker," Claire sighed, her face revealing that I either made quite the mistake by bringing this question up... Or maybe, proving that I hit a jackpot of a story that while obviously lengthy, would reveal not only Chihiro's reasons but also motivation behind those.

"Should we talk about something else, then?" I suggested while leaning my head over to the side.

If Claire wasn't comfortable talking about this topic, I had no plans of forcing her to do so.

At least, not during the very first full day of our shaky cohabitation!

"No, it's actually fine, just... It's a long story," Claire stated as she put all of the papers out of her arms and back on the table. She then stretched her hands out and took a step... Only to suddenly wobble in the air as if she lost her footing.

'Shit!'

Following nothing but my instincts, I jumped out of my chair and grabbed the girl by her waist, all just to make sure she wouldn't topple down on her feet.

"Thanks..." Claire muttered as she stabilized her footing. "It seems that I'm..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Claire wobbled again, as if unable to keep her hips properly stabilized... Only to end up falling down on me and pushing us both onto my chair.

"Are you okay?!" I cried out right away, my hands already moving Claire's hair to ensure she didn't hit her head anywhere.

"Y-yeah, I just..." she put on an embarrassed smile, "I just lost stability for a second, so I should be okay now..."

"No, you are not," I denied her attempt at standing up, grasping down at her shoulder before pulling her right back down onto my lap. "Just sit still for now. You don't need to be across the table for us to talk, do you?"

Claire hesitated a little bit at first, not exactly comfortable with taking my lap for a seat. Ultimately, however, she swallowed her objections and regathered her thoughts while lifting her fist to her mouth and clearing her throat.

"For you to understand my father's motives..."

'She moved on that quick?' I thought, taken aback by how swiftly Claire managed to pass over the issue of sitting down on my lap, and moved ahead to the actual topic of our conversation.

"...I need to start all the way at the beginning of my own story. What you likely are not aware of, in certain circles, I'm hailed as the bastard daughter of the clan's great elder," Claire revealed, only for her face to grow darker as she seemed to shrivel down on my lap. "But it's not my father that this title refers to."