Magical Tool Master Dahlia Never Compromises ~ Starting Today: Life as a Freelancer ~

"Everyone's busy today. The negotiation requires two witnesses from the Commerce Guild. Could I be one of them?"

“…Okay, thank you.”

As a novice magic tool maker, she had no right to refuse the vice-guild master.

Dahlia agreed without thinking.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Tobias entered the meeting room at two o'clock sharp.

In addition to Dahlia, the guild's witnesses and notary were also present.

Tobias and Dahlia sat across from each other at a large table, with a witness sitting next to each of them and the notary sitting a seat away from them.

"Next, we will proceed with the termination of the marriage contract and the settlement of the joint account, regarding your marriage contract certificate. The two witnesses from the guild will be Vice President Gabriela Jedda and I, the contract administrator, Ivano Badoer."

Ivano introduced himself and nodded in greeting with Gabriela. Gabriela sat next to Dahlia, and Ivano sat next to Tobias.

"The notary public will be me, Dominic Kempfa."

The white-haired old man also nodded in greeting.

Dominic is the notary with the longest tenure in the Chamber of Commerce and has the largest caseload.

Dahlia's father and Tobias's father also always entrusted him with things.

"Before we can terminate this contract, we must first settle the joint account you two use to accept guild orders. Mr. Tobias Orlando and Ms. Dalia Rossetti have a total of forty gold coins in their joint account. Do you agree to split this amount in half, with each taking twenty gold coins?"

After Dahlia and Tobias agreed, Ivanor opened the cloth bag next to the account documents.

He placed a piece of blue cloth in front of each of them and put twenty gold coins on it.

Twenty gold coins were equivalent to two million yen. This was the profit they made from the original magical tools they registered with the guild, as well as the income from commissioned products.

While most people might think this amount of money is quite high, the cost of materials and research for magic tools is considerable, so a magic tool maker must save more. Furthermore, since there is no insurance in this world, this amount of money must also be used as an emergency fund for illness or injury.

"Next is the stipulation regarding breaking off the engagement in the marriage contract. 'The party who breaks off the engagement must pay the other party twelve gold coins as compensation.' Who is to pay this?"

"I am."

Tobias changed his self-proclaimed name from "I" to "Your Highness" and said so.

Then he muttered, "Twelve gold coins."

Dahlia didn't know whether he thought the compensation was expensive or cheap.

"Then please pay Miss Dahlia twelve gold coins. Mr. Tobias, could this be deducted from the amount just settled?"

"Can."

Twelve of the twenty gold coins were moved to Dahlia's side.

"Next, let's talk about the contract for building a new home during the engagement. The total price of the house is one hundred gold coins. Mr. Tobias and Ms. Dahlia each contributed fifty, and the house is now owned jointly. You can each split the proceeds of the sale, or if one of you wishes to continue to own the house, you must pay the amount the other contributed. What do you think?"

"I wish to own the house."

Tobias said this as a matter of course, and Dahlia remained silent.

"Okay, then please pay Miss Dahlia fifty gold coins."

After Ivano finished speaking, Tobias took out twenty gold coins from his bag, placed them next to the eight gold coins in front of him, and then pushed the whole piece of blue cloth in front of Dahlia.

"Dalia, please wait for the rest of the money. I don't have enough money on hand, but I'll pay you back as soon as I make some."

"What?"

The one who raised the questioning sound wasn't Dalia, but Ivano, who was sitting next to Tobias. Gabriella then added:

"The owner of the property cannot be changed until the payment is made."

"Okay, I'll give the difference directly to Dahlia later. Once I get Dahlia's permission, I can go to the town hall to change the ownership of the house, right?"

"..."

Dahlia was speechless.

She actually wanted to borrow money from her ex-marriage partner so she could move into her new home with her cheating partner. Where in the world could you find someone like that?

He hadn't even asked privately, but in the presence of witnesses and a notary from the Chamber of Commerce, he had stated with a matter-of-fact air that he wanted to borrow money. How could such an idiot exist?

Unfortunately, such a person is right in front of us.

She couldn't see the Tobias she knew as the same person as the man before her.

Dominic, who was sitting at the same table, coughed loudly twice.

"Changing ownership before full payment is made could easily lead to disputes, so it's best not to do that... What do you think?"

"Please change the owner after payment is made."

Of course, Dahlia firmly refused.

"This is really bothering me! I promised Emilia that I could move in right away!"

There was a moment of silence.

Tobias accidentally let something slip and was so flustered that he didn't know what to say next.

A big question mark appeared on Ivano's face, and he wondered what this person was talking about.

Gabriella had a beautiful smile on her lips, but there was no smile in her eyes.

Dominic remained calm, but his hands gripped the document so tightly that his fingertips turned white.

Dalia watched everyone's reactions and tried hard to remove the tainted memories of the engagement from her mind.

"Mr. Orlando is a man of credit. The Merchant Guild can lend you money."

Gabriela was the first to break the silence.

She turned to Tobias, who was still at a loss, and smiled seductively with her red lips.

She didn't call Tobias by his first name, but by his last name, Orlando, which must have been intentional.

"You still need money for work, so just make monthly installments. Since you're starting to live with someone new, you'll be disliked if you don't properly 'settle' your past relationship."

“…Excuse me for bothering you…”

Tobias said in a mosquito-like voice.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

After filling out the documents related to breaking off the engagement and the loan documents, Tobias fled from the meeting room.

This conference room is right next to the counter, and the sounds inside can be clearly heard from outside.

What Tobias said just now might become a topic of conversation over drinks for some people tonight.

Dahlia held her aching head and finally stood up.

After thanking the three people present, she was about to leave the meeting room.

"Excuse me, Miss Dahlia, I have a question that may be a bit rude..."

The mustard-haired man stopped organizing the documents and spoke softly.

"It's alright, Mr. Ivano, please."

"Tobias has always been that kind of white... no, that kind of person?"

Dahlia knew in her heart that what he meant was "such an idiot."

She couldn't help but look into the distance.

"I just found out today too..."

"Um, are you okay?"

"I can't say I'm completely fine... but there's nothing I can do about this kind of thing, so let it go. Thinking about being able to freely craft magical tools later, I think I should be able to get through this."

She said this while thinking, but it was her true feelings.

"Ms. Dahlia, you've worked hard."

Dominic was the next to speak.

"No, I should be thanking you, Mr. Dominic."

"While this is regrettable, don't be too depressed."

"Okay, it's okay."

"Your father took great care of me. I thought I would leave first, but he beat me to it, leaving me with no chance to repay him. If you have any troubles, you can always come to me for consultation, even if it's not a notarial commission."

"I will, thank you."

"Ms. Dahlia, if you're really feeling down, don't go through it alone. You have friends and colleagues around you, so you should talk to them. You can even talk to me."

"Yes……"

Dominic's gentle, low voice reminded Dahlia of her father. His concern was something she was grateful for at this moment.

"That completes the formalities. What are your plans for later?"

"I need to go to my new house first and ask someone to help me move my furniture back."

"Will someone help you unpack after the move? I can send someone over if you need."

"No, that's fine. We just moved the furniture out this morning. We can just put it back later. It's easy to organize."

Gabriella nodded after hearing Dahlia's answer and opened the door completely.

The staff who were staring at the conference room then looked away were a little funny to Dalia.

Gabriella slowly turned around and gave Dahlia an elegant smile.

"By the way, I want to say congratulations to you. It's actually a good thing that you were jilted."

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

When Dahlia went down to the first floor of the Chamber of Commerce, Marcella was already waiting for her there.

He was accompanied by two men from the Transport Guild.

All three wore bright green armbands for transporting guild members. The color green is said to represent "movements as swift and light as the wind."

"Dalia, are all the formalities completed?"

"Yes, everything is done. We can leave immediately."

"Then we'll go help you move."

They immediately boarded a large carriage and headed for her new home.

It is called a carriage, but it is actually pulled by a gray eight-legged horse..

Octopuses are much stronger than ordinary horses, so they are often used by transport guilds to pull carts. They are 1.5 times the size of ordinary horses, but look surprisingly gentle, with lovely black eyes.

It only took a few minutes by carriage to reach the new home.

Tobias originally chose to build his new home near the Merchant Guild and the Chamber of Commerce in his hometown of Orlando so that he could transport goods and negotiate with people, but all this meant nothing to Dahlia.

Fortunately, no one was home. Dalia breathed a sigh of relief and began to check the luggage and furniture.

"I haven't unpacked the boxes in the hallway and workroom yet, nor the luggage you helped me move. Please move out immediately."

Until last week, Tobias worked in the workshop at Dahlia's house.

Tobias took advantage of the move to completely replace all his equipment with new ones, while Dahlia preferred to keep her familiar gear and brought her old stuff with her to her new home. They hadn't even unpacked it yet, so they just moved it in.

"Your furniture is just a wardrobe and a dressing table, right?"

"Yes, there's nothing in there yet."

The wardrobe and dressing table were left by her mother, but she didn't even know what her mother looked like. To her, those were more like her father's treasured furniture.

Both were placed in the room originally intended for Dahlia to use.

"Okay. Move everything that's still unpacked, and cover the wardrobe and dresser with two layers of cloth."

Under Marcella's instructions, two deliverymen began to prepare the fabric.

"Is there anything else you want to move?"

"I bought the bed for the bedroom, but Green Tower already has one... What should I do?"

"Tear it down and move it, or sell it. Selling it to Tobias is also fine."