Chapter 107: Catching Up (Part 2)
Becca laughed when she learned why I was jealous. "Yeah, it would have been much nicer with you. How could he say he liked me and all I did was respectfully reject him and then years later he starts insulting me unprovoked? It seems like his and my definitions of liking someone are very different. How can you like someone from just playing a game once a day? To like someone you need to really know and understand their true self…"
I couldn't help but chuckle, "actually Becca, I think you were just a very mature child haha. When I was a kid, I also had little crushes on girls I played with just because playing with them was fun. Of course now in the present, I understand what it takes for two people to start liking each other and making the foundation for a lifetime together, but for me it took a lot of trial and error to learn. My difference from your childhood friend is that I would never think of insulting a girl that simply rejected me many years ago when we were dumb kids."
Becca learned her head against my shoulder. "I guess that means it was good we didn't meet as childhood friends because I would have rejected you quickly and that would be the end of that. All your past experiences are what made you mature enough to be a good husband now…I just wish you could have been as mature as me as a kid and you wouldn't have had to be with so many other girls…"
"Haha, if I was that mature as a kid, I would have already settled down with someone long ago. Let's just be happy that fate put us together at the perfect time. Because truthfully, if I came to this world a single day before our wedding, I would have cancelled the engagement before the wedding and we would have no reason to ever see each other again or try to get along."
Becca's eyes widdened in shock when she realized how perfect the timing of the transmigration was to giving us our current happy relationship. "Let's stop thinking about alternate realities that are worse than the actual life we have!"
"Haha yeah, I think we got too far off topic. So how did you beat your childhood friend? With some long distance water streams?"
Becca got up from my shoulder so she could illustrate how her fight went. "No, I made a rule that we could only use ice magic so that I could test my ice against someone with experience. I tried to do some skating to avoid any projectiles. He tried to knock me over with sudden ice walls, but my practice payed off and I didn't fall.
Instead of using projectiles like I thought, he used an ice sword for close combat. He overpowered me once or twice, but the last time I increased the length of my sword to get more leverage like you told me once and it gave me enough boost in power to knock the sword out of his hands and then knock him out!"
When I was talking about leverage I was thinking about a wrench tightening bolts, but I'm glad it helped her out in combat too. I leaned over to give her a hug. "That's great Becca! You were able to beat an intermediate water mage with only your ice. You really have a knack for battle and coming up with things on the fly! I'm confident that you will pass the Royal mage exams with flying colors!"
Becca burried her head into my chest. "Thanks Nick, I wish you could have seen it in person…how did things go with my Father? I hope your inventions were a success."
"It actually went really well! I was able to help construct an I-beam and show off how much better it is than the currently used solid square beams. Everyone was surprised by how good it was."
"That's great!"
"Yeah, my dream someday is to design the first multistory steel building and have it on our manor property, so we can have it custom designed for what we like."
"That sounds fun. I would love to sit in our bedroom and watch you work on the design at night. Maybe I'll even come up with an idea or two."
I lovingly patted Becca head. "Someday in the future when we are not busy."
"So what about the springs? I know you were least confident about those..."
"That actually went well too. I was not sure about making the springs, but it was actually pretty easy for the researchers that had being working with steel for so many years. They already made around 15 springs by the time we finished for the day. They just need to keep doing trial and error before they find a recipe for springs that are good enough to sell to the public. I'm hoping we can have a coil spring suspension on our carriage in a month or two."
"It's good that you were worried for nothing! Now for the most important question…what kind of deal did you end up agreeing to? I hope you weren't too nice just because he was my Father…"
"I made sure to stick to my guns this time because I knew you were worried about it and honestly we will be needing a lot of money for our future plans. The final deal was that we will be get 60% of the profit for all I-beams and coil spring suspension systems sold. We will also be getting 5 copper coins for every unit of a product your Father's company sells that uses a spring. Finally, we will have the rights to collect the tree sap from all the maple trees in the County."
Becca, with her arms wrapped around my back, looked up at me with a big smile on her face. "Nick! You did a really good job! You not only got the 60% profit I thought was fair, but that 5 copper coins for each unit will add up fast! And we can produce and sell syrup ourselves now that we have access to such a big supply of tree sap!"
I smirked seeing how excited Becca was. "I had a little score to set with your Father, so I made sure to hurt his pockets a little more. He is going to make a ton of money off of this deal anyways, so he can't complain."
Becca's head tilted, "score to settle with my Father?"
"You will see soon when we have dinner with the family. Your Father has a lot to say to all of you."
Realizing that I wasn't going to say anymore, Becca nodded her head. "Alright, let me finish up getting ready and we can head to dinner."
"By the way, you are going to wear that simple outfit this time? We aren't going to try to dress up extra fancy like yesterday?"
Becca smirked, "because I don't have to impress my brother anymore. He has already accepted me."
I gave Becca a high five. "That's great! I'll go change real quick to something casual and we can go."
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