Reborn as a witch in another world [slice of life, isekai] (ch. 90)
Blurb:
What does it take to turn your life around? Death, of course!
I died in this lame ass world of ours and woke up in a completely new one. I had a new name, a new face and a new body. This was my second chance to live a better life than the previous one.
But goddamn it, why did I have to be a witch? Now I don't just have to be on the run from the Inquisition that wants to burn me and my friends. But I also have to earn a living?
Follow Elsa Grimly as she:
- Makes new friends and tries to save them and herself from getting burned
- Finds redemption from the deeds of her previous life
- Tries to get along with a cat who (like most cats) believes she runs the world
- Deals with other slice of life shenanigans.
--
Chapter 90. A Fair Deal
Myrtle rode the steam carriage with us, awkwardly silent. It was understandable. Her life had turned on a dime in an evening. I knew a bit about what that felt like. It could be intense so I didn’t hold it against her. We accompanied Eugene home. “I hope you deliver on what we had decided earlier,” I said as I stood at his doorstep.
“I will,” he said.
“We'll set up a meeting in a week then,” I said.
“I’ll see you there.” He nodded and went back into his house. We had Wilkerson drop us off at the train station. I made sure to give him another warning about staying in line and not going back to his old ways. He nodded quickly and said, “I won't, boss. You can count on me.” He snapped a rigid salute, his nervousness was visible.
“Now bark like a dog,” Lily said.
“Woof!”
“Good inspector!” Lily clapped her hands.
I sighed and gave Wilkerson a piece of paper that had Beth Lewis's address written on it. “If anything worth informing happens, send me a telegram on that address.”
“Absolutely boss.” He snapped another salute.
“Now roll over on the floor,” Lily said.
Wilkerson looked bewildered but was preparing to follow the command.
“Don't roll around on the ground, Wilkerson. Just go home.” I sighed.
“Yes boss.” He turned to leave after another salute.
Lily groaned a bit about the Centennial Express not running from Ironwatch and we boarded the first train we could find going to Orowen at this time. Myrtle was coming with us and she just followed us nervously.
As we took our seats she finally spoke up. “Um, you said I was going to be working for you…what is my job going to be?”
“For now, your job is to be loyal to us and not to pull anything smart with me,” I said. “Think of me as someone who saved you from hell. I can send you back there just as easily.” Technically, I wasn't lying.
Myrtle froze in her seat. “I-I won't cause you any trouble.” She said with a tone of sincerity and fear. I listened to her abyss. I almost didn’t need to. Her thoughts were quite predictable. Did I just leave one gang to become a part of another?
I didn't bother trying to clear up her doubts. This was still her probation period. It was better to let her be scared of us, let her be on her toes. Once I knew I could trust her and her skill, I would make it clear to her that she didn't need to be afraid.
Lily was starting to yawn. Smokewell was already asleep. I gently eased her on the seat and rose up. I went and stood by the door to gaze at the passing scenery through the square window. I was starting to consider our next move when I noticed two reflections in the glass standing behind me. It was Lily and the cat was on her shoulder.
“I thought you two were tired,” I said.
“Not too tired,” Lily said. “I was just pretending to nap.”
I looked back at Myrtle. She was still in her seat, her head against the window, probably asleep, maybe looking out at the scenery too.
“I don't think she is going to jump out of the speeding train. So we don't need to worry,” Smokewell said.
I smiled wryly.
“Miss Elsa…aren't we going…a bit fast?” Lily said. “We partnered up with Cuthbert, asked him to tell his friends about us, then recruited Wilkerson. Then Myrtle. We aren't rushing through this, are we?”
“I would say we aren't fast enough,” I said. “We are racing against an organization that has been preparing for this time for God knows how long. Sooner or later, we are going to collide like two asteroids. I don't want to be the one that gets shattered on impact.”
“That doesn't mean we are supposed to burn away before that collision even happens,” Smokewell said.
They were right. It felt like we were making haste but time was of essence. I couldn't trust Hopper all that much. I needed a more reliable source inside the Internal Police who could keep me informed about their activities in case of an emergency. And a crafter was an essential part of an adventurer's guild. I knew I might've rushed to recruit them but I could do it with enough certainty because of the corpse blood in my eyes. I knew those two won't be blindsiding me so easily.
“We need this,” I said. “In a week, we will be facing the potential investors of the guild. We need to have a structure up and running to sell them on what we intend to create. The Order of the Unseen have their network of influence and they are using it. We need to create a network of our own too.”
“And how are we going to do that?” Smokewell said.
“The investors are all businessmen. Which means they want to see any opportunity for profits,” I say. “We'll have to raid the dungeon under Cynthia and Rowland's house. We have to bring back something valuable and have Myrtle craft something even more valuable out of it. And we need to get the taverns running too.”
“Rowland and Cynthia must be done with the property in Noblegate,” Lily said. “We'll need to be done with the construction job soon.”
“Getting seven buildings working in a week?” Smokewell said. “Are we going to grind the fairies again?”
I grinned. “Of course. We’ll also need to have at least a couple of other adventurers diving into the dungeons with us.”
“Lily and I’ll handle that,” Smokewell said. “You should talk to the fairies. Try to negotiate a good deal from them.”
I grinned wider. “Oh, I’ll make an offer they can’t refuse,” I said.
--
The four of us parted ways when the train arrived at Orowen. Lily and Smokewell took Myrtle away to get her a room at a better inn and maybe a few new sets of clothes. We could've put her in our house but we were already having the Radcliff siblings staying over because their mansion had been destroyed. We had already promised our landlord to pay extra rent for them. It felt a bit awkward to ask to accommodate another temporary tenant so quickly.
I bought a newspaper at the station and stopped at a cafe for some tea and crumpets. As I waited for my order to arrive, I opened the newspaper. I found what I was expecting. Another mysterious monster appearing out of nowhere in another city. I sighed and skimmed the rest of the paper. There was a section about a war on the borders but I ignored it. I didn't want to stress myself further over a new problem.
I finished my tea and crumpets while eavesdropping on the inner thoughts of the other patrons at the cafe. I paid for my bill and boarded a tram headed for the Merlin District.
Some also called it the labor quarter of Orowen. Guildhalls and dingy offices stood shoulder-to-shoulder with advertisements that said, “Hands wanted, pay by the day”. The roads in this part of town were always alive with a rush. Sometimes manual laborers left the street in a truck for whatever backbreaking hustle they had been assigned. Other times, a riot was brewing for unfair wages.
I made my way down the crowded sidewalk and up to a small building on the corner. The sign on it said “Fair Deals”. The tiny office was overflowing with people, probably to get one of the fair deals and snag a couple of fast working hands. I shook my head and ducked into the alley next to the office and made my way to the back.
A dainty brunette in a flannel shirt and jeans sat smoking a cigarette in a rickety wooden chair.
“Judith.” I said with a smile. “Enjoying your cig, huh?”
The girl nodded. “It's relaxing,” she said.
“I’m sure it is.” I kept my smile and pulled out a small pouch filled with steambolts. “Let me in, I want to meet Mirabelle.”
A sly grin curled her lips as she accepted the pouch and rose to open the back door. A pair of butterfly wings were sticking out through the slits in the back of her shirt. “Always a pleasure to have you, Miss Grimly,” she said.
She led me down a narrow hallway and up to a small office. “Mira,” she said as she opened the office door for me. “Miss Grimly is here.”
An stout, older fairy with graying hair and faint wrinkles sat behind a metal desk. A pair of half moon glasses were perched on the bridge of her nose. She looked up from the ledger in front of her and gave me a knowing smile. “I was sure I heard a bag of money jingling. And there you are,” she said, leaning back. “So, what may I do for you today?”
“We'll get to it,” I said and sat in the opposite chair. I pointed at the ledger. “Going through the books, I see.”
“Yes, just crunching numbers.” She shrugged.
“Are they good numbers?” I said.
She pursed her lips and bobbed her head side to side. “They are not in the red. Yet,” she said.
I raised an eyebrow. “I thought the fairies made a good turnover.”
“Those were the golden days,” Mirabelle said. “Fast contracts, fast jobs, good wages, quick profit.”
“So what changed?”
Mirabelle snorted. “Humans. As always. We saw two riots in a week. Fairies are getting paid more than regular humans. Other guilds came together and stormed down two of the sites where my girls were working. They intimidated my clients into terminating the contract with me or else they would’ve burnt the place. Suddenly my girls are out of jobs, sitting around. I had to lower my prices and all the hyenas started coming out of the woodwork to get cheap labor.” She grunted in distaste. “Not to mention the word of mouth back in Veloria making other fairies think that Miss Mirabelle is running a miracle company for girls. They all come here running and it turns out Miss Mirabelle in fact, is not running a miracle company. In reality, Miss Mirabelle is on the verge of bankruptcy.”
I listened to her carefully, taking in every word she said. “What's the company worth at the moment?” I said.
“We are raking in fifty thousand steambolts a year,” she said. “It was a nice number to look at when I had just thirty fairies working for me and not a hundred. And for the sake of Gildara's wings, I hope the rumors about fairies having it good in Ravenwind stop already. Ugh.” Mira looked on the verge of yanking her hair out. She glared at the door.
The commotion from the lobby was loud. Probably the “hyenas seeking cheap labor” howling at the door.
I decided to take my shot. “Then sell the company to me,” I said.
Mira paused and looked at me with part disbelief and part intrigue. “I don't think I–”
“You heard me just fine, Mira,” I said. “You are crawling into the red, the wages are bad, the hyenas are drooling over the fairies and you have more working hands coming here, looking for opportunities. I'm exactly what you need. Sell me your company.”
Mirabelle narrowed her eyes at me. “Miss Grimly, you've given this company some good business. And you are pretty. Besides money, beauty is the only valued asset among us fairfolk. So I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. What do my girls or I get from selling out to you?”
“All of your girls get a job of one kind or another,” I said. “Not just manual labor. And I mean a full day job with rotating shifts and my business is gonna have multiple jobs like that. And selling out to me doesn't mean that I'm going to work your girls to the bone. You will still be the one who manages them, decides their shifts, schedules, salaries. Whatever revenue they make, I get forty percent of it until I recoup the cost of buying this company. If you and your girls run the business right and bring in better profits, I'll reduce my cut to thirty percent. But one condition that is non-negotiable is that you and your girls stay loyal to me. If I find any of your girls trying to get smart with me, you are the one who will be punished for their smartness.”
Mirabelle was silent. But only on the outside. Sounds like a good opportunity for my girls. Maybe I should try twisting her arm for the price a bit. I won't start too steep, though.
“I like your offer,” she said. “I can sell for a hundred and seventy thousand steambolts.” Her inner thoughts said: no, that doesn't sound too steep. It's certainly better than starting at two hundred thousand. I can recoup the losses made in those terminated contracts, pay my girls and also have some left for one of those fancy carriages. But I won't take anything below a hundred and twenty. Below that I'll still have two dozen unpaid fairies on my hand.
I scoffed. “Let's just cut the tedium and close the deal on a hundred and thirty thousand.”
Mirabelle's faces fell at my precise number. “B-But–”
I rolled my eyes. “Check your ledger again, Mira. It's enough to recoup the loss made from the contract and pay the girls and still have a little bit left on top of it. You have plenty of time to buy other stuff when you start working for me. Stop being greedy.”
Mirabelle pursed her lips. “Fine,” she said with a grunt. “I'll draw up the necessary paperwork and we'll meet with my lawyer and make the final settlement tomorrow.”
I smiled and stood up to shake her hand. “Sounds fair,” I said.
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Posted Jan 3, 2026, 6:42 PM UTC