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Thaddeus let out a breath. "As long as you don't want to join-wait, that's not right!"
He didn't want to join the Eye, but he wanted to learn the Eye's magic?
Didn't that mean he wanted to avoid the responsibilities of membership while enjoying all the benefits?
Did such a good deal really exist?
If it did, could someone introduce him to a few more places like that? His entire family would be very interested.
After fully understanding what Morin was suggesting, Thaddeus refused without hesitation.
"No! Free-riding is shameless! Free-riding must be forbidden!"
Morin raised both hands in surrender. "Alright, then I'll just join. How about that?"
"Hm. That's more like it," Thaddeus nodded.
"...?"
"Wait-what did I just say?!" A few seconds later, Thaddeus finally snapped back to his senses, wishing he could rewind time and strangle himself from five seconds ago.
"Did you use a confusion spell? Or some kind of mind-control magic?" Thaddeus stared at Morin seriously.
"The Eye would never allow-wait. What's that in your hand?"
"A camcorder," Morin said casually, fiddling with the device he'd taken out of his pocket. "It can also record audio. But video is more convincing."
"See? You look great on camera."
Thaddeus froze.
"Sir..." Thaddeus's assistant, Catrina, quickly walked over. "You need to calm down."
As a third party, she was much clearer-headed.
At this point, it was obvious to her that Thaddeus had completely fallen into Morin's rhythm and had already leaked a great deal of crucial information.
Including the existence of the Eye.
And the fact that magic training existed within it.
As his assistant, it was her responsibility to remind him and help him regain control before even more damage was done.
"I... need to go to the bathroom," Thaddeus said, using the classic escape tactic.
With Catrina's interruption, his thoughts finally broke free from Morin's pace.
"Catrina, please entertain Mr. Morin for a moment."
With that, Thaddeus stood up and hurried toward the bathroom, his posture looking suspiciously like someone fleeing the scene.
Morin didn't stop him.
The escape-to-the-bathroom maneuver was extremely effective.
As long as it wasn't an enemy, it almost always worked. And Morin wasn't at the stage of openly clashing with Thaddeus yet.
As for the more extreme version-the "fecal escape"-that was rarely used.
The damage to one's dignity was simply too great.
With the main character gone, Morin had nothing to do.
So his gaze naturally landed on Thaddeus's assistant.
Catrina.
Her headlights were dazzling.
Her face wasn't bad either. A solid eight.
"So..." Morin smiled. "Ms. Catrina, how about we chat for a bit?"
...
"Phew..."
Inside the bathroom, Thaddeus splashed cold water onto his face and didn't immediately leave.
He took in the fragrant-no.
The rich aroma-no, that wasn't right either.
In any case, he stood there and forced himself to calm down.
Calm down.
Calm down.
Once he had settled his emotions, Thaddeus finally realized just how much information Morin had extracted from him in only a few sentences.
The existence of the Eye.
His own identity as a member.
The fact that the Eye possessed magic.
All of it.
All of it had come out of his mouth.
Thaddeus was furious.
As a proper magician and a member of the Eye, he naturally knew a few magic tricks. He had also undergone systematic training and possessed extensive knowledge about magic.
Which was exactly why he was so annoyed.
In his observation, Morin hadn't used a single magic trick.
Not one.
That meant all of this information had been pried out through words alone.
Through pure conversational manipulation.
Damn it.
Thaddeus shook his head, washed his face again, took a deep breath, and began thinking of a countermeasure.
He was an older man, with experience to match.
He had only lost control because Morin's approach was too unconventional.
After a while, Thaddeus finally made up his mind.
"When I go back, no matter what he says, I'll be firm. I won't let him join, and I won't let him learn magic."
With that resolve, Thaddeus returned to the office.
Then he opened the door.
And saw Catrina almost leaning against Morin.
The two of them were chatting happily.
Happily chatting.
Thaddeus was stunned.
Catrina was Thaddeus's adopted daughter.
He had raised her since childhood. He had no wife and no biological children, so he had practically raised Catrina as his own.
When she grew up, he made her his assistant and also taught her some magic and related knowledge.
His plan had always been simple.
Once Catrina was ready, he would introduce her to the Eye and have her take the test. That way, even after he was gone, she wouldn't have to worry about her future.
That was why Catrina had been able to remind him earlier.
That was why she knew about the Eye and magic at all.
If Thaddeus truly didn't want her to know these things, she never would have.
But now-
Thaddeus was furious.
It was bad enough that this guy wanted to freeload without giving anything in return.
That alone was unacceptable.
And now he was even trying to steal his daughter?
The sound of the door snapping open jolted both Morin and Catrina back to reality.
Morin, thick-skinned as ever, didn't move.
Catrina, however, turned red immediately.
She stood up and mumbled, "Remember to call me."
Then, without daring to look up, she quietly walked past Thaddeus-who was radiating murderous pressure-and left.
Earlier, Catrina had advised Thaddeus to calm down.
Now she herself had been completely swept away.
Naturally, she was too embarrassed to face him.
But still...
Mr. Morin was really interesting.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have said something like that.
With Catrina gone, only Morin and Thaddeus remained in the office.
More accurately, Thaddeus was unilaterally emitting pressure.
Unfortunately, that kind of pressure was completely useless against Morin.
After a full year, Morin had successfully reclaimed his original temperament.
Do whatever he wanted.
He could be cool, cute, serious, or gentle.
In short, "do whatever he wanted" described him perfectly.
"Alright, alright," Morin said without turning around, waving his hand. "I was just chatting with Ms. Catrina. You don't need to look like that."
"She's my daughter!" Thaddeus's anger, which had been slowly cooling, surged again.
He rushed over and glared down at Morin. "And you're trying to date her!"
Of course, that wasn't the only thing making him angry.
What truly enraged him was the implication of what he had just seen.
It wasn't just the pig wanting to eat the cabbage.
The cabbage looked more than willing.
Infuriating.
"Wait, your daughter?" Morin looked genuinely surprised. He hadn't known about this relationship. It hadn't been mentioned in the movie.
But that wasn't what surprised him most.
"If I'm not mistaken... your daughter is white, right?"
Morin looked at Thaddeus with faint sympathy.
For some reason, in his vision, the black hat on Thaddeus's head seemed to glow faintly green.
This was reaching an entirely new level of "green."
"What's with that look?!" Thaddeus exploded, then immediately clarified.
"She's my adopted daughter!"
"Oh. Okay then," Morin said.
His attitude instantly shifted from "interested" to "not interested at all."
"What do you mean, 'okay then'?" Thaddeus was stunned. "She's my adopted daughter, and you're still trying to date her!"
"Hold on," Morin said, pointing at his own face. "Am I handsome?"
"...Average," Thaddeus said reluctantly. His conscience stopped him from saying worse.
"Am I rich?"
"...More or less," Thaddeus replied. He wanted to add "not as rich as me," but he knew Morin wouldn't stay poor for long.
"Then that's enough, isn't it?" Morin spread his hands.
"...Huh?" Thaddeus laughed in anger. "Even if you're average-looking and have money, you're still not a good person!"
"What's wrong with that?" Morin squinted. "I don't want to marry Catrina. I just want to date her."
"Oh. That actually makes sense," Thaddeus nodded subconsciously.
"...?"
"What do you mean it makes sense?!" Thaddeus snapped back.
Wasn't this just another version of freeloading without responsibility?
"In any case, it's just young people wanting to be together," Morin said, casually throwing an arm around Thaddeus's shoulder. "As an old man, you shouldn't interfere too much."
"But, you know... if you introduce me to the Eye..."
"You'll stop dating her?"
"No."
"Then what are you even saying?!"
"Relax. I promise I won't use force. I'll rely purely on my own charm," Morin said calmly. "Whether Ms. Catrina agrees is entirely her choice."
"Of course," he added, "I can promise you something else too."
"You want Catrina to join the Eye," Morin said with a smile.
"Don't deny it so quickly, Mr. Bradley. I can read people. As a member of the Eye, you know exactly what benefits that would bring her."
"What are you planning?" Thaddeus asked, forcing himself to ignore the earlier part. Otherwise, he really might punch Morin.
Whether he could win or not was another question.
"I'm guessing that even though you've mastered so many of the Eye's magic techniques, you haven't taught them to Catrina," Morin continued. "Because the Eye has rules preventing that. Am I right?"
Morin calmly laid out the conclusions he had reached in an instant.
As a high-[Intelligence] player, his analytical ability was exceptional.
In the original story, Catrina was never mentioned as Thaddeus's adopted daughter.
But from a few of Thaddeus's words and his brief conversation with Catrina, Morin had already pieced everything together.
As a father, Thaddeus would naturally want to give his daughter the best.
The fact that he hadn't meant there were restrictions.
The Eye.
Joining the Eye would remove those restrictions.
Yet Thaddeus hadn't let her join.
Combined with the trials faced by the protagonists and the Four Horsemen in the original movie, Morin understood everything immediately.
"You want her to join the Eye," Morin said. "But you're worried she isn't strong enough to pass the tests without getting hurt."
"So you're stuck."
Morin's words hit Thaddeus straight in the chest.
"Now," Morin grinned, instantly flipping the power dynamic, "I can give you an opportunity."
"You want Catrina to join the Eye."
"I can help you."
"...What do you want?" Thaddeus asked, finally setting aside his prejudice.
He knew Morin would never work for free.
This guy was absolutely a freeloader.
But he also knew-
Morin could do it.
"I already told you," Morin said, spreading his hands and sighing. "Mr. Bradley, I'm starting to wonder if you're getting senile."
"Here. Let me recommend a drink."
"Eight-spice celery and cilantro juice. Packed with vitamins. The flavor is complex enough to stimulate neural redevelopment."
Thaddeus stared at him.
"What are you even saying?" he burst out. "Is that something humans can drink? Fine, I'll believe it's nutritious and 'complex,' but what is that nonsense about nerves redeveloping? That sounds like a plot for reincarnating as a hero eighteen years later!"
"Why are you so obsessed with these dark drinks?!"
"Can we have a normal conversation for once?!"
Thaddeus's urge to rant spiraled completely out of control.