Esper Harem in the Apocalypse

"Thanks. Now check the other one."

SIGH!

Rebecca let out a silent sigh and muttered, "I know that you know that I know that there is no error in this one either. So why do you put me through this torture?"

"Oh? I thought you liked working for me. Since you don\'t take the bonus and extra money I give you, and you like to earn them rightfully, I thought I should give you an opportunity to work for the money you earn."

"I see. So this is revenge for all those remarks I made."

"You may consider my silence as yes."

"Now that Rudy remembers everything, you changed your demeanor to how it was eighteen years ago," Rebecca commented, taking the file in her hands.

She read through a few pages and shot a quick glance at Eleanor to see what she was doing. Eleanor was busy doing something on her laptop.

"Are you checking the stock prices and shares?"

"Hmm." She nodded in response.

"Has the market opened yet?"

Eleanor swiveled at Rebecca with a curious look on her face and asked, "You interested in this?"

Rebecca shook her head and said, "I will stay away from that for my entire life."

"Why not? It\'s a great way to make money if you know what you are doing."

"It sure is, but still… never. You are investing money in the shares and stocks managed by humans. I personally can\'t trust humans."

"Oh! Are you talking about stock manipulation? Yes, that is a petty practice of some people. They hold a major share in stock, and when the price is at its all-time high, they cash out, dropping the stock value to the bare minimum."

"..."

"I keep my eyes open for the stocks at high alert."

"You do stock manipulation?" Rebecca asked with a conflicted look on her face, wondering what she should think about Eleanor.

"I don\'t. See? You judged me again without learning the full story. Stop that habit of yours, Becca. I am saying this as your friend and because I think of you as my younger sister."

"But you said…"

"I watch out for such stocks because they have a high chance of crashing the market. The ones who pulled out made big bucks. Once that happens, I buy most of the shares of that stock, increasing the stock prices back to their average, or sometimes, even more.

Once that happens, people who invested when the market crashed, make some nice money. While the ones who didn\'t do anything and held their shares neither lost nor gained.

While I, who bought the major share, now own that company." Rebecca shrugged and ended her explanation with a shrug.

"So… in short, no one lost anything?" Rebecca asked curiously.

"I wouldn\'t say that. Those who sold their shares after the market crashed, lost. Not to mention, this trick doesn\'t always work. But I manage to make a profit from my failures too.

I have no lack of money, time, skill, talent, people, and Rudy\'s love. I am content with what I have and what I am today."

"Your flexing skills are next level, I have to admit," Rebecca nodded.

"And your judging skills are poor." Eleanor didn\'t let her chance slide to get back at Rebecca.

"..."

"It\'s not wrong to judge, but don\'t judge too quickly. I already told you about it a while ago. You know about 69, right?"

Rebecca quietly nodded with a flushed face.

"What is it?"

"Are you really going to make me say it?" Rebecca\'s eyes showed what she thought.

"It\'s a… sex position…" Rebecca responded.

"Uhh… you are not wrong. But… I wasn\'t talking about that…" Eleanor rubbed her face with one hand.

Eleanor drew something on her tablet and placed it on the desk in front of Rebecca.

"Can you tell me what you see?"

Eleanor had drawn the number 6 on the screen. Upon seeing it, Rebecca raised her brow with a confused look on her face. Seemingly, wondering why Eleanor would ask her such an obvious thing.

"It\'s a six. Why? Is there a hidden meaning behind this?"

Eleanor chose to ignore Rebecca\'s question and uttered, "To me, this is 9."

Rebecca stared at the tablet\'s screen for a few seconds to reflect on what she had just learned.

"I think I understood what you were trying to say."

"Good. I can\'t believe I am teaching this to a 30-year-old."

"But sometimes, it\'s not 6 or 9. Sometimes, it\'s 8."

"..."

"And sometimes, it\'s 4."

"Yeah, but how would you take them from your perspective?"

"I don\'t need to? I believe that what I see and hear is right, but that might be wrong. As long as I don\'t know the full truth, I am free to draw various conclusions, right?"

Eleanor released a silent sigh and shook her head at Rebecca, pondering how she should make Rebecca understand the concept of what she was trying to say.

After giving it a quick thought, Eleanor came up with an idea.

"What if you draw various possibilities instead of conclusions? You might not know, but Rudy does that. That\'s why he is great at guessing and always ready to discover the worst."

"Because he is an overthinker," Rebecca didn\'t waste a single second to reply, as though she had predicted Eleanor would say that.

"Leave it. You would realize once you go through something bad. You are ungrateful for what you have. I am sure one day Rudy is going to be fed up with your judgy personality and snap at you."

Rebecca recalled that happening and gulped down anxiously.

While debating, Eleanor\'s gaze fell upon the computer screen that showed the live footage of the store. And she saw a hooded figure standing in front of the cashier counter.

"Hey, someone is there," Eleanor muttered and turned to Rebecca. "Did you hear the bell ring?"

"No."

Rebecca got up from the chair and said, "I will be back after handling that customer."

"Feel free to go home."

"I won\'t, even if I die," she waved at her without looking.