Thomas Prest: A Simple Magician

"You are deleting yourself from the world's databases?" Tom asked, a bit stupefied as he watched Natasha quick typing on the keyboard, hacking systems that would give even hardcore hackers a stop.

When he joked that she could become the best computer wizard for him, he didn't really think she would actually do it. That's not how jokes were supposed to work.

Yet, apparently, his girl took his joke too seriously.

"Yeah. The mind-enhancing spells you gave me are just that incredible." Natasha delightfully answered, completely missing Tom's bewilderment.

It took her a long time to learn these spells but once she managed it, her utterly average programming and hacking capabilities skyrocketed in a matter of days.

Naturally, she had to grind them like anybody else. It took her weeks of study with her brain working ten times its normal efficiency for hours... and it was utterly exhausting, but it was a skill that could be eventually useful to Tom, so she gritted her teeth and continued getting better.

"As they should be. They cost me a lot, ya know?" Tom wryly smiled, remembering the haggling with Lord Belgrade for these spells. The old coot definitely did not give Tom anything for free.

Unfortunately, Tom's upstart family only had the lowest grade of mind-enhancing spells and they were not exactly great. As someone using a system of magic that basically relied on 'math', the superb mind-enhancing spells were one of the many reasons the influential families were capable of retaining their spots on the top. With these spells, no matter how dumb their offsprings were, they could still achieve a lot in the magical field.

It was no wonder Tom had to pay an exorbitant price for the highest quality mind-enhancing spells out there. In fact, Tom should be thrilled he even managed to buy them at all.

"Mhm. I don't understand why the Magician Families did not go into the technology sector. This is practically cheating." Natasha distractedly uttered as her identity disappeared from yet another heavily protected database under her magical fingers.

Honestly, the vindictive and gleeful smile as she deleted everything about herself from SHIELD databases was very hot, in Tom's opinion.

"Pride. For them, technology is something beneath them." Tom shrugged, putting his hands on her shoulders and slowly massaging them, enjoying how she slightly squirmed under his pleasant ministrations.

Tom could understand the Magician Families a bit.

Just taking himself as an example... he didn't have the time for technological research alongside his magical one. Despite the fact the mind-enhancing spells could fast-forward the technological advancements by decades and probably earn him billions in a very short time, Tom would never sacrifice his magical progress for that.

"That's dumb." Natasha idly hummed, her back completely straight and her eyes narrowed like a cat that was being petted. "Do you want me to delete your records too?" She looked at Tom and tilted her head.

"Nah. Leave it be. Being able to seamlessly join the mundane world is an advantage for me." Tom chuckled, making her moan by squeezing her back muscles a bit harder. "Who knows? Maybe I will need it one of these days."

Natasha furrowed her brows at that. She could read between the lines well enough. "Did something happen?" She wondered aloud.

"Me outsourcing the business to Sarael is starting to kick me in the ass." Tom sighed, stopping to massage Natasha and he instead leaned his chest on her shoulders, snaking his arms around her neck and embracing her from behind.

He knew that dragging devils into a business field that Magician Families considered 'their turf' would ruffle many feathers but...

"Plainly speaking, it had a few unforeseen effects and the most influential Magician Families decided to go with a hands-off approach when it comes to me. This gave some... ah, unsavory parties more confidence to try meddling with me." Tom explained.

"Do you regret it?" Natasha asked as she put her hand on top of Tom's in a reassuring manner.

"No. It had to happen. It was either this passive-aggressive bullshit or them trying to actively screw me over. I might have made some problems for myself in my own community but that's natural. You can't go through life without annoying and being annoyed by others." Tom helplessly remarked.

Sadly, life was not so simple and conflicts were bound to happen. The most Tom could do was choose the path that would be the least troublesome for him even if it offended others.

Natasha slowly nodded in understanding and opened her mouth with a thoughtful expression, "Do you need me to take care of those-" She slowly started asking.

But Tom interrupted her with an amused tone, "Don't bother. They are mostly skulking around like this guy." He opened a feed from the outer surveillance wards, showing a man probing the wards as he tried to sneakily observe their house from the other side of the street.

To Tom, it was hilariously pathetic. If it was anybody else, he might have been a bit concerned but Jasin? Those idiots had no chance.

It wasn't arrogance speaking either. Tom took his security very seriously and the wards around his house were incredibly sturdy.

Plus, Jasin Family was most likely just bait and Tom did not intend to take it. He would not attack them first and give others, more powerful families, a reason to create trouble for him.

"Who is he?" Natasha curiously asked, her eyes narrowed as they searchingly stared at the shady man on the live feed.

"Mark Jasin." Tom said in distaste, "Quite the bad boy. The Jasin Family is full of thug-wannabes but Mark is trying to outshine his brothers in this aspect. Frankly, the guy is one lucky little shit that he was born into a magical household otherwise he would have already been given a bullet to the forehead."

"That bad?" Natasha raised her eyebrow and instantly pulled up his file from the police database, finding it completely clean.

"Futile effort, dear." Tom chuckled and kissed her cheek. "His grandfather covers for his crimes so as long as he doesn't target someone they can't offend it doesn't matter what he does."

"How bothersome." Natasha frowned.

No wonder this community doesn't appear on the SHIELD's radar if they were so thorough in cleaning up after themselves.

"But enough about my problems." Tom decided they talked enough about these unimportant things. "Let's talk about something that matters. So, any plans for your upcoming vacation?" He quipped and cuddled into the side of Natasha's head.

"Mmm~," Natasha appreciatively hummed, snuggling into him too... but her eyes glanced back towards the feed with Mark. It lasted barely a second before her attention was back on Tom, taking his hand into hers as she playfully spoke, "I think I can find something to entertain myself with."