Birth Of The Crafts-God

Vergil's intention in talking about the delegates present was simply to push Lucas to develop his network.

When he was sent over to the Seven Stars Springs Dealership, it was with the instruction to improve on himself. From a very young age, Vergil had been taught not just about vestige-smithing but also how to run a business. Turning 18, it was about time for him to enter the field and the Seven Stars Springs Dealership was the best option at the time.

Vergil gave himself the goal of performing above the expectations of both his father and the other family members. This was why he was obsessed with having Lucas expand his contacts. The more influential people Lucas knew, the more people could be invited into the business and help its growth. It was practically a win-win situation and how the world worked.

The support of the Mertens family alone couldn't guarantee the success of the company outside of Baylands City, much less beyond the borders of the city-state.

However, try as he may, Vergil was unable to get Lucas to make a move. To Lucas, there was no reason to build his network in Baylands city-state. He already had the plan to permanently relocate from the city after a few months. Compared to Belfargos territory, Baylands city-state was less conducive for humans; and he was also a target for some of the upper forces.

"If you're really interested, you can talk to them yourself." Lucas said.

Vergil paused before sighing afterwards.

He gave a mirthless chuckle as he muttered,

"We live in somewhat different worlds."

Lucas heard him but didn't say anything in response.

After listening to the descriptions of the various people in attendance, he had made an interesting discovery; the age gap of the next generation of other families was ahead of that of the Mertens family. What this meant was that compared to the children of other leaders, Vergil and his sister, Laura, were both young. The youngest amongst the next generation leaders was twenty nine (28) years, while Laura Mertens was twenty five (25) years. It was even worse for Vergil who had recently turned 18 a few months ago.

'Now that I think about it, Russell isn't that young to be a parent. He seems more like a grandparent; even his official age points towards that. So why?' Lucas wondered but he didn't talk about it with Vergil. It was quite a weird topic to discuss.

Since there was nothing to talk about anymore, Lucas stared towards the stage in the hall, wondering when the banquet would officially commence. As for Vergil, he walked off in another direction, probably in search of a conversation partner or maybe to flirt with the ladies.

The popular second generation were older than him and also wouldn't care to pay attention to him for the most part, but there were some third generation rich kids present who were around Vergil's age.

. . .

According to the order of the event, the red carpet would be rolled out by 9 PM. All important guests would be expected to have arrived and announced before 10:30 PM. Finally, the banquet would kick off with a speech from the Versailles Group's president.

The hall was split into two areas with one side being the wide open area the majority of the guests currently stood, while the other was the dining area with a neat seating arrangement.

The second section of the hall was currently closed off with stanchions. This was to have the guests socialise with each other while they waited for the event to officially kick off.

"What'cha thinking about?"

A sweet yet confident voice interrupted Lucas' thoughts.

"Nothing that concerns you, if you're asking me."

Lucas calmly replied. He had earlier sensed the speaker's presence but merely ignored them.

"Interesting. You're the first person to have spoken to me in such a fashion." The voice said.

Following that, a silhouette moved in front of Lucas.

A young lady with luscious soft lips, a warm brown hair styled into a chignon, and a smile that could take down cities immediately covered Lucas' view. Her alluring blue eyes stared at Lucas with a hint of playfulness, as she tucked the strands that fell from her hair behind her ears.

"Didn't your parents teach you not to ignore a beautiful young lady by your side?" The woman gave a coquettishly mesmerizing smile.

"I don't have parents." Lucas blandly responded.

The woman was slightly surprised, but she quickly regained her composure within a second.

"I apologize for that. In exchange, I'll introduce myself. My name is Giselle." The lady said.

Lucas already knew who she was thanks to Vergil's explanation earlier. Even without that, he recalled his first encounter with the lady, Giselle. It was back during his Exceptional Basis exam at the Baylands City EVL branch located right here in the Central Prefecture district.

At that time, Lucas had succeeded in outperforming the other candidates, but because of his identity as a human, the results were rigged against him. He was demoted from first place to twenty third position; only the top twenty were deemed to have passed, and this irked Lucas.

Back then, Lucas had tried to challenge the authority at the branch. Present there, apart from the staff and the examinees, were some influential individuals from the younger generation. Giselle was one of them.

"No need for the apology or the introduction. I'd just prefer some quiet." Lucas responded.

He only attended this event to find out what the Versailles Group was planning with their allies. As for socialising and whatnot, Lucas wasn't interested. He wasn't being arrogant, but this behaviour simply stemmed from his opinion of the upper class of Baylands City.

"Don't be like that." Giselle smiled. "Aren't you interested to know why this event is being hosted? Or why many members of the older generation aren't present even though the invitation is from the president of the Versailles Group himself?"

Lucas was tempted by words as he stared at her in silence.

"I don't think you need me to introduce myself."

If Lucas didn't know by now that she purposely reached out to him and knew who he was, then he would have to be a fool.

As the heiress of a company involved in vestige-smithing and the stellar processor industry, it would be a delusional lie to say that Giselle wasn't aware of Lucas' identity.

"That's no fun, but I guess so." Giselle expressed her thoughts somewhat unwillingly.

"So, what exactly is this all for?" Lucas asked what's on his mind.

"It's to take you down. Or to be more precise, the cooperation between you and the Silverine Factory. Do you remember the description on the invite?"

Lucas nodded. There was a short write-up on the invitation letter explaining the purpose of the event, but it was still somewhat vague.

Giselle then continued,

"While it is advertised as a banquet to celebrate a newfound cooperation between the Versailles Group, the Arkhen Corporation and the Prestige Star Ltd, since it took eight days to the event, rumours have already leaked quite a bit."

Giselle paused as she took a sip from the wine glass in her hand. At the same time, she repositioned herself to stand beside Lucas. After savouring the taste of the drink, she continued.

"The cooperation is indeed a real thing. I'm pretty sure with the Mertens family's support, you should have figured that out by now. However, the purpose of this banquet isn't to announce that; after all, the Coalition has been in existence for weeks now."

"Then what is it for?"

Giselle stared at her wine glass as she twirled the drink inside of it.

"Rumour has it that the Versailles Group's performance has disappointed the main HQ and gotten their attention. In order to stabilise their position, the HQ sent in some valuable products to the company branch here and made concessions to some of their requests. One of them should be a brand new stellar processor."

Lucas raised an eyebrow but wasn't overly surprised by this. To some extent, it was to be expected that the Coalition would retaliate against the cooperation. However, Lucas never thought that the Versailles Group's headquarters would be the one providing support.

"You're not bothered?" Giselle was curious.

"Why would I be? We still don't know how good it is." Lucas nonchalantly replied.

"That's true, but it's not that simple." Giselle shook her head.

"The branch company is only limited to selling whatever the headquarters permits. However, the headquarters won't sell all their good stuff even if it will help generate more revenue. If anything, what the branch sells here is basically the lower end models."

"And why is that?" Lucas was confused.

Since the Baylands city-state branch was the same as the Paros city-state headquarters, it didn't make sense why one branch sold lower end products.

"Even though the Dynasty has united the planet and controls everything on it, the city-states are independent of each other. The Dynasty also doesn't interfere in administration and governance, as long as things don't spiral out of control. This leads to the various city-states competing against each other. While physical wars can't be waged, economic and resource wars are, with one side trying to get the better half of a deal and push the other to a disadvantageous position."

Giselle then leaned closer to Lucas and whispered.

"Rumour even has it that the Dynasty is in support of this, as it sees competition as the best way to ensure the prosperity of the planet."

She then retreated away from Lucas and glanced at him.

'Oh, he's able to remain calm?' Giselle began to question her charm.

"So how is the Versailles Group involved?" Lucas asked. Although he already had an idea, he still wanted confirmation.