Chapter 40: Move Aside
The next day.
At an unknown location inside a mansion.
There were few people gathered. They were surrounding a table.
From the gloomy atmosphere, it could easily be seen that the topic they are talking about is very important.
And whatever they were talking about, they were not pleased with it.
"So, what is this Diana?" –A man said.
This Diana is the Manager of Heaven's Dream, a five hundred years old Perfume shop.
This is the best shop for perfume in the surrounding cities.
And here she is calling for the elders of the family and the elder perfumers for an urgent meeting. And the first thing she does is put a bottle in front of them.
"Elders, please take a look at it. I believe your ability to appraise. So, please tell me what you think of this." –Of course, this is one of the bottles of Tulin that Elena produced. And being in the same business, this type of thing comes to her ears at the speed of light.
Just two days ago, a regular came to her store to tell about how Amanda bragged about how she was having trouble finding which perfume she should wear for the tea party when someone brought this to her. She claimed it to be totally out of the ordinary and might even be the best in the market. And how the said perfume was going to be launched the next day.
The said customer was so jealous that even though she bought the best perfume from Diana's store, she felt it to be lacking compared to Amanda's.
So, Diana had no choice but to send someone to find out the whole story. There was a sudden competition in the market.
So, she had no choice but to call for the elder's assistance.
One of the elders took the bottle and sprayed it on his wrist. The moment he took the smell, he knew this was different. And it's not just about the smell of it.
People like Amanda and Berdly can't tell the difference. But how could a professional can't?
The spirit he assimilated with is a bee-type one. He assimilated with it only because of his job as an appraiser. It doesn't have any attack power at all.
If one wants to only think about the smell it carries, they wouldn't understand what's so special about this perfume.
But his spirit bee's spirit could tell the slight difference.
If the best perfume in their shop is placed beside this bottle of Tulin, normal people would be divided in fifty-fifty when choosing one. But he would definitely choose the Tulin.
The reason is spirit prefers it better. He was feeling more attracted to it. But the reason why that is? He has no doesn't understand it too much.
The others standing beside him saw the contorted face of the chief appraiser and couldn't take it anymore. They directly took the bottle from his hand and tried it themselves.
Their face contorted too. But not to the degree of chief appraiser.
The youngest among them looked at everyone's face. Before saying, "So Diana, which of the stores created this new product? Is it one of those old ones?"
"No, Bill it's a new one." –Diana said.
"Then what's the problem? You could just have your men buy the recipe from them. I think they would happily hand over the recipe if you asked them with enough money. And if you can't do that, just tell me. I'll trash that place in one night." –Bill said.
"We can't do that. The shop that is selling this is the one under the protection of the Alden family. So, trashing that place is out of the question." –Diana said.
"What are you talking about? Isn't it that tea shop that the Aldens sheltered? Why are you saying something like under protection? He is neither a member of the Alden family nor gives the Aldens a protection fee for the shop. At most, you could say we can't kill him. But that doesn't include the shop in it." –Bill said arrogantly.
"No, we still can't use force in that shop." –Diana denied the idea.
"All right then. I won't go. So, why don't you sing a song for him so you can get him to sell the formula to us?" –Bill said. What are they afraid of? Alden is just a Barony. Isn't his sister also married to a Baron in the next city? Would they be willing to do anything to him just for that nobody?
"I plan to. But what I need to know from everyone here is, would that measly Berdly be able to come up with a perfume of the same quality as us on his own? Or was it just a fluke?" –Diana asked the other elders. Among all of them, Diana and Bill are the youngest. So their experience in it is insufficient. So she asked the others.
"It should be a fluke. It's not easy to make a high-quality product when they have no prior experience. I suggest you give him a good amount of money. Because creating one of these products is hard enough. They shouldn't be able to follow up to recreate anything else like this." –said one of the elders. "They won't be able to maintain their prestige. And they should know that too. So they should want to sell this formula to someone who knows its value."
"Yes, but you should know that others would be thinking the same. So, we should consider our offer with our competition in mind." –said another elder. The others only nodded to their conclusion.
They didn't even want to consider that, there may actually be a new rising competition.
"Diana, offer them three times more of whatever number you are thinking. Don't worry about the cost. We need whatever the formula they are using to make this thing." –At last, the chief appraiser told.
And this made the other members look at him with shock.
"Chief, are you sure about this? From what I can see, it's only on the same level as our top-grade product. We already have a few of them. So do we really need to use that much money?" –Bill asked.
"Boy, you are still not old enough to judge my decision." –The chief appraiser said. He still couldn't put a finger on it, but deep down, he knew this bottle of Tulin was better than the top-grade product in their shop.
And if they don't get it in time, others will understand the difference too. And at that time, if their shop didn't have a similar product, it would bring them to rock bottom.
So right now, he is only wishing that the other party still hasn't found this hidden effect that he doesn't understand.
.
At the same time.
Jon just came back after finishing the job assigned to him by Aliotte.
Aliotte was working him like a bull.
He has run to the Alchemy Pavilion, mercenary guild back to the Alchemy Pavilion to get the orders for some rare materials. Some of the things are in places where there is a dangerous spirit beast resides.
So without assurance, they wouldn't go there to collect those. So, Jon had to go there with them as an assurance.
Then, he had to go to some of the high-level mercenary groups to hand out special requests.
These are requests that they wouldn't normally want to take for various reasons.
Aliotte had him go to those groups to show off his muscles. She asked him so that, these mercenaries would be more 'motivated' to take the job.
Jon could only grumble as he did what Aliotte said. Even if Jon liked Bullying, it wasn't even a bit fun to bully others after being bullied to do that.
And after back-to-back two days of being Eliott's slave, he was too tired to be a part of any more drama.
But the drama doesn't seem to want to let him go. Because, when he arrived at his room, he found Olen sitting in front of his door.
"Oi, move aside." –Jon said. He wasn't in a mood to even listen to this drama queen.
Olen stepped aside just as told.
But when Jon entered his room, Olen followed him inside without saying anything.
"Oi, oi, when I say move aside, that means get lost. So, why are you getting in my room?" –Jon growled.
But Olen didn't seem to listen to him at all.
He directly went to a side of the room.
There was a small cabinet. He tried to open it.
But seeing this, Jon quickly got full of energy.
"Oi, Brat. What do you think you are doing?" –Jon held Olen's hands.
"Nothing. I need to train now. So, Jon let go of my hand." –Olen said. There was no strength in his voice.
Jon knew this expression. Something must have happened again. But he didn't want to know what it was.
"Hey, why are you taking my treasures? Don't you have the whole pack already waiting to teach you?" –Jon said.
Now, this may sound like they are talking about their holy literature, but they are not.
The thing in the cabinet is the stone cut by Olen and Elena. The one from Olen doesn't have anything left. But the one cut by Elena still had the residue of profundity, which Jon used to train himself every time he was free.
"Miss said she is tired, and she can't teach me in a few days." –Olen said sadly. "She said she is tired, but I know she is very hurt. I can understand from looking at her face. It must have been because she forced herself to cut this. I just know it. And now, if I don't even understand this stupid profundity, then all of it would be for nothing." –he started sobbing.
'Man, why is this shit again?' –he thought.
He just wanted to avoid drama. So, how did he get stuck with one again?
'Oh, dear goddess of luck. Have I ever offended you or tried to peek while you were in the shower? So, why don't you smile at me for a bit?' –Jon prayed.