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Taking out his own, he infused energy and reached out to the succubus. Within five seconds, she answered.

”To what do I owe the pleasure, Lord Thayne?” Irin asked.

”Are you busy right now? I evolved to C-grade and need some new equipment, so I will go shopping for it soon, and a good guide would be great,” Jake asked, thinking he could always bring up the Chosen thing if she agreed.

”When would this be?

”Nowish?” Jake said, a bit embarrassed. Yeah, giving some kind of grace period would definitely have been the polite thing to do.

”Give me five minutes, and I will come by your residency, alright?” she asked tentatively.

”Sounds awesome,” Jake naturally responded, glad she agreed. Life without modern GPS to find stores and the ability to just search on the internet was tough, and he questioned why no one had invented magic internet yet. Or maybe someone had; the Order just wasn’t hooked up to it. Either way, for now he would have to rely on an analog guide.

With five minutes to spare, Jake just looked on as Vesperia got busy setting up some magic circle of sorts on the lawn. Analyzing it a bit, he estimated it was made to amplify her own energy absorption speed and potentially even allow her to better focus. It was the kind made to meditate within, and Jake wondered if maybe the circles Villy had Jake train within while upgrading his skills had similar effects.

Minutes rapidly passed, and soon he saw Irin appear within the mansion’s entryway. She seemed to sense the motion outside and exited the door, instantly laying eyes on Jake and Vesperia.

”Hey, Irin,” Jake waved to her the moment she came outside, but before the succubus could answer, her gaze wandered to the giant wasp woman working on his lawn.

She stared for a few seconds before glancing at Jake and then back to Vesperia.

”Oh,” Jake noticed as he smiled and walked over. ”Let me introduce you to Vesperia, a Vespernat Hive Queen.”

Irin seemed to snap out of her spell and nodded slowly. ”I was not aware you had a visitor. Someone from the Endless Empire, no less, based on her aura.”

Vesperia finished up what she was currently doing and turned towards Irin, scanning her up and down. ”A succubus? Unexpected. Your assertion is somewhat incorrect as I do not officially belong to the Endless Empire as of yet, and I would not call myself a visitor as this place is the only thing I have ever known since my birth.”

The succubus got even more confused and glanced at Jake, full of questions.

”It is a bit hard to explain, but through means that I won’t disclose right now, I managed to hatch a Hive Queen quite a bit more impressive than expected from that bee ritual you saw I had going on. That Hive Queen is Vesperia here, and she is… kind of my offspring? The word daughter feels wrong, but it is probably the closest we can get,” Jake tried to explain.

Irin was about to question his preposterous explanation as Vesperia spoke up, adding fuel to the fire.

”Jake is indeed my sire, and I would call myself quite a bit more than simply impressive, considering my status as a True Royal of the Vespernat Lineage,” Vesperia said with a big smile before looking at Jake. ”If you wish to refer to me as your daughter, you are naturally free to do so, but it will raise questions, so perhaps simply say that I am your creation even if it feels less personal.”

Nodding, Jake took it to heart. He had purposefully avoided just saying creation or spawn or anything else like that, which could potentially hurt Vesperia’s feelings for no good reason.

The demoness slowly nodded along at everything that was being said before just smiling. ”Alright, I think I understand. So, what did you want to go shopping for? Considering your evolution to C-grade, I assume it will be ingredients or equipment.”

Jake found himself taken aback. ”No questions?”

”A thousand, but I feel like asking them will just leave me more lost. Something like a True Royal is way beyond my pay grade, and I haven’t even heard of the Vespernat Lineage-”

”The Lineage originally died off in the first era, and I am the reemergence,” Vesperia added with a big smile.

”And as I was saying, then this is way more than I want to deal with,” Irin shook her head. ”Rather spend my mental energy on something I can assist with and get to the shopping. The less I know, the easier things will be for me in the long run. Either way, pleased to meet you, Vesperia. I am Irinixis from the Order of the Malefic Viper. If you would please excuse me, I hope to assist lord Thayne in his task without getting too involved.”

”Alright, fair enough,” Jake nodded. ”Things will be better explained at the big announcement the Viper is planning for next month anyway. Oh, yeah, I nearly forgot to add I will also officially come out as Chosen during that ceremony thing, so that may cause some issues for you. Just thought I would let you know.”

Admittedly, Jake was just teasing Irin on purpose now. He saw her just stare dumbfounded at him for several seconds due to the sheer level of importance of the information he had just given her and his casual delivery.

After five seconds, she once more nodded. ”That is… I guess it is about time your identity was revealed to the multiverse as a whole, and… yeah. I assume I will hear more within the next month, but for now… shopping, right?”

”Shopping,” Jake smiled.

Vesperia smiled off to the side and shook her head before saying something that this time around left Jake lost for words.

”An interesting consort you have taken, Jake. I congratulate you, Irinixis, on managing to seduce my sire. I am certain it is of great assistance to your Path considering your race,” Vesperia said with a genuine smile, with not a hint of teasing or joking in her tone.

Jake was not sure how to respond, which gave Irin a chance to. She scoffed and shook her head. ”If only. This guy only has eyes for fighting and alchemy, so it is a difficult work in progress that I hope will one day materialize, allowing me to assist in more intimate matters, too,” the succubus shrugged.

”You know I am right here, right?” Jake said, scratching his head.

”Of course, Lord Thayne,” Irin just smiled at him. ”I was simply responding to the True Royal.”

Jake took a deep breath and pointed at the door to the mansion. ”Shopping time, right?”

Irin’s smile grew. ”Shopping time.”

A meeting room materialized before his eyes as Sultan slowly opened his eyes, staring straight into the opposing seats across the long table. He felt presences also appear at his sides, and right across from him, a beastfolk woman popped into existence.

Sultan quickly scanned the room, seeing the nearly five hundred seats rapidly filling up. In truth, none of them were there in person, except for one person. At the head of the table was a dark elf in a golden robe, patiently waiting for all of them to arrive. Something they all did within thirty seconds.

One could say many things about merchants, but calling them tardy and accusing them of missing lucrative appointments was not one of them.

The elf regarded them and smiled as he began.

”I am pleased that you could all join me on such short notice, so let us get down to business. This is no social call, now is it?” the dark elf spoke, getting a few polite chuckles out from the people at the table. The dark elf was an S-grade, after all, so none dared show disrespect.

”While most of you are still in D-grade, the allure of Nevermore approaches for many of the young geniuses of the ninety-third universe, which should lead to a rush on the World Wonder, and we would be foolish to not capitalize on this opportunity. I take it you have all gathered goods unique to your planet and universe in preparation for Nevermore?” the dark elf asked the room, getting nods all around.

Sultan glanced at Renato, the only other merchant from Earth in the room. The other man returned his look and nodded, as they had both discussed this already and were ready. While they were not friends, they were ultimately business partners considering they worked for the same conglomerate. A single planet was simply not big enough to compete internally if you wanted to do business on a multiversal scale.

Hence why they both joined the Golden Road Emporium a long time ago and rapidly managed to consolidate all the smaller mercantile factions that had popped up since the integration. Something that had gotten far easier after the establishment of the World Council, leaving many merchants wanting to get in their good graces by joining up with Sultan and Renato, who could both claim to have worked with the World Leader in the past.

”Remind me, what kind of goods are expected to have the most demand?” a fish-like man asked the dark elf meeting holder.

”The dossier should have gone out already, but tentatively what should do best in the multiversal market is anything fitting characteristics that are considered unique to the ninety-third universe,” the dark elf explained. ”Especially rare natural treasures, rewards from system events, new plants and herbs, as well as minerals holding mana signatures showing at least an eleven percent energy-signature deviation from a similar mineral in the dossier. Naturally, if you have any talented crafters on your planet, bringing their goods could also be profitable, especially if they make use of nonconventional crafting methods.”

People nodded around the table as another spoke up, an elf with bronze skin wearing a very expensive-looking robe. ”How about slaves? We have a substantial stock of elves with potent metal and earth affinities, prime for mining and construction efforts in the newly integrated universe where only natives can go.”

”Sadly, it is not currently possible to properly transport large quantities of living goods across universes, and even if we could, the cost would outweigh the profits. Hence why we are sticking to non-living items for now, and most should have already finished up their means to transport these non-living goods to the warehouse, but slaves would be an entirely different matter,” the dark elf shook his head.

The bronze-skinned elf looked disappointed but nodded in understanding. The beastfolk woman in front of Sultan then spoke, addressing the elf. ”If we can look into establishing an in-universe transportation system making the transfer of slaves feasible, perhaps we could discuss an arrangement. I am certain the World Leader of my planet would be more than happy with some skilled labor as our native population took quite a hit from internal conflict.”

Smiling, the bronze-elf nodded.

The dark elf cleared his throat to get the attention of everyone back on him. ”Internal business should be discussed later. For this meeting, we shall focus on Nevermore. Now, the first order of business is the assignment of representatives from those present. We shall choose five people in total who will liaison for everyone else, and-”

He stopped speaking mid-sentence as his eyes opened wide. ”Excuse me, urgent matters suddenly came up. Let us reconvene in twenty-four hours exactly.”

”What happened?” someone asked the S-grade dark elf in charge of their part of the ninety-third universe.

”The information is a bit delayed, but announcements have just been sent out by the Order of the Malefic Viper that they will hold a ceremony next month, which will include the formal introduction of the Malefic One’s new Chosen. In addition, it will also share information regarding the resurrection of an extinct True Royal Lineage of the ectognamorph race,” the dark elf shared, surprising Sultan for several reasons.

Firstly because they were all just D and C-grade, meaning this entire thing would surely be way above anything the Golden Road could expect the merchants in the room to participate or have any part in. Secondly, Sultan had not expected Lord Thayne to go public, much less for it to happen on such short notice. He could only guess it had to do with this True Royal, something he was not entirely clear on what was.

He shared a look with Renato, the other merchant clearly also clueless that this would happen.

”Many of you probably question why I even informed you of this,” the dark elf spoke, addressing Sultan’s thoughts exactly. ”It is already confirmed that the Chosen of the Malefic Viper stems from the new universe, so the moment we know who it is, it will become a priority to establish contact and form a positive relationship. They can at most be C-grade, so be ready if the Chosen turns out to be within a reachable distance.”

Sultan and Renato shared another look, Renato displaying a hint of envy in his eyes at Sultan managing to become the merchant officially recognized as operating out of Haven. Even if he did not work with Lord Thayne directly but simply helped Ms. Wells, that was already a far closer connection to the Chosen than any other merchant had.

The only problem was the taxes the witch forced upon him, but sometimes sacrifices had to be made… even if he did hope for them to not be that steep. Not that he wanted to complain too much.

He could only smile internally at the decisive decision he had made back in the day. Choosing to relocate to Haven and offer his services so early on had given him a foot in the door no one could compete with now, and his Patron was more than pleased by his accomplishments. There were some hiccups along the way, such as the unfortunate situation with the Chosen of Yip of Yore, but luckily Lord Thayne did not seem to hold a grudge.

Just as the dark elf was about to leave, he suddenly seemed to think of something as he looked at the bronze-skinned elf that had talked earlier.

”Your earlier proposal gave me an idea… finding valuable gifts to a Chosen of such renown is difficult, but perhaps there are some things we can offer. Alchemical ingredients or equipment will be numerous, but maybe we can provide him with something he cannot simply get from the Order of the Malefic Viper: manpower on his homeworld,” the elf spoke, clearly keen on the idea.

Sultan suddenly felt a cold shiver run down his back.

”Everyone present should look into procuring slaves from your universe we can offer to the Chosen, and-”

”Ahem,” Sultan interrupted, getting a glare from the dark elf.

”What?” the S-grade asked, Sultan happy he was just a projected body and couldn’t physically feel the pressure on him.

”Perhaps we should… reconsider,” he tried to argue. ”Not knowing who the Chosen is, perhaps they would find a gift of slaves offensive.”

The dark elf shook his head dismissively. ”We will naturally make a proper spread of sexes and races, hopefully allowing us to offer what would cater to his needs the most. Even if he already has enough slaves, there would be no reason to reject them as he could always just use them for colonization or expansion.”

”What I mean is that perhaps the entire idea of offering slaves at all is ill-advised,” Sultan tried again, a bit nervous.

Every single person now looked at him, with every single gaze showing disbelief and scorn… except Renato, who was the only one who understood.

”Sultan, your research on the Order of the Malefic Viper is sorely lacking if you even entertain such a preposterous notion,” the dark elf scoffed before shaking his head and addressing everyone else. ”Look into the procurement of slaves and report back next meeting; I will have to take my leave now. And Sultan, you tend to have a good head on your shoulders, but I expect you to research the Order and, during the next meeting, explain to me why what you said just now was the words of a moron. Are we clear?”

The merchant could only sigh and bow his head. He still had confidence in saving the Golden Road Emporium from coming out looking like idiots… but…

That entire ceremony is gonna be a shitshow.

Because there was no way other factions didn’t have the same ”brilliant” idea as the dark elf.