Davis had a pale, beardless face and was about twenty-three or twenty-four years old.
He had a very handsome face that appeared both determined and gentle.
His amber-colored eyes burned with anger, while his chestnut hair rose even though there was not the slightest breeze.
“Don’t go too far!”
“No one dares refuse the favor of the Holden family!”
Aron’s expression remained unchanged.
He merely looked at him and calmly replied:
“So, you’re trying to provoke the Blackwood family?”
As his voice grew sharper, the atmosphere in the hall became heavier and more suffocating.
The musketeers hidden in the shadows silently raised their rifles and aimed them at the three white men in the hall.
The master had said that firearms probably would not be particularly effective, but he had not said they were completely useless.
If three hundred shooters opened continuous fire, they did not believe they would fail to kill them.
Jimmy had obviously sensed the hidden killing intent.
He smiled, pulled Davis behind him, and took his place.
“No, no, Mr. Blackwood, you misunderstood us!”
“My brother did not mean it that way. The Holden family sincerely wishes to establish a friendly relationship with the Blackwood family. Please allow me to sincerely apologize on Davis’s behalf!”
Aron replied indifferently:
“It would be better if that were the case. I accept the apology.”
“Jimmy, can you make decisions? If you can, let’s talk.”
“If you can’t, call someone who can. My time is precious!”
Those openly rude words caused veins to bulge on Davis’s forehead.
His nostrils trembled as he breathed heavily.
Even Mithburn, who was usually skilled at hiding his emotions, had a dark expression at that moment.
Jimmy, however, remained very calm.
After a brief silence, he said:
“Of course I can make decisions. Mr. Blackwood may freely state any conditions he wants.”
“Your Excellency Mithburn, Brother Davis, do either of you have any objection to me making the final decision?”
It sounded like a question, but Aron clearly heard a commanding tone in his words.
It seemed that Jimmy’s position was far higher than that of the other two.
Mithburn was the Deputy Director General of the Canadian Tax Administration and could be regarded as one of the most influential people in the country, yet he now voluntarily surrendered the initiative.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Jimmy. I have no objections!”
Davis snorted coldly, turned his head aside, and said nothing.
Aron snapped his fingers, lit a cigarette, and took a drag.
“I’m not asking for much. I really am not asking for much!”
“Since we’ve decided who will lead the negotiations, Mr. Jimmy, let’s go to the study and discuss everything there in detail.”
He flicked off the ash, then saw Mithburn and Davis preparing to follow them, so he whistled softly.
“Charles, entertain Mr. Mithburn and Davis. I don’t want uninvited people interfering in important matters. I believe you understand that, Mr. Jimmy.”
Butler Charles Whitmore appeared as though he had emerged from thin air and politely invited the other two to go with him.
…
“You want to buy two hundred thousand acres of land in the United States of America?”
Jimmy looked at Aron in surprise.
When he heard that request, he was completely stunned.
Relations between Canada and the United States of America were extremely tense.
A major Canadian landowner wanted to purchase such a huge amount of land in America.
Was he not afraid that the government would confiscate all his holdings if the political situation became unstable? This story is hosted at g.com.
“You must be aware of the current relations between the United States of America and Canada. A major war could break out at any moment, and then all of your investments could be lost!”
“As a friend, I advise you to simply give our family the distribution rights for your medicines and quietly make money. In the United States of America, no one dares touch the Holden family’s business!”
Aron smiled.
He understood very well what Jimmy was thinking.
Not much time had passed since the founding of the United States of America, so the country desperately needed enormous amounts of capital for construction and development.
If Aron truly invested a large amount of money there, the local government would certainly welcome him as an honored guest.
In that case, the Holden family would no longer be able to manipulate the Blackwood family so easily.
When it came to pharmaceutical distribution, the initiative in the cooperation would remain in the hands of the Blackwood family.
“Mr. Jimmy, you are a smart man, and I’m not someone who only sees short-term benefits either. If the Holden family helps us, our future cooperation will not be limited only to penicillin.”
“I can promise you that as long as the Holden family does not betray our friendship, they will always have priority in obtaining distribution rights for Blackwood Pharmaceuticals medicines in the United States of America.”
Jimmy blinked, then agreed without hesitation.
Then he said with a smile:
“Don’t worry. The Holden family will definitely help you purchase the land you just marked!”
“By the way, please also help Mr. Mithburn.”
“As long as he has a strong position in the Tax Administration, the connection between the Blackwood and Holden families will be unbreakable!”
He placed his palm on the large, detailed map spread across the table and confidently accepted the deal.
The cunning young man already had his own plan.
Didn’t it all simply come down to helping with the purchase of land?
For the Holden family, that was an insignificant matter.
This way, he would obtain the lucrative penicillin distribution business while also strengthening the position of his old friend.
He would gain two benefits with one move.
Aron crossed his legs, lit another cigarette, and looked with interest at the areas circled in red on the map.
Those plots were of different sizes, but together they covered two hundred thousand acres.
On the enormous map of the United States of America, they seemed almost insignificant.
However, if those same places were viewed a hundred years later, every one of them would belong to the most developed and economically important American cities, including Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Diego, and others.
“No problem. I will tell the butler to mobilize the merchants and landowners of Alberta to support Mr. Mithburn’s candidacy for the position of Director General of the Tax Administration.”
“Now that we’ve reached an agreement, it’s time for you to reveal your true identity to me!”
“I have no intention of prying into your secrets, but at the very least I need to know whether the man I’m cooperating with is actually a human being.”
The moment he spoke the final sentence, Aron’s figure disappeared from the chair.
Boom!
A black shadow, so fast that an ordinary person could barely follow it with their eyes, smashed the wooden chair into pieces with a single blow.
“Young people really are too impulsive!”
Aron’s voice came from the other side of the study.
The black shadow abruptly turned and charged toward him again.
Before it could launch another attack, an invisible force as heavy as a mountain appeared from the void and firmly pinned it in midair.
Jimmy’s appearance completely changed.
His chestnut hair became bright red, his brown pupils turned an unusual dark crimson, and a strange and mysterious symbol appeared on his forehead.
The bloodthirsty and rotten aura that Aron had barely noticed earlier now continuously erupted from Jimmy’s body, resisting the gravitational field holding him trapped in the air.
But that was not the most terrifying thing.
Inside Jimmy’s open mouth were four sharp fangs that could not possibly belong to a human.
They looked more like the teeth of a bat.
The handsome and famous young Mr.
Jimmy of the Holden family was actually a notorious vampire.
Aron truly did not understand how they could enter high society so openly.
Although he complained inwardly about the Church’s incompetence, he had no intention of completely severing relations with Jimmy.
So what if he was a vampire?
Jimmy probably thought Aron was a mutant.
As long as they did not provoke the Blackwood family, Aron would not care in the slightest if they hunted people in the United States of America.
“Damn Mithburn, he’s completely incompetent!”
“After such a long investigation, he still failed to discover that you are also a supernatural being!”
“Dear Mr. Blackwood, could you put me down? You should understand that we mean you no harm.”
Aron crossed his arms over his chest and said to him with a smile:
“Whether you mean me harm or not, it seems your mind already has its own opinion!”
“Mr. Jimmy, you would be better off giving up such thoughts. Otherwise, I guarantee that you will suffer more than if a cross pierced your heart. You will be unable to live or die!”
He extended a finger and lightly touched the air.
Two rays of golden light entered Jimmy’s body and attached themselves to the blood-red core pulsing beneath his heart.
When he sensed the change in his body, a trace of fear passed across Jimmy’s face.
“The power of the Sun… Extremely pure solar energy!”
“Impossible. The gods have not walked the Earth for a very long time. How can you control the power of the Sun?”
Aron looked at him as though he were speaking to a complete idiot, then said in a teasing tone:
“It seems Mr. Jimmy has been asleep for a very long time. Nowadays even elementary school children know that the Sun is just an ordinary star. What is so unusual about controlling its energy?”
After those words, Jimmy almost felt like crying.
When he woke up, he had already learned such basic facts from the younger members of his family.
However, the man before him was incredibly powerful, yet at the same time understood far too little about the supernatural world and the true nature of his own power.
“Dear Mr. Blackwood, please stop joking.”
“The energy you bound to my body contains a faint trace of divine power. That is not ordinary stellar energy!”
“Destroying a vampire requires an enormous amount of ordinary stellar energy, while only a small portion of your power is enough to kill me.”
Aron whistled softly, then indifferently returned to his chair.
With a single thought, he withdrew Gravity Manipulation and lowered Jimmy to the floor.
He had just obtained a great deal of useful information from the young man, thanks to which he understood his own ability better.
Since his power could completely suppress vampires, Jimmy posed no threat if he let him go.
Jimmy’s vampiric power was completely suppressed by the golden energy attached to his blood core.
He rolled his eyes.
“Dear Mr. Blackwood, you truly are very rude.”
“To make amends for offending you, I propose that we change the profit distribution from penicillin distribution to ninety-ten.”
“You will receive ninety percent, while the Holden family will take only ten percent.”
Aron tilted his head, looked at Jimmy, and smiled strangely.
“Leave you only ten percent? Wouldn’t that be humiliating? Surely you can’t kneel and beg for scraps.”
It seemed Jimmy’s pride had been hurt.
He abruptly stood up and waved his arms excitedly.
“Considering your enormous power, even that ten percent is already a gift to the Holden family!”
“If you revealed your strength to the supernatural world, countless people would kneel before you and beg for cooperation. An opportunity like this cannot be obtained any other way!”
Aron thought for a while, then nodded with a smile.
“All right! Since Mr. Jimmy is so determined, I will reluctantly agree to change the terms of our cooperation. I wish us successful cooperation in the future!”
Jimmy quickly took several steps forward and accepted Aron’s outstretched hand with both of his own.
“Dear Mr. Blackwood, the Holden family will definitely not disappoint you. Within one month at the latest, those lands will belong to you and the Blackwood family.”
Aron merely murmured indifferently in response.
Jimmy sensibly declined the invitation to spend the night at the estate and immediately left together with Mithburn and Davis, who had drunk so much tea while waiting that they felt sick.
This place was terrifying.
Even worse than the Vatican Inquisition.