As my gaze shifted between Mabel and Mille, I couldn’t help picturing a hound standing its ground against a lioness. Just as the standoff between the two women was about to escalate, a man’s voice interrupted them.
"Mabel, is this the friend you were talking about?"
A stout man with a bald crown and an expensive black suit approached us, breaking the standoff between the two women.
"Lucas?" Mabel blurted out before quickly nodding. "Yes, this is him."
"Mr. Chase, this is Lucas Lint, a senior associate at our firm."
"Hello." I nodded at Lucas.
Instead of merely returning the greeting, the man immediately reached out and firmly clasped my right hand, shaking it with the familiarity of an old acquaintance.
"Mr. Chase, Mabel has arranged the Owner’s Private Lounge in your honor. I’ll meet you there shortly, along with the Valorant Guild leader."
His tone remained respectful, but there was an unmistakable efficiency in the way he spoke. With that, Lucas released my hand and gave Mabel a brief glance.
His words left all of us staring at him in astonishment.
Just moments ago, Mabel and Mille had been arguing over who had the better connections to the Valorant Guild. Yet Lucas had casually announced that the Valorant guild leader would be joining us.
The most surprised person wasn’t Mille Miles. It was Mabel, her mind was a mess, wondering, ’When did she book the Owner’s Private Lounge? And when did they invite the Valorant Guild leader to join them for brunch?’
She clearly had no idea if any of this had been arranged.
Still, Mabel was a professional. She quickly suppressed her confusion and kept her expression composed, choosing to play along rather than expose the fact that she had been caught completely off guard.
Ignoring our astonishment, Lucas politely continued, "Mr. Chase, I assure you, you’re in capable hands. If you don’t mind, I’d like to borrow Mabel for a few seconds."
Seeing me nod, Lucas gently took Mabel by the elbow and guided her a short distance away, maintaining his most professional smile. Once they were far enough away from us that their conversation couldn’t be overheard, his smile disappeared.
"Why didn’t you tell me your friend falls into the Ultra-High-Net-Worth bracket?" he asked sternly. "Fortunately, I came to check what was taking you so long."
"I didn’t know!" Mabel whispered defensively.
"Judging by the fact that Mille Miles was personally receiving him in the lobby, he’s worth at least a hundred million denars. And you didn’t know?"
"He’s a friend of a friend."
"Fine. What’s done is done." Lucas sighed, deciding there was little point dwelling on it. "But do you know what Mille Miles is trying to do with him? Is that bitch is cock blocking us?"
"Something liked that."
"I knew it. She’s a fine dolphin, just like me." Lucas grinned before handing Mabel a card. "Here, take this."
Mabel glanced down at it.
"This is the firm’s Millennium Acres Excelsior membership card. I borrowed it from another client and, thankfully, forgot to return it. I’ve already booked the Owner’s Private Lounge for you. Take Mr. Chase there, wine and dine him, and make him feel like the most important man in the building."
He paused, then leaned closer and lowered his voice, adding, "Make him feel as special as your neighborhood scrawny boy felt when he took your virginity. You get me?"
Mabel stared at him for a moment before calmly nodding.
"I understand what you’re saying, but I’m still a virgin."
Lucas rolled his eyes at Mabel’s claim, clearly not believing her.
"...And next time, I’m going to HR."
"But what about the Valorant Guild leader?" Mabel asked, still holding the membership card.
"Don’t worry. I heard she’s here in a meeting with the guild’s board members and representatives from Chimera Chemicals in the club’s war room. I’ll wait outside and beg her to come to the lounge, I’ll get on my knees if that’s what it takes. So, you better stall until I get there."
Lucas placed a hand on Mabel’s shoulder and gave her a serious look.
"Mabel, this is it. If we manage to sign him, I’ll become a managing partner, and you’ll be the first junior associate in the firm’s history to make senior associate this quickly."
His expression turned solemn, as though he were entrusting her with the fate of the entire firm.
"So give him your virginity if that’s what it takes to keep him satisfied until I arrive."
Mabel’s eyes twitched.
Before she could respond, Lucas straightened his suit, flashed a perfectly respectful smile toward their golden goose, and hurried toward the war room.
"That took a while, Ms. Werner. The Valorant Guild leader will be joining us, right?" Mille Miles asked as Mabel composed herself and rejoined us.
"Manager Miles, don’t worry. She will," Mabel answered, trying her best to remain polite and flashed the Excelsior membership card before continuing with a polite smile, "Until then, let’s enjoy what the club’s best chef and wine cellar have to offer."
"Great. I’m famished," I said, breaking the tension between the two women.
If I didn’t need their connections to get in touch with the Valorant Guild and secure the Summoner class, I probably wouldn’t have bothered putting up with this little tug-of-war over me.
The hunter system gave any hunter who entered a monster gate the opportunity to choose from a handful of basic or advanced classes based on their performance inside the gate. In other words, every class had specific requirements that a Hunter needed to fulfill before it could become available.
Those requirements, however, were not public knowledge.
The information was highly classified and closely guarded by powerful guilds, influential families, schools, and other major organizations. The government had repeatedly tried to convince these groups to share what they knew, but their efforts had yielded only limited results. They had managed to gather information about most of the known basic classes and a select few advanced classes, but countless others remained shrouded in secrecy.
Unfortunately, the two classes I was interested in, the Paladin and the Summoner, weren’t among the ones in the public domain.