"I don't buy that," she laughed for brief seconds, "excuse me for this, but just sitting by your side drives excitement in my body and heart."
"Do you want an autograph as well?" William joked back, as he knew this young lady was fooling around, wasting time until the numbers would be ready.
"Hahahaha, if you are willing, then please…"
He just lightly joked about it, yet she took out a scroll, an ink bottle, and handed a brush over for him.
"Sorry, but I can't do it," William saw many weird things in the world.
"May I ask why?" she didn't feel irritated or any insult. Instead, she grew curious.
"Did you hear about the Banshee spirit? It's a very dark and nasty spirit, one that can curse anyone from little things that belong to him. For example, any spirit master's signature is a common way to do it."
"Oh… That's the first time for me to know about such despicable creatures," the young lady seemed to joke, but her face and eyes showed how serious she was, "sounds like you speak out of experience in dealing with such scary foes."
"You can say so," William didn't give a definite answer, shifting the topic away from him, "you got such a nice place here. Do you run or own it?"
"Both," the young lady paused, "I'm Lara Vancouf, the heir of the Vancouf family and the owner of many things like this arena here and the portal area out there."
"The portal zone is also owned by you?! What a rich tycoon you are!" This time William's surprise was genuine. He never took this young lady seriously before. Yet if she owned such golden gooses and managed to keep them running successfully like this, without having any trouble or competition, then she must be someone capable.
"What? Got any interest in me perhaps?" she suddenly laughed, "it won't be the first. After all, I'm a single lady who owns lots of great stuff."
"Thanks, but wealth isn't the thing that attracts me to anyone," William wasn't really in the mood to accept such hidden temptation or flatter with such a hot young lady. He wanted to get his things, return back to the hotel, meet with his team, and tell them the grave news if they already didn't catch wind of it.
He learnt from his master that he could have armies beyond imagination, send them to their demise in brutal battles without batting an eye. But those lying in his close and trusted circle must be treated differently.
To any capable master, this little circle was the most valuable asset one could dream about. If anyone tried to harm any from this circle, an example must be made, in the most brutal and savage possible way. And William intended to follow this lesson literally and do so.
"Oh, first time to get rejected like that…" her face suddenly changed when she heard William's answer. She frowned, feeling a bit weird, "is it how others felt when I rejected them? It feels… Awful!"
"You should learn the lesson then and go easy over others," William rolled his eyes, "getting rejected isn't something nice."
"Yes, I can already tell," she sadly sighed, "so… Are you going to stay here or leave after this?"
"It's my business, so I won't tell," William even tugged his tongue out, teasing her more.
"A big bully you are."
"You are the big boss here, not me," William laughed, and she got her face changed for a second.
She had never met such a man before. Be it for her explosive figure, amazing looks, or her insane wealth and famous family; men always tried to curry favour with her all the time.
This was her first time meeting someone who didn't even spare her a glance. She even felt that William was munching a lemon right now to sit with her. If not for his promised gains, he'd not stay here for even one second.
"Tell me about this city," William knew he teased her enough, so he started to slowly break the ice, "this is my first time visiting here so…"
"I see, first you reject me and then you ask me to be your tour guide? What a cold-hearted man you are!"
"This is just me," William shrugged, and she sighed before speaking for a long hour about this city.
William knew that every place in the world got a history of its own, and this place wasn't an exception. It was founded thousands of years ago on the hands of twenty strong families, known now as the Twenty Royals among the locals. The place didn't have the portal zone at first, only planning to be an academy or something. But soon enough, their attempts failed, and people started to walk away from this place.
According to Lara, her great grandfather was tired of this place, decided to leave. But fate had other plans for him. He stumbled across an ancient ruin site, a place where he found lots of treasures. And there, he also found lots of portal cores.
"What a lucky bastard!" William could only inwardly curse in envy when he heard that. Portal cores were like seeds that were waiting to get planted. It didn't need much wealth to begin with to establish such grand portal zones. And that was just walking in a desert to find a gold mine or something.
William already guessed what happened next. Lara's great grandfather returned back, established the portals here and linked this place to many others. Starting from there, things started to thrive, and the twenty families started to shift their initial attention away from building an academy into building a city.
As the Vancouf family started running the portal business, the other nineteen families started business in other fields like Forging, Alchemy, trade, and even mercenary business.
The place started from this point to rise up and get famous all over the continent. Lara's ancestors weren't lazy or dumb.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺