As they left the meeting room, both Fritzgen and Grand Elder Feng stared at Kairos with a mixture of emotions on their faces.

“Is this boy truly 13?”

They could not believe the way he had conducted the meeting with those from the gentry.

When those gentlemen spoke condescendingly at Kairos and took him lightly because of his age or his background, he replied with a calmness that spoke volumes of the strength of his character.

The entire meeting had revolved around what he intended, giving those that participated a feeling that Kairos had expected everything that they brought up. And by extension, it made them feel a confidence akin to faith, in this boy that these nobles had barely spoken with in the past.

Perhaps most of them had forgotten, and they talked to Kairos as though he is their equal, but this boy had neither the years nor the upbringing that enabled him such capacities.

For the majority of their meeting, every man felt as though they were speaking with an authoritative and infallible leader.

Especially when the boy’s eyes burned with determination, it had caused everyone’s heart to beat quicker with passion. They felt in their hearts that what Kairos proposed will surely come to pass.

Without himself noticing, Kairos has already grown a great deal since he first practised the Origin’s Cultivation. Not only did the cultivation method change the way his brain works, but he had also matured from the experiences in the past one year. The events that happened in one year are much more than many had in their whole lives.

Though only thirteen, there were deaths around him of people he knew, enemies that fell by his hands, commands he made that indirectly caused the death of a town when the Phantoms tried to cover their tracks. There were businesses he created, and Kings that he contested with words or with the sword. 3 Kings, in fact: the Orc King, the Thief King and even his own Emperor, Galahad the Twelve.

His experiences made him a dangerous foe, and a powerful ally. The kind of person that those who truly knew him, would not dare to cross his path. Someone that drove an entire Empire to her knees.

Even if Kairos does not make use of his money, noble ranks, powerful backers, which person that knows of his abilities would be brave enough to make an enemy out of someone like him?

These nobles that met him only had a glimpse of who he is. After they left his manor and went about their businesses as they previously discussed, Kairos went to meet with Grand Elder Feng, to arrange his purchase of shop buildings from all over the Empire.

The Grand Elder were speechless at his request, the cost of these acquisitions and the daringness of this plan, are both well beyond his level of understanding.

Thinking that the funds are forked out by either the Emperor or perhaps Fritzgen, the elder calmed his own heart.

“A 13-year-old having this amount of funds is a ridiculous notion. I wonder who is helping him?”

Shops began to open one after another outside of Saint City, and both Fritzgen and Grand Elder Feng had their hands full handling the business.

The Grand Elder continued looking for the best locations available for purchase, and in the process earned a hefty profit for the Trade Federate, and he received a lot of favourable attention from his superiors.

The places he picked out for Kairos could only be described as profoundly wise decisions. Having years of experience and knowledge to back up his decisions, every location consisted of a certain competitive edge if well handled.

Besides helping Kairos to purchase shop buildings, the elder also scouted for staff that the Snowdrifts needs. His eye for good things does not merely extend to finding good sites, but also an astute ability to discover talent. It was this gift of his that he scouted Kairos into the trade federate half a year ago, and time had proven that Grand Elder Feng did not wrongly judge the boy.

Once the new staff had been hired, Fritzgen took over for their training. His method to prepare the employees Kairos required is by way of delegation. Fritzgen would send the people he trained to teach others, and soon every shop has at least a manager who is capable of handling most situations.

Each of the staff they trained, received an instruction for the shop they are assigned, to disregard their running cost and undercut the prices of every product offered by their opponents’ businesses.

At first, the three families laughed at Kairos’ business plans, and they fearlessly lowered their products’ prices.

With their background, they could afford to operate at a loss for quite a while, but Kairos who is only an upstart in their eyes certainly would be unable to sustain for long, like them.

Yet, their haughty confidence lasted merely a few days. More and more businesses began to operate under the Snowdrifts’ name, and other than only undercutting the prices, Kairos began a series of hostile takeovers on the suppliers to all businesses.

Giving them a price the merchants could not refuse, the ownership of many large companies is transferred to Kairos instead. Soon, the three families started to experience the very same things they did to the Snowdrifts’ shop. A lack of supply.

To stave off Kairos’ aggressive business tactics, the three families took to more extreme measures. The Steel Rose family began to infuse large sums of money into their businesses even though they are making terrible losses. They desperately wanted to save what is left of their trade.

The Devilheart family started to cut down their valuable trees on Steel Wood Mountain. Quicker than they did for years.

But it was the Hope family that met the worst conditions. They had the most amount of stores under their name of the three families, therefore when Kairos bought over their suppliers and cut off their resources, he has expertly snipped the heartstrings of the Hope enterprise.

Within days, the revenue of these three houses drop below the red line, and many once-profitable trades started giving zero returns instead.

This day, an A ranker rushed into the Devilheart’s manor with a thick stack of papers in his hand.

He went straight to Calculate Devilheart’s study and rapped urgently on the door.

“Come in…” An exhausted voice responded from within the room, and the practitioner quickly entered.

“Family head, our remaining assets has already dropped to dangerous levels. Half of the Steel Wood Mountain is barren from our extensive logging. At this rate, our resources will reach the point where they can no longer replenish themselves.”

Calculate farrowed his brows when hearing the news. He has already expected to hear of such things, but he still could not believe that Kairos could deal such extensive damage in such short time.

It’s illogical to expect this, after all, they had an entire mountain of natural crafting resources, and they still fell flat on their faces.

“What about the Hope and the Steel Rose side?” He asked hopefully. With the bad blood between the Devilheart and the Snowdrifts, Calculate has anticipated that their opponent made additional efforts on harming them. But as long as the other two families could stop the Snowdrifts, there is still hope.

He estimates that by now, the Snowdrifts would be reaching their limits. A growth spurt could not last long. And once their momentum is stopped, then every problem they now face can be solved.

He had assumed that Kairos would be lenient with the Steel Rose family, and avoid overly offending one of the 3 Great Nobles. And with Jim Hope as Kairos’ buddy, the chances of the Snowdrifts trying to destroy the Hope enterprise is minimal.

However, he found himself unable to wrap his mind around the reply he received.

“The other two families are not much better than us. In fact, Kairos seemed to focus his attention on the Hope family the most. A third of their enterprise has already folded.”

“H…his target was not us? But… why?”

At this time, in the Hope manion, Cannot Hope is smashing his furniture in undulated rage. The actual situation is much worse than what the A ranker reported to Calculate Devilheart.

The Hope business empire has already been beaten to a pulp by a 13-year-old boy.

The actual wealth amassed by their years of profits is enough for their family to compete with any of the 3 Great Nobles.

By his estimation, he is in fact even wealthier than the Steel Rose family, yet his son’s schoolmate defeated them at every turn with a seemingly infinite pool of money. It was a strange situation that even this great merchant could not understand how things could turn out this way.

The ores that the boy used in his shops is already triple the amount that Devilheart’s Steel Wood Mountain could harvest. The herbs and medicinal plants are at least twice of what the Steel Rose family owns. And the various materials that the Hope family had is only a fifth of what the Snowdrifts used.

Cannot Hope simply could not believe how the boy could find such a large amount of materials and defeat their businesses not only in price but also in quality and quantity.

When they saw how much products are sold, even Fritzgen and Grand Elder Feng questioned Kairos on how he found those resources, because what the Trade Federate and the Treasures Pavilion could provide merely a fraction of what they required.

With a smile, Kairos show them the space-time containers belonging to the 500 Phantoms. Those Double S rankers had lived over thousands of years, and they collected all sorts of precious materials over time.

But even then, it wasn’t enough to convince them, and the two could only guess that Kairos is unwilling to reveal the help he received from his two other backers, Emperor Galahad and King of thieves, Rielon. But if the two has their hands in this, it truly isn’t their place to question things.

However, they did not know that the remaining materials they used were not taken from those backers, but from the Phrixus’ treasury.

They had retrieved the Silent Lambs Empire’s war funds prior, right under their eyelids.

Kairos even felt that they robbed the treasury too easily. But it wasn’t as simple as he experienced.

The traps set in place would have deterred even the most talented thief. An impossibility for those time-space containers with the war funds to be robbed. Rielon himself would not dare such a venture.

Yet, because Kairos had a greater impossibility on his purpose, that he managed to turn everything into the current reality. He was able to see, decipher, and learn the runes with his Veritable Sight.

Kairos’ wealth can now be compared to an empire’s, but without any costs or liabilities, he needs to pay for. He has no citizens under his rule, nor any facilities he needs to run. Almost all his funds could be moved, and this sum of free cash is his advantage of the three families.

His primary liabilities, the running costs of their business, could not scratch even the surface of what the boys have. If his enemies had known this, they would have laughed at their own foolishness to think that the 3 medical gorges, the Steel Wood Mountain, and the Hope enterprise, could compete against the Snowdrifts.

However, quantity was not their only aim. The Snowdrifts wanted to defeat their opponents in quality as well. It was during this time that Helena, Siegfried and Laksa gain the reputation they deserved. The pills, the equipment and the food they made had garnered quite a bit of fame in Saint City, even before Kairos’ return. Now that they are expanding, they generously imparted their techniques to a new batch of talented craftsmen to run the new shops.

Because of this, each of them found themselves suddenly having large groups of followers, and their names spread far across the lands.

At first, when these three masters were teaching the new staff, they frown and shake their heads at crafting standard of Saint Empire. But, very soon, talented chef, pill makers and blacksmiths travelled from far and sought apprenticeship under them.

With their help, they created qualities unmatched by any other company in the Empire.

Meanwhile, the nobles that partnered with the Snowdrifts handled the other assorted businesses like clothiers and leatherworkers, to counter the Hope enterprise.

Unsurprisingly, the Hope enterprise is already faced with bankruptcy just after weeks.

This day, Cannot Hope received an offer from Kairos. A proposal he could not refuse. An incredible price to bail out the Hope enterprise, but the ownership must be transferred to Jim Hope!

Kairos had driven the Hope businesses to ruins, and he holds the means to restore it. It was his plans for Cannot Hope to step down from his position as the head of the family while letting Jim take over his place at the tender age of 13 years old.

Unknown to most, this is his main objective since the beginning. He wasn't just aiming for the defeat of his opponents, but to also to restore the home of his brother, Jim. And, it was not easily achieved even with all the money in the world.