Everyone looked at Owari when she said this only to find him smiling. “None of your business.” Owari replied.

“Is that so?” Lin smirked.

“Yes, so goodbye.” Owari turned around and began walking away arm in arm with Noel.

“Hey, get back here.” Lin called after him.

“Sorry, I don’t consort with the ignorant.” Owari said without looking back and the two left just like that.

“Look what you did. You pissed off a Silverblood and a talented independent hunter.” Max sighed.

“How’d I piss off a SIlverblood?” Lin was confused.

“Did you not see the look on her face? If Owari didn’t drag her off she looked like she was about to tear out your throat. Obviously those two are very close.” Max explained as if she was stupid.

“Well they are practically inseparable. They’re a lot alike.” Lance said from the side.

“Fool.” Lee said to her sister.

“Who’s a fool?” Lin seemed offended by everyone’s statements.

“Only a fool would piss off someone by insulting their date.” Max immediately had his opinion of Lin drop much to her shock.

“Alright I’ll go apologize.” She suddenly became quite docile.

“That won’t work.” Lance spoke up. “Owari is good at figuring out if someone is being genuine. If you go apologize just because you think you have to it’ll only piss him off more. Not to mention Noel.”

“Then what should I do?” Lin seemed to be getting impatient already.

“Nothing, you already screwed up. Just reflect on it and apologize the next time you meet.” Max suggested.

“So I have to live knowing I pissed off a Silverblood for who knows how long?” She asked exasperated.

“Maybe you should have thought about that before you insulted her boyfriend.” Gregory laughed at her directly, not at all worried about what everyone else thought.

Knowing who he was she could only grit her teeth. After all she couldn’t afford to piss off two different big families. “Fine.” She finally said.

As for Owari and Noel, Owari was doing damage control. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m not worried about it though?” Noel smiled.

“You look like a tiger about to pounce on someone.” Owari noted.

“Maybe she shouldn’t have insulted you then.” Noel stopped playing dumb.

“It’s fine. She already doomed herself the moment she did. I’ll ask Lance what organization she’s from later. After all those mines I found ship out to a lot of different people these days.” Owari smiled somewhat cruelly.

“How cool.” Noel smiled. She had no idea Owari could be so vicious in this regard.

“Why else do you think I went to so much trouble to find all of these things? Control the market and you control the world.” Owari shrugged.

“What an interesting way to see things.” Noel couldn’t help but agree to some extent.

The two chatted a bit more as they looked around for people to talk to. They didn’t even bother looking back at the group they just left, as if they weren’t important enough to bother with. Nobody said they weren’t the spiteful type, after all they were still human. Of course they would be pissed at such blatant disrespect.

As they looked around they saw two familiar faces approach them. One was Max and the other was Lee. It was easy to tell Lin and Lee apart because Lee wore a dress whereas Lin wore a skirt and blazer. When they got close Max spoke up first. ”Hey there.”

“Nice to see you again so soon.” Owari smiled.

“Right.” Max nodded awkwardly. “Lee wanted to come over but she didn’t know you well so she asked if I could go with her.”

“I wanted to apologize for my sister’s actions.” Lee spoke up a bit hesitantly. “She wants to apologize as well but it would be awkward to do so now.”

“Does she want to apologize because she is sorry or because she feels pressured to apologize?” Owari asked curiously.

“She’s always been a bit too proud of herself.” Lee didn’t answer the question. “She doesn’t really understand that other people can be impressive on their own. She thinks you need to use others to grow stronger.”

“Well maybe she’ll learn her lesson today. If she wants to use people to get stronger she shouldn’t mess with the wrong people.” Owari said casually.

“Wrong people?” Less looked confused.

Owari smiled in return. “It’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“I feel like that isn’t the case.” Lee was apprehensive.

“Even if it was I have no intention of talking about it.” Owari said bluntly. “But like I said it isn’t you who has to worry about the consequences of your sister's actions.”

“What kinds of consequences?” Max asked, hoping he could convince Owari otherwise.

“You’ll know when the time comes.” Owari said mysteriously. “For now don’t worry about it. It’ll be a good lesson for her. Everyone needs to learn something sometimes. Even me.”

“What do you need to learn?” Max couldn’t help but ask.

“If I knew I would find a way to learn it.” Owari would love to learn anything he needed to be a better version of himself.

“Maybe you need to learn to be more forgiving.” Lee suggested with a bitter tone.

“Maybe you’re right. But I forgave Max for looking down on me. The difference is that he was genuinely sorry. I won’t forgive people who don’t want forgiveness.” Owari spoke decisively. “If you want me to forgive her, convince her what she did was wrong. Don’t pressure her into thinking she has to apologize.”

“How are we supposed to do that?” Lee sighed.

“Show her that independent hunters are able to be impressive all on their own.” Owari shrugged. It wasn’t his job to do it.

“I’ll do my best.” Lee said before turning around and going back to her sister who now seemed to be standing alone.

“Are you really not going to forgive her?” Max couldn’t help but feel a bit bad. Technically Lin and Lee were friends of his, so he didn’t want to see them have anything bad happen to them.

“We won’t. It’s important to learn from your mistakes. If you coddle someone they can never improve themselves. If you can’t improve what’s the point of being a hunter?” Owari had his own beliefs of what it meant to be a hunter.

“Not everyone lives to be a warrior.” Noel reminded him.

“They should still strive to be a better person for the sake of themselves or those around them. Just one statement from her destroyed a positive atmosphere. That’s pretty inconsiderate of her.” Owari didn’t give an inch, not that Noel wanted him too. She merely shrugged.

“I think I get what you mean.” Max sighed, he could see Owari wasn’t going to relent. “Now that we have that out of the way, I’m curious about you two.”

“Curious about what specifically?” Noel asked.

“Well firstly I’m curious how you two met. You seem very close.” He was wondering if Noel and Owari had known one another for a long time, after all they had yet to separate once all this time.

“We met when our train got attacked. I was pretty weak back then.” Owari stated simply.

“We fought together along with Lance and some other people to protect the remaining passengers.” Noel added. “He saved my life and we got acquainted when I went to thank him.”

“That’s quite the romantic but tragic tale. How long ago was that?” Max felt it was odd because Owari said he was weak at the time, but he doubted they would let children face such a threat no matter how talented they were.

“Seven months ago now.” Noel answered.

“I see.” Max wasn’t sure if that was a long or short time for a relationship. After all he wasn’t in a relationship himself.

“What about you? You don’t seem to be accompanied by anyone.” Noel felt it was only fair to give what you get.

“I’m single. At the moment my mother is trying to find potential brides. Unfortunately my family wants to set me up with some impressive girl in the hopes of having the next generation be more impressive.” Max seemed bitter about it.

“Some arranged marriages work out.” Owari reassured him.

“I hope mine is one. Though if they try to put me with someone insufferable I’ll refuse no matter what. Even if they want to kick me out.” Max seemed to be serious.

“Well I wish you luck.” Owari smiled a bit seeing how serious Max was about not allowing anyone to control him. He felt this was respectable.

“As do I.” Noel made it a point to lean closer to Owari when she said that.

“Well I’m glad for the well wishes.” Max sighed, it was better than everyone else. Most of the time girls tried to apply for marriage to his family, and guys hoped to get their sisters with him to tie their families together. It was a massive pain.

As they were talking someone strode over to them. When she saw him Noel smiled lightly. He was a guy in his late teens with long blonde hair and blue eyes. When he arrived he immediately spoke to Noel. ”It’s good to see you again.”

“Likewise. Owari, Max, this is my cousin Luke.” Noel introduced them.

“Hello, I’m Max Vermillion, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Max held his hand out and the two shook hands.

“As she said, I’m Luke. Nice to meet you too.” Luke replied with a smile.

“My name is Owari. It’s nice to meet you.” Next Owari held out his hand. However Luke didn’t take it for a moment. Instead he stared at Noel and Owari’s linked arms.

“The pleasure is mine.” Suddenly he smiled and grabbed Owari’s hand. He put enough strength into it to break a normal person’s bones. If Owari hadn’t trained so much and had both the earth and metal affinities enhancing him he would have had his hand crushed.

Realizing this, Owari put strength into his grip causing clear pops to ring out from Luke’s fingers as he forcefully cracked his knuckles. Before he actually broke his bones Owari stopped adding strength into his hand. However he shook Luke’s hand while maintaining that grip. This caused Luke to sweat. He felt like Owari had more strength to put into his grip but was holding back.

“If you’re going to test someone, prepare to be tested back.” Owari didn’t beat around the bush as he let go of his hand.

“Right. Sorry about that.” He smiled a bit embarrassedly.

“It’s fine. So you’re a Silverblood?” Owari of course figured the answer was yes, but he decided to ask it to get a conversation going.

“Of course.” He said proudly.

“It’s my first time meeting anyone else from Noel’s family. It’s good to see you look out for one another.” Owari was impressed that Luke didn’t allow things to get awkward due to the previous event.

“Of course, we believe in being just and right. How would we be able to do so if we couldn’t even do so to our own family?” Luke smiled confidently.

“Well isn’t that quite heroic of you. It seems the Silverblood’s reputation is well-founded.” Owari chuckled at Luke’s confident smile.

“Wouldn’t you have already known that?” Luke was confused.

“One person can’t reflect an entire family. Two people can give a rough idea. It’ll take at least 10 before I’m convinced.” Owari wasn’t the type to judge others based on those related to them. After all his old friend Lucas’ parents were nice enough people though they were terrible parents.

“Is that so?” Luke couldn’t help but frown.

Owari didn’t say anything more on the topic and soon enough Noel steered the topic into other subjects. They talked about various things, and eventually Owari managed to find out their standings in their respective factions. Luke was relatively high up due to him meeting the requirements to come here at his age. As was Max, though Max was far more favored as he was younger than Luke and his family placed more importance on such things.

The rest of the party was rather one-note. Owari and Noel made the rounds introducing themselves and learning who the people with high positions were. It wasn’t always the people with the most attention, some of them liked to maintain a low profile. However it was impossible for Owari and Noel to stay low profile, so instead they made themselves as well known as possible. One 16-year-old genius was one thing, but two who were also a couple was another. Especially since one was an independent hunter and the other was an albino Silverblood. By the time they introduced themselves for the fifth time, everyone knew who they were.

There were of course people trying to jump on the bandwagon and butter up to them. However they merely accepted compliments with a smile and refused any gifts offered politely. It was an exhausting day as they did their best to make potentially fruitful connections. Of course they also made a few enemies here and there, and some people were envious of them. However Owari was able to sense the hostility and knew who was and who wasn’t their allies. It was one of the reasons he wouldn’t forgive Lin. She was obviously hostile to him.

The two eventually finished late at night and made their way back to their hotel room. It was a long day and they couldn’t wait to get some rest. As with the night before they shared a bed. When they woke up they found that it was far more refreshing to sleep together than apart, though neither of them said so. Soon enough they were on the express train going home.

“That was quite the slow day.” Noel commented as the two relaxed in their seats.

“Agreed. I never want to say my name ever again.” Owari sighed.

“I’ve never had to introduce myself so many times in a row before.” Noel also sighed.

“The young miss and young sir did very well though.” Morgana spoke from the side.

“Thank you for the compliment.” Owari replied.

“I was merely stating a fact.” Morgana smiled.

“It looks like your family will find out pretty soon what’s going on between us.” Owari spoke to Noel.

“That was the plan after all. Better they learn that I was accompanied by a genius the same age as me than through rumors. Especially when they find out you’re an independent hunter.” Noel grinned.

“Yeah, I’m sure they’ll be impressed. Especially when they find out I’m the same hunter you mentioned in your letters.” Owari chuckled at the thought.

“I wonder how my grandfather will react, or my father for that matter. I doubt mother will care. Though who knows with her.” Noel said with some amusement.

“You don’t seem to get along with your mother.” Owari noted.

“She tends to be a bit bossy, and because she has a lot of business acumen we have to let her parade around because she helps with our funding.” Noel replied.

“I feel like we’ve had this conversation before.” Owari suddenly seemed to have deja vu.

“I think so, it is quite hard to remember given how much we talk about.” Noel said with some embarrassment. She was the one who did most of said talking even still.

“Well what about siblings? I think you mentioned once that you had siblings.” Owari thought back but didn’t recall her talking about them.

“I have an elder brother. But he and I don’t know one another very well. He was always busy while I was growing up. I didn’t even meet him until I was seven.” Noel had next to no memories of her brother. She barely even remembered what he looked like.

“I wonder how well received I will be.” Owari was curious.

“I’m sure it won’t be too bad. After all, my family believe results speak louder than anything else. Just the fact that you are a gold rank at such a young age is enough to impress them.” Noel reassured him.

“I hope so.” Owari wasn’t sure why but he had a bad premonition. It was why he hadn’t just come out from the very beginning. Normally he isn’t afraid to speak the truth and let his thoughts be known, however with this he was apprehensive.

No amount of worrying would change anything now though. Instead Owari just needed to look forward. Over the rest of the next few days Owari and Noel decided to chat with Morgana a bit. While she was surprised she did her best to live up to their expectations. They were a bit curious about her life since she was always near Noel so they were worried her social life was suffering. She reassured them that she was fine. After all she still had some time to herself at night and with her constitution she could spend her nights awake doing as she pleased.

Eventually they reached the city once again and went their separate ways. They both had something to do. Owari made his way to his home. For today he was free, but things would get busy for him for a bit the next day. As for Noel she had letters to receive and reply to as well as meetings to schedule. Owari spent the day looking for his next expedition location. This time he was looking specifically for a place where he would have a decent chance of taming a beast.

The next day came before he knew it, he even missed sleeping the night before. Not that such a thing would bother him as much now that he had so much mana and resilience. Owari got up and made his way to Noel’s first to see the Silverbloods response. When he arrived she hadn’t come out yet so he loitered around for a bit before she finally exited the building and made her way to him as if she had expected to see him there.

“They offered 20% to you.” Noel smiled as she reported this. It was his highest offer yet.

“What about you?” Owari asked curiously.

“I didn’t get an offer, from the wording it seems they want my share for free.” Not that she cared.

“Then I’ll veto that. No way will I let their greed win out here. Your assets are your own, after all I assume they don’t have to give away all their money to the family.” Owari refused without hesitation.

“I figured you’d say as much.” Noel sighed. She’d prefer if he just took the bonus.

“Besides it’s better to trade so we both have shares. That way we have more power within the company. If I only have 20% they could potentially veto anything I say without regard for my opinion.” Owari also gave a business reason for his decision.

“I guess that makes sense.” Noel nodded, she was still a bit newer to this type of thing. Owari had done a lot of research on it after realizing he would need these skills going forward.

“Now that we have that offer out of the way, let’s go to the amber agency and see their response.” Owari and Noel did just that.

Soon they were sitting in a room with Lance while he looked at a letter in his hand with a frown. “They said they would offer 15% to Owari and 15% to Noel.”

“They do know we aren’t splitting this down the middle right?” Owari felt the offer was weird.

“They think her name is worth more than yours.” He sighed. “Though they didn’t explicitly state it, that’s basically what it means.”

“What do you think Noel?” Owari gave her the choice.

“It’s insulting. I have no intention of accepting even if you do.” Noel didn’t like it when people treated Owari differently just because of his background, a fact she has been forced to realize recently.

“I agree. Let’s not take the offer.” Owari just laughed lightly. He knew how Noel felt, it was pretty frustrating to be looked down on just because his name was different.

“I don’t blame you.” Lance sighed.

“Well it was nice of you to take us in so early. We have some other places to be today and we needed a general idea of your agency’s stance before we closed the deal.” Owari said sincerely. It was still fairly early in the morning unlike their usual meeting time.

“It’s fine, any excuse to get out of the normal work I have. Speaking of which I was wondering if you wanted to go on an expedition with me.” He talked to both of them as he spoke. “I plan on returning to the cloudfish lake to look for some more special water-dwelling magical beasts and to train my underwater combat. I figured I should offer, after all I did say I wanted a chance to go out into the field at some point.”

“I wouldn’t mind. I was thinking about going out to find a new magical beast. I had a few ideas in mind but the lake is a bit far for me to go on my own.” Owari easily agreed.

“I have too much work to do now that I’m back. Maybe another time.” Noel had to refuse.

“How long before you leave?” Owari asked, he didn’t have much to do for a while once he sorts this out. At least not until Noel’s family responds to their situation.

“We can leave tomorrow if you’re ready.” Lance chuckled. “I had planned on leaving tomorrow originally and intended to change it based on your availability.”

“Alright, I can do tomorrow.” Owari glanced at Noel for a moment, she was just smiling as if it was none of her business. He was glad she didn’t try to interfere with this kind of thing.

“Perfect.” Lance sighed, he was really looking forward to going out. As was his cloudfish who couldn’t wait to stretch its legs so to speak.

“Well we should go and deal with the final steps of this deal after so long.” Owari was ready to get these mines off his hands.

“Agreed.” Noel seemed just as ready as he was.

“Then I won’t hold you” Lance had already said everything he needed to.

The two of them made their way out of the Amber Agency and towards the Sapphire Agency, they decided to give them one last chance since so far they were the only one’s other than the Orion Tradecenter willing to treat them seriously. After arriving they were able to secure a meeting right away. This was due to both luck and because the Sapphire Agency still wanted to see the results of their negotiations.

When they entered the room the woman was drinking some tea, as soon as she saw them she set it down and smiled. “So is there good news or bad news?”

“Both.” Owari said as he sat down.

“Oh?” The woman seemed intrigued.

“The good news is that you only have one competitor. The bad news is that you still have one competitor.” Owari smiled as he replied.

“A double meaning. So I take it you won’t tell us what the other party offered?” The woman chuckled at Owari’s joke.

“Of course not. But I will say it was definitely better than your offer.” Owari made sure not to give anything away.

“How unfortunate.” The woman seemed to be caught between a rock and a hard place. She had only so much to offer, but she needed to make sure she beat out the competition.

“We intend to go see them next regardless of your offer. After all it’s only fair to give them a chance. After hearing both your offers we will make our decision.” Owari informed them.

The woman breathed a sigh of relief. “The most we can offer is 21% to you and 14% to her.” She decided to go all in from the beginning.

“Impressive. That definitely beats out the competition. So far at least.” Owari drummed his fingers against the armrest.

“So far?” She seemed apprehensive.

“We still have to negotiate with the other party. However you have shown that you are sincere in your negotiations with us. It would be a shame to give you nothing for it. If we do make a deal with the other party I’ll negotiate to make it so you can buy more of the goods than others.” Owari was quite pleased with their sincerity compared to the other two potential partners.

“I assume you would do the same the other way around?” The woman asked curiously.

“Of course, after all I still have ties to the Orion Tradecenter. Any profit for them is profit for me.” Owari answered.

“Very well, we will gladly accept your offer.” The woman nodded.

“Then we shall take our leave.” Noel talked for the first time. “We still have more negotiations to do and we would not wish to intrude upon your time any more than necessary. Perhaps we can have dinner together one evening, a double date of sorts. It would be a good chance to get to know one another.”

“How kind of you to offer. Perhaps we should set up such a date.” The woman answered with a smile. Of course she would want to make connections with such individuals.

“Then we shall be going.” Noel stood up along with Owari and the two left just like that. It was time to meet with Tristain next.