Nolan sensed nine prominent life signals among the new arrivals, all boasting auras of individuals in the early levels of Genesis. Sensing this, he and Lyra exchanged glances.

Waving at the girl that had filled her cup, Lyra pushed her chair back a bit, kicked off her slippers and instructed the girl to rub her feet. “Who’s that with Connick and his guards? Seems like another big shot.”

“Connick is here?” Welson looked a bit uneasy, a bit of sweat on his fleshy brow as he glanced between Nolan and Lyra.

“Chamberlain Daren?” said Melissa. “I heard that he was spotted at Chamberlain Connick’s main residence early this afternoon. It seems that Father was right about…” Mindful of her words, she stopped talking with a frown and looked over at the large crowd of people that still obscured the retinue from sight.

“Those two, together?” muttered Welson, accepting a napkin from the pretty, blue-eyed Ava and wiping at his brow in between his words. “This isn’t good. The fact that they’re arriving here with a conjoined retinue means that… Excuse me, I need to contact someone.” Pulling a sound transference talisman from his pocket, Welson ducked out of the circle and withdrew into his own thoughts.

“Hey Nolan, it looks like you can get your prize money now.”

“Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Hah, like you can say anything.”

Looking at Lyra’s high-life situation, he couldn’t help but wonder why those girls were acting like her servants. He got his answer when she callously interrupted Welson’s telepathic conversation to ask if Ava could massage her other foot, a prospect that the anxious merchant readily agreed to.

Meanwhile, Nolan spoke with Melissa while several other people tried to initiate conversations with Lyra.

Once the initial excitement over the arrival of the night’s host had simmered down, the chamberlains and their retinues began making their way to the far side of the courtyard. Nolan caught a brief glimpse of the group as they walked across the property, the two men surrounded by twenty beautiful women that were all dressed in alluring outfits accented by copious amounts of star gold accessories.

Connick’s stocky frame was covered by a set of quality robes, the interior one made of soft white silk while the looser and longer outer robe shone with gilded gold where it wasn’t decorated with pale floral patterns. His walnut eyes found Nolan as a momentary gap appeared in the group around him, an attempt at sneakily catching a glimpse of him. Connick was only one level above him in cultivation, meaning that he was capable of sensing Nolan’s life force. Since Nolan’s aura was incredibly dense for his level and thus very attention-grabbing, the man had likely known that he was here from the moment he’d crested the hill.

At Connick’s side was a man dressed in similarly grand robes, his hair a light brown and shorn short with a widow’s peak. Nolan took this man to be Chamberlain Daren, the prominent-nosed association member showing a confident gait as he walked slightly ahead of Connick amidst the group of captivating women.

“Hey, what’s Nyla and them doing that’s taking so long?”

Lyra replied with a laugh, holding up a finger to forestall whatever the tall, thick-haired man at her side had been about to say. “You’ll see. I don’t want to spoil it.”

“What is it?” he said flatly.

Seeing that Lyra was ignoring him, Nolan and Melissa left her to her manipulations and went back to the pool to relax in another improvised hot tub. During this time, he taught her a little bit about the most basic construction arrayment that he knew, a small gesture that was greatly appreciated by the hopeful girl. They talked about arrayments in general for quite some time, though Melissa also told him a fair deal about the faction that her father had recently aligned their family with and where their lands were located on North Island. Apparently the island was split into thirty territories with populations similar in size to that of some kingdoms, each ruled by a Merchant Lord. Nolan was surprised to learn that over half a billion people inhabited the land, making it the most populated power in the world after the Thebes Empire that occupied most of the western half of the continent.

Nolan had a difficult time believing that such a giant nation had been created by an organization of merchants, though he now had a better idea of the situation that he and his friends would be walking into once they arrived on the island. It also helped him get a firm grasp on exactly what it meant to offend people like Connick and Daren, who were second only to those that held the title of merchant lord.

Lyra showed up a short while later and asked Nolan to conjure up a quick room for her to change within, after which she joined him and Melissa in drinking within the heated area that he had created within the pool. Like Melissa, Lyra wore a thin robe in place of a bathing suit, which made Nolan wonder if this was the norm in other regions of the continent as well.

“I can’t believe they’re serving golden spirits here,” said Melissa as the three of them shared drinks within the hot waters. “Father only takes it out when important guests are over, yet here I can have as much as I want.”

Thinking of the drink’s ability to nourish one’s spiritual space by a slight degree, Nolan wasn’t surprised by the girl’s reaction. Even so, this was just a very diluted effect of the heavenly dew which Nolan literally bathed in these days, so he mainly enjoyed it for the taste along with the fast, hard-hitting buzz that came with it.

“You know, you’re not bad, Nolan.” Face red from her drink, Lyra pointed a finger at his chest. “It’s a shame there aren’t more men like you in our group.”

“Please stop,” he muttered, glancing at the clothes clinging to her chest. “Ian will kill me.”

“See, what did I tell you? He’s a pervert.”

“I told you she could be an asshole.”

Nolan widened the scope of the barrier and created a bit of distance between him and Lyra, not in the mood to be teased when his thoughts were so lax. It had been a long time since he’d kicked back in such an atmosphere, and despite the constant curveballs that were always coming his way he was determined to enjoy it to the fullest. He knew it was a bit foolish to let his guard down even by just a little bit, but he hadn’t been able to do so since the last time that he’d visited Nia and he was now strong enough that not a single person in the city could hurt him in a head on confrontation. Such a feeling was both peculiar and intoxicating, and in his drunken state he felt that it wouldn’t hurt to open up and enjoy the festive environment to the fullest.

Nolan fiddled around with an arrayment diagram for a short while before he installed little currents of airflow in various places along the barrier, creating the desired bubbling effect that he remembered from the hot tubs on Earth. His friends received this alteration very positively, and for a time the three of them simply sat in the water and enjoyed its warmth.

About ten minutes after Nolan altered his arrayment, he noticed a group of familiar auras approaching a nearby spot in the pool. Fuck sakes, and I was feeling so good.

Connick and Daren had changed into swimming robes and were in the midst of wading into the water alongside the many women that had accompanied them to the party. Nearby were the Genesis-staged guards, all of whom stood quietly along the edge of the pool like a line of secret service agents guarding the leader of a nation. To make matters worse, Kendal and the other girls from before detached from a nearby section of the crowd and approached the two chamberlains almost immediately after they showed up at the pool, deepening the frown that tugged at Nolan’s face.

Goodbye, my sweet relaxation time.

Much to his surprise, Katerina showed up a short while later and asked if she could join them, informing him that she had just spoken with Welson and agreed to join his faction if she would be allowed to do a bit of business with Nolan as well. Hearing this, Nolan assured her that this wasn’t a problem and that he looked forward to working with her in the future.

He caught on to the fact that the alluring merchant was parting her cleanly cut hair in a coquettish manner whenever they spoke to one another, an ego-boosting yet eye-rolling change in mannerism that he didn’t much care for.

Welson showed up a short while later, pale in the face and stone-cold sober. It seemed that he had something urgent to tell Nolan, but he didn’t get the opportunity to as Kendal picked this moment to swagger over by himself to address Nolan with false politeness.

“Hey, kid. That’s my father over there. If you’d like your reward, feel free to ask him for it. All expenses of this party are to be paid for by him, after all.”