Chapter 332: Making an Impression
=Huh? What are you doing?=
=Excluding the zakos? Yeah, we were both there. Why?=
=What?=
=Huh…that’s…new.=
=…what the fuck?=
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After causing one hell of an uproar in the Zhen Clan by their sudden appearance, the three women were quickly brought into Zhen Shi’s office for a meeting in regards to the contents of the letter that they brought.
Aranea(Archanidame) and Lucille(Lacerage) sat quietly, hands folded, as they waited for the arrival of their future employer(grandfather of their actual Lord), meanwhile, Rianna had cosigned herself to laying down on a couch that happened to decorate the space.
‘Bleh…who knew other mortals were so…exhausting. Not as bad as being chased by Giga-Hornets, but still,’ Rianna mentally groaned.
While she did find it exhilarating to know that there was more to the world than rot, plants and insects, she didn’t expect the world to be filled with so many…people.
Especially ones that gave her funny looks with red cheeks.
Were they all sick?
‘Well…at least the kaijin are pretty quiet,’ she thought as she stared at Archanidame and Lacerage sitting quietly and thoughtfully.
Evidently, it was a good thing she couldn’t read minds.
While on the surface, “Aranea” and “Lucille” looked like the sterling examples of proper ladies, their communication line was anything but.
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[Fucking told you that it was bad idea to spring all of that information on them at once. Now look at us, we’re stuck sitting in this boring ass office with nothing but each other and an introvert…who I have the inexplicable urge to baby.]
[In reverse order, first, that is an understandable feeling, I’ve been fighting the urge to headpat her.]
[Right?!]
[Second, bitch, you made no such rebuttal to the proposed plan. Instead, you raided their storehouses in search of anything that could be used as to make a chess board and pieces, settling on Voltaic Elephant Tusks, 100-Year Snow Acacia wood and Desert Whale ambergris, which in total have a market value of one thousand, six hundred and twenty-two golden talents.]
[…]
[What?]
[How the fuck do you know that off the top of your head?]
[You were taking awhile, so I asked Logos to brief me on the intricacies of economics and book keeping…also I took a peek at their financials, I think someone is embezzling.]
[You hypocritical bint, don’t lecture me about raiding when you did it too.]
[Only for knowledge.]
[Motherfucker…next you’ll tell me you cheated at chess.]
[No need for that when you suck at it.]
[Hey!]
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“Alright then, sorry for making you ladies wait…is she okay?” Zhen Shi asked as he entered his office and pointed at Rianna, who was now passed out on the couch.
“Oh it’s not worries at all, Patriarch Zhen Shi,” Aranea answered.
“Don’t worry about her,” Lucille added, “she was just nervous about coming here so she hadn’t been able to sleep a wink.”
“Ah. Understandable…”
If Zhen Shi had been a bit quicker on the opening of the door, he would have been witness to Aranea and Lucille attempting to rip each other’s throats out, all while Rianna was trying to stop them from doing so.
However, the moment the three of them heard the door creak open, Aranea and Lucille immediately stopped fighting and returned to their seats like nothing happened while Rianna just passed out on the couch, exhausted by the whole affair.
Zhen Shi took measure of the two women, unsure of what to make of them as he took his seat at the desk, opposite to them. They had all the mannerisms of nobility, of the urbanites that called the capital cities of the world home, but there was this weird sense of alieness coming off of them that he couldn’t put a finger on.
Well…aside from their unusual skin tones of course, but asking about that would be rather rude.
“Now then, let’s -”
“Excuse me, Patriarch,” Aranea interrupted, “but the button on your right sleeve appears to be coming loose from your shirt.”
“Huh?”
Zhen Shi briefly looked down at the aforementioned right shirt sleeve and noticed that the button holding it together was indeed coming loose.
“Oh, you’re right…when did that happen…?”
Judging by how loose the button was, this issue must have been persisting for quite sometime. Granted with everything happening up until now, it’s no wonder he didn’t notice it.
“It’s fine,” Zhen Shi continued, “I can bring it to a tailor la-”
“No need to waste money on something as small as that,” Aranea interrupted again, “may I have a look?”
“Uhh…sure…,” Zhen Shi nodded while presenting his wrist.
If it was anyone else making this suggestion, Zhen Liu would have outright refused and gone to the tailor himself. However, the one making the suggestion was the servant of the same mysterious master that had cured his grandson of his strange affliction via a weird workaround, and also helped him breakthrough to Lord rank with some unexpected benefits…via having the aforementioned grandson shoot him in the face.
If the mysterious Grandmaster wanted to do a thing with his buttons, who was he to deny that?
Aranea looked over the loose button for a only a brief moment before clicking her tongue in distain.
“Whomever made this shirt used the wrong stitch pattern for this type of silk. Moths…spider silk is much stronger, but if they insist on using this stuff, a pattern like this would work better.”
Aranea waved her hand over the loose button and thread, releasing the tiniest trace of aether that Zhen Shi had ever sensed. Using this aether, Aranea willed the threads to come undone and re-bind the button in a noticably stronger binding.
“There. That should do it,” Aranea said with an easy smile.
“Huh…”
Zhen Shi did his best to suppress the surprise on his face from showing as he saw Aranea redo the binding.
Manipulating threads and other small objects wasn’t a rare skill, but the small objects in question normally had to be made of higher quality materials like silk extracted from aether beasts or treasured ores. They’re the only things able to withstand, and properly channel, the powers of Aether Warriors of Aranea’s perceived level.
Being able leverage this amount of precision and control with this little aether was absurd.
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[Oh, you fucking show-off.]
[Now, now Lucille, in just putting my best foot forward.]
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After admiring the sheer amount of control Aranea used to make the stitching, a thought occured in Zhen Shi’s mind.
From his pocket, he pulled out a queen chess piece and presented it to the two ladies.
The aforementioned chess piece looked rather standard, except for two details.
First, if one were to take a closer look at it, they would notice over a hundred intricate designs on it’s surface.
Second, the chess piece was made of ivory taken from a Voltaic Elephant. A notoriously difficult piece of ivory to cut through let alone carve without the usage of very specific tools.
“Did you by any chance make this?,” Zhen Shi asked Aranea.
“Ah, well-”
“Actually sir,” Lucille cut in, “that would be my handiwork.”
“Really?,” Zhen Shi asked with genuine curiosity, “this is Voltaic Elephant Tusk. When we first butchered it, we had to use a specialized tool and it took us hours to cut it off the skull in the first place. How did you manage it to cut through it so easily and make it this detailed? Let alone, managed to turn one tusk into exactly sixteen chess pieces without wasting a single piece.”
“Oh! Quit simple really, if you have another piece I can show it to you right now,” Lucille answered earnestly.
Zhen Shi was almost tempted to do as she suggested but thought better of it.
Voltaic Elephant tusk was hard to come by and he was already down one.
Thinking quickly, Zhen Shi opened his desk drawer to see if there was anything else that he could use for this demonstration of hers.
“Damn, nothing but parchment…”
“Oh? That’ll work.”
“Huh?”
Lucille waved her hand and released a small breeze of aether empowered wind, causing a single sheet of parchment to fly around and float for a bit, right before it was right above her head.
Pointing her finger upward, she jerked it for a second, causing the parchment to violently shake for a moment.
As it floated back down onto the desk, parts of it began to peel off and form into snowflake-like patterns, while the main sheet itself was so intricately cut that it looked as if the lace pattern on it was always a part of it.
“I tend to work better with tougher substances, but I hope you like the pattern.”
An absolutely shocked Zhen Shi could only let a single “huh”, as he stared at the parchment on his desk.
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[Haha! One to one, bitches!]
[Tsk. Show-off.]
[Got a bad case of CDs I see.]
[CDs?]
[See Deez Nuts!]
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