DUNGG DUNGG
The man on the other line couldn’t believe what he just heard. There shouldn't have been anyone in the market right now that was supplying high-quality Kores to anyone. They should have been the only ones. They even had an agreement with all the mining companies in the city that the prices of high-quality Kores be increased because of the dwindling supply.
How could Leonard Ainz, one of their golden cows who was desperate enough to buy Kores at almost twice their value, be suddenly disinterested in doing business with them? He couldn’t have made connections with the other mining companies. Everyone knew that Leonard was reserved for top dogs like them.
Was there a traitor in their midst? That was unlikely. No one had enough resources to fight a war of attrition with the rest of the companies. And by the end of the way, everyone would suffer without any actual benefit. Every one of their leaders was smart enough to know this, so they wouldn’t dare fire the first shot.
That meant Leonard’s words about a new company were true. There was an up-and-coming mining group called Aezure company that was threatening to upset the entire Kore market in this city. This was hard to believe. After all, where would they be getting the Kore? Every part of this region was already surveyed to the point that there were no more undiscovered Kore veins. Every mine was controlled by a different company, leaving no room for new startup companies trying to get a piece of the pie.
He immediately went to his computer and looked up the Aezure company in the database. Every company had to register their names on the government database, which the public could access at any time. But when he searched for the name, nothing came up.
“Could it be that they’re a black company?” he asked himself. “Or could they be so new that they haven’t registered their company yet?”
Without more information about this Aezure company, it could be considered nothing but hearsay. He was satisfied with calling this a hoax, but what will his superiors say? They would certainly blame him if they found out that they lost a large client. He would need a reason why; he’d need a name.
With bated breaths and a stiff back, the guy walked into his boss’ room to make a report. The man himself was sitting at his wooden desk that had carvings on it, with blue light emitting from them. Although it may look fake, the whole desk itself was engulfed in a blue flame that gave the boss’ face a sinister shadow.
“Did you close the deal?”
The employee was silent. He kept his hands behind his back and made his shoulders as small as possible. He was ashamed.
“What happened?” the boss asked. “Did he make it hard for you? Did you lie and say that it’s our last 50% pure Kore?”
“...No, sir…”
The boss crossed his hands on his chest. “For a lowly researcher, he sure does have guts. How low did you sell the Kore? 180,000 Chains? 150?”
“...”
The boss finally took it seriously and leaned on his desk. “Did you sell it below twice the normal price? That’s quite low. I expected more from my best salesman.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“I…couldn’t…”
“Huh? Speak up!” the boss had enough of the guy’s pussyfooting. A monstrous blue flame emerged from behind the boss and scared the wits of the employee. The guy looked ashy white when he saw the apparition.
“I couldn't! I couldn’t sell the Kore to the researcher, sir! I have failed you!” he screamed out as he fell to his knees.
The boss’ eyebrows turned into blue flames as he furrowed his eyebrows out of frustration. “What do you mean? Are you so incompetent that you can’t even close the deal on a desperate researcher who’s willing to throw money down the drain? All you had to do was catch it!”
The employee fell even deeper into his knees. His whole face was covered in cold sweat. The blue flame monster behind the boss was taunting him, burning the last dredges of his pride. “I have failed you!” He crashed his head on the floor. “He said he found another company willing to sell him the Kores he needed.”
“What?”
“Leonard said that the Aezure company will be coming for us! They’re threatening to disrupt our monopoly on Kores!”
The boss went silent when he heard that. The employee wanted to know what the boss was thinking, but he couldn’t dare remove his forehead from the floor. However, he felt the heat of the room suddenly turn colder and colder. It was as if the heat was sucked out of the room and was replaced by a burning freeze.
“But boss, I searched the database and found no company by that name.”
The boss pondered. “It must be a foreign company wanting to break new ground. Where else could their supply come from?” He came to the same conclusion as his employee. “But if it’s a war they want, then it’s a war they’ll get. If their supply comes from overseas, then it will eventually dry up. As long as we control the veins in this region, we will reign supreme in the market.”
As soon as the boss said that, the warmth of the room returned to normal heat levels. He finally calmed down. Usually, this would be the employee’s cue to go back to work. However, he remained in his kowtow, as if his sins weren't absolved yet.
“What is it?” asked the boss.
“It’s about the young master, boss.”
The boss didn’t ask more after that and just said, “Bring him here.”
The employee quickly left the room, and after a few minutes, he brought along with him a youth who had a head full of long yellow hair down to his chin. Bangs covered the expression on his face, but it was clear he didn’t want to be there. He didn’t look up even after he entered his father’s office and his body was turned away from him.
“What happened?”
The youth remained silent. The boss looked at the employee and he was the one who explained what happened.
“The young master is in trouble with the school, Boss. They were saying that he stole a very dangerous Fiendish Armament from the School Inventory using your company as a cover. And he is unable to return the artifact to the school, leading them to ask for reimbursement from us.”
The boss looked at the youth. “What happened?”
The youth didn’t answer and remained silent.
“Griff, I am commanding you to tell me what happened.”
“...”
“You are the heir of the Sunverk Company, my inheritor! The fact that you needed Fiendish Armament in a school full of untalented youths tells me that you lack training. Did you kill them?”
Griff was silent.
“Who are they? What are their names?” Sonny Sunverk asked.
“...”
SLAP
A burn mark appeared on Griff’s cheeks, but he still didn’t utter a single word. He kept silent.
Sonny Sunverk, Boss of the Sunverk Company, was in charge of the security in one of the biggest mining veins in the entire region. This allowed the Sunverk Company and a partner company to essentially monopolize all the high-quality Kores in the city. Griff was supposed to inherit this from him, but he was still too immature for it.
“Submerge his feet in lava,” ordered Sonny. “10 hours. No numbing paste. Up the dose of the healing medicine. This will kill all the weak cells in your feet and rebirth them with much stronger cells.”
Griff walked out of his father’s office voluntarily. He didn’t say a word about Patty, he didn’t complain about the harsh punishment he was getting, he simply took everything silently. He was going to let everything pass.
Once Griff left the room, only Sonny and his trusted employee were left.
“Find out more about what happened to Griff. I want to know the name of the student who forced him to use a Fiendish Armament.”
The employee nodded.
“Send out our best operatives to find out more about this Aezure company. We must snuff out any competition as early as possible. Make sure that this startup knows where they’ll end up when messing with us.”
Sonny then went back to his chair and leaned on it. “No matter if it’s a student or a foreign company, they’ll end up being crushed under our fire.”
The employee bowed to the boss before leaving his room. As soon as he left the room, his demeanor changed to that of a strict leader whose eyes showed no mercy. More employees walked out from the corner as they followed the employee’s footsteps.
“You heard what the boss said. Let’s get to it.” but before everyone left, he had one last thing to say to them. “I want to crush this Aezure company by myself. I want to see Leonard’s face when I present him the head of the Aezure company boss.”
All of the operatives were suddenly engulfed in a red flame that disintegrated all their bodies into nothing but ashes. All high operatives like them were given teleportation skills by the boss himself.