A great rousing cheer erupted from the crowd at the end of their contest. No matter what was the cause of this bet, the result itself is too huge for anyone to stay calm. More precisely, the anti-seal weapon that Kairos created had sent a chill down their spines and at the same time caused their blood to boil with exhilarating anticipation.

Their hype which had been building up since the auction had been mercilessly intensified by the chain of events, till this exact moment where many simply keeled over.

This is a weapon that could change the entire market!

Hearing all these fawning over Kairos, Calculus’ face turned bright red with anger. A mighty bloodlust rose up within him, but when he glared at Kairos, he saw a flash of light reflected off the boy’s clear black eyes.

Within that gleam, Calculus saw a pair of dragons with a terrifying visage that stared right back.

He involuntarily took a step back in shock.

“We are withdrawing,” he said with an uncertain voice. For the first time since he confronted Kairos, he felt inferior, like a subject looking up at his sovereign.

Helplessly outmatched, it was the one thing that he could not accept, but for a single moment, he felt natural for Kairos to be above him. There is no wonder that uncertainty suddenly entered his heart.

“Hold on,” Jones said before the Devilheart family could retreat.

“Yeah! You wouldn’t want to die for your pride right?” Jim added in.

“Tch. Jim, Jones, you shouldn’t have reminded him,” Edward said coolly.

The matter-of-factly tone that the archer used had no bloodlust at all, but somehow that unnatural calmness in his voice sent a chill down all that heard.

After Calculus’ underhanded methods time and time again, even a pacifist like him felt extremely pissed off.

He looked furiously at Calculus, straight in the eyes, and for the second time today, Calculus took a step back with instinctual fear, like being marked by a powerful predator.

Yes, fear.

The young arrogant noble had felt the intensity of Kairos’ dominating power which made him felt as if he is unworthy to be in his presence but Edward made him desperately wanting to flee.

A distant memory recalled in his mind like a flash.

He had sliced at Edward’s neck back at the training grounds, attempting to kill Edward in order to hurt Kairos.

Suddenly, the image switched about, and the scene turned into him facing the strike at his neck. But unlike how Edward had easily dodged the deathblow from a dead angle, he realised that he could not avoid that strike.

In his imagination, it only took a split second for his head to fly off when facing such an attack.

There is a good reason why during the exam previously, the Orcs had instinctively considered the archer a dangerous opponent.

With eyes wide with anger, Edward finally stopped suppressing his internal rage.

“Slap or die,” He said.

He is referring to the condition set on the soul stone for the bet, but Calculus’ mind was replaying the scene with his head flying off.

*THWACK*

“I apologise. IS THIS ENOUGH?” Calculus shouted with fury the rage roused by the shame his own cowardice.

“All of you. I remember what happened today. You will…” His trembling feet caused him to fall face first, cutting off his words. Not that anyone cared to listen.

He crawled to his feet, shoved his hand into his robes and pulled out a small pouch the size of a person’ fist and threw it to Kairos. The last condition for losing the bet had been met.

“We are withdrawing!” he repeated.

Soon the Devilheart family scurried away like drenched dogs. And their stall which they just setup merely two hours ago has been taken down.

Indeed, a grand opening has become a grand closing. Unfortunately, it was their own booth that closed. They have started with a bet and ended with a slap.

After their strategic retreat, the crowd swarmed at Kairos’ stall.

Unceasing questions instantly bombarded him, but one question frequently repeated, “Are you able to mass produce that sword?”

“Mass production is not possible. This technique causes too much strain,” Kairos addressed the biggest question the crowd has.

Undeterred, these higher-ups of large clans, noble families or wizen master craftsmen were quick to provide another offer.

“Please teach your technique to our West Wind Clan. We will send you our younger generations to become your apprentice!”

“Hah, you old crook! You want others to teach your kids for free? Our Violet Mountain clan will offer you an honorary ‘elder’ position if you teach our young generations.”

“Of course I also plan to offer perks. Hmph! We are prepared to give you not just an honorary elder position with our clan, but also assign a guardian family to you!”

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Being someone’s apprentice in Saint Empire is to treat that person as highly as one’s parent. Just by sending their young generations to Kairos to learn his art is already giving him power over their clan’s future, but not only that, the clans are fully prepared to present him with an honorary elder position and even a guardian family.

Many people work all their lives, fully prepared to sacrifice themselves, in order to become an elder of a clan. But, if they succeed, they and their family will have a better future, with access to the clan’s resources.

At the age of twelve, Kairos has already been offered such a position. For many people, this is an incredible offer.

The only difference to an actual elder of the clan is that the term ‘honorary’ means that it is a title bestowed upon an outsider, and it comes with the advantage of having more freedom at the cost of holding lesser influence within the clan.

Although the ‘honorary’ position promises freedom, it was to ensure he will never gain influence within the clan, and in many ways, it will still restrict him once he is affiliated with a clan.

Of course, assigning a guardian family to him is still a poor offer. They are a family of practitioners that sold their loyalty to a clan in order to survive. In exchange for resources, they have to supply their manpower, skillsets, and even their lives when needed. However, it is not Kairos that they will be serving, should he accept.

Without much thought, Kairos immediately rejected them. When he shook his head, someone immediately added, “What about handing it down to another? With an aid or two, it will surely more weapons could be made.”

“Uhhh… about that,” said Kairos in a small voice, “Actually, I’ve tried to pass it to my friends and even attempted to replicate what I did on paper… but I couldn’t explain even the first step.”

The main requirement to inscribe those runes onto the weapons requires a dragonling residing in one’s Dantian, and so far, no one else but Kairos fulfils this. The boys had tried it by hand, but no matter how many tries, they were unable to activate the arrays they carved. Fortunately, they only wasted a few pieces of scrap metals in the process.

The crowd were disturbed by his statement, they had hoped more swords could be made, but it looked like the boy succeeded by intuition and talent and couldn’t impart his inscription method even if he wanted to.

Granted, even if he could, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Since they could not acquire from the market in bulk, everyone started making other arrangements. They decisively started to offer Kairos another deal.

“Then, please sign a contract with the Purple Turtle clan!”

“Shut up you turtle! Please sign a contract with our Pink Chicken clan, we will give you lots of special treatment at our place, even an honorary position just for a contract!”

Seeing that the Purple Turtle clan is speaking up, they also do not want to lag behind.

“Shut up you fried chicken clan, I’ll turn you all into fried chicken.”

“WHADDAYA SAY? You turtle soup clan, you wanna have a go?”

“Everyone, please calm down. Our captain will address all your questions.”

The crowd quieten down, knowing that only one person has the answer they wanted. Kairos sighed, then shook his head, “I apologise to say that I have no plans sign any contract yet at this moment nor to release this weapon on the market immediately. However, I do have plans to release some shortly. So if you would like to make purchases, kindly place orders with us at the stall.”

“Please line up!” Edward said with a polite smile, but the crowd were still frightened by his previously unrestrained bloodlust, and they obediently got into a queue.

Despite how the weapons are no longer what they really wanted, it still has research value, and many also made purchases in support of this young genius.

They also wrote their names and contact method down to pre-order the new ‘seal sword’ that Kairos had demonstrated previously.

If the boy starts to sell such weapons on the market, the ones on the list will have priority, and it encouraged more patron to his shop.

After Calculus left, the strongest weapon for sale in the trade fair is no doubt Kairos and Alucard’s.

Since Kairos’ weapons are slightly cheaper, more user-friendly and provide higher research value, many more customers visited them throughout the day until their stock was utterly emptied.

Those that wish to have a sword with a more durable and higher-quality material for practical use went forward to Alucard’s stall but found the owner missing because Alucard himself is lining up at Kairos’ booth. Such a phenomenon could be seen throughout the trade fair.

Seeing the heir of the Angelheart family observing the request from Kairos’ stall, the Principal and his group of family heads could not put on airs and cut the queue.

The status of the heir of one of the top families among the Hundred Nobles is not something that a few heads of the Thousand Nobles families could compete.

After waiting patiently for half an hour, when it finally comes to Alucard’s turn, a huge grin appeared on the boy’s face as he rushed forward. His shaggy hair wildly danced in the air as a broad smile danced on his face, as though what Kairos did gave him great satisfaction.

“Brother, I really admire you! You truly have screwed Calculus over! Hahaha.

You saved my life in the training ground, and therefore I wanted to support you as much as I could, but in the end, you solved your own problem with ease and dropped everyone’s jaws!

Great! Hahaha!

I’ll advise you to be careful of that rascal though. He wouldn’t easily give up on revenge.”

Kairos gave him a nod, and Alucard wholeheartedly slapped the boy on his arm with goodwill and laughed. This manner of straightforwardness from this young noble is something that Kairos and his team admire.

“Why don’t you visit our family soon? I’m interested in your upgraded, refined weapons. For now, just give me whatever refined swords you have left. I’m sure we can all learn a thing or two from it.”

Kairos’ mouth twitched as he smiled at Alucard’s honesty. It’s hard not to like someone who could speak out his heart’s desire openly and straightforwardly.

Even though he knows that everyone wants to buy his items to research how to replicate them, only someone like Alucard would say it right out boldly. It was like telling the craftsman that he intended to reverse engineer his art.

This person is a noble who dared to risk his own life to save others. Even when facing death, he did not think to abandon people from a lower caste and instead chose to stand by resolutely.

If possible, Kairos wanted to sell more of his weapons to Alucard. However, the amount of refined weapons they have left is really pathetically few.

A quick check over their inventory confirms the situation. Out of the hundred swords they prepared, already eighty have been snatched up at whatever asking price they had placed.

To be able to sell weapons made from such low-grade material at such a high price is definitely a first in Saint Cadets Academy’s history.

While their revenue has already reached ten Platinum and sixty-five White Gold, their inventory only left twenty swords of the lowest copper grade.

An uneasy expression flashed across Kairos’ face. Selling a low-rank weapon to a noble is usually offensive to the latter, and some might even consider it as insulting.

“Alucard. I only have copper swords left….”

“Hahahaa! Don’t worry about that! If you have five of them, it would be more than enough for our research!

I’ve noticed that despite the material, the inscriptions on all of them are the same, so it wouldn’t hinder its research value. But, maybe next time, you should use a weaker inscription for poorer materials, if only to prevent the weapon from shattering from over infusion of energy.”

Kairos gave Alucard an apologetic look as he handed over the items

In his heart, he secretly sighed.

“If I knew how to make inscription weapons, I would have done that. But actually, all I’m doing right now is bumping around in the dark when it comes to crafting swords.”

“Wait, how much do I need to pay you?” Alucard said when he takes the bundle preciously into his arms.

“Don’t worry about it Alucard. You helped us out plenty during the auction. If not for you, we also would never have gotten the price of three Platinum. Please accept these.”

“Hahaha! Alright, if you say so, then I will gladly receive this! Remember to visit our place during the holidays.”

He didn’t reject the kind offer either and simply kept the copper swords. Together with the rest of his team, they waved their goodbye to the Snowdrifts and left.

The principal and the few family heads who are queuing behind went to the stall and reiterated their interest to support Kairos’ crafts and asked to sign a contract with them.

The contract they offered did not state any exclusivity, but only requests to have new refined weapons delivered to different families each month, however, Kairos politely turned them down saying that it takes too long for him to craft many weapons, and as a student, he is focused on cultivating as his main priority. All crafting contracts have to be kept on hold.

The family heads looked at each other for a while, trying to search from each other’s expression if someone is willing to persuade the boy, though before they make any attempts, Kairos shook his head, “Disregarding the value of my craft would dilute if I do so, it is physically impossible for me to meet the market demands.”

Even if it was easier for Kairos to inscribe a weapon than other inscriptionists, he only managed to complete a hundred blades for the trade fair and noble houses would require swords in the thousands. Plus, if he signs a supply contract, he would create bad blood with the rest.

Why should other families benefit, but not mine?

Principal Gai privately admired his decisions and had no choice but to reassess the young boy in front of him. His martial talents displayed on the training grounds is indeed glaring, but who knew that his crafting and management talents are even more so?

If the weapon he crafted is just top tier within the Saint Empire, then it wouldn’t be something that the principal will take too much notice. After all, craftsmen are not a highly-looked upon in their empire, since there are countless wanting to import their wares into their country.

But who could have expected that the weapon which the boy made could even alter the future of martial arts?

Some martial techniques that have higher energy exhaustion may turn mainstream because of this weapon, and this is just one consideration among the many implications.

After hearing him say that, the group sighed though, they were not willing to give up that easily. They offered him even more contracts. This time they tried to persuade him by allowing him to sign the papers at his leisure.

When he officiates those contracts, he will have as much business deals as he wants, but the price of those weapons that he sells will depend on the market price.

There is no worry about unfairness when it comes to the market price. Each item on sale in Saint Empire, even if it is a newly crafted item, will be assigned with a price tag.

The market price is simply an agreement of the selling price of an item between the Trade Federate and the producer of the product.

Because of how trustworthy the merchants of the Trade Federate have proven themselves to be, generally, all families and clans accept the price which they set.

Just three hours after Calculus running away with his tail tucked between his legs, all of their swords have sold out.

With their supply exhausted on the first day of the trade fair, the group have no choice but to quickly close shop.

However, the most exciting part of the trade fair begins now. Spending their hard-earned cash!