He did not know that their destination was the same place. Aile smirked, feeling coveted, but then Izumi caught up to him, telling him that there was a quicker way to get to the meeting place.

The new path was not actually quicker and was a similar length, only it was on a side road with large flowers. Izumi took this opportunity to hold his hand, and his other hand was shyly taken by Maggi. In public, they could only do such an act when no one could see them as his identity was critical. The precedence they set for other employees could be affected if they were seen with him. After the flower field, the two distanced themselves from him as if nothing happened. They soon arrived in the room they were going to meet. It was a delightful quiet walk that said a lot about them.

Aile entered the gathering point and saw Emily and Sophie sitting there, while behind them stood a beautiful but cold girl. She was not someone new but the assistant of Emily, Iris. She had inherited her temperament and stayed cold a distant. The greeting was soon over.

Emily soon said, "Izumi, Maggi, can you give us a few minutes."

Izumi and Maggi nodded respectfully and left.

Emily then looked at Aile and said, "Did you manage to resolve the issue with Alia."

Aile replied, "Yeah, it was resolved, but I have some questions?"

Emily nodded, "We will talk about it soon, but before that, I have a more important discussion!"

Hearing the firm tone of Emily, the casual atmosphere became more serious, "What is that?"

"What are your intentions, now that you have been intimate with Sophie? Is there going to be a marriage, and what is her status? The same goes for Sara. She is also my daughter here... I want the best for them.." Her serious demeanour was sending a message nonverbally that she needed to receive an adequate response.

Aile realized that right now, she was in the position of his mother-in-law. She wanted the best for her daughter, and she wanted to know about her relationship now that they were closer and in a similar position.

It was indeed an important topic, but it was not hard for Aile to answer, "They will be in the same position as my wives, Laila and Leia. I will not differentiate between my lovers. There will be no ceremony until the situation around us settle's down." Aile's wording included Emily and Fiona in the future, and she understood this.

Emily nodded and looked at the blushing Sophie, who was radiating with happiness. She was anticipating the future as well, as it seemed that soon she would be expecting something similar from him.

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Iris and Emily congratulated Sophie, as she was engaged to him now. There was no ceremony, but the promise of Aile had made them fiances. The looks of Aile suddenly made her blush, and she said her goodbyes as she wanted to let Sara know of their new status and their new fiance. She also expected a lot more intimacy soon.

Once she was gone and he finished his small talk with Emily, it was time for his questions to be answered.

"Aile, I hope you listen and accept a path. This will help us decide our future tremendously." She waited for his acknowledgement.

After getting Aile's nod, she continued, "The expansion of our business is getting harder and harder. There are many forces at play, even in such a small place at the edge of the map. We are constantly facing roadblocks. If we truly want a business and force that is ours, we would need help. The obvious option is either growing the business with the royals or the white clan as backing. The Merchant Association will not be possible for us with their rules. The White Clan, we have deep enmity with, the royals will not want to start a new business either. We are also forming issues with them, and you are not a fan of the king.

This would mean either it will take a very long time until we can have a presence, or we give up. We can give up and focus on cultivating and concentrate on this once we are strong enough. Then the expansion will be faster, and no roadblocks can stop us. But neither you, Fiona, or Hazel would want that..."

There was a short silence that made Aile ponder about her very logical points.

She continued, "There is a solution in front of us now. That is Alia. She has a very high position with the royalty and the royalty would owe her a favour for her sacrifice of being a peace envoy. If she comes with a partner, then no one can say anything to her or her choice. She is the person that took a risk for them. Not to mention her father also has an influence, and from what I hear, only 1 daughter... Who he loves very much...."

"Wait are you trying to say..."

"Yes, If we are going to continue, then we need support and a royal that like her could be what we need. There is an opportunity to be the hero in front of us... Only if you want to continue and turn this business into something substantial. This would also give us the protection we do not have now. Otherwise, I recommend that you disband everything, and everyone can focus on cultivating. We can start again, once we are powerful as we will be able to expand much quicker."

"So you have also identified the problem, but this solution..?" he said with a sigh.

"The nobles and other aristocrats don't arrange alliances for no reason, the most binding being this..."

"But..."

Emily shrugged and put a lot of effort to maintain a neutral expression and not affect his decision. "If we do not have help, it would to time-consuming and not worth it to continue. It would keep everyone separated, and we have to recreate everything for our business. Not only that, but we have to either rely on wolves in sheep's clothing and others making things hard for us. The Oxe family's backstabbing should be enough reason for us to know what we will deal with if we have to depend on others."

"You are right, if we just produce the healing cream, we can earn enough for our cultivation. But stopping the business would mean losing employees, and there will be people we can not support. Hazel would not be happy letting go of the people of Port Kiar. But using someone like this I don't feel good about it, not to mention there she is special and her status would not make it easy. I do not know about it, it could backfire, making it much worse for us..." after a short pondering session, he continued, "I will think about it."