I spent the next few minutes moving around and talking to people. It was mostly mind numbing with nothing really of note going on. 

‘Is this really how I’m going to spend the rest of my night?’ 

I saw some familiar faces and even gave some perfunctory greetings to them just for the facade.

‘Family, what are you gonna do?’ 

“Announcing the emperor.” I turned towards the voice and saw the emperor and his family coming into the hall. What followed was the usual fawning greeting and generic speech to ‘enjoy yourselves’.

‘I really don’t like parties.’ 

I was drinking a glass of water, minding my business when I saw a stout man with blacj hair and blue eyes make his way towards me.

‘Well, here we go.’ I put on my smile. 

“Heartree, good to finally meet you. I’ve been meaning to introduce myself but, you know, time constraints and all that.” He said with a smile as he stretched out his hand. 

‘No need for introductions, I do all my investigations thoroughly.’ 

“Marquess Medici, nice to finally meet you.” I met and shook his hand with mine. 

“Ohh, you already know who I am?” His expression still having a jovial tinge. 

“How wouldn’t I know you? Also, I met your daughter tonight and we had a nice chat.” 

‘Let’s just allow that to hang and see how he responds.’ His face took on a curious expression.

“Ahhh, you’ve already met her have you? What did you think? Wasn’t she just glorious?” He said, fawning over her. 

“Indeed she is a beautiful woman.” I replied. 

“So what do you think? About marrying her, I mean. She has no fiance and is not seeing anyone. She also has excellent pedigree, I would venture to say the most amongst those in your generation.” His face suddenly became serious. I curled up a brow as I looked at him.

‘Somehow, I expected him to be more subtle in his approach.’

“I’ll have to apologize, but I’m not looking into marriage right now.” Nice and sweet. 

“That’s too bad then.” He took up a thinking posture as he looked at me before asking. 

“Then what will it take to expand my banks into your territory?” I sighed.

‘This guy is too direct.’ I looked at him weirdly. As if reading my mind, he readily supplied the answer to my quarry. 

“I’ve done a little research about you so I know most of the usual tactics don’t work. Best case scenario would be for you to marry my daughter and do business together, but it seems she was not successful in her seduction.” 

‘What’ 

“It really is a shame, so many of my current problems would be solved if you just get together with her but, ohh well.” He shrugged. 

“First order of business. The bank.” He stood there, waiting for my reply. 

‘I might as well get this done now.’

“I will not allow competing banks in my territory, for now. Maybe in a few years when I have the resources to compete with you fairly without you engulfing my business. What I can do is enhance connectivity between our banks to make transferring money between them easy for the customer.” He nodded along as I spoke.

“Okay, fair enough. My second question, the wine you serve here, I don't recognise it? In fact, I haven’t recognised any of the alcohol you’ve provided since I’ve been here. And they all have mana in them, quite a high quality as well. I take it you brew and are looking to sell.”

‘This guy can just smell the money in the room can’t he? It is not a wonder why the Medici have been wealthy for milenia if their heads have been like this.’

“Yes, I brew. I’ve had quite a number of people come to me for distribution already so-”

“I don't care about distribution. I just want to buy the product from you, name your price. I’ll make the money back by selling it off in the black market or auctions.” He said this so nonchalantly. 

‘Does he think it’s difficult for me to make? That it’s going to be some incredibly rare delicacy that...you know what? Why the hell not? Artificially inflate the price for me.’ Well, maybe it’s not so artificial because they were all good quality alcohol.

“Sure. Come to my office tomorrow and talk to my assistant. We’ll make things quick.” I nodded as I said.

‘Doing business with you might not be so bad. I’ll end up making tons of money off you at least.’

“Any other thing?” I asked him. He stayed silent for a few seconds before finally speaking. 

“The curse that has afflicted this land, it is almost fully gone isn’t it?” 

‘Well, look who’s perusing my land.’ 

“Yes.” I answered shortly. 

“I want to be on the shortlist of people to call when you are building another city. I will buy up the land for double the price for that privilege.” I smiled widely at him. 

‘Ahhh, my new money tree. I’ll make sure to trim your leaves regularly.’

“Of course You’ll be one of the first.” He smiled back at me. 

“Are you sure you don’t want my daughter, Fiona is truly-”

“Goodbye, marquess Medici.” I turned and left the conversation. 

‘Surprisingly, not a bad conversation. and it helps that he is easily parted with his money.’ I made my way across the ballroom smiling and engaging in smalltalk. 

The event was finally drawing to a close after a few hours but unfortunately, I couldn’t leave until everyone else left. I was ‘hosting’ after all, even though it was in the royal family’s residence. 

“Too boring for you?” 

I turned to look at Brandon. I knew he would be here, I knew he lived here, I was just a little surprised he hadn't come to bother me in the time since we graduated. 

“I knew you were busy.” He said. 

“Yes, yes. You don’t like it when I look ahead but it was harmless.” he shrugged. 

“Your family has settled in well, then?” I asked.

“They have, thanks. It was the right decision to move here.” 

“Hmmm” I nodded at him before turning to face the mostly empty crowd. 

‘It wasn’t so bad after all.’