- So this is where your friend lives? - I asked, looking up at the tall building in the center of Crocus that Rosa had led me to. 

- Actually, this is the headquarters of her company, but on the top floor is her personal apartment, where Victoria lives most of the time, because she does not want to waste time traveling from home to the company. She is very hardworking. - Rosa said, standing next to me.

- Is that so… - I said muffledly, carefully examining the five-story, richly decorated building, with a very remarkable emblem on the roof.

This place obviously did not belong to some small construction company, where I thought Rosa originally wanted to take me. An error has occurred...

- Yes, actually, we were lucky that Victoria agreed to meet with us so quickly. Usually her schedule is packed to capacity, but when I said that the true owner of the notorious Angel Wing company wanted to meet her, she carved out an hour of her time for you. - Rosa said proudly.

- Why didn't you say that your friend is the owner of the Heart Kreuz company? – I asked, squinting at the girl, pointing to the cross with the inscription Heart Kreuz, which served as a symbol of this company. 

- Um, surprise? - Rose asked uncertainly. 

Looking at her with a look that easily read the question "Seriously?", I, fortunately, achieved the desired result and Rose, with a sigh, explained:

- Listen, It was Victoria who asked me not to say anything. She wanted to see your reaction. That kind of thing amuses her… 

- She's a little eccentric, isn't she? - I asked, looking at the cross again.

- She's an artist in some way, so there's nothing surprising about that. They are all like that. - Rosa said with a shrug. 

- That's right, that's right... - I muttered, and then looking back at Rosa, I asked: - So Victoria Crossheart, huh?

Heart Kreuz is a fairly well-known and extremely popular among young girls, and not only, a clothing brand and fashion house, which was created by Victoria Crossheart, whom I am about to meet. 

Victoria is quite a famous lady who creates her own designs, thanks to which the locals wear fashionable and familiar to me clothes that seem to come from the 21st century. 

It won't be an exaggeration to say that she is a fashion genius and not only that she turned the usual idea of clothing in this world. Which, of course, brought her a lot of money and fame, because even I heard about her. 

Although the Heart Kreuz brand was originally created for young girls, it is now popular with all segments of the population, and even with magicians, which is clearly seen in the example of my guild members who wear clothes from this company. 

Victoria's clothes are not only stylish, they are also comfortable and durable, as they are made of good and expensive materials collected from magical creatures, and despite this, the clothes themselves are not so expensive. 

They are, of course, more expensive than ordinary clothes that can be bought in the market or in a store, but the quality and style of Miss Crossheart's creations is clearly worth every precious extra. 

Even I, even though that I can literally create clothes for myself from garbage, I prefer to wear Heart Kreuz clothes, after Mira first gave me a shirt of this brand and I knew the beauty of this clothes. 

I don't know how she gets such comfortable clothes, but compared to what I made, it's like I used to walk in a potato bag, and now I walk in a comfortable, downy cloud. 

Apparently, Victoria is really a genius and mere mortals cannot understand her way of thinking. And although it wouldn't seem that this is so special, she only creates clothes, comfortable, but clothes, but no, the truth is that everything is not so simple. 

At first glance, it seems that Victoria owns an unremarkable chain of clothing stores where she sells her creations, but, in fact, this is only Victoria's public business, while there is a secret one intended for special clients. 

These special clients are mages from light guilds and mage soldiers of the country for whom Victoria creates Magic items, Holder Magic tools, Magic weapons and protective armor. 

You don't have to look far for an example. All of the armor Erza uses is made by Heart Kreuz, and many of them are personally made by Victoria Crossheart, who is understood to be a mage. Maybe not the strongest, but one of the most skillful. 

At a minimum, she is a talented artefacturer and magic blacksmith, which is rare these days, and let's not forget her design skills, which speaks to her artistic nature, which she splashes out in her hobby. 

And creating beautiful clothes is far from the only thing Victoria does in her spare time from creating magic items. Just for her other talent, we arrived here today.

In general, I cannot help but feel admiration for this talented lady, because despite the lack of overwhelming power, she was able to win her own independence and do what she loves. 

And this was far from easy to do, because any state or dark guild would be happy to take such an artisan into their hands and force him to create magical artifacts for his own strengthening day and night. 

You wouldn't wish such a fate on your enemy, which is little better than slavery, but Victoria managed to avoid this without influential support, because as far as I heard she is an orphan and it turns out she achieved everything herself, which, again, is admirable. 

And besides all this, Victoria, unlike most of the magicians of this world, turned her talents into profit and thanks to her skills, she is one of the richest people in Fiore, and is not forced to do dangerous work in the guild to support herself. 

In fact, she used to be second in wealth to the King (which is logical), but now this place belongs to me, since not so long ago, thanks to Rosa, my net worth increased again to somewhere around 250'000'000 precious, though I'm not sure of the exact numbers. 

But, I'm a completely different matter, yet I'm still a trickster and for the most part all my achievements are related to my magic and luck, and Victoria has achieved everything with hard work, so I'm really glad to have the opportunity to get to know her. 

In general, if we return to the previous topic, I noticed that local magicians do not have an entrepreneurial streak, and despite the ability to literally work miracles, they use their powers rather one-sidedly. Well, or they are just lazy. 

For a light magicians, the ultimate dream is to become a Wizard Saint, which of course gives its privileges, but in fact, this brings more responsibility and duties than material benefits. 

And very, very few can become a Wizard Saint, so the hope of getting an S-Rank becomes a more realistic goal, which, in addition to a little authority, only gives you the opportunity to go on highly paid tasks that are also deadly. 

And in the end, most of the legitimate mages just work in the guild, perform tasks that can cost them their lives, and for the money from the missions lead a life that, frankly, does not shine with excess. 

There are, of course, guild masters, servants in the Magic Council and others, but their lives also differ little from the lives of ordinary magicians. They just do sedentary work and get more responsibility. 

And this, to put it mildly, is disappointing, because, as I said, having literal superpowers, these people could achieve much more, but they seem to be satisfied with the current world order, and unique people like me and Victoria, who were able to use their magic to enrich themselves, only exception to the rule.

Of course, there are still dark magicians who just do prefer to use their abilities to oppress the weak and banal theft of values, but these idiots do not know how to think when to use magic for personal gain and when not, so they end up the same way. 

But Victoria Crossheart is really a very interesting person, with whom I have long wanted to talk, but somehow there was no time for this, and there were no reasons, but now everything turned out so well, and my vice president herself brought me to the threshold of Heart Kreuz.

- I know you might think that Victoria is not the one we need to build the headquarters, but even though she is primarily a fashion designer and a magical craftsman, I am sure that she can bring your idea to life. - said Rose, and pointed to a roll of paper, which depicts the design of the new headquarters, which I drew yesterday. 

- Well, considering everything that I heard and read about her in the same "Wizard Magazine", there is no need to doubt your words. In addition, demand is not beaten, and even if nothing happens, this meeting will be at least useful for establishing contacts between our companies. - shrugging, I said. 

- You talk like a real head of the company. A little more and maybe you will start doing work and stop throwing everything at me. - Rose said with a smile. 

- Ha-ha very funny. - I said with a roll of my eyes, and then cast a spell to show the time, getting the answer "11:56".

- Four more minutes before the start of the meeting. Shall we stand still or shall we go inside? - Rose asked.

- Let's wait a couple more minutes. Punctuality courtesy of kings. It's impolite to come early, especially since you yourself said that Victoria is a very busy person and should not be distracted from her work. We were told to come at 12:00, so we will arrive at 12:00. - I said.

- You know, I think you'll get along with Vicki. - Rosa said with a smile. 

- Nice to hear. - I said with a smile, and then asked, looking at Ms. Pines: - So, since we have time, can you tell me how you know such a remarkable lady? 

- Well, the story isn't all that impressive. I met her once on Jude's errand for his daughter, well, and we just hit it off. Since then, from time to time we talked and drank together. That's all. - Rosa said with a shrug.

- It's hard being a businesswoman in a man's world, isn't it?

- Not that word. Sometimes you just want to complain to someone, and now, we found each other, despite the difference in social status. - Rosa said, a little embarrassed. 

- Yes, I understand… - I said and then noticed that the door to the Heart Kreuz building was thrown open. Looks like we're invited. 

It's time to get to know Ms. Crossheart and hopefully it will be a productive meeting.

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