"Right, now that this is out of the way, let's call a special meeting of the trade families," Karl muttered as he leaned back in his chair. The first sale had gone smoothly, but he still had many people to contact and very little time to waste. More importantly, he needed the Bingen family to arrange a meeting with the Great Houses. His own connections with the old nobility were limited to ancient grudges and carefully buried hatred.
Those old conflicts no longer mattered.
The entire European Union had suffered too much to continue wasting time on internal strife. Every intelligent person understood that humanity had entered a new age where survival came before pride and ancient rivalries. Even the recent incident with Russia had merely been a test rather than the beginning of an actual war. The Russians had wanted to gauge Europe's strength and reaction, nothing more.
Unfortunately, they had made one serious miscalculation. They were used by the system to scare the monkeys by killing the chicken.
Instead of intimidating everyone, their actions had united the people they wanted to frighten. The losses had been significant, and many citizens were still grieving and recovering from the damage, but Europe had already begun to bounce back. The survivors had proven far more resilient than anyone had expected. In some ways, the entire ordeal had even strengthened the continent.
The truly powerful figures had never been aware of the operation beforehand.
When they learned what had happened, they were furious. But as the people they wanted to blame were now dead, they used the opportunity to control the leadership more thoroughly. As a result, the remaining leaders had become considerably more cautious. Nobody wanted to repeat such a foolish mistake.
But none of that was important right now.
Karl's focus was entirely elsewhere.
He wanted to make money.
A great deal of money.
The old man activated the communication device on his desk and began sending encrypted invitations to the leaders of the trade families. A special meeting between all of them was not something that happened often, and everyone would understand that the matter was serious. One by one, holographic screens appeared around his office. Familiar faces began to materialize in front of him.
Some of them looked curious.
Others looked annoyed.
A few appeared genuinely offended.
"Right, why have you called this meeting today?" Fabian Bingen asked on behalf of the group.
The Bingen patriarch looked slightly irritated, though not nearly as much as some of the others. To ordinary people, this meeting might not have seemed like an inconvenience. However, these men and women were not ordinary people. They had dedicated their entire lives to mastering their respective crafts.
Even as patriarchs and matriarchs, they already spent less time practicing than they wanted.
Because of that, being summoned on short notice during one of their designated free days was considered a major offense. Several people looked as though they had been dragged away from workshops or training rooms. Karl could even spot traces of soot on Vernik Roth's face. The smith clearly had not expected to be interrupted.
"Hey, hey," Karl said as he raised both hands in surrender.
"If this wasn't important, do you really think I would have called everyone together on such short notice?"
The room fell silent for a moment.
"No," Vernik finally replied. "And that is the only reason I accepted this meeting at all."
The patriarch of the Roth family crossed his massive arms and stared directly at Karl's hologram. The man's physique had been forged through decades of smithing, and he looked more like a warrior than a blacksmith. His muscles seemed capable of crushing iron with their bare strength alone. Most people wisely avoided making him angry.
"Vernik is right, Karl," Fabian said with an impatient gesture. "So out with it."
Several others nodded in agreement.
Nobody had come here for small talk.
"Fine, fine," Karl said with a sigh. "I have information that I need to sell. I can't keep it to myself, and I need the money that selling it will bring."
The room instantly became much quieter.
Karl was not someone who sold information lightly.
If he believed that something was valuable enough to sell, then it was usually important.
Without another word, the old man began signing a stack of special contracts that he had prepared in advance. One after another, the papers disappeared in flashes of golden light. Moments later, identical contracts materialized on the desks of every patriarch and matriarch participating in the meeting.
Immediately, everyone's expressions changed.
A System contract was not something people used casually.
The fact that Karl had spent money to prepare so many contracts before the meeting had even begun meant that he was entirely serious. Several people picked up the documents and began reading them carefully. Others simply waited, curious to see what the conditions would be.
"Oh, and I will also need your recommendation and your availability to arrange a meeting with the Great Houses," Karl added.
As he said those words, he focused on Fabian's hologram.
The Bingen family maintained the best relationship with the nobility and had acted as intermediaries for generations. If anyone could arrange such a meeting quickly, it would be Fabian. The old doctor raised an eyebrow as he continued reading.
Those words briefly pulled Fabian's attention away from the contract in front of him. He looked up from the glowing document and blinked several times as though he had not heard Karl correctly. "What did you say? Oh, yes, of course. I have already scheduled a meeting with them," he replied absentmindedly before lowering his eyes back to the papers. Without another word, he placed the required silver coins on the contract and signed it immediately.
That single action convinced several of the people who had still been hesitating. They all knew Fabian Bingen well enough to understand that he was not a man who acted impulsively when money was involved. Yet the moment he finished reading the contract, he had paid without the slightest hesitation. Even more telling was the look of delight that had appeared on his face as he began reading the information.
One by one, the remaining patriarchs and matriarchs signed their own contracts. Golden light flashed repeatedly as coins disappeared and bundles of documents materialized on desks across Europe. The room, which had been filled with conversation only moments earlier, suddenly became strangely quiet. Everyone had already begun reading.
As for the fact that Fabian had apparently arranged a meeting with the Great Houses before this gathering had even concluded, nobody found it particularly strange. In fact, most of them did not even bother looking up from their documents. They all understood the political dance that had existed between the trade families and the noble houses for centuries. Some habits simply survived the passage of time.
For a very long period in history, the trade families had technically been subordinates of the Great Houses. They had enjoyed significant independence, but there had still been expectations and obligations that came with that relationship. One of those obligations was reporting important meetings, especially meetings involving political rivals or potential allies. Over time, the practice had become a deeply ingrained tradition.
After the Great Houses eventually put aside their rivalries and came together, those reports had technically become unnecessary. There was no longer any reason to treat one another as political enemies. Unfortunately, old habits died hard, and the noble houses remained naturally suspicious of anything they could not observe directly. As a result, they still expected occasional reports from the trade families.
The trade families, on the other hand, had absolutely no interest in dealing with noble politics.
Over the centuries, they had found a wonderfully convenient solution to that problem. They simply allowed the Bingen family to handle those matters on behalf of everyone else. The Bingens maintained the closest relationship with the Great Houses and enjoyed a special status among them. More importantly, every noble house relied on them for life-saving medical treatment and would protect them fiercely as a result.
The arrangement worked remarkably well.
As for the idea that truly important information would somehow be leaked through these reports, everyone found the notion laughable. The trade families had become experts at saying a great deal while revealing absolutely nothing. Whenever they sent reports to the Great Houses, they only discussed matters that could be summarized in a few harmless sentences.
Everything else was handled differently.
When something genuinely important happened, they would simply talk for an exceptionally long time without saying anything of substance. They would fill pages with vague statements, irrelevant details, and polite formalities. Anyone reading the report would immediately realize that something significant had occurred. Unfortunately, they would have absolutely no idea what that important thing actually was.
The message was simple.
Something interesting is happening.
Stay out of it.
The Great Houses understood that game perfectly.
As for the possibility of betrayal by the trade families, nobody even considered it seriously. They all valued their independence far too much to interfere in one another's affairs. Every family had its own traditions, businesses, and crafts that it wished to protect. Attempting to interfere with another family's livelihood had historically led to very unpleasant consequences.
There was even an old saying among the trade families.
"I like farming, and anyone who gets in the way of that, I will plant in the ground."
The saying was humorous on the surface, but its meaning was very clear. Everyone had the right to pursue their own craft in peace. Those who tried to stop them generally ended up regretting it. The trade families had survived for centuries because they respected those boundaries and defended them fiercely.
"Right, I see that everyone has signed the contract," Karl said as he looked at the various holographic screens.
Most of the participants did not even acknowledge him.
They had already become completely absorbed in the information they had purchased.
"I'll let you read in peace, Fabian," Karl continued with an amused smile. "Just remember to attend the meeting with the Great Houses and invite me."
He was genuinely worried that Fabian might become so engrossed in the documents that he would completely forget about their arrangement. To be honest, Karl could not even blame him. He had already reread large portions of the information himself between phone calls, and he still found it fascinating.
The material was simply that interesting.
Of course, the information they had sold was incomplete.
They had admitted as much openly.
There was no reason to reveal every single detail of their discoveries, especially the exact layout of their own magic circle. While the information was valuable, Karl had no intention of handing over every advantage his family possessed. Some secrets were simply too important to give away.
Fortunately, the others did not need the complete information anyway.
The documents contained more than enough details for the trade families to understand the principles behind the new cultivation methods. If they wanted to implement the ideas themselves, they would still need to purchase their own versions of the tome from the System Shop.
That alone would cost them a fortune.
Not every ancestral home was a forest like the Crimson Forest. Some families lived in mountain valleys, while others occupied islands, lakes, or old castles. As a result, each faction would require a different version of the tome specifically tailored to its own environment.
Those books were painfully expensive.
Even so, Karl was certain that none of them would hesitate to buy one.
The opportunity to improve the cultivation environment of an entire family was simply too valuable to ignore. Compared to the long-term benefits, the initial cost would seem almost insignificant. Every person reading the documents was already calculating how quickly they could acquire their own tome.
The most surprising part of all this was the fact that none of those books had existed before.
Every major faction had dedicated people whose sole responsibility was exploring the System and discovering everything it had to offer. They constantly monitored the shops, searched for new items, and catalogued every change that occurred. If such tomes had been available previously, someone would have found them.
Yet nobody had.
The books had seemingly appeared only after the information became known.
That thought made Karl smile.
The System truly worked in mysterious ways.
Sometimes it felt less like a machine and more like a living thing that waited for people to take the first step before rewarding their curiosity. Whether that was actually true or not, he had no idea. What he did know was that today had already become far more profitable than he had expected.
And the day was only beginning.