The Gathering?

Two days after, August 16th—4:00 PM.

Lucas sat in a horse carriage, recalling everything that had happened the past two days.

First is that Victoria accepted his offer and agreed to take on the challenge of leading the business expansion in Eldoria, which took a lot off of his shoulders. He created a new position in the company, 'Head of Operations', and gave it to her.

Right now, she's diligently working in the branch office, trying to put her skills and knowledge into the test.

Lucas left specific instructions to the rest of the staff that if they have something they have to report to him, it must go through Victoria first, effectively lessening any contact he might have with the company's workers. In his mind 'Less interactions means less chances of embarrassing myself.'

Second is that he had made and settled on his choice regarding what faction he wants to align himself with. He'd had chosen to attend the risky but promising faction of the Crows, the rebel group who wishes to overthrow the dominance of the four noble families in Eldoria. The gathering is at August 16th, today, and is set at 4:30 PM.

Not even a few streets later, when Lucas looked out from the carriage window, he saw that the scenery had already changed drastically. A minute ago, he was still in the opulent streets of Clockwork Heights. But now he could see countless homeless people wandering the streets, slaves in chains walking behind their owners, and an unruly crowd forced to make way for the horse carriages passing by the center of the street.

The reason for him to go out of his way to go over here is because the gathering is set in one of Eldoria's universities, located in East Borough, and more specifically, in a library.

Outside, it is simply known as a book club and a reader's gathering, which is why Lucas donned a more casual outfit. However, no matter what he wears, it's difficult not to stand out as a middle-aged man inside a campus full of young men and women.

Lucas pressed down the top hat he wore to hide his graying hair and made his way to the venue. He followed the instructions stated in the letter, he showed the invitation to the librarian who then proceeded to lead him to a private reading room in the library.

Contrary to his expectations, there wasn't any secret gathering taking place in this dimly lit private reading room. Instead, there's only a single man, around the same age as the middle-aged Montague, but dressed in all black. Coat, pants, shoes, hat, you name it, it's all black.

Thankfully, the man didn't put out any pretenses or felt the need to act mysterious, instead, he warmly greeted Lucas who entered the room. He took off his hat, revealing his appearance—a middle-aged gentleman with a beardless face, black hair that's neatly combed back and profound blue eyes.

"Good afternoon Mr. Beaumont, I apologize if things are not quite as you expected." he shook Lucas's hand in greeting before apologizing. "As you know, given the nature of our organization, we can't really afford to make any stand-out public appearances. We have to somehow mislead any onlooker by pretending to have a secret gathering in that book club."

"You're apologizing for nothing. I truly don't mind," said Lucas. He thought that the gentleman's words made sense. As an openly rebellious faction, how could they possibly organize such a blatant gathering with so many eyes watching them?

The gentleman introduced himself as Mathias, taking a seat in the chair opposite Lucas. He couldn't help but compliment Lucas on his appearance, remarking on his youthful looks that many men their age would envy. Lucas chuckled in response, appreciating the lighthearted banter.

"Personally, I find your lack of gray hair to be even more enviable," Lucas playfully retorted, enjoying the friendly exchange between them.

Lucas thought that it felt more like a casual conversation between friends, rather than the job interview he expected it to be, with Mathias asking him questions like: 'What made you choose our faction?', 'What skills do you have in particular that can contribute to our cause?', and etc.

"You see, Mr. Beaumont, we don't usually just invite people into our ranks casually. Any information about any of our members could be considered confidential and classified. However, there is a couple of coincidences and reasons as to why we decided to reach out to you" with an amiable voice, Mathias explained.

Lucas listened intently as Mathias spoke, "First, and most important reason, is because the manor that Mr. Beaumont now owns in Clockwork Heights was actually one of our targets. We were actually participating in the bid for that rights to that property and was thoroughly surprised when an unknown individual suddenly forked up 200,000 GD as if it was the most casual thing in the world."

Mathias then continued to explain as to why the manor was important to them.

Basically, the previous owner of the manor was a rather enigmatic and troublesome individual. He's rumored to be a member of the 'Plutonic Research Society', an organization that has since ceased existing just two years ago.

That organization was involved with a multitude of biological research, animal and human experimentation, and genetic engineering.

"While the rest of virtually every major faction in Eldoria focused in technological advancements, building the most powerful guns and coming up with the next weapon of war—and as seen with House Delacroix's airships, some of them succeeded—However, the Plutonic Research Society thought differently."

"Rather than enhancing the weapons themselves, they sought to enhance the individuals wielding them, the humans. Their goal was to create superhumans or super-soldiers."

Lucas's curiosity grew as he listened to Mathias's explanation. He could see the potential implications and the possible power that such advancements could bring. It was clear why the faction had been interested in acquiring the manor and its connections to this enigmatic organization.

"But why approach me?" Lucas finally asked. 200,000 GD was indeed quite a sum, but there's no way such an organization wasn't able to outbid that.

At his words, Mathias chuckled lightly. "Well, you're an individual who can fork out 200,000 GD without batting an eye. Not to mention, you're not involved with any factions as of yet, despite your enormous wealth. Rather than trying to outbid you or make an enemy out of you, why not recruit you instead and get both, the manor and you, free of charge?"

"That's it?" Lucas couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Just to get a discount, that's why you invited me?"

"I mean, if you say it like that… then," Mathias laughed awkwardly. "Our team was given a budget of 150,000 GD to purchase the manor. So, yes, we saw an opportunity to secure the manor while keeping our expenses low. And who knows, we might also gain a valuable member in the process. It's a win-win situation, wouldn't you agree?

"That's humbling to hear. Here I was, thinking I'm some sort of big shot to attract the attention of such an organization," Lucas returned with some playful banter, a smile forming at the corner of his lips."I never thought I'd be recruited by an organization for being a bargain. Who knew that my financial prowess would make me so appealing to a group of supposed crooks trying to impress their superiors?"

"It's not like we didn't put in any work to the mission," with a smile, Mathias replied. "We noticed that your butler was looking for information about the different factions in the city He almost got swindled into buying completely false and worthless information."

"Surely you didn't think that a detailed and accurate report on all the factions in Eldoria could be obtained at such low prices? That information was purposefully leaked by us. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to get information about organizations like Blackthorn and Tianyi Shixiong, no matter how much you paid." continued Mathias.

"We also took into account your mentality as an astute businessman. We believed you would be more drawn into high-risk, high-reward situations so we purposefully exaggerated certain details in the report about our own organization, to make you more likely to choose us—and here we are."

'I see,' Lucas nodded in his head once he understood everything.

"Well, what else is there to say. You've thoroughly impressed me by the way you manipulated everything behind the scenes, and led me to this decision without my knowledge," I say in resignation.

After seeing their capabilities, Lucas's resolve only got stronger, believing that he's not making a mistake by joining the Crows.

If there is one thing that calmed Lucas's nerves, it's the fact that the original Beaumont actually didn't choose to join the Crows and instead opted for the Clockwork Syndicate. Meaning that despite all their preparations, they still couldn't completely predict or guide how the original Beaumont acted.

'They're terrifying, but they're not some all-powerful 'Illuminati' organization that can manipulate everyone to acting however they like,' that fact reassured Lucas and made him feel that he still have some control over his actions and not just a puppet dancing at someone's strings.

"So am I member now? Or do I have to sign some contract first, maybe do an initiation ritual, get a tattoo or something?" Lucas thought back to what little he knew of gangs back on Earth, and those were the things that first came to his mind.

"What's the use of signing a contract? Even if you were to break it, what would we do? Report you to the authorities and say, 'This man violated the rules of our anti-government rebel group, please arrest him!'" Mathias joked. "There's no need for that. I'll simply introduce you to the other team members, and you'll be good to go."

"Come here again tomorrow, I'll introduce you to the team." Mathias then sent him off with a wave. The two of them then said their goodbyes and Lucas left the library absolutely dumbfounded.

Just like that? What the hell? Everything's so casual. Where is the danger? The codenames? The cool outfits? That didn't feel like him meeting up with an extremely secretive organization, it was more like catching up with Bob, his friend from high school.

As he made his way out of the university campus, Lucas couldn't help but question the nature of the organization he had just encountered. Where was the intensity he had imagined? Had he misjudged the entire situation? He had anticipated a clandestine gathering, shrouded in secrecy and suspense, yet it resembled a casual social interaction more than anything else.

'If I decided to snitch on them? What can they do to stop me?' Lucas seriously pondered and then felt a chill run down his spine. 'Wait, maybe they have someone tailing me and observing my actions.' he suddenly realized.

They did it with his butler, what's stopping them from doing it with him? Then he thought, even if he snitched, what useful information could he even tell? He only knew about Mathias (and he's not even sure if that's his real name), plus the information about his house, which will only trouble him more that it will trouble them.

"Oh, they're not stupid." Lucas almost facepalmed for even entertaining that thought.