Contract

His granddaughter nodded towards the driver, who stepped forward and presented the knife to the old man.

The man took it and unsheathed it. Unlike the driver who had directly tried out the knife, the old man instead carefully studied it. He then slightly flicked the blade before nodding in satisfaction. Then suddenly he grabbed a part of his bedsheet and laid it onto the blade.

Seeing this Ivan already knew what would happen. After all, he had also tested the knife. And as he expected the blade easily cut through the sheet.

"Great knife.", the old man praised before putting it back into the sheath.

"How many can you make and can you make anything else?", he then asked Ivan.

"I'm sorry but currently I'm only able to make one a day since it cost a lot of mental energy.", he responded, while slightly overstating the energy needed to make it. In truth, he was able to make at least two a day but he was unwilling to use all his energy on crafting knives. Not to mention that being able to make only one a day would make it more expensive.

"Oh, I think we can help with that.", the old man smiled at him, "As long as you become an honorary member of our family, you can use the Lex Training Manual to unlock your potential, which will also increase your mental energy."

"That would be extremely useful.", Ivan agreed. "But even if I have the mental energy, I will still need to get the required materials."

"That's to be expected. How about this. If you agree to sell the first 100 knives to our Lex family, we will not only make you an honorable member so you can get the Training Manual but also provide you with the necessary materials.", the old man offered to Ivan's delight.

But before he could agree an emotionless voice interrupted them, "Wait. Can you create some needles which can pierce through Goblin Leather?"

The question came from Miss. Lex who until now had let her grandfather talk. It didn't take a genius to guess her thought process. Since he was able to craft knives as sharp as the ones he displayed, maybe he would also be able to provide some needles which could be used to work with the goblin leather. A Leather that was able to defeat all tries to work with it with normal needles.

He knew that it was unreasonable to try to monopolize any kind of crafting. It was better to just focus on using the NAT to produce high-grade items. Which meant that he didn't have any problems with crafting some needles for her, the only question was, "How much would you pay?"

Hearing his question everyone understood that he was sure that he could craft some needles like this. And since everyone in the room had some degree of understanding towards business, they also understood that this would be of great worth for their family.

"I guess the material for the needles wouldn't be expensive, but they would be unique, so I can offer you either a high one-time payment or you can get a 5% share for the business using them if you can provide at least one 100 of them as well as provide further ones if needed."

From her wording, it was clear that she expected him to take the second option of taking 5% of the shares since she didn't even calculate an exact one-time payment. Something that suited Ivan quite well. Selling the knives would ensure that he directly got some money, while the needles would hopefully ensure some long-term profit.

"I would prefer the second option.", he announced.

"Great, then let's do it this way. We will create a company that will use the needles you produce to make items out of Goblin Leather, you will only have to provide the needles and in exchange get 5% of the shares as well as a position as special designer and crafter, which allows you to access the resources of the company as long as the result will be handled by the company. In exchange, the company will take a fee of 5% as well as the material cost.", Miss. Lex proposed.

It was clear that she was trying to bind him to that new company but since it would partially be owned by him and he would have a lot of freedoms as well as access to raw materials, there was no reason to reject the offer. It was just that he didn't want the partner to be some faceless family. "I agree, as long as the rest of the shares are held directly by you."

"Huh?", evidently nobody had expected this and now everyone was looking at him suspiciously.

"Don't tell me you have taken a liking to my granddaughter?", the old man asked him. Ivan wasn't able to determine his thoughts but he felt some danger, being stared at by the man.

He hurriedly shook his head, "I just don't want my partner to be someone I don't even know or met."

"And you know my granddaughter?", the old man asked. Now there clearly was a teasing undertone in his question.

Before Ivan could respond and maybe get into even deeper problems, Miss. Lex's voice saved him, "Grandfather, that's enough."

"Oh.", he looked like a little child being scolded. "Whatever let's do it this way. I'll get the lawyer to set up the contract. But first, let's make you an honorary family member."

"Don't we have to sign the contract first?", Ivan asked in surprise.

The old man chuckled, "This and that are two different things. But you can be sure that if you betray us, we will make sure that you will regret it." There was a clear thread in his words, but Ivan didn't find it unfitting.

"Carl get me the document.", he told the middle age men standing beside the bed, who hadn't said a single thing until now and which presence Ivan had already forgotten about.

"Sir.", the man had already prepared a thin document folder which he now gave the old man.

"As soon as you sign this document you will become an honorary member of our family.", the old man told him, while pulling out a document from the folder. "How about I let Carl explain the details to you first. You can then just sign the document since I have already put my signature on it."

"Sure.", Ivan readily agreed. After all, he didn't really understand what being an honorary member of the Lex family entailed.

"Follow me please.", as soon as he agreed, Carl told him.

He leads Ivan to a nearby conference room, where both of them sat down.

"Let me explain some things about becoming an honorary member of the Lex family first and then we can look over the contracts.", Carl proposed.

Ivan didn't have a problem with that so he just nodded. He too was curious what exactly it meant.

"The Lex family is one of the ten big noble families and as such follows a set of laws independent from any state.", Carl directly opened with a shocker.

"Huh?"

He chuckled, "I can imagine that you don't believe me. After all, you might not have even heard about these noble families before. But let me ensure you that they exist and they are much more powerful than you can imagine. But maybe you will see it sometimes."

He told the truth. Ivan had never heard about any noble families. Not to mention that Carl seemed to imply that they worked outside of the normal chain of authority.

"I'm sure you have heard of the Lexington Conglomerate?"

"Of course. It is after all the largest company of our country.", Ivan responded. Who hadn't heard of the Lexington Conglomerate after living in the Capital for a short while? It was a powerful collection of different companies ranging from real estate to finance and even manufacturing.

"The Lexington Conglomerate is only one of the commercial branches of the Lex family.", Carl dropped the next bombshell.

He watched Ivan's expression change to one of surprise with a smile. It seemed as if he enjoyed shocking the young man in front of him.

"Of course, commerce is only one part of the Lex family's power but it should give you some insight into what kind of family you will be joining."

He then took out a piece of paper and started to draw, while explaining. "Let me start with the structure of noble families and we can then start talking about the family rules which will apply for you. Luckily for you, there aren't many." Once again he smirked at Ivan.

This time Ivan suppressed any reaction and just listened to his explanation eagerly.