Cool guy

In the novel, this man let Garfield slowly squeeze him out of the painting business without much resistance.

It was only when he had lost his customer base, that he decided to assassinate him.

As a business man who has money, he can hire strong martial artists to kill Garfield for him, but for some reason, the man decided to do it himself.

Looking at the middle aged mans scholarly look, Andrew secretly shook his head.

'This protagonist's halo is really scary.'

"Mr Harden, I am very pleased to meet you."

The middle aged man was all smiles.

"Please just call me by my first name, Mathew, I am pleased to meet you as well,"

"I have long heard about your reputation as Maple city's number one artist."

Andrew intentionally guided the small talk.

Sure enough, the smile on Robert's face diminished significantly before responding with a sigh and adding,

"I used to be considered so, but not anymore."

Andrew showed just the right amount of shock to not seem fake, and he asked cautiously.

"Mr Robert's skills have reduced?"

"No, I don't think there is anyone in this city who can be half as good as you, even if your skills are slipping, you'd still be number one."

Robert wore a bitter smile as he responded.

"You might not know, but there is a new artist with a very unique drawing style in the city,"

"Ever since he came, my business has been slow, and most nobles are lining up to go to him."

Andrew slapped his thigh as if he suddenly understood.

"You mean the weirdly dressed fellow?"

"I have seen his art, and it is indeed comparable to yours, but you have more advantaged than him,"

"I think that if you plan it well enough, you can use the traffic he has generated to revitalize your Business, or even make it grow bigger."

The middle aged man was so interested that he even moved closer to the edge of his seat, but he pretended to be calm and slowly took a sip of an empty cup of tea.

Andrew pretended to not notice his gaffe, he instead changed the subject.

"My family is about to try starting a brand new type of business, and i need a few different sets of beautifully written fonts of alphabets."

"Beautiful writing? Different fonts? I can do this."

Robert tried to act in a composed manner, but in Andrew's eyes, he was no different from a primary school student eagerly raising his hand for the teacher's attention.

'It seems like Mr Robert is not much of a business man,'

He thought to himself.

"I won't take advantage of you for nothing, I will make sure that you benefit from my new business as well."

What he got in response was a nod with a lack of interest.

"You said I could use the current situation to my advantage?"

Andrew stopped beating around the bush and told Robert his thoughts.

"First of all, the only advantage that guy has over you is the fact that his painting style is new, so it gives people a feeling that it is fresh and unique."

"Other than that, be it the working environment or customer service, there are all way behind you, he k even your underlings provide shade to their customers."

"So, if we take his uniqueness out of the equation, he will be no different from another street painter."

"I don't know how art works but can't you learn his art style by watching it a few times?"

"Even if you can't learn it, I heated that he wants to expand his business soon, and he will recruit a few artists and teach them his art style."

"All you have to do is sneak your people in that group,"

"Even if you can't sneak your people to learn, can't you just bribe those who learnt the art style? No matter how loyal, as long as you pay enough, there will tell you all they know."

"After getting his art style, if you don't change your charging price, all the customers will come back, bringing even more customers with them."

Robert fell into deep thought as if he was doubting his life.

How had he not thought of something so simple?

After a few moments, they started ironing out the details of both, Andrew's needs and Robert's plan to win back his customers.

Andrew also told Robert that he would advertise for him once the he started printing out the newspapers.

...

Elsewhere.

A receptionist just risked his job to let someone without an appointment enter the office of a high level government official because she thought that he was a pretty cool guy.

After knocking on the office door, a deep voice came from the other side.

"Come in."

Garfield slowly opened the door and walked in.

The appearance of an unfamiliar face surprised Frank, who was doing some paper work on his desk.

With knit brows, Frank inquired about the identity of the other party.

"Who are you?"

"Hello, I am very sorry to come to you without a prior appointment."

"My name is Garfield, and I am a street artist."

Mathew was very calm, and he spoke in a tone that was neither servile nor overbearing.

Frank's displeasure was suddenly reduced, and he thought that he might as well hear out this ballsy kid.

"Ok, make it quick, I'll give you five minutes."

He said as he glanced at the position of the sun, through the open window.

This glance made his start packing up his papers as he was preparing to leave for home.

....

To be continued