Upon reaching Dwargon the group split into two, with Sebastian going to meet with the owners of big blacksmithing firms and Max and Severus going to meet with Lily the Alchemist.
Lily's official workshop was swarmed with representatives of various factions that were denied entry inside her lab, but even on the outside there was an intense competition raging between them all.
With every last one of them dressed in ironed robes and gold plated accessories they were all judging each other and the capability of the organisation behind them.
Although Lily was valuable, she wasn't valuable enough to big alchemical corporations or factions to send their bosses or patriarchs personally, hence amongst the sea of professional recruiters, Max was the only real Lord.
It was only after seeing the crowd that Max second guessed whether or not it was a good choice for him to come personally, since it was sure to reflect badly on his reputation.
For a moment, Max got worried about his social image, but then he wondered as to whom did he wish to impress with his social status? And the answer came back as no-one.
The only women he wished to impress were already familiar with him and did not care if he went personally to recruit a talent.
The only men he wished to impress were only interested in his combat prowess which he was sure to flex from time to time.
As for the others, the commoners and the gossiping nobles, Max did not give a rat's ass about their opinion, since their opinions did not matter on the grand scale in the first place.
' Look, it's Captain Ravan, the hero of the vampire clan… what is he doing here? '
' Shh…. I heard he's a violent psycho, he will kill you right this instant if you annoy him'
' Ha- you're both idiots who don't follow current events enough, he's no longer a Captain but a vampire Lord! Bet he's here to recruit Lily as well… '
' Who is that sweeper looking guy beside him, isn't that the robes that the cleaners of the street wear? '
' Is Ravan so poor he has to bring sweepers with him on diplomatic missions? '
' Naturally, since a Lord comes personally to recruit someone the state of the economy can't be good '
' This is what happens when you let military men run a territory, fucking brutes with all braun and no brain'
Severus patiently listened to the hushed chatter of the recruiters as he smiled and said no snarky comment in reply.
For a second he wondered if he should make all of them fall to their knees by unleashing his aura, or should he kill them all outright, but since this was Dwargon where law and order was meant to be respected, he could not act rowdy in front of these men.
Had they dared to do this in Dombivli however, their heads would roll on the floor by now.
" MASTER LILY WILL MEET WITH THE VARIOUS REPRESENTATIVES NOW! STATE YOUR NAME AND THE ORGANISATION YOU REPRESENT, SHE WILL ASSIGN YOU A PRIORITY ORDER, WHERE YOU MAY ENTER ONE AFTER ANOTHER " A little dwarf not more than 2.5 feet tall shouted as he very slightly opened the door to Lily's workshop.
Max was amused at the volume of the voice that the little kid possessed since he was about as tall as Jake might be at 3.
" Dylan from Keppa alchemy house "
" Wendy from House Fafda "
" Howard from Big Potions "
" Amon from Mystery Potions "
" John from Hazelgroove Empire "
" Becky from True Elites Guild "
" Malaga from Timberwolves Guild "
" Timothy from Variant Alchemy House "
" Lord Ravan Bloodfall, from the Bloodfall Clan "
" Darius from Caesar clan "
.
.
.
.
" Lugia from Mercenary Kingdom "
A total of 27 people announced their names and organisations as Max realised that almost all big monarchies and established firms had sent an agent to scout Lily
Although the individual standing of these representatives was nothing, the forces behind them were massive.
The little helper seemingly wrote all the names down and went back inside the workshop presumably to present the list to her mistress.
For now Max could only wait to see what his number was, as personally he would rank his Bloodfall clan somewhere between 15-17th rank in terms of organisational prowess, a rank too low for Lily to take seriously.
It seemed like Max had underestimated the hype of a new unaffiliated master alchemist as with this line-up he was not sure if he would come up the clear favourite.
Contrary to his expectation however, he was given token number ' 6 ' in the waiting list much ahead of some big names and even ahead of the Mercenary Kingdom's representative.
The only 5 people before him were representatives of the Two biggest alchemy firms and the large organisations of monarchs and the true elites guild.
There were many jealous with his ranking and thought it was ridiculous for him to get such a high priority.
Max himself was both pleasantly surprised by his waitlist rank and dejected, because he was not sure if he could top any offer presented by the 5 big organisations going in before him.
As things stood, Lily might even pick a faction before even meeting him at number 6 and his trip to Dwargon might come for naught.
But since he had already made it so far and got a token number that had a sliver of hope, Max decided to stick around as he observed the other representatives go in happily and come out of her workshop dejected.
Incredibly, after 1.5 hours of waiting, the queue did indeed move to number 6 after the true elites representative seemingly failed to reach a deal as Max and Severus walked into the workshop of the Master alchemist next in hopes to recruit her to their fold.
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/// A/N - Chapter 8/30, let's go!
Also a special shoutout to one of my most supportive readers Sivanthe who is celebrating her birthday today.
Do wish her in the comments ///
