"We can indeed talk about business. But first, you need to tell me something honestly. How many women are you involved with as of right now?"
Dan asked, looking at Eren keenly. The latter felt that he was put in a tough spot. Not because he didn't want to say the number out loud. But because he had honestly lost count.
"Um… I don't know. You must have read something about me. You tell me."
Eren said and shrugged his shoulders. He continued before Dan could get angrier at him than he already was.
"Look, we all know it's normal for some rankers to have multiple partners. You can't tell me how to live my life just because you are one of the big houses of the kingdom and it complicates things for you.
I have also read the file about you. You were a one-woman man. So I get what kind of point you are trying to make. But that's more of a self-imposed boundary than a virtue in my opinion. Or an utter blessing from who knows where.
Sometimes, a man finds a complete piece of the puzzle for himself. And sometimes, he finds pieces of it as he moves on with his life. The goal is to complete the puzzle. Not count the pieces it is divided into."
Eren said and sighed. After pondering for a bit, he continued.
"Lensa has chosen to be with me despite my involvement with others. I know you feel that your granddaughter shouldn't be with me if I look at this whole thing from your point of view. And you are probably right.
But I'm only respecting Lensa's wishes. As long as she sees me as hers, I'll treat her right. If her happiness is being with me, I'll not be the selfless idiot who pushes her towards what is "right".
I'm selfish enough to claim Lensa for myself. And a lot of others who I consider deserving of my affection. I'm selfish enough to complete the puzzle in my life however I see fit."
Eren said with a smile on his face. He was only glad that the old elf could only know about his misadventures with humans. His bullshittery would not have worked if Dan knew about his "monstrous" lifestyle as well.
Dan opened his mouth to say something to Eren. But no words came out. He found himself tongue-tied when Eren didn't try to deceive him and instead came clean to him. And also in a way that would leave Dan speechless in the philosophical maze.
Dan sighed when he saw Eren was looking at him with the same restless eyes as before. It was apparent that he was in a hurry to do things. The old elf shook his head before saying out loud.
"Alright. I had many things to say to you about this subject, boy. But I guess they would fall on deaf ears.
Even that silly goose won't listen to me. Why should I even try?
Alright. Come out, you two."
Dan said, before reclining back. For some reason, he prevented himself from copying the stance Eren was sitting with. Lensa appeared out of the blue and froze on the ground she was standing on. She first greeted her grandfather and waved at him before sitting beside Eren.
Dan could tell that smile on Lensa's face was genuine. There was no point in keeping her out of the discussions anymore. The old elf had realized that Eren would find a way to make Lensa approach him and do things the way he wanted House Carren to do anyway.
Controlling the couple together was much more effective.
Dineria appeared following Lensa's entry. She sat beside Dan, looking at the young couple in front of her with a bit of a smirk. She was impressed with the way Eren had carried himself under the high-ranked elf's status.
Dineria was also happy Lensa ended up with Eren instead of Ken. Elf ladies could be considered weird that way.
"I take it you want to use Lensa's Ability for your commercial use? Elaborate on that."
Dan finally got down to business. Eren stopped smiling and nodded with a stoic look on his face. He explained everything that he and Lensa had come up with from last time.
Eren also added a few more pointers from the manufacturing point of view that he hadn't talked with Lensa before. Since Dan was the official representative of House Carren, it was better if he had this talk with the old elf himself.
Eren's idea was to use spell synthesis array setups to manufacture two distinct products. One was the healing potion. Another was Lensa's ability to be synthesized as an alchemy bomb.
The spell synthesis arrays required array masters to copy the spell's effects into the runic details incorporated into the respective array setups. Normally, anyone would then be able to use the array provided they were of the same ranking status as the spell that had been converted into an array setup.
This spell would be cast the same way as the reference spell it is based on. Its effects would be identical to those derived from reference spell casting as well.
Things were a bit different in Lensa's case since she was using her Ability instead of a singular spell or a spell combo. Therefore, a higher-tier version of the spell synthesis array needed to be used to commercialize Lensa's Ability.
Lensa needed to fire spells inside these spell synthesis arrays when deformities arise in manufacturing. In this case, the mechanism incorporated into the arrays would treat the recent Ability deployment as a new reference point for resolving manufacturing errors.
Of course, this was an Ability, the manufacturing outcome wouldn't be as good as the original one. Still, it would be satisfactory considering the number of products it churns every day.
A huge commitment was needed from both parties to create a setup like this. Their first challenge would be to find capable array masters to pull this off. Plus, they would need to burn thousands of Extols in creating and operating these array setups before they could see the profits.
