A white marble hall was filled with all kinds of sculptures, and they were all vividly sculpted to the very last details. It was clear the sculptor was the master of its art.
Amidst these sculptures, a tall curvaceous figure stood before an unfinished sculpture, but its shape was quite apparent as it looked like a bird spreading its wings.
The woman was holding a chisel in her slender hand as she stroked the sculpture gently and gracefully as she carved its feathers. Strangely, there wasn't any sound of her carving at all.
On the other hand, a blurry black projection could be seen on his other wrist, and a deep cold voice sounded in this silent hall.
"… I'm also apologizing for my previous behavior. But I will still join the Alchemy Guild since it suits me more, and I have no intention of entering another trial plan anytime soon."
The woman paused for a moment, hearing this unexpected answer, and a hint of dissatisfaction flashed past her enthralling oceanic-blue eyes. But it was only fleeting as tranquility returned, and she moved her hand gracefully.
She spoke as her melodious voice rang in the hall, "If Mr. Jacob is interested in research, the Bank can meet your demands as well. The Bank lacks anything but money and trusts me; everything has a price."
"I couldn't agree more. But I'm still going to stick with my choice." Jacob's voice rang again, and his answer also remained the same.
The Rich Winter Lady finally stopped, and a tiny frown appeared on her peerless face. She looked toward the blurry black projection for the first time after their conversation was started.
She looked deeply at the black blur as if she wanted to see the person behind it. She finally spoke, "How about you state your demands, Mr. Jacob?"
It was her first seeing someone rejecting her offer, especially when she was offering everything a native of the Rare Plains could dream of. But for some reason, this guy remained dismissive as if nothing could sway him.
Not only he dared to scold her at the start, but he also didn't seem to care about her status at all and wasn't polite from start to end.
'Did he think since I don't know his face, he can be fearless and talk to me like some third-grade character?' A hint of coldness surfaced in her tranquil eyes as she waited for the answer.
Although she wanted to rope in this genius of Rare Plains because of his potential in Gunsmithing, this didn't mean she was desperate. He was, after all, a genius of Rare Plains, not Epic Plains.
She just doesn't understand why he was throwing away a golden opportunity. Now she was getting impatient, so she gave her final offer. If he still didn't cherish it, then she won't be bothering with this arrogant bumpkin anymore.
Even though she would lose some ZC that she used to buy his information from a broker, she would rather let the alchemy guild have this loss cannon who didn't know good from bad. But it wasn't that simple either.
"I have no demand Miss Manger. Again, I fully…."
Before Jacob could finish, blue light shimmered over her wrist before the projection vanished. She cut the call!
She coldly scoffed as blue light shimmered over her wrist again, and another interface appeared with another Star ID, and a message panel was opened. Writing started to appear on the message box on its own.
'Issue a Secret Commission to all Reserve Universal Mercenaries in the Rare Plains Dark City to assassinate the new Senior Grandmaster Gunsmith, Faceless Ancient, in the Dark City's Alchemy Branch.
'Contact the Informative and tell him to cooperate with Universal Mercenaries fully. Price is not a problem.'
After reading the message and finding no mistake, she sent it before the blue light on her wrist stopped shimmering, and she didn't pay any more attention to it either.
"Little Ellie, don't even think I would let you profit from this so easily." The Rich Winter Lady muttered mockingly before she returned to sculpturing as if nothing had happened.
From start to finish, this wasn't about Jacob at all!
---
Jacob looked at the star watch projection, which no longer had any blurry figure, and sneered, "Well, I save me the trouble of explaining it to her. If this woman thinks I'm an idiot, she was not better than that dickhead."
The reason for Jacob's disdain was he noticed some loopholes in Rich Winter Lady's invitation. First, she never mentioned anything about his Bank Account despite her being the Bank Manager.
This lets him conclude that she was inviting him to be a mercenary like the Star Mercenary Agency of the Bank, not the actual member who is connected with the Bank.
The Mercenary Agency was like the Armed Forces of the Bank, and Jacob wasn't sure what kind of personnel were truly in charge of the bank's management, like the Personal Zodiac Bank Accounts.
As to why he thought this way, it was pretty simple, if the Bank Account were considered a universally recognized money wallet, there would be strict rules attached to it for having such a status.
If anyone offends a bank member of high authority and then, like Gunnar, that person revoked their bank account on a whim, will anyone dare to use the ZC as currency?
Jacob was even sure that even if someone was a heinous criminal, the Bank still needed to go through many troubles to block that person's bank account because of its universal status.
The biggest proof of his theory being true was the SAAI making his Bank Account level raised while he was still a member of the Alliance, and it was still the same even after Gunnar kicked him out.
So, Jacob was confident that this woman couldn't do anything to his bank account no matter what.
Second, she only promised him money, nothing else, and Jacob didn't need money at all right now, and he also couldn't trust someone as cunning as this Rich Winter Lady.
She was full of schemes and not readable like Gunnar, so Jacob still liked to stay away from her as long as he wasn't completely confident in handling her schemes.
Lastly, he wanted to join the Alchemy Guild because this palace was a huge cover-up to hide his actual strength now that he thinks it through.
A high-ranking alliance member will instantly be labeled as a powerful fighter, while the member of the Alchemy Guild will always consider a scholar or researcher first.
However, Jacob's thought process was again disturbed by another call!