When Kain returned to his lab on the college campus, he set up the Starlight Bind Barrier, and left Gabriel hooked up to machines that would monitor his vital signs while supplying him with the nutrients he needed using an IV.
He then went about moving into his new room. The first re-ranking of the school year wouldn’t be for another few months, therefore the rankings everyone ended with last year were carried over to this meaning—meaning that Kain was still within the top 5 mansion. However, instead of his room being 202, the second-years were placed one floor higher, meaning that he was now in room 302.
Since Kain had been away for a while, he also chose to check on the progress of the spiritual beer business. Especially, since he had received a call from his operations manager Collin about an emergency—apparently, the construction of an additional factory they were planning to build to meet the greater demand for their beer across the empire, ran into some trouble…
Coincidently, just when Kain was about to arrive at the construction area for their new factory, he received a message from Serena—she had received a notification that the price for having the 6-star beast-tamer vacate the premises back in Brightstar City, was an emergency befalling some kind of business related to Kain.
‘Thanks… but the warning is a little late’
Kain thought as he looked at what should have been an almost finished second factory, but was instead more akin to a disaster site.
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The area that should have been bustling with workers putting the finishing touches on the factory was instead littered with debris.
The skeletal structure of the building had collapsed, and large fissures ran through the foundation. Equipment that had been brought in for installation lay twisted and broken, some of it buried under rubble.
Collin was already at the site, pacing anxiously while speaking to the head of construction. When he saw Kain approaching, he rushed over, his face pale and drawn.
“Boss, it’s worse than I thought,” Collin said, running a hand through his dishevelled hair. “We initially thought it was an accident—some kind of structural flaw—but after investigating further, we found clear signs of sabotage.”
Kain’s expression darkened. “Sabotage? Are you certain?”
Collin nodded grimly. Then lowered his voice while glancing around to make sure they weren’t overheard, “Positive. The foreman discovered that several load-bearing beams had been tampered with, weakening the structural integrity of the entire building. Not only that, but the foundation cracks—those weren’t natural, they were likely the result of an earth attribute skill that caused a focused vibration on the floor of the building and took advantage of the weaknesses in the support beams to cause the entire building to come down—thankfully there were no casualties though, since the collapse happened early in the morning before the first workers arrived”
Kain’s jaw tightened. “Do we know who’s behind it?”
“Not yet,” Collin admitted. “But, I do have a guess…you may have been too busy to notice, but a competitor had popped up recently. They might’ve realized they couldn’t compete with our product and decided to resort to dirty tactics.”
The mention of the competitor brought a grim smile to Kain’s lips. That particular issue had practically resolved itself on its own, so while he had heard vague mentions of another spiritual beer hitting the shelves, he hadn’t paid it too much attention.
When the rival company had tried to replicate their spiritual beer, they quickly discovered that the properties of the brew weren’t something that could be copied.
Thanks to Kain’s foresight, the Aether Brewing Yeast had been genetically modified before they went public. This ensured that without also having access to Queen’s spiritual honey, the standard brewing process couldn’t replicate the unique characteristics of their product.
The competitor’s beer had been a poor imitation, greatly lacking the spiritual energy and rich flavor profile that had made Kain’s beer a sensation.
Public backlash against the knockoff had been severe, and the competitor had folded within weeks. However, if they were responsible for this sabotage, it meant they weren’t entirely out of the picture.
“Anything else unusual?” Kain asked.
“Yes,” Collin said, frowning. “The workers mentioned seeing strange spiritual fluctuations around the site a few days ago, but by the time anyone investigated, there was no one there. I’ve already doubled security at our existing factory, just in case.”
Kain nodded, and already put identifying and dealing with the perpetrators on his future agenda for when he had more time. After all, their unsportsmanlike actions were a direct attack on his business, and even jeopardized the safety of his workers.
“We’ll have to rebuild,” Kain said decisively. “But not here. Find another location. Somewhere more secure, where it’ll be easier to monitor for spiritual interference.”
Collin hesitated. “But the cost—”
“I’ll cover it,” Kain interrupted. Thankfully, he received a large influx of funds due to a renewed interest in the Lumifin evolution after the National Tournament. “What matters is keeping the momentum going. This setback won’t stop us.”
Collin’s shoulders relaxed slightly, reassured by Kain’s confidence. “Understood. I’ll start scouting new sites immediately.”
“Additionally, we’re going to have to increase our selectivity with staff. Someone willing to go this far, definitely wouldn’t be above bribing a worker to get more detailed information on our brewing process.” Although, without access to the spiritual honey, something only Kain had, all of those efforts would be useless—but it’s not as if they knew that.
Kain even decided to have Bea periodically “inspect” the minds of the staff that work at each of the factories in order to identify any potential spies among them.
In fact, their current factory may already have one or two eyes and ears working on behalf of their enemies…
As Collin left to make the arrangements, Kain lingered at the site, surveying the damage. He would make sure that whoever had dared to sabotage his factory and attack his work would come begging him for mercy in the future.