*cling*
*cling*

“Twelve years!” So announced Merlin Porshi to a crowd created through uniting the most famous as well as wealthy individuals across the entirety of humanity.

An announcement that got all of them to turn toward him, each with a glass of champagne held within their right hand, seeing the patriarch of Porshi standing above them on an elevated platform. Despite their position (below and being looked down on by the business man) none of them looked uncomfortable or even angry. In fact they seemed fine with their position if nervously looking towards one particular dark-skinned girl in a simple one-piece white dress.

The strangest thing about the girl was the fact she was wearing a white cowboy hat. Strangely it suited both her & her dress well. Not to mention nobody there would dare to speak up against any choice she may make due to her position.

There were a total of 4 “groups” that had formed within the large banquet hall they all had gathered within. Of those groups; the two largest were split between the two business magnate parents and the young black girl who was bubbly talking to those around her. That was not to say that the area around the young Porshi heir wasn’t crowded; especially since the girl & him already had a “system” for these events.

Plus it was the day where it was most advantageous to approach her specifically.

“When I first brought Armor-Cordis Porshi to the shooting range I expected little, just a nice moment where a father teaches his daughter something, with the hope she’d never need to use it in her defence. Little did anyone expect I would become the father of two girls who together achieved more gold medals than some countries have managed in their entire existence!” Showing his speaking chops as he managed to get a little chuckle from the crowd of businessmen let alone the other individuals.

He did not stop there; continuing his speech after a brief pause. “That is just the start of what our second oldest has managed to do after we allowed her to finally spread her wings. See, after she taught a certain brat a humbling lesson, I decided to give her a single branch of Furstin along with a single promise. A promise that she would get more if she did well managing what she was already given - that promise to give her the entire subsidiary when I felt she was experienced enough to step up. Now that I look back it was a foolish promise that I had no right nor idea to give…”

That line seemed to cause a few people to be taken by surprise. Seeming as if he was denouncing some action of the girl who they came here to celebrate. Those reporters who they had brought in (having cameras showing every inch of this place live for the world to see) seemed to zoom in on every member of the tycoon family.

They did not notice any of the negative expressions that they imagined - instead all of them seemed smiling except for the youngest who was pouting with her arms crossed angrily at having to be there.

Armor-Cordis herself was completely beaming to the point some seemed to become dazed, as if they had been hit by one of her stun grenades, as she even giggled. There were even some others in the crowd who looked to keep their joy despite those worlds. Among them was her secretary who used to be a branch manager & a certain scientist who was hoovering up the horderves that were floating around on their own hover-tech enhanced waiter-bots.

“The reason for this… Is because she never needed my help.” Closing his eyes in a moment of weakness that he shook away with her head. “What did she do with the little bit of the pie I gave her? She went ahead to start her own grand bakery that far surpassed what I thought that pie was even worth when I had it myself. With the single branch that I gave she managed to massively expand after using her golden medal as a jumping point. Not hard to understand in hindsight since she was her own sponsor; even then she continued to hungrily absorb knowledge from many different fields.”

Looking towards the girl with undisguised pride. “I am sure you all know how our little Furstin chairwoman is a prestigious business woman as well as an athlete who conquered every event she took part in. What some of you do not know is that she has a total of at least 10 doctorates simply because I gave her a branch because it had an amicable relationship with a nearby university. Most of those she gained before she was even ten years old - she is even a fully licensed surgeon of many different fields.”

Shortly afterwards there were a lot of flashes that took place after that announcement.

“There is so much to celebrate but I have taken enough of your time; I am positive everyone here knows all about her successes already so let us just toast to that.” Just as he said, he lifted his glass to the air, everyone in the room followed him. Signalling their agreement before they all downed the contents of the glass without hesitation.

Although there was a coughing fit from a certain blonde haired girl with a toned body who clearly couldn’t handle her drink.

In response the cause for this entire celebration began laughing at her younger sister by a handful of months which in turn got an angry glare from the girl. Most would be afraid of the Porshi princess’ retaliation (not due to her family but rather her infamous fist) yet that did not scare her. Sticking her tongue out at her sibling as if gloating that she was not in the same position.

Still the event was far from over. As soon as they were all done drinking the conversations began to continue in the groups they had coalesced into. Those around the parents were the older & more grumpy business men that somehow still believed that her success was all some kind of power play - meanwhile those around her sister were mostly those of the younger generation who believed the same. Of course there were also people who came just to try and “rip the mask” from her face or try to use this as a chance to drive a rift between brother & sibling which they can push themselves into.

None of the siblings care much for that as they had no reason to.

There had long been a discussion where Armor-Cordis made it very obvious to the family that she had no interest in running anything but the Furstin subsidiary as well as no intention to become independent. It was also the same day she came true about her wider objectives… About the “new world project”.

“So what is that ‘new world project’ you and master Arthur always talk about?” A  girl, with eyes that drifted constantly to Arthur, questioned in a rather demanding fashion that practically oozed discontent despite the smile she presented. An awkward silence created around the chairwoman as it was clearly rude considering she had far surpassed any of them in “rank” however she didn’t seem insulted.

Lightly laughing with a bot coming down to take her empty glass away from her; replacing it with a little bowl of strawberries that she ate using a toothpick. “It is just a little family function we decided upon on account of us all being rather busy and having little time to meet up otherwise. We just all log into some virtual reality game or another. Just something that allows us to play together without needing to worry about our companies for a couple hours.”

“Ooo~ we did hear that the Porshi main family were close but it’s nice to see the rumours are true.”

“Indeed it must be sad not to be able to meet up often despite being so young…”

“You shouldn’t feel guilty master Furstin; it only makes sense you would be busy with all you do!”

Voices of support echoed throughout their ears which caused the aggressive girl to frown while the person in question just offered them each a brightsmile. Those strawberries also were not there just for image as she happily plopped one after another into her maw. A move that seemed to only improve her expression which also resulted in that aggressive girl quickly being left in the background due to her radiance.

“Did you guys hear that Wechuge apparently killed one of the major human trafficking gang’s leaders along with most of the people who could replace him?” Suddenly one particular question caused the not famous young military contractor to pause her berry picking. Turning to look toward the girl who asked that question which made her nervous.

In response, likely to try to appease her, another girl spoke up to repromend the former. “Do you need to bring up something so scary? Not only is lady Furstin eating but it’s even meant to be a happy day where she happily celebrates her 17th birthday!”

Surprisingly it was the girl who they were worried about that spoke up in her defence.

“Ah~ that is quite fine, it is pretty interesting, makes you wonder if they really exist or if they are just some guy in a fancy halloween outfit does it not muhuhu~?” Plopping another strawberry in her mouth much to the relief of those surrounding her. With her obvious intrigue in the topic they quickly began to discuss it with great vigour in hopes to get the girl’s attention by proxy.

“Couldn’t actually be real.”

“You never know…”

“Why do they kill so many people; do they just like murdering?”

“I’ve heard rumours that they are actually like the wendigo and eat the flesh of their victims which is why all that is dust from their shattered bones!”

“Now that is stupid.”

“Yea all the people they kill end up being bad people anyways.”

“So you think they’re a vigilante?”

“Nah I overheard from daddy that they’re actually an assassin with a very high price point.”

“You can’t be infamous and an assassin.”

“That’s a spy not an assassin hahaha.”

“Hahaha h-how do they get them to accept a contract then?”

“Heard there is some website or something where you send your request with them deciding when you meet up to discuss things…”

“Very spooky…”

Armor-Cordis just watched the beautiful girls energetically discuss the supposed monster while eating strawberry after strawberry; a big bright smile on her face.