Chapter 101: Showcase(1/2)

Once the morning proper came, there was no longer time for either of us to slack down in our own company. Just a few minutes after I reassured Ayda that I was stilling willing to go through whatever hardship was necessary to bring her to earth, I was already walking with a bag full of simple but prepared artefacts towards the meeting room back in my mansion.

Now, it would be the very first time when I would be the one calling for the meeting.

"I'm here!"

Suddenly dropping through the doors, Pavlo didn't manage to slow down in time, axed in half by the thin top of the large desk that occupied most of the space within the room. Barely preventing his face from breaking on the hardwood of the furniture, the young man raised his eyes at me with extreme curiosity.

"Don't worry, you are the first one to appear. I don't expect any of those old geezers to perform the same kind of parkour that I assume you had to in order to get here so fast. Sit down, calm down, and wait for everyone to gather. You know I don't like to repeat myself."

Pointing at one of the free chairs, I didn't even bother to move away from my seat… Or rather, that was how I wanted to appear. With the bag filled with the artefacts prepared by Huskarl sitting on my lap, standing up would instantly expose a huge hint towards the main topic of today's urgent meeting.

"Old geezers, huh?"

To my surprise, before Pavlo could even find his seat, his father walked through the still-open door with a slightly ironic smile decorating his lips. Even though I could tell from his aura how curious he was for what could be the reason for my unexpected activity within the ringleaders of the faction, his face was completely devoid of any hints that would point me towards this conclusion if I weren't a witch in the first place.

"Please, don't hold it against me. Treat it as a slip of a tongue and I will be able to handsomely bribe you once we are done with the meeting… or maybe even during its proceeding?"

Leaning my head to the side, I openly smiled towards the middle-aged man. Even though the two of us were working insanely closely together, I still couldn't erase all the reservations that I had toward this person. 

Those reservations didn't come from the fact that he used to be the head of a house dealing with some pretty shady stuff. I was already mature enough to understand that what the ringleaders of the crime group were doing, was basically copying the actions of any given government from before the apocalypse, just on a way smaller scale. As such, what made me worried about this man, was that he was a true leader of his family, while I still felt like nothing more but a wannabe actor trying his best to play his role. 

"A bribe, huh? And here I thought working with you might be a slight pain in the ass…"

Instead of flaring up at the suggestion of buying back his favour with a tangible gift, the middle-aged man actually smiled joyfully. But instead of taking the seat that was already turning into his private spot, he actually approached me before slightly lowering his head.

"Your excellency, while you might find it bothersome, I recently realised I have yet to properly become your acquaintance. If that won't be against your will, how about…"

While when with Ayda I was doing my absolute best not to use my witch abilities to observe her aura, I had no such reservations towards this man. And thanks to this attitude of mine, I could easily see how filled with anxiety the older Baskar was, despite the perfectly calm and stoic face that he was showing to me.

"A Bruderschaft then?"

Giving up on my attempt to conceal the bag on my lap, I pulled it up on the table before standing up myself. Rather than accepting the older Baskar's extended hand, I approached a small bar standing on the far end of the room, before filling two shot-glasses with pricey booze. Moving back towards my set, I made the middle-aged man hold his cup before extending my own hand with the other glass in it.

"Bruderschaft it is."

Smiling in response to my initiative, the old Baskar smiled before locking his hand with mine at the height of the elbow, before bringing his cup towards his lips.

"Jeff."

"Kira."

With the older Baskar initiating the old ritual, deeply lodged within the nation, I spun my mind to come up with some realistic-sounding name… But with how little I thought about this entire thing in advance, I ended up just slightly shortening and modifying my real name. In the end, Kira didn't sound that bad. Even if it was only my own pretence, it gave off the eastern vibes, making it easier for me to claim to have some connections with the part of the world that always appeared to be mystical for the people of what used to be known as Europe.

Following the rule of the rite, the two of us raised our interlocked arms, drinking the content of the cups all at once. While I used the bigger shot-cups, capable of holding about a tenth of a litre each, Jeff didn't show any hints of repulsion or hardship after swallowing over a hundred millilitres of a fine vodka at once. In fact, feeling the burn in my throat from this strong alcohol, I couldn't even be sure if I myself managed to keep my face as calm as I hoped it was.

"With that said, how about we let everyone else in the room? Although I have to praise them for reading the atmosphere and waiting outside…"

Maybe it was my own imagination, but with the proper, traditional introduction now done, it seemed as if part of the tension that Jeff always seemed to introduce to my mood, was now gone. Following the direction where he aimed his chin for a moment, I could see a small crowd of elegantly dressed officials awaiting some kind of approval for their entry to the office. 

"Pavlo, would you be so kind?"

Given how I already revealed the bag, there was no point in attempting to make any surprises anymore. For anyone entering the room, it would be plainly obvious that the content of the bag would be the main focus of the meeting, making it nothing but a waste of time to keep it hidden.

"Sure thing."

Instantly rushing up from his chair, the younger Baskar moved to the doors of the long room while I gently moved the small packs with artefacts from within the bag. Initially, they were just swarmed inside loosely, with Huskarl just hoping that they wouldn't malfunction or break as she carried them for my inspection. But that mistake was fixed by me on the spot.

While it required some running around, waking the local craftsmen that didn't escape the village before it was taken over by Ayda's allies and coercing them to create those simple, square boxes by showing a huge amount of gold coins into their hands, it was all worth it. Because right now, instead of just tossing the stones out of the bag on the table, I actually picked up a small, jewellery box at a time, opening their lids as the room started to fill up.

Finished with my preparations long after all the invited guests already took their seats, I leaned back on my chair before looking over at everyone's faces.

"I know what you guys might think… But this is what I ultimately plan to produce out of the stones that we talked about the last time. As I already confirmed its perfectly fine to leave most of the work to the machines, I'm here to showcase to you the abilities of some of those artefacts."

Standing up from my chair, I picked the rightmost box from the line-up I prepared before pulling the blue, barrier stone from a simple cushion it was lying on inside the small, decorative box made by a craftsman from Ayda's world. 

"This one here is the artefact that I already talked with some of you about. But instead of flaunting how insanely useful it is, let's make a small test."

Moving away from the desk to the place where there was most of the open space within the office, I brought my hand up so that everyone could see what I was exactly doing. After making sure that the barrier stone was lying in the right position in my palm, I pressed the insanely small bit. From what Huskarl told me, it was actually an execution stone embedded into a special frame holding it within the carvings of the runes of the command stone, making the outer shell of the entire artefact. 

And then, I just pressed this small, protruding part into the stone. 

From the perspective of a normal person, absolutely nothing happened. But with all the ways of using the magic that I maybe not mastered but at least learned, I could clearly see the flow of mana rushing to form an intangible barrier around me.

"Now, who is brave enough to attempt attacking me?"

Looking at the group of men gathered in the room, I could see hesitation appearing both on their faces and within their aura. Just like I expected, no one was willing to potentially break my illusions and actually hit me. But instead of getting angry, I simply reached to the backside of my belt, pulling out a simple handgun. Releasing the trigger of the barrier stone for a moment, I placed the pistol on the table before taking a step back and reactivating the barrier.

"Whoever dares to take a shot at me, will receive this stone for themselves."

I knew this way of incentivising them into action would have small chances of working. After all, they had yet to experience the prowess of this stone, making its value rather questionable. 

Just like I planned.

"Pavlo, I hope you will do the honours then."