Chapter 148: (3)Montcalm Manor

Elizabeth woke up in her bed in the early afternoon with an incredible headache…

Next to Alexander.

They were both naked.

What had happened last night? It was a total blackout. She had absolutely no recollection of the events of the party.

But in view of the fact that they were both naked in the same bed, she had a pretty good idea of how that night had ended...

Elizabeth got up and walked to the bathroom to take her morning shower, groaning and putting a hand to her aching head. Thankfully, she kept powerful painkillers in the bathroom for situations exactly like this one.

After she left, Alexander cracked one eye open, then sat up.

He'd actually been awake for a long time. In fact, Alexander hadn't slept much during the previous night. He'd spent most of it thinking about what he'd heard in the secret passage. All the news of the SuperGuild's subterfuge…

Not to mention the mystery of Gael's superhuman strength.

Suddenly, he received a call on his holo-watch, the only thing he was still wearing.

Emma was calling him! Alexander cursed under his breath. What terrible luck!

He answered quickly, adjusting the display so that it would be difficult to tell where he was… not to mention that he was naked.

Emma's face appeared. She looked furious. "Where on Earth are you, Alexander?! I've been waiting in the restaurant for half an hour!"

Alexander winced. "Shit. I totally forgot… Sorry. I made plans that carried over into this morning. It was such a unique opportunity that everything else disappeared from my mind."

Emma sighed. "Well, should I wait for you or not?"

Alexander said, "Actually, I'm on the Moon, at the inter-guild meeting in the Montcalm manor. I actually can't talk to you for long. I'm sort of undercover."

Emma's expression turned to disbelief and confusion. "Wait, what?!"

Suddenly, Alexander heard the sound of the shower being turned off. Elizabeth would be back in only a few minutes.

"I really need to go!" he said urgently to Emma. "Come to my new apartment in Sector 16 tonight, and I promise I'll explain everything. Here, let me send you the address. Kisses!"

Before she could respond, he ended the call.

Now he had to decide what to do with Elizabeth.

Alexander was torn. He didn't want to deceive Emma under any circumstances. He was already furious with himself for forgetting the plans he'd made with her.

Yet the information that he'd obtained the previous night made Alexander realize that he needed to be more vigilant than ever. Though he might be at "peace" with the SuperGuilds, they would never accept Eclipse as their equal… nor Apophis. In fact, Alexander's life even seemed to be in danger.

Therefore, Alexander had to maintain the appearance of a relationship with Elizabeth to keep an eye on these sinister, power-hungry executives who were plotting against him.

Eventually, Elizabeth came out from the bathroom with a long white towel covering her body.

Alexander gave a slight smile. "You are really a bed hog! Who would have thought it from such a well-bred woman?"

Elizabeth returned his grin. "That was quite a lovely evening, for certain." She paused for a moment. Perhaps you could stay for lunch? My family has the habit of getting together for a meal on Sunday, even though we're all so busy throughout the week."

Alexander thought about this for a moment. "Won't it shock your family to have a 'worm' eating at their table?"

Elizabeth laughed. "Oh, don't worry. The rest of them are much more open-minded than my stupid brother. After all, they were worms in their youth, too."

Alexander nodded. "Alright. Let me get dressed, then."

Elizabeth left the room, and Alexander put on the same suit that he'd worn the day before.

He also prepared himself mentally to meet the leaders of the Montcalm family, one of the most powerful families in the world government. Though he'd come to the Moon with the expectation of spying on SuperGuild leaders, he hadn't expected Elizabeth would actually introduce him to people as important as her family!

After a few minutes, he went downstairs to join Elizabeth in the manor's vast dining room. There was a majestic wooden table several meters long in the center, and it was already set for an elaborate breakfast by the time Alexander arrived.

Sitting at it were Elizabeth, her brother, and two people whom Alexander recognized from official pictures as Elizabeth's parents. They were surrounded by a dozen butlers who stood by to take care of the diners' every need.

Alexander flushed with embarrassment at the situation. He'd only met Elizabeth the day before, and yet she was already introducing him to her parents? The Celestials really had no modesty.

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Alexander spoke up as he stepped through the doorway. "Um, hello."

Elizabeth's father raised an eyebrow. "Hello. And you are?"

Elizabeth quickly rose and moved to Alexander's side."This is a friend of mine, Dad! His name's Alexander."

Charle smirked, but said nothing to openly humiliate his sister. While, like many siblings, the two were bitter rivals with each other in a dozen ways, it was certainly better not to spark an all-out war in public.

Alexander bowed. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Montcalm."

Elizabeth's father relaxed a bit upon realizing that Alexander was his daughter's guest. "You can call me Richard," he said in a gracious voice. "May I present to you my wife Katherina?"

Alexander turned in her direction and gave another bow that was a little smoother. "How do you do, Madam?"

Then the ice had been broken, and Alexander felt more at ease. He sat down at the table beside Elizabeth while a butler expertly prepared his place.

Charle spoke up, an edge of hidden sarcasm in his voice. "So, dear Alexander, how was your evening? Did you enjoy… the party?"

Alexander sent Charle a glare. "I enjoyed it quite a lot. Nearly as much as you did, I imagine." Alexander gave a meaningful look to one of the female butlers, the one Charle had been involved with the previous night.

Richard was either oblivious to this verbal duel or simply chose to ignore it. "Well, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed our party, Alexander. Tell me, what do you do for a living?"

Alexander said, "Actually, I'm in the same business as Elizabeth and Charle. I'm a professional gamer in 'Horus.'"

Richard nodded. "Ah, you too. What an incredible success this game has had. So many people I know want to invest in it. Of course, it's not easy, what with all the legislation swirling around it. It used to be so much simpler to exploit games.

"And, of course, there's the problem of volatility. The economy of 'Horus' really should have been designed with some better safeguards. Speculation on GC is quite risky as it stands. Too risky for my tastes. Two market crashes in six months, all due to the actions of a few individuals? Well, the passing of time will show the wisest courses of action."

Richard paused to contemplate for a moment before continuing. "The only really viable way to make it work, of course, is to work within the legal bounds and invest in a guild. A very strict one, which uses its members as a steady income stream which can be converted into credits frequently. Even then, there are many safer options for financial investment. I myself have barely invested ten billion credits into my children's guild."

Alexander could hardly believe his ears! Ten billion?! That was an almost unfathomable amount of money to him, and yet Richard Montcalm considered it a small investment.

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Then the first course arrived, and the business talk was cut short.

Alexander later tried to describe the food, but he was almost at a loss for words. It was… simply exquisite.

He'd never eaten anything so good in his life! There were even colorful fruits and vegetables that he'd never seen before. The wine was served as freely as water, even though it must have been worth over a million credits a bottle on the open market!

It was a real feast, incomparable to even Paris's most famous restaurants. It made Alexander realize that Elizabeth came to Earth restaurants for socialization and to show off, not because there was anything on Earth that she could not have better in her own home.

Once the meal was over, Charle dabbed his lips in a pretentious way and said, "Well, Alexander, I suppose I should offer you a position in my guild. Would you like that?" He said it in an utterly condescending way.

Elizabeth shot careful glances between the two of them until Alexander responded.

"No," he said, "but thank you for the offer. I already have a good guild, one where everybody helps each other."

Charle scoffed at the idea of such an egalitarian guild. "Are you sure? We could offer you a salary of up to 100,000 credits per year, plus incredible in-game benefits. Equipment, Skills, whatever you wanted. It would be a huge mistake to refuse..." His voice trailed off meaningfully.

Alexander shook his head. "I already have all that. Besides, I wouldn't want to see Elizabeth as my boss. I have my pride, even if I'm a worm."

Charle tapped the side of his glass, and his tone changed slightly in a way that Alexander couldn't identify. "Don't worry about that! I'd be your boss, not my sister. Come on, Alexander, think about it! This isn't an ultimatum, you know. What sort of fee and salary would change your mind?"

"Sorry," said Alexander. "It's a matter of principle. I don't want to owe anything to anyone."

Not after his first life. He would never go back to that. Alexander smiled inwardly, wondering how all the people at the table would react if he explained to them the truth of his reincarnation. Would they think he was insane, or that he was insulting them, as when he had told Charle he was DungEater?

But Elizabeth was pleasantly surprised to hear Alexander's refusal of the recruitment offer. Usually when her brother or father offered money to a man she loved to get him away from her, the man accepted without hesitation!

After all, a relationship with an aristocrat like her was complicated and uncertain.

They all knew that it was better to take the money and move on.

And so, after this happened again and again, Elizabeth developed a deep feeling of isolation and longing to connect to a man who was sincere and principled.

Though he tried not to show it, Charle was furious.

If he couldn't lure this worm away from his sister with money, he'd need to resort to other measures…

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