reincarnation

ch.10 - New partner

After the previous events Louis got back to the main hall together with Ed and his little brother, both of whom were still a bit pouty, although the prince put on a face mask rather quickly upon entering the hall. Chuckling slightly at this, Louis made his way to his mother and left Noah with her, telling Ed that he would be leaving to entertain the guests which wasn't a complete lie. The two boys seemed like they wanted to stay and chat with him more but they didn't say anything, letting him go. 

walking through the crowd, Louis politely thanked everyone who approached to congratulate him once again. After some time of finding his way, he finally reached the part of the hall where most of the merchants were gathered. He has been waiting for an opportunity to use his past life knowledge now and at this point he only needed to find a suitable merchant to begin approaching his goals. 

He could easily build an establishment with the help of his father, but he wanted to keep this a secret for now, thinking of this as his private matter. Being honest, gathering money wasn't the only goal he had in mind, but the others would need to wait till this one reached a certain degree before they could start.

The merchants started gathering around him immediately once Louis approached. They could understand that aside from the fact that he was the first son, meaning he would most likely inherit the title of a duke, Louis was also an exceptional child, which meant that he would very likely be a terrifying existence in the future. 

This was exactly why they were trying to grab the opportunity to get close to him now, while he was still young. Much to their disappointment Louis simply exchanged a few words with them before excusing himself and continuing to walk towards a certain direction. 

All this time Louis was checking their statuses with his appraisal skill and could see that most of them were either low-level or mid-level merchants, thus not what he was looking for. After a bit of wandering around he also spotted a few high-level merchants and took his time in choosing. He had a certain meeting gift prepared, he was sure that after seeing it any of these people would want to work with him.

The only problem was that the merchants were sly and decisive so Louis had to choose someone with whom he would have the easiest time dealing with. When once again checking their statuses, one of them caught his eye. The status had a hidden attribute, which he could see only because of his MAX level appraisal skill. 

It seemed that this particular merchant was a member of a really influential merchant organization, which was known for their connections and the fact that they kept a very low profile, preferring to not let anyone know the location of the headquarters and the identity of the members. 

For a short instance a calculative smile appeared on Louis's face before disappearing right after, switching with a polite one. He already had a very good plan in mind and it was much better than his initial one. Approaching the said merchant, who appeared to be a grey haired male in his late forties, Louis greeted him, earning back the exact same words as well as a thoughtful glance.

"sir Howard I presume? I'm sure I don't need to introduce myself, considering this is my debut you're attending. May I request to talk with you in private?" Louis spoke politely with a slight smile evident on his face, he held the gaze with the merchant without any problem, not fazed at all by their age difference. Such things didn't really matter when doing business after all. 

His attitude made Howard even more curious than he already was, he didn't know what to expect since even though the child in front of him was only six, he already showed everyone that he wasn't like other kids his age and Howard also felt his intuition telling him to agree to Louis's request. With his experience, his intuition was a powerful tool, which he trusted completely, so he didn't hesitate at all in following its lead.