Lucas sat across the representative of the Lumiouse family in a private room in a luxurious restaurant. It was clear they had other motives through this meeting other than just receiving the golem they commissioned. Aside from a man in a suit to handle the exchange of the golem, three beautiful young women accompanied him wearing eye-catching dresses and detailed make up.

  Lucas had a hard time telling if a person really liked him, but he was quick to catch on to ulterior motives and underhanded tactics, so Lucas just ignored them and focused on the representative.

  “Here,” Lucas placed a case on the table. “Whoever is going to own the golem just needs to be the one to activate the rune.”

  The representative opened the case to see the disc inside of it. Lucas placed a tablet on the table and displayed a holographic projection of the golem along with its specs and materials used.

  The golem had a golden sleek body with rounded features. The golem was solely dedicated to creating an impenetrable barrier, so Lucas made it out of refined manasteel to improve its mana conductivity. He also used the angel’s armor for the golem’s outer frame, which gave its barrier a divine attribute as well.

  “It’s called the Iris: Lumiouse. Its barrier should be strong enough to take a hit from king-ranked mage,” Lucas stated considering he tested the barrier by having Percival attack with Core break active.

  “With these specs, it could easily be appraised as a duke-ranked artifact,” the representative stated. “It would also be counted as Unique grade.”

  Lucas nodded. “Shall we finalize the paperwork then?”

  The representative nodded. The rest of the meeting went smoothly with Lucas being quite direct about getting things done as quickly as possible.

  Once everything needed to be signed was out of the way, Lucas planned on immediately leaving. Since Lucas didn’t want to get involved with great houses too much, he really wanted to cut the interactions short.

  “I’ll be taking my leave now,” Lucas stated as he adjusted his tie.

  “It was a pleasure doing business with you,” the representative replied.

  After they shook hands said their farewells, Lucas left the establishment and got into his car. Floral academy was his next destination to discuss details regarding the attack on the students during their exam.

  Lucas didn’t drive anything like a supercar, so he didn’t attract much attention when he arrived at the school. However, several students did stare at him when he got out of the car since he was a guy in a suit, around their age, and came to an all-girls school.

  “Why am I the one doing this?” Lucas grumbled as he approached the guard post at the entrance gate of the school.

  Originally, it was supposed to be Shina who’d go, but she couldn’t leave school due to an exam. His mother insisted, but Lucas refused to let her go out without a monster lord golem guarding her, which she refused.

  “How can I help you sir?” A female guard asked.

  “I’m here for a meeting with a teacher regarding the incident,” Lucas stated.

  “May I see an ID?”

  Lucas nodded and handed his Citizenship card to the guard, while he was waiting, he felt someone tap his shoulder.

  Erina watched as a blue car parked across where her driver dropped her off. It was clearly obvious it was a cheap car that peasants normally drove, but she got curious who would come to her prestigious school with such a shabby car.

  A man stepped out of the car. He looked to be around her age, maybe a bit younger with slicked back black hair. He had a bit of a decent face, passable at most. In terms of fashion style, he went for a simple business suit. Erina didn’t recognize it as any known luxury brands, so he wasn’t some house heir that was given a trashy car as punishment.

  Erina’s brain cycled through every possibility on why some random man would be at her school.

  “Is he here to court someone?”

  He wasn’t much, but not every student in her school would go for a rich suitor. But that wouldn’t explain why he’d head towards the guard post and not just wait outside. One theory involved the recent incident on the first-year exam. But he looked far too young to be some sort of law enforcement, let alone be an investigator.

  For reasons she didn’t understand, she began approaching the man. He really didn’t look anything special, but Erina oddly felt drawn to him. Once she was close enough, he tapped the man on the shoulder.

  He turned to her with a raised eyebrow. “Do you need something?” he asked.

  But the moment Erina had touched him, she felt a strange feeling go through her body like a bolt of lightning. Despite her lack of talent in magic, Erina had the strange ability to sense unseen danger.

  That strange part about her ability was that it didn’t exactly tell her if she was in danger but told her if she was safe. It was odd, but that’s what her ability did. When she’s safe, Erina would feel a pleasant feeling within her that lighten up her mood. If that feeling vanishes and she feels something wrong, that would often mean she was in potential danger.

  When she touched the man, she felt a wave of pleasure that was foreign to her course through her body. It told her that she was very safe next to him. Holding him.

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  “Miss?”

  Erina snapped out of her daze to look at the man. “Mr. Atican. Here's your gate pass,” the guard grabbed his attention away from Erina.

  “Thank you.”

  Erina’s eyes widened. “Excuse me. Are you related to Rose Atican by any chance?” Erina nervously asked.

  “She’s my sister,” he replied.

  Erina froze for a moment.

  “For your meeting, you just need to head to the councilor's office,” the guard mentioned.

  “I’ll take him there!” she exclaimed, catching him and the guard by surprise.

  The guard just nodded and went back to work. “It’s this way,” Erina ushered the man to follow her.

  He just shrugged and did. Erina nervously led him through the halls. She would likely be breaking down if the pleasant feeling wasn’t coursing through her body.

  “Has your sister mentioned anything about her time here in school?” Erina asked.

  The man raised an eyebrow. “No? We don’t really talk much.”

  Erina sighed in relief. Thankfully, the councilor’s office wasn’t anywhere near the first-year classes, so Erina didn’t run into Rose on the way. “May I ask your name?”

  “It’s Lucas. Thanks for taking me here,” Lucas said as they arrived at the office.

  “It was my pleasure,” Erina bowed as Lucas Atican entered the office.

  Erina just stood there.

  Staring at the door.

  “You must be Mr. Atican,” the councilor stood up from her desk as Lucas entered the room. “The guard called ahead to confirm if you had a meeting,” she said as they shook hands.

  “May I ask what this is about?” Lucas asked.

  “This is so that the school may take responsibility for the incident,” the councilor stated. “We offer therapy for the victims and make a deal for the form of compensation.”

  Lucas raised an eyebrow. “I’d prefer to be informed of how the incident took place as a form of compensation then,” Lucas’s mood turned serious.

  The councilor coughed as she was caught by surprise by the sudden shift. “I’m afraid I’m not allowed discuss any details about the investigation.”

  “Then discuss the compensation with my sister,” Lucas replied. “It’s also her choice if she wants therapy.”

  The councilor nodded. “Rose is a good and talented student, so we only wish the best for her future.”

  “So do we,” Lucas replied. “But Rose is already an adult, so I don’t want to decide anything for her.”

  The councilor hummed. “I understand. We'll discuss it with Rose once classes resume,” she stated. “One last thing Mr. Atican. We wish to assure you that we will catch everyone involved in this incident.”

  “Thank you.”

  Lucas restrained himself from saying he was dealing with it himself.

  When he arrived at the company, Lucas was surprised to see things lively. They had resumed on preparing the company for opening after suspending it to prioritize the mana vein. Since the mana vein was already operating well, Lucas focused back on the company.

  But he wasn’t expecting this. Another building was being constructed, while there was a bunch of people lining up at another facility attached to the main building.

  “What’s going on?” Lucas asked Cassidy as she approached her.

  “We’re constructing an office building and we’re hiring office workers,” Cassidy replied without stopping from doing her make up. “Got to go boss. I need to give our construction crew some motivation,” Cassidy said while pushing up her chest. “Toodles.”

  “...” Lucas just watched her walk away, then turned to the crowd of people that he needed to go through to enter the building. “Isn’t this a security issue?”

  “You tell me,” Marge walked beside him and pointed to the golems standing guard, forming a perimeter line that made anyone hesitate to even come near the other facilities in the property.

  “Those are production golems,” Lucas stated.

  “They don’t know about that,” Marge replied. “Besides, these are average people. They don’t stand a chance against them either way. I also made sure to question anyone that tried to enter that had a mana circle.”

  Lucas just sighed. “How did the other matter go?”

  Marge grinned. “No survivors,” Marge licked her lips. “I enjoyed letting loose for once here.”

  “How’s your housing?” Lucas asked.

  Marge shrugged. “Decent.”

  Agatha, Lucas’s old boss, had been put in charge of the residential apartments that he bought as a form of passive income and real estate investment. To give the three demons a place to stay, he called Agatha to let them live in the three-unit apartment. With the three demons each getting a unit even though Ruth and Marge would often sleep in one bed.

  Marge suddenly leaned into him. “We’ve been working hard. Don’t you think we deserve as reward,” her hand slithered to his thigh.

  Lucas quickly grabbed her hand. “You have a girlfriend.”

  Marge shrugged. “Ruth wants to bang you more than me. Besides, we’re demons. We have different morals... and good orals,” she winked before going back to work.

  Lucas let out a deeper sigh. He headed to the main building by going around the crowd and pass the perimeter of golems. Once he got into the building, he found a familiar face looking around.

  Kier was standing in the middle of the workshop, watching some of the golems do their tasks. “You made quite the operation here. A self-making army.”

  “Well, most of them are repair orders for the non-combatant golems I sold to the government.”

  Kier chuckled. “I’m surprised the other sectors haven’t come knocking yet.”

  “The major sectors don’t give a damn about what’s going in minor sectors,” Lucas replied. “Here to take my offer?”

  “Who am I to refuse?” Kier laughed. “Besides, I already saw the workshop with the hazard disposal system. You were ready.”

  “You’re free to use it, but we can still make a workshop based on what you want.”

  “We can discuss that later,” Kier took something out of his pocket. “I actually came for this,” Kier showed him a high-rank monster’s core. “I need you to turn this into a golem.”

  Lucas was handed the core and observed it. The monster core had a dark red color and was the size of his palm. “What kind of monster is it?” Lucas asked.

  “It’s a flare leo,” Kier answered.

  Lucas nodded. A flare leo was a species of high-ranking monster that was capable of producing a monster lord variant, so they were considered a class 6 monster. Lucas could understand why Kier would want to turn such a monster into a golem.

  “Do you want anything specific from it, or do you want me to recreate it as best as possible?”

  “Just do what you do to replicate those monster lord golems of yours,” Kier stated. “I’ll provide the resources needed.”

  Lucas nodded. “I didn’t expect you to choose this though,” Lucas commented as they began walking towards the elevator.

  “It’s actually not for me,” Kier admitted. “I plan on giving it as a gift.”

  Lucas raised an eyebrow. “I don’t use high-rank monster stones, but I’m pretty sure this costs a fortune,” Lucas held up the stone.

  “She doesn’t care about expensive gifts, but her family is quite the issue,” Kier said.

  “You got a girlfriend?” Lucas asked in confusion.

  “You got Macey,” Kier countered.