Chapter 604 – Charming people

Chapter 604 – Charming people

John scraped some of the remaining food off the plate and onto his fork. He naturally sat upright, not too straight, so that he would have seemed stern, or slouching in any way, which may have made him appear lazy. No, he was at that perfect level where his suit could show off just how perfectly it was sitting.

Sitting next to him, Rave had already finished her much smaller meal. Her arms were on the table, one hand raised and supporting her head, as she watched him with a content expression and a small smile on her lips. “That extra Charisma definitely did something already,” she commented.

John nodded as he, somehow, managed to answer clearly despite chewing. “I think so too, but tell me, I like second opinions.”

“Seems like your muscles are a bit more visible under your clothes, if that makes sense,” Rave tried to explain it. “Like, you are still narrow, but I wouldn’t be surprised anymore to see your abs when you take your shirt off.”

John looked down at himself. Now that she said it, he could definitely see that. “Seems like it should be Strength that does that. Then again, it just pumped up the muscles I already had to look better. Anything else aside from that?”

“A bunch of subtle behaviour things, I guess?” Rave asked him where she was supposed to provide an answer. “Ya just seem sexier, can’t really put my finger on any specifics of it.”

‘Good enough,’ John thought as he put the last bit of meat and mashed potatoes in his mouth, finishing the meal. Then, happy with life, he leaned back in his chair and just enjoyed himself. After the four of them had arrived at the restaurant, John had quickly been recognized.

They had been offered one of their private dining rooms, an idea that the Gamer smoothly agreed to. Subsequently, they were guided through the luxurious dining room, then through the even more luxurious backroom, up an elevator and ultimately to the part of the restaurant segment of the oversized building that was dedicated to private rooms.

That long walk seemed to have served as a sort of timer for the staff to arrange everything within, as the room was clearly bigger than was necessary for just one table with four chairs. A fresh candle was burning atop the round table, a white sheet covering its surface and falling all the way to the floor. When John had sat down, the satin-like material had parted around his legs like water, removing any obstruction it might otherwise have caused.

Having Observed the sheets, John had quickly found out that the actual sheet ended at the edge of the table, everything else was just a fancy illusion. As were the flickering flames on the bronze chandelier above, creating a comfortable twilight in the hazily warm room. The creamy chocolate coloured walls sported paintings of heroes and demons, set into golden frames that harmonized with the skirting along the corners of the room. The ceiling was its own painting, showing a map of the world, with overemphasized wonders of architecture painted on top of many locations, standing in the Abyss and the mundane world equally.

After having ordered, they were brought their food pretty swiftly and then left with a bell they could ring for service. John already knew that trick, it was connected to a second one wherever the workers stayed when they weren’t needed. Anyhow, he and Rave had started eating, and that was where they were now, talking about this and that.

When there was a knock on one of the two oak doors that led into the room, John was a bit confused. He had thought they knew not to interrupt their customers unasked when they already had those bells anyone could ring. When the person then also decided to enter, he understood immediately what was going on.

He was looking at a man of a progressed age and of a lean build. Wearing a black suit with a blue tie on a white shirt, he wore his evident wealth in a more held-back style. The materials were clearly fine and the cut a crafting grade above what the average person could afford, but not overly decorated. To the untrained eye, he might have passed as a simple businessman.

He had the face and expression of a friendly, philanthropist grandfather, something that was hidden from view for a moment when he lifted his hat in a greeting gesture, revealing the backwards combed remains of what had once been a proud hairline and had been reduced to something that just barely covered his baldness through styling.

“Yes...” he seemed hesitant, as if he was about to ask for something gargantuan. John was so anticipating, he almost forget Beatrice’s lips around his member for a moment. “See, I have noticed that Fusion gives out very cheap loans. I would ask you to consider refinancing my debt.”

“That’s it?” the question slipped out before John noticed he wasn’t thinking it. He cleared his throat and continued in his deep, smooth voice. “No, sorry, what amount of money are we talking here?” It had to be some absurd amount for this to be worthy of some out of schedule meeting.

“About 200 million,” Berden said. “I have guarantees on all of it, they would of course go onto you, but I would pay 5% less interest over the next 20 years, so it would save me a lot of money if you agreed.”

John fell silent, only because he stopped himself from saying anything else dumbfounded. ‘Okay, sure, 200 million is a good amount of money, but for Fusion that’s absolutely in the budget...’ he thought, still massively underwhelmed by all of this. His disappointment aside, he acted cautiously and agreed, “Fusion is certainly willing to invest some more into loyal neighbours. If you could prepare some information on those guarantees and how their transferal would look, I would be more than happy to refinance your debt.”

Honestly, John would have been happy to just immediately say yes. Regardless of guarantees or not, having one of the leading members of the Amacat in his pocket to the tune of 200 million bucks would carry them immensely towards their goal. With the guarantees, if he failed to pay them, Fusion would likely absorb considerable amounts of Amacat’s economy overnight.

“Of course, of course,” the experienced investor nodded happily and reached into his breast pocket, pulling out an USB-stick. “You will find everything on here. My debtors have already agreed to the transferal. Whenever you’ve made your decision, contact me and we’ll finish up the contract.”

“Sure,” John threw the data container into his inventory, to be inspected by Scarlett later. For all he knew, Berden could be trying to install a virus on Fusion’s central databank to spy on their transactions. It would be immensely beneficial to the guy. As far as John knew, he was some sort of money mage. An utterly useless power in the real world, but perfect for someone whose life was focused around transactions, as he could basically control his bank account from anywhere, access to technology or not.

Like many kinds of magic, the exact way this worked was beyond John, but the fact was that it did.

“Anything else you want?” John asked, relaxing as the disappointment was overwhelmed by the skillful exchange under the table. Beatrice’s lips travelled up and were seamlessly replaced by Aclysia’s. As to how John even knew who was sucking his cock between the identically squishy lips, the answer lay in their techniques. Aclysia was more enthusiastic and focused a lot of her energy on John’s weak spots, while Beatrice was utterly consistent and provided a well-rounded pleasure. A very nice back and forth between them.

“Yes, see...” Berden started, and John was all ears again. Could it be that he had used the less controversial thing to test the waters first? “Honestly, our defence department is able to expand a whole lot thanks to Fusion’s recent investments. For the first time in years, we’ll have the money to finance an expedition to the Atlantic Fuse, kill some of the natural monsters there and make some profit that way while securing our trade routes. However, we don’t have enough ships.”

“Ah,” John didn’t move an inch, mimicking the intrigued, but once again he was left with a lukewarm feeling of ‘That’s it?’. Not only was it a boring thing to talk about, he also spoke of ‘we’, in other words, this was just something that the entire council wanted John to know before the meeting tomorrow. “Right. Fusion’s dockyards are still expanding and it’s going to be a while before we have covered our own demands for a navy,” he let Berden know. “So, all I can offer is that you send us a couple of your guys to train with us.”

It was a supremely loaded offer. Once guest workers were inside the Hudson Barrier, John would make sure they were treated so well that they, at the very least, had only great things to say about Fusion’s wonderful capital. It was a pretty easy propaganda tool and created something that John called ‘external patriots’. There probably was a proper term for it, but he didn’t know it. The ultimate goal was to have people welcoming annexation.

“I see,” Berden sounded more disappointed than dismissive. “I will bring that up with the board. It’s still quite a good offer.” There were a few more moments of silence, during which the tapping of Rave on her screen and the sucking sounds under the table once more were the only noises in the room. Then, the businessman began to rise, smoothly for his age, but definitely still showing it. “I have already made arrangements that you will be given the presidential suite,” he let John know. “Just drop by the reception and they will give you the key. Ignore any queue if there is one.”

“Thanks,” John bowed his head, then reached for the bell. He could go for a second meal before retreating into his conveniently assigned stay. “The food here is exquisite by the way. My compliments to the chef.”

“I’ll make sure he hears that,” Berden promised, made sure his hat was sitting correctly and then marched towards the door. The moment he was out, the Gamer reached under the table and mercilessly ravaged Beatrice’s greedy mouth. He wanted to cum once more before the server got over.