"Who are you to judge, kid? I've been an adult for three whole years!" Jean glared at her brother, her dissatisfaction palpable.
"Really, still calling me a kid? Can't you see I'm grown up now?" Fisher retorted, a hint of mischief in his tone.
"But it's just astonishing how time flies. You're practically at the altar!" The young beastman Fisher gazed at his sister Jean and let out a wistful sigh.
"Humph!" Jean scoffed, clearly uninterested in continuing the conversation. She grabbed Logan by the arm and pulled him down onto the sofa beside her.
"It pains me, sister, that you'd forget your own brother once you have a husband." Fisher clutched his chest dramatically, staggered backward, and collapsed onto the sofa behind him, feigning distress.
"Brother, aren't you thirty-one now? Isn't it time you acted like it?" Jean shot a helpless glance at her theatrically lamenting brother and rolled her eyes.
"Speaking of which, what's your business with Logan?" she inquired, shifting the topic.
Immediately, Fisher straightened up, looked at Logan seriously, and declared, "My name is Fisher. You might hear Jean call me Brother Fish, and you're welcome to do the same. Or, if you prefer, Mr. Fisher will do."
"Brother Fish it is!" Logan quickly decided, opting for the more familial address. He knew from Jean that the siblings shared the same mother, which naturally forged a deeper bond among them.
As Logan engaged the system exploration again, he couldn't help but think about the formidable nature of Fisher's family. After all, Fisher was no ordinary figure; he was a tenth-level warrior.
Name: Fisher
Age: 31
Race: Wolf Beastman
Strength: Tenth level warrior
...
Logan quietly closed the system interface and slowly came to terms with the information.
Indeed, they were an extraordinary family, a family where even the youngest sibling was a mighty tenth-level warrior. Yet, despite Fisher's impressive prowess, he likely still fell short of their legendary father-in-law, a quasi-legendary figure himself.
Nevertheless, Fisher was substantially stronger than Logan himself, who felt a mixture of relief and awe knowing he was allied with, rather than opposed to, such strength.
And from Jean, he had learned that aside from Fisher, all of her six brothers were integral members of their father-in-law's mercenary group, which spoke volumes about the martial calibre of the family.
"How large is the mercenary group led by your father-in-law?" Logan queried with a mix of curiosity and awe. "All I know is that it numbers in the tens of thousands, but even I am not quite certain of the exact figure."
"What are you doing interrupting our business discussion, little sister?" Fisher scowled at Jean, annoyed by her intrusion into his entrepreneurial fantasies.
"Hmph, no wonder our eldest brother says you're blinded by greed," Jean retorted sharply.
"Logan is your future brother-in-law, my husband, and here you are trying to exploit him!" she accused, her eyes blazing with anger.
Logan, witnessing the unfolding scene, chose not to intervene. Although he hadn't considered selling his maltose recipe, still flush with several thousand gold coins, he pondered the potential earnings from such a deal. How much could it really fetch?
Pondering the figures, Logan felt that even 180,000 gold coins was a steep loss for his unique technology.
"One million? No, I couldn't possibly offer that much to my own brother-in-law," he thought, mulling over the value of his invention.
"Why am I cheating him, you little girl?" Fisher erupted, his voice laden with indignation. "I'm your brother! You used to respect your elders, and now you're so heartless. Since you got married, you dare to scold your own brother!"
"Humph, do you think we're fools?" Jean shot back defiantly. "This technology is ours alone. Why should we sell it? We can simply continue to produce and sell the sugar ourselves. It's a perpetual goldmine."
"And why exactly should we hand you a fortune on a silver platter?" she continued.
"If you really want to buy it, it would be no less than one million... no, make that five million gold coins!" Jean declared boldly.
"Five million? You really don't hold back, do you? You think your brother is easily duped!" Fisher exclaimed, rising from his seat in a mix of anger and disbelief. While a million might be considerable, five million was beyond negotiation, especially when he envisioned the lucrative returns from owning such a coveted technology.
As the siblings' argument intensified, Logan, still somewhat of an outsider, intervened courageously, "Fourth Brother, Jean, please, let's sit down. Arguing like this won't solve anything."
Fisher, though still agitated, took his seat once more.
Jean, with a huff, settled next to Logan, her demeanor frosty.
"Brother Fish, selling our sugar-making technology isn't an option," Logan stated firmly.
"Yes, we're not selling!" Jean chimed in, her head nodding emphatically in agreement.
"However, there might be another way, partnership. I have the technology, and you have the distribution network. Together, we could both benefit immensely," Logan proposed, opening a door to a potential compromise.
"A partnership?" Fisher perked up, his interest piqued as he considered Logan's proposal. He realized that his brother-in-law harbored significant ambitions too.
In any other situation, Fisher might have resorted to more aggressive tactics to secure such a valuable secret. But with Logan, who was family, such extremes were out of the question.
"How would we structure this cooperation?" Fisher inquired, his tone shifting from confrontation to curiosity, ready to explore this new avenue.