Chapter 97 97 Christina’s Intendings

But before he could get the chance to come back to earth from the heavenly fantasies that he had concocted, the truck accelerated suddenly like an arrow launched form a taut bow. The man stood still as he didn't even get the chance to witness the acceleration of the truck. The last thing he saw was the increasing size of the truck in his vision but before he could try to get out of the way, the truck hit him into the air like a kite with a broken string as he bled from several places.

At that moment, all the questioning gazes towards the Luther family and their product disappeared as if in thin air. Nobody dared to raise an objection fearing that they might suffer the same result as the previous man. They didn't want to be the next testing dummy that would serve the purpose of a scarecrow for others.

Diana didn't say anything either after the man's body fell to the ground broken in a few places as he bled continuously. She didn't have to say anything since all the doubts the guests had were cleared by this point.

While most of the audience was focused on the horror that the truck was capable of producing, only the most astute individuals like Christina and Sarah were able to realize the true implications of the situation. This meant that the claims of the Luther family were by no means fake or exaggerated. They had succeeded in moving the metal monster at a speed beyond that of the carriages without using any horses to pull it. And on top of that none of their mages had been able to detect a single ounce of magic from the truck.

Christina felt that she needed to do something now that the product had been confirmed to be way better than they had expected. Being a scion of the best business family in the whole Elizabeth family, Christina knew the implications of this truck. Soon there won't be any family that wouldn't want to do business with the Luther family. In fact they would have to beg the Luther family to do business with them.

This truck was going to change the entire mechanism of the logistics network being used by the families for their businesses. Not only the business setups, but even the mundane life would be affected due to this. By curbing the transportation costs, the truck would be able to bring several varieties of the products to the doorsteps of the common folk.  As a result the meaning of the words like trade and business would get changed.

Therefore, Christina deduced that the Luther family was about to rise to prominence after the product launch. Only thinking of the way her father, 'George' had handled that Sosis family incident, she couldn't help but lament over what could have been had her father followed the original plan that they had decided on.

Not that Christina could blame George for the lost opportunity because even she had thought that her father had made a good decision after careful evaluation of all options. But now that the situation had changed, they desperately needed the goodwill that had been lost.

Regardless of what happened in the past, Zach had proved their decision wrong by showing the things he was capable of doing. They had failed because they could not properly identify the future potential of Zach and the Luther family that was associated with him. They underestimated and undervalued both of them and as a result, suffered a loss today.

Christina felt the need to rectify the situation somehow therefore she tried to analyze her situation.

The truck, although a product of absolute genius, could not have come out of the Luther family since they neither had the ability nor did they put in enough effort due to their previous condition. They were being suppressed by various small families headed by the Sosis family which meant that they hardly had time and the capacity to pull of such a feat. Therefore, Christina came to a conclusion that the one in charge was neither the figurehead of the Luther family, Bruce nor his sister Diana who was responsible for the presentation today. She believed that none of the siblings could actually make any decision regarding the product because the final authority regarding the product seemed to be Zach who had not even made an appearance today on the launch event.

She steeled herself and prepared a mana pulse with her as the center. It was a kind of locator spell that could be used to analyze a terrain or to identify the number of mages in the area. The mana in the pulse resonated with the mana in the mage's body and sent a signal back to the caster.

As soon as Christina released the mana pulse within the boundaries of the Luther family, several signals popped up close to her but none of them were as powerful and the kind that she was looking for. She let her pulse spread wider and only after a period of time did she find a strange force that she wasn't familiar with.

Christina didn't wait any longer fearing that someone else might take this heaven sent opportunity before her if she delayed any further. She searched in the direction that she had encountered that strange force and sure enough she was able to find a group of two. One was a figure that was hiding under a loose robe which covered every part of their body and the other was a young man who looked even younger than herself.

She didn't even need to analyze him further because she was sure it could only be Zach; the actual person responsible for the development of the Truck.

The figure in the hood shifted as she tried to get closer to Zach. Christina could only oblige when the hooded figure attacked her out of nowhere.

Of course in their defense, Christina's approach wasn't welcome at all. If Zach had wanted to meet someone, he would have come to the launch event as well. But ignoring his wishes, Christina had barged into the Luther family estate to find him which irritated the group.

Therefore, despite being quite a bit stronger than her assailant, Christina understood their sentiments and didn't really try to fight back with all her strength.

Of course the hooded figure was Luna who attacked as soon as she perceived an unknown person approaching her master. She was not willing to take any risk when it came to him. Therefore, she clad herself in her fire and attacked at the first sight.

Flames danced around her as they changed shape and color every time she punched or kicked Christina with the full force of her ability. She wasn't holding back considering that the wench was able to hold Luna back with some strange kind of magic. It appeared to be a magic but there was no casting and no spell. Christina seemed to be manipulating the mana in the air to thwart all her attacks. Luna of course wasn't able to do such a thing because she was still a B rank mage considerably far from the A rank Christina who was considered to be a genius when it came to magic.

Christina did not know who the girl covered in flames was but she had already assessed her ability. Despite being good, Luna was far from being able to hurt Christina with her spells since Christina was superior in terms of mana control and mana capacity. Luna looked like a cat that was waltzing on the road unaware of the dangers.

Zach noticed what was happening and immediately ordered Luna to come back. If not for anything important, Zach never used such a tone with her because he didn't like it when Luna acted all meek and uncomfortable. He wanted her to be free to make her own decisions and hardly ever tried to order her around. But this time he needed her to understand her weakness and relent.

At the same time, he had already assessed that the strange girl who had somehow located him very easily wasn't aggressive at all. The proof was that the girl hadn't once tried to return the greetings that Luna gave her on their meeting. She not only held back with her strength, but also allowed Luna to retreat without a single scratch on her. That's how Zach came to know that the girl was a formidable opponent who had come bearing some other purpose in mind.

Since Luna wasn't a match for her at her full strength, Zach inferred that the girl must at least be an A rank mage to render Luna's flame completely ineffective like that.

After pulling Luna close to him once again, Zach turned towards Christina and looked her in the eye before asking, "Who are you?"

"You should have done that from the start. I had no intention to fight from the beginning but you didn't give me a chance to talk. But given that we haven't met before, your approach isn't exactly one that I am unable to understand. It's just that we could have saved a lot of precious time that way. I am Christina Elizabeth, daughter of the current leader of Elizabeth family, George Elizabeth."

Christina introduced herself formally and at the same time conveyed her grievances at being attacked out of nowhere. Given the current scenario, she wasn't in a position to condemn such actions since she had tracked down Zach despite his intention to stay hidden during the launch event. Therefore, instead of condemnation, she said that she understood Luna's actions as an act of self defense against a stranger they had never met before. She was truly business minded as she even catered the small details like this in her calculations.