Chapter 509: Sugar acquired

Vishna peeked out of the window and waved at his daughter. "Vishna! Come meet our guests!"

However, the young woman just looked at her father and shook her head no.

"Ah, looks like you won’t be able to meet my daughter. She’s too busy with her training these days. She says that she has to prepare for the auction or else she’ll get left behind by the others."

Down below, Reena was being thanked by the Horned Elephant’s owner profusely, to the point of prostrating in the ground. The elephant itself snuggled up its trunks towards her, as if apologizing for what it had done.

Reena made sure that the elephant was okay, and that no one was hurt during the incident before leaving the streets.

But before she completely left, she looked back at the window where her father was.

She recognized the man beside him as Max Vanderbilt. But she didn’t recognize the boy that was right next to him.

She squinted, trying to observe him more.

She didn’t know why, but she felt like there was more to this boy than meets the eye. Usually, she’ll be able to gauge a person’s strength just from their posture alone. But this time, she couldn’t correctly estimate him.

I’m overthinking this. He’s just a kid,

she thought, shaking her head.

...

...

...

Back in Vishna’s room, Max still couldn’t believe that the little girl he saw back then had now grown to become one of the best talents in Metropolis.

"Congratulations, Vishna. Looks like your company is in good hands."

"HAHAHA! Damn right it is!" Vishna laughed. "Brother, my company is going to be up there with the Legacies soon. How about we have a little arrangement huh?" he said, winking.

"What arrangement?"

"My daughter is already of age. How about we engage your son with my daughter? A union of our families!"

Vishna laughed, and Max awkwardly laughed with him. Knowing Vishna, the guy was probably joking since he knew that Max’s son was only a little kid. Still, Max wouldn’t be surprised if Vishna asked again once William was grown up.

"Let’s open up a bottle of snake wine and chat like we used to, huh?" Vishna offered.

"Maybe next time, brother. For now, I’d like to discuss business with you."

"Business? Of course, for my good friend, always!" Vishna said, gesturing for them to take a seat in his snake-leather couch.

"I’m here to pay off my debt to you back," Max said.

This was also one of the reasons why Max wanted to visit Spice Vise. At his lowest, Vishna always loaned him money whenever he needed it—without question. And even now, the man wasn’t asking back the money Max owed.

And now that the money he lost was returned by the Duchess, he wanted to repay Vishna.

"My friend, are you sure? I heard that your business hasn’t been going well. It’s fine if you keep the money for now," Vishna said sincerely.

"Don’t worry. Justice was served."

Max told Vishna about their discovery that it was Jack who scammed him out of millions of gold coins.

"It was that bastard?" Vishna harrumphed. "No wonder we couldn’t find him. He was a royal! It’s good that your money was returned.

Have you finally decided to revive the Vanderbilt business? It’s always a shame that a man of your talents was hindered by that bastard scammer."

Max shook his head. "This business is different. We’re looking to buy your sugar."

Vishnu nodded and took out a pouch from one of his cabinets by his desk. "We have lots of sugar in our inventory. But as you know, the price for this is very high, especially right now when it’s not in season."

Michael didn’t care about the price. He just needed lots of it.

"How many sacks are you thinking of getting?" Vishnu asked. "Two sacks? Five sacks?"

"We need about a hundred kilograms."

Vishnu immediately sat up, knocking over the sugar in the pouch. "A hundred kilograms?! Are you sure about this?"

"Yes. A hundred kilograms a week."

That seemed to have put Vishnu in a coma. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Because of the price, most of his customers only bought sugar a few grams at most. The only ones who bought kilograms of sugar from him were the big companies like the Pyramidic Cuisine and other food-related businesses.

"You do realize how much that would cost, right?"

Michael nodded. "Yes."

Max had just gotten his money back, but Vishnu didn’t think he would spend it all on sugar alone.

"Are you sure this is the right use for your money? What would you even use sugar for? From what I know, the Vanderbilt business does not dabble in the food industry."

"Oh, I won’t be buying it. This is my nephew’s business," Max corrected him.

"Really? Michael boy, are you sure you need all that sugar?"

Michael nodded and used his shadow skill to transport three chests full of coins. They landed on Vishnu’s carpet with a thud, the sound of heavy coins clinking around.

Vishnu couldn’t believe that a boy like him had possession of so much money. This was enough to buy tons and tons of sugar!

He thought that the Vanderbilt family was struggling to keep up. But if they were willing to give up this much money for sugar, then everyone’s perception of the Vanderbilt business was wrong. They weren’t on the downfall.

"I’m planning on making a soda business. It’s kind of like an exotic juice," Michael explained.

Vishna forced himself to calm down. "A juice business? The Duchess has strict policies regarding exotic food. They will need verification that it’s safe to consume fist before they allow people to sell them."

"Don’t worry. The royal family already gave us their approval," Michael explained.

Vishna felt like he wasn’t looking at a kid, but an adult instead. He was much better at business than other adults he had been dealing with.

"Max, who’s your nephew?!"

"He’s a Vanderbilt that came to Metropolis from the Kings region," Max explained.

"The Kings region? And now you’re starting a company here in Metropolis?" he asked, incredulous.

"That’s right. He was able to get a permit and everything."

As soon as he said that, it was as if a light bulb turned on in Vishna’s head. "Wait. I did hear about a new company getting a permit. What’s it called?" he asked Michael.

"Reborn."

Vishna’s eyes widened. "So you were the owner of Reborn?! The company that was getting a lot of attention in the festival?! I even heard that you won in the low-class tournament!"

Because a department of Spice Vise participated in the Upperwood District festival, Vishna was very familiar with the commotion that the Reborn company caused during that last day. It was legendary, to say the least.

He never expected to see that the owner of that company was none other than a Vanderbilt! And a kid at that.

Vishna also leaned on the tabe, realizing that he was facing the real deal.

"I’m willing to give you all the sugar you’ll need," he promised. "But it’s going yo cost more since it’ll be hard to transport that much sugar in a week."

Michael smiled. "We’ll have no problem with that."