Chapter 32: Hidden Dragon
[Heaven Hotel’s Entrance.]
"Boss, Madam, I got this new car, it’s ready." Tang said, gesturing to the white Rolls-Royce before them. The vehicle gleamed under the afternoon sun, a pristine symbol of absolute luxury and corporate dominance, complete with a personal driver waiting by the open door.
Asher stared at the car, taking in the sheer opulence of his newly acquired lifestyle, and turned to Juliana: "What do you think, Julia?"
"Um..." Juliana stared at the expensive car for a long while, her eyes wide with a mixture of awe and profound intimidation. She shrank back slightly, then pointed at their scrappy SUV parked a few spaces away.
"Let’s take ours, I feel safer in that." She said. It was battered, broken, and practically worthless, but it was theirs. To a girl who had spent her life neglected, the towering wealth of the Rolls-Royce felt like a gilded cage she wasn’t ready to step into.
"...?!"
Asher, Tang, and even the guards were stunned. They stood frozen in complete silence; she would rather enter an SUV with a patched-up broken glass than a brand new Rolls-Royce!!
The elite guests lingering near the entrance exchanged bewildered glances, trying to comprehend the logic of the billionaire class.
"Is the life of the rich this crazy?" One whispered, adjusting his designer glasses.
"I am also confused, has she been so used to such luxurious cars that she felt it unsafe?" Another asked, stunned, completely misinterpreting her lonely poverty-induced trauma as an eccentric quirk of extreme wealth.
"We can never understand the lives and mentality of the rich, we as commoners can only watch and admire."
"Even if they ask me a hundred times, no, even a thousand times, I will pick the Rolls-Royce... But there must be a reason." Another said, her eyes locked on the rusty bumper of Asher’s vehicle.
"I think so... She couldn’t just pick it for no reason, that SUV might have a good charm." A guy said, holding his jaw in deep, philosophical thought.
"Yeah, although the front glass is cracked and patched up, it brings out a different vibe. I also want to try that car."
"Look at the SUV, it might look cheap and broken, but it could be a Vintage Car, an ancient collection." Another added, their collective delusions fueling a completely alternate reality.
"Now I also want to try it, but the car must worth more than that Rolls-Royce." A lady said, taking pictures of the dented doors to post on her social media as the latest trend in stealth wealth.
"Yes, the woman of a trillion dollars company CEO, chooses this over a million dollars car, that SUV must be a special collection." A man said with a smile, nodding in absolute certainty.
"...?!"
Asher stood frozen, listening to the surrounding words. How did his SUV turn into a Vintage collection?? He patched the window because he doesn’t have time to take it to repair, and simply couldn’t afford a mechanic. But before the eyes of the people around, his half-dead car was now a collection, even more expensive than a Rolls-Royce.
Again, Asher saw the power of Humans’ imagination, and assumptions. Once you reach the absolute pinnacle of society, even your literal trash is viewed as a masterpiece.
___
[Holy Sword Guild.]
[Guild Leader’s Office.]
"We got all the information you asked for, Guild Leader." The Vice said, handing the file to Marianne. The thick folder contained every heavily classified document and digital footprint their intelligence network could scrape together in the past hour.
She took it, and opened the first page, expecting to see the pedigree of a hidden foreign royal or a legendary underground boss, only to freeze: "Is... Is this accurate?"
"As you can see, Yes. He is the bastard son of the Starfire family... The reason why we don’t know or recognize him is because the Family hid him away for twenty years, and only revealed him for a small moment during the announcement of his wedding. After that, he simply vanished again, no information, pictures or anything was published, not even a welcoming, or sending party." He said, and continued, shaking his head at the sheer disrespect shown to the young man:
"From the wedding day till now, the Starfire family have never mentioned his name in any celebration, family updates, or even properties arranging... I should say, even his picture isn’t recorded in their family tree. Although he is a direct son, he is nothing but an exile."
Marianne slowly nodded her head at his words, absorbing the sheer irony of the situation. The Starfire family had treated him like garbage, completely blind to the monster sleeping under their roof. She traced the paper, and pointed at the rank on the file: "It says here that he’s an E-rank, and that’s a month ago, but the guy we saw out there is a B-Rank... It also says here he has never entered a dungeon before, or fought any single monster, so how did he advance so fast?"
"We are also confused." The guy crossed his arms on his chest, visibly frustrated by the massive gaps in the logic of the report:
"Asher was an E-rank some weeks ago, then suddenly, he jumped to his current rank without entering any dungeons. There are two explanations; one, he hid his true strength all this while, and second..."
"--He bought Evolution stones and pushed his rank to B-Rank." Marianne completed his words, her mind racing through the logistics of such an absurd transaction.
"Correct, but there is another anomaly... If he indeed used Evolution stones, we will be able to locate the guild he bought such a huge amount from... He will need at least a thousand C-Rank Evolution stones, let alone the ranks below. And it cost millions."
"Money? He is the CEO of Heaven Hotel, money isn’t his problem." Marianne said dismissively.
"Yes, I understand that, but we should be able to locate where he got the stones, even if he bought it from any of the other four countries... But we have nothing. Again, his wealth... We can’t track where it’s coming from. He just kept receiving money into his account, and the ones sending it are the World Bank... Those guys are even stronger than all the guild combined, so I can’t get any information from them." He sighed, lowering his hand in defeat. The financial firewall protecting Asher was absolute.
"I understand, what you are saying is, this guy has either a very powerful backer behind him, or he is simply just too impressive. I wonder if the Starfire family knew what they lost." Marianne muttered, finding a dark amusement in the downfall of the arrogant noble house, and turned the page around, seeing three women photos. She easily recognized the one she saw with Asher at the hotel, noting her timid demeanor.
"Are these three his wives?" She asked, analyzing the mismatched trio.
"Yes, but... Well, they all have issues." The guy said in a low voice, almost hesitant to reveal the bizarre dynamic of the exiled prince’s household.
"Issues? Explain... Hearing it from you is better than reading it." She said, placing the file on the table, staring at the three photos on the page. In her world, an ’issue’ was merely a vulnerability waiting to be exploited.
"I want to know everything about his wives."
’I can use them and get a hold on this guy... With his resources, and influence, he will be a very powerful ally or Subordinate.’ She thought, smiling inwardly. If he was fiercely protective of damaged women, then she finally had the leverage needed to leash the phantom billionaire of Heaven Hotel.