Birth Of The Crafts-God

When an organisation starts out, it usually does so with a one track mind and attitude. However, as it grows, various interests are born within it by its members. This leads to a division of opinions, ideas and collectives, which if not controlled well, could lead to the downfall of the organisation.

As a entity that spanned three city-states just like the Versailles Group, Novanio Tech could not avoid this pattern. Currently, there were two major factions in the company's Baylands city-state branch. These factions were borne out of differing opinions on how to expand in the city-state and run the business, as well as the influence of the factions in the main branch.

The Aggressor faction believed that the company should expand aggressively and utilise its deep pockets and outside support to dominate the market. When Novanio Tech wanted to expand into the other side of the vestige industry, this faction believed that the way to go was to splurge funds and poach renowned vestige-smiths from the other companies.

The Progressive faction was the opposite of the Aggressors. They believed that the company needed to focus on development and compete properly rather than radically. The Progressives fancied a step-by-step approach as they believed in setting a foundation before proceeding to the next stage.

Even though there were two major factions in Novanio Tech, there were still cliques within each faction.

For instance, when Novanio Tech wanted to expand its arms into the weapons vestige-smith market, there was a need for weapon-type vestige-smiths. After all, Novanio Tech's core business was producing and designing stellar processors, so they sorely lacked vestige-smiths in the weapons department.

The Aggressives were in favour of poaching high rank vestige-smiths from other businesses and stealing exclusive deals from other dealerships. Although such means was usually frowned at in the business world, it was still quite common, albeit offensive.

The Progressives, on the other hand, were torn into two sides. One side aimed at the medium ranked and somewhat established vestige-smiths, while the other side went lower in search of vestige-smiths with potential. While both groups wanted the company to raise their own set of vestige-smiths without offending the existing companies, the second group was more in favour of grooming loyal vestige-smiths, which was why they searched so low.

Lucy was part of the second group of Progressives which led her to finding Lucas and forming an alliance with him.

On this mission, Lucy was given the position of the leader and allowed to select her companions. However, both the other group under the Progressives and the Aggressors had sent in one of their men to monitor the situation. Even though she was acknowledged to be the leader of this committee, Lucy couldn't exactly control these two.

"Little girl, stop wasting our time and contact the store owner for us."

A red-haired man got fed up by the situation and spoke up. He had a red mark marred on the right side of his face. It looked like a blade scar but was actually a birthmark.

Coincidentally, he was part of the Aggressors faction and his fiery appearance complimented that.

"Hansul." Lucy frowned at the man.

"There's nothing wrong with my statement, miss manager. I'm merely acting out in hopes that we don't fail our assignment." The man named Hansul replied.

In his opinion, Novanio Tech was only interested in dealing with the store's owner and its backer. On the other hand, the employees didn't matter after all, employees could easily be changed. What's more, the person before him was a little girl.

"That's enough. Don't forget who's in charge here." Lucy grimaced.

Hansul slightly frowned but kept quiet and remained behind her.

After Lucy's achievement in helping partner up with Lucas back then, she was reassigned to the then-new Legacy Crafts dealership and given an executive position. Although the company was independent of Novanio Tech, it was still a subsidiary of the latter. When this was considered, as well as the fact that the upper management of Novanio Tech have her authority, Lucy's rank was indeed higher than Hansul.

"Heh." Another man who stood behind Lucy smirked.

He was from the second branch of the Progressive faction and a rival to Hansul. Seeing his rival being put down by a member of the Progressives made him happy.

"Sorry about that." Lucy apologised to Melissa.

"Can you please kindly consider my request?"

Melissa didn't reply right away. If things had went on without Hansul's intervention, she might have agreed to Lucy's request. Bit Hansul's personality irked her, and it also made Melissa realise that this wasn't a simple meeting.

At this moment, Vergil walked out of from the workstation to catch his breath.

"Damn. I wonder how boss manages to remain there for hours?" Vergil wondered out loud.

The temperature inside of the workstation during work hours was high, even for a second level stellar practitioner. Although one could handle it, long exposure to such high heat would begin to have some side-effects. Despite that, Lucas always seemed to not be affected even after remaining in there for hours.

Vergil's limit was every thirty minutes and this was already quite impressive considering he has only been a second level stellar practitioner for a month.

"Oh, guests?" Vergil was slightly surprised.

Usually, after the daily limit of 46 orders was taken, most of the customers would leave. The few that remained wanted to buy the vestiges on display. However, Lucas had yet to restock, so there wasn't much left after groups of people had purchased them. Considering it has been over thirty minutes since the last order was taken, it was still quite interesting that there were still customers present.

"Hello." Lucy looked at Vergil and greeted him.

At the same time, she couldn't help but be surprised.

As an executive of Legacy Crafts dealership and a senior staff of Novanio Tech, Lucy had to be familiar with the identities of important members of the top four families.

When Novanio Tech first wanted to enter the weapons vestige market, they had considered working alongside the Mertens family because the latter seemed to have the same interest as themselves. It was then Lucy found out about Vergil Mertens, the young master of the Mertens family and an upcoming talent in the vestige-smith community. Apparently, he was one of the major reasons for the Mertens family's interest in that area. From that, one could imagine how talented he was to give the family the confidence to want to venture into such a business.

But that aside, Lucy was surprised by his presence and the fact that Vergil came out from the room behind the counter. From her memory, that place was only accessible to Lucas, Melissa and the former employee, Kelvin.

'Does he also work here now?' Lucy wondered but didn't make any move to ask.

Seeing as there were customers, Vergil decided to help out during his break. Compared to staying inside the workstation with Lucas, this was nothing.

"What do you want?" Vergil lazily asked as he sat beside Melissa by the counter.

"I just wanted to have a talk with the owner." Lucy carefully said.

Different from Melissa, Vergil was from the Mertens family. It was best for them not to get on the bad side of the two owners of the Seven Stars Spring Dealership.

"A talk?" Vergil cocked his head to the side.

"Yes. It's to make up for the past and clear some misunderstandings."

"Ah! Novanio." Vergil smacked his palm with a fist.

"Wow, you guys have balls coming over here."

Lucy suddenly felt embarrassed by Vergil's reaction.

"That's enough. We only just want to meet with the owner. No need to be so rude." The other envoy from the Progressive faction clearly looked displeased as he spoke back.

"And who are you?" Vergil stared at him.

"Wait, let me guess. Pinocchio?"

The man's face immediately went red with fury.

Looking closer, he indeed had a long nose and his name was Pinnoci. One could say that Vergil wasn't so far off.

Hansul chuckled when he noticed the similarities, making Pinnoci even more vexed.

"You...!"

"That's enough!" Lucy shouted while staring at Pinnoci.

'This is why I was against this arrangement from the start.'

Lucy couldn't help but seethe as she recalled when her direct superior informed her that both Hansul and Pinnoci would be tagging along.

Vergil smiled at the group, looking amused at the situation.

"I have to apologise again." Lucy turned to Vergil and bowed.

Vergil raised his eyebrows a bit, surprised by how tolerating she was. But that didn't mean he was moved.

"Anyways, the boss isn't around. If that's your only intention, please go back and return tomorrow."

Vergil signalled for them to leave.

"This..." Lucy felt reluctant to leave, but she didn't want to offend them either.

"Miss Lucy, we can't leave here just like this." Hansul suddenly spoke up.

"Indeed. Even if we're to leave, we should at least get an official appointment approval or notice." Pinnoci sided with him.

"You-" Lucy fumed.

"We are only doing what's good for the company. Don't blame us." Hansul interjected.

Lucy finally understood what was going on. These two were practically rebelling. The problem however, was that as the superior in name, Lucy would have to deal with the consequences of their actions. In other words, they wanted to get her into trouble.

It was right at this moment that a cold voice sounded from behind the counter.

"So noisy."