欧美亚洲日产综合新一区

Afterward, Daniel excused himself and entered the VTOL, returning to Sector Alpha City along with his family.

Koyuki, on the other hand, didn\'t have a choice but to follow Reiko back to Japan on another VTOL for training. It would be quite some time before she finished her training and could meet with Daniel again.

— Meanwhile - Switzerland - Bern —

At a large compound not far from Bern, where vast green grass surrounds the area, the compound was built to provide the residents with a clear view of the snowy Alps. In this place, a black limo drives into the compound, passing through the security check with the respect of the guard outside towards the passenger.

As the driver opens the door for the passenger, she steps down from the limo, revealing a beautiful woman with blond-golden hair, dressed in a red dress with a black suit worn over it. She is none other than Greed, The Witch of Greed and the wealthiest woman on earth.

A butler comes out of the main estate and bows towards Greed.

"Hello, Ms. Greed. Lord Beaumont is waiting for you in the living room. Please follow me," said the butler before gesturing for Greed to follow him.

"Ah, thank you. Please lead the way," Greed smiles and politely accepts.

The butler nods and leads the way towards the living room, with Greed following, her luxurious brand handbag clutch in her hand, as she keeps it close to her as if she has something very important in it.

In the living room, a white-haired old man with a neatly trimmed noble mustache is waiting, enjoying tea. He stands up and shakes hands with Greed as she arrives. He is Alaric Beaumont, the current patriarch of the Beaumont family.

"Hello, Ms. Greed. Welcome to our estate," the patriarch says with a smile, then sits down on the couch opposite to Greed.

After a brief moment of exchanging pleasantries, the patriarch asks, "Ms. Greed, you\'ve come to meet me today. Is there anything this old man can help you with?"

Greed doesn\'t answer immediately. She shows a smile, an intriguing smile that hides an agenda within. She slowly opens her handbag and takes a dagger out, then places it on the tea table in front for the patriarch to see.

The dagger is none other than the "Clockwork Stiletto" that Daniel had actualized and given to her for self-protection.

Patriarch Beaumont takes the dagger into his hand and scrutinizes it, then takes his glasses from his pocket, puts them on, and looks at it once again.

"Is this... a Clockwork Artifact? Who made this? Is it..." the patriarch asks as he tries to guess the identity of the one who made this dagger. With all the rumors and news that he has heard recently, a conclusion forms in his mind.

"Is it Mr. Emberweave?" he asks, already surmising the identity of the maker.

Hearing this, Greed reveals her satisfied smile. "That\'s right, Patriarch. It\'s him."

Hearing this, the patriarch makes a very complicated face, as if he\'s accidentally chewing on a fly.

One needs to know that the art of making Clockwork Artifacts is a closely guarded secret of the Beaumont family since the founding of this family during the renaissance era. If another person outside the main family of the Beaumont clan knows this, it means someone has leaked it outside.

But that should be impossible because anyone who knows about how to make clockwork artifacts is bound by a soulbound contract to not leak it to the outsider. And there are only three people in the entire Beaumont family who know how to make this: the patriarch himself, his son, and his granddaughter.

Then, this only means...

"Did Mr. Emberweave found the lost Archive of our family?" the patriarch asks.

This is the only reasonable explanation as to why an outsider would know how to craft this thing. The lost archive of the Beaumont family is considered the legendary vault, no different than the golden city Eldorado.

No, it\'s the Eldorado of the Curtained World, where mages are still trying to find it today. Even the Beaumont family also wants to find it, since a lot of the knowledge of the Beaumont clan has been lost due to the mage civil war during WWI.

Seeing the Patriarch\'s sharp eyes scrutinizing her, Greed let out a chuckle then explained,

"I\'m not sure about the details, patriarch. But... this dagger is still working on mana as fuel, not the movement of time. Even though it can manipulate time to a certain degree."

"Then... we need to test it," the patriarch said, and then he called his butler.

After issuing a series of orders to his butler, the butler bowed and went out of the living room to prepare the test site according to the patriarch\'s arrangement. After some time, the butler came back and informed the patriarch that the test site had been prepared.

The patriarch stood up and led Greed to the large green lawn in the compound, the designated test site that the patriarch had prepared. There were two dummies on the lawn, each located 100 meters apart.

"I don\'t know the specific power of the dagger, but since it can manipulate time, the easiest effect that time can manipulate is to accelerate the time of the holder of those artifacts.

Even though it\'s still a theory of our family, because the smallest size of the artifact that can accelerate time of the holder is the size of a small car, which is not practical for a weapon," the patriarch said, then turned toward Greed.

"Ms. Greed, if you can destroy the dummy within 3 seconds, then..." The patriarch wanted to continue, but then he witnessed Greed\'s body seeming to be blurry for a moment, and she soon stood with a dagger in hand.

"It\'s done," Greed said with a smirk.

Upon hearing this, the patriarch was confused. He turned towards the two dummies and saw a long gash mark on both of them, as if a sharp object had cut it from top to bottom. In that blink of an eye, when Greed\'s body seemed to blur for a split second.

The patriarch, stunned by what he saw, quickly regained his composure and turned toward his butler.

"Check the slow-motion camera!" the patriarch urged his butler.

The butler went to check the camera, and his face showed a sign of shock before he quickly composed himself. He transferred the data onto a tablet and presented it to the patriarch.

Upon checking the tablet, the patriarch was stunned. He saw Greed leisurely walk to the first dummy, make a cut, and then calmly walk to the second dummy and make another cut. All of this happened in less than a second.

Judging from the time and Greed\'s demeanor, which did not show any sign of fatigue, it could be said that this small dagger had the power to manipulate time, even more powerful than the prototype of the Beaumont Clan\'s time manipulation artifact made from bits of old diary and records.

The patriarch was sure that the user of the time manipulation artifact nearly had their mana drained after just a few uses of time acceleration. The intensity of the time acceleration effect did not meet practical standards either.

This could only mean one thing: Daniel Emberweave had truly found the Beaumont family\'s lost archive.

"Ms. Greed, you come here and show me this. Please tell me straight, what do you want from us?" asked the patriarch. He knew that Greed came here to bait him, and it could only mean one thing: she needed them to owe her a huge favor and follow her wish.

This was something that the Beaumont family had never been interested in doing, not even for the Hightowers, no matter how tempting the bait was.

But this time was different. Even though the patriarch knew it was a trap, he had no choice but to bite. It was the only opportunity in several centuries for them to locate the Beaumont lost archive. Seeing the patriarch\'s reluctant expression, Greed couldn\'t help but let out a small chuckle.

"Ufufufu… Please don\'t be like that, Lord Beaumont. What I\'m going to ask of you is nothing to worry about. I just want you to join us… join The Order of Ember," Greed said with a smile.

"What is the Order of Ember?" asked the patriarch.

"Think of it as the Hightower, but it was founded by Daniel. Other than Europe, where the Hightower\'s influence is concentrated, we take care of and govern the Curtained World from all over the world," Greed said, with her tempting voice and smile.

"So, what do you say, Lord Beaumont? Will you join?" Greed tempted him once again.