Olivia's room was a textbook definition of a girl's room, alphabetically ordered book on the book rack, paintings of her role models who were some old men adorned the pinkish walls while a faint fragrant of forest roses permitted the air.
In the center of the room, a round sofa and a glass tea table could be seen.
Obviously, the sofa was not as nearly fancy or luxurious as the sofas in Michael's room, compared to those, what was in front of them was mediocre, at best.
On the corner stood a tall table where Gaya saw lines of expensive liquors.
She then changed her gaze towards the corner, gazing at the vials of perfumes, she inhaled deeply only to be overwhelmed by the fragrance those small vials were radiating.
"Expensive liquors, Unest brand perfumes, this bitch is rich!" The latter changed Gaya's expression significantly because Unest was a brand used by only the richest, such as the Royal family of a powerhouse kingdom and powerful female cultivators. An ordinary noble or even a queen of a small kingdom had no chance of getting an Unest perfume. Gaya hated spending her own money in extravagances like that, instead, she always used the money to bribe ministers to extend her power in her father's regime or bought cultivation resources. It was Xanali, her stepsister who would spend a large number of gold coins in just perfume bottles alone, because of that, Gaya knew about the cost of Unest perfumes.
After spending the last six months with Gaya closely, Michael learned to read even the smallest changes in her face, he could tell by looking at her face that she's yelling 'Olivia seemed to be crazy rich, human!'
"Please, make yourselves home" Olivia gestured at Michael to take a seat as she went to the liquor stand to pour him a drink,
"Just hot water with a few drops of Angel lime for me and Aelia," said Michael after noticing a crown-shaped fruit in one of the herb pots
"Oh?!" Olivia was surprised but quickly grabbed one of the fruit and poured their drinks.
"What happened?" Nathen asked with a slightly amused smile on his face.
Michael began to explain the events before the potion brewing after Olivia gave him the drink with an embarrassed smile.
"Teacher, you should really stop making other disciples take Alchemy tests," Nathen said, chuckling at his teacher's little adventure with Ghost.
"All disciples should at least have basic knowledge in Alchemy, Nathen. I keep telling this to the higher ups but they just don't listen. In some situations, a simple potion or pill might save one's life. Am I right?" she asked looking at Michael, her smile grew bigger seeing him nod in approval
"Speaking of Alchemy, Nathen" his voice trailed off, knowing the meaning of his words, Nathen turned his gaze towards Olivia
"Oh, the contract? Wait a sec"
"Teacher, tell me where it is, I'll go" she quickly waved at him before he could stand up,
"It's okay, Teacher Harms has the contract, I'll get it" Nathen nodded realizing she wants him to open the matter of tutoring her.
After Olivia left the room, Michael opened his mouth before Nathen,
"She wants something, am I right?" Nathen was taken aback by surprise but soon, he chuckled,
"That obvious huh?"
"Yep"
"Look Ghost, I don't like to beat around the bush, the contract is yours, Teacher Olivia is the one who decides who gets the contract and when I recommended you, she immediately signed the contract, no questions asked. If you just want this one contract for the outer circle, you can take this and go, no one will stop you but"
"But what?" Gaya asked, not showing any expression of annoyance on her face. Michael did not utter any word, he just waited for Nathen to tell him what she wanted from him.
"She's hoping to become your disciple, Ghost" Michael couldn't help but be surprised by this sudden request while Gaya sighed in relief. For a moment, she thought that Oliva would like to become one of his wives.
"That's... unexpected" Michael rubbed his chin, weighing the pros and cons of taking her in as his disciples
"Tell us about her more" Gaya took the initiative to ask Nathen, Michael sensed the snake had hatched a plot to take advantage of Olivia, this was why he loved to have her around.
"Well," Nathen started to tell them about Olivia, sighing in relief that Ghost didn't refuse to tutor her right off the bat.
A few minutes after Nathen finished telling them about Olivia, both Michael and Gaya had a wide grin on their faces. According to Nathen, Olivia was the daughter of Reginald Palmer, the Vice president of the Rainshade, one of the influential merchant guilds in the entire Elon continent. This explained the expensive liquors and bottles of Unest perfumes.
Taking in a Teacher of Aragoth already outweighed the cons but her status as the daughter of Reginald Palmer sealed the deal for Michael. Soon in the future, he would expand his Alchemy business, at that time, instead of building an infrastructure of large-scale business from the ground up, he could use the Rainshade to grow his business. After all, supplying products to all corners of the continent was not as simple as selling them in the Majestic. What made him more excited thinking about the future was Nathan's family, the house of Bradley. The house Bradley's main source of income was providing security, they were basically a private security firm of this world with many powerful individuals among them. With House Bradley and Rainshade, he would be able to get his business up and running, without worrying about security or nooks and crannies of business.
Besides, by taking Olivia as his disciples, the Sunrise sect would automatically become a place under Aragoth's protection. He needed some kind of protection if he wanted to keep his herbal garden from getting robbed by some powerful rogue cultivators. Moreover, Olivia was at Core Formation level 7 who would definitely have some devastating spells to destroy his enemies, if he needed her to.
If everything goes according to his plans, in the future, he would make Olivia his subordinate and appoint her as the Head of the Alchemy chains in his business empire.
Both Michael and Gaya looked at each other, a wolf-like smile flashed across their faces.
"I'm back" Just in time, Olivia entered the room, her smile froze on her face after she noticed everyone's eyes on her. She assumed that Nathen had asked Ghost about tutoring her while she was away,
"What's it gonna be, Ghost?" Olivia's heart began to punch against her chest, she shivered, looking at Michael. She very well knew that this could be a life-changing moment for her
"Why don't you step forward and ask me yourself?" When he first met her, she was like a fierce lioness, scaring all the disciples but now, she turned into a meek cat.
She slowly stepped forward, praying to her Sun God that he would accept her as his disciple. For her, his age or where did he learn what he does didn't matter, all she wanted was to learn what he knows, at least a drop of his ocean of knowledge.
Nathen almost jumped back when Olivia dropped to her knees,
"Will you please accept me as your disciple and impart your knowledge in Alchemy to me?" she bowed her head, directly coming to the point without beating around the bush.
Michael looked at Gaya to see her nod and then, he spoke in a clear voice,
"If I accept you as my disciples, will you obey me and my friend here?" Nathen slightly frowned when he saw him asking Olivia, a Core Formation cultivator to obey a mere Body Refining stage cultivator but he remained silent.
"Yes" however, Olivia said, taking not even a second to think.
"Will you remain loyal to your teacher?" her heartbeat increased every passing second
"I will forever be loyal to my teacher"
"Will you disclose the knowledge you get from me without my permission?"
Again she took no time before answering him,
"I will not" Michael raised her chin to see the honesty in her eyes, in those hazel eyes, he saw nothing but a thirst for knowledge.
"Then I will accept you as my first student, Olivia Palmer" the very next second, her eyes welled up, body trembled, she was overwhelmed by joy.
Soon, tears rolled down on her rosy cheeks,
"Thank..thank you...Teacher..." despite his age or cultivation level, she uttered the word teacher with utmost respect and admiration,
"My fee is, in the future when I need, promise me that you'll do your best to assist us" Of course, Michael was not doing this out of the goodness in his heart but he was planning to catch the big fish with the small fish, in this case, the big fish was her father's favor while the small fish was his fee of teaching her.
"I promise you, Teacher, you can count on me" his image in her heart grew taller after hearing that he will not be greedy and sell the knowledge for gold coins. However, Nathen somewhat refused to believe Ghost completely because he did not seem like the man who would do charities, yet Nathen said nothing. As far as he was concerned, everyone got what they wanted, Olivia became Ghost's student, he kept his word by getting Ghost the contract he promised, this was a win-win situation for everyone.
"Nathen, give this to the Sect Leader" After wiping off the tears on her face, Olivia retrieved a letter from her space ring,
"What is that?" Michael asked before she could hand the letter over to Nathen,
"My resignation letter Teacher, I can't teach while studying under you"
"No, you can't resign" Michael almost blurted out blood after hearing her, she almost poured mud on his perfect plan,