Chương 611: Chapter 610: Stalled

"Thank you, Lyra," I told the young girl and made notes in my diary.

"Thank you for the opportunity, Master Silver," she replied, walking out of the room while I turned to Margaux.

"She has grown a lot. I believe she is ready for the big responsibility," stated Margaux. The girls of the velvet garden are mentally mature, even the teenagers. Given their world, they have no choice. Lyra is the same age as Gloria and is part of the founding group. I have been grooming her since the beginning and would have chosen her along with Gloria, but she lacked the same perspective that Gloria had back then. Now, she has gained it through hard work. The girl did every job.

Over two years, she had been a cleaner, helper, desk girl, assistant, clerk, and a few others. She has done every job well that she has been handed and is now ready to become a madam. Lyra will start as a trainee; I don't think she will have any problem advancing to Madam.

"I agree," I replied, adding her name to the list. There are two more teenage girls; one has an interview tomorrow, and the other has hers two days later. I have been conducting interviews for three days. Every day, I interview three girls, which is the most I can manage with all my other work.

"Who is next?" I asked.

"Eliyen," replied Margaux. A second later, the door opened, and the elf walked in. The elf is good. In just a short time, she had left behind hundreds of girls. She is now among the top twenty earners, and the way she is going, she will breach into the top ten in a month or two. It isn't easy; over nine hundred girls are working in Legacy. Getting to the top isn't easy, and she isn't just the best earner; she is also very talented in other stuff.

"Master Silver, Madam Margaux. Madam Caena," she greeted.

"Take a seat, Eliyen," said Caena.

"Thank you, Madam Caena," she replied as she sat down. There was silence; she looked at us, and we looked at her. I could tell it made her uncomfortable, with nervousness that she could barely keep at bay. Despite that, she maintained a neutral expression on her face while sitting in a perfect posture. It did not crack, even when silence stretched to the minute. Finally, I opened my mouth, glancing at the information before me.

"Why should we offer you the position, Eliyen? What can you provide to Velvet Garden?" I asked. Usually, I ask this question after I ask them a few other questions, but I know everything about her. Her background, her academic information, and I had even spied on her. I don't need to ask her questions about the answers I already know. I would instead ask her about the things I don't know. The elf didn't immediately open her mouth. I could tell she was thinking about it deeply.

It took us several seconds, but finally, she opened her mouth.

"It is up to you, Master Silver, whether I deserve the position of the trainee or not."

"As for what I can provide… Velvet Garden is nearly perfect, but if I were to be bold, then I would say we need to make changes in store floors," she replied. My heart leaped a bit, and I resisted the urge to turn to Margaux and Caena. We are keeping everything we are doing secret to see how deeply the rot has spread so we can clean it up thoroughly when the time comes. I hope nobody has found out about our efforts, because those working have already proved how smart they are.

"As an artist myself, I've observed that in the past two months, the stores haven't made any artistic progress. They are using the same designs and mass-producing them."

"If I were selected, I would ask to post there and work on improving the artistic progress of the stores," she replied. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Saying I am surprised would be an understatement. I had not expected this. Margaux and Caena also seemed surprised when I looked at them.

"Which stores do you think do that?" asked Caena with a smile, hiding her surprise.

"Nearly all of them. Especially the mist ones. Eva Cain is the only one that is creatively active, but it's not part of the store floors," she replied. The mist stores are one of the legacy's signatures, and now, they are disappointing me as well.

'It seemed like there were more problems on store floors than we had thought,' said Caena.

'It is like Herus wood; on the outside, it's beautiful, but inside, it is filled with worms, mold, and other nasty stuff,' replied Margaux. These comments affected Margaux a lot. She is a Madam and a creative person, but she wasn't able to see it. She shouldn't blame herself. It's not her responsibility; besides, given her workload, I would have been truly surprised if she had noticed a thing like this.

Using the same designs isn't a problem; it is good, as it would create a brand, but they need to work on improving and using them differently. That is an alarming trend; for a legacy, creativity is extremely important. It is what elicits the emotions and fuels its growth. I closely monitored the store floors but didn't notice it. I am not creative or knowledgeable about art, which is likely why I didn't understand the problem.

Another reason I didn't notice was that I didn't sense any change in the emotion emanating from the store floors. Although they are increasing every week, so is the crowd. I will now look more carefully, though. It might be just her opinion, and I hope it is. I do not need another problem with the store floors.

"Suppose you are right, but how will you improve things? You can't just give orders. Creativity doesn't work like that," asked Margaux. We asked her more questions and were impressed by her critical thinking. She is the best of all; I had interviewed this time in critical thinking. It is one of the qualities I looked at in the girls. It is a must to have to advance in Velvet Garden and other paths that open through it. Soon, we finished with our questions and thanked her.

She walked out, and after a few seconds, Rexy, the half-orc girl, stepped inside. The girl is Bell's friend and from her batch. She recommended her, and even if she hadn't done so, we would have called her for the interview. She is a bright girl that we have been keeping an eye on for some time, Her interview lasted as long as Lyra, nearly an hour before she walked out the door.

"Investigate what she said; I want to get to the bottom of it," I said to Caena.

"It will be done," she replied before leaving my office with Margaux. I felt frustrated to see another problem arise from the store floors, but I'm glad it did. If it's true, I will be able to contribute to the overhaul of the store floors. The scale and speed of it are shocking. Such things take time, but here, it took little. I bear a great deal of responsibility, and because of that, I take everything personally. But when it comes to my legacy— everything is personal. I will let no one interfere.

No one will take from me what is mine. Nothing else matters. A few minutes passed. I busied myself with my work, but my mind remained sharp, always watching. I spied on a few targets—some confirmed spies, others merely suspected. I observed the negotiations still unfolding, even at this hour, each word and gesture a delicate game of power and survival. It is intense; both sides are fighting for every small part.

Both parties want to eat the other, so they will obviously try to gain as much leverage through the negotiations as possible.

"Master Silver, Chief Elar is here," informed Jill, bringing a smile to my face.

"Send her in," I said. A second later, the door opened, and Valentina walked in.

"My lord," she greeted, but the greeting had an unmistakable mirth.

"Stop that," I replied, and the smile on her face became brighter before she sat in front of me.

"Have you found anything out?" I asked, and her expression became serious. She shook her head.

"No, the only thing I could find out is that the rubble runs deep and is old. Thousands of years old," she replied. Making me sigh. Valentina is one of the few people I trust completely. She is not only my most reliable ally but also the most powerful earth mage under my command. I had sent her to Panar to examine the things below the load. They worried me, and I even had a nightmare about them.

"The most likely explanation, which most of the signs point to, is that. It is an ancient mine. It was not part of varus mine and likely started from another place."

"It is rare, but such things happened," she added.

"Most things?" I asked, and it was her turn to sigh.

"It might be nothing. Weird things happen in an energy-rich environment like that," she replied. I didn't press; she would tell me if she found something concrete.

"By the way, the Shardmaws didn't come from those levels. They were always there and entered the mine when they sensed the vibrations; we started mining close to their den," she informed. Immediately, relief flooded my heart. I was worried sick about them coming in from those caves. If they came from the caves below, I would be worried about more of them. The Shardmaws are dangerous monsters that quickly grow powerful. The most powerful among them was very close to Grade V.

If they had come after it reached that level, we would have been the ones who were wiped out.

"What are you going to do about it?" she asked.

"Right now, nothing," I replied.

"I don't have enough people to deal with it. It might be nothing, but there might be something. If we got occupied by it. Our enemies could use that opportunity to attack us," The undead aren't the only enemies we have. Deerpond also has an army that is growing fast. They had attacked me, and I have no doubt they will not hesitate to attack Panar, if they see the chance. I don't want to give them that chance until I am sure I can handle it.

"That is wise," she replied seriously before a smile appeared on her face.

"Congratulations; the vein is huge, and they are starting mining it in two days," she congratulated.

"Thank you," I replied. It is the only good news that came out of the event. I asked them to work fast on it, and they didn't disappoint me. The energy crystals that will come out of it will help us tremendously.