"Huh? Are you serious?" Celine's eyes widened in disbelief as she looked at Jack. She was wondering if this guy was messing around with her.
"Of course I'm serious about this. What do you think? You know, currently, I don't have money. So, I had no choice but to borrow from Samantha. Since that is the amount of money that we have, we can only start from below." Jack replied as he pinched Celine's cheek. He found the expression that was on her face quite cute, and he could not resist it.
Pah!
Celine slapped away the hand that was pinching her cheek. It was not that she did not like it like that, but, she just found it a little irritating that Jack was joking around with her when she was talking about something serious.
"I'm serious Jack. You know, you said that you wanted to look for mother. So, for us to be able to do that, we are supposed to be making big moves. So, how does starting a small store help us in that?" Celine put forward her confusion.
Of course, other than the curiosity about the stronghold domain, the other reason was to look for Jack's mother. She referred to Anne as mother, because the two of them had already gotten engaged. As for the matter of marriage, that was something that they were going to decide on their own.
But at least, she knew that the marriage between them was not going to happen anytime soon. After all, there were a lot of things that they still needed to take care of.
"Hah! You should at least learn to trust your husband a little, right?" Jack looked at Celine helplessly as he stated.
"Who's my husband? As long as I can remember, I have never gotten married anyway." Celine snorted as she responded.
"Of course, you are not the one that got married, rather, your heart was the one that was married away. So, even if you don't remember getting married, just to know that you have already gotten married to me." Jack teased Celine again.
Celine on the other hand was getting even more frustrated. After all, she had just decided to talk about something important, but, it did not seem like Jack was taking the matter seriously at all.
Had she not know who Jack was, she would have definitely thought that he did not care about his mother. But, that was definitely an impossibility. Jack's childhood life was quite tragic, only experiencing the love of his mother. As for his father, that bastard never cared about him. Instead, he ignored him together with his mother.
Still, Celine could not help but wonder just how love was. After all, according to the clues that they had gotten until now, Anne was a superhuman. If she really wanted, she could have easily dealt with the Alfonso family.
But in the end, she continued staying there simply because she loved Dalton, a person who was not even an ordinary human. Love could sometimes make some people idiots.
But of course, Celine was not complaining about this. After all, had it not been that Anne got together with Dalton during the time that she was still in university, then, Jack would have not been born. Then, who was she supposed to be with currently?
"Can you stop changing the topic? I am talking about opening the store. How does opening this to help us in finding mother?" Celine asked again. It was clear that she was unwilling to let go of the topic, unless Jack give her the answer that she was seeking.
"You might not understand this, but still, I do believe that you can get an idea about it. You see, the ability that you currently possess, is what we are going to utilize.
Although we are going to start the store from beneath, we are going to study many things, and try to implement several other things, creating new things that we are going to sell in that store.
In the future, the store is going to be big, and that is how we are going to rise inside the stronghold domain." Jack replied after realizing that Celine really wanted the answer to that question that she had asked.
Celine found logic in what he had said. But still, although the two of them were capable of learning how to do things at a speed that was 100 times faster than before, but, to be able to do something like learning how to make equipment and so on, that was something that was going to take a long time.
More than that, they needed to get resources that they were going to use to make the equipment. Additionally, there was also the information that they needed access to, before being able to learn what they wanted to know.
"In the future, how far away is that future?" Celine asked after a moment to contemplation.
"Perhaps a month or two. It should not be difficult for us to be able to rise to the top of the small strongholds. I believe that in a month or two, we should be able to move to the big strongholds." Jack responded.
Celine looked at Jack, not sure if she was supposed to believe what he had said or not. But, the trust that she had in him did not allow her to doubt him that much. So, in the end, she leaned into his embrace and said, "Whatever it is, just make sure that we do it faster. I want to see mother after a long period of time."
Jack stroked Celine's back and assured her. "Don't worry about that. It is quite simple for me to be able to raise to the top of the entire stronghold domain. But of course, I will not be alone, I will be together with you. You are not planning on abandoning me, right?"
Celine giggled a little at that. Then, she hits Jack's chest a little as she stated, "If I abandon you, then whom am I supposed to be with? Who is going to provide for me? You know, I will continue depending on you."
Jack smiled at that. Of course, he currently knew that Celine did not know about the presence of the system. With the system, his income was going to be multiplied by 100 times.
So, although he had not told her about it, rather, informing her that they were going to use the other ability that he had revealed to her, still, both methods were going to work.
That was how he had started back in Azima. He started in inchoate city, before finally developing into someone who had already monopolized five industries in the entire country. Moreover, if he really wished to, he could have easily spread his influence to the neighboring countries.
....
Samantha and Denali went around chatting as they looked for a store that they wanted to rent. They wanted to take the entire store, together with the items inside.
Of course, there were several shops and stores that were present inside the stronghold. It was just that, whatever it was that they were selling, they could not match those that were found inside the stronghold.
It was also true that the people found inside here, the top forces inside this stronghold were the organizations that were present here, but, that did not imply that there were other people that did not join any force.
Of course, although they were independent of the organizations that controlled the entire stronghold, but, they still followed all the rules that were set inside the stronghold.
It was these small groups of people that had managed to start up the small stores. They had to look for a method that they were going to use to get even more star coins. They were selling the resources that they possessed, but were useless to them. In this way, they could gather funds that they could use to get the resources that they wanted.
The two ladies walking together did not attract much attention towards them. Had they been back to the normal world, then, they would have obviously attracted the attention of many people.n)/o-(V.(e-)L./b/.I-.n
But inside the stronghold, it was completely different. There are many handsome men and beautiful women, so, it was not strange that there are handsome and beautiful people passing by in the streets.
Currently, Samantha was no longer showing off the armor she was putting on. Although she had not taken off the armor that belonged to the Butterfly organization, she was not going to display it.
Inside such a small stronghold, a guardian was someone that was revered. So, if the people saw that there was actually a guardian that was strolling about, they would obviously attract their attention.
Additionally, since she had already left the Butterfly organization, the people from the Butterfly organization were not going to allow her to continue using the armor and the reputation of the Butterfly organization.
Although Samantha did not understand the reason why the people from the butterfly organization had not come after her, but still, she had some guesses, it might be related to the leader of the butterfly organization.
Currently, some other was wearing a trench coat that easily covered the armor that she was wearing beneath it.
The two ladies did not take a long time to be able to get a store that matched the description of what Jack had stated, and was well within the budget in Samantha's mind.
"Hello here, we would like to meet with the owner of the store." Samantha said as she looked at a young man in front of her.
