Arthur leaned back slightly, a wry smile spreading across his face as he processed the value of the opportunity before him.


    "What do I think?" he replied, chuckling as he shook his head. "I think I''d be crazy to pass this up."


    Noah''s eyes sparkled with amusement, but he stayed quiet as Arthur continued. "So, what''s your goal here, Noah? Are you looking to sell these apartments off one by one? Or are you thinking of renting them out?"


    Noah didn''t hesitate. "I want to sell them," he replied firmly.


    ''Passive ie is nice and all,''


    he thought to himself, ''


    but I need a significant amount of capital for my next n. I have enough streams bringing in passive revenue — the gold, the restaurants, the teahouse. What I need now is upfront cash to move forward.''


    Arthur nodded thoughtfully.


    "I see," he said, his expression turning serious. "Well, since this is arge business deal, and we''re friends."


    "I''ll make you an offer. Normally, I''d take a 10%mission for handling this, but I''m willing to take 5% instead."


    Arthur kept his tone professional, but inwardly he knew he would have gone even lower had Noah had pushed back.


    Noah was a connection he couldn''t risk breaking, he had met him only a few weeks ago and every time he saw him, Noah had broken his expectations.


    Noah considered this for a brief moment before nodding, a smile crossing his face. "Alright, then. It''s a deal."


    Arthur''s face brightened. "Great! Let''s get everything in order. Do you want to drop by my office so we can start the paperwork?"


    "Sure," Noah agreed, his voice calm.


    …


    Two hourster, they hadpleted the necessary paperwork, each page carefully signed.


    Arthur stood up from his chair, stretching slightly as he shook Noah''s hand with a look of satisfaction.


    "Thank you, Noah," he said, his tone carrying a note of genuine appreciation.


    Noah smiled, giving a firm handshake. "The pleasure''s mine, Arthur. Looking forward to what''s next."


    "Me too," Arthur responded, as he watched Noah leave the office.


    ...


    Inside the car.


    "Everything is going as nned,"


    "I''m slowly expanding my influence in this city, and soon it will reach the neighbouring ones,"


    Noah then called the subordinates, that were helping his dad.


    After making sure everything was going well there, he decided to head home.


    Arriving at his house, Noah changed into his home clothes and went to his room.


    "It seems like someone really filmed it," He thought, as he watched himself ''protecting'' the little disabled girl.


    After watching the video and reading thements of people praising him, he went and checked Aiden''s page.


    "So I was right, he still hasn''t uploaded the video. It was the video of me ''protecting the girl'' that attracted so many people there," He muttered.


    As Noahy on his bed, still scrolling through his phone, he received a message.


    He nced down, a small smile forming when he saw Amelia''s name on the screen.


    "Hey, how are you?"


    she''d typed.


    "Hello, I''m doing well. What about you?"


    "I''m good,"


    she replied, a short pause following her words before a new message popped up.


    "


    Uhm—are you free?"


    with a shy, hesitant emoji.


    "Yup, I''m free,"


    he typed back quickly, amused at her roundabout question.


    "Are you, like, free free? is there like different types of being free?"


    "hmm, free free?"


    He asked, amused by the vocabry.


    "As in, like, at home doing nothing free, you know?"


    He chuckled, sending back, "


    Yes, that''s exactly the kind of "free" I am currently residing in,"


    adding aughing emoji.


    Meanwhile, on the other end of the chat, Amelia held her phone, her cheeks warming as she debated her next message.


    She''d been sitting on her bed for nearly ten minutes, yet she couldn''t seem to find the right words.


    She wanted to ask him to y, but it felt… too forward, somehow.


    They hadn''t yed together in a while, and she didn''t want to sound overly eager, though that was exactly how she felt.


    With a breath to steady herself, she finally typed out the words that had been swirling in her mind, her thumb hesitating over the send button.


    "I was wondering if you want to y some Underwatch… or, you know, some other game if you prefer."


    Her fingers hovered, debating whether to add more.


    Finally, she added, "


    I really miss us ying together. It was fun."


    And before she could overthink it, she tapped send, her heart racing as she watched the "typing" indicator flicker on Noah''s end.


    The seconds stretched on, her mind racing with thoughts.


    "


    Maybe I sounded too eager. What if he''s not interested? Or busy? Or just…"


    She bit her lip, unable to finish that thought, when her phone vibrated with his response.


    "Sure, let''s y. Give me 5 minutes, I''ll grab something to drink and log in."


    A crash of excitement warmed her body, and she barely managed to type out, "


    Sure!"


    before she found herself grinning.


    She tossed her phone aside, practically bouncing to her pc as she sat on the chair.


    ...


    "Ready?"


    he typed into the chat.


    "Absolutely,"


    she replied, excited to y with Noah again.


    As they loaded into the first match, Noah adjusted his headset, and Amelia''s voice came through.


    "It''s been ages since we''ve yed," she said, her excitement evident.


    "Yeah, it has," he replied, leaning back in his chair.


    "Do you want to warm up with some quick y first? Then maybe we can jump into ranked?"


    "Sure, sounds good," she said immediately, but then a secondter, sheughed, realizing something.


    "Oh, wait. I forgot we can''t. You''re unranked, and I''m… well, way up there."


    "Right," he typed back, amused. "Alright, let''s stick with normal matches. I''ll rank up soloter so we can y together."


    "Sure," she said.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    As they loaded into their first quick game, they dominated the whole lobby from the start, capturing the first point in a mere thirty seconds and pushing the payload.


    "Jeez, who are these people?" a teammate muttered over the mic as they steamrolled their way through the match. "You two aren''t… smurfing, are you?"


    Amelia snickered, but Noah responded in a deadpan voice. "Nah, we''re just warming up."


    "The Genj, is a level 1 yer! How is that even possible?" Another one of their teammates added.


    They continued to dominate the lobby, the coordination between them almost telepathic. Midway through, someone on the other team''s chat piped up.


    "Really? Sweating this hard in quick y?" the voice grumbled. "Touch some grass, please. I''m sure you haven''t stepped outside your house in months."


    "Oh, don''t worry, I have a garden in my house," Amelia replied with augh, making Noah chuckle. "In fact, I touched some yesterday."


    Their teammatesughed, and Noah decided to troll with Amelia.


    "Hey, thanks for the suggestion. Maybe we''ll switch it up and touch some concrete tomorrow."


    Amelia nearly lost it at that, bursting out inughter.


    She tried to cover her mic, but herughter still slipped through.


    Another teammate piped up, "Nah, nah, keep sweating. Carry us to victory, please. I''ll send you both some grass seeds after this, Heck I will even send you concrete. I have been on a loss streak from yesterday, this is my opportunity to break it!"


    "Victory!" The game sounded, as Noah got a team kill by his ult ending the game.


    "Top 500 in quick y. Great. Go y ranked if you need to feed your ego so bad," someone else grumbled from the other team as he left not bothering to read the reply.


    "Well, actually, that was our n. But, you are unranked," Amelia muttered to Noah, barely able to contain herugh.


    They continued hopping into match after match.


    As they finished theirst game, Amelia said.


    "We have yed 5 games, and won all of them."


    "Maybe, he was right. Maybe I should go hug a tree after this match." Noah responded.


    "Good idea." she teased.


    ...


    After finishing his games with Amelia, Noah nced at the time.


    "It''s lunchtime, let''s see what Selena has made," He muttered, as he headed down to the kitchen.


    As he was eating the meal that Selena made, which was some steak, a bit of gravy on the side and some french fries.


    He received a call.


    "Lionel?" He muttered as he picked it up.


    "Boss, we are in trouble. We need your help," He said, his voice calm as usual but worried.


    "What''s wrong, where are you now?." Noah quickly said as he got up from his chair.


    Selena who was in the kitchen, looked at the serious look on his face.


    ''Something bad must have happened, I''ve never seen him this serious," She thought, as she kept doing her chores. Discover hidden tales at empire


    "Alright, I will be there in around thirty minutes. Tell everyone to go back, do you understand?" He said, his tone not allowing for opposition.