God Of Crafting

That was rather unexpected.

It was one thing for a man of importance within Chihiro's circle to call us if he had something important to say… but for him to show up?

"Something's wrong…" I covered the mic of my phone before mouthing to Claire. "I'm coming to check it out. For now, let him in, but make sure not to turn it into an opening for those government bastards to get in."

I cut the call and lowered the phone before taking a long look at Claire's face.

"It's fine," the girl smiled as she turned her back to the console and playfully shooed me away with her hand. "I can keep watch over the controls, so just make sure to deal with whatever is going on," she suggested before waving me away with her hand again.

"I…" I hesitated for a second before finally shaking my head as I turned on my heel. "I'm going to leave it to you, then. I will be back as soon as I can, so just wait for a moment."

"Sure thing, go and have some fun," Claire grinned, only to then calm herself down, push aside all of her emotions, and then lock her eyes on the still insides of the factory floor, ready to react to any sort of unexpected event that could potentially take place there.

"I will be back shortly then," I replied before heading out of the room, down the corridor, and then down the stairs, moving past the outermost alley of the factory, and finally reaching its main entrance.

"Real world, here I come," I muttered to myself as I got outside, only to be instantly met with quite a few stares from the guards.

When it came to the outside, even with easily over an hour passing since I last came out, things hardly changed.

The crowd continued to chant their themes and songs while waving banners, and the guards continued to just silently watch them, ready to react with deadly force if anyone grew stupid enough to try to attack the solid fence.

The only thing that changed was how there was now a new face right where the command of the guards was located.

"And you are…?" I asked as soon as I approached the guard's kiosk, eager to find out just what the hell was going on.

"Boss," the leader of the guards turned to me as soon as he heard me speak, while the unusual guest actually took a moment to do the same.

"Wait, aren't you…?" for a moment, the look of confusion mixed with the sense of panic and urgency filled the man's eyes. "Oh, it's you. Where's Chihiro?"

Wasting no time at all, the man instantly moved to what he clearly considered to be the most important point at the moment.

"He's stuck in the cultivation chamber; there's no way for you to contact him right now. But I will ask again, who are you?"

It was hardly surprising for that man, assuming he really was one of Chihiro's high-level confidants, to know who I was. Even if I never really took part in any forms of high-level socialization… I was still the man who got together with Chihiro's daughter.

Or, in more pragmatic terms, I was the man who pushed Chihiro's whole clan to undergo a set of rapid changes starting the very moment I joined the clan.

On the other hand, despite being a person of a clearly high profile, as I never really attended Chihiro's meetings with others, I had absolutely no clue who this middle-aged and well-suited man was supposed to be.

"I'm Nathan, the head of the clan's internal affairs. And right now…"

Before the man could say even another word, one of the guards tapped him on the shoulder. And as soon as Nathan looked over at the guard, the armed man first pointed at his own mouth, then at his ear, before swiping his hand around, as if to point at the whole wide world.

"Whatever it is that you want to say, let's wait till we get inside," I suggested before nodding at the leader of the guards, as if to confirm I was now going to take care of this man in his stead.

"Sure thing, but can we hurry up please?"

I stared at the man with the side of my eyes for a moment before rolling my eyes and then moving back the short distance from the guard's kiosk to the factory's main entrance.

Normally, I would first bring him up to the control room, then make sure he was well-fed and taken care of… But given the urgency written all over the man's face, I couldn't really do so.

"Okay then," I said as soon as I closed the factory's main door behind us and turned to face the man. "What's going on?"

"Big, big trouble," Nathan didn't waste even a second. "They froze all of the clan's accounts, from the big investment ones, through our savings, all the way to pretty much every personal account listed in our official files. And that can only mean one thing, sir," Nathan reported, his voice nearly breaking while his face grew almost as intense as my own when Claire first went down on me. "They are…"

Before the man could even finish, my phone rang in my back pocket again. And after quickly fishing it out and taking a look at the caller, I outright ignored Nathan and picked up the call.

Given how it was the guard's leader calling again, I was more than certain there was a reason big enough for him to bother me again mere moments after I left his side.

"What is it?" I asked, getting straight to the point as I cut out all the pointless small talk and pleasantries.

"You better come see it, boss," the guard's captain said without even a shred of hesitation. "It seems that the cavalry has arrived."