'You should turn into a cow next time,' Noah muttered in his mind while holding his laughter in.

  'What? Cow?' Lilith, on the other hand, was entirely lost as she had missed the entire funny conversation.

  'Nothing, just those people back there talking some funny shit,' Noah said while holding back. Inside the elevator, silence was the norm, and the incredible levels of boredom saw Noah stare at jis own image on the mirror. He could barely recognize himself in those fancy clothes and all taken care of, 'I've surely gotten a long way from where we started,' he thought to himself, feeling Lilith's head touch his face.

  'You helped a lot too,' he told her, as he pet her head, seeing the snake's tongue come out as she hissed softly. Noah saw the nervous glances the two men were throwing at him because of her presence, but paid them no attention. At most, that would stop them from nagging on him or trying to take advantage of him to his face.

  "Elder Stern," the fat man called him, as the doors opened, and Noah turned around, following them.

  This floor looked much the same as the one below, except there were many sliding doors to the sides, showing this was a floor just for meetings. As he passed them, Noah threw glances into the rooms, seeing different sizes and shapes of tables, all encircled by comfortable chairs. This was probably a place for discussing investments with major clients. However, they wouldn't stop, and Noah grew a little anxious, seeing the decorations inside the rooms become more flamboyant. The chairs were now padded and covered in leather, the tables were now naked wood, and decorations were more present in the walls. Yet, they hadn't stopped yet.

  At the end of the hall, a large sliding door stood locked with a figerprint reader. Noah saw them going straight to it, and wondered. Without a word, the fat man stood ahead, unlocking the door with his thumb, to show the interior which looked more like the room of a company's CEO, very similar to the one Marcel took him earlier.

  "Please that a sit anywhere you fancy," the fat man said, extending his hand towards the large armchairs. Curiously, Noah saw one that called his attention. It was larger than the others, and had curved profiles around arms and legs. "That one is a massage chair, but feel free to use it while we talk," the man said, aparently reading Noah's thoughts. "Just be careful with your snake so it doesn't get hurt."

  Noah almost laughed at the man's nervousness. He probably said this in case it would attack if hurt, but he knew Lilith's was sentient. As soon as he sad down, shle slid down to his lap, coiling herself in a small bundle of snake. And Noah got himself properly set, so that the chair could do its work. "So, where do we start?" Noah asked, getting massaged by the chair, while the two bank employees stared at each other in awe.

  "Um, so, you said something about tokens, what kind are they?" the man acompanying the fat one asked, to which Noah pulled the three tokens from his poked and paused the chair, laying them on the table in front of him. "I, sorry! I'll get the appropriate equipment right now," the man sprung on his feet, walking out of the room in a hurry.

  "Oh well," the fat man said, taking a deep breath. "Considering you are now here just for small talk, we better get going," he said, changing his attitude to a more formal one. "I was contacted by the Nine Families affiliated betting service. The money is already available, so I wanted to ask what you intend to have it deposited at," he said, making Noah instantly feel uncomfortable.

  "You're going to attempt to sell me an investment, aren't you?" Noah asked bluntly, making the man grow redder. "I'm not offended, don't get nervous, I'm jsut not interested in listening too much. Today and yesterday were too long already, I just want to get this over with."

  "I…… I see, so you want the money deposited into your checkings account immediately, isn't that so?" the man asked, before changing topics. "However, with that much money, you are bound to get some benefits from us. Would you mind having a manager in charge of your account?" he asked, seeing Noah's unwavering glare. "Don't worry about it, I'm just making talk until he comes back with the equipment for reading the tokens, we can't have anything else done in the meantime."

  "If that's the case I'll listen," Noah laid back, seeing the man sigh in relief.

  "As you know, we are a bank, and we invest part of the money. Having a manager ensures you get the best service and more guarantees whenever you want to withdraw. I'll set that man who is accompanying us as the responsible, and you can have him do whatever you need."

  "How much is that gonna cost me, though?" Noah asked, furrowing his brows at the favors.

  "Nothing, it's a token from this bank. We know you will be moving to the capital since you became an Elder of the Khan, but would much appreciate keeping a customer like you, just like we kept your current Head," the man said while nervously sweating, which Noah saw.

  'Guess the bank's finances are not that liquid lately. But again, losing over a hundred million in one fell swoop would hurt them a lot,' Noah thought, understandign where he was coming from. "I cannot guarantee you will be my only bank, because that would be stupid, unless I get actual benefits. But I can promise you to keep those funds around for a while."

  "That's already more than I could ask for," the man said, relaxing. "Would you mind a glass of wine?" he asked, to which Noah nodded.

  Sipping on the wine, Noah just wondered whether he could keep himself awake since the massage was making him sleepy.

  'Hey, Noah,' Lilith's voice called him out. 'Don't you think that other guys is taking quite a while? I'm getting bored," she said, rubbing her head against his hand.

  "Is your friend going to be long? I really want to get some sleep," Noah told the fat man, who was already looking nervous.

  "He won't be, sorry. Maybe something happened, but he'll be back," the man apologized, before truning to the door. "About the funds you mentioned, are they in cash?" he asked, trying to end the silence.

  "Not really. I have these two things I want stored safely." Noah pulled out the two glowing golden pearls, looking for the man's reaction.

  "Oh, my! What do you want to do with them? We have an internal service for auctioning those," the man said, his eyes glowing.

  "For now, I just want to hire a safe I can store them in and retrieve when I'm going to dive into Fortresses. I'm not so sure I will be selling them," Noah told him, making the man sulk.

  "I can arrange one of these for you free of charge, since you are already giving me such favor," the man told him, making Noah question whether he would ask for a counterpart, but he didn't leave him waiting. "In exchange, we will open you a credit line, so that if you want to buy a property, you can do it through us."

  "So you already know about my car," Noah said, probing the man.

  "We do, Mr. Khan told us it would be likely that you would buy a new one and a house in the future. We are just making sure we can be of assistance anytime," the man smiled, making Noah obviously aware of his sugar trap.

  'Welp, it's not like it's a problem in any way,' Noah thought as he realized this was just good for him in the long run. "It's great, then. Also, your friend has arrived."

  The fat man looked at Noah while furrowing his brows. He didn't understand what he meant, until a second later, the door slid open. "I'm so sorry I took this long. There was a problem with the first machine so I had to test another before retrieving." The fat man was baffled at Noah having guessed his arrival before there were any signs, but managed to keep himself composed.

  "Next time don't leave your client waiting," he said, giving the younger manager a tip.

  "My c—oh! Thank you for chosing us," he turned to Noah mid-sentence, giving him his compliments, before assembling the computer-reader unit on the table. "Here we go," he told himself, putting in the first token, then the second, and the last, all without saying a single word. "Mr. Stern, the tokens are now assigned to your account. Do you want to keep the money in them, or withdraw it into your account?"

  "Withdraw it all, but tell me the contents and the former owners so I know what I got," he said, looking at the man swallow dry. There was probably something wrong in them.

  "So, from the Khan Conglomerate, you were given fifteen million. It was part of ther corporate account, and bound to stakehood in the company. The money will be made available, but the value of the stakes will vary over time," he said, making Noah curious.

  "And what happens if I spend or withdraw that money?" he asked.

  "Not much. The stakehood given to you will return to the company itself," the fat man interceded, explaining the process.

  "I see, a holding guarantee. So long as I have that, I have a say in the company. My guess is that I also cannot sell it, right?" Noah asked.

  "Correct. And since it's bound to stakes, if the company's worth sways, so will the amount."

  Noah was slightly annoyed at how this was done, however he could understand Marcel doing it this way in order to not get any expenses immediately. He knew Noah was not likely to spend that money out of nowhere.

  "But it's signed off by Marcel Khan himself, so you can probably negotiate with him. The second token was from Michael Khan, it contains a further one and a half million, this one in cash. The last one is a complicate one……" the? man got himself a long pause, making Noah furrow his brows.

  "Is there any problem?" he asked.

  "No, not really…… It's just," the man took another pause and a deep breath before completing…… "This bank account is not from this planet."