"Will you please be mine?"
Clovis looked at her for a few seconds before raising his head as though he considered it seriously before saying, "No."
"Wait, wait! While I appreciate the fact that you consider it seriously, please hear me out a bit." Hana raised three fingers. "There are three reasons. You should know the first one, since yes, I want your family's power.
"While my family is wealthy and has two Tier 8 powerhouses, it still can't be compared to a single Tier 9 human. In this current era, strength reigns supreme. Even if you have all the wealth in the world, if you don't have a Tier 9 human, you're basically not big enough.
"After all, if a Tier 9 human ambushes you and your family, you won't be able to fight back. Even if the people scrutinize the Tier 9 humans, the latter can just ignore them. That's the kind of strength they possess.
"The second reason is because the Hacfield is the smallest yet strongest family. There won't be a lot of headaches doing so.
"The last reason is your grandfather's personality." Hana waved her hand while correcting Clovis. "Besides, it doesn't necessarily mean that way. You can become my subordinate or something. As long as you become my person, I can publicize that fact without angering your grandfather."
Clovis closed his eyes before asking, "Suppose I were to refuse?"
"Couldn't I kill all the people here except you?" Hana smirked, which made Clovis and the others frown. She hurriedly added, "I'm just kidding. Once you have an influence as big as mine, you can easily find out that your parents are still alive. Even if your grandfather is not going to do anything to me, your parents are definitely gonna pay me a visit.
I'm not crazy enough to make the Hacfield family my enemy."
Clovis thought for a moment and said, "You can simply join my group, you know?"
"Unfortunately, I don't think I can do that." Hana shook her head. "There are two reasons. I don't have the time to go on the adventures. If I go to a raid, it will be a big one so that I can gain enough battle experience and just buy all the essence. The second reason is that being someone subordinate doesn't suit me."
"And that's also the exact reason why I rejected your offer earlier."
Hana and Clovis looked at each other for a moment before Hana eventually gave up. "Alright. I shall respect that choice."
Clovis turned around. "Anyone want to ask a question?"
"Nah, I don't want to bother. I will just keep listening." Jay shrugged while Melody shook her head as if this wasn't her place to interject.
"This is a matter of the Hacfield family. I believe it's not our place to meddle." Kanaria rejected it. Even if she became Clovis's girlfriend, she still wasn't in the place where she could get involved in his family's matter. This was the least she could do to respect his identity.
Clovis nodded his head. "Alright. My question is this… What is your purpose in coming here?"
"Didn't I tell you I want you?"
"Do you think I'm supposed to believe it just like that? You should have known that you would be rejected."
Hana paused as though she had known that fact. She raised a finger. "I wanted to confirm whether the Hacfield family was as strong as the rumor."
"I guess you're not satisfied." Clovis shook his head helplessly. The retreat alone was a big mistake.
"Of course not. You have shown me how you and your group manage to defeat all those beasts that I think you're not capable of defeating. In addition, I can see that each of you possesses good qualities as an explorer.
"Still, if I have to say, there are also many geniuses that are able to fight a beast one tier above them in major cities. However, I have noticed something. Your movement is refined, but it has the trace of hard work instead of talent. I'm not saying that hard work is not important, but there is a distinct difference between the talented and the hard working.
"I'm assuming that your evolution rate is low, which is what actually impresses me. You manage to reach this level in just a couple of months."
Clovis took a deep breath, never expecting her to be able to observe that much from the fight alone. It seemed that he had underestimated her.
"Why me? Or should I say… why the Hacfield family? It's true that we're the smallest family, but we're also the most eccentric. In fact, if you want to gain the help of Tier 9 humans, you can use your money to ask for their help or even search for their successors like me."
"That's where you're wrong." Hana waved her hand. "Built, not bought. Earned, not given. No matter how hard I do it, I won't escape the stigma that I've got all this because my family is freaking wealthy. I can't deny and won't deny that fact. It's true that I'm able to achieve all this and build my empire this early because of my family's influence.
"The business partners think of me positively because of my family's reputation. They give me investments because I have wealthy parents, and so on. The same applies to those people… except for you.
"When people think about you, they don't think you've got the strength, the money, or anything. The only stigma you have is the craziness of your family, which is not related to all this. And I want that."
"But if you want strength, can't you just pour all those resources to boost you to Tier 9? Isn't it easy?"
Hana shook her head. "Everyone around me told me that I would never become Tier 9. My parents couldn't, my grandparents couldn't. They didn't give me the reason. Even if I investigated it, there weren't any results."
"Huh?" This answer actually raised a big question in everyone's mind.