"I hope you're not offended by my honest assessment."
Clovis shook his head. "Of course not. In fact, I'm glad that I can hear your honest thoughts."
When Melody looked at him, instead of happiness, she felt empty. It was true that her goal was to treat her brother. However, she couldn't help but remember all the time they had spent together.
After hiding herself for so long and enduring the hardship, she regained the warmth, excitement, fun, and bond that she had lost over the years.
At the same time, she wanted her brother to recover. That was why Melody faced a dilemma.
Would she sacrifice this bond just for her brother? It was Clovis and the others who pulled her from that darkness.
When her brother woke up and knew that she abandoned them even though they helped her so much, would he still thank her?
Melody clenched her hands into fists as she heard Clovis ask, "By the way. If you have that kind of opinion about my teammates…"
"Clovis!" Melody shouted, stopping him.
"??" Hana tilted her head in confusion, while Clovis looked at her face and saw her answer.
Clovis scratched the back of his head and said, "Never mind. Actually, let's move on to the next question. Suppose I say, instead of a boss-employee relationship or any other kind, what do you think about business partners instead? One that is equal."
"!!!" Hana raised her eyebrows as if she couldn't believe what Clovis said. She had told him earlier that Clovis wasn't that interesting as an individual. The only thing she could see in him was his family.
So, she couldn't help but ask, "Are you sure you're asking that question?"
"As an individual." Clovis answered before she could even finish.
Hana was flabbergasted. This was the first time someone actually dared to think of her as an equal without their backing. Even the geniuses in her city were trash without their backing, including her. But even with her backing, Clovis believed that he could cooperate with her as an equal.
"If you can even meet my expectations, even half, I will consider it in a positive way," Hana answered carefully.
Clovis smiled and tilted his head. "Kanaria. We have that, don't we?"
"Ah!" Kanaria was dumbstruck. "Are you insane?"
That question might undermine the scale of that information. After all, Clovis actually wanted to entrust the information from Professor Waod to her.
On the one hand, it was clear that Hana had the ability to complete it. She could easily make other people believe that she was the one who found it. On the other hand, if they just handed her this information, she could discredit them completely and act as if she had never seen them.
However, Clovis thought differently. There were a few reasons why he wanted to test it.
First of all, Clovis had the Hacfield family. His parents or even his grandfather could get involved in this matter, especially since Professor Waod was his mother's student.
The next reason was Another World Mall. Yes, Clovis planned to sell the items from Another World Mall in the future. He never did it this whole time because it would be easy to track him and force him to fork out all these things. It might not just become a local problem but an international one.
Hence, he abandoned that idea right away. It would be different if he could trust Hana and her company.
If she cooperated with him honestly with only the information about the beast soul, he might trust her with Another World Mall's items.
In addition, she couldn't kill him for this information, considering his grandfather would destroy her entire family in rage.
In other words, this proposal carried far lower risk than it looked on the surface. While the beast soul was important, he still had a copy of this information and could simply spread it so that Hana couldn't monopolize it.
On the other hand, he was the sole master of Another World Mall. If he sold those clothes as 'artifacts,' people would definitely go to him. This kind of business would definitely surpass that of beast souls. And he would definitely hold a grudge and crush her company in the future.
These were the reasons why Clovis decided to do it. He just never expected there to be someone who would go all the way here to become that person for him.
Of course, this was also a gamble for him. While he could do all that, it would be extremely troublesome. In fact, he could be considered foolish.
Even though he said it was as an individual, the other party still had to consider his family.
As Hana said, in the end, they couldn't escape the stigma of family.
Some would think of him as foolish, but he definitely considered this decision carefully. That was why he extended his hand as if asking for her device.
Kanaria looked reluctant, but she didn't forget that this professor was his mother's student. In addition, she had gotten all the benefits from the Star Method.
So, Kanaria opened her device and showed the information before handing it to Clovis.
"Please take a look at this." Clovis passed it to Hana.
Hana looked confused, wondering what kind of thing could shock her. It was actually a research paper.
The best thing would be to scan all the documents and understand their potential. However, since the other party was still here, she could only look at the abstract to understand what kind of research this was.
It took her only two minutes before she dropped her jaws to the ground. "Are you serious?"
"How is it? This thing will be extremely beneficial for you, right?"
"It's easy to set up a new company for this. And the potential of this research is actually beyond imagination… I believe that it can even surpass my current company. Are you sure you want to collaborate with me? Do you understand its value?"
"Yes. I do have several conditions though."
"As long as it's not harsh to the point where I can't even make a living, I don't mind."