Chapter 20: Meeting
Ivan stood in front of the beautifully decorated window of the cafe Lucky Clover. Looking around he could only shake his head. Although he had expected it, he still felt out of place. The Lucky Clover was located at Lexington Avenue which was the premier shopping street. There were luxury cars everywhere and the cheapest stores sold things much more expensive than anything he had ever owned.
He was early and there were still fifteen minutes left until the meeting time, so he had originally planned to wait outside, but seeing the looks he got, he decided against it. Normally he didn't care much about others' opinions, but if everyone looked at you weirdly, as if asking why you were here, he even found it uncomfortable.
So instead of waiting, he entered the cafe. He had just stepped inside the tastefully decorated entrance hall of the cafe when a waiter approached him.
"Greetings, how may I help you?"
Ivan could see the waiter checking him out and a flash of disdain appeared in his eyes. It seemed like this waiter too looked down on him because of his clothes. The same as all the people outside. But the waiter had hidden it directly, and his behavior was impeccable. Not at all like it was sometimes portraited in books or movies.
"Hello, I'm supposed to meet someone in private room 1", Ivan told the waiter.
"Please let me check.", the waiter responded and touched his headset, before whispering some sentences, Ivan was unable to understand.
"Thank you for your understanding, please follow me.", the waiter then addressed Ivan, after he had gotten a response from the other side of the headset.
He then led him towards a hallway that led deeper into the building and where, assumedly, the private room was located.
When entering the so-called private room, Ivan couldn't help but be astonished. How could this be called a private room? Wasn't this a full-fledged garden? He forcefully stopped himself from staying still and look around with a gaping mouth and instead followed the waiter who led him towards a small seating area.
Already seated on one of the chairs was a woman who was with her back towards him. Thus he could only see her dark red hair, which was cut into a bob as well as her gray business suit.
"Miss. Lex, your guest has arrived.", the waiter announced.
"Please take a seat Mr. King.", a pleasant voice told him.
Huh? Somehow Ivan felt that something was weird about the voice. As if something was missing. Even though it sounded pleasant there was something about it that disturbed him. But he was unable to understand what it was. So instead of pondering about it, he carefully sat down opposite her and took a closer look at her.
Steelblue eyes looked at him over a face mask, hiding her nose and anything below. While he looked at the beautiful yet cold-looking woman in front of him, she looked him up and down as well.
He wasn't able to find out what she was looking for nor if she was satisfied or not. There wasn't even the slightest emotion in her eyes when she pushed a set of documents towards him.
"Please sign this NDA."
He accepted the documents and read through them speedily. Something that was made easy by its lack of content. In essence, it only told him that he couldn't talk about what they had talked about during the meeting and that he couldn't disclose the fact that she had hired him.
The punishment was quite hefty, but since the NDA explicitly stated that he wouldn't have to keep anything illegal a secret he didn't see a problem with it and signed.
"Great. Now let me explain, what I want to hire you for.", she paused while waiting for a waiter to finish serving him tea.
As soon as the waiter had left, she continued, "How much do you know about noble families?"
Surprised by the fact, that she started her explanation he looked at her in question.
"Well, it's expected that you haven't heard about noble families. I won't get into the details, but there is one thing that is important for you to understand. Noble families all have an inherited skill that we call 'Training Skill'. Although the name might sound simple, its effect isn't. After all, it can unlock the hidden potential of humans, making us members of noble families superior to most other common born people."
Even though she talked about such a topic, there was no feeling of arrogance or superiority in her words and tone. Instead, she just seemed to state facts, which impressed Ivan. But what also surprised him, was how accepting he was of the fact that there are people who could use skills to unlock more of their potential. Although that could most likely be attributed to his recent experiences with the dungeons.
The woman in front didn't seem to be interested in his reactions as she directly continued, "Now you may wonder why I'm talking to you about this. But I think it is important for you to understand my motive behind what I will ask you later."
Ivan just nodded, waiting for her to continue.
"The important thing is the dungeons and the medical center of the hub. I guess you have already visited there, correct?"
"Yes. I was checked there."
"Then you understand that many things can be treated there, which couldn't have been treated before. And because of our 'Training Skills', we noble families have an advantage, which enables us to progress faster in the dungeon. But even with that, it will take some time to earn the EC for a serious treatment."
Ivan patiently listened to her. Even though he didn't quite understand where she was going and what it had to do with him.
"But the important thing is that the existence of this possible treatment and the chance to earn EC fast gave me hope. Hope to see my grandfather healthy again."
"And my grandfather is also the reason why I hired you. Until I can get the money for his treatment I have to find a way to make him live longer."
"So your grandfather is critically ill and you hope that I can help him survive longer?", he asked confused. He truly didn't understand why she would think that he could help with something like this.
Suddenly the woman stood up and bowed to him. "I apologize that I broke your privacy but I had to do it.", there was still no expression on her face but it was clear that she admitted to doing something wrong.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"For my grandfather to survive a bit longer he needs a bone marrow transplant. As soon as my family found out about the possibility of treating him completely in the hub as long as he survived a bit longer, we started searching for a match. But we weren't able to find anyone compatible on the official donor lists. There isn't a compatible relative either.
Desperate, I went to find some people in the darknet to get me the information I needed."
"Huh? So you found me like this? But how? I don't think I ever did a test."
"You did. Back when you were small, you got ill and you were in the hospital for a week. The hospital did some blood tests to determine if your illness was from a genetic disease. Because of that, there was enough information in the databank to establish you as a possible donor."
Ivan was once again surprised. Who knew that a hospital stay more than ten years ago was the reason for this meeting.
"But why did you want to meet me like this? Couldn't you just ask me, if I wanted to donate?"
"I would have loved to, but there is just this tiny problem known as laws." Ivan could have sworn that anyone else would have been embarrassed but she seemed still completely calm.
"You know, we haven't really lawfully gotten the data and there are currently several eyes on our family, so we couldn't go to you directly and had to resort to such a roundabout way instead."
"Oh.", he commented. Although she had admitted to getting his personal health data by illegal means, he didn't feel like it was a problem. He knew that it was nearly impossible to secure any digital data and at least her goal for getting it was understandable. Maybe if he were in her shoes he would have done the same. Breaking the law in exchange for the life of a family member? He would surely take this trade.
"So how will this be done?", he then asked.
"You are willing to do it?"
"Sure. I don't think there is much risk for the donor right?", he didn't see a problem with it as long as it wasn't risky.
"No there isn't."
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