บท 80: Chapter 80:

By the time he had had a shower and eaten breakfast, Ace had already figured out what he would do. He would play a piece on the piano, it would be great to practice it beforehand, but the way things were going, Ace did not think that was going to happen.

He was free to do as he wanted until they served him an early lunch. Although, 'free' was too strong a word, most of the rooms in the penthouse were now occupied, and he could not walk from one place to another without crossing paths with at least three stylists, running around, preparing things, as if they were getting ready for the day of reckoning.

As he finished his lunch, a simple german salad, and some fruit for dessert, he was dragged by a stylist into a room. There, they had set up a comfortable chair and a washbasin, he sat down, and let them do their job.

The whole process was an arduous affair. They began by washing his hair, thoroughly massaging it, and applying a great deal of products, they then cut it, washed it again, and styled it into some sort of spiky-esque thing, with it going slightly off to one side. It honestly looked very good, and it only exalted his cold blue eyes, and his flawless skin. They then put some makeup on him, it was nothing heavy, and since they had no blemishes to cover, it was done quickly.

They were then finished with his head and hair, they left him to change, and once he did, they came back, fussing on his bow tie knot, and ensuring the suit fit him perfectly. He donned some socks, and a new pair of black dress shoes. They sprayed him with something, it smelled good so Ace did not complain. They had him try various variants of the suit after, making sure that he would wear the best one. When he finally finished all the preparations, and they let him go, he breathed a sigh of relief, he was exhausted.

He only had to wait for a few minutes, however, for his grandmother to come. She was wearing a simple black dress, and looked extremely good in it. Not for the first time, Ace wondered what sort of treatment she had gone through. She was 61 years old this year, but she did not look a day past forty, and good forties to say the list. Of course, she had some wrinkles and so one, but her face still had a vibrant quality, and both her skin and hair looked extremely healthy. Those things offset any other, not that it mattered anyway, it is not like anyone would dare even think of the fact that she was getting old.

That was a sure way of getting made an example out of.

They would be hosting the party in a manor they had outside the city, it had more than enough space for everyone that would be attending. Ace, to be honest, was not looking forward to this, it would be a pretty boring thing, since everyone would want to just kiss their *ss. Ace had seen the list of people that were invited, so at least some of his friends would be coming - if you were invited to this party, you were coming, there was no other option.

They got on the car that would take them to the manor, Ace practising his Chinese on the way. He was getting close. He could speak quite confidently, and while reading and writing were a slower process, he was advancing at a breakneck pace as well. He gave it about four more days before he was completely fluent, and another three before he had fully adapted to the slang and accent. For the most part, he focused on learning the slang and the accents of the capital cities, it would be the most baseline, and hopefully, should allow the most people to understand him.

Once he finished with Chinese, which he would in about another week. He would still have some time remaining on the holidays, it was Christmas in two days, so he would still have enough time to get a good head start in another language. He would have to consider either Japanese or Korean, but would probably just flip a coin for it.

Once he went back to school, all he would be doing in classes would be learning and practising those two languages, so he would have even more time. At first, he was worried, but now? He was confident in learning the three languages before the Inter-Academy Knowledge Tournament, but more importantly, the Puzzle Challenge.

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As they arrived at the manor, Ace noticed that the house had already been decorated and cleaned, both the inside and outside looked brand-new, and everything was in place, as soon as the first guests came, the food would begin to come in.

Both he and his grandmother were on front door duty, greeting guests, until most of them came, after that, Ace would focus on working for the younger crowd, and seeing if he could find something interesting.

As people began to come in, Ace and Samantha greeted them, they both drew stares, everyone, of course, tried to look perfect, but to the difference of most, Ace and Samantha looked perfect on a normal day, but when they tried? They outshone anyone.

Samantha's friends, particularly ones her age, stared at her with envy, she looked better than any of them, even if they all looked very good for their age.

Ace drew looks from pretty much everyone, the younger generation was either jealous or wanted to eat him up, and the older guests, well, most of the women were not exactly drawing back their stares, even some of the men seemed interested.

The whole concept was interesting for Ace however, his grandmother would do nothing about the stares regardless of how disturbing and annoying they got. This meant one of two things, she either condoned them - or at least allowed them, or she was waiting for Ace to take a stand on the matter. It was most likely the second one, so Ace decided on what he would do, of course, he would weaponise them.

He decided to not make a comment, to act as if he did not even notice, even if everyone knew he did. This way, he would be able to become more flexible, when confronted with it. The stares would also make him stand out more, something that for now he did not mind, he could blend in if he wanted.

As the Violet family came, Ace actually gave them one of his first true smiles of the night. They all looked extremely good, both Allison and Amy were beautiful in their black and violet dresses. It was black that seemed to also have shades of purpura integrated into it, which gave it a beautiful colour that stood out amongst the sea of black.

"Good evening, thank you for coming.", Ace gave them all a smile, and while he acted as if he did not notice, he was aware of the stares from both Allison and Amy, curiously, the matriarch of the family did not stare at him, apart from a short glimpse when smiling at him - Ace could respect that. As his grandmother had a short conversation with the parents, Ace talked to the daughters, "So, how have your holidays been?"

"Good so far, Ames has been working her *ss off, trying to beat you in the next exams probably.", Allison grinned, and Amy frowned at the use of the nickname, Ace smiled at Amy and asked, "Do you want my outlines?", Allison guffawed in a quite unladylike manner, and Amy's jaw dropped, the parents noticed but did not say anything.

"So, do you want them or not? I can send you an online copy now, I have them on my phone."

"Uh, no! I want to beat you off my own hard work, not just leeching off our friendship."

Ace put his hands up, "Ok, ok, I can respect that, but if you ever do need them, you only have to ask, I will give them to you."

"Ace, I heard some rumours from Matis, is it true that you gifted your grandmother a painting?", Allison asked, curiosity brimming, the mother and father perked up at this.

"Yes he did, quite a beautiful piece at that, if I do say so myself, black and white I believe, using various pieces of chalk, graphite, and blending tools. A beautiful piece, framed in a wooden outline, cured with only the best materials. With the high quality of the tools used, and the great skill they were used with, along with some proper maintenance, of course, the piece should last a long time without having to even add any touches to it. Beautifully done, Master Goldsign.", a man walked in, "Ah yes, speak of the devil and so one, an interesting expression you Americans have."

The man that walked in was Matis, no one knew his surname, not his real one anyways, although his grandmother probably had some knowledge. He was one of the richest men in the room, one of the top three art merchants globally. He dealt with any type of art, and was usually more knowledgeable than the artist himself. His analysis of famous pieces were bought for ridiculous sums, and he could boost your career to the sky, with only a word to a key person.

He was a dear friend of both families, and also Allison's teacher.

"Bonjour, mademoiselle, I must say, you look even more beautiful than usual", he kissed Samantha's hand, and then did the same for Amy's mother. He then shook hands with Ace and the father, and lightly kissed Amy's hand, "Young lady, you look as pretty as always.".Then, he turned to look at Allison, "And you! Well done, well done indeed, I saw your last piece, brilliantly done, I tell you, in only a few more years, you will take the world by storm. Although it was your best piece, I would like you to analyze this young man's Gift to His Grandmother, as I believe it is called, it is simply fascinating."

"Ah, so it was you wasn't it? You are the reason why I kept getting offers from people to observe the piece, and some even outright demanded I sold it to them.", his grandmother asked

"Well, I may have talked about it in the magazine somewhat.", he looked chagrined at this, as well as slightly embarrassed.

"A bit?", Allison began, "He dedicated a full section of the magazine to it, the front page as well, and you know the best of it? He didn't even show a picture of it. Now, it has begun one of the biggest mysteries in the art world."

"You old…", his grandmother began,

"So, why did you do it?", Ace asked, he was truly curious

"Well, it is a masterpiece, that is why, in fact, young man, have you ever thought of becoming an artist, I could be your teacher, and by the time you are twenty, you would be one of the most famous painters in the world.", he seemed truly excited at the proposition.

"No, sorry, I might do some pieces one time or another, but I have no plans to fully dedicate myself to it."

"Hmmm, I understand, a young man like you must not block himself from a path, well, if you ever need help, you only have to ask."

"Thank you, I appreciate it.", Ace said these last words in French, everyone in the conversation could speak it anyways

"No problem young man. Also, I will say, your french is brilliant, even better than my own.", he gave a cheeky smile at that

"Well, considering that all he does in class is either watch videogames or learn languages, he is probably good at more than a few of them.", Amy said, her family looked curiously at Ace, and Samantha smiled, while Ace just grinned again.

"Well, I believe we have held you up for long, I will go back to greeting guests, Ace, you are free to do as you wish."

"Thank you, Samantha, and again, Happy Birthday."

"Thank you for your wishes"

Ace, Allison and Amy walked straight to the bar to get drinks, "So, are you going to show us the piece or what?", Amy asked

"Sure.", Ace shrugged, "Just go to my grandmother's office, if you can get in, you will be able to spot it."

"Wait, so it is in her office?". Allison asked

"Yeah, I am pretty sure it is anyways."

"Ok, but do you not have any pictures?"

"Not really no, I never thought someone would want to see it anyways, it was meant to be a tool, that would exemplify her power and so on."

"Well, I assume you will be getting requests quite soon.", Allison smiled

Ace winced at that, "I might need Matis' help, after all, I really don't want to become a slave to my talent."

"Don't worry, if anyone can keep the people in check, it is Matis. Do you know? There was a problem in a rival business, the Bernardo Fund actually lost a piece when they had already sold it. Their reputation is through the floor, and the chances of them getting it back are next to nothing, since it has already been a few days."

"Yeah, I read about it, good for Matis, I suppose.", Ace nodded

"Yep, he got a bunch of new customers that want him to broker the deals now, Bernardo might actually get overtaken by other dealers. At this point, it is Matis and the Huang Mei Art Foundation, but their markets and fields of expertise are different, so they are not really rivals. In fact, there have been talks of an alliance. If they fo, then they will have a total monopoly of the global market, and nothing will be able to even come close."

Ace widened his eyes at that, this could be interesting, he had heard nothing from this, so Allison had probably heard rumours from colleagues, or Matis himself.