Melanie didn't lie to Vlad, but she didnt give full answers to him.
Though Vlad understood that, she won't give straight forward answers, he still got something out of her,
"Speaking of your Great Grand Daughter, we saw her when we were in Pearl City, is your disciple the same guy who was traveling with her and acting as the leader? Speaking of him, our mistress this time took a liking to him and made a deal with him for supplying us the soaps he is making here in North-frontier town and hence our visit here. Personally, I find him as a very interesting guy, in all the years I sneaked on people he was the only one who was able to sense me even when he was in a relaxed position. You got a good disciple this time around unlike those from nobles in the past, why don't you lend him to me for some time?"
"Meanwhile, our Mistress this time insisted on living in his mansion, I hope you don't misunderstand and make conclusions from it," Vlad spoke with a teasing smile.
As Vlad revealed more, she understood why he came here today, "John, doesn't need to learn anything from you, he is doing fine as a Potioneer master. His first aim will be to become the Greatest Potioneer of all time and make both me and himself proud and create history on Arkon."
Vlad listened and spoke to her in a grave tone, "you still didn't learn from your past, did you? you have to understand that only strength reigns supreme in this world. You don't want to regret what happened to your grand-children to John as well, right? Do you think I don't know why you came here leaving your position as a court official and look after Eva?"
After listening to him Melanie's face changed, though she understood what he said was right, she still sneered to him, "And at what cost? You yourself should know about the numerous enemies you have made all these years. You think those guys at the capital would stay calm after learning that you took him as one of your disciples. Additionally, I don't think you are one of the guys who will take a disciple so easily or even help people if you don't see a benefit for yourself and the Bluesea family."
Hearing this Vlad laughed, took out some documents and gave it to her while he spoke at the same time, "You think they aren't planning to move on him already? Take a look at this and you will understand, as for me helping him, Very rarely do I find people interesting and my instinct tells me he will become big later on and help our family from grave danger in times of need. So you can think of me as investing in him early on, and as you changed over time, I too changed over the years when it comes to judging people. What I liked the most about him was his reflexes and the ability to sense me even from a relaxed position, he is a natural as an assassin and perfect at detecting enemies. I think he can become a great fighter and a better assassin, you might not know but he already beat Francis Mendez's son Antonio in East sea city, you would probably know why they dueled, don't you?" he smiled and didn't finish.
"As for my enemies, What about them? I have buried most of my enemies under the earth and if there remain any, they too will face the same fate as my previous enemies. I am not one of those who likes to keep loose ends. As for those guys at court, what can they do if they don't know, haven't you already understood how the imperial court works?"
After looking at the documents provided by Vlad, she spoke in a grave manner,
"why would a small soap factory attract so much attention from all these nobles and royal family?"
Vlad smiled and gave her the answer, "The answer to it is that they are good, different from other soaps and quite unique in itself, and the most important thing is they have harmed the interests of a lot of nobles and there are some who are very interested in taking it to earn more profits as well. You have to understand that only strength reigns supreme, so what is your decision this time? Meanwhile, I ain't charging anything this time like the last time around when you were in a problem."
"I know you didn't take action last time because of the internal conflict in your family and you feared Eva's life but remember even if you don't want to get involved in politics, politics is very interested in getting involved with you and people around you. The most you can do is strengthen yourself and the people around you. And I found John quite naive in the sense that he bought this town but not enough knights and slaves to protect his fief, but you don't have to worry for now. however, I will only help him in grave circumstances so that he can understand the importance of strength if he has any other plans which even I am not aware of then that would be even more better. However, his resolve to protect this town is quite admirable and this is one of the reasons why I took an interest in him and decided to invest in him. so you can take this as one of the reasons why I intend to help him."
She furrowed her brows when she heard that John earned enough to buy this town. From this, she also understood that John's soaps were quite unique since they got sold instantly after some period and he earned enough to buy this town within a month.
She thought on John,
'It seems this creation of his is a lot of trouble for us this time around'
'as expected from my disciple'
however, she wasn't surprised by him as she had already experienced how John modified and improved a lot of her formulas on potions as well or his theory on the soil improvement.
Melanie sighed at the current dilemma and decided to accept the facts over her emotions of the past and gave her answer to Vlad. In her heart, she was quite glad that John got Vlad as one of his backers and from the rumors she understood his instincts were quite good when it to judging people or judging situations.