In the orbit of the Azure Planet, the Herta Space Station was operating steadily.
And in a more distant part of this sea of stars, a cosmic fleet was approaching this direction.
The spacecraft belonging to the Interastral Peace Corporation had crossed the vast sea of stars for a major business meeting and finally arrived here.
At this moment, inside the largest and most luxurious ship among those bearing the Interastral Peace Corporation's buoy markers,
A full-figured woman with red and white hair sat behind a desk. Her body proportions were excellent, and the uniform highlighted that even more. The slight softness of her figure made her look like a ripe, mature fruit, giving off an inviting scent.
Even so, the surrounding company employees only stood at a distance, busy with their own work, occasionally stealing a glance in her direction.
They all knew, Director Topaz was beautiful, and she was also kind. But if you kept staring at her nonstop, the unlucky one would be you.
It was said that three weeks ago, a senior member of a fan group had his performance score deducted and was even punished with writing a self-criticism.
Thinking of this, the employees unconsciously turned their heads to look in another direction. A male employee was working diligently, completely undisturbed by anything around him.
Seeing this, the other employees could not help but think, 'This guy named Martin is really lucky. Surviving a disaster in space was one thing, but he had even brought back a new business opportunity.'
About two weeks ago, a Knight of Beauty named Argenti had piloted his ship straight into the company's branch and brought back this employee who had suffered a catastrophe.
Afterward, when the employees responsible for repairs were fixing and refurbishing the knight's exquisite and luxurious ship, they discovered that the fuel inside the ship was actually an outer-universe flame.
That discovery scared everyone badly at the time. But the outer-universe flame did not suddenly attack anyone.
It just stayed inside the fuel tank, looking listless, as if it had been tortured day and night by eighteen strong men.
Later, everyone heard astonishing news from the Knight of Beauty Argenti. His ship had already been damaged during his journey, and it was precisely by using the outer-universe flame as fuel that he managed to reach the company's branch.
After getting this information, the company employees were amazed and expressed admiration for Argenti's bold idea.
However, that Knight of Beauty stated that using a Fragmentum creature as an energy source was not his idea.
With devout eyes and a reverent tone, he said all of it was done by "that Lord," and he almost preached to the employees about that Lord's great deeds.
This was clearly shocking news. After all, in this universe, there were not many things that could make a Knight of Beauty lose composure.
But things that could make a Knight of Beauty lose composure like that were extremely rare.
At the same time, Martin also submitted a report to the higher-ups and conveyed the so-called Lord's intention to cooperate with the company.
Thanks to Martin, most of the employees who had previously spoken with Argenti finally learned that the Lord mentioned by the Knight of Beauty was a Xianzhou youth named Nero.
Things did not develop the way they had first imagined. Idrila, the Beauty, had not been revived!
Thinking about it carefully, that made sense. If the Aeon of Beauty had truly revived, it would definitely have drawn the attention of forces across the entire universe, especially the Knights of Beauty and the Mirror Holders.
Those two factions would have reacted most intensely. How could it be like now, with only Argenti talking endlessly about it?
Instead of guessing whether Idrila had revived, it was better to consider the opinion released by Scholar Jetok of the Intelligentsia Guild, that the recent terrifying energy storm shaking the universe might be a sign of a new Aeon being born.
In short, after that, the news Martin reported was taken seriously.
Boss Diamond was very interested in it. On top of that, Madam Herta had purchased a large amount of materials for research and had not yet paid, so the matter was smoothly taken over by Director Topaz.
Afterward, Director Topaz drafted a plan and brought Martin to her side for evaluation.
Before that, Director Topaz seemed to have already discussed and negotiated with Nero, or possibly with Nero's guardian.
In any case, these employees' view of Martin was a mix of envy and jealousy.
Even thinking with their toes, they knew that as long as this deal was successfully made, this kid would definitely be promoted.
Besides imagining Martin's bright and open future, the company employees were also confused.
This guy was a bit too upright.
People naturally liked beautiful things, so whenever they had the chance, they would secretly glance at the director.
Only this guy could always devote himself completely to work. Even during breaks, he would rather eat two extra pieces of bread than take a couple of looks at a beauty.
They admitted that the Knight of Beauty Argenti was very good-looking, but he was a man. And their Director Topaz was not inferior, okay.
As for that Nero, judging from Argenti's description, he was also a man.
So the company employees had two guesses about Martin's current behavior.
First: Martin was a real man.
Second: The beauty of that Nero whom Argenti worshiped had reached a level beyond gender and even race, possibly possessing Aeon-level beauty or being an Emanator of the fallen Idrila.
Martin, who was working hard and feeling excited about the bright future he could foresee, had no idea about his colleagues' guesses.
If he knew, he would say that the second and third guesses were correct, but they were not the real reason.
As for the real reason behind his current state...
Without a doubt, it was fear.
Even now, whenever Martin thought about how Argenti and Nero had turned an outer-universe flame into fuel, he trembled in fear.
He clearly remembered that his synesthesia beacon had actually managed to translate some simple parts of the Fragmentum monster's language.
However, those two beautiful people had completely ignored the monster's curses, insults, and pleas for mercy.
Although Martin had no prejudice against Argenti and Nero, and even liked the two of them, and could interact normally while admiring their beauty, deep down, he truly had been left with psychological trauma because of them.
Topaz was well aware of some of her subordinates' little thoughts, but she was too lazy to manage them, because she was busy.
Even though she enjoyed working.
At this moment, on the desk in front of Topaz were two computers, some food and drinks, and a "money-devouring beast."
Topaz held a phone in one hand chatting, while the other hand typed at an incredible speed on the computer, quickly drafting plans and market forecasts and doing some simple data organization.
Her eyes swept rapidly across three screens, and from time to time she freed a hand to feed the dimensional trotter named Numby a French fry.
With such an astonishing work style and efficiency, not to mention these grassroots employees and senior staff with longer service, even someone at Topaz's level coming to take a look would sincerely say from the bottom of their heart, "Awesome."