Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

Seeing the pair gawking at him like he was some weird alien, Lucas just grinned even bigger and followed up, "If that’s not enough, how about a starting salary of 1 Silver a day, rising to 2 Silvers if your work satisfies me."

"Either that, or you can go back to Martin and rot in prison for the next year or two, your choice," the boy added casually with a bright, innocent smile completely incompatible with his threatening words.

It was an extremely generous salary offer, more than double what they had been making previously, but that wasn’t what really caught Isaac and Felicity’s attention just now.

The visceral reaction of so many people to their casual dismissal of Lucas was enough to prove he was extremely well liked and respected, and his follow-up reaction of forgiving them and still offering to hire them proved he wasn’t small-minded.

Suffice-it-to-say, the pair realized they weren’t dealing with an ordinary noble child and had concluded that agreeing to his proposal was probably their best option at the moment.

Lucas’ casual reminder that they didn’t really have a choice also probably played some small part in their decision-making process.

And so, an hour later, after the contracts had been signed, Lucas took his two latest ’acquisitions’ to a small tailor shop out in the city. This shop’s previous owner had wracked up a significant gambling debt and was forced to sell all his assets to pay it off.

As a result, Lucas had picked up the shop for cheap and sent the old unreliable owner packing.

The boy had tried showing some of his designs to the shop’s old workers, who he deemed not responsible for their employer’s foolishness, but most of them were just simple labourers who, while good at following directions, lacked the ability to make whole new concepts a reality.

Figuring he had to start somewhere, Lucas tried getting these people to make a few simpler items he was more familiar with and could thus provide more detailed descriptions of, like boxers, but it was slow going.

He needed someone with real talent if he wanted to finish the birthday gift he was planning for his Junior Sister.

Eris’ 14th birthday had mostly been a celebration of her new guild opening, which, as an aside, was doing fantastically well in both is public-facing and clandestine endeavours.

As for Lucas, he had spent most of his 11th birthday working on Project Revolution together with Old Braxton and Marco. He had an inspiration for how to safely increase the pressure on the steam engine boiler, and didn’t want to delay it, even if it meant skipping his own birthday party.

The efforts of the trio of eccentric mechanics had ultimately resulted in an even bigger explosion than normal, but as usual, that did nothing to dampen their enthusiasm.

If anything, the bigger boom just proved to them that they were on the right track; after all, you can’t make a bigger explosion without more pressure!

Lucas spent the rest of that day in the infirmary, getting his wounds treated, somewhat reminding him of the accident on his 9th birthday, though far less life-threatening.

In any case, neither Lucas nor Eris felt there was a need to make a big deal out of their birthdays this year. They were happy others were eager to celebrate the occasion, but they weren’t hoping for some kind of elaborate fanfare around the dates.

Christina’s situation, however, was different.

Not only was this young girl a real-life princess, deserving of at least a large party, it also happened to be her all-important 16th birthday.

Just like the 10th birthday marked the beginning of one’s cultivation journey in the Rockwell Kingdom, the 16th birthday marked the day when children officially became adults, so despite Christina repeatedly saying it wasn’t necessary to throw her a grand celebration, no one was going to let her big day pass by without throwing a massive, completely over-the-top party.

Lucas, like everyone else, began making preparations for the event well in advance, but he had been missing a critical component to his plan until Isaac and Felicity arrived in Misty City.

From the day Lucas hired them until Christina’s 16th birthday, there was less than a month, so he wasn’t certain they would make it in time, but it now appeared he had underestimated Isaac and Felicity’s skill and determination.

The two of them looked utterly exhausted and were clearly unsteady on their feet. The bags under their eyes also looked like they could carry rocks in them, but the excitement on their faces couldn’t be concealed.

It was done! The sketches and ideas Lucas had shared with them that day had been transformed from images on paper to real, tangible objects!

Now, all that was left to do was present it to the birthday girl and shock the world!

.....

*BAM!~*

*BAM BAM!~!~*

"PERVERT!"

After delivering 3, maybe 4 punches to her Senior Brother, she had lost track, a furiously blushing Christina turned on her heels and stormed out of the tailor shop.

Eris looked back and forth between her big sister and little brother, not quite sure what to do, but fortunately for her, their Master casually signaled for her to follow the former.

After Eris had dashed off to comfort Christina, or perhaps to complain alongside her, Celestina leaned over and poked her First Disciple on the cheek, "You still alive, Lucas?"

Only now daring to come out from behind the clothing rack where they had taken shelter during the storm, Isaac and Felicity cautiously approached the boy as well and nudged him with their feet, checking for a response.

"Is he... is he dead?"

"Maybe..."

"I’m not dead..."

"Ah! Boss! Thank goodness! Now we can still get paid..."

Groaning miserably while grumbling about the two traitors who were treating him like a moneybag instead of a wounded comrade, Lucas forced himself to sit up.

He had anticipated all this, mind you. Lucas knew that when he showed his latest ’innovation’ to his Master and Junior Sisters, two of them wouldn’t care, but one of them certainly would.

That said, being punched by Christina still hurt.