Timeless Prominence

Rein smiled and acknowledged Meynan with an affectionate gaze before restraining himself and turning to Sir Jeihr. Most fathers would be displeased but Sir Jeihr seemed happy with Rein’s wandering gaze over his daughter. Rein could even see a bit of mirth in the eyes of the middle aged man!

Sir Jeihr was intentionally messing with Rein’s heart using the classic merchant honeypot softening scheme. But in Rein’s eyes, he was the ultimate winner. After all, his father had long rejected the Everlasting Pavilion! You could say that Rein ‘won’ a victory under the current circumstances. 

Rein hadn't interacted with Sir Jeihr enough times over the past to understand the middle aged man thoroughly, but he knew enough to guess at Sir Jeihr’s motives. Frankly, he was ambivalent towards the man. On one hand, he was Meynan’s father. On the other hand, the man prioritized power and prestige of his family, which reminded Rein of his original ancestral house.

Regardless, the three clasped their hands together by forming a hook with the four fingers of each hand and respectfully bowed at each other, before settling down onto stools beside a wooden table in the bamboo hut. This was the common method of greeting across the realms, spread by a person,or perhaps god long forgotten. Supposedly, this hooking symbol was a representation of human cooperation and triumph.

A maidservant skillfully served dragon well liquor-tea, and all three took a few sips of this liquid. This was the most popular drink in this region that tasted mellow with a hint of chestnut flavor, with a hint of liquor brewed from the same plant leaf dried for the tea. A mix that was both flagrant and warmed one’s throat.

Rein quickly got to the important point at hand.

“Sirr Jeihr, as you may have suspected, the Everlasting Pavilion came to our House Hehr and offered to take us in as a subsidiary. However, rest assured. My father has rejected their offer, and fully intends to continue our cooperation in the future.”

Sir Jeihr’s expression remained neutral for a few seconds, but Rein noticed his fiance put on a pleased and relieved expression.

Eventually, Sir Jeihr laughed uproariously, before stroking his gray beard. He did not seem to care at all that Rein had dismissed his concerns so easily.

“I was worried about nothing. It seemed odd to me that the Everlasting Pavilion, a multi-nation merchant alliance, would find merchant companies like us on the edge of the Minhr Nation for cooperation.”

His worries quickly settled, Sir Jeihr shamelessly modified his attitude immediately. He now warmly treated Rein as family, completely putting down his originally professional merchant attitude, causing Meynan to feel incredibly embarrassed of her father.

“My son-in-law, feel free to spend some time with my daughter before you return home. Take your time! We are already family.”

Chuckling, Sir Jeihr left the bamboo hut before Rein could muster a reply. Once her father had left, Meynan gingerly stood up and walked up to Rein, who also stood up in response.

After checking that her father was gone, Meynan dismissed the maidservant, before wrapping her arms around Rein’s neck and completely melting into his embrace, all proprietary gone.

With Meynan this close, Rein could smell the alluring fragrance of her hair. He wrapped his hands around her slender waist, and could not control his hands from roaming up and back down her back, exploring her form, before going even lower, even daring to give her bouncy buttocks a few rough squeezes.

“You… you lecherous man…it’s just a few more months...”

Meynan moaned but did not break the embrace. If anything, she pressed herself harder against Rein’s body. Rein eventually restrained himself even though it seemed Meynan likely wouldn’t mind it going further.

Although he never found himself overly respecting traditional rules-- perhaps that was thanks to him having the knowledge of other interesting customs such as the nomadic tribes of the Golden Desert in his ancestors’ recordings-- he still had to take into account his future wife’s public reputation in the town.

Meynan whispered softly into his ear, intentionally panting a bit as to tickle Rein’s ears.

“If I wasn’t told by your mother how you were trained to successfully resist those other flirty women, I’d be worried… it’s great that your father rejected the Everlasting Pavilion… now, our wedding will surely happen!”

She spoke with a joyful tone at the end, and Rein responded by gripping her buttocks tighter. Meynan released another stifled moan before looking up into his eyes. Rein met her gaze before dropping his head down for a long and sweet kiss. Their gaze remained locked thereafter, memories of the past flashing within their eyes.

The two had actually known each other since childhood, through merchant conventions that their families participated in. Rein’s parents had moved to the Golden Desert Town immediately after their exile, and begun taking advantage of their ancestral home’s lost ties to the desert’s nomadic tribes.

The Jeihr merchant family was long established already, thus they were the bigger company. However, at the time, the current Sir Jeihr was only given a small sum to demonstrate his competence such that he would be allowed to ascend to the throne of the Jeihr family.

Back then, Rein’s father was a rising star in the Golden Desert Town, and as such, the two competed fiercely with each other for many years in terms of prestige. This meant that the two did not see eye-to-eye and had quite a bit of bad blood for quite some time.

The two grew a bit older and had their firstborn, which ironically, occurred at a similar time. At this point, the two had slightly mellowed out and the prestige of the two families had become rather stable. Sir Jeihr had become the head of the Jeihr family, and Sir Hehr had built a stable merchant family.

The two’s prestige could rise at the same time, mainly because they dealt in different areas. The competition between them was always more of a reputation brawl, instead of contending in the same business sector.

The two eventually ceased outright going at each other, throwing the occasional barb but mostly ignoring each other, probably due to some inherent pride. Well, that would change too.

At a certain merchant convention, the two finally discovered that Rein and Meynan got along incredibly well as children. To their shock, the two children would stick to each other like glue and the two younglings would more or less window shop and appraise goods at the convention together.

When questioned, they discovered this had actually occurred much earlier than they realized. The two youngsters intimidated the respective guards to keep their lips closed regarding the matter.

The two fathers felt incredulous. Here, they were, growing older, completely circumvented by two kids. They could see the clear disbelief in the opposite’s eyes and were about to have a go at each other once again. One was about to accuse the other of seduction, while one wanted to vent at the other for the act of swindling.

However, what happened next shocked the silly men even more. Upon noticing what was about to happen, their accompanying wives both shot their respective husbands a warning glare, before warmly greeting each other as if they were sisters.

Sir Hehr and Sir Jeihr finally realized that they had competed so fiercely with each other for prestige in the past that they had completely missed that their two wives simply regarded their conflict as nothing but peacocks spreading their feathers, and had long become something of sworn sisters.

The two women’s friendship was actually rather easy seeing as the two households did not even compete in the same industry, and the two shared the struggle of raising their firstborn at a similar time period.

Luckily, the two men had grown older, wiser through the years. It was true that they might not have taken it well back in their early years. Now, the two sat down side-by-side and each let out a long drawn out sigh before mocking each other’s incompetence. Outsiders would have thought they were fighting again, but the two women knew that there was no actual venom thrown.

This was the source of Rein and Meynan’s arranged engagement.

As for Rein’s conflicted opinion on Sir Jeihr? Well, up until now, Sir Jeihr and his wife had yet to successfully bring forth a son. So there was a lingering suspicion in both Rein and Meynan’s minds that their marriage was only agreed in part due to Sir Jeihr wanting to retain a bit of autonomy for the family by going through the relationship between the sworn sisters, while at the same time strengthening both merchant families. This suspicion was not unwarranted. Many well-off families would arrange marriages for purposes of power and backing in the country.

Although Rein did not know Sir Jeihr well enough to draw any definite conclusion, he had interacted enough with him to make a reasonable hypothesis. Sir Jeihr was likely concerned that other children in the family branches would seize control of the Jeihr family. Most families in the Minhr Nation generally preferred sons getting the inheritance.

Although the Hehr family was smaller, it had a strong and only connection to the nomadic tribes. Thus, the marriage between Rein and Meynan would lead to a few outcomes. Meynan would not end up having to become the other family’s resident-- the Hehr family was smaller after all. Meynan would be in line to sit on the head seat of the Jeihr merchant family-- her ties to the Hehr family, who had unique ties to the nomadic tribes would negate any opposition. 

Rein further concluded that this would mean that Sir Jeihr would effectively remain in power of the family even if he was of an age where he would be expected to hand over power to the new generation.

Well, Rein was not opposed to this outcome. He simply disliked the fact that although the result suited him very fine, he felt that Sir Jeihr's motivations came from a questionable place. He even wondered how much autonomy Meynan would even have in such a situation…

On another note, though rarer, it was not unheard of for women to become the matriarch of a merchant family. If anything, there was a common saying that the success of a king very much depended on the schemes that the queen could pull off in court.

Furthermore, in the battle for the throne among the royal princes in ancient times, the prince who would become king much relied upon his mother’s shadow hands. There were even tales of concubines that somehow climbed their way to the throne. Imagine the numerous ingenious political schemes one would need to perfectly execute in order to accomplish that.

Rein felt slightly uncomfortable with thinking negatively about his father-in-law. However, Meynan herself has hinted at it as well, though unwilling to outright state her thoughts on it.

As for Rein’s own opinion on this subject-- in truth, he had always felt his mother was the one in charge of the Hehr family… the invisible hand, so to speak. His mother often whispered into his father’s ears, and his father, more often than not, agreed with her advice. Perhaps, some people would mock his parents, but the Hehr family’s success was undeniable.

Regardless, Sir Jeihr had proceeded with his plan, taught his daughter the unique aspects of the Jeihr family business, before hinting at Rein to offer the engagement proposal, leading to the present state of affairs.

Rein was also of the opinion that Meynan had merchant acumen, unlike his younger brother. Having grown up alongside her, it was indisputable that she had always had a good eye, accurately accessing goods back when they were kids, a crucial part when the market was often littered with half-baked products and scams.

Beyond that… There was a saying that sons often were attracted to women that shared similarities to their mothers. And seeing as Rein felt that his mother was the invisible hand that pushed the Hehr merchant family to prestige… He figured Meynan would be just fine.

Regardless of the past, Meynan now sat on Rein’s lap, blissfully enjoying each other’s company as well as the sight of the garden that could be seen from the window. Neither of them wanted to continue dwelling on the schemes and underpinnings behind Sir Jeihr’s plan of action.

It was gradually growing darker, and a slight rumbling of thunder and lightning could be heard far off into the distance. A storm was coming, which would clear the air in the Golden Desert Town again.

Rein knew he would unfortunately need to leave this beloved of his soon. He firmly gripped Meynan’s smooth neck, turning her head so he could give her another deep kiss.

“Sorry Meynan, it’s getting dark and I have to go soon…”

Meynan felt rather frustrated, in fact she wanted to break all rules and make her man stay and get married right away. In her mind, they had known each other for so many years already anyway.

“You’re my man already, so you should just stay!”

She naturally knew that for their families’ reputation, it would be best for Rein to leave before it got too dark, not to mention that there might be a downpour soon.

Rein too knew this but he also wanted the moment to last a bit longer, and thus played along.

“I wonder what I’ll be doing if I stay here tonight?”

He then boldly hitched up her dress before slipping his hands through the dress’ side-slits, dragging his hands up her supple thighs in a teasing manner. In surprise, Meynan placed her hand onto Rein’s hand, but did not exert any force to stop him, only following his hand movement with her own hands.

She sensed that Rein was playfully messing around with her with something they both wanted but couldn’t quite get yet. Feeling somewhat annoyed, she decided to respond in kind, grinding her own buttocks against his clear bulge.

The two looked into each other’s eyes as if trying to gauge who would first step away from the line they were edging closer to.

At this point, they were both starting to breathe rather deeply, barely holding onto their own voices. Rein continued to stare into Meynan’s eyes, and could not help but try to further test her limits. His hand slowly slipped between her thighs that were together, and teasingly rubbing up and down, gradually inching higher, closer and closer to her precious spot.

At first, she subtly squeezed her thighs together in hopes that it would slow Rein’s hand down, to no avail. Just before Rein’s hand reached the spot, he finally felt Meynan exert a stopping force through her hand that had followed along on top of his hand the whole way. He smiled in victory before holding Meynan’s waist and standing the both of them up, while inwardly laughing. This type of game was more advantageous to men, he felt.

Upon turning around and facing Rein, Meynan's expression contained a mix of pleasure and frustration. She only barely resisted today’s situation due to her underlying adherence to traditions. Not only that, she felt that she had lost a little competition against Rein. In her eyes, they were competing on who wouldn’t dare to go further! Part of her father’s competitive nature was ingrained in her after all.

She paused for a moment before lifting both of Rein’s hands.

“Such dirty and despicable hands!”

Rein could only wryly smile, finding it funny that Meynan was scolding his hands. However, he suddenly noticed a mischievous smile on Meynan’s face that he had long seen many times as they grew up together, foreboding trouble.

In a flash, suddenly he found both his hands had been guided upwards, one on each of Meynan’s breasts. He could not help but reflexively squeeze roughly, and Meynan arched her back, pushing her breasts into his hands as well as letting out an incredibly elongated moan with a round mouth, while raising her knee to nudge his bulge.

To Meynan’s satisfaction, Rein fell back onto his seat and Meynan pushed forward, causing his bulge to helplessly twitch in his red and yellow pants. She stepped away feeling victorious, leaving Rein looking rather silly with his hands hanging in the air as if he was still savoring the feeling.

Rein knew that he looked extremely flustered right now, but he recomposed before clasping his hands together by the traditional fingers hook shape, one palm facing upwards, the other downwards, and gave his fiance an exaggerated bow.

“Thank you, my dear lady, for your incredible hospitality. Such service is commendable!”

His words made fire light up in Meynan’s eyes. All indications pointed to Meynan wanting to give her man a good hit. However, before she could act on that impulse, Rein quickly excused himself and left the bamboo hut, returning to the carriage outside the Jeihr Mansion while giving a casual wave midway.

For a short while, Meynan continued to feel proud of her final move. However, after thinking back to the moments she recently shared with Rein, she increasingly felt the burning desire all over her body, before suddenly realizing an unfortunate fact. Rein also realized this when he walked in odd waddling steps when returning to the carriage. It was likely that in their competitive teasing of each other, both of them had lost.

Before entering the carriage, Rein noticed a black cloaked figure hovering around the entrance to the Jeihr Mansion. The black cloak was loose and baggy, completely obscuring Ren’s ability to determine any clues, such as whether the figure was male or female.

He also seemed to notice that there were some kind of black wisps flowing in the air around the black figure, which made him feel exceedingly apprehensive. Although he had never had much contact with the world of advancers, he recalled a tale. The tale of the fallen, the dark arts.