The sight of father and daughter made Alfred pause. "Dad, Audrey, what are you..."
Audrey said, "I'm discussing a business deal with Dad. A big one!"
Alfred: "???"
He would not have found those words strange at all coming from his older brother Hibbert, but Audrey?
Discussing business?
You'd be better off dating.
Earl Hall looked conflicted. After thinking for about a minute, he asked again to confirm, "Audrey, is everything you said true?"
Audrey nodded earnestly. "Of course!"
Sorry, Dad. Everything about the Southern Continent was nonsense, but the next time I return to Hogwarts with Edward, I'll definitely find a way to buy twice as many supplies in that world and pay you back-the food prices there are much lower!
Alfred spoke up again from beside them. "Dad, what exactly are you talking about?"
"Audrey just told me..."
Earl Hall lit a cigar and briefly repeated what Audrey had said. Then he looked at his stunned second son and asked calmly, "Alfred, do you think I should do this deal with Audrey?"
After a moment's silence, Alfred glanced at his sister and said, "Why not? Emperor Roselle once said that with a fifty percent profit, people will take desperate risks; with a hundred percent profit, they will trample every human law; and with a three hundred percent profit, they will fear not even the gallows."
"And this is a fivefold return!"
Earl Hall exhaled a plume of smoke and looked at Audrey, saying slowly, "All right. Then the Hall family's future is in your hands, darling."
"Huh? It's not really..."
Audrey started to answer instinctively, then immediately changed her response. "All right!"
After watching his daughter leave with his "granddaughter" and Susie the golden retriever, Earl Hall stubbed out the cigar he had barely taken two puffs of