CHAPTER 258: NEW PARTNERSHIP

Papa Perez was stunned. He had expected a polite refusal, a negotiation, or a careful political maneuver. He had not expected immediate, enthusiastic agreement. The young Sovereign’s response had completely wrong-footed him.

"You... you agree?" Perez stammered.

"Of course," Adrian said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He leaned back in his chair, his expression shifting from that of a revolutionary to that of a pragmatic CEO.

"Papa Perez, my goal is not to become the sole food provider for Slum II. That’s not a business; it’s a bottleneck. It’s inefficient. My true goal is to break the Concordat’s monopoly and create an entirely new, independent economy for all of us."

He looked at the council, then back to the two Normat. "Selling cooked food from a truck... that was just a marketing campaign. It was a demonstration, a proof of concept to show your people what they’ve been missing. It was never the long-term plan."

He pulled up a new holographic schematic on his PAD. It wasn’t a farm. It was a simple, elegant, and beautifully designed box: the ’Magi-Tech Heater.’

"This," Adrian said, his voice filled with a creator’s pride, "is the real product. The reason you can’t cook for yourselves is that you have no way to apply controlled, safe heat in your homes. The reason you can’t store real food is that you have no way to preserve it. The Concordat controls the food supply by controlling the technology. I am going to break that monopoly, too."

He made his pitch, his words logical, clear, and utterly revolutionary. "I am going to start mass-producing these Heaters and matching Coolers. I will sell them to your people, and to the Douts, and the Jirads, at cost. I will give them the tools to reclaim their own lives."

"But... we... we don’t know how..." Mex stammered, voicing the obvious flaw.

"A tool is useless without the knowledge to wield it," Adrian agreed, his gaze softening as he looked at the two Normat. "You are right. Your people don’t know how to cook. So, we are going to teach them."

"We will hold orientations, right in your sector, free of charge. My mother, Mara, is one of the finest farmers and cooks from our homeworld. Others will assist as well. We will set up demonstration kitchens. We will teach your people the basics: how to boil water, how to make bread, how to cook a simple, nutritious stew."

He then brought up an image of the raw, harvested maize and potatoes from the Genesis Garden. "And I will continue to sell the raw, life-giving produce from my Garden, also at a fair, sustainable price. I don’t want to be the sector’s only restaurant. I want to create an entire ecosystem of new chefs, new businesses, new kitchens in every single house... all of them using my technology as their foundation."

Perez was stunned into silence. This was a level of strategic thinking so far beyond his own that he was struggling to keep up. Adrian wasn’t trying to create a web of dependency, a "spider’s web" as he had feared. He was trying to create an entire ecosystem with his Magi-Tech at its center. He wasn’t just selling a product; he was creating a market.

"You... you would do this?" Perez asked, his voice now a disbelieving whisper. "You would give us the means to be self-sufficient? Why? What do you get in return?"

"You," Adrian replied simply. "I get the Normat. You are a race of Runners, as Mex has demonstrated. You are the masters of speed, logistics, and information in this sector. You know every corner, every faction, every hidden route. I will give your people the tools and the food to break their chains, and in return, Thanad Innovations gets its first official business partner."

He leaned forward, his gaze intense. "You will be our exclusive distributors. You will handle our sales, our logistics, our market intelligence. You will be the face and the legs of our new economy. I will give your people back their strength, and you will give my people the reach we need to survive."

It was a perfect offer, a true alliance. Adrian was providing the revolutionary technology, and the Normat would provide the essential, ground-level network to make it work. Each side was leveraging its unique strength to create a symbiotic relationship.

Papa Perez looked at the young, impossibly brilliant king. He looked at the powerful Elven princess beside him, at the indomitable dwarf sitting beside. He saw not just a plan, but a coalition of power unlike anything the Slums had ever seen. For the first time in a hundred years, the old Normat felt a genuine, dangerous spark of hope.

He slowly rose from the couch, his ancient body trembling slightly, not with weakness, but with a new, forgotten energy. He extended his long, slender blue hand.

"You are a more dangerous man than I could have ever imagined, Adrian Sparkborn," the old Normat said, a slow, shrewd smile spreading across his wrinkled face. "You are not just a revolutionary. You are an architect. You are not building a business; you are building an empire."

Adrian stood and grasped his hand. The grip was firm, a seal of mutual respect.

"You have a deal. The Normat will be your Runners. Let’s show these Concordat fools what a few ’failures’ in a slum can really do."

The handshake sealed the most important business deal in the history of Slum II.

"Excellent," Adrian said, releasing the old Normat’s hand. "Charles, you will work with Mex to finalize the logistics. Papa Perez, I will have the first shipment of Heaters and Coolers ready for you to distribute in three days. The cooking orientations will begin on the same day."

"It shall be done, Sovereign," Perez replied, his voice no longer that of a weary elder, but of an energized partner. He turned to leave, his mind already racing with plans. He and Mex bowed respectfully to the assembled council and exited the small house.