Ace and the two sisters talked for about ten minutes before some more people they recognised came: "Hey! Ace, Amy, Allison! How are you doing?"
Sophie was walking towards them with a smile, John along with her.
She was wearing a wine red pantsuit, and it matched her skin tone perfectly. John was wearing a tuxedo, and fist-bumped Ace when they were within distance, "How are you doing?", Ace asked, "Not bad, this party looks like it will be interesting."
Ace quizzically quirked his eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
"I am sure that my parents are already telling your grandmother, but I suppose you can know as well, ok, come with me, let's go somewhere more private.
At this point, Kristina had also come, so Ace led them all to a more secluded room, "Ok, tell me, what's up?"
"Ok, before anything, I am sure that most of your families are aware, and if they are not, my family will tell them. Regardless, you guys, especially you,", he said this while pointing at Ace, "someone is trying to make a power grab."
Ace kept his face impassive, and John continued, "Apparently, someone feels that they can try and take something from your grandmother, I am not too sure why they feel that is the case, but it is."
Ace remained with his stone-like face, but Kristina laughed, "Seriously? From what I heard from my grandfather, Goldsign is not someone you mess around with."
"They are not, which is why it is at least interesting, and probably, worrying. The truth is that the alliance that they would have to create to even begin to be able to challenge 'her', would have deep ramifications, we would have known. Furthermore, as of now, all of us belong to some of the most powerful factions, and I can say with confidence that we are at least on good terms with Goldsign. Why exactly would someone feel confident enough to do this?"
"Regardless, we have to be ready, we may be called to act, and furthermore, we are unsure of how it will go, whether they will challenge her legally, financially, or simply try to assassinate her."
Ace nodded, "Thank you for letting me know, but do not worry, it will be fine, for now, let's just go back, we should have a normal conversation, and enjoy the show. After all, it seems that this party will be more entertaining than we thought.", he smiled at all of them, and walked back.
"Is he going crazy?", Sophie asked, to which they all shook their heads, "No. Did you not notice? When John told him, he did not even flinch, he either already found out, or he was expecting it to happen already.", Allison responded
"Either way, the truth is that he did not seem worried at all, so why should we? Let's just do what he said, and enjoy the show. Honestly, I am curious to see as to how 'she' will operate.", Kristina stated, and then began to walk towards the main hall, all the others following her.
'So, grandmother, Is this a test?', Ace's mind raced, as it operated at full power. He analysed everyone and everything, going through vast piles of data, filtrating through it, trying to find someone that would be stupid and strong enough to offer a challenge. After thinking over it for a few minutes, his superhuman mind came up empty, that could be bad. It was someone that had either hidden extremely well, or had hidden a massive part of their holdings. Either one should be impossible, however, especially considering that while his information network was nowhere near as extensive as his grandmother's, he would still get everything important, even if it did take longer. Regardless, this was either a shadow corporation, or… 'Would you really pull something like that off, at your birthday celebration, of all times, no, wait, it would be genius, It would spread like wildfire, and it could even serve to root out some enemies'. And not for the first time, Ace realised the genius of his grandmother.
'Ok, so I know this is most likely a scam she is pulling, the reasons are obvious: people begin to think she is weak. However, what is the resolution, how is it that you make sure that people do not find out this is fake? Simple, you try to involve as large a group of people as you can. How will she deal with it, will it be in one sweep, or a slow humiliation, or will she… Oh, sh*t.'
Ace sighed, he had already figured out how she would make it work, she had no plans to make herself look stronger, but instead to make herself look less weak. There was a minute difference there, in that she would not be involved in all of this, Ace was about 90% sure that this was both a test, and a gift. She would set up a perfect coup d'etat, and it would be up to him to deal with it. This way, she would be able to show everyone that regardless of what they thought of her, there was a new kid on the block, and he could compete with the best of them.
It was brilliant, not only would he appear as strong, it would solidify the thought that the business and family would be in good hands. Furthermore, it would show that his grandmother was a great teacher.
In addition, pulling this in front of some of the biggest names, it would be… risky. If someone decided to ally with the 'group' trying to take over her business, she could reveal it as a plot,and crush those who had gone against her. However, if someone realised that it was all fake, and called her out on it, she would lose a great deal of face, trying to pull a fast one on them, in what was supposedly a simple, cordial event.
She most likely had a plan for that too, but Ace could not think of anything yet.
"So, what are you thinking about?", Kristina asked,
"Nothing much, just curious on how this will all play out. Regardless, how are you doing, how is your studying going? I heard that you ended up not going for the last week."
"Yeah, they told me that there was no point, since there were tests going on, and I had just done them. They told me to just study at home, which I prefer honesty. Also, your outlines are amazing, honestly, the whole thing is brilliant, and the presentation is impeccable. From what I figured, you could get a lot of points if you sold them."
"True. But I have no plans on doing so yet, for now, I have more than enough points to get the First Rank by the end of the year, I think I will keep them as a safeguard. Also, the school would not allow me to give them out just like that, they would most likely limit how many copies I could sell."
"No sh*t, just with the study questions you predicted would come, you can already get 50%, if you work on them and you fully learn the content, getting 70% is not too hard, and even 80 is possible. Past that, however, what do you have to do?", she seemed curious to find out how he did it, and as the others had come too, and caught on the conversation, they seemed interested too. Allison was homeschooled, since there was no point in her going to a school just for the points, if she wanted to pursue higher education, the simple fact that she was Matis' single pupil, would allow her to study art anywhere. John went to school, but he did not go to the city, he was part of an online school for gifted students. When he first found out, Ace was pretty curious, but John did not talk much about it.
Regardless, they were still curious, and Amy and Sophie were aiming for at least 80% every test now, so any tips that helped them improve would be greatly appreciated.
"Well, you first have to understand the topic, memorising a few formulae is easy, but you must understand how they interact perfectly, what they are, why they are, and most importantly, what is it you can do with them. And not just textbook examples, you may have to know how to manipulate them, or they may ask you to deconstruct them. Once that is done, you must know how to use each part effectively, and apply it to a problem. All of these things are part of it, the formulae is just an example.", Ace stopped to let them assimilate what he had just said.
"Of course, for some questions, you must simply go above and beyond the curriculum, having knowledge not taught in class, knowing things you shouldn't. All of this is part of what you must do, but the most important thing is to be lucky.", he grinned
"If it was all about luck, then you either have a star up your *ss, or you are lying."
"No, you misunderstand. There are many things to learn, however, you must be lucky that the thing you learnt came up on the test. Those tests are not made to get more than 80%, anything above that, is pretty much just bonus points. It all depends on whether you were lucky enough to learn what they asked."
"Bullsh*t, how is it you are doing it then? If you are implying that it is impossible to learn all you need, then how is it you can do it without even paying attention in class."
"Simple, I was stuck to a bed for almost 14 years, I had all the time in the world to learn all the content necessary.", as he saw their shocked faces, he smiled, "What? You thought that just because I was confined to a bed, I would not be able to lead the business, come on, you all know my grandmother, you think she would allow that?", Ace saw their shocked faces and sighed, "Look, I have always been smart, there is no denying that, but the truth is that for nearly 14 years, all I did was absorb knowledge, at some point, I even got past the school's curriculum."
He smiled at their shocked faces, and then, Sophie nodded, "I understand how it is then, I am sorry for having doubted you. I apologise.", Amy and Kristina did as well.
'I wonder how they would feel if they knew that this was complete bullsh*t. I mean sure, I was learning things, but it sure as hell had nothing to do with the school curriculum..'2, he laughed internally, 'Oh well, I could not exactly tell them that I learnt the whole thing in a few months of hard work.'
*****************
"Madam, he is here."
"Good, prepare to interfere if necessary."
"I am sure he will deal with it. But still, shouldn't we at least…"
"No, if he has not figured it out, then it is his fault."
"Yes madam."