The Alchemists

Terry woke up unusually early on December 20th. He was so excited for tonight's Ritz Gala that he hummed endlessly as he got ready. London and Rune, who saw his enthusiasm, could only smile.

Amazingly, when they arrived at the St. Laurent, Terry turned indifferent, as if the nomination of the Most Eligible Bachelors in the World was meaningless to him. When several journalists came to interview him, Terry acted as if he didn't care at all.

"Psshhh, wasn't he super excited at home?" Rune whispered to his brother.

London just shrugged.

As the owner of the venue, Terry was present at the press conference. He gave a little speech, followed by the chief organizer of Ritz Magazine.

"I would like to inform you all of the presence of the two heirs of the Schneider Family," Terry added before ending his speech. He leaned his chin towards London and Rune sitting behind him. "Five years from now, they will be the ones to open the Ritz Gala. So I ask that you get used to their presence."

The journalists seemed to be on fire. The Schneider Family was one of the most reclusive families in the world. As the owner of one of the largest business groups in the world, little information could be obtained about them. Even the detailed value of their wealth and family tree was very difficult to find.

The Schneider family only appeared at highly important events, and the successor to the business and heir to the family name was only announced once every few decades. This was rumored to maintain the safety of the family members and so that they could still live like normal people.

They learned from the tragedies that have befallen some of the richest families in the world, such as the Gettys, the Heinekens, and many more. John Paul Getty was a tycoon who collected his wealth through various businesses and dominated the oil industry in the United States. He was considered the sixth richest American of all time.

One time, one of his grandchildren was kidnapped. His kidnappers asked for a ransom of seventeen million US dollars in 1973. That amount was equivalent to a hundred million dollars in 2018, which was after its inflation. Getty refused to pay the ransom because he assumed that if he paid the ransom for a kidnapped grandson, dozens of other grandchildren would also become kidnapping targets.

The kidnappers eventually let go of his grandson, but he had become so traumatized that he got addicted to drugs and became disabled due to an accident until his death.

The Heineken family, who became a conglomerate from their beverage products, also experienced the same thing. Freddy Heineken, the heir, was kidnapped. His kidnappers asked for a similar ransom, which was around a hundred million dollars in value in 2018.

The ransom was paid and the kidnappers were later captured, but the abductee had suffered a deep trauma that was never healed.

Murders and kidnappings were common things that wealthy families must always look out for. That was why no one was surprised to see how the Schneider Family took care of the privacy of their family members. Thus, the opportunity to see the two sons from the Schneider family firsthand made the journalists very excited.

Within ten minutes, London and Rune's faces had graced the various media and they both became trending on Splitz for several hours, before being replaced by news about the Ritz Gala.

"Looks like you two have become quite famous. You better prepare yourselves then. Countless girls are going to be approaching you anytime and anywhere." Terry said to London and Rune after the press conference ended. "So, don't go too far from me."

London and Rune stood up when Terry introduced them. Both were not too worried because Caspar had prepared a strict escort for his two favorite sons. Jadeith himself would intervene to oversee security at the Ritz Gala tonight.

At seven in the evening, the atmosphere in front of St. Laurent Hotel had become very lively. Thousands of people gathered to see the arrival of the important guests, which were the most influential people in the world, at this prestigious event.

One by one, the most luxurious cars arrived, and out came the guests who were considered the most influential people in the world. Some of them were top politicians, country leaders, royals and nobles, world celebrities, and prominent business leaders.

The invitation list was very short, and not everyone who was invited last year would be invited again the following year. Therefore, it was certain that only relevant people would be present. This was an arena for highly influential and extremely wealthy people to socialize directly. People said many businesses and political agreements could be established as a result of the meeting at the Ritz Gala.

For people who weren't in the circle, the opportunity to be involved, be it working on the event or covering it on the news, would be considered a big stepping stone for their careers.

So many girls from the upper class would bribe the committee to be given entry or invitation to attend the Ritz Gala. This was because if they managed to do so, they would be able to meet some of the most influential and powerful men, who might be attracted to their beauty and charms.

Kit Blue had paid a lot of money to get into this event, and she won't stop until she gets one of the most influential men from the Ritz Gala. Her target now was Terry, Niels, the Swedish crown prince, or Elios Linden, the boss of the rising Virconnect application.

She was dressed as beautiful as she could and arrived at the St. Laurent Hotel at exactly 7 PM. She got acquainted with several other girls who had similar goals. They seemed to compliment each other's appearances, but at the same time, they were competing on who looked the most beautiful so they could snatch a man from the event.

Terry and his siblings immediately attracted a lot of attention when they went down from the penthouse to the lobby, as the entire hotel was used for the Ritz Gala, whether it was the lobby, lounge, or the ballrooms.

Everyone knew Terry was the current president of the Schneider Group and the two young men with him were the potential heirs to the Schneider Group.

"Hey, Terry... How are you?" Kit hurried to Terry and smiled sweetly. Inwardly, she heartily laughed while glancing at the other rich girls who were with her. They all looked surprised to see that Kit had known Terrence Chan personally.

Terry stopped walking and narrowed his eyes to remember who this girl was. He wasn't surprised to find that this was another social climber who would pretend to know him just so they could approach him.

"Umm, good evening, Miss. Have we met before?" he questioned Kit.

The girl laughed merrily showing off her beautiful pearly white teeth, "We met at Nicolae Medici's birthday party. I'm also an alchemist."

She winked, gesturing that Terry should remember her because they were both from the Alchemist clan. After trying to recall for some time, Terry finally remembered who the lady in front of him was.

He remembered how Kit pretended to accidentally spill wine on his sister, Aleksis', clothes.

He frowned and shrugged, "Sorry, I don't remember."

He then nonchalantly pulled London and Rune into the ballroom, leaving Kit, who was left alone, dumbfounded. For ten whole seconds, she couldn't understand what had just happened.