The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era



"HERE you are, our newest ambassador," Mr. Cook greeted Astrid with a delighted expression on his face. Truly the opposite of his expression when they first met.

Astrid resisted the urge to raise his brow. When they first met, Mr. Cook was obviously full of worry. Not to mention, the fact that he was most likely not in approval of him being the ambassador of their new perfume product. But he couldn't really voice that out because of Casey. Now that everything obviously went well, of course, the dissatisfaction he felt for him was now gone. As evidence by the other's bright smile.

Astrid also smiled—his business smile, of course. "Hello, President Cook. I hope we're not too late."

"Of course not. Everyone just arrived as well," Mr. Cook said, waving his hand.

"Glen, shouldn't you introduce us to this young man first?" one of the man talking to Mr. Cook earlier said.

"That's right," agreed by the other.

Mr. Cook introduced the two to Astrid, and he greeted them politely. Just like what Ellis said earlier, the two were both executives at EMMA.

"You did a good job on this ad campaign," one said. "The sale of this perfume is skyrocketing because of your amazing performance."

"Truthfully, I was very skeptical when I heard that a rookie would be the ambassador to this new perfume line. I thought you would mess up things," another added. "But I'm very happy to be proven wrong."

They were very friendly, like neighborhood elders looking out for their juniors. Which surprised Astrid. He thought at least one of them would look at him with veiled dislike, but that was not the case at all. They were very honest in their opinions and didn't bother to mask their expressions. So, he could tell that they weren't truly malicious.

An almost impercebtible bitter arc appeared at the corner of his lips. Was he so jaded that this was the first thing he thought? Well, maybe. But one couldn't really blame him. He experienced and witnessed a lot of the industry's dark side in his past life that he couldn't help but evaluate people like this whenever he's in this kind of situation.

Anyway, being guarded like this was still better than being defenseless.

As he continued to have small talks with Mr. Cook and the two executives, they heard loud murmurs all around. You know, the kind when many people were whispering all at the same time and it just became collectively louder.

Astrid glanced in the direction where everyone seemed to be looking at. And even he showed a surprised expression when he saw the person, or rather, people, who just walked into the sky lounge.

It was Casey, wearing a silver suit and looking very handsome as usual. It's not surprising to see him here, considering that he was the owner of EMMA. But the reason for the people's reaction was not because he attended, but because of the person who came with him.

It was a tall and handsome man with a lean figure, wearing a simple but elegant black suit. His silver hair was swept back with no stray strands and his sapphire blue eyes were filled with indifference. Just by standing there, one could feel his regality. With the same hair color and eye color unique to the ducal family of Grimaldi, one could easily assume who the person was.

Since Astrid had already met Thomas Grimaldi and this man obviously wasn't him, the other could only be the Duke—Anothony Grimaldi.

Astrid didn't show much reaction on his face, but inside, he felt a bit complicated. He didn't expect that he would meet his nominal 'grandfather' here. He didn't really feel happy or angry, well, maybe just a little of the latter, but most of his feelings were just... complicated.

He didn't like Anthony Grimaldi because of how he treated his mother. No matter what kind of reasoning he had, using your daughter for your own revenge like that was just plain wrong. The only way he would probably consider the other as his grandfather was if he sincerely begged for his mother's forgiveness and his mother forgiving him.

Which would probably be very unlikely for the time being. Because if that happened, it meant that his mother and father's real identity had been exposed. By that time, they would have more worries than the possibility of Anthony Grimaldi asking for forgiveness. Like the Lancaster family, for example.

His thought was cut off when he felt a strong gust of wind passing by him. No, it's not a 'gust of wind' but rather the Mr. Cook and the other two executives running past him to meet Casey, or rather, the duke.

It was not only them, even those other high-profile people present rushed to greet the duke. Amazing. Was this the power of a noble?

"That's Duke Grimaldi," Ellis said on the side, probably thinking that he might not know the other. "Have you met him?"

Since Ellis knew about him and his brother accidentally saved the young master of the Grimaldi family, so it's only natural for her to think that he might have already met the duke.

"No. This is the first time I saw him," Astrid said, which was not exactly a lie.

"I wonder why the duke suddenly decided to attend this party," Ellis said.

Astrid also wondered about that. From the stories he heard from his mother, as well as what he had read about the duke online, the other was not the type to go to events like this. Heck, even Casey didn't usually attend the event of his own company. He probably only attended this time because of Astrid.

As he was contemplating about that, his gaze accidentally meet with the duke. They stared at each other. When it lasted for five seconds and the other didn't look away, Astrid started to wonder what he should do.

He wanted to just look away, but that would appear too rude. So, he decided to bow politely and then look away. But before he could do that, the duke started to stride towards his direction.