Aimless Ascension

Kelash crept out of his workshop late in the morning, yawning blatantly even during working hours. Things become a lot easier when you're the owner of the place. Well, he was a co-owner, but you got the point.

Besides, it wasn't like he was procrastinating or wasting time. He had been working tirelessly all night and barely managed to get a couple of hours of sleep in the morning. That level of dedication only a few of the top-level executives manage in his company.

Thankfully, his advancement into Gold rank made his work a lot easier.

Well, that was the easier part. Now he had to look after the harder part, which was to direct other people at their work.

Kelash got out of the building, stretching his limbs directly towards the outside where he put over a dozen artists to draw a specific image that would be used to advertise their product.

Advertisements were never really a thing of this world, it was simply showcasing the items for VIP customers to see. However, his partner had a different approach to business.

Thus the artists. So far, most of them have been a letdown. Although his team had collected a few images which could be used for the advertisement, none of them had the feeling his partner directed him for.

That's why the artists were still working.

Kelash was ready to yell at those painters for the third time this week as he got there, but his attention was drawn to somewhere else.

A person with blazing gold hair, floating in the air with an uncertain expression on her face as she watched a dozen artists working outside. She was in a blue cloak, the hood hiding her unique feature, but her presence and beauty couldn't be concealed from everyone.

Maya of the Celestial Radiance was an angel in lineage and presence as well. Although she did something with her aura, which made her seem less of what was. Kelash wasn't too certain how such a thing was possible, but she was a unique individual after all.

Like how she detected his gaze even though she was engrossed in the painting. Well, that was a trick many others could do as well, including his partner, and he was probably the reason the literal angel had shown herself.

There ain't no hoes for Poor Kelash, as Gale used to say to him, which was mostly true he supposed.

Maya didn't wait for him to appear near her. She flew to him in a blink of an eye which could make his stomach churn. Well, both of them were gold rankers, but Maya outclassed him and most practitioners of the same rank by a long margin.

Kelash was about to greet her with elaborate movements of traditional importance, but Maya cut him off with a question of her own.

"What kind of nonsense is this?" she gestured at the group of artists working on their wide canvases.

"They are hired to paint for our company," Kelash answered straightly, giving her a bow. Then he recalled Maya was an artist herself, a highly acclaimed one at that. "If you're worried about their livelihood, then you can rest assured, Lady of the Dawn. They are compensated enough to be worth double of what they used to make on their own."

That was to say, even the double was hardly anything substantial, considering artists barely earn peanuts if they weren't the highly proclaimed ones.

"That is not the whole problem," Maya said, turning to him with her frown.

Kelash looked at her face carefully, and could individually see the impressiveness of her countenance, the golden eyes with refined golden eyelashes, the sharp nose, full rosy lips, and so on. However, whenever he tried to gaze up at her entire exterior, all his mind could come up with someone average. Like one of his female workers.

Kelash didn't know the point of hiding herself. He could understand hiding from her countless fans, but shouldn't she care about the perfect exterior she was given?

"Are you even listening to me?" Maya said, frowning at him.

"Sorry," Kelash was easily embarrassed, just knowing he was talking to arguably the most beautiful woman in the world. "What are you saying again?"

"Did my junior apprentice-brother put you up for this?" Maya asked, her voice full of disapproval. "I should have known when he stole my painting from master's collection, but I hadn't thought he would fall so low, even counterfeiting a work of art just to earn some money."

"Counterfeiting? Lady of the Dawn, what are you talking about?" Kelash said with an incredulous expression on his face. "Well, perhaps you're mistaken about my partner, my lady. Even though Gale is callous and jokes a lot, he has the utmost respect for the artist. You should've known that since he had given all the credits to the designated artist whose books and works he translated for our world."

Maya clicked her tongue. "I know Gale better than you," she said, "and I also know how much he hates when people plagiarise other people's work to earn fame. He had embarrassed grandmasters for this."

"Then what's the problem?"

"My junior apprentice-brother would never try to counterfeit a piece of art," Maya said with certainty, "unless it was to piss me off and he had reason to be pissed at me."

Kalesh blinked at her absolute certainty.

"You know how he survived a few months ago and I. . . well, most of us hadn't managed to give him the attention he deserved, which probably pissed him off."

"So he ran away," Kalesh completed her sentence.

"He did," Maya said, "stealing everything valuable he found at hand."

Kalash whistled. That sounds just right about Gale.

"Anyway, what's with all those paintings then?" Maya asked. "Why did all of them seem a poor copy of my "Golden Sun"?"

"That you have to ask the artists," Kalash said, with evident fury in his tone. "I yelled at them again and again, I wasn't looking for an artistic brilliance like that of Maya of the Dawn, but somehow they had it in their head when I told them to make images of people watching the setting sun. Ugh, it all made so sense when Gale pitched the idea."

Maya frowned.

"Let me explain," Kelash said as he brought out a metal watch from his dimension storage. "This is our new product that would hit the market in the coming month."

Maya took it from him and examined it with her eyes as they pierced through the facade of the anti-script. She found some complicated diagrams of scripts in them, but nothing too complicated that she wouldn't be able to replicate with just one look.

"What is this?"

"Fatewatch 1," Kelash said with a proud smile. "Or I like to call it Spirit watch, anyway, your junior brother was hell-bent on the name, Fate Watch 1, so Fatewatch it is."

"What does it do?" Maya asked, frowning, even though she could make out some of its features.

Kelash pointed towards the paintings, recalling the pitch Gale discussed him with.

"Are you still living in the Stone Age?" he asked, mimicking a weird tone of a salesperson from a different world. "No? Then why are you still measuring time by watching the sun? Miss and gentleman, I'm sure you aren't a caveman. Then why are you measuring time as one?

"Get your hands on our new Fatewatch and never miss a single moment of your life. Fatewatch, Series 1. Your time in your hand."