POV Pierre Delacour
Pierre was not happy with the lengths he had to go to. In his entire life, both as a mere mage and as an aristocrat-politician, the man had only had to sign such contracts three times, including this time. The first time had been when a friend had offered to take part in a risky but lucrative venture that would eventually raise his profile enough to get him into high politics. If anyone thought or thinks that being an aristocrat opens the door to politics, they are only partially correct.
Yes, politics is a certain method of using a variety of mechanisms in the interaction of people, and if you have even the slightest drop of influence in society, you can already be called a politician, even if not everyone agrees with it. To be an aristocrat does not mean to have a place in the world of real politics with real influence on the life of at least one district, region, county, not to mention the country. To rise to such a level should be a tremendous effort. Many people are involved in such a struggle, and it is difficult to determine who will be the winner at first, because the smallest detail can turn any situation upside down.
That's why many aristocrats are content with managing their land, business, if they are lucky — a small settlement of people on their land, but that's it, because no one is immune from losing everything in an instant in one of the risky scams. Although this is not a fact, and various "safeguards" have long been invented, but this is too broad a topic, which Pierre did not want to think about.
So, thanks to this risky business, Pierre was able to get a foothold at a higher level of the political arena and then rise even higher. The second time he had to sign a similar document, when a relative of his wife offered the Delacour family to participate in a treasure hunt for the treasures of the ancients, or rather — an expedition to the recently discovered ruins of the city of the magicians of the past. Despite the hardships and outright problems both before and after the trek, the Delacour family, as well as the Veil Community, made a huge profit, and the eldest family of the clan was able to significantly purify the clan's magic, thus rising even higher in the ranks of magical clans.
Another plus, the biggest one, was that the Delacour family was finally on par with the Dunois, who had always been "slightly older" than their long-time allies and friends. For this honor, the then living former head of the Delacour family had proudly listed his son among the most prominent members of the family, and his magical portrait had already been made full-length and placed in the gallery of the elders.
And now, after so many years, Pierre is once again faced with a situation that literally forces him to sign a magical contract that carries a lot of conditions, in addition to limiting the time of decision. Quite risky, and if it had been offered to him by an outsider, the head of the Delacour family would have refused without hesitation.
How can you joke when you are offered an agreement in which you are given materials on an unknown case and, after familiarization, a certain proposal is made to which you must respond within half an hour? If you agree, an unbreakable vow is imposed on both parties involved in the signing of the contract (it happens that the discussion is not one-on-one), and if you refuse, you have agreed in advance to a procedure of complete memory erasure for the current day.
Pierre had often heard of magicians refusing such contracts and ridiculing those who had agreed to such an "unreasonable risk". The man himself, when he was in a particular mood, wondered how his life would have turned out if he hadn't agreed to it. But it did not take long — the man was satisfied with his life.
Now there was a woman sitting in front of him, and two young girls, all Chinese, quite pretty (the assessment of attractiveness was in the background in the man's mind), and also quite strong — he had learned to feel that long ago, being the head of a magical family, and even married to a Veil. The man knew that the boy would have more than one wife, but somehow he didn't even think about which of the brides would be the eldest (even surprised himself later), being somehow sure that his Fleur would take that place by definition.
Now the man, who had been sworn to silence until a certain point, was enlightened about the future structure of not just a magical family, but a whole clan, where each of the older brides (meaning wives, not concubines) would be the founder of a new branch of the family, and each branch would be the eldest, which would have younger ones over time. So each of the brides could be called an elder wife, because they would all be equal... that's what the man thought at first, but then the Chinese woman finished the details and revealed the last part to him.
Above all the branches would be the eldest clan, the pure clan, whose blood had survived more than three thousand years after the founding of the clan. At first, the man couldn't believe it when he heard such horrible numbers, but then he laughed, for some European families still boasted of ancestors who had lived a thousand and a half years ago. How could Merlin, Ideafix, Cuchulin and others compare with those who were at least a few centuries older than their heroes of epic and legend?
Too bad for the politician who has weak nerves, though, and so the cunning Chinese woman did not achieve what she had obviously hoped for when she revealed such information to him, albeit with the special written permission of the current head of the Hoshino family. Pierre could not be shocked — strong nerves and occlumency are everything! And there, in front of him, was the contract, which the man signed, albeit after a full hour of cautious questions and answers, after which he was handed a bulging folder of documents. Pierre jumped into it: he had to know what to do, for which he risked forgetting all the details and nuances of the future clan, which would soon include his daughter!
The first pages did not impress him at all: the man was well aware that there are no saints, everyone has sins, and many of them even have well-known "weaknesses", but everyone keeps silent about them because they have their "nose to the grindstone". No, the fact that the Chinese managed to dig up so much information about the "inner kitchen" of the magical high society of France in such a short time deserves respect, but only just. Although, it must be admitted, some facts were new to him. For example, he did not know that Le Relais had access to Africans who supplied Europe not only with "ebony" but also with ingredients of human origin.
And this was a real revelation, because Le-Rel is quite an old clan, not very influential or numerous, but very rich, and they have family ties to many clans of the magical world. If they were to be blackmailed, it would be quite possible to get into the shady business in which Le-Rel seemed to have quite extensive connections.
The man continued to study the documents, becoming more and more convinced that he had done the right thing by agreeing to the contract. However, he was somewhat surprised by the strange color markings on the pages, but Pierre decided to ask about them later, unless the Chinese woman herself explained their meaning to him.
And then, after looking through three quarters of the documents, among which were Muggle photographs and even enclosed crystals with notes that Sora had come up with, Pierre reached the most interesting part. The man immediately realized that this part was the main course, and all that had preceded it was just an appetizer.
Licking his parched lips, the man looked at the Chinese woman who had brought her "girls" to "gain experience" for such an important, almost "fateful" conversation. No, this was not a conversation, or even a business conversation, this was on a completely different level, and even the fact that these girls would soon become the elder wives of the clan chief did not mean that they could be present at this meeting.
Pierre was torn by many thoughts and feelings, and the main one was that he didn't understand why Sora didn't meet with him personally, but blamed it on this Chinese girl. He also couldn't wait to get down to business and see how good this woman was, if she was the one the guy was relying on. No, Pierre didn't want to rip off the guy, but he also wanted to teach him a lesson: to be more careful in the future, to think with his own head and not to rely on some... outsiders.
Yes, in an extreme case he could have asked for his advice and help in evaluating the information he got. But the boy did otherwise, and since he decided that he was experienced enough to dispose of the available treasures properly, his future father-in-law would teach him a lesson, a gentle, loving...