Aron couldn't help but look at the dinner table with surprise, since the table was filled with enough to feed more than fifteen people and there were only four of them. Although he was rich, he hadn't reached a ridiculous level of extravagance, since his parents hadn't changed at all and only cooked enough for the people in the family. There was no excess at all, so he wasn't used to the scene in front of him.

Still, he acted like he was used to it and took a seat. Rina took the seat next to him, facing her mother, who was on the other side of the table. Her father sat at the head on their right.

"When did you two first meet?" Virginia asked, her tone carrying curiosity and excitement, something Rothschilds normally didn't show much of.

"About two years ago," Aron answered, trying not to be too specific since that will make her feel weirded out. But for him, ever since the day he woke up after the system assimilation he'd had an eidetic memory. He might forget to think of things, but if he actively tried to recall something, he would remember everything about it.

"Isn't that around the time she divorced Rottem?" she asked. When she mentioned the name Rottem, she turned to her husband and gave him the side eye, causing the mighty Rothschild family head to avoid eye contact.

"Yes, we met because he had something that could help me," Rina interjected. If she left it to Aron, he would blabber everything as he found it a hassle to lie.

They continued chatting through dinner, with Herschel mostly remaining silent and leaving everything to his wife. She, on the other hand, was using the opportunity to learn everything there was to know about Aron and only asking a few questions about their relationship. She treated him like a mother interviewing a prospective son-in-law, giving him an idea of how Rina must have felt when he introduced her to his parents.

...

"You weren't too surprised when you came here, as if you knew everything about us," Herschel said, speaking for the first time since dinner.

The two men were in his office without the women present. Virginia knew they needed to talk, so she took Rina out and left the men alone in Herschel's office.

"Yes, I knew a few things about her before we met, then learned the rest later," Aron calmly answered. It was quite unlike what would be expected of a man meeting his girlfriend's father for the first time.

"Were you planning to use her family power and benefit from it for your business?" he asked, maintaining eye contact and trying to pressure the younger man into revealing his true intentions.

Alas, Aron was completely unbothered by the parental pressure that was being exerted and just answered, "Yes, I introduced myself to her because I needed your family's political power. I couldn't be bothered to build mine at that time, because I was focusing on other things." He couldn't be bothered to hide anything.

Rina's father couldn't help but be surprised by the pure honesty from the man in front of him. "Are you saying that you're using my daughter in order to benefit from my family's political power?"

"No, no, you misunderstood me. I had those intentions when I first met her, but I wasn't the beneficiary when we first met. Rather, she was on the receiving end at that time, since she had none of the 'family power' you mentioned. Instead, she had been kicked out of the competition, so in order for her to be helpful to me I had to help her win back her position. Only after I did that could she have the power to help me in my endeavors," Aron calmly said. There was no judgment in his tone at all.

"What!?" Herschel exclaimed. He hadn't been expecting that answer at all.

"Yes, I helped her regain her position in the family competition, and in return she helped me handle a few things," Aron said again.

He received no response, as Rina's father was too stunned to speak. His brain was still trying to comprehend how a man who was only a millionaire at the time had managed to interfere with their family's matters and dictate the tempo of the competition. Not even their archenemies could do that, but the man in front of him had managed it without being discovered at all.

The silence continued for a few minutes before Herschel finally said, "What kind of help did you even provide to her?" He couldn't believe Aron's words, so he needed some clarification to tell whether the younger man was just blowing hot air.

"Information, something I had, and still have, an abundance of," he answered.

"Like what?" Herschel asked. He was sure that nearly all the information that could be used against the family was protected in their private network, making all the information that could be gathered from outside quite useless.

"I'm sure you've already read a file about me, so you should already know what field I specialize in. And I'm pretty sure you can fill in the blanks about how I could help her with information," Aron said, trying not to go into any more details as he was afraid of causing his girlfriend's father to have a heart attack.

There was another silence as the older man connected another set of dots.

"We'll continue this later," he said after realizing the weight of the revelation he had just received. He decided to go and prepare himself for the next round, since he wasn't sure if he could keep his cool if their meeting continued.

"Shouldn't he be the one sending me out of the room? Why was he the one to leave?" Aron asked after he was left alone.

[Why'd you decide to reveal everything? Are you trying to intimidate him?] Nova countered.

"No. If I lie now, it might cause some troubles later.... I've seen too many movies where the protagonist caused needless problems when they tried hiding things instead of coming clean and avoiding all the mess that followed. People only fear the unknown since their minds don't have a limit on how outlandish their imagination can be. That's the root cause of most problems.

"And another thingif I didn't tell him about the help I gave Rina, can you think of any other reason to warrant a face-to-face meeting between her and the me of that time?" Aron said.

[There aren't many,] she retorted, then put her quantum computers to work so she wouldn't lose the argument. [You could've said that she met you because she wanted you to sue Rottem for defamation of character as an additional revenge she wanted to inflict on him,] she said after a while, finally having come up with a reasonable scenario.