Seeing Abigail donning a suit of armor just to cheat and try pulling out the Heaven's Inquiry Sword, William activated a spell with a mere thought. Instantly, the sword was reinforced with magic, and no matter how much energy Abigail ordered the armor to exert, the Heaven's Inquiry Sword didn't budge a millimeter.
Frustrated, she kicked the sword's sheath.
Clang!
The force bounced back so hard that Abigail, even with the armor on, was knocked backward until she crashed into the sofa.
"God, what the hell is this weapon?"
Protected by the suit, she wasn't injured, but still clambered up from the sofa, yanked off the helmet, and slammed it onto the ground. Glaring at William, she yelled, "Where did you even get this freakish thing? Why did it rebound when I kicked it?!"
William, who was watching the news, didn't even look back. "Vibranium, plus some special forging techniques. Not that you'd understand even if I explained."
"Special forging techniques?"
Still fuming, Abigail paused upon hearing that, then took off the armor and walked over to William, eyes lighting up. "Can this tech be used in the automotive industry?"
William reached out and touched her forehead. "Do you even know how precious this material is?"
"This sword is said to be indestructible. If you sold it to someone who knew what it was worth, they'd pay five hundred billion pounds for it without blinking—let alone a mere hundred billion."
"F-five hundred billion?"
She had been thinking about using the technology at their Aston Martin company, but the moment she heard that, she hugged William and complained, "Those car guys have been pestering me nonstop lately, asking when they can start mass-producing those three supercars you designed."
William thought for a second. "Sunday, send the blueprints for the Aston Martin One-77 to the R&D department. Tell them this car will be limited to 77 units, each priced at £1.2 million, and only available for preorder by existing Aston Martin owners."
"Understood, SIR."
"Only 77 units? That's way too few! According to the team over at Aston Martin, over 200 people have already called in to place deposits. Limiting it to just 77 is definitely going to make some people mad. How about we make 777?"
William rolled his eyes. "777? And that's supposed to be a limited edition? Do you even know how long it would take to handcraft that many?"
"You irresponsible bastard. You don't even know your own car company's annual production capacity." She gave him a firm slap on the shoulder. Then she called out, "Sunday, explain this to your boss, will you?"
"Certainly, Miss Chace," Sunday replied smoothly. "SIR, thanks to the popularity of the DB9 and Phantom models, as well as the company's dominance in electric vehicles, Aston Martin has doubled in both performance and scale year over year for the past three years.
The company's market value has grown from £1.5 billion when you acquired it to nearly £10 billion today. Annual vehicle production has increased from 21,000 units to 100,000.
The number of employees has also grown to nearly ten thousand, of which 940 specialize in handcrafted vehicles. They produce about 300 bulletproof Phantom sedans each year.
If I were to coordinate the One-77 project, it would take just one month of preparation. At full capacity, the handcrafting workshop could produce one supercar a day.
If mass production were necessary, a single assembly line could produce 777 cars in a single month."
For this type of limited-edition supercar, William would never use an assembly line. With a price tag of £1.2 million, only die-hard fans would make the purchase without hesitation. Others, even if wealthy, would compare it to other high-performance vehicles before deciding.
And if production ever reached 10,000 units per year, its value would plummet instantly.
So William wasn't the least bit concerned about production numbers. What did surprise him was something else. Grabbing Abigail by the shoulders, he asked, "So the company's already worth nearly ten billion? That means the car company's been my fastest-growing business over the past few years?"
Under William's intense gaze, Abigail couldn't help but beam with pride. Still, she kept calm and explained, "It's mostly because the EV industry's been hot these last couple of years. Without that, we wouldn't have gained over £3 billion in value just last year alone.
You were the one with foresight, though. Developing the super battery early on gave us a massive head start. Right now, we're the only company producing electric supercars that can legally drive on public roads. Other companies are still at least three years away from that."
That might be true, but William also understood that without Abigail's management, it'd be a miracle if the Devonshire Group hadn't fallen apart.
Realizing she'd been by his side for over five years now, William smiled and asked, "So, what kind of reward do you want?"
Then he added, "Marriage not included."
"You jerk!" Abigail, who had just started thinking in that direction, punched William in the chest. Not satisfied, she hit him a few more times before he finally pulled her into a hug, grinning all the while.
Disheartened, Abigail lay against his chest for a long time before muttering, "I'm almost thirty now. I'm already starting to get crow's feet… What if, in a few more years, you look at me and think I'm too old?"
"What's there to worry about?" William thought about how he was already twenty-six, and with Abigail being three years older, she'd turn thirty next July. Smiling, he replied, "Relax. I've already made progress in research to delay aging and even extend lifespan. I promise there'll be results before my mother starts showing signs of aging."
"R-really?" Abigail immediately sat up, eyes sparkling. "Darling, if you're lying to me, I swear—I swear—"
She tried several times to threaten him, but in the end couldn't bring herself to say it. Her eyes darted, and suddenly she stood up, grabbed her phone, and called Lena.
The moment the call connected, she let out a dramatic squeal, followed by multiple apologies. Then, right in front of William's exasperated stare, she exaggerated what he said—claiming the research was almost complete.
Grinning smugly, she waved the phone at William. "Madam says she's coming home immediately. Darling, you better start putting your whole heart into this research—or the whole family's going to be mad at you."
"I said I've just made some progress. It's still a long way from being finished."
"Ha! Do you take me for a fool?" Abigail teased triumphantly. "Don't think I don't know how you are. If no one pushes you, you'll still keep it in mind, sure—but your attention will wander to other things."
"I'm not going to wait until I've already got wrinkles on my face to use your so-called anti-aging tech." She gently touched her cheek. "You said it only delays aging. Who knows if I'll even be able to go back to how I looked a few years ago."
William shot her a helpless glare. Welp—so much for having any free time to himself now.
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