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Quinn stared at the building in front of him.

It was a building that he thought was completely opposite to Gringotts. The goblin bank was made from white stone showing its ancient majesty, while the building in front of him was a soul-sucking black without a fleck of dust marring its polished exterior. If Gringotts exterior design reflected the architecture of the time it had been built, then the building in front of him was just a stocky black box. Gringotts had bronze gates, the building in front of him had glass doors.

The only thing both had come in was that their names were written in gold.

「Monolith」

“Monolith, huh,” he said, “the symbol of terror and reassurance at the same time.”

Helena standing by his side, nodded, “It’s the bank’s policy — don’t steal from us, and we will keep your money safe and secured.”

“Gringotts, back home, is the roughly the same — though they are much more explicit about their threats, carved right on the front door.” Quinn liked the Gringotts’ prose very much, but he also liked Monolith’s subtle forewarning. It had his seal of approval. “Tell me more about Monolith.”

“Well, it’s a classic private bank,” said Helena as she, Quinn, and Alexia, walked to the glass doors and the two guards dressed in blue-and-silver opened the door for them. “They serve affluent clients with an abundance of wealth, like your family — provide them with facilities like basic banking services, brokerage, limited tax advisory, concierge-type services, discretionary asset management, and the vast array of wealth management.

“They are infamous for their secrecy promises. Once money goes into Monolith, it’s difficult for an outsider to get information about who holds what and how much; they promise that your financials are going to be kept under a tight seal, of course, they won’t help you break the law — bend around the law, sure — but not breaking the law. And because they only service high-asset clients, who have rock solid financial stability, it ensures that Monolith won’t go bankrupt, thus making it extremely safe for them to hold your assets.”

“That’s reassuring,” said Quinn as he looked around the bank.

The first thing his eyes went to were the little stone gremlins perched on the walls and ceiling around the huge room. He watched as one of the gremlins’ eyes followed him like a security camera, making him wonder what they would do if he was an intruder. Alas, he didn’t have the liberty to test out to pull out a black ski mask and shotgun.

The lobby only had one greeting table, and the lobby somehow didn’t look desolate despite the lack of any other furniture. Behind the long white patterned marble table sat three women in the prime of their beauty, dressed in identical attire.

They walked to the middle woman, who looked up from her work and stood when she saw them approaching. “Madam Berenberg,” she said with a slight bow, “we have been expecting; I hope you’re having a pleasant day.”

“I have been fine, thank you, and I hope you’re the same.”

The woman who worked at Monolith as a front desk concierge nodded to Alexia before turning to Quinn, who she found was staring at her intently with a raised eyebrow.

“Is there something, Mr. West?” she asked.

Quinn looked away from her and towards the other two concierges who were engrossed in their work before looking at the woman again. “You three are identical,” he asked, “triplets?”

The woman smiled softly with her painted-pink lips. “Yes, Mr. West, we are triplets.” The other two of the trio looked up and nodded with identical smiles. Quinn had seen twins — Potter Twins, Patil Twins, Weasley Twins, and the Carrow Twins; the latter two pairs were the classic identical twins who matched with their twins, but even they weren’t a match for the triplets before him, he couldn’t tell one apart from another.

“.. . You know my name?” asked Quinn.

“Yes, we were informed that you’ll be visiting today.”

Quinn looked at her lapel badge and saw a name tag that said — Amaryl. He glanced at her sisters and learned their names — Cheryl and Daffodil.

“I have an appointment with Gair,” said Helena.

“Mr. Gair is ready for you,” said Amaryl. “I’ll guide you to him; please follow me.”

They walked into the inner part of the bank through an entrance in the inner wall of the lobby and entered a room with a dozen doorways. They stepped into the doorway with the number four in roman numerals etched above.

“I have heard that the number four is known as the West gate as through their one can go to the part of the bank that handles the West fortune,” said Alexia, whispering into Quinn’s ears. The West fortune stored Monolith was big enough for the bank to assign an entire section for its care.

They walked through a few corridors, passing by many doors coming across a few people who would nod to Helena — she seemed to be extremely famous in the Switzerland finance industry. After the corridors exited, the interior changed into a classic renaissance design, much different from the rest of the bank.

They soon reached a pair of dark wood doors. A pale woman sat outside the door, to a side behind a desk. She wore thin-rimmed circular glass with messy brown curls flowing down her shoulders.

Quinn’s gaze lingered on the woman as he noticed something strange with her. ‘She’s lacking blood,’ he noted. He had long become adept with blood magic that, along with his expertise in healing magic, that he could intuitively tell a thing or two about blood at a glance, and this woman’s appearance told him that she was at a loss of blood, though he couldn’t tell the reason without casting magic.

“Ixquic,” said Amaryl to the woman, who looked up at her with a semi-dazed that regained focus at seeing Amaryl. “We are here for Mr. Gair’s appointment with Master Quinn West and Madam Helena Berenberg.”

“He’s waiting for you,” said Ixquic, her voice held a whisper-like quality. She got up from her chair, slowly walked to the door, lightly rapped her knuckles before opening the door a crack and looking inside. “Madam Berenberg is here.”

A deep voice sounded from inside, “Send them in.”

Ixquic pushed one pane of the double doors open with her entire body. “Please go in,” she gestured them in.

Helena and Quinn entered the similarly styled office, leaving Alexia outside. A wall covered with bookshelves, artwork framed on the others; a sitting area around a table in one part of the room; wooden cabinets fitted with glasses. And the most eye-catching part of the room were animal heads mounted on the upper walls — lion, tiger, wolf, elk, among other non-magical animals but then there were the magical species, and that collection was impressive from every angle — an Egyptian sphinx, a Peruvian Vipertooth dragon, a South Ameican Firedrake, a white-feathered Griffin, and the list went on.

Sitting in the centre of the office was a man in his prime, dressed in a simple black shirt and white pants, leaning into his chair behind a simple-yet-ornate four-legged desk.

“Helena,” greeted the man in his deep voice without standing up, “you look beautiful as ever. How about we go to dinner tonight? I know a lavish place where we can enjoy some great wine and food.”

“I’m flattered, Gair, but I would like to politely refuse. I am, as you know, married.”

“What has that got to do with anything?” said Gair apathetically, causing Helena to sigh; she had long gone used to it. Next, Gair turned his half-lidded eyes to Quinn, “So you’re George’s grandson.. . hmm, I can see the resemblance, though I think like your sister more.”

Quinn stared at the man intently, “So, you’re the reason why the lady outside seems to be hypovolemic.” The moment he had set his eyes on the man, he knew exactly why the secretary, Ixquic, outside had a lack of blood volume in her body

“Aren’t you an observant one,” said Gair, his red-eyes smiling. He raised his hand that rested on the armrest of his chair and rested his sickly-pale face (much paler than Ixquic) on his palm. “What gave me away?” he said with a voice swimming in amusement.

“You’re clearly a Vampire,” said Quinn.

“That I am,” said Gair while gesturing for them to sit down.

Quinn glanced at Helena, but she didn’t seem to be surprised, meaning she knew about the man’s face, and well, why wouldn’t she? This man, Gair, wasn’t really hiding his race.

Quinn sat down opposite Gair, who still had a laid-back smile, “Second point —” Gair slightly raised his brows, “— the lady outside, her name — Ixquic.. . Mayan origin.. . and its meaning — Blood Woman,” he matched eyes with Gair who was now smiling, “I just hope I’m wrong about Ms. Ixquic’s history and the origins of her name.”

“Oh? Do tell,” asked Gair, curious.

“You’re a vampire, and I guessing an old one?”

“Hmm, old, yes, I suppose you can say that. Let’s say that I started working for your family when your grandfather’s grandfather was a young man.”

Quinn’s eyes narrowed. That was older than he had first thought. “If you’re that old, and she’s named Ixquic, I just hope that it’s not her real name, or at least the first one, and you gave it to her.”

“I did give that name to her,” then Gair smiled, “when she was born.”

Quinn’s lips thinned. His thoughts were correct. “She was raised to be your blood bag,” said Quinn; half-statement and half-question.

“Mhmn. Though you don’t need to worry about her, she’s doing it on her own accord and is getting compensated handsomely.”

“Is she the only one?”

“Right now, yes.”

Which meant there were others before.

“Well, if this is her choice, then I suppose it’s none of my business,” Quinn said before formally introducing himself, “Nice to meet you, Mr. Gair. I’m Quinn West.”

“Ah, I haven’t introduced myself, haven’t I? My name is Idris Gair, and as you guessed, I’m a Vampire, and I work as the Head Account Manager for the West Account in Monolith, and am also part-owner of Monolith. You’re an interesting one, Quinn West.”

Quinn shrugged. “So, Mr. Gair, how did you come to work for my family?” he asked.

“No need to call me Mr. Gair. Just Gair or Idris will do,” said Gair, curiously observing Quinn. “As for your latter question — Monolith is a bank which allows various races to work for them — I started at the lowest, but by the time your grandfather’s father took over, I was already working in the current position and have been working in the same position.”

Helen chimed in and provided a fact, “Gair’s a rare manager in Monolith, unlike the others, who work on multiple accounts, Gair only manages one section, and only focus on the West funds.”

“Your family has more than enough money, which is too much for me complete,” said Gair. “I can’t diversify even if I wanted to do because of the amount of work I go through with just your money stored here at the bank. I have no interest in taking any more accounts.

“So, I heard that you’re here to deposit a large amount of money?” asked Gair.

Quinn nodded, “I have come into more gold, and I’d like to add it to my vault here.”

“We can do that,” said Gair, “My team and I are the ones who manage your personal account here. I have to say, it’s one of the fastest-growing personal accounts I have seen in the recent time.

“Your vault is already ready; we just need to load it with some money, and we’d be ready to go fully operational. So how much are you planning to put in?”

“A lot of it,” Quinn smiled.

“Well,” Gair stood up, “come on, let’s go make a deposit.”

-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Quinn West – MC – Blood magic is one of his expertise.

Idris Gair – Vampire – Very old; flirty; laid-back; has raised his own blood bank.

Ixquic – Blood bank (blood woman) – Probably earns more than any secretary.

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