The "half" Gordon mentioned was a full fifty million dollars. And Gavin, whom he called Old Hyena, wasn't even a Pasa. He was merely an agent. That money was enough for him to live out the rest of his life in comfort.
High society was like a stock. When market confidence was high, its value kept climbing. Everyone bought in like mad; even getting a foot in the door made someone far more distinguished than others.
But once market confidence began to fall, once people saw the stock trending badly and sensed it was about to drop, they sold just as frantically as they had bought. Before it even truly began falling, those with sharp noses were already figuring out how to pack up and run.
The Death Gamble scandal was a sign that market confidence was about to plummet. Although Gordon's subsequent arrest operation had failed, it had still forced those people into a frantic scramble. They were no longer as composed and calculating as before, but instead revealed how stretched thin and helpless they truly were.
Aside from a few dogs that had genuinely been trained into obedience, most of high society's lackeys were hyenas and vultures. Their noses were the sharpest; they could smell blood from far away.
Even if it was their masters who were bleeding, they could not suppress the bloodthirsty urges in their nature. They flapped their wings, bared their fangs, and waited for those noble prey to grow weaker before swarming in and devouring them whole.
High society had been pushed to the brink, but thanks to Schiller's prior preparations, they had failed to seize the opportunity and strike decisively when the chaos first emerged. As they dragged things out, they instead dragged themselves into a swamp, unable to move.
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