Count Winterthrone

Phyllis had barely left when Herlinni could no longer stay put. The gold notes and Frostfire Ring in his hands seemed to burn him; he stuffed them into his clothes and hurried away.

His behavior was somewhat unusual, but to those unaware of the truth, it merely looked like he was carrying a huge fortune and did not dare linger. No one gave it much thought.

Gallowayna, on the other hand, was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. He wanted to leave, yet could not depart immediately. He forced himself to remain calm, putting on a strained smile as he continued conversing with the guests around him.

Watching Herlinni's departing figure, Rayne gave Viola a meaningful look.

He meant to ask whether they should have someone follow Herlinni so he could not escape.

Viola shook her head slightly, rejecting the suggestion.

The trade fair continued, but the guests were still eagerly discussing the enormous transaction from earlier. Groups of three or five gathered together, each little circle talking about it.

Viola's expression gradually eased, though a trace of lingering anger remained in her eyes, making it clear that she was still in a bad mood.

"What a great actress."

Rayne grumbled inwardly as he picked up some food to fill his stomach, all while secretly observing Gallowayna.

By the time he was seventy percent full, Gallowayna finally could not hold back any longer and bid Viola farewell. Without betraying any emotion, Viola personally saw him out.

The trade fair drew to a close, and the guests gradually departed.

Rayne returned to the fifth floor. Not long after, Viola came upstairs as well.

The moment she entered, she asked, "Rayne, how did you discover there was something wrong with that Soul Stone?"

Clearly, she had been holding that question in for a long time. Although every sign indicated that the major transaction tonight had been a scam aimed at her, she still could not understand how Rayne had seen through the Demon Soul's authenticity at a glance.

Rayne had already prepared an explanation. He raised two fingers and smiled. "Two reasons."

"First, as I told you earlier, if that Mountain Giant Demon Soul was real, why didn't Herlinni fuse with it himself? Gaining a second elemental bloodline would be an enormous improvement for a Warlock. Exchanging the Demon Soul for a Supreme Tier ring might not seem like a loss, but he would be giving up a wonderful chance to grow stronger."

"That was Herlinni's biggest point of suspicion."

He paused before continuing, "The second reason is a bit of a coincidence. The Demon Soul I fused with came with a rare visual sensory element that can assist in appraising Demon Souls. So I noticed at once that the Demon Soul was fake. It wasn't a Mountain Giant at all."

Seven parts of Rayne's words were true, while three were false. Besides, it would benefit him to reveal an appropriate amount of his ability to appraise Demon Souls.

If he ever gained the title of master Soul Appraiser, it could also serve as a cover for the Soul Eye.

Viola nodded lightly and sat down beside Rayne.

She did not ask what his visual element was. That was a Transcendent's greatest secret. What concerned her was that the Demon Soul had actually been fake.

"Not a Mountain Giant Demon Soul? Then what was it?"

Rayne voiced his guess. "Most likely, it was a mutated Highland Ogre. It has a blood relationship with Mountain Giants, and the two are very similar. That's why Herlinni dared use it for fraud. He was confident he could deceive Levenshtein."

"So it was a Highland Ogre."

Viola felt a wave of lingering fear. If Levenshtein had failed to identify the Demon Soul as fake, she would have suffered a loss of more than twenty thousand gold today.

Violet House appeared to be doing well, but competition in this industry was fierce. More than twenty thousand gold was half a year's profit for her.

Not to mention that the trade fair's reputation might have been ruined beyond repair, making it difficult to hold another one in the future.

In other words, Rayne had saved Violet House tonight.

Not only had he helped her avoid a massive pitfall, he had also tacitly cooperated with her to shove that hateful Phyllis right into it. When Phyllis discovered that there was something wrong with the Demon Soul, she would probably be furious enough to spit blood.

The thought alone put Viola in a good mood.

She gazed at Rayne and said softly, "It's fortunate you were here today."

Seeing those blue eyes that seemed able to speak, along with the sincerity on her face, Rayne was greatly pleased. He waved it off. "You reacted quickly too. You noticed something was wrong, and you trusted me so much."

In such a huge transaction, most people would probably find it difficult to believe the words of a First-Level Wizard who had only just become a Transcendent. Rayne had never shown any Soul Appraiser ability before, either.

Yet Viola had believed him without hesitation.

Rayne was somewhat moved by that as well. Being trusted felt good.

Viola broke into a smile. "Of course I trust you."

She suddenly stood up, took out a trade contract from the desk drawer, and lit it on fire in her hand. The contract quickly burned to ash.

The ashes moved without wind, gathering into a ball before falling into the trash bin.

Rayne saw clearly that this was the contract he had signed to purchase the World Tree Seed. Burning it meant the debt was wiped clean. He would never have to repay that thousand-plus gold again.

"Thank you." Rayne did not say much else, merely expressing his gratitude.

Viola did not think much of it, as though it were a trivial matter. Smiling, she said, "You deserve it, and far more than this. I still owe you a favor."

Rayne had wanted to tease her by asking how she intended to repay that favor, but Viola sat back down again, a thoughtful expression appearing on her face.

The room fell silent.

Through the Soul Eye, Viola's emotions appeared complicated yet relatively calm. Clearly, she was considering many things, most likely related to tonight's scam.

Rayne did not disturb her. He simply admired the beauty sitting so close before him.

Opportunities like this were rare.

A moment later, Viola happened to turn her head and saw Rayne staring at her absentmindedly. The tips of her ears immediately reddened slightly. She felt both embarrassed and annoyed, but also a little pleased, and gave a soft hum as a reminder.

Rayne awkwardly withdrew his gaze. Fortunately, he was thick-skinned enough to pretend that nothing had happened.

"Are you thinking about your uncle?"

He changed the subject, trying to ease the awkward atmosphere.

Viola's expression froze slightly, and she asked in surprise, "You could tell even that?"

She did not remember ever mentioning her uncle Gallowayna to Rayne. Before tonight, Rayne had not even known that she was a member of a duke's family. If she had not known beforehand and paid special attention to Gallowayna's actions at the trade fair, even she would have had difficulty realizing that he was Herlinni's accomplice.

This guy's powers of observation were far too sharp!

Rayne gave a calm smile on the surface, thinking that his act had gone perfectly. He had finally stunned Viola. Hehe.

Viola shook her head and sighed.

"Since you've already figured it out, there's nothing for me to hide." Looking as though she did not mind airing her family's dirty laundry, Viola gave a bitter smile. "That Herlinni was probably a swindler my uncle Gallowayna brought in. It's very likely that even the Mountain Giant Demon Soul belonged to him."

Rayne was not surprised in the least.

Such struggles within great families were nothing unusual. Countless television dramas had portrayed them again and again, only slightly less exciting than palace intrigue.

He simply did not understand Gallowayna's motive for wanting to ruin Violet House.

"What does he gain from doing this?"

"He gains far too much."

Viola explained, "Before I took over, Violet House had been operating at a loss for years. It nearly went bankrupt."

"I spent a great deal of effort and money before it gradually improved and began making a profit."

"But Violet House doesn't wholly belong to me. I only own thirty percent. The rest belongs to the Duke, and seventy percent of the annual profits must be handed over to him. If I fail to manage it well, I'll lose the shop, and it will be transferred to someone else in the family."

"I see." Rayne roughly understood. "Gallowayna has his eye on Violet House?"

He noticed something. Viola addressed Duke Silverstar the same way outsiders did, calling him the Duke. Evidently, her relationship with Duke Silverstar was not particularly close.

Duke Silverstar seemed to place immense importance on wealth. Rather than the head of a family, he resembled the chairman of some massive corporation.

Viola shook her head slightly. "What he wants is far more than this shop."

"The shop's total value actually isn't very high. If it were sold off entirely, it would probably fetch around a hundred thousand Gold Shields."

"Gallowayna has more assets under his name than I do. He owns two textile mills, a coal mine, a newspaper, and a river transport company, as well as shares in the Longshande docks and dozens of shops. His total assets exceed three hundred thousand Gold Shields."

Rayne was dumbfounded. People from a duke's family were far too rich!

They casually dealt in hundreds of thousands of Gold Shields. Converted into Copper Yuan, that was equivalent to several hundred million—enough for several "small goals."

No wonder Gallowayna had been so popular at the trade fair. With a net worth of hundreds of thousands of Gold Shields, who would not want to curry favor with him?

But his methods could not bear the light. The way he went about things was utterly disgraceful; he had actually targeted his own niece.

It seemed capitalists were equally greedy in every world!

Unaware of Rayne's thoughts, Viola continued, "However, just like me, seventy percent of Gallowayna's assets belong to the Duke, and he must hand over the profits every year."

"There are dozens of descendants like Gallowayna and me in the family, managing assets for the Duke. Whoever earns more money receives more assets and becomes closer to the Duke."

"Within the family, unless one becomes a Legendary Transcendent, status is determined by one's contribution of wealth."

As she spoke, Viola's eyes filled with helplessness, and traces of exhaustion showed on her face.

Rayne suddenly felt a little sympathy for her.

Duke Silverstar's methods were too harsh. It felt less like he was maintaining a family and more like he was running it as a company. It sounded cold and devoid of warmth.

Rayne could easily guess Duke Silverstar's reason for doing this.

Everything was for the sake of building a Floating City!

The Empire's Floating Cities were renowned throughout all of Aerenus. They symbolized the status of Soul Saint Wizards and possessed terrifying power beyond ordinary imagination.

Yet in people's minds, Floating Cities represented something else as well: wealth!

Every Floating City was built from an astronomical mountain of Gold Shields, more tempting than even the legendary treasures of Dragons.

Duke Silverstar had been a Soul Saint Wizard for several centuries, yet his ability to gather resources and wealth was clearly inferior to that of Duke Redstone, who had reached that level later. To this day, he possessed only a Wizard Tower.

There was no need to think further. Duke Silverstar must care deeply about this, so he could only exploit his descendants like workers, driving the entire family toward a single goal.

Rayne finally understood what Viola had said before.

Being born into a duke's family was not necessarily all benefit. Sometimes, it could become a burden.

If Viola could not contribute wealth to the family, she would sooner or later be eliminated. With her stunning beauty, she would likely be used as a bargaining chip in an exchange of interests.

And Violet House was Viola's guarantee of status within the family.

"Besides secretly plotting against me in order to seize this shop, Gallowayna's more important goal is to seek the title of Count Winterthunder," Viola said slowly.

Rayne did not quite understand. "What does that have to do with Count Winterthunder's Domain?"

He knew of Count Winterthunder's Domain. It lay north of Longshande City and was part of Duke Silverstar's Domain. It was also the second-largest territory in the duchy after Longshande, with a population close to one million. Its city stood on the shores of Winterthunder Lake. Not only was it connected to the Empire's longest river, the Naqumer River, but the duchy's four major rivers also flowed into it, making it one of the Empire's largest lakes and an extremely important waterway.

Travel upstream from Winterthunder Lake to the west, and one could reach the foot of the World Mountain Range. Sail downstream to the east, and one would arrive at Demon Capital, known as the world's trade center, before eventually entering the Endless Sea.

The importance of this territory went without saying.

Viola explained, "Three years ago, the previous Count Winterthunder, another one of my uncles, passed away. The count's title has remained vacant ever since, and many people in the family want that territory."

"At the beginning of this year, the Duke announced that, based on their contributions by the end of the year, he would choose a new count. Whoever performed best would receive Winterthunder Territory."

"Gallowayna, several other family members, and I all have a chance of obtaining that countship. My chances are especially high. Violet House's profits have nearly doubled this year, demonstrating excellent management ability. That's why Gallowayna targeted me."

Rayne finally understood.

If Viola had stumbled at tonight's trade fair and suffered a disastrous loss, she would have lost a great deal of standing in Duke Silverstar's eyes. There would have been no chance for her to contend for the count's title.

Conversely, Gallowayna would gain an enormous advantage in the competition.

Faced with the temptation of a hereditary count's title and a vast territory, it was perfectly normal for Gallowayna to resort to such methods.