Before long, the king summoned the Second Prince to the palace. During this time, the Second Prince's advisers had also analyzed the situation fairly thoroughly. The Second Prince came before King Raynor VI, George Raynor, and tearfully made his complaint.
"Father, this matter began with a down-and-out baron named Kerry Raynor." As the Second Prince tearfully accused the First Prince of scheming against him, he recounted the entire story according to his advisers' version.
The Second Prince's account to King Raynor VI was basically factual, though there were some alterations. In essence, a relative named Kerry Raynor had wanted to return to his rural fief, so he sold his estate in the royal capital to the Second Prince, with whom he had always gotten along well.
The Second Prince and Kerry Raynor were close friends. After learning that Kerry wanted to return to his rural fief, the Second Prince had readily bought his estate.
Who could have known that the First Prince had taken a liking to this estate long ago? Moreover, Kerry had been driven to the countryside by the First Prince's underhanded methods. After learning of this, the Second Prince had publicly declared that he and Kerry were good friends and hoped the First Prince would spare Kerry.
However, the First Prince held a grudge. He believed that the Second Prince had bought the estate that should have been his while also denying him the chance to take revenge on Kerry, so he had taken advantage of this gathering to slander him as much as possible.
The Second Prince declared that there was nothing wrong with his body, and that his son was his own, not the stable master's.
King Raynor VI was, after all, the king. He knew that the Second Prince had bought an estate at a low price, and he also had informants who told him that the First Prince had played a dishonorable role in the matter.
At first, King Raynor VI had merely thought that the First Prince's methods were somewhat lacking, and that after gaining more experience, he would not do anything so ugly. The First Prince was a prince, after all; seizing a commoner's home was no major issue, and being outmaneuvered by the Second Prince was no major issue either. Everyone could rely on their own methods. If he could not swallow his anger, he could simply send people to cause trouble for that little baron.
The real mistake this time had been damaging the royal family's reputation just to save face. There were plenty of other ways he could have humiliated the Second Prince.
King Raynor VI knew that many of the Second Prince's underlings were unsavory characters. He could have found any excuse to throw them into prison and forced them to expose the Second Prince's sordid past.
But now things had developed to this point, even implicating King Raynor VI's grandson. This forced King Raynor VI to stand on the Second Prince's side and bring this ridiculous farce to an end by punishing the First Prince.
The royal family's reputation could not be slandered. Because the First Prince had failed to properly control his subordinates and had allowed them to incite others to spread rumors, the king ordered him to reflect behind closed doors and forbade him from leaving home for a month.
When people saw the Raynor Daily the next day, many expected to read news about the Second Prince borrowing the stable master's seed. Instead, the headline was about the First Prince spreading rumors, leaving all those who had gleefully hoped to see a royal scandal bitterly disappointed.
"Damn it! Why is Father helping the Second Prince? This is unfair! He bullied me first, so why can't I retaliate? Tell me, why is this happening?" The First Prince flew into a rage at home, grabbing Doug by the collar and demanding an answer.
After thinking it over, Doug also realized that they had made a mess of things. The king had to consider the royal family's reputation and would not allow the Second Prince to be humiliated in such a way.
But Doug did not dare reveal the true reason now. If the First Prince learned that the failure was caused by this dishonorable idea he had come up with, he would certainly be skinned alive.
"Your Highness, please calm down. Perhaps the Second Prince truly is favored by His Majesty the King, which is why His Majesty used you to settle this matter. However, I can guarantee that after this incident, the Second Prince will no longer be as favored as before. We are under close scrutiny now, so let us temporarily set aside our conflict with the Second Prince. You can first take revenge on that Kerry Raynor and vent your anger."
Doug was a shrewd man. He quickly thought of a scapegoat they could use. As long as he redirected the First Prince's anger, Doug knew he would make it through this safely.
"That damned little baron—I certainly won't let him off either. Since things with the Second Prince have already fallen through, it's time to cause trouble for that little baron. Doug, what wicked idea do you have?" Doug truly had the makings of a mind reader when it came to the First Prince. The First Prince's attention and anger were quickly redirected.
"Your Highness, I have a friend who knows a group of pirates. Kerry Raynor's territory is nothing more than a tiny island the size of a bean. There are no royal troops stationed there, and he cannot afford to hire guards. If pirates attack, they can easily storm the island and kill him."
"Good. Go and take care of it at once. I can hardly wait to hear of Kerry Raynor's death." The First Prince ordered him with a gloomy expression, hoping that news of Kerry's death would soothe his anger.
On Seattle Island of the Jili Merchant Alliance, Kerry had no idea that a small act of revenge before leaving the royal capital would bring him a fatal disaster. But now that he had the Dimensional Exchange, even if he knew disaster was coming, he would not be overly worried.
Kerry had gotten a good night's rest. Early that morning, he arrived at the Seattle trading market. Just as he had imagined, it was bustling with activity. Merchants haggled over prices while wealthy ladies and young noblewomen out shopping moved among them, creating a picture of prosperity.
After looking around for a while, Kerry discovered that the market's sections were organized very systematically. Anyone could clearly find the goods they wanted to buy. It reminded him somewhat of the small-goods market in Yiwu from his previous life.
Following the signs, Kerry arrived at an area for nonferrous metal trading. There were stalls and shops dealing in various metal ores and finished iron products.
He casually entered a metal and mineral trading shop. A blackboard stood in the main hall, displaying the day's prices. Copper was trading at 35,700 Copper Coins per ton. The copper Kerry had was already refined to a high purity, so it should be worth somewhat more than the market price. Thus, the copper price could only serve as a reference. At least Kerry knew that his copper ingots would not be worth less than that.
"Boss, could you appraise these copper ingots for me? How much per ton?" He was simply going to conduct business honestly. There was no need to show off and slap anyone in the face. He did not need to deliberately bring out only one copper ingot and make people think he was selling just one, only to reveal that he had an entire shipload and accuse them of looking down on him. He directly stated that he had a large quantity and asked for a per-ton valuation.
"Please wait a moment, sir. I need to test the purity." The owner's attitude was quite good. He soon took out a Magic Alchemy Test Crystal. As long as ore was placed on it, this kind of crystal could directly display its purity. It seemed even more advanced than the high technology of his previous life.
Ding. With a light sound, the crystal displayed 100, meaning the copper ore was 100 percent pure.
"Your refining methods are quite impressive, sir. They rival the dwarves' craftsmanship. Our shop is willing to purchase this pure copper at a price of 40,000 Copper Coins per ton. What do you think?" The owner did not hesitate. The moment he saw the 100 percent purity, he quoted a price of 40,000 Copper Coins per ton.
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