Chapter 143: Rumors, Return Trip prep, Foreshadowing thou art pain

"Hey, did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"Something crazy happened last night."

Emerald Eye City was abuzz with rumor and speculation, as not just one but two exciting incidents happened one after the other, with some speculation that the two were related. A single fire could easily be chalked up as an accident, two in a row suggests arson.

"Did you guys go see that circus accident last night? It was crazy! Aether beasts and fire was everywhere!"

"I know, right?! Anyone figure out who did it?"

"No clue, but apparently a wandering Aether Master showed up and suppressed them all like it was nothing."

"No, it was two Masters and one of them was none other than the owner of the Golden Clover Auction house."

"So we’re just ignoring the news that the Marquis’s mansion was burnt down, his stuff tossed to the street and he was found dead and decapitated?"

"What?!"

Whenever someone with immense power and wealth suddenly ends up dead, ripples tend to form in a society, whether it’s good or bad is unknown.

"Y’all think that the Marquis’s death and the circus thing is related?"

"No. Why?"

"I mean think about it. It’s just a giant distraction. If I wanted to kill someone, burn their shit to the ground and steal all their stuff, a bunch of people gawking at a burning circus tent would be the way to go."

"That... that’s absurd."

"Anyways, good riddance if you ask me. He may have been a Grand Master, but he’s a genuine freak."

But while the common folk and those who work on the more law compliant side things were discussing the fires and possible tragedies involved, those on the more complicit and dubious side were having a very different conversation about the matter.

"The Wolf’s dead? Shit! Who’s gonna supply us with our ’medicine’ now?!"

"Fuuuck. Without the Marquis’s protection, we’ll be like amputees in a box!"

"Hang on...we sent men to salvage the ruins, right? Did they find the ledger? No? Damnit, then who has it?!"

It was an open secret in the underworld of Emerald Eye that the Marquis had a ledger that kept track of every business dealing, resource location and contraband warehouse that he was personally involved in. Anybody who got their hands on this book would be able to make use of its contents and have a huge amount of leverage over several key power players in Emerald Eye’s underworld, or even tear it up completely. As such, an underground battle royale of sorts began in search if this fabled ledger.

Unfortunately for them, someone had claimed that valuable prize long before the hunt even began, and were about to leave the city soon...not with the book though.

________________________________________________

At the Goldshire resident, the Zhen Clan delegation was all set to leave for home that morning, but...

"Are you sure you guys can’t stay another evening?," Alexander asked his old friend.

"Unfortunately we can’t, we still have business at home," Zhen Yan politely refused.

"Of course, of course. Are you sure about giving me this book? It’s technically yours by right."

"I insist, old friend. You can make better use with this infor than I can."

And repeat ad nauseum with some other conversational bits mixed in. The wives weren’t innocent of this either, granted they had a completely different topic to talk about, focusing on matchmaking and the like.

"How long have they been talking like this?," Zhen Liu asked while laying on the top of a very bored Tiny, while an equally bored Mini was resting on his head.

The Raijin Hippo would have long since rampaged or run away by now, but decided to lay there for the sake of her adorable daughter and (begrudgingly) close friend. That and she was given a sizeable amount of Golden Watermelons to just chill and snack on.

Zhen Hai, who was sitting on the carriage’s step, turned towards a certain, newly hired manservant for the clan.

"Corriandis, do you know how long they have been talking?"

"About twenty minutes or so, sir."

"Damn."

A little after the girls were rescued from the Marquis’s clutches, Matilda had managed to find the antidote to the Sandman’s Grace Powder from the pile of stuff that Zhen Liu had stolen. By complete coincidence, Farisia had woken up at the same time as Jin Fang and Alicia. This lead to an awkward conversation that had everyone realize the Marquis had used some kind of weird tool to mind control his staff into helping him with this "hobbies", and an even more awkward realization by Zhen Hai and Matilda realize that the guy they had beaten up and tied to a pole was also being mind controlled in the same manner as Farisia was.

One untying, a weird conversation with Zhen Yan and Daria and some mild begging later, Corriandis the Butler and Farisia the maid became the newest servants under the Zhen Clan’s employment.

Was it weird taking the employees of someone who almost killed you? Yes.

Was it totally worth it due to the maid being a rare Anima Wielder and the butler being a surprise alchemist? Definitely.

Zhen Liu shifted his focus away from the conversing parents, towards Jin Fang, Alicia, Matilda and Farisia, who were talking about...something.

"What do you think they’re talking about?," Zhen Liu idly asked his cousin.

"Maybe they’re trying to figure out who gets to bone your brains out for being their ’knight in shining armor’?," Zhen Hai answered in a half joking manner.

Zhen Liu’s only response was to shoot him a dirty look and promptly ignoring him.

Zhen Liu took out the weird box that he had found among the Marquis’s stuff and began to study it again. He had spent the night before trying to open it to no avail, due to the seal on the thing being a lot stronger than anticipated. Not being able to open it, Zhen Liu decided to just look it over to see if he could glean anything from it, which unfortunately wasn’t much... except for one thing.

Emblazoned on the box was the Marquis’s personal coat of arms, which looked a lot more familiar to Zhen Liu now that he had a closer look.

"Huh...hey, Zhen Hai."

"Yeah?"

"The Wolfe Family’s symbol is a wolf’s head, right?"

"Yeah, with a pair of swords crossed behind it Why?"

"Just wanted to check something..."

Zhen Liu wasn’t entirely sure and his memory was probably hazy, but he was pretty certain that the wolf heads in the Marquis’s coat of arms and the Wolfe’s Family crest were basically the same.

’That’s probably just a coincidence... right?’

________________________________________________

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN UNCLE’S DEAD?!"