CHAPTER 109: CLUMSY PLAN

’Tsk, tsk... so your eyes were on my golden robe all along?’

Lucien watched his father leave the room in a haughty manner, a robe draped over his body, golden lines shimmering faintly with mana.

It was a Peak Rare-ranked Golden Robe, the only one Lucien possessed, withdrawn from his Dimensional Vault. And now, he had been forced to hand it over to his father, just to appease his anger.

Once Malcolm left after giving his advice, Lucien tried to appease his father to no avail. So, after nothing worked, he had to sacrifice his robe.

After all, he did see the envious look on his father before. And he was right, as Cedric liked his gift and took it directly with a smile.

’Okay, let’s not waste time and resume the meeting.’

Lucien put aside these little things behind for now and quickly walked to the top of the tower where the meeting was supposed to be held.

Now that he knew that the Shadow Kingdom might open early, he had decided to rush his plans.

As for Lilith and Liora, Lucien had no time to ask about them. He was fully focused on increasing his stat points and skill set so that when he entered the Shadow Kingdom, he wouldn’t encounter any danger.

...

"Sir, you are here."

As soon as Lucien returned to the top of the tower with his father, the four middle-aged men stood up from their seats and slightly bowed.

Unlike Cedric, who ran around after Lucien left the hall, they were still waiting for him to come back here without going anywhere.

After all, the meeting was just halted midway, and wasn’t adjourned yet. Not to mention the core issue hadn’t been discussed.

"Yeah, let the meeting resume. The guest has already been dealt with."

Cedric nodded, then swiftly went towards his chair, sitting with grace. His Rare rank robe fluttered impressively, drawing attention, as though the very fabric carried the weight of prestige and authority.

’Wasn’t this Lucien’s?’

The four heads of the Goldveil Exchange thought while glancing at Lucien, who was back to his normal attire.

They were also curious why Lucien was suddenly summoned by the princess. However, they were wise and didn’t ask what they shouldn’t.

"Okay, let’s not waste time. Since you all have introduced yourself and your roles, it is time to get straight to the core issue."

Lucien didn’t care what they thought, sat in the main chair, and began to talk with a loud yet firm voice, making everyone pay attention to him.

"The condition now is that the Lionheart family has declared war on us. Although they are a mere viscount family, they have the support of Duke Castor."

Lucien summed up the situation they were in,

"But we all know what they are trying to do. It is nothing more than trying to rob our wealth."

He said, making everyone nod their heads. After all, everyone knew that Goldveil only bought thier nobility because of some trouble.

In fact, they weren’t nobility but pure businessmen, and they didn’t have a fief in any kingdom.

So, the war was basically to sabotage thier wealth in a sound and just manner.

"And since our business clearly operates in their territory across the kingdom, from the beginning, it was a losing battle."

Even in his previous life, if the Government decided to destroy a business within the nation, it could do so quite easily.

Not to mention this barbaric world.

To be honest, the only sane method of dealing with this problem right now was either to make a truce with the enemy or make them lose as much or even more than they would from this war.

No matter what, it would surely drain thier energy and pockets. Lucien now clearly understands why Malcolm decided to leave his influence over the Edoria Kingdom.

It was too much of a headache for a negligible gain.

"So, to decrease our loss, I have now decided to transfer all the most valuable assets we have in the Edoria Kingdom to the capital."

Lucien was clearly in a hurry, as, unlike before, he now began to use what Malcolm had suggested.

Only, Unlike his grandfather, his decision to transport the wealth wasn’t to secure it.

"What...Sir, are you kidding?"

"This is too reckless..."

Sure enough, as soon as the four men heard Lucien’s words, they immediately stood up from thier seats in shock.

One of them even slipped his tongue, clearly expressing how ridiculous Lucien’s idea seems.

Transport the entire wealth of Goldveil exchange within the Edoria Kingdom to the capital?

That too, in this situation?

Wasn’t this making it easy for the enemy to snipe them?

"Okay, no need to act too surprised. This is what my grandfather has ordered."

Lucien clearly didn’t want to nag with these old guys. So, he directly brought Malcolm, silencing everyone.

Although they still wanted to say something or persuade Lucien, he instead continued at his own pace,

"Of course, we won’t do such an important thing without a plan, not to mention without caring about the security."

Lucien said with a sharp eye.

"I have already made moves on how to carry out this mission. So, all I want now is for you four guys to cooperate."

After saying that, he finally looked at the four guys dead in the eyes and warned,

"This mission is very important, and I don’t want any objections. If anyone dares to do anything that undermines my plan, he will be killed without mercy."

At last, a fiery aura escaped from Lucien, heating up the entire room, and bone-chilling killing intent enveloped everyone instantly.

Clearly, everyone could feel that the oppressions they felt from Lucien had increased considerably from before.

"Of course, if you do everything diligently, there will be rewards too, which might give you a surprise."

While saying that, Lucien subconsciously looked at his father, or precisely at the robe he was wearing, clearly signalling what he was getting at.

He also knew the carrot and stick approach.

Although his secret plan for this mission was to cause as much chaos as possible and wasn’t to gather wealth, as he said, he still didn’t want these old guys to annoy him.

Sure enough, when four guys saw what he was hinting at, their breath visibly got heavier.

After all, magical items were too scarce in this continent, not to mention a Peak Rare rank one. Of course, they would be tempted.

"Okay, you guys can now go and begin to make preparations. And no need to hide your moves while doing anything. The more noise there is, the better."

Lucien said, making four elders look at each other. To be honest, they were clearly too speechless.

Not only them, even Cedric was twitching his mouth in his seat as he felt that Lucien was clearly playing around.

However, since Malcolm had already said that let him play around, he said nothing and turned a blind eye to the elders’ plea from the side.

’It’s his wealth anyway. Whether he loses it or not, why should I care?’ he thought, though he was a little annoyed.

"I will let you all know more about the plan tomorrow through Irwen. For now, you may leave and make your preparations."

Lucien waved his hand at them to leave while he himself stood up.

With all the things he did with Sera before, he wanted to take a bath as soon as possible and didn’t want to waste too much time.

Now that he had already said what he wanted to, he was going to wait for Irwen to come back with the intelligence he had asked him to gather.

"Sir, it is bad...this is really bad."

Just when Lucien wanted to leave the hall, he was suddenly stopped by a loud and hurried shout coming from outside.

Then, he saw the door of the room suddenly open, followed by the appearance of Irwin in sweat.

From his panicked and anxious look, he seemed to have some bad news to tell.

"What happened?"

Lucien was clearly confused and asked. Not only him, even Cedric and others looked at Irwin with curiosity.

"Sir, this is bad...our warehouses...our warehouses in the Viremond Duchy have been raided by an unknown being. Not a single thing was left behind."

Irwin saw the impatient look on them and quickly told everything in one breath.

"What?"

"How is this possible?"

"Is Duke Castor directly attacking us?"

As soon as Cedric and others heard Irwin’s words, they shouted aloud in surprise.

After all, unlike other places their Goldveil Exchange owned, the warehouses were guarded by powerful figures trained by the Goldveil family.

It wasn’t easy for a viscount to loot those places, at least not this fast.

No wonder they were surprised.

"What kind of warehouse is looted?"

However, unlike them, though, Lucien acted calmly and questioned Irwin instead.

"Hmm? Oh, it is the Coral Gem Deposits on the sea shore."

Irwin was stunned by Lucien being so calm and quickly replied.

’Tch...so it is the false alarm? How slow is your intelligence?’

Sure enough, after hearing what was being looted, Lucien rolled his eyes speechlessly. He already knew someone named Zevyr had looted one of the Coral Gem Deposits of thier family from his system.

"And...and, we already lost four of them."

However, what Irwin said next clearly managed to shock Lucien even if he didn’t want to.