Staring at the woman in front of her who was dressed extremely lightly, various guesses flashed through Liya's mind.
'Who is this woman?'
'Why is she in the garden?'
'And what's with the cloud under her? It even looks kind of cool.'
"She's called Cocotte. Cocotte Yard, the former councilor of the Mage Capital."
Viktor appeared behind Liya and spoke.
Listening to Viktor's explanation, Liya became even more confused.
'Former councilor of the Mage Council?'
'Meaning Viktor's councilor identity replaced this woman?'
'What's the relationship between these two?'
Cocotte was sleeping soundly. She turned her head, and the pair of long pointed ears at both sides happened to be exposed right in front of Liya.
Looking at those long, slender ears, Liya felt they were very familiar.
She blurted out, "Elf?"
After all, Liya had dealt with plenty of elves before.
This lazy elf lay on top of the cloud sleeping, giving people an illusion that she was isolated from the world.
But the main point wasn't this at all, it was, why did Viktor bring back an elf woman?
Liya lifted her head, looking at Viktor with a gaze that held a bit of hostility.
"So, what's with her?"
"You go to the Mage Capital once and bring back a new lover like this?"
"Heh, I really feel bad for Gwen."
Hearing Liya's mocking, Viktor said calmly, "She's a fourth-tier mage."
"And right now, she's working for me."
Liya's hostile gaze disappeared instantly, and her expression even showed a hint of calculation.
"So that's how it is. You should've said so earlier."
"I'll definitely take good care of that tool, take good care of her meticulously."
As if she sensed something, Cocotte twitched her ears, sat up groggily, and rubbed her eyes, "Mm~?"
Cocotte let out a long, drawn-out sound of confusion, smiled foolishly at Viktor, then like a puppet with its strings cut, tilted forward and fell back onto the cloud.
Thump!
"Hoohoohoo~"
She closed her eyes and fell asleep again.
Liya, "…"
'Can an elf this lazy really be used as a tool?'
Viktor didn't explain much more to Liya.
In truth, Cocotte was now homeless.
After losing her councilor position, Cocotte could have continued living in Endymion.
But Viktor blew up the first three levels of Endymion, causing the area where natural energy was most stable to vanish entirely from history.
Without that kind of place, Cocotte couldn't sleep well.
Even when she forced herself to sleep, halfway through it felt like ants were crawling all over her, unbearably uncomfortable.
So she just followed Viktor to the empire and became a mascot in the Krevenar household.
Since she was no longer a councilor, Endymion's restoration had nothing to do with her. Now, Cocotte felt incredibly free.
She even slept better in the garden.
And now that Viktor held the rank of count, he had the right to recruit his own private soldiers within the capital.
Publicly or privately, there was no problem.
Viktor said to Liya calmly, "When she wakes up, remember to have her sign a slave contract under my name."
After all, the Krevenar family doesn't keep idle people. When Cocotte wakes up, she still needs to work.
Liya nodded and watched Viktor leave and walk into the residence.
———
In the study, Viktor walked to the bookshelf and carefully examined it.
He opened a cabinet door and pulled out a thick book.
It was a book that recorded parts of history's myths, including events related to the former "gods."
Very quickly, Viktor flipped to the page he needed.
"The Scales of the Goddess of Justice."
Aurelian had reported everything she encountered in the magic archive to Viktor, including the scales she saw.
Viktor already knew that the magic library of Endymion housed a set of scales.
They were not a real divine artifact, just an ancient counterfeit.
History described the Goddess of Justice like this.
The goddess's justice was absolute. Any evil or filth she identified would be completely erased, with not a sliver of hope of survival.
Using the scales in her hand to weigh the hearts of mortals, she would place her dagger of judgment on one side of the scale.
In legend, the dagger weighed no more than a cloud.
But a human heart polluted by malice would gain the weight of resentment.
Once the scale tilted toward the side of the heart, the Goddess of Justice would mercilessly cut down the evil doer.
Since the birth of human civilization, she had protected the humans of the continent. She always believed humans could uphold the absolute justice and absolute fairness in her heart.
But the deeds humans committed over long ages made the goddess gradually lose hope… and then came the familiar story, the Goddess of Justice left the mortal world.
But in truth...
Viktor thought about the scales kept in the magic archive.
Legend said the great archmage once grew dissatisfied with the goddess's extremity, stole a trace of her divine power, and created the "Hypocrite's Scales."
With them, he weakened the goddess's divine influence. Through this imitation scale, the archmage reduced the number of her extreme devotees. Those filled with absolute justice were eventually replaced by hypocrites.
In the end, the goddess, fully disappointed in humanity, left the mortal realm.
But her departure made people breathe a sigh of relief.
Because absolute justice should never exist in a society made of humans.
Hypocrites were still kind, still just, just not consumed by the vortex called "extreme justice."
Thus, through the imitation scales, the archmage founded the Mage Council, built on the standard of morality.
"Hypocrisy is also a kind of justice."
Beside him, Vega spoke, "You're interested in the Goddess of Justice?"
"Just preparing in advance for a crisis we might face in the future."
Viktor closed the book.
In the magic archive, some players would be attracted by the "Hypocrite's Scales."
If a player's sense of justice reached above 80 points, they could learn a new passive skill.
[Heart of Hypocrisy]
As long as one upheld justice and morality in their heart, they would receive the blessing of the will of ancient humans.
For players, the powerful effect of this skill increased all attribute values by 10% for an entire battle.
Of course, the real scales would never be weaker than the imitation.
If players joined the church of the Goddess of Justice, joined the remnant league of extreme justice, they too would receive the goddess's blessing from far away in the void.
The requirement, justice value 100.
[Justice].
But this justice was unimaginably extreme.
To preach complete justice, they would not hesitate to use brutal violence and torture to force submission and expand ideological influence without mercy.
Those who worshipped the goddess were so extreme they only saw absolute right and wrong, with not a trace of human emotion.
Viktor narrowed his eyes, very familiar with this power.
"Heart of Justice."
That's right.
Before Gwen had even grown up, the Goddess of Justice had already set her sights on this naturally born believer.
———
Gold and jade shimmering, silk draping to the floor, silver curtains hanging from both sides behind the door.
The Second Prince sat on a soft sofa, with no one else around.
He was very pleased, not just because Viktor's actions today had slapped Jace Lesser in the face right inside the palace.
Jace belonged to his foolish brother's faction. Viktor doing this was the same as directly telling the First Prince, 'No matter what relationship you have with me, because of your subordinate... This feud is established.'
Of course, though Viktor absolutely would not support him, at least he didn't slap him in the face in public.
He and his brother remained in fair competition, unchanged.
If anything, by becoming Viktor's enemy, his brother now had to split attention to consider Viktor's existence.
However…
"Viktor becoming a councilor of the Mage Council, who would've thought?"
The Second Prince spoke as if chatting with a servant next to him, yet there wasn't a single person in the room.
On the surface, a councilor's identity was absolutely above Jace Lesser's.
And this meant, even if the First Prince really wanted to marry Liya, he now had to consider Viktor's councilor identity.
Marrying the sister of a count versus marrying the sister of a mage councilor, these were two totally different concepts.
"Viktor always gives me surprises."
"Jace Lesser must be unbelievably furious with jealousy right now."
The Second Prince burst out laughing, his body shaking, laughing almost like a madman.
This was the second reason he was happy.
Soon, the Second Prince changed expression entirely, retracting the smile and returning to his usual cool indifference. He spoke with a gentle smile, "Jealousy brings about all kinds of emotions, that's why I love this wonderful jealousy."
"Prepare yourself, Greed."
"It's time to welcome a new companion."
———
Jace Lesser walked on the street, a group of guards following behind him.
His eyes were red from anger. He had wanted to ride the carriage straight home, but the rage boiling inside him made him realize he couldn't go back.
As the family heir, Jace needed to maintain calm at all times.
So instead, he took the carriage to the East District, instinctively pulled by his anger to vent it somewhere.
He was looking for Viktor's item shop.
The shop that sold only blue potions.
He had already come here a few days ago, setting a trap to make Viktor sign what looked like a generous contract, just to make the shop take losses.
But Viktor never intended to agree to those families from the start.
Jace was a merchant, but he also knew how to play the role of a troublesome customer.
He approached the store, planning to pretend to be a customer and deliberately stir up trouble inside.
But before he could enter, he saw Henny standing at the door.
Henny was neatly arranging bottle after bottle of blue potions on the counter at the entrance, filling the empty spots left by recently sold goods.
Instinct made Jace want to walk up and vent all his anger on this rustic-looking girl.
But after a few seconds, cold sweat burst from his forehead, dripping onto the dusty ground.
"No… something's wrong…"
"What's happening to me?"
The anger quickly faded from his mind. Jace suddenly calmed down.
He was no longer jealous. His brain felt like it had just been washed clean with cold water, his intelligence and rationality returned to their peak.
"What have I been doing…"
Jace held his head, thinking carefully about everything he had done these past few days.
Constantly targeting the Krevenar family, even going to them voluntarily, going to propose an alliance with the First Prince without permission…
Jace's body trembled slightly. He suddenly realized the severe consequences he had caused.
He turned to the guards behind him and shouted, "Hurry, go home! Bring the carriage!"
"I need to see my father immediately!"
After that, Jace and the guards quickly left the scene.
However, Henny didn't notice any of this.
She was still a little annoyed, after all, she'd been hearing a lot about Miss Liya lately.
And several families kept coming to ask her questions, frequently mentioning cooperation she didn't understand at all.
Henny was a bit upset.
Suddenly, she blinked, puzzled.
On the bottle of blue potion she had just placed on the counter, a trace of red had appeared.
But this red didn't look normal, it looked like some sort of impurity stuck to the bottle's mouth.
"This is…?"
Before she could take a closer look, a voice sounded right beside her ear.
"You're much prettier than that man just now."
"I appreciate your little bit of anger. How about we work together? Trust me, we can pull off something big!"