As soon as Phyllis vanished, Helinni could no longer stay either. The gold banknotes and the Ring of Frost Flame burned his hands; stuffing them into his bosom, he hastily departed.
His behavior was somewhat strange, but to those unaware of the background, it seemed as if he, possessing a vast fortune, feared staying in plain sight, so no one paid it much mind.
Galloweyna, on the other hand, was beside himself, as if sitting on a red-hot frying pan. He couldn't leave right away, so gathering all his will into a fist, he forced a smile and continued conversing with the guests.
Reyn, watching the departing Helinni, gave Viola a subtle nod.
He was asking if they should send someone to tail Helinni, lest he flee.
Viola shook her head almost imperceptibly, rejecting the idea.
The auction continued, but the guests were still animatedly discussing the recent major deal. Gathering in small groups, they eagerly shared their impressions.
Viola's expression gradually softened, but traces of anger lingered in her eyes, giving the impression that she still hadn't recovered from what had happened.
"What an excellent actress," Reyn thought with a mental smirk, serving himself food and covertly observing Galloweyna.
When he had eaten about two-thirds to his fill, Galloweyna finally couldn't hold out and approached Viola to say goodbye. Viola, without showing a hint of anything, personally escorted him.
The auction was drawing to a close, and the guests were gradually dispersing.
Reyn went up to the fifth floor. Soon Viola joined him there.
As soon as she entered, she asked:
"Reyn, how did you spot that something was off with the soul stone?"
Clearly, this question had been gnawing at her for a while. Though everything pointed to the evening's major deal being a scam aimed at her, she still didn't understand how Reyn had discerned the demonic soul's authenticity at first glance.
Reyn had already prepared his answer. He raised two fingers and smiled:
"Two reasons.
"First, as I told you, if the mountain giant's demonic soul were real, why didn't Helinni integrate it himself? Acquiring a second elemental bloodline is a huge leap forward for a sorcerer. Trading the demonic soul for a ring with excellent enchantments might seem not unprofitable, but he missed a prime chance to vastly increase his power.
"That's the main suspicious point in Helinni's behavior."
He paused and continued:
"The second reason was pure coincidence. The demonic soul I integrated has a very rare visual perception element that aids in appraising demonic souls. So I immediately knew that one was a fake, and it didn't belong to a mountain giant at all."
Reyn's words were seventy percent truth and thirty percent fabrication. Moreover, demonstrating some appraisal abilities for demonic souls was only to his advantage.
If in the future he gained a reputation as a soul appraiser master, it would provide perfect cover for the Eye of the Soul.
Viola nodded gracefully and sat beside Reyn.
She didn't ask what visual perception element Reyn had—that was a superhuman's greatest secret. Her attention was fixed on the fact that the demonic soul was a fake.
"Not a mountain giant's demonic soul? Then whose was it?"
Reyn voiced his guess:
"Highly likely a mutated highland ogre, blood-related to mountain giants. They're very similar, so Helinni dared the deception, confident he could fool Levinster."
"So it was a highland ogre..."
Viola felt a belated chill. If Levinster hadn't spotted the fake, she would have lost over twenty thousand gold shields today!
The Violet House seemed prosperous, but competition in this field was fierce. Over twenty thousand gold was her half-year profit.
Not to mention that the auction's reputation could have been ruined, making it very hard to revive in the future.
In other words, that evening Reyn had saved the Violet House.
He not only helped avoid massive losses but also very tactfully played along, shoving the hated Phyllis into that pit. When Phyllis discovered the demonic soul was fake, she would likely face cruel disappointment.
Just thinking about it improved Viola's mood.
She gazed intently at Reyn and said softly:
"It's so good you were here today."
Looking into those eloquent blue eyes and seeing the sincerity on her face, Reyn felt a pleasant satisfaction. He waved it off:
"You reacted quickly yourself, sensing something amiss, and trusted me so much."
Anyone else facing a deal of that magnitude would hardly believe the words of a first-level mage who had just become a superhuman. Moreover, Reyn had never before shown soul appraisal abilities.
Yet Viola had trusted him without hesitation in that moment.
It touched Reyn too—it felt good to be trusted.
Viola smiled:
"Of course I trust you."
She suddenly stood, pulled the deal contract from a desk drawer, and flame flared in her hand. Soon the contract turned to ash.
The ash, as if alive, gathered into a clump and fell into the wastebasket.
Reyn clearly saw it was the very contract he had signed when buying the World Tree seed. Destroying the contract meant the debt of over a thousand gold shields was canceled.
"Thanks," Reyn said simply, expressing his gratitude without excess words.
Viola treated it as a matter of course, like a trifle, and smiled:
"You earned it, and more. I still owe you."
Reyn was about to joke about how such debts are usually repaid, but saw Viola sit back down and fall into thought.
Silence filled the room.
In the Eye of the Soul, Viola's emotions were complex but relatively calm. Clearly, she was pondering all the circumstances of the evening scam.
Reyn didn't disturb her, silently admiring the beauty sitting so close.
Such opportunities were rare.
A moment later, Viola turned her head by chance and, seeing Reyn staring fixedly at her, blushed slightly. Embarrassment and a touch of smugness mixed in her heart. She coughed to draw his attention.
Reyn felt a bit embarrassed and looked away. Fortunately, he was thick-skinned enough to pretend nothing had happened.
"You're thinking about your uncle?" he changed the subject, trying to ease the awkward atmosphere.
Viola froze involuntarily, asking in surprise:
"You noticed that too?"
She didn't recall mentioning her uncle Galloweyna to Reyn. Until this evening, Reyn hadn't even known she belonged to the ducal line. If she herself hadn't been informed and paid special attention to Galloweyna's behavior at the auction, it would have been hard for her to suspect his collusion with Helinni.
This young man had simply incredible observation!
Reyn smiled with feigned indifference, thinking to himself that he'd made the proper impression and finally stunned Viola.
Viola shook her head and sighed.
"Since you've figured it out, I have nothing to hide," Viola seemed unafraid to air family laundry and said with a bitter smirk: "That Helinni is probably a swindler hired by my uncle Galloweyna. It's quite possible the mountain giant's demonic soul belonged to him too."
Reyn wasn't surprised at all.
Such family infighting among noble houses was commonplace, a plot worthy of countless novels and plays, rivaled in passion only by palace intrigues.
He just didn't understand why Galloweyna wanted to ruin the Violet House.
"What's his gain from this?"
"Plenty of gain," Viola explained.
"Before the Violet House passed to me, it was constantly losing money and on the brink of bankruptcy.
"I spent a lot of effort and funds to gradually turn it around and start profiting.
"However, the Violet House isn't fully mine. I own only thirty percent; the rest belongs to the duke. Annually, I must give him seventy percent of the profits. If things go badly, I'll lose this shop, and it'll go to someone else in the family."
"So that's it," Reyn roughly grasped the situation and asked: "Has Galloweyna set his sights on the Violet House?"
He noted one detail: Viola, like outsiders, called the Duchess of the Silver Star simply "the duke," indicating not overly close relations between them.
The Duchess of the Silver Star seemed to value wealth greatly, acting not like a family head but more like a major corporation chair.
Viola shook her head slightly:
"He's interested in more than just this shop.
"The shop's total value isn't that high. Selling it outright might fetch around a hundred thousand gold shields.
"Galloweyna has more assets than I do. He owns two textile factories, a coal mine, a newspaper, a river transport company, plus shares in Longsand's docks and dozens of shops. His property's total value exceeds three hundred thousand gold shields."
Reyn listened with undisguised astonishment. How rich these ducal scions were!
Sums in hundreds of thousands of gold shields came up casually in their talk—fortunes to sustain several generations in luxury.
No wonder Galloweyna was so popular at the auction. Who wouldn't curry favor with someone worth hundreds of thousands of gold shields?
Yet his methods were dirty, his manners repulsive, daring to sabotage his own niece.
Human greed seemed the same across all worlds!
Unaware of Reyn's thoughts, Viola continued:
"Like me, though, seventy percent of Galloweyna's assets belong to the duke, and he must remit profits annually.
"There are several dozen of us descendants like Galloweyna and me managing the duke's assets. Whoever earns more money gets more assets and the duke's favor.
"Position in the family, if you're not a legendary superhuman, is determined by contribution to the collective wealth."
Saying this, Viola didn't hide her disappointment; weariness showed in her demeanor.
Reyn suddenly felt a bit sorry for her.
The Duchess of the Silver Star's policy was too harsh. She seemed less to support the family than to manage it like a company. It felt cold and soulless.
Reyn easily guessed the reasons for the duchess's behavior.
All for building a floating city!
The Empire's floating cities were known across all Ellunes. They were symbols of holy soul mage status and possessed unimaginable, terrifying power.
But in people's minds, floating cities were also linked to one more thing—with wealth!
Each floating city was built on astronomical sums of gold shields, surpassing the value of legendary dragon hoards.
The Duchess of the Silver Star had been a holy soul mage for several centuries, but her resource-gathering and wealth-accumulation ability clearly lagged behind the later-achieving Red Rock duke. She still had only one Mage Tower.
No prophet was needed to see how obsessed the Duchess of the Silver Star was with this. She had no choice but to use her descendants like diligent managers, directing the whole family toward one goal.
Reyn finally understood Viola's earlier words.
Being born into a ducal family wasn't always a blessing; sometimes it was a heavy burden.
If Viola couldn't generate income for the family, she'd be written off sooner or later, and given her stunning beauty, she'd likely become a bargaining chip in some profitable deal.
The Violet House was Viola's guarantee of position in the family.
"Galloweyna is sabotaging me secretly not just to seize this shop, but more importantly, he's aiming for the title of Count of Winter Thunder," Viola said slowly.
Reyn didn't quite get it:
"What does this have to do with the Winter Thunder county?"
He knew about Winter Thunder county. It lay north of Longsand, part of the Duchess of the Silver Star's holdings and the second largest after Longsand. Its population neared a million. The city was built on the shore of Winter Thunder lake, which not only connected to the Empire's longest river—the Nakumo—but also received waters from four major ducal rivers, making it one of the Empire's largest lakes and a key waterway.
Upstream from Winter Thunder lake to the west led to the foothills of the World Mountains. Downstream to the east went to Modu, the world's trade hub, and beyond to the Endless Sea.
The holding's importance was obvious.
Viola explained:
"Three years ago, the previous Count of Winter Thunder—my other uncle—died. The title remains vacant, and many in the family want it.
"The duke announced at the year's start that by year's end, based on each person's contribution, a new count would be chosen. Whoever performs best gets Winter Thunder holding.
"Galloweyna, I, and a few other family members have a shot at this county. My chances are especially strong: this year the Violet House's profits nearly doubled, showing my good management skills. So Galloweyna decided to strike at me."
Reyn got it.
If Viola had failed at the auction today and suffered major losses, she'd lose heavily in the Duchess of the Silver Star's eyes and couldn't contend for the count title.
Galloweyna, conversely, would gain a huge edge in the contest.
The temptation of a real count title and vast holdings was so great that Galloweyna's act didn't seem out of the ordinary.