The early morning sun shone through the reception hall window, casting spots of light on the wooden floor.
Dust motes floated in the air, along with the smell of wood wax.
Caroline sat upright in the main seat. She had changed into a practical riding skirt, the dark blue fabric clinging to the curves of her body, and on her feet were a pair of well-made, black tall boots.
She wasn't looking at anyone else, merely tapping her fingertips lightly on the tabletop, creating a monotonous beat.
She was waiting, waiting for that Pioneer Knight to present his so-called new discovery.
Then, she would prove it utterly worthless.
The door was pushed open.
Velin walked in.
Behind him was Xiaolan, cradling an object covered with a linen cloth.
"Vice President Channing, good morning. My apologies for the wait."
Velin's voice was perfectly calm.
He gestured for Xiaolan to place the object on the table, then pulled away the linen cloth.
A strange instrument made of brass and crystal.
Caroline's gaze lingered on the instrument for a moment.
"This is your 'new thing'?" Her voice dripped with undisguised disappointment.
"Some kind of Alchemist's toy?"
Velin ignored the taunt.
He placed a jar of diseased fish on the table and, from a wooden box, produced another bottle containing a normal fish.
The moment Caroline saw the diseased fish, she whipped her head around to look for Cohen.
Cohen's scalp prickled, but he didn't dare raise his head to meet his superior's gaze.
Velin continued speaking.
"Allow me to correct a fundamental error."
As he spoke, Velin used a pair of tweezers to pick up a small piece of ulcerated skin from a diseased fish.
"Sickness is one life form parasitizing or attacking another. But your fish did not die because of any life form. They were 'erased' by an invisible force at the most fundamental level."
A sneer tugged at the corner of Caroline's mouth.
"Knight Klein, I must admit, you're quite good at coining impressive-sounding terms. But such hollow words won't trade for a single Copper Leaf in the ledgers of the Golden Sail Commerce Association."
"Words, indeed, cannot." Velin looked up, his wine-red eyes meeting Caroline's. "But facts can."
He took half a step back, making an inviting gesture toward the instrument.
"Come, see for yourself exactly how you lost five thousand Golden Suns."
Caroline rose, walking slowly to the instrument, her gaze critical and appraising.
With a hint of reluctance, she bent down and leaned toward the smallest crystal eyepiece.
"You're not positioned correctly," Velin's voice sounded beside her ear. "The angle and distance must be precise, or you won't see a thing."
Before Caroline could respond, a hand gently rested on the back of her head, guiding her to adjust her position.
The hand was warm and firm. Through her silver hair, his fingertips brushed against her scalp, sending an unfamiliar sensation through her.
"How dare you!"
Caroline tried to jerk away, fury flaring in her eyes as she struggled to break free.
But the pressure from Velin's palm suddenly increased.
He leaned down, his warm breath brushing against the shell of her ear.
"Vice President Channing," he said, his tone calm, "every second you waste, another thousand Golden Suns evaporate from the Stone Bridge City fisheries."
"Now, shut up and look."
Caroline's chest heaved. The knuckles of her clenched fists turned white. But the words "a thousand Golden Suns" helped her regain her composure.
She swore that if this didn't help the fisheries, she would make Velin pay dearly.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to lean down again.
This time, after a brief blur, her vision snapped into focus.
It was a hellscape she could never have imagined.
There were no scales, no flesh and blood—only a landscape of ruin.
Countless structures that should have been arranged in regular patterns were now shattered, like a village ravaged by a hurricane. The cores of many structures had shriveled into blackened, dead clumps, while more still had lost their boundaries completely, melting into an indistinguishable paste.
"Now, look at this."
Velin's voice pulled her back from her shock.
He swapped in the sample of healthy fish tissue.
This time, Caroline adjusted her viewing angle without needing another reminder from Velin.
The world beneath the lens was completely different. Countless plump, tiny units were arranged together like neatly stacked loaves of bread.
The contrast made the destructive "collapse" all the more shocking.
Caroline slowly straightened, her face a mask of shock and confusion.
"What... is this?" she heard herself ask, her voice hoarse.
"Cells," Velin said calmly, speaking a word she had never heard as he watched her confused expression. "The most fundamental building blocks of all life. On the left, you saw ruins. On the right, you see what they're supposed to look like."
Then, in that same steady tone, he dropped another bombshell.
"This isn't a plague, nor is it any toxin known to the Alchemists. Your enemy is a form of high-energy 'contamination.' It's my theory that someone has placed a type of metal in the Stone Bridge City fisheries—one that continuously releases this energy."
Caroline's mind raced, trying to process this world-shattering statement with the framework of knowledge she had built over more than twenty years.
"Contamination? Metal?"
"Imagine it like this," Velin offered an analogy. "A relentless rain of arrows is piercing the water, indiscriminately striking the fish. Each arrow is too small to see, but they are infinite in number. They keep firing, radiating, until the entire structure of a living being completely disintegrates."
Dead silence filled the room.
Cohen and Barris were listening, dumbfounded. The theory was completely beyond their comprehension.
"Evidence," Caroline finally said, her voice tight. "I need tangible evidence, Knight Klein, not an unverifiable theory."
"The evidence is in your fisheries," Velin said, as if he had expected the question.
"To ensure its effectiveness, the perpetrator must have considered the habits of the fish and their swimming depth. Therefore, they wouldn't have just placed one or two blocks of metal. They are most likely anchored in place, suspended at a specific depth in the water."
He looked at Caroline, his gaze as sharp as a knife.
"You can send your people to the fisheries right now. Have them conduct a thorough search of the area between fifteen and twenty meters deep. I guarantee they'll find something."
Velin paused, then added in a tone of unprecedented gravity,
"And one more thing. The people you send must wear full-body protective suits lined with pure silver, from head to toe. Otherwise, they will suffer the same fate as those fish."
He looked at Caroline's green eyes, where the shock had not yet faded, and said slowly,
"Silver is one of the few metals that can effectively deflect these arrows of death."
Caroline stared at Velin. There wasn't a flicker of doubt in his eyes—only unshakable confidence.
It was the same confidence she felt when she dominated the world of commerce.
Her brain told her it was absurd, but her intuition—an instinct forged in the cutthroat world of commerce—was screaming at her.
He was telling the truth.