After Cohen left, the room returned to its intended tranquility.
Caroline's attention had already shifted to a new document: an international procurement agreement for iron ore. Its complex tariff clauses and transport route planning were the true games worthy of her energy. The flow of Golden Suns, the web of power, the pulse of the Duchy—these were the cornerstones of her world.
'As for that Knight, Velin... once he exhausts his insignificant savings, he'll come crawling to me with his Stone Skin Soft Vine, begging for a handout.'
'She liked this feeling of having everything under control.'
Just then, a series of knocks, so urgent as to be almost rude, shattered the tranquility of the fifth floor.
Caroline Channing didn't pause for a moment.
She moved on to the next document, her quill lowering to sign her name at the end of the *Baron Hongye Family Asset Liquidation Report*.
A noble family, with a legacy stretching back a century, was thus reduced to a cold line of numbers in the Golden Sail Commerce Association's ledgers.
"Come in."
The door was thrown open, and a middle-aged man in the uniform of a senior executive rushed in. His hair was a mess, his normally crisp collar was askew, and his face was slick with sweat.
"Vice President!" He didn't even have time to catch his breath, his voice trembling. "Something's happened! The Stone Bridge City fisheries... they're done for!"
The expensive quill in Caroline's hand froze in mid-air.
"Barris," her gaze lifted from the document, landing on the frantic executive. "You have three seconds to organize that panic-addled tongue of yours."
The executive named Barris shuddered under her gaze, but the gravity of the situation was too great for him to indulge his fear.
He forced himself to calm down, pulled a heavy, alchemically sealed glass jar from his breast pocket, and lifted it high with both hands.
"An unprecedented plague. We've named it 'Blackscale Dissolution'."
Caroline did not get up, merely gesturing for him to place it on the desk.
Inside the glass jar was a palm-sized sea bass, a fish that was supposed to be one of the most popular dishes on tables in Tarry Port and across the coastal region.
But the fish's current appearance was enough to turn anyone's stomach.
Its scales were not their normal silver-white but an eerie, dark black. Many had already sloughed off, revealing ulcerated flesh underneath. The fish's eyes were completely clouded, and most horrifyingly, its fins and tail had completely dissolved into a sticky, gelatinous sludge.
Even through the thick glass, one could almost sense the intermingling stench of rot and decay.
Caroline's gaze left the glass jar and moved to Barris's face.
"The scope?"
"Fisheries Seven through Twelve in Stone Bridge City. Simultaneous outbreaks."
"Spread rate?"
"Incalculable. Infected schools show symptoms within a week and completely dissolve within twenty-four hours."
"Countermeasures?"
"Useless! The Temple Priests' Divine Arts can only temporarily slow the dissolution; they can't root out the source. The chief Alchemist's anti-plague potions have all been completely ineffective, it's like trying to cast magic on a rock!"
"Losses."
Caroline asked the final question.
Barris's lips trembled as he uttered a number that filled even him with despair.
"In one week, we've lost three hundred thousand pounds of sellable fish, a direct financial loss of five thousand Golden Suns. And that's just the beginning. If we don't contain this, within a month, all of Stone Bridge City's fishery assets... will be reduced to zero!"
Five thousand Golden Suns.
A sum that could bankrupt a barony ten times over.
Caroline was finally silent.
Her long, pale fingers tightened unconsciously.
SNAP.
The quill, inlaid with crushed diamonds and worth twenty Golden Suns, snapped in half.
Ink spattered out, leaving a stain on the document before her.
Her expression remained unchanged, but the temperature in the office seemed to plummet ten degrees.
This was no longer a minor inconvenience; it was a major loss, one large enough to destabilize the Association's quarterly financial report. The fisheries at Stone Bridge City were one of the Golden Sail Commerce Association's key suppliers, providing for dozens of high-end restaurants and markets throughout the eastern Duchy. It was one of the most stable cash flows in their entire portfolio.
She rose abruptly, her dress swirling in an elegant arc.
"The cause?"
"It's still unclear," Barris's head dipped even lower. "It's as if the pathogen appeared out of thin air. Water quality, feed, environmental monitoring—all data points are normal."
Caroline fell silent.
Her fingers unconsciously stroked the stud on her earlobe as her mind raced.
'Appeared out of thin air? Impossible. Every phenomenon has a source.'
'Water quality, feed, the environment... if none of those are the issue, then the problem lies at a deeper level, in a domain we have yet to comprehend.'
'An unknown affliction... one that Divine Arts, Magic, and Alchemy are all powerless against...'
She turned, the languor in her emerald eyes gone, replaced by the cold glint of resolve.
"Barris."
"Yes!"
"Have the fleet prepare. I'm going to Stone Bridge City myself. Lock down all news about the fisheries. Anyone caught spreading panic gets thrown into the sea."
"Yes!"
"Summon every available chief Alchemist, High Tier Priest, and High Tier Mage within the Duchy. Get them to Stone Bridge City immediately, cost is no object."
"As you command!"
"One more thing," Caroline walked back to her desk, picked up the iron ore agreement, and tossed it aside. Her priorities had shifted. "Go find Cohen. Tell him to bring all the files on Newly Town and that Velin Klein. He's coming with me."
When she mentioned the Pioneer Knight's name, her tone didn't change at all, as if she were just arranging a trivial matter.
But in her mind, a plan was already taking shape.
Stone Bridge City was less than a five-day journey by water from that pioneer territory, Newly Town.
'Since I'm already going to deal with the fishery crisis, it's only logical to stop by and "visit" that overconfident Knight along the way.'
'I'll see for myself what this "land of miracles" Cohen praised to the high heavens is really like.'
'As for the technology for that "Stone Skin Soft Vine"...'
Caroline's fingertips lightly traced the cold surface of the glass jar, her gaze falling on the deformed dead fish inside.
'A price of three thousand Golden Suns is truly absurd.'
'Perhaps one hundred Golden Suns is a more fitting price for that country Knight.'
'That's not a purchase. It's a reward.'
'A prize for his insignificant little bloodline talent, and a... minor punishment for daring to make such an outrageous demand of the Golden Sail Commerce Association.'
"Let him wait."
A few hours ago, she had given this command to Cohen.
Now, she had changed her mind.
She decided she would go see this "rootless driftwood" in person. And she would show him the true color of the sea.