Lord of the Mysteries: The New Black Emperor

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With Tortuga Port becoming the economic pillar of Longtail Island, Hobert had basically completed the plans he'd been working on for the past two to three months.

The land reform outside of Tortuga Port was also basically completed, but eliminating the bad habits of the Longtail Island natives was a long and arduous task.

However, with Hobert replacing the position of "Mountain God," this task would definitely have significant results within a year.

After handing over the operation of Tortuga Port to Fors, and the operation of Longtail Island's administration to Conrad, Hobert returned to Backlund and began to deal with the backlog of affairs there.

Midday, "Earl's Light" office building.

The wooden door of the Finance Director's office was suddenly knocked on. Audrey glanced at the wall clock and realized it was already lunchtime. She thought Annie was bringing her lunch: "Come in!"

There was a separate kitchen providing meals for the management of "Earl's Light." Although it wasn't as luxurious as the lunch at MI9, the taste was quite good.

Audrey didn't want to highlight how special she was, so she ate lunch at "Earl's Light."

The door opened, and it wasn't Annie who came in, but Hobert, wearing a trench coat, handsome and dashing, with a bit of stubble.

Audrey, who was wearing a relatively simple long dress today, looking somewhat professional, was pleasantly surprised: "Hobert, you're back!"

"Yes, I just got back from the Southern Continent." Hobert lied smoothly, carrying lunch in as he entered: "I didn't even have time to shave before coming over. It's lunchtime, so I brought lunch with me."

Actually, at his level, whether his beard and hair grew or not was up to him.

Audrey happily went to take the lunch, but saw Hobert suddenly open his arms.

She didn't refuse and hugged Hobert tightly.

A dozen seconds later, Hobert kissed Audrey's forehead, and the two separated.

Hobert placed the lunch on the table, which was quite lavish: two steaks, a plate of shrimp, a salad platter, and two bowls of onion soup.

Shrimp was rare in other company kitchens, but the "Earl's Light" kitchen often had some expensive seafood or shrimp and crabs from Backlund.

Not only the small kitchen, but the large kitchen for the employees also had them.

This was because South Colson had begun developing fisheries on Docklands Island. What had troubled them before was that no one knew how to fish at sea, but as Longtail Island became Hobert's territory, they learned some fishing techniques from the native fishermen.

South Colson also made systematic deployments, built fishing ports, and purchased small fishing boats and many fishing gears, so now seafood was a common food on the tables of South Colson residents in the inland areas.

At the same time, it could also be supplied to the higher-priced Backlund "Earl's Light" factory, so that the workers here could also eat seafood.

Usually, Audrey felt that the dishes in the "Earl's Light" small kitchen were a bit greasy, but today, with Hobert present, she felt it was particularly delicious, and soon finished her steak and three shrimp.

The maid Annie cleared the table, and Hobert and Audrey chatted over tea.

Audrey whispered: "The second payment for the Southern Continent, a total of 200,000 pounds, is ready."

Hobert nodded: "The location for the factory on the Southern Continent has also been found. As soon as the money arrives, large-scale construction can begin."

Actually, the place had been found long ago, but because the land reform of Longtail Island had to be carried out first, a large number of people were needed, and the personnel had not been in place.

Now, with the end of the land reform on Longtail Island, Hobert could transfer a large number of officials and cadres to the Southern Continent to start planning the infrastructure there.

This had been prepared since after the Battle of South Colson. In another week or two, the South Colson cadre school would have a large number of grassroots officials sent to the Southern Continent.

These things flashed through Hobert's mind. He asked Audrey: "How's the operation of 'Earl's Light' lately?"

"Not very smooth." Audrey said with some worry: "Two accidents occurred in both Cherwood Borough and Saint George Borough. The wires were blown off by the wind and fell to the ground."

"A total of five people were electrocuted in the four accidents. Almost all major newspapers reported these accidents, causing the order for light bulbs to plummet."

Hobert slowly nodded: "Has there been a strong wind in the past week or two?"

Audrey was stunned: "It doesn't seem like it."

"Continue," Hobert said.

"The Gas Association certainly wouldn't let go of this opportunity. Many prosecutors immediately filed a public lawsuit with the Supreme Court on the grounds that electric lights caused huge damage." Audrey said, "However, with the mediation of my father and others, the Supreme Court did not file the case."

"But the Parliament has set up an investigation team to investigate the potential hazards and future development prospects of electric lighting."

"The Prime Minister's secretary is the leader of the team. The team members include parliamentarians, officials from the industrial sector, and members of the Gas Association."

"The team also sent you an invitation, but Todd refused on the grounds that you were away on a business trip. It seems that a new invitation was sent this morning. It is said that a more important meeting will be held tomorrow."

Hobert nodded: "I know."

The establishment of this team was obviously to mediate the conflict between the Gas Association and "Earl's Light," and at the same time, it was hoped that the interests of the lighting industry would be redistributed, so that the Gas Association could also transition to the era of light bulb lighting, so as to prevent "Earl's Light" from forming a monopoly and making it difficult for the government to control.

He asked again: "Then how are our businesses in other cities going?"

"Very smoothly!" Audrey said: "The 12 cities of all sizes where we built power plants have absorbed several million pounds of funds since the electric lights started selling in the past ten days. Among them, Upton took 800,000 pounds to Intis, and he has 1.2 million pounds prepared for subsequent investment."

Hobert nodded. With such a sum of money, Upton would be able to develop his business in Intis at an extremely fast speed and quickly recoup new funds.

He asked: "Can 800,000 pounds be taken out of the books?"

Audrey smiled: "No problem."

"Take it out to distribute dividends to the shareholders." Hobert smiled: "Don't consider my share."

A few months ago, the total investment of all shareholders except Hobert was 1.4 million pounds. Now they can get 800,000 pounds. For the shareholders, the speed of making money was like this when they invested in banks and finance before.

Hobert thought to himself: This is the so-called dividend of emerging industries.

"Okay," Audrey agreed.

Hobert also instructed: "When sending dividends to shareholders, or when they come to collect them, be sure to explain to them that the company will have a lot of actions recently, so that they don't have to worry, I will solve it."

What he meant was: I will handle it, don't worry about it, and don't bother me.

After chatting for a few more words and making an appointment with Audrey to visit her home tomorrow night, Hobert came to Todd's office again to learn about the situation.

When those accidents happened before, the "Earl's Light" public relations team also reacted quickly.

But they were always one step late. When they went to negotiate compensation with the families of the deceased, the families had already sued "Earl's Light" to the court, and had been shouting to send the people who made the electric lights and wires to prison.

When other people from the public relations department went to the newspaper office, the reports of these accidents had already been laid out and began to be printed in batches.

While negotiating with the editor-in-chief to spend money to suspend printing, the printed newspapers had already begun to be sold on the street.

Todd said with a dark face: "If someone hadn't deployed in advance, I wouldn't believe it."

After Hobert learned about the situation, he instructed Todd a few words, took away the invitation letter from the investigation team, and left "Earl's Light."

At this time, he suddenly realized that he didn't even have Xio's emergency contact information. He was about to go to the telegraph office to send Xio a telegram, asking her to go to Earl's mansion as soon as possible.

But then he thought that if Xio wasn't at home, she might not receive the telegram.

Hobert sighed. Without Beyonder abilities, if there was a telephone, at least he could determine whether Xio was at home or not.

So he used "Travel" to come to the address left by Xio, and sure enough, she was not at home.

If he used the ability of "Connection", he could find Xio, but as long as Xio's current location exceeded five kilometers, it would take a certain amount of time.

Hobert thought again that he could use Xio's hair to perform long-distance "Connection". As long as she hadn't left Backlund, he could at least roughly know where she was now.

But Xio was a very excellent bounty hunter. Hobert searched for a long time, but couldn't find a single strand of hair.

He simply returned to the Earl's mansion, intending to write a letter and ask the messenger to send it to Xio.

As soon as he entered the hall of the Earl's mansion, Dophis handed over an invitation card, reminding Hobert to go to the appointment tonight.

That was the invitation issued by Georgina before, inviting Hobert and others to have dinner together and enjoy the opera.

Hobert took the invitation card back to the study and sighed: "It's so fast, it's already September 12th!"

He remembered that the war seemed to break out in October, which meant that he still had a month to prepare.

Using this month to invest a large amount of pounds in the Southern Continent.

This plan had been going on all the time. Audrey was in charge of Backlund, and Hobert's sister Donna was in charge of the Southern Continent.

In addition, it was necessary to prepare to launch the telephone product. At least before the war started, let the nobles in Empress Borough use it first. If the war started, a large number of military orders would definitely be obtained!

Hobert pondered for a while, then wrote a letter to Xio and began to deploy the strike against the Gas Association.

Xio arrived at the Earl's manor a little after three o'clock. Before Hobert had even assigned her a task, Xio proactively said, "I investigated the four accidents related to 'Earl's Light.' They weren't genuine accidents; they were a conspiracy orchestrated by two gas companies in collusion."

Hobert smiled inwardly, thinking, "That's what I call professional."

Xio's investigation was extremely thorough. She not only identified the key personnel involved in the gas companies' scheme but also found evidence of the Gas Association bribing several major newspapers.

Hobert looked at the information in his hand, took out his wallet, and produced 800 pounds in cash: "Is this enough to cover your informants' fees and your investigation expenses?"

Xio was a little dazed to see such a stack of cash: "I, I only spent a little over 300 pounds, mainly to bribe employees of the newspapers and personnel from the Gas Association."

Hobert took out another 200 pounds and handed Xio 1,000 pounds in cash: "This is all yours."

"I don't need that much."

"The remaining money is a bonus for you." Hobert smiled and said, "Your information is too timely. It allows me to deal with the Gas Association's coercion more calmly."

He paused and then added, "Help me with another investigation. Help me find out all the storage locations of Backlund Gas."

Xio was slightly stunned: "Hobert, I know you're angry about the Gas Association's scheme, but you can't be too impulsive, or you'll hurt many innocent people."

Hobert smiled and said, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing!"

"Yes, I assure you, I will never harm an innocent person!"

Xio nodded; in this regard, she still trusted Hobert.

Hobert finally asked, "If I have any urgent matters in the future, how should I contact you?"

He smiled self-deprecatingly: "I'm not a 'Seer,' after all."

In terms of finding people, Hobert conceded defeat.

Xio thought for a moment; she didn't have any good ideas either.

"Give me a strand of your hair," Hobert said. "That way, I can quickly find you."

"Okay." Xio didn't hesitate at all. The reason was simple: if Hobert wanted to harm her, he wouldn't need such a complicated operation.

The two of them discussed the mission to assassinate members of the Aurora Order, and then Xio went to do the investigation Hobert had assigned her. Hobert, on the other hand, changed into formal attire and went to attend Georgina's previous invitation.

Georgina invited the same people as last time, and as usual, her colleagues from MI9 arrived first.

While chatting, Qonas said to Hobert, "I got some news that the accidents at 'Earl's Light' were a frame-up. Do you want me to help you investigate?"

"No need." Hobert smiled and said, "I've already found out!"

Having his own intelligence officer gave him a strong backbone!

Qonas added, "Admiral Amyrius has entrusted me to extend an invitation to you to play cards at the East Balam Veterans Mess tomorrow afternoon."

Hobert knew that this meant another business opportunity was coming: "No problem."

The group chatted for a while, and then three members of the royal family arrived.

After some polite greetings, they went to the dining room for dinner.

The dinner wasn't particularly luxurious, or rather, it didn't have any uncommon ingredients, but it looked very exquisite and tasted very good.

Especially the grilled lamb chops, which were tender and juicy. Hobert had only tasted such deliciousness at banquets hosted by Earl Wolfe, who loved good food.

At the dinner table, as they chatted, they returned to the topic of "Earl's Light."

Seeing that Hobert didn't care, they stopped discussing the topic.

After dinner, it was time to enjoy the opera.

In Georgina's courtyard, there was an open-air theater with only a few seats on the large grandstand.

Hobert once again sighed: the nobles really knew how to entertain themselves.

He didn't listen to the opera very much. The previous salon gatherings he had attended were all about chatting, and he hadn't taken in many lines.

But in today's environment, although the sound effects weren't as good as in an indoor theater, the feeling was very good, and there wasn't an evaluation session after the performance.

During the interlude, the group chatted casually. This level of relaxation made Hobert even want to build an open-air theater in the Earl's manor.

While calculating the cost of building the theater, Alice suddenly sat next to Hobert and whispered, "I heard that you launched a war against the Church of the Mountain God on Longtail Island?"

"Yes." There was nothing to hide. Hobert said, "The war is over, and we achieved a significant victory."

"Such a wild god certainly wouldn't be a match for you." Alice smiled meaningfully: "I have something I want to ask you to help me with. While the actors are preparing for the next performance, how about we take a walk over there?"

Hobert was in a good mood today and stood up, saying, "No problem."

After only a few steps, Hobert felt Alice inject her spirituality into a Sealed Artifact.

At Sequence 4, Hobert's spirituality wasn't so sensitive, but at Sequence 3, he could roughly detect that Alice was using a Sealed Artifact.

With such awareness, he could "Exploit" the negative effects of other people's Sealed Artifacts.

Hobert waved his hand and "magnified" the ability of the Sealed Artifact: "This way, even demigods won't be able to hear our voices."

Alice was using the same Sealed Artifact that she had used several times before in front of Hobert, which could prevent others from eavesdropping. However, the level of this Sealed Artifact was Level 2, and only those below demigod level couldn't hear their conversation.

She smiled and said, "That's great. After all, there are several demigods sitting over there."

Hobert asked, "What is it? Are you afraid others will hear?"

"Help me kill someone."

Hobert glanced at Alice: "Who?"

The princess replied: "The royal family's old butler, James."

Hobert was stunned: Was this a butler or a secret agent?

He smiled and said, "That's very dangerous."

Although Alice didn't say it, Hobert guessed that during the Backlund smog incident, it was probably this butler, James, who made Prince Edessak "commit suicide."

"It used to be very dangerous, but it's not dangerous from today on." Alice said, "Recently, the King has been appearing less and less, and all the affairs of the palace have been entrusted to my mother."

"I used some means to make James lose power and be transferred away from the Sodela Palace."

"He has many enemies, and he also worked for the Intis Embassy. Such a person, dying on the way to his new post after losing power, won't attract much attention."

Hobert was stunned: He really was a spy!

He glanced at Alice, who looked serious. After the previous assassination attempt and the trip to Masin, she seemed to have completed some kind of transformation, no longer so obsessed and more willing to be flexible.

"Okay." Hobert pondered for a moment and agreed. Times were different now, and the Loen Royal Family was nothing special in his eyes!

As crazy as he was, he still needed to be cautious: "Why don't you take revenge yourself?"

"This butler is a Sequence 5, and I'm not confident." Alice said, "There may only be this one chance. After all, this is a Sequence 5, and he should be able to find a new backer soon."

Hobert hummed: "Give me his detailed information, including his Beyonder pathway, appearance, where he's going, which route he's taking, and when he's leaving. The more detailed, the better."

Alice took out a palm-sized notebook from her pocket: "I carry it with me."

Then she added, "If possible, please give me his head. I want to make it into a drinking vessel to commemorate Edessak."

Hobert nodded: "No problem."

As he spoke, he put away the notebook Alice handed over.

Alice smiled: "I didn't expect you to agree so readily."

Hobert asked helplessly, "Do I look like someone who's hard to talk to?"

"Yes."

"Alright." Hobert smiled.

He then asked, "How should I give you the head?"

"James will leave the Sodela Palace the day after tomorrow, which is Thursday, to go to a royal manor as a butler." Alice replied, "Generally, Georgina will organize another banquet on Friday or Saturday."

"She will definitely invite you again. Give me the head at that banquet."

"Trading a head in front of several demigod-level heads of MI9?" Hobert didn't feel confident that he could do it. Those were all shrewd people, each one sharper than the last.

Alice smiled mysteriously: "I will create an opportunity for you then."

Hobert nodded: "Okay."

"How should I thank you?"

Hobert thought for a moment: "I haven't thought of anything yet. Let's talk about the reward later when there's a chance. Well, you can rest assured that I won't make demands that exceed the value of this assassination mission."

"Okay."

The two chatted for a few more words and returned to the theater from the garden.

Because Alice hadn't returned, the opera below was delayed.

After they returned, the performance continued.

After listening to the opera and chatting for a while, it was past ten o'clock in the evening, and Hobert returned to the Earl's manor.

Xio's investigation had already submitted a report to Hobert, providing the locations of some gas storage points.

This investigation wasn't difficult; it only required hiring some manpower in the East Borough to do some statistics.

It was just a little tedious. Xio also left a note saying that she would complete all the investigations by tomorrow afternoon.

That night, Hobert rested well. The next morning, he indeed received an invitation from Georgina's butler, inviting Hobert to listen to a symphony on Friday night.

Hobert readily agreed and chatted with the butler for a few words before changing into formal attire and taking a carriage to the Houses of Parliament.

With the invitation in his hand, he was invited by a servant to a small conference room.

Several people were already seated in the conference room. The middle-aged man at the head of the table, in his forties, had his hair slicked back and wore a dark vest, giving him a very energetic appearance.

This was Vito, the Prime Minister's secretary. He stood up and smiled, "Ah, our Earl Hobert has finally returned from his business trip."

"My apologies," Hobert said politely. "I had some matters to attend to previously."

"Your timing is perfect," a Member of Parliament said with a smile. "Today, we are about to discuss the future prospects of electric lights, and I don't think there's anyone who understands this issue better than you."

"That is, of course, true," Hobert said with a benevolent smile. "Electric lights are the future of the lighting industry."

But his tone changed, and he looked around. "It seems that not everyone has arrived yet, but it doesn't matter. I'm here to announce an important decision to everyone."

Everyone looked at Hobert. Whether it was his title or his commercial achievements, his words and actions could not be ignored.

"'Earl's Light' has made a decision," Hobert said. "Before the four previous accidents are thoroughly investigated, we will temporarily suspend sales in Backlund."

The people in the room were stunned for two or three seconds before they understood what Hobert meant. Some even suspected that Hobert had gone mad.

Vito couldn't help but ask, "Earl, are you, are you serious?"

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