102 Return

How should one put it? Karen’s luck was extraordinarily good.

Old Jack had not yet managed to deliver him the route to the wraiths, and yet here was Floel, walking straight into his hands.

With such a perfect chance laid before him, Karen naturally would not let it slip away.

After roughly understanding the situation, Karen directly branded Floel with the Death Mark.

Poor Floel had only just escaped the wolf’s den by exhausting every trick at his disposal, only to turn around and leap into Karen’s tiger’s lair.

When Karen unfurled the Death Mark and the undead beside him surged forward with howls and cries, what could Floel do?

His last trump cards had already been spent dealing with those traitors, and by then he was utterly without the power to resist.

No matter how unwilling he was, he could only submit obediently and let Karen place the Undead Mark upon him.

Once the Undead Mark had been set in place, Floel became Karen’s man, his life and death resting entirely on Karen’s whim, and even after death he would still not escape Karen’s control.

Floel, branded by the Undead Mark, understood this at once.

At that moment, no phrase about a heart turned to ash or a soul cast into despair could begin to describe how he felt.

But in any case, all of this had already become an established fact. With no ability to change it, Floel could only bow his head and submit.

Thanks to Floel’s compliance, Karen finally obtained first-hand intelligence on the Silver Hand, and he also gained access to their side of affairs—a channel completely under his own control.

Of course, to truly secure that channel, Karen would have to help Floel eliminate the steward and seize full control of his household’s wealth and business.

At first, Karen did not think there was any problem with that. But soon, after Floel revealed one detail, Karen realized how troublesome it was: the steward’s strength.

Floel might have looked pitiable, but his family’s Silver Coin Chamber of Commerce had indeed once been one of the three great magnates of Sand Silver City.

Sand Silver City was a little larger than Moonlit City, and its power was a little greater as well. As one of the three leading powers there, the strength of the Silver Coin Chamber of Commerce could not be underestimated.

It possessed not only considerable wealth, but also an alarming degree of military force.

The twelve guards who had previously protected Floel were all at least second-tier elite level. Of the three who betrayed him, even those three were directly third-tier existences. As for Floel’s steward, his strength had actually reached the fourth tier.

At fourth-tier strength, with Karen’s current power, it was not impossible to solve the problem by force, but the difficulty would be quite high. And since the target was in Sand Silver City, Karen’s undead could not enter in large numbers.

Yet now the steward had already struck at Floel, and the two sides were essentially in open conflict. If he was not eliminated, Floel’s situation would become extremely dangerous.

More importantly, Floel was a newcomer who had only recently risen to power, and he did not hold much sway.

Even if that steward, wary of many complications, would not act against him for the time being, if Floel did not take some measures, it would be extremely difficult for him to win the struggle. Karen did not want a channel he had only just obtained to be ruined so quickly.

So, no matter what, removing the current actual controller of the Silver Coin Chamber of Commerce—that is, Floel’s steward—was a necessary task for Karen. No matter how difficult it was, it had to be done.

On this matter, Floel actually had a solution, and it was a solution Karen praised.

Afterward, Floel stayed in Karen’s territory for a day. Once the day was over, he set off once more for Sand Silver City.

This time, however, Floel was not alone. Karen assigned him a guard detail.

As before, there were twelve of them, but they were not twelve goblins. Karen equipped Floel with twelve third-tier undead.

With this extremely powerful undead escort, Floel returned to Sand Silver City.

It had to be said that none of the people under Karen seemed to be ordinary at all, and Floel was no exception.

He had two faces. One was the one he had shown when those guards betrayed him—calm, composed, and even carrying a trace of ruthlessness. The other was the one he usually wore: innocent, naive, and a little arrogant.

This kind of personality in Floel probably formed over years spent in the shadow of a father who was highly controlling and domineering by nature.

How should one say it? A character like that, if left to develop over a long period, would not be good. Floel could easily drift toward obsession.

As for what he would become in the future, that was hard to say. But for now, these two faces were indeed of great help to him.

The moment he returned to Sand Silver City, he immediately switched faces and reverted to his usual innocent, simple expression.

With the twelve third-tier undead Karen had provided as his guards, he was like a child who had never once passed an exam suddenly scoring a hundred. He swaggered in without the slightest concealment, marching openly into Sand Silver City with those twelve third-tier undead.

Along the way, whenever he saw anyone he knew, Floel would stop them and use every possible method to boast about the twelve third-tier undead behind him and the glorious victory he had achieved in negotiating with Karen in Goblin Forest.

He acted as though he meant to wash away all the humiliation he had suffered before, and to let everyone know that Floel was not some wastrel at all, but a successful and qualified chamber of commerce chairman.

With Floel flaunting himself so brazenly, before he even returned to his own chamber of commerce, all the goblins in Sand Silver City already knew that Floel had successfully taken back the goblin mineral rights.

Of course, the process by which Floel reclaimed those mines was also spread all over Sand Silver City through his rampant boasting.

According to Floel, shortly after entering Goblin Forest, they were attacked by magical beasts. The guards at his side abandoned him and fled, and it was he who went forward alone to wrestle with the beasts and, with sheer force, killed one in front of the necromancer, stunning the necromancer with his overwhelming strength.

Then, awestruck by his power, the necromancer deeply admired him and willingly used undead labor to help him excavate the mineral deposits in Goblin Forest...

Floel praised himself to the heavens, as though he wished to hoist himself up into the sky.

Of course, the people of Sand Silver City were not fools. They were all goblins, after all, and they knew which words were true and which were false.

Once Floel’s boasts were distilled down, the truth quickly emerged: Floel entered Goblin Forest with his guards, encountered a magical beast attack, his guards abandoned him, the necromancer saved him, and then Floel, through sheer luck, reached an agreement with the necromancer.