Chapter 32 – Unknown Variable

Aile was embarrassed, he had acted too rashly and underestimated Xue. Aile then said with a questioning tone, "If you knew you did not have a seal, why did you stick around? You had all the money and could have run away with it and made a good life?"

Xue chuckled, "I wanted to leave to teach you a lesson, especially since you called me a dumbass. It would have been too funny if you lost all of the money, because of your overconfidence after you lectured me about the same thing."

Aile too smiled, "It would have been a perfect lesson, why did you not go through with it?"

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Xue replied, "I am really tired of all the politics and looking at my back with caution all the time. You gave me a sense of security, and you do not seem bad. So I wanted to work for you being protected at least not worrying about the business side and also get back that pendant from you."

Aile was silent for a long time then he took out and gave her the pendant and said, "Here you go, I just wanted you to be more careful, I do not need the pendant."

"Sigh."

Then, Aile had a complicated expression when he looked at her.

Xue was not polite, she took the pendant and then saw his expression.

"What is wrong, you cannot part with my pendant? Did you plan to give it to your lover?" Xue said while giggling.

"Hehe, I do not need your pendant," Aile said as he came out of his trance.

"What is it then?" Xue questioned again.

"I had just made the plan to dominate the financial market of Port Kiar. Now I have an extra unknown variable." Aile said.

"Is it related to me?" Xue asked.

Aile did not want to lie at the moment, his identity was hidden, so he found no issue in continuing this conversation.

Initially, he thought Xue was just like him, alone in this world. But she seemed to have a deep background, and she is already a stage 2 cultivator and very knowledgeable in many fields.

Thus, he knows that someone will come for her, possibly her mother. She will have to choose either Aile and the business or her family. Since she is so capable, she would be persuaded by her family to join them. Aile no longer felt very comfortable if she represents him.

If she chooses his side, he will develop enmity with another strong force. If she picks her family. Then, he loses, at the best case he losses a capable ally at worse his secrets would be divulged.

Aile said, "Yes."

Xue could feel a barrier form between them.

She sighed, "Do you not trust me anymore? Do you only trust people that are forcefully loyal to you by a seal?" Xue was disappointed. She had trusted him by not running away with his money, she told him about her private matters, and how she knew the seal was fake.

She had said all of this to build a relationship with trust, but his response was something she did not expect.

She did not know his problem and how he had to face Duke White. She did not even know that it was not her that he distrusted but the future where he would have to come between her and her family.

Aile was at a loss of what to say, he could not say that he only trusted people with a seal, because he mostly trusted Fiona. He also could not just trust someone easily, especially when there was a risk of betrayal in the future. He could not respond, and they spent the rest of their ride in silence.

They reached close to the Eastern Gate, and Aile told Xue to enter the carriage to prevent suspicion. She agreed, then Aile pretended to be the driver and passed through the gate with ease. Similar to last time, the guards did not even bother stopping his carriage.

Once they entered the town, Aile knocked at the carriage door.

"What is it?" said Xue.

"Do you know where Jack lives?" Asked Aile.

Xue nodded and told Aile the direction. Soon they arrived at a luxurious house in the town. The house was two stories high. It had a beautiful garden, with a small stream passing through it. The building itself was professionally designed with multi-coloured rocks showcasing it like an eye-catching jewel. The estate gave off a feeling of luxury and nature mixed together.

It was much better looking than Hazel's house. They left the carriage at another alley and came here on foot.

Aile used his senses and found a few maids but no guards in the estate. Which surprised Aile.

Xue also confirmed that Jack only had one trusted guard and would hire other guards only when he needed them. Aile still remained vigilant because he had failed to detect people with his senses before. He did not want to get caught off guard.

He then asked with a barely audible voice if Xue was taught any method to conceal her cultivation. She said yes. But did not get into it, she was clearly mad at Aile from before. Aile wanted to see how people hid their energy so that he can find a counter to it. However, he did not get anything from Xue.

They walked towards the main building and avoided the maids and other workers. They sneaked inside and started to search the house. Aile enhanced his sense of sight and feeling.

He used his enhanced vision to pay attention to everything, and his enhanced-sense of feeling, to perceive the air movement at the house.

If a house has a secret passage or location, it can easily be located by the unusual air circulation.

After searching everywhere, Aile found the deed of this estate, but he did not find any other thing. Therefore, he searched for odd movements of the air. After checking most of the rooms, he noticed unusually air circulation around the bookcase in the study.

After examining, he noticed that the bookcase could be moved and behind it was a door.

Aile was excited and wanted to break the door. Xue stopped him, and she opened the door with some tools she had. Behind the door was a large room. One side was filled with gold coins, there was a library with books, scrolls and documents on the other side. At the corner, there were stacks of ingredients. Aile saw talismans, weapons, armours, jewellery and many more expensive things.

Xue assumed the value of this room to be more than 5000 gold coin without the gold coins in the corner.

After looking at everything, they quickly estimated that there should be at least 400 gold coins stacked at the corner of the room.

Aile then looked at Xue and told her, "You can have half of the things here."

Xue shook her head, "It is all yours, I do not want it. You dealt with Jack, and you saved me from him. Everything here belongs to you."

Aile tried to give her something from this loot. After some convincing Xue picked up a few jewellery pieces.

Aile excitedly looked at the books and searched for a book on runes, but he could not find any. Aile wanted to take some of the gold coins with him and leave the rest here. As he had the deed for the house, he will take over the house, and they are safely stored here already. So he did not need to move them.

Xue looked at him and said, "What now? Are you going to abandon me?"

Aile thought of how to respond to her, he thought "There is no reason to completely cut ties with her, he just does not have to fully rely on her business knowledge."

Aile looked at Xue and said, "If you want to still work with me, then you can?"

Xue had a half-smile and nodded.

Aile then tossed her the deed of the warehouse that Jack owned. "You can use the resources there to sell things in a shop. I have a better idea to take over a bigger portion of Port Kiar's economy."

Xue said, "OK" and was about to leave.

Aile said, "Wait, you have not told me how to get in contact with you? Also, remember to come here tomorrow night, I want to introduce you to a person."

He wanted to introduce her to Fiona. As soon as he remembered Fiona, he noticed he only had 2 minutes until his deadline to get back to the house.

"Damn, time flies, I have to go now, see you tomorrow," Aile knew that they were at Jack's house. So he escorted Xue out of the mansion as he could use his senses to detect people. Aile gave the carriage to Xue, so she can hide it. After that, he went back towards Hazel's house with the chest and treasures he had looted from fatty Jack after killing him and his guard.

When he sneaked back, he saw the worrying Fiona at his room. He had come three minutes past their agreed deadline.

"You scared me! What took you so long?" Fiona's face went from worried to relieved to annoyed as she said it.

Aile had been tired from running back and carrying the box full of coins and treasures. He was panting and had removed his mask.

Fiona saw his face with sweat and a gentle smile. She could also see that he was exhausted. "Sorry, a lot of things happened, and I have something important to discuss with you," Aile said with his deep voice that he had been talking with.