Chapter 167: Chapter 132: Wizard’s Secret Treasure, a Fortune of 100,000 Radiant Gold Coins
If it had been a Mortal sitting at the dinner table, Lady Catherine would have indeed been an utterly captivating woman.
Her conversation was elegant, her bearing graceful, and those eyes, which always seemed so full of affection, appeared capable of unearthing the deepest desires of one’s heart.
Money, status, Extraordinary Power... it was as if nothing you desired could escape her gaze.
While some of this was due to Lady Catherine’s personal charisma, the power that could see into the hearts of others clearly did not originate from her.
However, this Extraordinary Power was incapable of truly piercing Reinhardt’s Mind Barrier.
Of course, during their private chat after dinner, Lady Catherine chose to sincerely apologize for her attempt to peer into Reinhardt’s mind.
The empty corridor outside the banquet hall.
Reinhardt stood at a window, separated from the deep, dark expanse of the Cosmos by only a single pane of glass.
Legend had it that this colossal, fortress-like warship, salvaged from the ruins of the Wizard Civilization, was once just an ordinary civilian transport vessel in ancient times.
"Before we discuss business, I’d like to apologize for what happened earlier.
Reinhardt, prying into your mind was not my intention. The power of the Wizard’s Secret Treasure is proving somewhat difficult for me to master."
Her voice drew closer.
Lady Catherine walked to Reinhardt’s side, smiled, and then lifted her hair, allowing Reinhardt to see the fair nape of her neck.
Perhaps she was hinting at something, or perhaps she wanted to prove she truly had difficulty controlling this Extraordinary Power. But none of that mattered.
Because on the back of her neck, where the spine connected to the brainstem, was an implant with a metallic luster, its black filaments linking into her spinal nerves.
Lady Catherine leaned against the window and smiled casually. "There’s really nothing to hide. This Wizard’s Secret Treasure is called the Mind’s Eye.
The Alchemy Master who performed the surgery told me this was once standard-issue equipment for Mortal armies in ancient times.
Nowadays, though, it comes with a hefty price tag."
Catherine spoke with the unhurried ease of an old friend catching up, her words flowing freely.
"On a side note, the Lord Governor has been considering reforming the current Governor system in the Imperial Administrative Regions, along with the chaotic Legion management structure.
The Administrative Region may look prosperous now, but its internal factional struggles have reached an irreconcilable point.
I heard that in a meeting among the Governors, the Lord Governor proposed the creation of a new army with you as its spiritual leader and Verne as its homeworld."
Reinhardt didn’t know much about the local Governor system, but he was all too familiar with the chaos within the Imperial Legion’s management structure.
Including the two Main Battle Corps that had been decommissioned, the Old Empire had a total of thirteen Main Battle Corps: the Dragon Hunters, the Seventh Group Army, the Emperor’s Shield, the Radiant Angels... And that’s to say nothing of the chaos in their naming and organization.
The internal structures within the major Legions were also a tangled mess.
After the Great Expedition, the old-era Battle Groups, Knight Orders, and Elite Formations... most units that performed great deeds were allowed to establish themselves as independent forces within their Legion.
In other words, even a Master of Internal Affairs from the Military Affairs Department would sometimes have trouble discerning the exact command relationship between a Battle Group and a Knight Order.
A single Knight Order might command several Battle Groups of various sizes, ranging from hundreds to thousands of men.
Or a single Battle Group might be composed of dozens of fifty-man Knight Order formations.
To be honest, Reinhardt himself couldn’t make sense of this chain of command, which was more complex than any family tree.
’Based on the information she provided,’ Reinhardt thought, ’Sedon’s goal in establishing a new army is most likely to further expand his Power and suppress the voices of rebellion within the Administrative Region.’
’As a core member of the Capet Merchant Family, for Catherine to reveal these secrets of the Administrative Region’s leadership to him at a time like this... her purpose was self-evident.’
After taking the long way around, Lady Catherine finally stated her purpose.
"The Capet Family has always been a financial supporter of the Imperial Administrative Region, but recently, there have been many voices of opposition within the family. If it truly comes to a day when our conflicts can no longer be reconciled, I hope I can have your support."
As she spoke, she took out a yellowed, old piece of parchment and handed it to Reinhardt.
"This is an internal credit contract from the Capet Family. It’s worth one hundred thousand Radiant Gold Coins, redeemable at any time from the Imperial Administrative Region’s Civil Affairs Department.
I know the Emperor’s Angels possess the most sublime knightly ideals, fighting your whole lives for the Emperor’s great cause, uninterested in wealth and money. But please, do not refuse. This is just a small gift to mark our meeting."
One hundred thousand Radiant Gold Coins.
If an Imperial Knight collected his stipend on time, at a rate of ten Radiant Gold Coins per month, it would take him eight hundred and thirty-three years to earn that much.
A fortune large enough to buy an entire continent on an Agricultural World!
On Grillers World, it would be enough for Reinhardt to purchase land stretching all the way from Sea Eagle City to the Ancient Kingdom on the far western edge of the continent.
Mind you, his own expensive suit of Power Armor, paid for by the Administrative Region’s treasury, had a total price that didn’t exceed seven thousand Radiant Gold Coins.
Reinhardt didn’t reach for the credit contract. "I imagine you didn’t seek me out just for this," he said coolly.
Lady Catherine smiled. "Have you ever heard of a Saint’s Remains?"
This was the third time Reinhardt had heard of such a thing.
Lady Catherine slipped the credit contract into the pocket of Reinhardt’s service uniform and explained, "A Saint is a title given to an Ancient Wizard whose power has reached its peak.
According to ancient records, a Wizard Saint wielded the power to rewrite the Real Cosmos, travel through time and space, and extinguish a star with a single thought.
But that’s all in the past.
A Saint’s Remains are not only immensely valuable, but the appearance of one often means that a new ruin from the Wizard Civilization is about to be unearthed.
Right now, this information is only circulating among a small circle of people, and I have already sent my own agents to investigate. So, I want to hire you and your Vengeance Angel Squad to help me find a Wizard’s Secret Treasure inside.
Aside from that Secret Treasure, anything else you find in the ruins is yours to keep."
For core members of a Merchant Family, the only way to increase their Extraordinary Power was to undergo repeated modification surgeries, implanting more powerful Alchemy Technology and mastering more powerful Wizard’s Secret Treasures.
The so-called "Wizard’s Secret Treasure" was just a general term.
Ancient military technology, Spiritual Implants created by Wizards, the Immortal Hearts of powerful Wizards... each was a peerless treasure, beyond price.
As long as one could afford the exorbitant surgical fees, a Mortal could be transformed overnight into a Transcendent capable of rivaling an Earth Knight and wielding Mighty Power.
And for an Extraordinary Knight like Reinhardt, a Wizard’s Secret Treasure was one of the best catalysts for developing a higher-level Ring of Earth.
