If anyone had skills in deduction, they would have been able to see that these people looked a lot like those who had been rich recently, but had, for some reason, lost their fortunes.

In the case of the women, tan lines could be seen on their fingers and wrists where gold and precious ornaments must have once been present.

On the men, it was more apparent in the clothes, which were not perfect and had a few creases here and there. Normally, this would not have attracted much attention, but these people kept glancing at the creases and frowning as if they had done some personal injustice to them.

Hence… One would be able to understand that they were not used to tardiness like this, which meant that they might have had to let go of a few servants recently.

This wasn't the case with everyone present, though. Of the 20, at least four looked the same as before, but what was ironic was that their faces were the angriest in the place.

Finally, unable to control himself anymore, a potbellied man rose up and struck the table in front of him.

"I'll kill him! I swear, if I get my hands on him, I'll kill him!"

He was referring, of course, to the man who had appeared in all of their dreams to turn them into nightmares on almost every night for the last month, consecutively.

These… were the leaders of the trade families who had lost absurd amounts of money to the pyramid scheme.

In response to the potbellied man, it was a graceful woman who was part of the group who hadn't changed much who spoke up.

"We should at least be thankful that we were able to spot that something strange was going on in time. If not, he would definitely have managed to wring us completely dry of all of our wealth that has been pa.s.sed down since generations. How would we have met our ancestors then?"

The family of this woman was known to be one who believed in the old ways, where there was a legend that those who died would go to the Heavens to meet all those who had come before them. If they had done well in life, then they could raise their heads and live eternally in prosperity in heaven, and if not, it was said that those same relatives would kick that person down to h.e.l.l, where they would have to endure endless torture unto eternity.

Although no one really believed that latter part, they strived for the former, even if there was no proof for either.

Some called this dumb, but no one would dare to say so in front of Lady Farriga.

She was actually middle-aged, but her face did not have even a single wrinkle, and it was said that one of the major expenses of the household of her family was the products which kept up the beauty of her skin. She was known to be extremely vain, so much so that she had once sentenced a visitor to death because they had said that the rumors of her beauty, which she had started in the first place, were fake.

After she spoke these words, appreciative nods could be seen all around the room, and the potbellied man sat down.

Still, he couldn't help but grumble under his breath, saying, "He was one of us! And the plan looked so good! I even bought so many trinkets because weIthought I was making so much money! But now, all of the products are just sitting in my warehouse, without anyone to sell them to, and he has all of my money! How the h.e.l.l did he even manage to scam us all?!"

This time, it was an old man beside the lady who answered, and he was another one of the leaders of a giant trading family that was present in the continent of Angaria.

"Greed. It is ironic that the singular pa.s.sion which drove our ancestors to work hard and earn all our wealth will probably the same thing which will result in us losing it in this generation. We cannot have that happen. Have you all received the reports of the latest happenings in the village of Lancers.h.i.+re? That place has already become a hotbed for spies looking to make a quick buck, so I a.s.sume that you're all up to date."

As the rest nodded after expressions of frustration appeared on their faces due to the man's acute observation, he continued.

"This is a golden opportunity for us. If we can just obtain a copy of those trinkets and that coin and manage to somehow replicate them, then we can regain our statuses, and probably grow even richer. The beauty of this is that because we took so many network trinkets which are lying uselessly in the warehouses of all of our families and those of our subordinates who are definitely cursing us right at this moment, the materials of those trinkets can be reused to create copies of the ones which are being tested in that village. I've spoken to one of the topmost research mages from Eldinor, and he has no love for the king as he has quite a strong belief that his race should be paramount in the continent. He despises the ruler of Eldinor for joining with the king even if he did help their Kingdom, and although I think that he's pretty despicable, he will be instrumental in copying the trinkets. Gentlemen and ladies, we have suffered grave losses, and there are still a few families who haven't recognized what is going on and are still pumping money into the failure of a business that was marketed towards us a pyramid scheme. I'll be the first to admit that now, even the word 'pyramid' gives me s.h.i.+vers, and as for the man who was responsible for all this… All of us know his past – that he came from the streets and has no family whatsoever. Hence, we cannot really target him except if we manage to find him, and I don't see that happening in the short-term. He's smart, but we need to be smarter, and this is our opportunity. All we need to do is-"

BANG!

A loud sound interrupted the man, making him stare with shock at the door where a very tall figure shrouded in a dark cloak had appeared.

Panicking, the man and even the rest of the leaders of the trade families instantly started to move back, as none of them were powerful Fighters or Mages. Instead, they had almost all chosen to live lives of luxury to spend their wealth, while trusting that their guards would be enough to handle any situation like this.

There were one or two who had dabbled in the path to power, but the scene behind this cloaked man made any notions of resistance die in their infancy.

All of the guards of these 20 leaders, who numbered in at least a few hundred, as they had all been paranoid and gotten everyone they could find, were lying unconscious behind him.

If he was capable of such a feat… Then he could probably simply flick his fingers and end their lives.

Still, the dignity of those who were used to commanding hundreds under them came forth after they all backed up to create some distance between them and the man.

It was Lady Farriga who spoke up again, as she was known to be brave whether the situation demanded it or not.

She took a step forward with a flushed face and red eyes before exclaiming, "I do not know who you are, but I do not think that you have come to kill us. If that was the case, I suspect that we would all have been dead by now."

These words caused a chill to pa.s.s through those behind her, but they all held their silence, following which the cloaked man laughed and spoke in a rasping voice.

"Indeed. So you cretins really do have some brains, after all. I guess they are needed to herd the cattle in the Central Continent."

Although these words were spoken in an extremely derogatory tone, they still caused sighs of relief to sound from the 20 who were present.

However, what the man said next made their hearts collectively skip a beat.

"Don't think you're out of danger, though. I will propose something, and if you choose to disagree, you will die. It is a simple matter, and you should count your lucky stars that at the moment, our objectives align. We want you to go against the King of Lanthanor in the latest scheme that he has started. I a.s.sume that you were discussing the same thing before I arrived?"

The lady and the others nodded, following which the cloaked man continued.

"Good. What we want is that his hard work should be completely wasted, and he should rage with despair that all of his plans were ruined. It is clear that he wishes to dominate the entire continent using these things which will definitely be very appealing to all the brainless cattle, because they are used to living like dogs with no sophistication whatsoever. You people need to stop him, and take over the business. We will provide you with resources, and even the trinkets that you will need to use. All you will have to do is follow orders and do what you do best: sell. Now, sell your souls to me. Walk up one by one and swear the oath that I give you, or die."

These words caused silence to appear in the room, following which Lady Farriga opened her mouth to say something.

However… Before she could, a loud scream was heard from her as a long cut that ran from her forehead to her chin had appeared on her face.

Clutching her face as the blood streamed through her fingers, the woman started to wail with pain, following which the cloaked man laughed once again and said, "No backtalk. When you throw a dog some sc.r.a.ps, you expect it to eat it without complaining, even if the sc.r.a.ps are poisoned. If it instead barks at you, this is what happens. Walk up one by one."

There was nothing else to do. It was the potbellied man who walked with trembling legs to the cloaked man first, as he was the one who valued his life most among the lot.

It was a good thing that the oath did not make them complete slaves of this man. It only said that they would follow his every orders on this matter, and that they would not speak of it to anyone else unless he gave permission.

Seeing that it was in this way, there were no more protests, even though none would have been present after hearing the lady's screams which were still echoing in the room. One by one, the leaders of the trading families who were used to being on top all walked forward, now exposed to the truth that they were but specks of dust when compared to those with true power in the continent.

They were all smart people, and they could guess that this man was from the Big Four, because he had managed to defeat multiple Warriors whom they had all employed at great expense to protect their lives.

The last one to walk up was a certain young lady, and although her face was veiled, her eyes shone with defiance.

Still, she did swear the oath, and after that, they were all dispersed.

This young lady hastily went to a table in her room as soon as she reached her estate, before grabbing a hidden communication trinket to send a message to a certain someone.

It read, "Family is forcing me. We must break up."

As soon as she sent the message, Jordan, who had received it, looked up from the ledgers he was going through to estimate exactly how much money he had scammed out of the trade families.

Slight panic appeared on his usually neutral face, and immediately, he set off from his abode.