Chapter 417 – Smith’s Worries

Drawing back time a couple of days ago, Smith sat inside his study with a blank look. Phil was at the side looking at him with a pained expression. Phil understood Smith’s current mood. This was because, just now, Smith received a letter from the family stating that they will still deal with Zhao Hai, and this time they would be bringing along some 9th rank experts.

Smith couldn’t fathom how wise and smart people like the elders of the family became dumb as a rock when it came to Zhao Hai’s matter. Smith felt like he was appealing to some cows.

And because of Smith’s constant messages, the Family was now quite dissatisfied with him. This brough Smith a huge headache. He knew that Zhao Hai was not alone anymore, he now has Charlie at his back. Moreover, the Prince came to think highly of his new friend. If the Family happened to kill Zhao Hai, they would form an enormous ent.i.ty with Charlie. If the scenario where Charlie becomes the Emperor in the future comes true, then the family wouldn’t have any good days going forward.

He also knew that the Family didn’t care about Charlie since he was only the Third Prince, not the Crown Prince. Although Charlie has the right of inheriting the throne, he was always acting very low-key, this made the family’s disregard the Third Prince.

However, Smith knew that Charlie wasn’t that incompetent, otherwise why would the current emperor hand him Jade Water City.

Although the Imperial Clan had a huge influence, its truly high income cities only numbered three, Jade Water City, Rising Water City, and the Empire’s capital, Carson City.

Carson City, the Imperial Capital, was currently the residence of the Crown Prince. He was currently helping the Emperor manage the Empire, it can be said that Carson City is under the Crown Prince’s rule.

However, Carson City was a city full of dragons and tigers. In addition to the Crown Prince’s influence, the other prince’s center of power were also present in the city. There were even forces in the city that exceeded his influence. Even the Calci Family’s branch on Carson City wasn’t that less than the Crown Prince’s faction. With the addition to his Imperial Uncles, it was very difficult for the Crown Prince to fully control the city. Therefore, Smith wasn’t optimistic about the Crown Prince.

The Second Prince controls Rising Water City. It was a good place, geographically similar to Sky Water City. However, Smith was also not optimistic about the Second Prince. This was because this Prince was very shortsighted. He manages Rising Water City like how an abusive farmer overly milks his cows. Because of this, a lot of Merchants were forced to leave the city. If not because of its good location, Smith was afraid that Rising Water City would already be bankrupt.

The Third Prince Charlie manages Jade Water City. Even after being the Third Prince, the major forces of the empire didn’t seem to take note of him. This in itself made people feel very strange. The third successor of the continent’s most powerful nation was someone n.o.body paid any attention to, this matter was too mysterious.

This can only show that the prince had been acting very low-key recently that n.o.body paid him any attention. But Smith knew that someone was more terrifying when he was invisible. If you don’t take note of him, you wouldn’t be able to know the cards on his hand. This was a talent that made someone extremely frightening.

And this time, Zhao Hai chose to leave Rising Water City in order to transfer to Jade Water City, offending the Second Prince along the way, preferring a man no one paid any attention to. This in itself showed Zhao Hai’s nature, so why didn’t the family consider this?

Can the people in the family really not see the bigger picture? They might have forgotten about that aspect since they were too focused on dealing with Zhao Hai. Not only would they offend the Third Prince, they would also be harming the Calci Family’s prestige.

Zhao Hai’s status was very well-known in the continent. People knew that he is a Dark Mage. And when people heard that he went to Sky Water City, they should have faintly guessed that he ran away from the Radiant Church and Southern King Boris and reckoned that he might have hired himself to the Calci Family.

Even if the various forces in the continent were unaware of the existence of the League of Dark Mages, they should still be knowledgeable of the fact that the Calci Family was held the pinnacle influence regarding the Dark Mages in the continent. Because of this reputation, numerous Dark Mages would join the League of Dark Mages. This was because they could not only receive a.s.sistance, the organization was also quite loose.

In this case, the family’s action against Zhao Hai was improper. What would the other Dark Mages think when they hear of this? Will they still join the league? Can they still work hard for the league? Later on, Dark Mages would think twice about joining up with the Calci Family. They would fear that they might be treated like Zhao Hai, wherein the treasures they had on hand were seized by the family.

In the eyes of outsiders, this was the case. Zhao Hai had fire fishes on hand that the Calci Family fancied, so they wanted him to hand it over. But Zhao Hai refused, which caused this whole event.

Outsiders weren’t privy to the inside affairs of the family. In their minds, Juwan was just a member of the family, he didn’t have that much influence, so it was impossible for them to think that he was the root cause of the situation.

Smith was currently worried about this matter. He feared that the Calci Family’s image on other Dark Mages were now quite smudged. If this matters gets larger, then the League of Dark Mages might even disband.

What Smith didn’t understand was his brother Peter who had the most understanding with regards to the league. Why didn’t he prevent this? Not only did he not prevent it, he also disregarded Smith’s warnings. This made Smith very confused.

Phil, who was Smith’s housekeeper, naturally understood. But he didn’t have any other choice right now, Smith was only the 2nd successor to the Family. Above him were the Elders and the Patriarch, while at his surroundings were the other successors. The moves that Smith could do were quite limited.

Phil also thought that the family wouldn’t go too far in dealing with Zhao Hai. After all, this matter seems like the Family was stealing openly. Moreover, they were going against their own Mage. He didn’t think that this matter would reach this point.

Currently, Zhao Hai had already s.n.a.t.c.hed more than 30 s.h.i.+ps from the family. And although he didn’t kill 8th rank experts, he wasted their cultivation.

In all honesty, Phil was very angry when he heard about this, he didn’t expect that Zhao hai would be so ruthless, actually crippling those 8th ranks. But he also knew that Zhao Hai still kept the family’s face into consideration, otherwise Juwan would already be dead.

The one that Phil didn’t expect the most was the family sending a 9th rank to cope with Zhao Hai. This wasn’t a clever decision for the family.

Can a 9th rank really be mobilized that easily? But for of an uncooperative Dark Mage, the family actually planned to send a 9th rank, the resources they would use would be very huge. More importantly, they were going to send the 9th rank to deal with Zhao Hai, what would the members of the league think of this? Would they still support the family in the future?

Phil thought that the situation had become very troublesome. At this point, Smith suddenly talked to Phil, “Uncle Phil, what do you think is going on in the minds of the family? Why do they really want to deal with Zhao Hai? I think this decision shouldn’t be just because of Juwan.”

Phil nodded and said, “Mobilizing a 9th rank is a very huge matter, it wasn’t something the Fifth Young Master can decide on. The decision should have been made by either the Patriarch or the Elder’s a.s.sembly, but as to why, I have absolutely no idea. Is it because they think that he might have become overconfident because of the previous matter that he dared to slap the family’s face? Or are there some ideas on the mind of the Patriarch?”

After listening to Phil, Smith’s eyes lit up, “Uncle Phil, are you implying that the family is scared of Zhao Hai?”

Phil looked confused at what Smith just said, “Scared? What do they need to fear about Zhao Hai? Even if he is quite talented, it was impossible for him to defeat a 9th rank expert. Why would the family be afraid of him?”

Smith let out a long sigh and said, “I think the Family didn’t fear Zhao Hai’s strength, but instead his ideas. In the past, didn’t the plan to suppress the Radiant Church came from Zhao Hai? They feared that through Zhao Hai’s understanding of the Radiant Church, he could influence other Dark Mages and slowly wrestle control of the League away from the Family. Therefore, they took this chance to eliminate Zhao Hai. Moreover then think that Dark Mages only think of themselves, they wouldn’t care about Zhao Hai. This made the Family decide on this action, since they didn’t fear Dark Mages would leave the league and form their own alliances on their own.”

Phil stared and muttered, “Is it really this? Even if those Dark Mages didn’t leave the league, they would still be afraid to share their information to the league. This would be a huge blow to the organization.”

Smith coldly said, “I’m afraid that it isn’t that simple. Zhao Hai’s idea made it possible to have more Dark Mages emerging from the empire, further increasing the family’s influence. In the future, it was highly probable that those young Dark Mages would hire themselves to the family. At this point, the family wasn’t worried about the Dark Mage’s inheritance anymore. For them, the leagues was no longer important, so they decided that it was fine to deal with Zhao Hai.”

Phil stared blankly at Smith, “Really? Can the family actually do that?” Although he was asking a question, he already agreed with Smith’s words. This may actually be the reason why the family didn’t hesitate in dealing with Zhao Hai.

Phil had served the family for his entire lifetime, so he already understood the mindset of the family. Although the Calci Family was very low-key recently, deep inside, they didn’t change their bearing as Great n.o.bles. They were still greedy, greedy for wealth and greedy for power.

A few years ago, because of the Radiant Church’s suppression of the Calci Family, they felt the need to establish the League of Dark Mages. Upon establis.h.i.+ng the league, they treated all of the Dark Mages in it quite nicely. But in truth, the Calci Family were still looking down on those Dark Mages. There were even small Dark Mage clans that weren’t destroyed under the Radiant Church’s hands, but instead in the Calci Family’s. This was to ensure that the family stayed quite high up on the minds of the Dark Mages.