Chapter 396 - 395: Strike at the Heart

Chapter 396: Chapter 395: Strike at the Heart

Seraphina Sinclair scoffed and carefully reviewed the terms Cloudmute was offering.

[Cloudmute]: Master, I’ve been chewed out and I haven’t even gotten much out of this. Because I leaked that information, Artemis and I have had a complete falling out. If it hadn’t gotten dark, she would’ve definitely used a dueling trial against me.

[Cloudmute]: I’ve thought about going solo, but Artemis has all the Expansion Crystals. And even if I could sell them, she takes six shares alone, while the remaining four are split between Mountainwind and the other one.

[Cloudmute]: The second Artemis gets a free moment tomorrow, I’m dead for sure. Master, I’m contacting you for one reason and one reason only: I want to buy my life back.

[Cloudmute]: Blacktiger... Master Blacktiger... I... I’ve really hit a dead end... In the group chat today, I was just so furious, and they pushed me into it... Mountainwind is a total fence-sitter, and Nathan Kane is a complete mute. All the dirty work and heavy lifting was done by me and Artemis... Why... Why does she get to take sixty percent? And I get absolutely nothing? Just because she’s powerful?

Seraphina Sinclair was rendered speechless for a moment.

Cloudmute had sent it as a voice message. Her voice was terribly hoarse, thick and nasal, and an undeniable tremor ran through it.

Under threat from Artemis, she had clearly been pushed to the absolute peak of fear.

But as Seraphina Sinclair read on, she didn’t see Cloudmute offer anything that would be worth her while to make a move.

The person Cloudmute was facing was Artemis, after all.

She was the one widely acknowledged as the strongest person aside from Blacktiger Ford, and the Master with the best reputation of them all!

’So Cloudmute isn’t offering any terms, just opening her mouth and asking her to kill Artemis?’

’Did she think Blacktiger Ford was some kind of professional hitman?’

Seraphina Sinclair let out another soft scoff and closed Cloudmute’s chat window.

’She’d thought that with all the words this person was using, there would be a bit more sincerity. It turned out to be nothing but nonsense.’

Seraphina Sinclair shook her head. As she was about to close her private messages, a new one suddenly popped up.

It was from Chrona.

Seraphina Sinclair’s fingertips paused for a moment before she opened Chrona’s latest message.

[Chrona]: Master, you saw the messages in the group chat, right? There’s a situation over here that I think you need to know about right away.

[Chrona]: Artemis wants me to help her stabilize the market during tomorrow’s trade. She said she’d give me the share that was originally for Cloudmute. It seems those two have had a complete falling out.

’Looks like Cloudmute was telling the truth.’

[Chrona]: Mountainwind and Nathan Kane approached me together. They were hinting that they have some leverage over Artemis. They want me to be a middleman, to pull some strings and see if any other Masters are willing to take the Expansion Crystals off their hands, or just partner with them directly. They said they’re willing to give up a larger share of the profits. All it requires is signing a trade contract and killing Artemis in a dueling trial.

[Chrona]: I have a feeling... their group has completely imploded. Now they’re all trying to beat each other to the punch, looking for a new backer or an escape route. On top of that, Mountainwind also subtly asked me if you were interested in the Expansion Crystals.

’Mountainwind and Nathan Kane sure had it all figured out, playing a game of getting something for nothing.’

’Killing Artemis was to get their hands on the Expansion Crystals, and signing a trade contract was to guarantee the two of them would get a share of the profits.’

’It wasn’t enough for them to say all that to her; they had to go and indirectly probe Chrona as well.’

Before Seraphina Sinclair could reply, Chrona’s next message arrived.

[Chrona]: I didn’t agree to cooperate with them when they first asked, so there’s no way I’m jumping in halfway through.

’It was absolutely for the best that she wasn’t getting involved.’

’Seaview and Zane Pierce were the perfect examples of that.’

This current alliance—led by Artemis, with all the goods in her hands and no trade contracts signed—was essentially her one-woman show.

Cloudmute and the other two had invested resources but had no way to keep Artemis in check. Now, with both the goods and the initiative solely in Artemis’s hands, there was nothing they could do besides seethe in impotent rage and conspire in private.

Still, seeing the way Artemis had twisted logic in the group chat today, Seraphina Sinclair could guess how the others had been coaxed into not signing a trade contract.

No matter what, Seraphina Sinclair had no intention of getting involved in their affairs.

’Rather than join them and help someone within the monopoly alliance, why not use the information she’d gathered to strike at the heart of the problem, kill Artemis, take all the Expansion Crystals for herself, and reap the greatest benefit?’

As far as she and Artemis were concerned, ever since Artemis threatened her, this mountain wasn’t big enough for the two of them!

The only reason there hadn’t been an open conflict so far was because Artemis herself wasn’t completely confident she could win, and so hadn’t used a dueling trial.

And Seraphina Sinclair, for her part, had been lying low because she hadn’t been sure who held the Expansion Crystals.

Now that everything was clear, Seraphina Sinclair would show no mercy when it was time to act.

After sending a simple reply to Chrona, she finally closed her private messages.

Seraphina Sinclair looked up, gazing at the vast, star-filled sky—a rare sight in The Black Mist World. From her Silver Moon Earrings, she pulled out the Golden Card the waiter had given her.

’Mmm... It’s probably bad form to bother someone in the middle of the night.’

’But if the waiter saw this enormous Dragon Corpse, it would probably get pretty excited, right?’

The corners of Seraphina Sinclair’s mouth curved up slightly as she raised her hand and snapped the card.

A moment later, a golden light flashed in the darkness and vanished. The waiter appeared, as if materializing from the void. Its face carried a trace of drowsiness; it had clearly just been jolted from a deep sleep.

Upon seeing Seraphina Sinclair, it reluctantly lowered its head and bowed as per protocol. "Esteemed guest," it greeted, "it is a pleasure to once again be of ser—"

Its words came to an abrupt halt.

It saw it. Behind Seraphina Sinclair lay the massive Dragon Corpse, a body so huge it took up nearly its entire field of vision.

The waiter’s jaw dropped again.

This time, even Seraphina Sinclair saw it happen with perfect clarity.

A crack split across the waiter’s otherwise perfect face as its jaw plummeted downward. It bounced on the ground twice, like some kind of springy toy, before coming to a stop.

If she hadn’t already witnessed this spectacle, the shock would have given her a heart attack. But as it was, Seraphina Sinclair just wanted to make a couple of snarky remarks. "Look at you, acting like you’ve never seen the world. It’s just an S-Class dragon, isn’t it?"

She admitted to herself that she wasn’t being entirely honest.

But she’d finally killed something worth bragging about, and if she didn’t boast...

...this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

"HSSS!"

After what felt like an eternity, the waiter finally sucked in a sharp breath. The sound was exceptionally clear in the silent rift. It hadn’t heard a word Seraphina Sinclair said, completely absorbed in its own world.

"Well, I’ll be... sweet mother of..." The waiter subconsciously blurted out a dialectal phrase it had picked up from who-knows-which guest. Its feet shuffled forward two steps on their own before stopping abruptly. It raised an arm and rubbed its eyes with enough force that its entire eye socket seemed to sink inward.