Saying that one of the strongest families among the Hundred Nobles and one of the richest merchants in the empire are afraid of a single twelve years old boy would’ve sounded preposterous to anyone.

But when Kairos said it to the Grand Elder, the older gentleman only nodded with understanding.

There are a few people who met Kairos that had briefly seen his potential, and it certainly wasn’t anything ordinary.

Though they couldn’t tell what it was, it was frightening, like a bottomless abyss.

Perhaps the right way to describe someone like him would be ‘a prodigy seen only once in a thousand years’ and to underestimate Kairos would be dangerous.

The strange thing is, none of them – even his closest friends – can put the finger on what is it that made him special.

It certainly isn’t his cultivation talent. In terms of speed, there are at least two in Saint Cadets Academy currently that reached his cultivation rank in lesser time – and he knows one of them; Jones.

There are also plenty more who have attained higher ranks than him at his age.

And likewise, for fighting potential, those who can fight five minor stages above when at Peak D is nothing special since the difference between each level is rather small.

He did invent weapons that could change the current warfare of Gaia but being an inventor would hardly turn him into a tougher opponent.

Yet, these friends know that it is unwise to underestimate him because of his age.

Kairos tried asking a few more sensitive questions about Canot Hope, but as expected, even the Trade Federate could not get their hands on every information.

Instead, the Grand Elder told him about the trade routes that the Hope house is using, as well as a few underground markets. Besides this, Kairos received a list of all the influence that his opponents have in the empire. This is a priceless piece of information.

As the saying goes, knowing oneself and knowing one’s opponent ensures victory.

He started forming plans accordingly.

When the discussion is finally over, night has already fallen, and the elder excused himself.

“Young Master, I hope to see you again. Will you be staying long this time?”

“Unfortunately, I will only be in the capital for a month at most, perhaps lesser. But once again, thank you for everything Grand Elder. I will be sure to drop by to the trade federate once time allows.”

“Good, good. Then I will be looking forward to your visit, there are still a lot of crafts. I would like you to try out. Maybe you can create another miracle at that time, hahaha!”

The elder’s hopes are not unfounded. He felt that as Kairos’ forte is on runes, the boy would also be able to quickly catch on a variety of trades. Talisman making, Runes weaving, artefact creation and even seal creation are all related to runes.

Likewise, Kairos also have a feeling that if he spends some time at the trade federate, he will be much to gain.

The very next day, Kairos went to look for the guardsman captain, Serge. His purpose is to ensure that their plans have been carried out smoothly.

Just as they met, Serge excitedly told him that the hidden stashes of materials that Jim mentioned had been found. Moreover, the items are as Kairos speculated: Seal stones and freshly crafted weapons.

Following that, the discussion moved into forming a plan to protect Lyla and Jim from harassment. When he made his request, Serge laughed and said, “Such a small matter. Just leave it to me! We will just place the mother and son under witness protection, and they will be able to take their time to recuperate.”

Now that Serge has obtained quite a few benefits from his ‘tax collecting’ thanks to Kairos, he is more than willing to help.

While this plan will not help resolve anything, it will give them the much-needed time.

A week soon passed. By now, the tax collectors have managed to discover and seize three shipments of materials. However, the more significant find is a warehouse full of weapons from the Hope family’s research.

The captain rushed into the Snowdrifts’ shop and looked for Kairos, and upon seeing him, a wide grin could be seen on his face.

“Young Lord, the operation this time around has really made us strike it rich. Thank you, thank you. Hahaha!” As much as Serge is gleefully laughing, Canot Hope is no doubt feeling the opposite.

“I can see you’re in a great mood, Captain. Things have gone well, I presume?”

“Yes, yes. Certainly so! However, young Lord, my superior says we have to submit a report to the higher-ups because of the large number of items in our custody. I thought I should let you know?”

“Is it okay to ask who this ‘higher-ups’ you are referring to?”

“The Dark Gods family takes care of the tax collections.”

“Dark Gods… Lord Yue. That’s good.”

“Good? But young Lord, the Devilheart family has a hand in this, and they are right under Lord Yue’s command. Wouldn’t things turn out badly?”

“Yep, I’m aware of their relationship. But don’t you think this is exactly the opportunity we need?”

“It is?” The guardsman Captain’s eyes shone at the word ‘opportunity’. This boy is truly his lucky charm, his money attracting magnet.

Seeing that look on his face, Kairos could also guess what Serge is thinking about, and an amused look appeared on the boy’s face.

“Well, you see, if the Emperor knows that such a large piece of cake is left to be checked by Lord Yue, what do you think will happen?”

The guardsman captain thought for it for a little while then gave a shy smile to Kairos. “Come on, Young Lord. I’m not as quick-witted as you. What will happen?”

Kairos flashed back a fearsome smile that made the older captain shiver under the morning sun.

“Why, the Emperor will want to dip his fingers in, of course. And once the royal family joins in, they will not do things half-heartedly.”

“But, isn’t the Devilheart family still the Third Prince’s men? Surely the Emperor wouldn’t overdo things and make things difficult for his own son.”

“Haha, it is exactly because the Third Prince is his son that the Emperor would take the extra step. Do you realise that the Fifth Prince’s faction has been actively trying to grow recently, while the Third Prince’s faction is becoming more aggressive than before?”

The guardsman captain went silent in deep thoughts again. The Fifth Prince has indeed been inviting many new talents recently. From as young as twelve years old students to experienced adventurers. Even Kairos has an open invitation from Principal Gai.

Whereas the Third Prince faction’s aggressions, isn’t this very tax evasion situation because of how aggressive the Prince’s men had been?

Serge nodded his head, agreeing with the young Viscount, who then continues explaining, “The Emperor is playing a delicate scale between the two princes.”

“Hmmm, I guess that’s true. I have heard that the Third Prince lost the favour of the Emperor recently because he had lost a skirmish against the Silent Lambs Empire at the border.”

Kairos: “The Silent Lambs? Aren’t they the ones that recently declared that they will one day replace Saint Empire?”

Serge: “Yeah, it’s them. Everyone took them for braggarts. However, this still caused a lot of small-scale fights to break out at our borders. Losing a skirmish was a great shame for our empire.”

“A skirmish? How small was the battle?”

“Just three companies.”

“Thirty thousand men, but only a skirmish?”

A company consisting of ten platoons of a thousand strength each.

“Yep. Just a skirmish.”

“I would have thought that with so many practitioners, it will be a full-scale.”

“Huh? For our Empire that has an army of over ten million practitioners, just thirty thousand is a tiny amount to test the enemy’s strategies.”

Serge quickly explains to Kairos that in Saint Empire, there are three Corps that form up their army.

Each Prince takes charge for one of them, while the remaining one is directly under the authority of the Emperor himself. The Princes’ military strength each number two million men, whereas their father has three times their size.

Therefore, if the Third Prince lost a battle on the scale of just thirty thousand, it should not be on the level of losing favour. The defeat instead became an opportunity to downplay the prince’s prestige.

“I am more certain now that the Emperor is balancing the power of the two princes,” Kairos says after hearing the explanation. All this information is actually taught at every academy, yet this is indeed the first time that the boy had heard of this.

“Then should I be advising my superior that we should contact the royal family?” Serge eagerly tried to please.

Kairos thought for a second then shook his head. “No, if you do that, you will just get a scolding. And that is if you are lucky.”

“And if my luck runs dry?” He asked, curiously.

“If your superior truly heeded your advice, then the local magistrate may be demolished overnight.”

“What?!”

“Captain, think about it. It is one thing for the Emperor to discover leads that will bring his attention to the Devilheart family and Hope family’s tax evasion. But it is another thing to bypass Lord Yue and directly contact the Emperor.

The former is an investigation; the latter is a direct slap to the face of royal authority.”

“Oh… That actually makes sense. No wonder I always land myself in trouble,” Serge laughed unabashedly. It’s apparent the Captain is a man who has little fear for authoritative figures.

Although Kairos wanted to rebuke that this is a dangerous trait, he privately thought that one day he might have a use for someone like Serge.

….

In just three short days, by following Kairos’ instructions, the magistrate office has ‘accidentally’ leaked information which was quickly lapped up by the royal family.

The Emperor was furious to hear of the news, and the two families began shaking in their boots.

The royal family claimed that the Devilheart are illegally stocking up on arms, and the captain of the royal guards himself was sent to have a good long ‘talk’ with the masters of the two houses.

This is only a start in Kairos’ plans, just a small fraction of what he had in-stored.

Through this incident, the Emperor extracted an enormous amount of stores from the two houses, alongside with all of the newly created dual runic-seal weapons as ‘evidence’.

However, the very next day most of the royal guards were armed with brand new, sparkling, swords.

“KAIROS!!” A furious roar echoed within the walls of the Hope mansion. Canot Hope had never thought in his wildest imaginations that before they made their first move, their target would smash through their plans like this.

They had been exceeding cautiously because their risk was just as considerable as their possible gains with this new product. It was to the point where Canot Hope grounded his son, Jim, from contacting Kairos.

Nevertheless, his offhanded methods cost Lyla her health it backfired on himself, bringing the young Viscount’s full attention and fury.

The Devilheart family was greatly enraged as well. Not only by Kairos but also at the incompetence of the merchant. With this failure, a fissure has manifested between the two families.

However, during this time where one bad news arrives after another, Kairos’ fifteen disciples returned to the Devilheart family and declared an overwhelming success in their mission, plus an additional marvellous accomplishment that brought them out of their dismay.

One hand held the Origin manuscript, and the other was a Seal & Runic Weapon blueprint.

It is a new technology that Kairos and Siegfried jointly developed for the sole purpose of giving it to their foes.

And thus begins the second part of their plans.

The disciples told their superior the exact words that Kairos taught them, that this ‘blueprint’ is the latest weapon-tech the boy had been researching and that they found it while ransacking the mansion.

It is a dream-like blueprint, with a method to create an engraved weapon not only with sealing abilities, plus having not just a Starfire Rune, but also the Nine Heavens Frost Rune!

A weapon that is capable of activating both flame and frost of the highest degree – from runes that are already highly acclaimed within Saint Empire.

When the Devilheart family saw it, their happiness simply couldn’t be described as overjoyed. They truly believed that this will be their ticket to stealing back all their lost businesses and much more.

What the Emperor took became forgotten almost instantly, and the fifteen are greatly rewarded for this accomplishment.

However, little do they know that while the runes on the blueprint look exactly the same as the real thing, their linkage had been subtly adjusted.

Not only is this weapon almost impossible to craft due to its complexity, if they really managed it, but the results will also only be a subpar engraved weapon with the frost and fire effects cancelling each other out.

Such crippling flaws would make it unsellable, yet these aren’t the only drawbacks, the user’s Ki will be drained rapidly, twice of what standard runic weapons usually would require, to power these useless effects.

Thinking that the boy is a great genius in runes, the Devilheart will never expect that the boy who created the runes that could outshine every other in the Empire would make such a ‘blunder’.

The time and resources they use to research this beautiful and idealistic blueprint would become a complete waste.

When the fifteen heard of this, they were more than eager to bring the blueprint back. Perhaps, they are even more excited than the ones who received it. In one stroke, Kairos has set his fangs upon Calculus’ family, and also strengthened the position of his disciples.

It would be a long while before the Devilhearts realise that they had been duped, but by then, it is already too late.

Regardless, this is not the last plan that the boy had in mind. The good part is about to come.

Days passed, and Lyla’s condition has made significant progressed. Jim once again went back to his jovial nature and Kairos who is his sworn brother, also felt a burden lifted from his shoulders.

Seeing that the young master of the shop finally has some free time on his hand, Xuan Xian knocked lightly, and a little fearfully on his door.