891 What Are You Laughing At? (Part 2)

Leopold looked at the object that Alaric took out and his eyes opened wide in shock. The item in question was a small black-coloured stone, filled with thousands of tiny shining stars.

"Enlightenment Stone," Leopold exclaimed in a shocked voice, trying his best to contain his excitement.

Alaric smiled at Leopold's shocked reaction and his eyes shone with cunningness.

"I found this Enlightenment Stone a few years ago," The fox spoke and placed the stone in front of Leopold. "I don't need this stone, but—"

"But this stone can solve my problem, huh," Leopold finished Alaric's sentence and looked at the Enlightenment Stone with a thoughtful expression.

"Yes," Alaric smiled upon hearing Leopold. "Now you just have to announce that you have captured the culprit of the robbery. To prove you are not lying, you can auction this Enlightenment Stone, claiming that you retrieved it from the thieves." Alaric paused after saying this and continued after a moment.

"If you use this method, you won't even have to remove the bounty on their heads, as people will think that the thieves who stole the Enlightenment Stone are already dead. At the same time, you can attract many people to your auction house by auctioning this Enlightenment Stone, restoring some of the lost reputation of your auction house."

Leopold listened to everything that Alaric said and he had to admit that his idea was quite good. However, there were still some problems. Like what if once he announced that he had captured the robbers and executed them, but after some time, someone caught them?

If someone catches Evan and Cedar after he announces to the world that he has executed them, wouldn't he become a laughingstock in front of all the people?

'Though it is not a big thing and I have many ways to avoid this kind of problem,' Leopold thought while furrowing his eyebrows because there was another thing that made him reluctant to go with Alaric's plan.

'If I accept his offer, I will lose my reason to send my subordinates to search for the entrance of the secret realm.'

The reason he told Alaric to send his subordinates to look for the secret realm was to capture Evan and Cedar so that he could restore the reputation of his auction house.

But if he accepts his offer, most of his problems will be solved.

The people who are throwing dirt on him by saying he couldn't even capture two low-level core evolvers would close their mouths and by auctioning the Enlightenment Stone, he would be able to attract many people, restoring the reputation of his auction house to some extent.

He also wanted to restore the reputation of his auction house, but at the same time, he didn't want to lose the opportunity to explore a new realm that wasn't explored by many people in the past.

Seeing Leopold's furrowed eyebrows, Alaric sneered inwardly because he could easily guess what he was thinking.

'It is very easy to deceive the greedy people,' Alaric thought inwardly and said with a small smile on his face

"I know what you are thinking, but you don't have to worry about that. Even if you accept my offer, I will still allow your subordinates to look for the entrance of the secret realm in the Dark Forest."

Hearing Alaric, Leopold snapped out of his thoughts and looked at him with a slight surprise on his face as he didn't expect the fox to know what he was thinking.

"What's with that surprised look?" Alaric asked while rolling his eyes when he saw Leopold's surprised expression. "I have known you for a long time, so it's not hard to guess what you're thinking."

Hearing Alaric's sarcasm-filled voice, Leopold looked at him without saying anything.

After a minute of silence, he finally opened his mouth and asked, "Why... Why are you allowing me to send my subordinates to look for the entrance when you know what I am thinking?"

Hearing Leopold, Alaric smiled and said in a serious voice, "Isn't it obvious? I am giving you permission because of our friendship."

Leopold's mouth opened slightly when he heard Alaric and he felt perhaps this fox wasn't as bad as he thought. But this momentary good impression shattered instantly when he heard Alaric's next words.

"As we are old friends, I am sure even if you found something good inside that secret realm, you would definitely share it with me, right?"

Leopold looked at Alaric, who was staring at him with a foxy smile and his mouth twitched uncontrollably. He wanted to curse the old fox, but he knew that it wasn't appropriate, so he took a deep breath and nodded his head with a forced smile on his face.

"Of course, since we are friends, it is obvious that I will share the things that I will find in the secret realm with you."

"Good," Alaric smiled upon hearing Leopold and pointed at the Enlightenment Stone that was on the tea table. "So, are you going to proceed with my plan?"

Leopold didn't immediately answer and looked at the fist-sized Enlightenment Stone. After a few seconds of silence, he opened his mouth and asked, "How much?"

Alaric smiled when he heard Leopold and said in a warm voice, "Since we are old friends, I will give you a discount. You can take this Enlightenment Stone with you for just one hundred and fifty million high-level essence stones."

*Cough *Cough

Leopold choked on the tea he was drinking and looked at Alaric with his eyes wide open.

"You—" He shackly pointed his finger towards Alaric and wanted to say something, but no words came out of his mouth.

After a few seconds of silence, he gritted his teeth and asked in an angry voice, "Are you kidding me?"

Alaric shook his head hearing Leopold and explained how he would be able to restore the reputation of his business and stop his competitors from throwing dirt on him.

'Fuck, so this is what it felt like to be exploited by someone,' Leopold thought inwardly with an ugly look on his face as most of the time, he was the one who exploits other people. But the current situation was very favorable to Alaric and honestly, he would have also tried to squeeze out as much money as possible from the person if he were in his shoes.

"One hundred and ten million, that's the best I can offer you," Leopold said while gritting his teeth after a long negotiation.

Hearing Leopold, Alaric looked at him with a conflicted look on his face, but in the end, he sighed and nodded his head. "All right, since we are old friends, I will sell it to you at a cheap price."

Leopold nearly attacked Alaric when he heard him but stopped when he heard the sound of someone laughing from the side.

He looked sideways and saw the woman with red hair laughing and looking at them with an amused expression on her face.

Seeing even a lowly servant was laughing at him, Leopold's face darkened and he asked in a cold voice, "What are you laughing at, you bitch?"