early morning.

Dawn Castle in Dawn City.

As the morning light shone through the exquisite carved glass and fell on the equally exquisite dining table, the Duke and his family were enjoying an even more exquisite breakfast.

The Duke took a sip of the clear mouthwash and spit it into the water tray brought by the servant in time. He twisted his neck again, adjusted his neat white napkin, and then turned to smile at the Duchess opposite him.

"My dear, this gold and pearl necklace looks so shiny."

The Duchess was talking to her seven-year-old son. She turned to her husband and smiled, "Really? I think so too."

Just then, a ray of morning light shone on her. The golden sunlight and golden pearls complemented each other, making the already beautiful and elegant Duchess even more beautiful and noble.

The Duke realized belatedly that his wife was wearing many more pearl ornaments.

There are not only gold pearl necklaces, but also gold pearl headbands and gold pearl bracelets. Each pearl is full and large, and you can tell at a glance that they are of great value.

He even found several strings of pearls on his little daughter.

"My dear, I don't remember you having so many pearls before?"

The Duchess was drinking milk and shrugged her shoulders. "They are all new. They cost a lot of money. Ryder, don't look like that. These pearls are a good deal."

The Duke was not really short of money. His wife was perfect in every way: obedient, pretty, and had given birth to a pair of beautiful children for him.

But she just loves dressing up too much and often spends huge amounts of money on flashy things.

Of course, the Duchess did need some good accessories to decorate her appearance, but he didn't think it was necessary to have too many, after all, these were just embellishments.

So, he was not in a very happy mood.

The Duchess was somewhat afraid of her husband; and though her mother's family was of the ancient nobility of Aaron, its power had been greatly weakened, and it could not offer her much help.

She immediately explained, “Honey, these ornaments are a real bargain.”

"Look, this gold pearl necklace, every pearl is top quality, I only spent 1900 Oggs, and this head flower, it only cost 1300 Oggs."

The Duke was impatient at first, but as he listened, he found that the price was indeed much lower than the usual market price.

At least 10% lower! He was a little surprised: "Well~~ That's really a good deal, you didn't buy a fake, did you, dear?"

He didn't believe that there would be any businessman in this world who would lower prices on their own initiative.

The Duchess's charming face immediately showed an exaggerated expression of insulted self-esteem:

"My dear, although my brain is not as good as yours, you can't look down on me like that, right?"

"Maybe I'm not good at other things, but I'm definitely more proficient in jewelry than you. And I didn't go shopping alone. I brought the jewelry appraiser from the castle with me."

The Duke also felt that he had gone too far: "Well, I apologize to you, madam, I shouldn't have doubted your professional ability."

He quickly glanced at all the pearl jewelry within his sight: "Did you buy only these to wear?"

"No, there are still quite a few. The total cost is less than 30,000 Ogg."

"Originally I didn't want to buy so many, but all the wealthy ladies in Dawn City came to see them. They all knew what they were looking for and were scrambling to buy them."

"I thought I couldn't embarrass you, so I bought some more."

The Duke was speechless: "Okay, okay, let's end this matter here."

Breakfast returned to normal, and after breakfast, the Duke took a walk in the garden as usual.

While taking a walk, you can naturally see servants cleaning the garden and gardeners taking care of the flowers.

As a result, he actually saw the pearl jewelry again.

Although the quality of the jewelry was not as good as the ones his wife wore, it was not particularly bad.

Under normal circumstances, the Duke would certainly not pay attention to this matter, but because of the breakfast incident, he was particularly sensitive to Pearl today.

"It's strange, how come there are so many pearls all of a sudden? Did someone rob the treasure house of the Mermaid Queen?"

With such confusion, he came to the study he had just renovated.

As soon as he arrived at the door of the study, he found his chief steward, Bed, waiting at the door with a roll of documents in his hand and a serious look on his face.

The Duke entered the study and asked, "Bede, what's going on?"

Bede followed and placed the documents on the table.

"Master, the investigation report submitted by Mage Williamson of the Shire County Government Affairs Department is about the White Sturgeon Island."

"From the White Sturgeon Island? What kind of thing could happen in that shabby place like the White Sturgeon Island?"

The Duke couldn't understand it. If his sister hadn't insisted on marrying on the White Sturgeon Island, he wouldn't even remember the name of this place.

Bede shook his head and said, "Master, the messenger from Master Williamson said something very important and must be delivered to you as soon as possible."

The Duke looked down at the documents.

The document was still in its envelope, the magical seal still intact, and there were five pentagrams drawn on the envelope in bloody ink, indicating that the contents of the letter were extremely urgent.

He was slightly shocked and immediately opened the envelope and started reading.

As the Duke read on, his expression became more and more gloomy, his brows furrowed more and more tightly, and he subconsciously exerted force on his hands holding the letter, so much so that his five finger joints turned slightly white.

After a long time, he slowly put down the documents in his hand and said, "You step back and go call Master Ande over."

After a while, Master Ande came over.

"Close the door."

"Crack~"

The Duke whispered, "The Baron of White Sturgeon Island is plotting a rebellion!"

Ander was shocked when he heard this, and a look of extreme surprise appeared on his face.

It's not his fault, because the duty of the Black Guards is to guard Dawn City.

Especially for Dawn Castle, investigating a barren island thousands of miles away was not within the scope of the Black Guards' duties.

In fact, there was no need to tell him about this, but to go find the generals of the Storm Fleet and ask them to lead the fleet to suppress the rebellion.

But since it has been said, Master Ander naturally cannot pretend not to hear it. He said carefully: "Your Excellency the Duke, this... this... he is just a small baron, why?"

"Because he married my sister!"

The Duke raised his hand and threw the document at Master Ander's face, saying in a low voice: "If you hadn't hesitated that night, there wouldn't have been any trouble later!"

Master Ander hurriedly picked up the document and took a closer look. The more he looked, the more shocked he became. "Could Master Williamson have made this up? This is too outrageous!"

Something like 'Northern Weiland's maritime trade is busy, and the northern counties are frantically transporting people and goods to the islands'.

What is this, 'Everyone in the Shire, from the ladies to the washerwomen, wore beautiful instruments from the White Sturgeon Island'?

There are also things like 'pearls are everywhere, and there are so many pearl ornaments in the Shire Market that they are almost free'.

It feels like a story made up by a bard.

The Duke gritted his teeth and sneered: "I don't know about other things, but the pearl ornaments are indeed flying all over the sky, and they all flew onto my wife!"

"I was wondering why there were so many pearls all of a sudden. It turns out someone really robbed the merman!"

Master Ande had also discovered that many noble ladies were wearing pearl jewelry, and he immediately believed the investigation report a little more.

But again, this matter was not his business, so he didn't say anything.

"I want you to send someone to the city to investigate immediately and show me how many pearls this baron has sold to my city!"

This matter was under the jurisdiction of Master Ande, who nodded immediately: "I'll check it out now!"

"Results as soon as possible!"

Master Ande nodded, quickly left the study, and sent his men to the city to investigate the situation.

In order to complete the Duke's task as quickly as possible, he worked very hard and made very detailed and careful statistics for about half a month, and then put an investigation report on the Duke's desk.

The report was very detailed and tedious, so the Duke was too lazy to look at the process and went straight to the results.

“It is expected that the total amount of pearls sold will be approximately 670,000 Ogg.”

The Duke's hands trembled a little as he watched: "Dawn City alone was sold for 670,000?"

“That’s about the number.”

"Welan has 25 counties, and each county has a big city. They must have all been sold. How much money can we get from this?"

Mage Ander said softly, "Combined with Mage Williamson's findings, the total value is estimated to be over 5 million Oggs."

The Duke almost jumped up when he saw this: "5 million Oggs? Just to buy a bunch of pearls that can't be eaten or used and can only be used for viewing?!"

The entire Principality of Weilan only had an annual fiscal revenue of 11 million Oggs, and half of it was taken away in one go! The Duke suddenly remembered something and immediately shouted, "Send people to various Dawn Banks to do statistics and see how much gold is left in the bank vaults!"

"Yes, Duke."

Master Ande went to do it immediately.

This is a bit troublesome because Dawn Bank not only has a head office, but also many branches located throughout Dawn County.

But since it was the Duke's intention, Master Ande would naturally do his best to handle it.

With the help of rapid information exchange with telepathic mages from all over the place, he and his men spent ten days compiling a detailed picture.

The result was that the total amount of gold coins in banks across the country was at least 7 million Ogg less than the previous year! This was 7 million Ogg, 70 tons of gold, accounting for more than 30% of the total! When the Duke got this data, he was so shocked that he almost choked to death on the hot tea.

"Did all this money go to White Pelican Island?"

He didn't believe that the White Sturgeon Island could do such a thing quietly.

This is too cruel! Master Ander shook his head.

"Your Excellency the Duke, the investigation was too short to confirm this."

"The only thing that is certain at the moment is that most of this money must have flowed into the White Sturgeon Island. And the White Sturgeon Island must be very, very wealthy now."

The Duke was furious. He stood up, raised his hand, slammed the table hard, and roared.

"What a bastard!"

This is not only a rebellion, but it is already becoming a big deal!

The Duke immediately shouted: "Bede~Bede~~"

"The old slave is here!"

The housekeeper, Bed, pushed the door open and walked in.

"Convene the upper noble council immediately. I want to suppress the rebellion!"

On this day, two months had passed since the end of the pearl trade.

(End of this chapter)