The guys saw the bleak expression on his face and became quiet.

In their hearts, they trusted him as their commander who would be able to lead them out of any situation. To make their brilliant, and usually calm, leader make an expression like this, they guessed that something had gone badly wrong

Kairos thought for a moment and told them, "The shop is sealed, and the staff imprisoned."

"B...boss! Is my mother alright?" Jim called out. If Lyla were captured as well, she would be sent back to the Hope manion, and things would be much more complicated.

Fortunately, Kairos shook his head and smiled, "From Serge's letters, your mother is safely hidden by him."

Only when he know that his mother is safe that he let out a breath of relief.

Kairos excused himself to prepare for a counterattack, and the guys knowing that they would be unable to help him didn't stay around. Born from a village, they had always wondered how Kairos knew the right way to use money. In Rutea, only the village head has green coppers and blue silvers, everyone else simply exchanged what they had for what they needed.

The guys, with the help of Vouno, began moving into the manor. They believed that they would only hinder Kairos if they stayed.

Previously, when Kairos first set off to rescue Jones, his place was still under construction and wasn't ready for his brothers. But by now everything is already built and furnished. Though its hall stands empty without a single servant, it is much better than the places where his friends stay.

Meanwhile, Kairos immediately made arrangements to meet Grand Elder Feng and Serge. Both persons decided to drop by the Viscount manor in haste. The first one to arrive is, in fact, Serge, and he brought Lyla along with him.

When Jim saw his mother, he finally smiled. The boy went forward to talk to her, but instead, Lyla only told her son to wait, and she requested speak with Kairos privately.

Serge patiently waited at the guest hall, while the others bombarded him with questions.

In another room, Kairos offered Lyla a hot cup of tea, to which she nervously drank from before she started, "Kairos... no, I should call you Young Master. I'm certain you have quite a bit to ask about the shop."

Kairos smiled, encouraging Lyla to calm down and continue speaking when she is ready.

For a moment, the lady who is much older felt as if she is if their age has reversed, and she is instead the child sitting in the presence of a reliable adult.

She found herself calmer than before, nodded her head and continued, "Everything was as you predicted. The pouches you gave to Xuan Xian to protect the business with. They are all accurate to a fault! B...but.... We couldn't sustain till the end."

Kairos seeing her pause, asked, "My guess is there was another party involved, besides the Devilhearts and the Hopes. Most likely, one of the 3 great nobles... Perhaps, the Steel Rose family?"

Lyla stared at him in disbelief, then said, "Y...you knew? Well, I suppose you would... When I took out the letters from the pouches, I kept thinking if you could see in the future? How else would you be able to know precisely what are your foes' actions."

"It wasn't that impressive," Kairos said in a manner that is neither obsequious nor haughty. His plans forced his enemies to take certain actions, and therefore it was easy to pick them apart.

Now that Lyla is sitting before Kairos, she found herself gaining a hope that she never had before.

She had anxiously rushed to the Viscount manor when she heard that Kairos had returned, hoping to find a way out of this miserable plight they are in. The short time she was in the Snowdrifts' shop, she has already become close friends with all of the friendly employees.

With her sincere character, she could make fast friends with anyone, and quickly became affectionate towards the families working for Kairos. Likewise, all of them fell for her radiant character.

Now, her friends were all sent to prison, leaving her alone out here. Within her own house, she had lived in a cold and damp place without any living comforts, not much different than a prison.

Having experienced that isolating, and suffocating feeling before, it isn't odd that she wanted to grab onto Kairos as a lifeline, to save them.

Her faith in him wasn't unfounded, after personally experiencing how uncanny his foresight is. Back when Kairos had to leave for the Silent Lambs Empire, he had prepared several pouches for to counter the advances of the Hope family and the House of the Devilheart.

Although, he did not expect the one to carry out his instructions would be Lyla instead of Xuan Xian, but nevertheless, things went exactly as he planned.

The moment his foes began their operation, Xuan Xian handed Lyla the pouches and opened the one numbered as 'First'. Within it was a paper slip with the instruction to wait for 3 days. At that time, Kairos had predicted that the Hope family will buy out all their suppliers, and he had arranged for Serge the Tax Collector, to visit every shop that raised prices against the Snowdrifts' shop.

The dire situation they faced, immediately turned about, and the merchants were driven into a panic at the frenzied tax collection at their places. What Serge did was not illegal tax collection, but merely made use of a loophole in the law of 'Wilful manipulation of prices'.

Even if the suppliers wanted to seek help, who could they call?

Call the guards on the tax collectors? Serge himself is not only a hired tax collector but also a guard from the local magistrate.

As expected, the costs of material for the shop rapidly reverted to the same prices as before, and right away on the 3rd day, Lyla opened the second pouch.

This time it wrote, "Sell away a frost and fire runic weapon to the Devilheart family. Wait 7 days and open the third pouch."

What happened next was a surprising set of events for everyone.

They sold a weapon specially prepared by Kairos at a jaw-dropping price.

A single product sold to the Devilheart family for a hundred times of its worth, and about 3 months' worth of revenue for the shop.

Everyone waited 7 days patiently, following the instruction on the slip.

They did not know that the package was actually paid for by Ah Pui, leader of Kairos' 15 disciples. Previously, Kairos had given Ah Pui his Tome of Origin, and a special blueprint to be brought back to the Devilheart family.

Though the tome disappeared without a trace shortly after, the noble family confirmed the blueprint's accuracy to make a weapon with sealing power yet capable of summoning both fire and ice runic effects.

They researched the blueprint for a long while but never succeeded in crafting the weapon. As Kairos had guessed, his foes had wasted a significant amount of time and money for only a slight chance to fashion an item from the Sword Schematics. But even if they managed, they would have only made a subpar weapon that costs the user twice the Internal Energy infusion, to create half the elemental effects. All because Kairos' frost and fire runes are meant to weaken each other out.

However, Ah Pui made use of the blueprint and convinced the Devilheart family's young heir, Calculus that he managed to find a traitor among the Snowdrifts shop who would sell them a crafted prototype to the dual element sealing sword. The weapon series that Kairos had named the 'Star Rune Weapon'.

Calculus, fuelled by his vengeance, quickly requested to be assigned to head the operation of taking over Kairos' business. And his father, Calculate Devilheart, nodded his head. He did not worry about the consequences and only wanted his son to gain more experience.

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An underestimation of the Snowdrifts that Calculate soon come to regret.

When Ah Pui magnificently returned to the Devilheart with the package prepared by Kairos, the young heir was overjoyed. He could imagine Kairos' expression when he copied the Star Rune Weapons and sold them at a lower price.

Once they could replicate this product, the Snowdrifts shop's capacity and funds would not be possible to match prices against a powerful noble family like theirs. As long as they continually sell at a lower price, The Snowdrifts' shop is bound to run out of customers and go bankrupt.

Ah Pui quickly unwrapped the package before Calculus' eyes, and from it, he took out a gleaming sword. Due to Siegfried's masterwork, the blade's luminous shine and sharp aura stole Calculus' breath away.

As an heir to a wealthy family, he had seen hundreds if not thousands of weapons, but none as handsome as this.

Then with a strand of Ki, Ah Pui activated both the frost and the fire runes, demonstrating the weapon's authenticity.

He had purposely used a small amount of Ki for the demonstration. Because should he infuse a greater amount of energy, anyone would notice how the fire and frost on the weapon would suppress each other.

However, Calculus did not find it odd, because by now everyone knows that Kairos' runes could destroy the very weapon it is engraved on if the user sent in too much power, and did not think too much of the weak Ki infusion.

Instead, the young heir with a wicked glee in his eyes immediately gave the order to forge a few copies of this weapon to test it out.

Of course, Ah Pui taking things into his own hands ran 'excitedly' to the family's blacksmiths and told them to create truckloads of the replicas.

Calculus only wanted swords, made from this sample and the blueprint they have, to test out the product before sales. But there was no way Kairos would allow him time to do so and reveal the naturally flawed design.

With Ah Pui's pretence of excitement, the command was given, and the smiths quickly created large amounts of useless weapons in one go.

With their family's capacity, creating ten thousand weapons take the same time as forging a single blade.

Initially, Kairos was unwilling to execute this plan, if possible. Since there is tremendous risks of Ah Pui and his other disciples being found out to be working for him.

But they could not sit and wait for the Devilheart family and the Hope family to take over their business one step at a time without counterattacking.

7 days later, the blacksmiths of the Devilheart family crafted several warehouses full of weapons. Calculus found out early on that Ah Pui had given the wrong instructions to the smiths, but because the boy is also eager to see the downfall of Kairos, the production was not stopped.

Following the instructions, Lyla opened the pouch labelled 'Third'. Within it is another slip of paper with the directions to notify Grand Elder Feng to begin the next part of their plan, then wait for 2 months before opening the last pouch.

During that time, the Hope family found their shops' capacity suddenly full, because of the frightening amount of products that the Devilheart family suddenly assigned them.

As they searched for shops to help market these products, Grand Elder Feng offered them a brilliant solution.

Representing the Trade Federate, the Elder is willing to take large amount of the stock off Cannot Hope's hands to sell, doing him the favour he requires.

In return, the Hope family will have to sign a note of promise that at the end of the term, after a 2 months period, any product that is not sold by the Trade Federate is guaranteed a buyback at 150% of the price.

This way, the Trade Federate stocked up 3 warehouses full of the useless Swords, about a fifth of what the Devilheart's blacksmith crafted.

The products quickly hit the markets, but as Kairos planned, those that purchased this weapon quickly found its performance to be subpar.

The ones who bought the weapons demanded the Hope family to refund. Repeatedly questioning how could a great merchant enterprise make such a large mistake in testing their products.

Unfortunately, The Hope enterprise had no place to turn to, to redress their grievances. They could not reveal that they tried to replicate Kairos' creations but were tricked instead. Nor could they push the blame to the Devilheart family for rushing them, though they already hated Ah Pui to death for repeatedly urging them to hurry their sales, day after day.

Because the sales of the fake Star Rune Weapons was so miserable, 2 months later, the Trade Federate flung their promise note in Cannot Hope's face and forced the merchant to pay for each sword unsold.

Calculus' rage could not be comforted, and the boy actually fainted from his unrestrained wrath. When he reawaken, he immediately sought to punish Ah Pui. Ordering his men to beat him to death.

But by that time, all of Kairos' disciples had escaped. With the Devilheart family busy dealing with the Snowdrifts' shop, the fifteen gained valuable time to search for their Soul Slips using their contract beasts, the dragonlings that Kairos gave them as their apprenticeship gift.

Though the lands belonging to the noble house of the Devilheart is simply gigantic, the divine beasts quickly combed the entire Empire with their superior speed, and they successfully retrieved the Soul Slips.

Without the Soul Slips, the Devilheart family could no longer hold the 15 of them hostage.

On Lyla's end, she confidently took the pouch labelled 'Last' and opened it. Within it, unsurprisingly, is another slip of paper.

This time, the instructions filled the entire paper.

There were detailed plans of a hidden stock of goods, including weapons and armours that Kairos had requested Siegfried to make before he left. There were also instructions of which noble families to sell these items to, along with the prices.

Kairos had known from the beginning that their products could only target a very niche market of the richest people in Saint City. And their greatest weakness is the inability to compete with larger enterprises with their funding and their production speed.

As expected, after Calculus calmed himself down, he quickly restores order to the chaos. The Devilheart family swiftly monopolised the sales to the major noble houses by selling them scores of swords and armours at a low price, on account of boycotting the Snowdrifts' shop.

Most nobles have near limitless needs for equipping their guards and private soldiers. The Devilheart's offer to cheaply arm their men who number in the tens of thousands easily won out against the temptation of purchasing a few powerful weapons from Kairos' shop.

A few nobles refused of course. Most of them are those that did not have much troops, or merely because they have a good relationship with Kairos.

Including the 5 noble houses that Alucard and his teammates come from, had rejected the Devilheart's offer.

Besides them, the Mountain Cat clan where George Kitty, Small Kitty and Smaller Kitty came from and the Autumn Blossoms clan where Leaf and Snow belong to, also refused the offer.

Instead, one by one, these noble houses publically declared that they stand on the Snowdrifts' side. Perhaps it was for their own agendas, but the Empire were thrown into shock by these announcements.

It wasn't the surprise of the nobles grouping together to side a Viscount's business when there are no direct profits in their action.

In fact, many of the more traditional nobles understand the benefit of defending the ideals of those who have similar bearing to themselves. And they consider Kairos a man of character, for creating a shop that helps those lesser than himself.

It may sound ridiculous to those not born of a noble house with longstanding heritage, but it was brave men who stood for what is right that protected Saint Empire till this day.

Just because of this, they are willing to forgo the materialistic benefits offered by the Devilheart.

A genuine reason for the Empire's surprise at their announcements is because these noble houses gave their recognition of Kairos' sense of noblesse oblige. It also made everyone wonder how could a young, 13-year-old boy, earn so many allies just after he was conferred his title mere months ago?

Alas, even with Kairos' instructions, the Snowdrifts' shop is simply too small to compete against the large production rooms that the Hope family has.

They were soon driven back.

After Kairos withdrew all their profits for saving Jones, the Snowdrifts is in bad shape.

However, with their previous successes, the shop would not close down that easily.

Several of the noble houses had purchased the items that Kairos had Siegfried prepare, and along with the Frost and Fire Star Rune sword that Ah Pui paid using Calculus' money, they are still barely managing.

At the last part of Kairos' instructions, they are told to switch their main trade from Luxury Weapons to food and medicines. The dishes that Uncle Laksa made and the pills which Helena concocted are as masterful as Siegfried's weapons.

But at this time, instead of finding the Dark Gods family belonging to Lord Yue, their superior, Calculus called upon a favour from the Steel Rose family. Another one of the 3 great noble families under the 3rd Prince's flag and on par with the noble house of the Dark Gods.

The Steel Rose family not only have incredible funds which they used to compete against the Snowdrifts, but many of their family members are also Government Officials who could use a bunch of red tapes to stall their opponent's business.

Afterwards, because of the tremendous pressure placed on them from the Steel Rose, along with the extensive trade routes belonging to the Hope family's enterprise and the Devilheart's unscrupulous ways, no matter what trade the Snowdrifts' shop turn to it would result in immediate failures.

By the time Kairos has returned, his business has already been bankrupted and his shop front seized.

But unexpectedly, he sits calmly facing Lyla, as though he has already come to terms with his losses.

Instead, Kairos coolly asked, "Why were my employees locked up?"

With tears in her eyes, Lyla replies, "Everyone fought till the end against those nobles. No matter how they suppressed your business, everyone did not give up.

Siegfried would pound metal into the night. Cook would be bringing out dishes non-stop throughout the day for customers, and make food for the staff in the evening. Helena had to start making pills for everyone because so many had fallen ill from overworking themselves..."

She paused, taking in a shuddering breath, and involuntary sob, then continued, "When the officials came to seal the shop, all of us were disheartened and sapped of all our energy. Quite a few of us, myself included, cried bitterly at our loss.

The shop is their livelihood, and our home, but we all felt helpless when they came and took it away."

Hearing what Lyla said, Kairos frowned, saying, "But they did nothing wrong. Why were they imprisoned?"

Lyla took a deep breath before replying, "I...It was the Devilheart family again. T..this boy, who called himself Calculus, accused those who wept of resisting the shop being sealed.

T...then... my husband, Cannot Hope, came and said a few harsh words to the people. Everyone is already at the edge, and his words incited rage like a spark to a dry bush."

"... And it gave them the reason to incarcerate my people," he finished her words.

Kairos closed his eyes briefly, having heard the entirety of what happened, he quickly formulate the counterattack. It would be a tedious and complex plan. But, nevertheless, it would be swift, and decisive.