Staring at the scantily clad woman before her, various guesses flashed through Lia's mind.

Who was this woman?

Why had she appeared in the garden?

And what was the deal with the cloud beneath her? It looked quite impressive.

"Her name is Cocotte, Cocotte Yade. She's a former council member of the Mage City," Viktor explained, appearing behind Lia.

Hearing Viktor's explanation, Lia became even more confused.

A former member of the Mage Council?

Did that mean Viktor's council position had replaced this woman?

What was the relationship between these two?

Cocotte was sleeping soundly, turning her head slightly, her pointed ears on both sides now visible to Lia.

Looking at the slender ears, Lia felt a sense of familiarity.

She blurted out, "An elf?"

After all, Lia had her fair share of dealings with elves.

This lazy elf lying asleep on a cloud seemed to give the illusion that she was isolated from the world.

But that wasn't the point. The real question was why Viktor had brought back an elf woman.

Lia looked up, her eyes showing a hint of disapproval as she gazed at Viktor.

"So, what's her story?"

"You went to the Mage City once and brought back a new flame?"

"Huh, I really feel sorry for Gwen."

Hearing Lia's sarcasm, Viktor calmly said:

"She's a fourth-tier mage."

"Now, she's working for me."

Lia's disapproving gaze instantly softened, her eyes seemingly filled with calculation.

"I see, you should have said so earlier."

"I'll make sure to take care of this too... I mean, take care of her meticulously."

As if sensing something, Cocotte's ears twitched, and she sat up groggily, rubbing her eyes:

"Hmm~?"

Cocotte let out a prolonged sound of confusion, gave Viktor a silly smile, and then, like a puppet whose strings had been cut, fell back onto the cloud.

Thump!

"Zzz..."

She closed her eyes and fell back asleep.

Lia: "..."

Could such a lazy elf really be used as a tool?

Viktor didn't explain much more to Lia.

In reality, Cocotte had become homeless.

After losing her council member status, Cocotte could have stayed in Endymion for a long time.

But Viktor had blown up the top three levels of Endymion, causing the most stable area of natural energy to disappear into the river of history.

Without such a place, Cocotte couldn't sleep well.

Even when she managed to fall asleep, she would feel as if ants were crawling all over her body, making her extremely uncomfortable.

So she simply followed Viktor to the Empire, becoming a mascot at the Kravina house.

After all, she was no longer a council member, and the restoration of Endymion had nothing to do with her. Cocotte now felt utterly free.

She even slept more soundly in the garden.

And now that Viktor had attained the status of a count, he was qualified to recruit his own private army in the royal capital.

It was fine both officially and privately.

Viktor calmly said to Lia:

"When she wakes up, remember to have her sign an indenture contract in my name."

After all, the Kravina family didn't keep idle people, and Cocotte would need to work when she woke up.

Lia nodded, watching Viktor walk into the mansion as he left.

...

In the study, Viktor walked to the bookshelf, examining it closely.

He opened the cabinet and pulled out a thick book.

It was a book recording parts of historical mythology, with stories related to the former 'deities'.

Viktor quickly turned to the page he needed.

"The Scales of the Goddess of Justice."

Aurelianne had told Viktor everything about her experience in the magic library.

Including her sighting of the scales.

Viktor already knew there was a set of scales in Endymion's magic library.

It wasn't a true divine artifact, just an ancient forgery.

History described the Goddess of Justice like this:

The justice of the Goddess of Justice was absolute. Those she deemed evil and impure would be completely annihilated by her, without any hope of escape.

She used the scales in her hand to weigh the hearts of mortals, placing her dagger of punishment on one side of the scales.

Legend had it that the weight of that dagger was as light as a cloud.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

While human hearts tainted by malice would have additional weight from resentment.

Once the scales tipped towards the heart,

The Goddess of Justice would mercilessly eradicate the evil person.

Since the birth of human civilization, she had protected the humans on the continent, always believing that humans could achieve the absolute justice and fairness she held in her heart.

But the actions of humans over the long span of time gradually disappointed the Goddess of Justice... Then came the more familiar story, the Goddess of Justice left the mortal realm.

But in reality.

Viktor pondered about the scales stored in the magic library.

According to legend, the Great Mage had become dissatisfied with the actions of the Goddess of Justice and stole a sliver of her divine power to create these Scales of the Hypocrite.

This was to weaken the divine will of the Goddess of Justice, and through the forged scales, reduce her numerous extreme followers. Those filled with absolute justice were eventually replaced by hypocrites.

Finally, utterly disappointed with humanity, the goddess left the mortal world.

But her departure made the people of the world breathe a sigh of relief.

Because absolute justice should never exist in a society composed of humans.

Hypocrites were also kind and just, they just wouldn't fall into the vortex named 'extreme justice'.

Thus, through these forged scales, the Great Mage established the Mage Council based on morality.

'Hypocrisy is also a form of justice.'

Vega, standing nearby, spoke up.

"Are you interested in the Goddess of Justice?"

"I'm just preparing for potential future crises," Viktor said as he closed the book.

In the magic library, some players would be attracted to the 'Scales of the Hypocrite'.

If a player's sense of justice reached 80 points or above, they would learn a brand new passive skill.

[Heart of the Hypocrite]

As long as one holds justice and morality in their heart, they will receive the blessing of the ancient human will.

For players, this skill's powerful effect could increase all their character attributes by 10%, lasting for an entire battle.

Of course, how could the real scales be inferior to a forgery?

If players could join the church of the Goddess of Justice, joining that group of remaining extreme justice advocates.

They would also receive the blessing of the Goddess of Justice from the void.

The condition was to reach 100 points in justice.

[Justice].

But this justice was extremely radical.

To propagate absolute justice, they wouldn't hesitate to use cruel violence and torture to achieve the merciless expansion of their ideology and will.

The believers of the goddess were so severe that they only had a singular and absolute distinction between good and evil, with no room for any emotion.

Viktor narrowed his eyes, as he was very familiar with this power.

"Heart of Justice."

That's right.

Before Gwen had grown up.

The Goddess of Justice had already set her sights on this born believer.

........

Golden and bright, silk draping to the floor, silver curtains hanging behind the doors on both sides.

The Second Prince sat on a soft sofa, with no one around him.

He was very pleased, not just because Viktor's actions in the palace today had slapped Jace Reiser in the face.

Jace belonged to his foolish elder brother's faction, and Viktor doing this was directly telling the Crown Prince:

No matter what relationship you have with me, because of your subordinate.

This grudge, we've settled it.

Of course, although Viktor would definitely not support him either, at least he didn't publicly slap him in the face.

He and his elder brother were still in fair competition, nothing had changed.

Even becoming enemies with Viktor, he still had to divert some energy to consider Viktor's existence.

However...

"Who would have thought that Viktor would become a member of the Magic Council?"

The Second Prince spoke as if chatting with servants beside him, but there wasn't a single person around.

On the surface, the council member status was definitely superior to Jace Reiser.

And this council member status would also mean that even if the Crown Prince really wanted to marry Lia, he would have to consider Viktor's council member status.

Marrying the sister of a count and marrying the sister of a mage council member were two completely different concepts.

"Viktor always gives me surprises."

"Jace Reiser must be feeling incredibly angry with jealousy right now."

The Second Prince laughed out loud, his body shaking constantly, laughing somewhat maniacally.

This was the second reason for his happiness.

Soon, the Second Prince changed like a different person, putting away his laughter and returning to his usual indifference, smiling as he said:

"Jealousy can trigger many different emotions, that's why I love this wonderful jealousy."

"Get ready, Greed."

"We should go welcome our new companion."

......

Jace Reiser walked on the street, followed by a group of guards.

His eyes were red with anger, originally intending to go straight home by carriage, but the unrelenting fury in his heart made him realize he couldn't go back.

As the heir to the family, Jace needed to remain calm at all times.

So Jace Reiser took a carriage to the East District, his instinctive anger guiding him to vent.

He was looking for Viktor's prop shop.

That shop that only sold blue potions.

He had been here a few days ago, setting a trap to make Viktor sign that seemingly beneficial contract, to cause them to incur losses.

But Viktor hadn't even considered agreeing to those families.

Jace was a merchant, but he also knew how to play the role of a difficult customer.

He walked towards the prop shop, intending to pretend to be a customer and deliberately cause some trouble in the store.

But before he could enter, he saw Henie appear at the doorway.

Henie was neatly arranging bottles of blue potions on the counter at the shop entrance, replenishing the spaces left by recently sold goods.

Instinct made Jace want to approach this seemingly rustic girl and vent some of his anger.

But after a few seconds, cold sweat suddenly broke out on his forehead, dripping onto the dusty ground.

"No, something's not right..."

"What's wrong with me?"

The anger quickly dissipated from his mind, and Jace suddenly calmed down.

He was no longer jealous, his brain felt as if it had been suddenly washed with clear water, his intelligence and rationality returning to their peak.

"What have I been doing..."

Jace Reiser held his head, carefully recalling what he had done these past few days.

Constantly targeting the Kravina family, even taking the initiative to visit, running to arrange a marriage for the Crown Prince without his permission.

Jace's body trembled slightly as he suddenly realized the serious consequences of his actions.

He hurriedly said to the guards behind him.

"Quickly, let's go home! Bring the carriage over!"

"I need to see my father immediately!"

With that, Jace quickly left the scene with his guards.

However, Henie hadn't noticed any of this at all.

At this moment, she was still a bit troubled, after all, she had heard many things about Miss Lia recently.

And there were always a few families coming to ask this and that, often mentioning to her about cooperations she didn't understand at all.

Henie was a little angry.

Suddenly, she blinked, somewhat confused.

A touch of red had appeared on the blue potion bottle she had just placed on the counter.

But this red looked unnatural to her, like an impurity attached to the bottle's mouth.

"What is...?"

She hadn't had time to look closer when a voice sounded beside her ear.

"Little girl, you're much prettier than that man just now."

"I admire your little bit of anger, why don't we work together? Trust me, we could definitely pull off something big!"