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Chapter 13: The First Step of Gathering Intelligence

William murmured to himself. The girl named Nichole was quite peculiar. Despite her refined manners, she exuded a sense of freedom and rebellion, which was contradictory.

Moreover, when he lightly touched the girl\'s delicate hand just now, he could clearly feel the calluses on her palm, formed from prolonged weapon use, which seemed inconsistent with her identity as a noblewoman.

And the man who left with the girl just now was none other than Jason Harold, the youngest son of Duke Harold, mentioned by Mora earlier. Jason\'s cautious gaze and the faint reverence in his eyes towards the girl reflected her extraordinary status.

Shaking his head, William stopped dwelling on these thoughts. Who knows if they\'ll meet again in the future?

As for the golden silk shrimp balls the girl wanted to eat, it\'s a matter for another day!

"Miss Nichole, please don\'t do this next time. I just went to say hello, and in the blink of an eye, you disappeared."

Jason Harold said somewhat helplessly to the girl beside him.

"Oh, I was hungry. There was so much good food here, and I didn\'t go anywhere else!"

Nichole happily waved her hand, completely disregarding Jason\'s tone of helplessness.

"The person you were with just now..." Jason asked, feeling that William had a unique aura about him, unlike the typical noble who enjoys socializing and indulgence.

"He said his name is William Cain, and he seems to be a very talented chef!" Nichole thought for a moment and said.

"William Cain." Jason pondered for a moment, automatically ignoring the latter part, and asked in confusion, "Is he the Viscount Cain? The mage who stays at home?"

"I don\'t know, but he\'s quite an interesting person! He also said he\'ll make golden silk shrimp balls for me in the future!"

"Shrimp balls. Is that a dish?" Jason was speechless. What was this all about? If it really was the viscount, although not from a major noble family, he wouldn\'t be cooking, would he?

Nichole paid no attention to Jason\'s thoughts, humming a tune and tap-dancing along the streets at night, her fiery red skirt swaying with each step, just like her mood at the moment.

Jason had no choice but to follow closely behind Nichole\'s footsteps. Although Miss Nichole\'s strength far exceeded his own, and she used magical items to conceal her appearance, if anyone dared to offend her, it would be his failure as a protector.

---

After finishing his speech with his father, Mora had also completed the first dance with a shy noble girl and then stepped back to make way, leaving the center of the ballroom.

With an affable smile on his face, Mora navigated through the crowd in the banquet hall, seemingly searching for something.

"Well, I worked so hard up there, and you\'re just hiding here eating?"

Mora finally found William hiding in the corner, seeing the empty plates in front of him, he knew this guy hadn\'t left this spot the entire time.

"It\'s your birthday party, didn\'t you want me to come up and say a few words?"

William focused on finishing the chocolate vanilla ice cream in front of him. It was quite luxurious to experience a touch of coldness in the heat of June. It must have been made with ice magic or ice magic stones, truly extravagant, but I like it.

Mora gestured for his own servant to bring him some food, took a sip of the golden champagne, exhaled deeply, and looked at the lively scene in front of him.

"You know, celebrating my birthday is just part of it. The main purpose is to provide a social occasion."

"Oh, yeah."

William couldn\'t be bothered with this guy. He could bet that if he hadn\'t arranged it, this guy would have been worried that his family\'s business association was going bankrupt.

"You!"

Mora punched William lightly, but it didn\'t carry much force.

"But it\'s quite rare for you to come this time. Is this your first time attending my family\'s party?"

William recalled for a moment, it seemed indeed to be the first time. Apart from the annual parties he couldn\'t avoid from the royal family, he had never attended any other party, so he was regarded as quite unsociable by other nobles.

"Let\'s not talk about this. What about Bernie? I\'ve come, but hasn\'t he?"

"I heard he\'s in the school\'s magic workshop, at a critical point in his research, too busy to leave. But he sent someone to tell me and brought a gift."

Mora stretched out his hand to show William. There was a ring with a transparent gemstone on his right index finger, emitting a faint magical glow.

"Iron Armor Ring, enchanted with Tier 3 Iron Armor spell, can be used three times a day. The most valuable thing is that it can automatically trigger when in danger."

"He\'s thoughtful."

This protective ring was worth hundreds of gold coins. Bernie knew this, even though his family\'s condition was average, it must have taken quite an effort to send such a precious gift.

"What about yours?" Mora didn\'t bother hiding his curiosity and reached out his hand to William.

"Your surprise isn\'t ready yet, but it will definitely satisfy you." William shrugged. He did have some ideas he wanted to implement with Mora and Bernie, but they weren\'t mature yet. It would take some time.

"Alright, I\'ll wait then." Mora trusted that William wouldn\'t deceive him about this.

"I actually have a favor to ask. Can you help me out?" William said to Mora.

"What is it? A new experimental instrument, magical ore, or magic scrolls?" Mora casually replied, as in the past, William often asked for help in purchasing these items.

"It\'s not about buying things. I want you to help me gather some information about Canlight City, mainly about the various price levels and any unusual incidents."

William pondered as he spoke. He still knew nothing about the masterminds behind the scenes, only that they planned to assassinate nobles including himself at the Annual Holy Festival three months later. He hoped to gather some clues from Mora.

"When did you start caring about this?" Mora glanced at William, somewhat surprised.

"I have my reasons." William didn\'t want to explain in detail to Mora. After all, he couldn\'t say that he foresaw his own assassination three months later. That would only be seen as nonsense, and spreading it might even startle the snake.

Seeing that William didn\'t want to elaborate, Mora didn\'t press further. After all, helping a brother wasn\'t a big deal, especially when it was just a matter of raising a hand.

"Alright, I\'ll summarize the information from our chamber of commerce for you every week, but it can only be those that don\'t involve trade secrets. I\'ll also keep an eye out for other information, and if there\'s any, I\'ll send it to you."

"Thanks." William nodded. He had considered having servants or guards collect some information for him, but that would be too inefficient compared to asking Mora for help.

The Golden Vine Merchant Guild was a well-known large chamber of commerce with dedicated personnel for collecting information. After all, merchants were very interested in all kinds of information, as even ordinary information might conceal huge business opportunities and piles of gold coins.

"Let\'s not talk about this. Look over there, that\'s the second daughter of Count Siani, she\'s like a tempting rose. What do you think, captivated?"

Mora, who had just regained his composure, reverted to his old ways, becoming unserious again.

William sighed, embarrassed to associate with this person.

"I\'m speechless."