Mystery: But the Witch's Path

Chapter 36 Treasure Vault Key

After a series of events including weapons testing, detailed discussions on cooperation, a banquet, and a ball, the banquet organized by Altair today has come to a complete end.

They all agreed or were forced to agree to the conditions they proposed, to integrate all the factories starting tomorrow, and to begin acquiring land near the industrial zone for the construction of new factories.

Once everything is successfully completed, the remaining 69% of the shares will be distributed equally according to each person's contribution.

Altair takes a fixed 31% stake, but this comes at a price: he needs to ensure the development of future weapons.

For example, the various weapon design blueprints he brought out in the meeting room—if it weren't for these blueprints, he might not have been able to acquire so many shares.

After seeing Owen Donovan and Heather Grant off from the doorway, Altair returned to the living room and saw Uncle Rafe still smoking a cigar.

When Rafe saw Altair enter, he immediately put his cigar in the ashtray and stubbed it out. "Looks like you've really grown up. You were quite good at arguing with those old guys in the conference room. Now I'm relieved."

Upon hearing this, Altair recalled his confident and smug demeanor in the conference room just moments before, and shook his head helplessly.

Thinking to myself, before I transmigrated, I was just a college student who had just entered society and was constantly hitting walls. Who would have thought that I would grow up like this in just three months here?

It's true that you need a solid foundation to do things, and now I've come to regard the "Sheffield family and Rafe Strauss" as my foundation, and I've even come to enjoy that feeling. Has my inner thinking begun to shift to conform to society?

While he was still thinking, Rafe got up, dusted off his clothes (which weren't actually dust), walked over to Altair, patted him on the shoulder, and reminded him to come back to his senses.

Once Altair regained his senses, Rafe took a piece of black metal from his shirt pocket and handed it to him.

Upon seeing the item handed to him, Altair instinctively took it. He immediately felt a sense of familiarity upon receiving the 'black iron piece,' and, feeling it with his head, asked:

"Uncle Rafe, what is this? Why do I feel a special blood connection to this piece of iron, like... a 'family member'? But it's clearly just a piece of iron made of some unknown material."

Rafe wasn't surprised by Altair's question. Instead, he calmly replied, "You've been inside your own treasure vault, so you should know that there's another treasure vault inside."

"This piece of metal is the key to unlocking it. As for why you feel a sense of familiarity, it's because 'it' itself is a part of you."

"In order to ensure the continuation of the family line, our families will take blood to make a 'key' when a child of direct blood is born, and give it to a trusted person for safekeeping. When the child grows up, the caretaker will give the key to 'him'."

"If 'he' fails to meet the administrator's expectations after reaching adulthood, the next generation of bloodline succession will be forcibly initiated to ensure the dominance of the bloodline."

"I am very satisfied with your performance today, and I have decided to give you the 'key' to the treasure vault ahead of schedule."

"As for how to open the treasure vault, it's very simple. Just hold the iron plate and stick it to the 'gate,' and 'it' will automatically absorb blood to confirm your identity."

The atmosphere was initially quite silent, but when Altair heard about using blood to "open the door," he abruptly looked up and exclaimed, "This key... it doesn't require blood to open the door every time, does it?"

When asked about this by his "grandniece," Rafe Strauss replied helplessly, "That's right."

Altair felt a strong sense of condemnation for this outdated "bloodline lock" design. Who the hell designed such a torturous thing?

Seeing Altair's visibly unpleasant expression, Rafe recalled feeling the same way himself and sighed at how comfortable it felt. But inwardly, he cursed, "The designer of this lock is truly inhuman."

.............

Meanwhile, inside a magnificent church, rows of people sat, their outlines obscured, their faces indistinct.

One of them sneezed twice in a row, and the person next to him, as if he had expected it and knew what was going to happen, easily dodged the spit that came out of his mouth and disgustedly patted his non-existent clothes.

The person sitting opposite him spoke directly to the person in the head seat.

"I strongly demanded to change seats. He does this every single time. It's been like this for so many years, and I just can't take it anymore."

These words caused the majestic church to erupt in chaos, with all sorts of figures either urging him to stay where he was or refusing the suggestion.

...........

After Uncle Rafe left, there were no outsiders left in the manor.

Hahn entered the living room, walked up to Altair, and said, "Count Altair, everything at the manor has been arranged. The carriage is already waiting at the door. We can now set off to return to the Queen's Manor."

Upon hearing this, Altair nodded directly to Hahn and said, "I'm very satisfied with the work you did today. To demonstrate the Sheffield family's preferential treatment of its servants, I'm allowing 'Clayton' to participate in this project. But please remember not to take too much, as it will cause resentment among others."

Before Hahn could react, Altair left the living room, headed to the door, and boarded a carriage to leave.

After getting into the carriage, I noticed Vera had a big smile on her face. I thought to myself, "Looks like she ate quite a bit in the kitchen today."

.........

Time moved forward steadily. Three days had passed since Altair proposed the plan. They had already purchased the land for the new industrial zone and had begun to recruit workers to prepare for the construction of the new zone using the blueprints provided by Altair.

In just three days, the new industrial zone had already covered an area of ​​15 square kilometers and is still expanding.

In these three days, because of Altair, some people became "rich overnight," some went bankrupt, and some even lost their lives. A series of fortunes and disasters crashed down on the tranquil city of Backlund, creating colorful ripples.

Meanwhile, the 'Instigator' potion in his body began to slowly digest, and at the current rate, he only needed to wait another month to complete the 'role'.

This series of actions naturally attracted the attention of others. From tabloid reporters to members of the upper house, everyone wanted to enter the estate, but Altair refused them all, citing poor health.

Some people, having learned about the industrial park's location through special channels, also showered it with gifts and wrote letters applying to join the festivities.

Altair simply handed this matter over to Hahn to take to Uncle Rafe and the others, letting them decide.