Chire City, which governed over a dozen ordinary cities and numerous rural towns, had a population of several million. One could say that Chire City alone was comparable to a duchy.
And the lord of Chire City held a status equivalent to the grand duke of a duchy!
"At the age of fourteen, he's going to become the lord of a county city. How enviable." In the taverns of Chire City, many people were discussing the matter.
Lady Wedde and her two siblings had perished suddenly in a great fire, which had also cleared up what had been a rather complicated struggle for power in Chire City.
Without a doubt.
Kien, who carried the blood of the Jax family, would undoubtedly inherit the position of county city lord.
"That countess went to raid the estate in the dead of night, only to lose her own life. How ironic." A red-bearded old man clutching a large mug of barley beer laughed heartily.
"I heard they were burned to death," someone nearby said.
"How could they possibly have burned to death? There were so many city guards around. If there really was a fire, how could the countess and the others have failed to escape?" A thin man suddenly lowered his voice. "Let me tell you a secret. The countess and her siblings were killed first, and then the fire was set to cover it up."
The people around him immediately turned to look.
"That's the truth," the thin man said confidently.
"All nonsense," a burly man scoffed. "I'm one of the city guards. I was there that night. Do you know more, or do I?"
The thin man immediately gave an awkward laugh: "Brother, I was just joking."
"The countess and her siblings weren't burned to death—they were most likely killed by an explosion," the burly man declared with self-assurance. "Burned to death? Wouldn't they have cried for help? But not a single one of our squad heard any cries for help from start to finish. It must have been a sudden explosion that killed all three of them, giving them no chance to call out."
The others nodded, and the thin man nodded as well.
Obviously, this explanation made perfect sense.
"Never mind Lady Wedde. The ones running Chire City now are those two siblings." The burly man took a swig of his drink and said loudly.
He was right. The most dazzling figures in Chire City now were none other than Jennie and Kien, the siblings who had previously been overlooked.
Inside the lord's castle.
"How are there so many?" Kien flipped through the gift list in his hand, then looked at the gifts that filled nearly the entire room, and couldn't help but gape.
With Lady Wedde dead, numerous nobles had immediately come to curry favor with Kien—sending gifts, beautiful women, powerful bodyguards… These nobles all knew that given Kien's age, their families would likely be under this future city lord's influence for the next hundred years. Naturally, they needed to maintain good relations.
"Not many," Lambert said from the side, shaking his head.
Jennie and Kien both looked at Lambert in surprise, while Lin Lei sat nearby sipping tea.
"Grandpa Lambert, this isn't many?" Jennie exclaimed.
Lambert shook his head: "Miss, Young Master, all these gifts combined are probably only a few hundred thousand gold coins at most. A few hundred thousand gold coins… Hmph, Miss, Young Master, do you know how much the First Lady's fortune was? I estimate it should have been over ten million gold coins!"
"Ten million gold coins?" Jennie and Kien were both stunned.
They had grown up in the countryside—when had they ever seen such enormous wealth? But Lambert had always been by their mother's side and had lived in the lord's castle back in the day, so he was familiar with many things.
"That's perfectly normal. Managing these millions of people for so many years, with the First Lady's greed, it would be strange if she didn't have ten million gold coins. It's just a pity we could never find the First Lady's Magic Crystal Card. Even if we had found it… the card likely had the First Lady's fingerprint on it. We wouldn't have been able to withdraw the gold coins anyway." Lambert shook his head helplessly.
The rules of the Four Nations Bank were entirely in the Four Nations Bank's own favor.
Once a Magic Crystal Card had recorded a fingerprint, that card could only be used by that one person. If someone else took it, it would be completely useless.
Of course…
The owner of a Magic Crystal Card could go to the Four Nations Bank and transfer their assets to someone else.
But if the cardholder died suddenly without transferring their assets, those assets would be swallowed by the Four Nations Bank. In truth, the Four Nations Bank had no choice but to do this.
The total gold coin value recorded on all Magic Crystal Cards in circulation actually exceeded the Four Nations Bank's actual gold reserves by tenfold.
However, many of the ultra-wealthy—with assets of a hundred million gold coins—who would actually go to the bank to withdraw a hundred million gold coins? Even if they did, transporting it would be nearly impossible. This was one of the reasons the Four Nations Bank dared to issue so many Magic Crystal Cards. And the Four Nations Bank wouldn't dare issue them recklessly either, because this was managed jointly by four nations, and behind it stood the War God "O'Brien" and humanity's longest-lived powerhouse, the "Grand Priest." No one dared to act carelessly.
"Ten million gold coins… just gone like that," Kien said in anguish.
He truly ached for that enormous sum.
"Young Master, being a city lord isn't just about accumulating wealth. You also need to pay the city guards' salaries, fund city renovations, and so on—all of which cost money," Lambert added.
Kien was taken aback.
"Huh? Being a city lord costs money too?" Kien hadn't known any of this.
"That's why I said these few hundred thousand gold coins are nothing. Fortunately, the county city has a fixed treasury, and there should be a good amount of money in it," Lambert said.
Kien clutched his head: "Ah, being a city lord seems really painful and complicated."
"Sis," Kien looked at Jennie hopefully, "you have to help me."
Jennie nodded very earnestly: "Kien, I'll definitely help you." This single nod would make Jennie's future days quite painful indeed.
At this moment, neither Kien, Jennie, nor Lambert knew that yet.