Chapter 171: No explanation needed
When the alarm sounded, Isaac Dunkinson sat up abruptly from his bed. After a moment of grogginess, disbelief spread across his face.
Why was there an alarm in his home?
He was fifty-five years old, his hair already streaked with white, and his face etched with the wrinkles of time. Yet, as a man who walked the path of a knight, his body remained agile. In an instant, he grabbed a sword hanging on the wall.
He didn’t bother to investigate the reason for the alarm. Instead, he opened the window and quietly climbed out, intending to hide in the shadows and observe the situation. He was exceptionally cautious.
His ability to remain stable in the center of the world, the Bass Archipelago, owed a great deal to this cautious nature.
Not long after, Isaac heard a few gasps. They were the cries of the household servants, likely encountering intruders.
These gasps quickly vanished. He sensed the intruders were heading towards his bedroom. This made him, clinging to the outer wall, feel uneasy. He had wanted to observe the intruders from the shadows, but now, they were too close, and such observation still felt unsafe.
So, before they could enter his bedroom, he decisively dropped down the outer wall into the courtyard, intending to leave the premises.
He had only taken a few steps in the courtyard when he saw a group of dead sea dogs on the ground. His heart skipped a beat, and he disregarded everything else, intending to rush out of the courtyard.
"Where do you think you’re going?"
Suddenly, a young girl’s voice sounded from very close behind him.
This greatly startled Isaac. He had no idea when she had appeared. He instinctively turned, and as he turned, he swung the sword in his hand. Regardless of who it was, if they were an intruder, they must have ill intentions. Attack first, ask questions later.
However, the scene that unfolded next sent a chill down Isaac’s spine, causing his entire body to tremble uncontrollably.
Because the sword he had swung was blocked. If it had been blocked by a weapon, he wouldn’t have been so shocked. But it was blocked by two fingers, which had deftly caught his swinging sword.
Such a sight made Isaac feel it was utterly preposterous and even terrifying.
How vast must the difference in power be for someone’s sword strike to be caught by just two fingers?
"Just an eighth-tier apprentice?"
Carlotta found it somewhat amusing.
Isaac was weak, there was no doubt about it. In her eyes, Transcendents of this level were weak.
If Isaac was like this, one could only imagine the caliber of the others who had divided the White Merchant Guild.
Yet, it was this very group of people who had once driven real Carlotta to a dead end.
"Times have changed,"
Carlotta whispered. With a slight exertion of force in her hand, she, while gripping the blade, forcibly snatched the sword from Isaac.
This scene left Isaac completely dumbfounded.
"You... Who are you? Miss, may I ask why you are attacking me?"
Fine beads of sweat trickled down Isaac’s forehead.
He lowered his posture significantly, practically groveling. He respectfully inquired about the reason, not daring to meet Carlotta’s gaze.
Seeing this, Carlotta’s eyes couldn’t help but feel a complex mix of emotions. The "uncle" from back then was now so subservient in front of her.
"Come here."
She turned and re-entered the house.
Isaac could only follow. He knew he couldn’t escape, so he could only obediently follow.
The living room was empty.
Carlotta had knocked out the servants earlier, and Amelia had dragged them elsewhere. Now, only she and Isaac were present.
Carlotta sat down on the sofa and said unhurriedly, "Isaac, do you still remember the White Merchant Guild?"
Isaac’s head snapped up, and he looked at her in shock. He never expected to hear the name "White Merchant Guild" from Carlotta’s lips.
To him, it was a memory that should have been buried.
"I’m asking you a question, are you deaf? Aren’t you going to answer?"
Carlotta’s voice turned cold, interrupting Isaac’s daze.
Isaac came back to his senses, and with a terrified tone, replied, "I remember the White Merchant Guild. I don’t know why you’re mentioning this guild..."
Carlotta raised her hand and directly removed the Illusion Mask from her face, revealing her true appearance.
She had no intention of letting Isaac live. After asking what she needed to know, she planned to let him depart this world.
"Do you still remember me?"
Carlotta asked indifferently.
Upon seeing Carlotta’s true face, Isaac’s pupils contracted sharply. He was greatly startled and took several steps back, his body trembling uncontrollably.
"Ca... Carlotta? How is that possible?"
Isaac almost roared, his body and mind trembling.
Of course, he knew who Carlotta was. She was the daughter of the White Merchant Guild’s president, a little girl he had watched grow up.
But this little girl, when he left the White Merchant Guild, was just an ordinary person, right? She hadn’t even embarked on the path of the Transcendent. How much time had passed? The little girl who was once ordinary had now become a supernatural being, and had even reached a level that he could only look up to?
Thinking of how Carlotta had caught his attack with just two fingers earlier, Isaac felt a chill, as if he were dreaming. This all felt too unreasonable, too unbelievable.
Why did this happen?
"Tell me about what happened back then,"
Carlotta said unhurriedly. "You all left so easily, so comfortably, taking all the funds from the guild and leaving me with nothing. I had to endure a great deal of hardship. Give me an explanation for this."
Hearing Carlotta’s words, Isaac couldn’t stop trembling.
He didn’t need to guess that Carlotta must have had some extraordinary encounter after that, which changed the trajectory of her life and brought her to this point. But it was precisely because of this that he felt fear.
Carlotta, whose fate had undergone a drastic change, was now settling accounts for what happened back then. Could he, who had done those things back then, truly survive her reckoning?
Taking a deep breath, Isaac said, "The guild was unsustainable back then. We, the others... the others just took what belonged to us. We..."
"Forget it, you don’t need to say anymore."
Just hearing a little, Carlotta began to lose patience.
In fact, she was perfectly clear about the cause and effect of what happened back then. Was there any need to have Isaac repeat it? Or to listen to him make excuses again? All of that was unnecessary.
Find the enemy, kill the enemy. That was enough. There was no need to ask about their motives, no need to ask for reasons. It was truly unnecessary.
.......
"Lars Houston, where is he?"
"Sally Lake, where is she?"
"And your son, Simon Dunkinson, where is he?"
Carlotta asked for several people’s names in succession.
She truly didn’t need to know what happened in the past; she already knew what she needed to know.
She more so wanted to find and deal with the culprits who had divided up the White Merchant Association, to resolve a knot in her heart. Thus, she needed to know who among them were not in the Dunkinson Merchant Association.
Isaac likely knew the whereabouts of these people. Of course, it didn’t matter if he didn’t know. As long as she had asked the question, even if he didn’t provide an answer, the intelligence tomorrow would most likely provide corresponding information.
At this moment, Isaac was drenched in cold sweat, truly terrified in his heart.
Carlotta’s questions made his brain go numb. The people she asked about were all outside the Dunkinson Merchant Association. What did this imply? Didn’t this imply that she had already grasped the situation of the Dunkinson Merchant Association?
As for his son and the other two former managers of the White Merchant Association, they had left to establish another merchant association.
They didn’t believe that concentrating all resources in one merchant association was better. Establishing another merchant association might also have certain benefits. Their businesses had no overlap, and each developing independently had its own advantages.
He definitely couldn’t tell Carlotta these things.
It was one thing to let the other two companions go, but this matter also involved his own son. He absolutely couldn’t speak.
"I don’t know. Lars, Sally, and the others left the Dunkinson Merchant Association. I don’t know what they went to do, and I haven’t heard from them in a long time. I can’t reach them."
Isaac replied.
"What about your son?"
Carlotta asked again.
"My son went to the South Continent. You know, the South Continent cannot communicate with this side. If you don’t go to the South Continent, you can’t get accurate news."
Isaac spun a lie.
In reality, his son, Simon Dunkinson, was on this very Island Six.
Carlotta didn’t care whether Isaac was telling the truth or lying. But to ensure that relevant intelligence was more likely to appear tomorrow, she asked a few more questions.
She said indifferently, "Tell the truth."
Isaac gritted his teeth and argued that what he said was all true.
After Isaac finished speaking, Carlotta said again, "Do you think I don’t know if you’re telling the truth? Do you think I have very little information? Tell the truth."
Isaac continued to argue, stating that what he said was all true.
Afterward, Carlotta said, "Winnie Vera is on Island Nine. Kelly Newman is on Island Twelve. As for the specific location..."
Carlotta revealed the specific residences of these two people, causing Isaac’s legs to tremble uncontrollably.
But he had already anticipated this. Since Carlotta could find him, it wasn’t impossible for her to find the other two people from the Dunkinson Merchant Association.
He felt that Carlotta definitely didn’t know the whereabouts of his son and the other two companions, otherwise, she wouldn’t need to ask such questions.
Therefore, Isaac could only grit his teeth and insist that what he had said earlier was true: he didn’t know the whereabouts of the two companions, and his son had gone to the South Continent.
Carlotta did not hurry, continuing to ask a few more questions to increase the probability of intelligence appearing.
She was merely increasing the probability, but her unhurried attitude put immense pressure on Isaac.
Isaac never expected that a young girl he watched grow up, a junior, could now make him feel such heavy pressure.
He could only try his best to argue, even if his words seemed somewhat weak, he was still trying.
But in the end, Isaac couldn’t help it and brought up another matter, "Actually, Carlotta, the deaths of your parents had reasons."
"What do you mean?"
Carlotta looked at Isaac.
Isaac sighed and said, "Your parents, on the surface, seemed to have died at the hands of bandits. And those bandits were later wiped out by the Wendell Empire’s army. But this is just the superficial reason. In reality, your parents died at the hands of their peers."
Carlotta said in a deep voice, "Explain."
Seeing that he had finally caught Carlotta’s attention, Isaac relaxed a little and began to speak seriously.
He mentioned a merchant association called the Margaret Merchant Guild, stating that Carlotta’s parents had a conflict with the management personnel of the Margaret Merchant Guild and were thus murdered. It had nothing to do with the so-called bandits.
Carlotta did have some impression of the Margaret Merchant Guild.
In the Wendell Empire, there were six most prosperous merchant associations, collectively known as the Six Great Merchant Associations: the Cavendish Guild, the Fors Guild, the Margaret Guild, the Flora Guild, the Austin Guild, and the Watson Guild.
Carlotta also had a good relationship with Clotilde Austin, a manager of the Austin Merchant Gild.
Could this matter involve the Margaret Merchant Guild?
Carlotta didn’t fully believe him, wondering if Isaac was weaving a lie to create an unnecessary enemy for her.
"This is all true."
Seeing the suspicion in Carlotta’s eyes, Isaac immediately spoke earnestly about the detailed past.
He narrated, with sincere emotion.
He even stated that their departure and division of the White Merchant Association back then was out of necessity. Because they had offended the Margaret Merchant Guild and would face retaliation, they could only choose to flee. There was no other way.
As for leaving Carlotta behind and not taking care of her, it was because they thought the Margaret Merchant Guild might target Carlotta, and taking her with them would be dangerous.
"I didn’t expect the Margaret Merchant Guild to not bother with you in the end. That’s truly wonderful. I am willing to return all the funds I obtained from the White Merchant Association back to you, and add the money I’ve earned during this period. I am willing to re-establish a White Merchant Association in the Bass Islands."
Isaac showed a sincere expression.
Carlotta’s emotions did not fluctuate. She said indifferently, "A lie."
"What I’m saying is true!"
Isaac earnestly argued, mentioning various past events and asserting that the Margaret Merchant Guild had caused the deaths of Carlotta’s parents.
Carlotta neither fully believed nor completely disregarded this. She still employed the same tactic, steering the conversation here to increase her level of engagement with this topic. Then, tomorrow, there would likely be relevant intelligence.
She would know tomorrow what truly caused her parents’ deaths.
For the next period, Carlotta continued to use Isaac to increase her engagement with related events. After two hours, feeling it was sufficient, she got up from the sofa.
"Carlotta?"
Isaac was stunned.
"I’ll see you off."
Carlotta took our the Rose cross from her necklace and slashed down with her sword.