Chapter 31

“Your Highness, it’s bad!!!”

Morris shouted frantically, eyes wide with alarm.

He materialized from the shadows, slowly emerging in Ivyst’s room.

Seeing her subordinate burst in without knocking, Ivyst frowned but didn’t put down her teacup: “What’s the matter?”

“Lynn… Lynn is currently in the cellar, and he’s about to unleash that thing!”

“What thing?”

Ivyst furrowed her brow.

At that moment, Afia, who had been dozing at the desk, blinked awake.

“It’s the Greed Magic Box,” Morris gulped nervously. “Lynn has discovered some patterns of that box, and it seems like he’s planning something.”

Truth be told, he didn’t fully grasp what that meant.

But seeing the usually composed Lady Milani looking uncharacteristically uneasy made him feel anxious too.

Upon hearing this, Ivyst let her teacup fall, her expression icy as she stood up, her invisible authority enveloping the entire study.

“Who allowed you to take him there? Is he okay?!”

Lynn was the only successful subject of her hypnosis experiments and was currently her most valued subordinate, potentially the next head of the Bartleyon family.

No way was he allowed to die over such a trivial matter.

Little did Ivyst know, Rhine actually had the audacity to take him to the Greed Magic Box.

After all, during previous tests with such items, the manor had exhausted over a hundred death row inmates! One slip-up, and that box could demand an endless price until nothing was left! Seeing this, Morris went pale and half-heartedly laughed, “He’s fine.”

In fact, that guy was navigating the cellar like a pro, making it hard to deny he was quite the talent.

Instead of worrying about Lynn, Morris thought it more prudent to worry about Rhine.

Though he figured Rhine had brought it upon himself.

“Your Highness, you may need to step in and handle this.” Morris suggested, iron-willed.

Ivyst closed her eyes for a moment, seemingly deep in thought.

After a while, her displeasure vanished, and she returned to her chair as if nothing had happened.

“You don’t need to worry about this. Let him do as he pleases.”

“But remember to tell him, since I’m turning a blind eye this time, he better do a good job to repay this princess.”

“Yes!” Morris replied.

He silently wiped sweat off for Rhine.

Did this mean that even if Lynn ended up killing the heir of House Augusta in the cellar, the princess would still let it slide? My goodness, Morris was stunned.

Once Morris left, Ivyst let out a soft sigh.

She pinched the bridge of her nose to relieve the boredom from reviewing documents and murmured, “What a troublesome character.”

“Your Highness, are you not afraid he might actually do something irreversible?”

Awakened by the commotion, Afia blinked her eyes with curiosity.

Ivyst remained calm, “Don’t worry, he’s clever enough not to stir up trouble at such a time.”

It was precisely because she believed this that she had said those words of indulgence.

For Ivyst, this formed a tacit understanding, trusting Lynn to know the difference between right and wrong.

Once she focused again, staring at Afia’s restless eyes, Ivyst immediately understood what she was thinking.

Afia was inherently hyperactive and curious about everything.

Simply put, Afia wanted to join in on the excitement.

Ivyst picked up her pen again, continuing her work while idly saying, “Go ahead, keep an eye on him for me.”

Upon hearing this, Afia nodded vigorously and ran off like a bolt of lightning.

“You made it?”

Inside the Containment Room, Lynn looked at the breathless blonde man who had rushed in, a smirk spreading across his face.

At this moment, he was enjoying the foot massage from the puppets, tossing a crumpled piece of paper in his hand.

Occasionally, he mimicked a three-point shot, as though he was about to toss the paper ball into the wooden box.

Watching the teenager in the Containment Room, Rhine was furious.

“What do you want?” he glared at Lynn, on high alert.

The reason for his defensive posture was entirely due to the writing on that piece of paper.

“Give me a gold coin, and I’ll grant you a promise: Rhine Augusta will set you free.”

This was straightforward.

Once the deal was made, Rhine Augusta would have to follow through and release whatever was trapped by the box.

If he broke the deal, death would be the punishment.

But if he unleashed the unknown horror from the box, even the princess wouldn’t need to intervene; his father would see to it that he wouldn’t escape.

Right now, Rhine found himself in a dead end.

Of course, all this hinged on whether Lynn would actually throw the paper into the box and complete the transaction.

After hearing this, Lynn smirked, “That’s not right, how can it be what I want?”

“You’re the one who brought me here, you’re the one who left me to die at first, and even now, I can feel the anger you’re trying to hide.”

“So it’s not about what I want, it’s about what you want.”

As Lynn remained unflappable, Rhine clenched his teeth, repressing his irritation: “You seem to have me all figured out?”

“Don’t think you’ve unraveled all the rules of the Greed Magic Box just because you’ve had a few minutes with it. From what I know, for the transaction on that note to be valid, I have to be present myself.”

“If you truly want to throw the paper in, the box will only recognize you as the one to make the deal.”

“And you’ll be the one paying the price at the end.”

Even so, Rhine refused to gamble.

After all, a person only has one life.

Moreover, he felt he hadn’t grasped all the rules of this mysterious Greed Magic Box.

What if it actually worked?

He looked at Lynn, hoping the latter would take his words to heart.

Little did he know, a hint of disdain suddenly flashed in Lynn’s eyes: “If I called you a fool, you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Do you think I’d just boldly show you the note if I didn’t have a sure-fire way to eliminate you?”

Rhine was stunned: “What are you saying?”

“It indeed has to be the person themselves who makes the deal, that much is correct.” Lynn smirked, “Then let that ‘person’ come, shall we?”

“I can’t be bothered with the details; you’re not worthy of hearing them.”

Suddenly, Lynn frowned, glancing at the puppet beside him.

The puppet flashed a flattering smile, increasing the strength of the massage, silently praying this disaster wouldn’t turn its way.

The reasoning was rather simple.

In a previous attempt, Lynn had tried writing something like “Give me a gold coin, and I’ll give you a drop of my blood.”

Unlike before, he amended “Lynn Bartleon’s blood” to “my blood.”

Meanwhile, he activated the Liars’ Devourer ability, telling himself a lie.

That lie was: “I am Rhine Augusta, the firstborn of Baron Augusta, the future heir of the manor.”

Then, something interesting happened.

The content on the note sputtered for a while and then reset again.

Lynn speculated it was likely because the subject of the transaction had changed, causing the Greed Magic Box to crash.

After all, what it wanted was Lynn’s blood, but suddenly the writer was someone else, so it had to restart the cycle.

This suggests that while the box can identify the transaction’s identity, it only does so by reading consciousness.

So long as Lynn “believed” he was someone else, he could complete the transaction on someone else’s behalf.

And that was the biggest loophole Lynn had discovered about the Greed Magic Box.

Moreover, from the looks of it, it seemed only he could exploit this loophole.

Feeling the pressure from Lynn’s aura, Rhine was already sweating profusely.

Though he had no clue where Lynn’s confidence stemmed from, it was mostly likely not unfounded.

Seeing his nervous demeanor, Lynn couldn’t help but chuckle: “Don’t be so tense, we have this colleague connection, and on the princess’s behalf, I can’t truly kill you.”

“Though you can escape death, the punishment for being alive won’t be light.”

“Oh Rhine, you volunteered yourself; I wonder what sort of punishment I should impose?”