Wizard Earl

Chapter 58 The Eavesdropping Scandal

Although he was going to continue crafting other enchanted items, Connor did not intend to purchase raw materials from the "Mikhalovich Mining Company" that George had introduced him to this time. Although that might save him some gold pounds, after a brief encounter with Mr. Simone, the store manager of that company, Connor felt that the store manager was far too shrewd. If he were to purchase raw materials from him long-term, it was very likely that his trick of putting other raw materials on the materials list would not escape his notice.

Furthermore, the clues about the black market he learned from Vallejo have made Connor even more interested in its existence. He desperately wants to know about the wizarding world; currently, all his information about it comes from Reyes, which is definitely not a good thing, without a doubt! Connor wants to broaden his sources of information!

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Seeing the "Daddy Morgan's Tavern" sign again, even though it hadn't been that long, gave Connor a real sense of déjà vu, as if the days when he faced the death threats from Vidal and Rebecca were just yesterday.

Connor pushed open the tavern door and swaggered in, completely unconcerned that it was in this very room that he had stabbed a bastard named "Khedira." Connor's arrogance stemmed from his belief in his disguise; he thought no one could recognize him.

A middle-aged man with rough skin, a full beard, reeking of alcohol, and wearing a linen cloak would never be associated with a respectable earl heir.

To better fit his current persona and avoid attracting attention, Connor pulled eight pennies from his pocket, lined them up on the bar, and shouted, "Waiter! Waiter! Give me a grilled pork chop, quick!"

The waiter behind the bar glanced at the eight pence Connor had laid out and said irritably, "Grilled pork chop, ten pence!"

"What? Ten pence! Why don't you just rob me? A pork chop on Levante Street costs only three pence!" Connor muttered angrily, slowly pulling two more pence from his pocket and throwing them on the bar.

Knowing he wouldn't get much of a tip from this "poor wretch," the waiter rolled his eyes, picked up the pennies from the counter, put them in the cash register, and lazily called out, "Just wait!"

While muttering to himself, Connor, disguised, discreetly observed the various people in the bar, his mental power, far exceeding that of an ordinary novice wizard, quietly spreading out.

"One price! Two shillings. Not a penny less, and you can forget about getting into my bed!"

"That bald bastard Marquez dared to steal my wife! Go and teach him a lesson, and I'll give you a gold pound if you do!"

"We'll take care of Courtois tonight; all those five pounds in his house are ours!"

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Dozens of voices flooded Connor's ears, causing a half-smile to appear on his lips. The more Connor studied the Abyss Secrets, the more he felt the power and wonder of mental energy. When he unleashed his mental energy, any creature with lower mental energy than him would be completely exposed within its range, and all of this was done silently, leaving no trace.

Listening to dozens of conversations around him, Connor carefully discerned whether any of them contained words like "Black Market" or "Charles."

Connor was quite lucky; just ten minutes later, he overheard a conversation that really interested him.

"That shipment is worth at least fifty gold pounds. Can we launder it and get cash? If we pull this off, I'll give you three percent!" In a secluded spot on a sofa in the northwest corner of the bar, a young man wearing a baseball cap held up three fingers and whispered to an imposing old man with slicked-back hair, smoking a cigar.

The old man exhaled a puff of smoke, a disdainful smile appearing on his face, and said calmly, "Twenty points!"

"Twenty percent? I lost five brothers to get this batch of goods, and you want twenty percent just to launder and cash it out?" The young man couldn't accept the old man's conditions and stood up from the sofa, angrily saying: However, he seemed to have maintained his rationality, keeping his voice low and not letting anger cloud his judgment.

"Heh, young Pablo, do you even know what a monopoly is? Besides me, who else here has the connections to launder your goods?" Ignoring the young man's anger, the old man took another puff of his cigar and said with considerable smugness:

Hearing the old man's words, the young man called "Pablo" clenched his fists tightly and stood still. However, after holding on for about half a minute, Pablo slumped back onto the sofa and asked in an almost pleading tone, "Could you take a smaller cut? You know, with this money, I still need to handle the funeral arrangements for my deceased brother and buy supplies. After you take twenty percent, the remaining money won't be enough!"

"Pablo, do you want to know how many points I smoke that one-eyed bastard Cuadrado? Twenty-five points! Pablo, your goods aren't even worth as much as his. If it weren't for the fact that you're a very promising young man who could become my long-term partner, I would have smoked thirty points today!" The old man finished the rest of his cigar in one gulp and said seriously:

Hearing the name "Cuadrado" in their conversation, Connor, who was mechanically swallowing his charred pork chop at the bar, suddenly had a glint in his eyes. If he wasn't mistaken, the "Cuadrado" mentioned by the old man and the young man was the pirate for whom the Imperial Navy had a bounty of one hundred gold pounds!

Connor initially noticed these two individuals among the dozens of conversations because of the young man initially referred to as "Pablo's," who mentioned "laundering." Why launder goods? Naturally, because the goods were dirty and needed to be laundered! And what channels would be used to launder such goods? Could it be the black market he was looking for?

Just as Connor was pondering this, Pablo, having listened to the old man's words, let out a long sigh and said with a hint of helplessness, "As you wish, but I demand that the remaining forty gold pounds be in cash, and delivered to me within three days!"

(End of this chapter)