Later that evening, Lynch arrived at Mr. Wadrick’s house. Severella, having heard that he was returning to the Federation, had booked the dinner well in advance.
“Good evening, Mr. Wadrick, Madam, and Severella!” Lynch greeted from the doorway, holding a bottle of fine red wine said to have been recovered from a rchant ship that sank about a hundred years ago.
There were over a hundred cases in total, each bottle priced between five to seven thousand Sol, and they weren’t easy to acquire.
After all, the Federation was full of wealthy people who, if the product was genuine and good, didn’t mind spending to savor the taste of ti.
Rich people aren’t less curious about the world—they are even more curious than ordinary people—but their curiosity quickly turns into knowledge through the power of money, unlike ordinary people whose curiosity often remains just that their entire lives.
In Eminence, there were teams dedicated solely to satisfying the curiosities of the wealthy. If the money was right, they could even eat fresh excrent and provide detailed descriptions of its taste and texture, just to satisfy rich people’s curiosity about what “excrent tastes like” and how it feels.
Lynch, being among the wealthiest, didn’t need such teams. The Golden Exchange Bank quickly found a collector willing to sell, allowing Lynch to obtain this bottle as soon as he arrived in Eminence.
The pleasures of the rich are unimaginable to ordinary people.
“I thought you’d co later…” Mr. Wadrick, the head of the household, was the first to speak and took the wine from Lynch, examining it.
“Another bottle of this wine…” Wadrick chuckled and handed the bottle to the butler, who passed it on to the last servant.
The servant would imdiately open it and place it on the dining table ahead of ti, ready for the hosts and guests to drink.
Wadrick turned back, shook Lynch’s hand, welcod him, and invited him inside.
Severella wanted to approach but hesitated out of respect for Wadrick’s authority in the family and ultimately chose to stay by her mother’s side.
“Is there sothing wrong with this wine?” Lynch didn’t know much about wine; he couldn’t tell what was good or bad, nor the aning behind the details on the labels.
Wadrick, however, clearly knew the story well. He initially suspected it was fake wine, but he wasn’t embarrassed—it was the bank’s doing. If the wine was fake, the bank would be responsible.
Luckily, Wadrick shook his head in ti, quashing Lynch’s plan to sue the bank. “No, it’s real, but not quite. There’s a little story behind it…”
Lynch was curious. “May I hear it?”
“Of course!”
Wadrick then explained what he knew: the labels on these bottles were new. The salvagers and the wine itself were legitimate, but soone intended to exploit this batch of aged wine.
They applied new labels to the bottles, and a relatively unknown winery beca internationally recognized very quickly due to this high-quality wine.
The winery’s owner was the mastermind behind the sche. So even said the wine had been salvaged from the sea long ago; the rest was just a marketing stunt—putting the wine back into the sea only to salvage it again.
Besides the wine, a film and three novels were released shortly after the shipwreck was discovered. All these boosted the price from a few hundred to nearly ten thousand per bottle.
The price increase seed shocking but wasn’t the real concern. What truly mattered was the comrcial value of the winery, whose valuation soared from under two hundred thousand to nearly ten million—this was the real goal.
Prices of their other alcoholic products also doubled or tripled.
The wine was good, the story was good, but the people behind the story were sowhat complicated.
Before dinner started, Lynch surprisingly sat beside Severella, though he had expected Mr. Wadrick to seat him separately.
“Sorry…” Severella whispered, apologizing quietly. She had planned to participate in filming The Adventures of Lynch 2, guest-starring in a female role that might have sparked chemistry with Lynch.
Unexpectedly, the Nagaryll unrest suddenly erupted, preventing her from traveling there. Even though most cities had cald down, Mr. Wadrick still forbade her from going to that dangerous place.
This made her miss all the filming, leaving her a little discouraged, but she understood Wadrick’s intention: to keep her safe.
During the riots, the mobs didn’t care who their victims were or their status. Severella had been taught since childhood not to recklessly take huge risks for even bigger ones.
So she didn’t go. She felt a bit guilty.
“You don’t need to apologize. Your safety is most important, and I didn’t join the filming either…” Lynch reassured her, “Maybe we’ll have a chance to collaborate in the future.”
Their quiet exchange soon caught Wadrick’s attention. “What are you two talking about? Maybe you’d like to include this old man.”
His wife smiled and added, “You’re not old at all, dear.”
Wadrick laughed happily, holding his wife’s hand and kissing it. “Do you also agree, my dear?”
The word also was oddly used, showing their good relationship and a harmonious family atmosphere. Severella shared their conversation’s topic—the Nagaryll unrest.
During the unrest, Wadrick and his circle were not in Nagaryll and hadn’t considered going.
People of their status often lost the right to act on personal wishes because every decision could impact their corporation’s stock price.
Imagine if a report titled Mr. Wadrick Missing During Nagaryll Unrest surfaced—even if false, Wadrick would have to refute it imdiately, yet the stock price would still drop, wiping out millions.
At their level, they lost initiative and freedom in many matters, which made them often wish they were born into ordinary families.
But it was just a wish—like ordinary people wishing they were rich—only wishing, nothing more.
They mostly learned about Nagaryll’s situation from others’ accounts and written reports. Wadrick was curious. “Before dinner, tell us about what happened.”
Lynch organized his thoughts and recounted events during the unrest, including the violent destruction by Nagaryll’s lower class against privileged elites.
“Many wealthy rchants, officials, and their families were attacked. So families lost all their mbers in this disaster.”
Lynch sighed. “What impressed most was a young man under twenty whose father died protecting him. Now he must bear responsibility, caring for his mother and family business.”
“Too many tragedies happened in this unrest…”
“Listening to you makes sad,” Severella said, her mood downcast. “I want to do sothing. Can I donate?”
Lynch glanced at Wadrick, who was looking at him. Their eyes t, exchanging a silent understanding no outsider could grasp.
Wadrick knew Lynch was behind it all. The unrest first broke out in Mongwu Province and could have been controlled early on. But Lynch did nothing and let the disturbances grow until it was uncontrollable.
If the locals were the knives that took lives during the unrest, Lynch was the one who threw those knives.
Seeing the weight and faint pity on Lynch’s face, Mr. Wadrick wanted to laugh—this guy was truly a genius.
Lynch subtly raised his eyebrows, offering a small retort.
The financial group behind Wadrick was also affected by the unrest, yet they chose to remain indifferent, watching the unrest inflict irreparable damage on society.
Everyone knew that without this unrest, the conquerors and new rulers from the Federation would have wasted more ti fighting the entrenched local elites and ruling class.
They needed this upheaval to completely shatter the rigid local power structures. It was likely that Federation agents quietly pushed these events forward, so even getting directly involved.
Now, all Federation people benefited. The new rulers they supported took power, everything leaned in their favor, and the most dangerous elents erged during the unrest—most of the threats were resolved by the chaos itself.
The mastermind behind it all, shareholder of the Joint Developnt Company, Mr. Lynch, nodded with a benevolent expression. “Of course, you can give the money to —I promise it will be used in the most appropriate way.”
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