Secret: The undead do not die in the fire

Chapter 317 Lord Hibbert

Although Yu Jin's reasons were sound, Klein was skeptical. After all, he didn't think Yu Jin was someone who cared about such trivial matters.

What can dancing change?
Is it because dancing can quickly bring you closer and make Hazel fall in love with you?
This is obviously impossible, after all, Ember is not a succubus.

He must have other reasons for doing this.

The only question is, why?
Klein looked around with a glass of champagne in hand, his eyes occasionally scanning the guests, but he still couldn't find the key clue he thought he had.

Of course, it is also possible that there was no reason at all, and Yu Jin really just didn't want to invite Hazel to dance.

But Klein is not Ember. He needs to maintain his identity as Dwayne Dantès, so he cannot act too out of touch.

At dinners like this, guests are expected to ask the ladies for at least one dance.

Because the purpose of the banquet itself is socializing, and the dance at the beginning of the dinner is a social dance, which is essentially also for socializing.

Female guests can refuse invitations from other male guests on the grounds of being unwell.

But if a male guest cannot find a lady willing to dance with him, he will be considered 'friendless and unpopular', or at best 'socially inept'.

So to be on the safe side, it is a good choice for male guests to bring a female companion to the dinner party.

If you don't have a female companion, you should invite someone you know well.

Unfortunately, Klein didn't have many acquaintances at the dinner.

The only three ladies Dwayne Dantès knew were Lady Liana, one of the dinner hosts, Lady Vahana, his etiquette teacher, and Miss Hazel, the daughter of Councillor Macht.

The latter need not be considered, and neither can Ms. Vahana.

She should have known that inviting her to dance the first dance at this time would easily lead to misunderstandings, which might affect the relationship between her and her husband, and bring unnecessary troubles to Dwayne Dantes... I'm not the emperor who has a hobby of married women. No, he has a hobby of everything. In short, we should avoid suspicion when we should... Klein moved his gaze to the center of the hall, where the congressman and his wife had finished their opening dance.

"Lady Liana, can I ask you for a dance?"

Dwayne Dantès, with graying temples, stepped forward and saluted in a standard manner.

"of course."

Lady Liana smiled and held out her palm.

She knew that Mr. Dantes had just arrived in Backlund and didn't know many people. This was even his first social dinner, so it was difficult to find a lady willing to dance the first dance with him.

As the host of the banquet, Lady Liana certainly would not embarrass her guests, so she was happy to help them out.

Congressman Macht smiled as he watched the two of them enter the dance floor and perform a brisk and lively dance to the music.

He took a glass of champagne from the waiter and caught a glimpse of Hazel standing at the edge. There was almost a 'vacuum zone' around her and no man tried to approach her.

Seeing this situation, Congressman Macht couldn't help but sigh, feeling a little helpless.

Their family has held many dinner parties, and most of the guests were not first-time guests. Most of these people tried to invite Hazel to the previous dinner parties, but she refused them all on the grounds of "not feeling well".

The result is now like this -

Guests who have been rejected before will not invite Hazel to a dinner party. Guests who are attending the dinner party for the first time will not take the initiative to invite Hazel. In addition, since no one has invited Hazel before, new guests can probably guess what is going on and know that they are likely to be rejected if they invite someone, so they will not do anything to make themselves look boring.

After all, in such social occasions, being rejected often has serious consequences.

He thought, and cast his gaze toward the embers on the other side of the hall.

Viscount Black was also alone, standing at the edge of the hall watching other people dancing on the dance floor, but he had no intention of joining in, which made Congressman Macht a little confused.

Like Dwayne Dantes, this person was attending their family's social dinner for the first time.

But he and Hazel had just had a good chat, to the point where Macht was worried that Hazel would get too close to him. But now the other party didn't even have any intention of inviting Hazel. Was he too scared to invite her?
Councilman Macht thought for a moment and prepared to walk around the edge of the dance floor to the embers.

A qualified host would not let any guest be rude, so he was ready to help Viscount Black out and take him to invite Hazel to dance the first dance. As for whether this would quickly heat up their relationship, Senator Macht thought it would not, after all, he knew his daughter's personality well.

But before Senator Macht could speak, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a handsome man with brilliant blond hair, holding a glass of red wine and walking towards Viscount Black with a smile on his face.

Senator Macht paused and lowered his brows slightly.

He knew the blond man—

Not surprisingly, the other party should be the guest with the highest status present.

Because he was the eldest son of the Earl of Eastchester, Hibbert Hall, a future Earl!

Does he know Viscount Black?
Earl Hall's fiefdom is in East Chestershire, also in the north, adjacent to Wintershire.

And judging from the current situation, it is obvious that they knew each other before.

Could it be that the family fiefs of both sides are very close, so the relationship is relatively close?

Congressman Macht was unsure of their relationship, so he did not step forward immediately, but observed quietly from the side.
-
Hibbert Hall greeted with a smile:

"Ash, long time no see. You haven't been to my house for a long time."

Yu Jin raised his glass and clinked it with his, smiling as well:
"Four months, to be exact."

Hibbert took a sip of red wine and joked:

"My mother has been talking about you recently, and Audrey also wants to see you. If you have time recently, come to my house and have dinner together."

Yu Jin put down his wine glass, thought for a while and said:

"I'm free tomorrow and the day after tomorrow."

After receiving a positive answer, Hibbert smiled contentedly, and then asked curiously:
"Do you know Congressman Macht?" "No."

Yu Jin shook his head and explained:
"I met Dwayne Dantes a few times when I was in South Wales. I asked him to bring me to this dinner. What about you?"

"Ok?"

Hibbert immediately realized the hidden meaning in the other party's words——

Having known each other for so long, Hibbert knew that Yu Jin was not the kind of person who liked socializing. If Yu Jin had such thoughts, he could definitely attend the dances held by the upper class nobles in Loen.

So he would not let a businessman he had only met a few times take him to a dinner party hosted by a congressman for no reason.

Considering Ember's identity, Hibbert could probably guess the reason.

There might be a very dangerous Beyonder hidden among the guests of this dinner.

But Yu Jin didn't know these guests, and he wasn't sure which guests would come to the dinner. The only ones he was sure would attend the dinner were the host, Senator Macht and his family.

In other words, there is a Beyonder hidden in Congressman Macht's home?
If it was just an ordinary Beyonder, there would be no need for Yu Jin to personally take action. After all, it was not uncommon for the upper class to raise Beyonders. As long as nothing went wrong, the church and the royal family would generally not interfere.

Unless the extraordinary person in Senator Macht's family has a very high sequence, there is a high probability that unimaginable damage will be caused!
Hibbert quickly sorted out the whole story and said with a smile:

"I am different from you. You know that I am the chief secretary of the Air Pollution Investigation Committee. Congressman Macht has always been a strong supporter of this aspect. Many bills related to air pollution were introduced with his help."

After a few minutes, a lady finished her first dance, walked over to the two of them and said with a smile:

"Hibbert, what are you talking about?"

Hibbert immediately introduced the two:
"Ash, this is Mary Short, Coim's largest shareholder and a member of the Air Pollution Investigation Committee."

"Mary, this is Viscount Ash Black from Wintershire. His family history is even older than that of the Hall family."

After a pause, Hibbert smiled and said:

"Come to think of it, Ash should also be a shareholder of Coim. Last year, I suggested Ash to invest in Coim. I was going to do it myself, but because I was busy promoting the bill at that time, I had to hand it over to my subordinates. Ash, how much money did you invest at that time?"

Yu Jin took a sip of champagne, thought for a moment and said:

"About ten thousand pounds. It's been so long that I can't remember exactly."

Hibbert did tell him about it at the time, so he just threw in a little bit - well, some of it was borrowed from Audrey.

Mary Short looked surprised and said softly:

"Yes, ten thousand pounds. Viscount Black already owned 10% of the company's shares when he invested."

As the largest shareholder of Coim, Mary Short owned 20% of the company's shares. But at that time she was busy divorcing her husband and did not focus most of her attention on handling company affairs, so even if there was a change in the company's equity, she did not know the details at that time.

Later, when she learned that 10% of the company's shares belonged to a man named Ash Black, she actually thought about visiting Mr. Ash, but unfortunately, although he owned 10% of Coim's shares, he had never come to the company in person.

If the 10% equity did not really belong to the other party, Mary would have doubted whether this person existed. She never thought that she would meet this shareholder under such circumstances.

Hibbert joked:
"Then it seems that my vision is quite accurate. This investment is very cost-effective."

Mary Sean had a complicated look on her face. Coim was originally just a small company that could barely make a profit, but as the pollution in Backlund worsened, the demand for anthracite and charcoal increased. Coim quickly expanded and became one of the top ten companies in the industry in the capital region.

When Viscount Black invested last year, the total value of Coim Company was already 10 pounds.

In the past few months, with the introduction of air pollution-related bills, the demand for anthracite and high-quality charcoal has increased greatly. Coim Company has achieved development beyond its previous efforts, and its overall value is said to have exceeded 25 gold pounds!
In other words, the 1 gold pounds that Yu Jin invested last year is now worth at least gold pounds.

A 150% return rate far exceeds most investments on the market! How can this be more than a bargain?
But this is not because Hibbert has a good vision, but because he himself is actually a member of the relevant interest group.

As the chief secretary of the Air Pollution Investigation Committee, Hibbert had a hand in the introduction of the relevant bills. And as the initiator of all this, how could Hibbert not see the business opportunity?
Although he himself did not invest in Coim Company due to his status and the need to avoid suspicion, Coim Company sounds like a huge company with a total value of more than 25 gold pounds, but the Hall family is even bigger, with its wealth calculated in tens of millions of gold pounds!
Although it was obvious that the status had not been achieved, the overall value of Coim Company would continue to rise, and was even expected to break through the 100,000 gold pound mark, but it was still less than one percent of the Hall Family.

Compared with the small amount of money from Coim, Hibbert's political future is obviously more important.

So Mary never knew that the shareholders of her company were actually friends of Hibbert, and that they had even invested in Coim on Hibbert's recommendation.

Moreover, from the words of Viscount Black, we can know that the other party did not take the ten thousand pounds seriously at all. He just regarded it as an idle chess piece. It didn't matter even if there was a loss in the investment. Therefore, as a shareholder of Coim Company, the other party never asked about the company's operating status!
Mary Sean's expression became more complicated. Although she held 20% of Coim's shares and had total assets of more than pounds, even for her, pounds in cash was not something she could easily take out. It accounted for one-fifth of her total wealth!

You have to know that most of the nobles, those viscounts and barons, may not have as much assets as Mary Shawn, and many of them are even burdened with huge debts and on the verge of bankruptcy.

So it is no wonder that Viscount Black can get along well with Hibbert. Their family strengths may be very similar. Hibbert even admitted that the history of Viscount Black's family is longer than that of the Hall family. It is very likely that they are ancient nobles that existed when the country was founded.

For this group of nobles, the level of their titles is meaningless, because their actual status is often several levels higher than their titles!

Hibbert looked at the expression on Lady Mary's face and could probably guess what she was thinking.

But he was not paying attention to it. Instead, he was thinking about who was the most likely source of danger in the hall.

He did not ask if Ember needed help, because he found Bishop Elektra and the man in a black windbreaker beside him. Hibbert was not unfamiliar with this outfit, as the night watchmen who protected them all wore the same outfit.

Compared to the Church of Darkness, which has a large number of Beyonders, he, a Sequence 7 Magician, is nothing.

One more or one less makes no difference.

Since his help was not needed, Hibbert had to think about how to avoid disrupting the actions of the Church of Evernight.

After all, among so many people present, his status is undoubtedly the most noble.

Once that potentially dangerous Extraordinary Person suddenly attacks, he will definitely be taken as a hostage.

However, since Yu Jin did not remind him to leave early, it means that although the danger level of this matter is high, it should not be urgent.

Don't need to worry too much.

(End of this chapter)