In short, if Cristante's purpose in doing this was purely to kill him, then in Connor's eyes, his actions were nothing more than farting with his pants down!
As the intelligence director of Blake's Agency and the biggest intelligence leader of the Church of the Storm, would Cristante do something so superfluous?
The answer was probably no!
Therefore, Cristante's purpose of forcing him to come to Iprua and setting up such a trap for him was probably not to kill him!
So, what exactly did he want to do by doing this?
Connor couldn't figure out the answer to this question, but what was worse now was that Connor didn't have much time left. There were only less than 48 hours left before the deadline of seven days that Cristante gave him!
Looking at the needle on his pocket watch that kept moving, Connor barely suppressed the urge to swear. From now on, he had to hurry up!
Taking a deep breath, Connor put on his windbreaker and walked out of the small hotel called "Home of the Wanderers of Morata". All the evidence and clues in his hands could only prove that Cristante had set him up to kill Ruiz, but he couldn't prove what the trap was. Obviously, Connor wouldn't step into the water without knowing how deep the water was. Therefore, Connor had to try his best to find out what Cristante was up to within the next 48 hours!
After walking out of the hotel, Connor went back to the Redstone Pawnshop where Ruiz was under the cover of the night. However, because it was already late at night and the Marcello Department Store was closed, Connor didn't go to the window that he had observed during the day. Instead, he went directly to the roof of the Marcello Department Store.
Looking down at the Redstone Pawnshop from above, Connor took out his compass from his Infinite Space Ring and used a spell on it. Under the effect of the spell, the compass began to move and show different changes … A minute later, Connor, who had a panoramic view of the situation on the compass, put it back into his Infinite Space Ring with a sullen face.
Connor was right when he was in "Home of the Wanderers of Morata". According to the compass, there was some kind of magic circle hidden in the two-story building of the Redstone Pawnshop. According to Connor's experience as an alchemist, the magic circle hidden in the Redstone Pawnshop was not a powerful offensive magic circle. It was more like a trap magic circle. This also vaguely proved that Connor thought that Cristante's purpose was not as simple as killing him!
After thinking for a while, Connor's mind power locked onto Ruiz who was in the manager's office of the Redstone Pawnshop again. At this time, Ruiz was alone in the manager's office. The beautiful young secretary who helped him to do whatever he wanted during the day was nowhere to be seen.
Ruiz who was alone in the manager's office wasn't cultivating, nor was he doing anything related to the supernatural world. It seemed like he was reading a document named [Redstone Pawnshop's Second Quarter Business Report].
Since the Kaman Empire's commerce was the most developed among all the empires on the Byzantine Continent, the Kaman Empire's agricultural tax rate was very low in the last ten years to prevent farmers from moving to businesses due to the temptation of money. In many areas, it was only a symbolic tax. This was done to allow farmers to get more benefits so that they could stay on the land and prevent food shortages due to the lack of farmers.
For any empires on the Byzantine Continent, taxes were an important part of their finances. They were even the main source of income, and the Kaman Empire was no exception. In order to ensure the supply of food and feed most of the citizens in the Kaman Empire, the agricultural tax rate for farmers was very low. Since this was the case, the difference in the agricultural tax had to be made up from the business tax to ensure that the empire's finances didn't suffer from a shortage.
Therefore, the tax department of the Kaman Empire was very strict on the business tax paid by shops, factories, and enterprises, and the punishments were also very severe. In order to prevent merchants from evading taxes, the tax department of the Kaman Empire required all shops, factories, and enterprises that had a turnover of more than 300 gold pounds to write a [Quarterly Business Report] and submit it to the local tax department for inspection.
It was the beginning of July, and in a few days, it would be time to submit the 'Second Quarter Business Report' to the local tax department. No matter how one looked at it, Ruiz's Redstone Pawnshop's quarterly turnover was more than 300 gold pounds. Therefore, it was very normal for Ruiz, the boss of the pawnshop, to check his pawnshop's' Quarterly Business Report '.
Although Ruiz's behavior was normal, out of curiosity, Connor concentrated his spiritual power and also checked the [Redstone Pawnshop's November Business Report] in Ruiz's hand. However, he was a little disappointed because there weren't any secrets that he was interested in.
The content of the report wasn't different from the business reports of other pawnshops. There were some business strategies, how much cash was in the account, how to control the cost of employees' salaries, how many of the items in the pawnshop had expired, how many items were pawned in the pawnshop, and how much they were worth …
Just when Connor was very disappointed with the [Second Quarter Business Report of Redstone Pawnshop] and was about to withdraw his spiritual power from the report, Connor found some clues. Although the content of the report was normal, Ruiz, who was reading it, looked very serious. Not only that, Connor felt that Ruiz was a little nervous when he looked at the report.
This discovery made Connor excited. He felt that he might have found the truth. Connor immediately pulled himself together and read the report again. He felt that the answer he was looking for should be hidden in this report.
"The pawnshop currently has 362 gold pounds, 7 shillings, and 8 pence in cash. The fixed expenditure for the second quarter is 100 gold pounds, and the employees' salaries are 55 gold pounds, 5 shillings, and 6 pence in total …"
"Currently, the pawnshop has three land deeds with a total value of seventy-three pounds, five house deeds with a total value of one hundred pounds, fourteen pieces of jewelry with a total value of twenty-seven pounds and six shillings, and eight antique weapons with a total value of twenty-four pounds …"
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