Chapter 415

After arranging the work, Anser hid Sola’s Book of the Tablets of Fate in the Black Tower’s storeroom, then teleported back to Bodray Manor, where Grand Duke Ravengard was staying.

The room was empty. Presumably, the Grand Duke was still taking inventory of his assets.

According to the Grand Duke, most of the 1.1 million gold pieces weren’t actually in cash. The majority consisted of family assets he’d managed to bring with him when he fled Baldur’s Gate.

He had gotten off relatively lightly. The other two Grand Dukes had suffered far worse. Their families had practically been wiped out, their lands were gone, and they’d managed to bring very little money with them.

At the time, the combined forces of the drow, duergar, and kuo-toa had come out in full force, with even Legendary Professionals among them. They shattered Baldur’s Gate’s defenses in a single assault. Everyone had been caught completely off guard, and simply escaping with their lives had been fortunate enough.

Grand Duke Ravengard had managed to get away safely for two reasons. For one, he had been stationed in the center and hadn’t faced the brunt of the attack directly. For another, he himself was a level 20 Battle Master, standing at the very pinnacle of mortal ability.

He personally led the Flaming Fist in breaking through the encirclement, eventually withdrawing successfully through the Black Dragon Gate in the northwestern corner of Baldur’s Gate.

‘Seems like the last few Grand Dukes have all been pretty strong.’

Sitting on the sofa, Anser couldn’t help thinking about it.

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

Anser got up and opened it. Outside stood Grand Duke Ravengard, dressed in ordinary clothes.

“You don’t seem to be in very high spirits, Grand Duke?”

Anser didn’t think he’d regretted his decision, nor did he think the Grand Duke was simply upset about the money.

After all, a starved camel was still bigger than a horse. Losing 1.1 million gold pieces wasn’t going to leave the Grand Duke destitute.

The Grand Duke closed the door and handed Anser a Bag of Holding. “Here are five hundred thousand gold pieces and the Artifact. The rest is still being inventoried.”

Anser took the Bag of Holding and casually hung it from his waist, a smile spreading across his face. “Good. I’ve already informed the Federation about our cooperation. Federal Prime Minister Quentin will personally oversee the handover.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting the councilors.” The Grand Duke’s emotions were complicated as he did his best to adjust to his new identity.

Anser noticed his discomfort and tactfully said, “Everyone just calls me President or by my name. You can just call me Anser.”

“‘President’… sounds far too ordinary.” The Grand Duke stroked his beard, looking puzzled.

“Ordinary is good.” Anser gestured for him to sit down. “I don’t get involved in specific affairs. Usually, I just offer a few suggestions and ideas.”

As he spoke, he took out two thick volumes of federal regulations and handed them over. “Have a look. If there’s anything you don’t understand, ask Quentin. He’ll be here in a couple of days.”

The Grand Duke casually flipped through a few pages, but the more he read, the more serious his expression became.

At one point, he’d assumed the Federation was held up entirely by Anser, with everyone else little more than a makeshift operation. He hadn’t expected its institutions and regulations to be so well established, its rule of law so robust, or many of its ideas to be so forward-thinking. It was obvious at a glance that everything had been carefully designed.

Anser chuckled inwardly but didn’t explain much.

Ever since that old monster Sakkors became Anser’s assistant, no matter how busy he was, he always devoted part of his attention to managing the Federation. He had repeatedly refined its various laws and regulations, making enormous contributions in the process.

But outsiders knew nothing about this. Even Quentin believed that everything had been done at Anser’s direction and that the assistant was merely the one relaying his instructions.

“You keep reading. I’m heading back.” Anser waved a hand.

Paros was too far from White Stone Island and Durlag. If the Federation’s handover team wanted to come over, they couldn’t do without his Teleport.

“Wait.” The Grand Duke hurriedly stopped him. “Let’s add each other as friends. Aren’t you called Lord of Holrewen? Why can’t I find you?”

“I just changed my name. I’m called The Fool now.” Anser smiled.

His previous name had been far too straightforward, and all sorts of random people kept sending him private messages. Since he didn’t want to block private messages altogether, he’d simply switched to an ordinary name.

“That name… wasn’t already taken?” The Grand Duke shook his head, connected to the Spirit Net, and sent Anser a friend request.

“Names on the Spirit Net can be duplicated. If you click someone’s avatar, you’ll see a string of numbers. That’s the part that’s unique,” Anser explained with a smile.

The Spirit Net was meant to cover all of Toril someday. If everyone were required to have a unique name, that would make things far too difficult.

Besides, the same name could be expressed using different languages and symbols, so things wouldn’t become too monotonous.

“Added.” The Grand Duke tried sending a message, only to receive a notification that his balance was insufficient.

“The Goddess of Trade, Waukeen, must have had a hand in this Spirit Net!” he said with a cold expression, completely serious.

“Haha, maybe.” Anser grinned and transferred a thousand Spirit Coins directly to him.

“That many?” The Grand Duke was astonished.

“It’s not much. Every councilor and senior official in the Federation receives a monthly Spirit Coin allowance of varying amounts for work-related communication.”

“You’re far too generous.” The Grand Duke thought Anser was being rather wasteful. Even if he had money, this wasn’t how you spent it.

The current exchange rate between gold pieces and Spirit Coins was anything but low. A thousand Spirit Coins could be exchanged for quite a lot of money.

But he’d only just joined and didn’t understand the situation yet, so it wasn’t really his place to lecture Anser.

He sighed, found the song he’d been listening to earlier, decisively spent one Spirit Coin to buy it, and set it to play on repeat.

He really wanted to listen to music right now and was afraid he wouldn’t be able to find the song again later.

Anser smiled with pursed lips. As the Lord of the Spirit Net, a mere thought was enough for him to know exactly what the Grand Duke was doing.

Nothing that happened on the Spirit Net could be hidden from him!

The song the Grand Duke had bought was also one Anser had uploaded. There were more than a hundred of them in total, all from his previous life.

Of course, he’d heard far more songs than that, but these were the only ones he could recall with relative completeness.

His memory might be astonishing now, but that was only a recent development. He couldn’t call up things he’d never properly remembered in the first place.

He had uploaded the songs under different aliases to avoid attracting attention.

Those hundred-odd songs had earned him more than a hundred thousand Spirit Coins, all of which had then gone straight into the bellies of Sakkors and the mythallar.

Anser was harvesting Spirit Coins with the cultural works of his previous life, but the locals weren’t doing badly either.

Quite a few bards, artistic nude photographers, novelists, and knowledge sharers had made fortunes through the Spirit Net, easily earning thousands or even tens of thousands of Spirit Coins.

There weren’t any ordinary commoners among them, though. Even the least accomplished were veteran adventurers, scholars, or people of similar standing.

“Has Ms. Silverleaf contacted you?” the Grand Duke suddenly asked, changing the subject.

“No.” Something stirred in Anser’s mind. “She contacted you?”

“Yes. She’s stubborn. More stubborn than a dwarf.” The Grand Duke sighed.

“Doesn’t matter. I respect everyone’s wishes.” Anser didn’t care in the slightest.

The two chatted for a little while longer before Anser teleported away.

Back at Fort Jacqueline, Anser eagerly opened the Bag of Holding.

He ignored the gold pieces and took out the only magic item inside.

It was a book—a thick, heavy white volume with a clasp shaped like a pair of angel wings on its cover.

Anser immediately had a bad feeling. This was probably an Artifact with an alignment requirement, which meant there was a good chance he wouldn’t be able to use it.

Many people, Grand Duke Ravengard included, instinctively assumed that Anser belonged to a good alignment, but that wasn’t actually accurate.

He focused his mind on the book. The die spun for a moment before finally revealing the target’s information:

[Book of Exalted Deeds, Wondrous Item, Artifact (Requires Attunement)]