2025-06-20 06:30:34Seth strolled through the grand auction hall like he owned the place... which, ironically, he did. Not that anyone here knew that. Not yet.
The place was glowing in gold and glitter. A massive chandelier sparkled above like a disco ball for the one percent, and every corner was filled with whispers, false compliments, and expensive perfume. Wealth hung in the air like humidity.
He swirled the wine in his glass, scanning faces lazily, until he heard a familiar voice from across the room—nasal, pretentious, and dripping with arrogance.
'William?'
'Oh boy, this was going to be good.'
The weasel of a man was holding court with a few overdressed young businessmen, who looked like a bunch of over pampered spoiled brats.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen," William said, chuckling with faux modesty, "please, enough with the compliments, I'm only here because I secured a very rare opportunity. A one-on-one with the Goldmaster himself."
Gasps and intrigued nods could be seen all around.
"The Goldmaster? Seriously?"
"How the hell did you manage that?"
"He doesn't even show his face!"
William puffed out his chest like a pigeon overdosing on ego. "Well, when you're from the Ken Group, doors open. We're not just a business, we're a growing legacy."
There was a beat of silence, then the men burst out in laughter.
Their laughter was full of mock and disbelief.
The oldest among them dressed in a navy pinstripe suit and a voice as dry as a desert, scoffed, "Ken Group? You mean that barely solvent property firm that tried to get into tech?"
"I thought they went bankrupt last year."
"No, no, they just changed names to Ken Global to sound more futuristic."
The group erupted again.
William flushed crimson but fought to maintain the grin. "I know Mr. Lucas personally. He and I go way back. We played golf last spring."
That name hit differently, the laughter died down almost instantly.
One man leaned in. "Wait. Mr. Lucas? As in... Goldmaster's right-hand man Lucas?"
William nodded solemnly like a priest delivering communion. "The very same."
Murmurs spread as eyebrows raised. People were buying it.
And that was when Seth decided to casually ruin his evening.
He walked up behind William, quiet as a shadow, until he stood just inches away.
"Wow," Seth said. "Didn’t know you and Lucas were such close friends. You should call him over sometimes and introduce us.”
William turned, flinching when he saw who it was. 'Seth?'
The same man he thought he would never have to deal with again. The same man that humiliated him with his wedding with Emily.
"Y-You," William stammered. "What are you doing here? Did Rose sneak you in? You know you don't belong here."
The businessmen looked back and forth, unsure of what they were witnessing.
Seth shrugged. "Nah, I came for the free wine and the drama, but hearing this, boy, I can kiss your shoes if you could introduce me to him, I mean even my clients would be thrilled to meet him, we would pay you good money too."
William's nostrils flared. "You're just a leech. I bet Rose brought you as her gigolo." As their laughter echoed, Rose 's face raged with anger, she wouldn't have been getting such shame if only he didn't come.
That was when a sharp voice cut through the tension like a guillotine. "Of course he's her gigolo. What else could a man like him possibly be doing here?" Emily mentioned as she walked by.
She walked up slowly, her red dress clinging to her like pride. Her smile was full of venom and spite.
"Don’t be fooled, gentlemen," she cooed sweetly. "Seth here is just a gold digger with a pretty face and a silver tongue. He clung to me for years, hoping my family would make him relevant. Now he’s latched onto Rose Tyrel, the next best meal ticket."
Seth blinked slowly, then smiled. "You know, Emily, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re still obsessed with me."
There were a few gasps and fewer chuckles.
Her face darkened. "Don't flatter yourself, trash."
"Too late," Seth quipped. "You brought me up before I even said a word. I’m flattered."
Someone in the back snorted.
One of the men asked cautiously, "So... you’re not her guest?"
"God, no," Emily sneered. "He probably works in the kitchen."
Seth gave a theatrical bow. "I do like to cook, actually. Roast some married liars, grind egos... stir the pot."
That got a few laughs.
William stepped forward, trying to take control of the moment. "You shouldn't even be in this hall. Only selected elites are allowed at this level. Where's your pass?"
"Funny you asked."
Seth reached into his jacket and pulled out a black card with gold embossing. The symbol was unmistakable.
Gasps erupted again. But it instantly put Emily at ease—because she knew exactly what it meant.
“Looks like your forgery skills are just as cheap and pathetic as you are,” Emily sneered, pulling out an invitation from her designer purse. The pale gold paper shimmered under the lights.
“This is what a real Goldmaster auction invitation looks like. When Mr. Gabriel sent ours over, it certainly wasn’t some cursed-looking black thing.”
The moment she said it, the spell broke — everyone snapped back to their senses.
That's right—the one everyone got was the gold one!
“Exactly! This low-class wannabe doesn’t know his place. Maybe we should teach him a lesson!”
“Security! Where the hell is security?” The guests stirred again, voices rising with excitement.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 206: Structural Weakness.
Alex's POV Alex returned to the executive layers the way a ghost returns to a house that’s been renovated in his absence, the shape is familiar, the corridors still curve the same way, the access points still breathe open when he approaches, but the furniture has moved and the air smells like other people’s decisions.He had not been here since before the war ended.Not truly.Back then the place had been frantic, reactive, command rooms blooming like infections across the administrative floors, people running on caffeine and threat projections, emergency authority being stamped onto anything that could carry ink, now it was different, quieter, smoother, the panic had fossilized into protocol, every hallway padded with procedure, every door protected by three layers of justification before you ever reached a lock.This was where wars went when they were finished.Not to peace.To paperwork.Alex didn’t go to his old office.He went lower.To the infrastructural decks, where budgets w
Chapter 205: What Noel Sees.
Noel's POV Noel had followed convoys before.Government ones with polished armor and predictable escorts, corporate ones wrapped in false branding and private security, underground ones that pretended to be waste management while hauling sealed lives in reinforced containers, he knew the rhythms, the feints, the habits of men who believed movement itself was secrecy.This convoy was different, they had no insignia, no visible escort, no routes that made sense.Three vehicles, matte gray, unmarked, not armored enough to be military, not civilian enough to be ignored, they left a distribution depot that had been condemned eight years ago, one of those urban corpses that cities keep around because tearing them down costs more than pretending they’re dead, the depot sat at the edge of a reclaimed district where glass towers rose out of what used to be tenements, where parks were layered over old slums like green apologies.Noel had been tracking a minor evolved intake lead when the movem
Chapter 204: The Aide’s Office.
Seth's POVThe summons did not arrive through command channels.It did not pass through Alex, it did not appear on his operational board, it did not carry the formatting of military priority or executive urgency, it came quietly, threaded into a system notification that had nothing to do with meetings, a maintenance acknowledgment, a routine authorization update, a single embedded line that didn’t blink or escalate or demand attention, it simply stated that the President’s aide would see him at sixteen hundred, location attached, attendance expected.Seth read it once, then again, then closed the display without responding, already feeling the shift it created in the air around him, the faint sense that something had stepped closer without moving, he had ended a war, dismantled a revolutionary army, been elevated to a position most people never even saw from the outside, and yet this message carried mor
Chapter 203: The Weight of Old Men.
Seth's POVThe decision to go to General Cane did not arrive like inspiration, it arrived like pressure, subtle, constant, the kind that did not hurt at first but slowly reshaped whatever it rested against, Seth had spent the night after the confrontation with Virek pacing rooms that were designed to keep people seated, reviewing structures that were meant to be trusted, watching feeds that only showed what they were allowed to show, and through all of it ran the same awareness, power without anchoring corrodes into spectacle, momentum without counterweight becomes noise, and if he intended to take a country apart without letting it collapse inward, he would need someone who had already watched empires pretend they were permanent.Cane was not part of the new machine.That was exactly why he mattered.Arranging the meeting required layers of misdirection that would have once amused Seth, logist
Chapter 202: White Rooms and Quiet Wars.
Seth's POVThe room Seth chose was not underground.That mattered.Most of the spaces he used now were buried beneath layers of reinforced earth and dead signal zones, rooms designed for secrecy, for containment, for things that were not meant to be found again, but after leaving Virek, after feeling steel fade back into skin and the echo of that man’s pulse still lingering in his palm, Seth did not want another bunker, he wanted height, glass, distance from the illusion that depth meant safety.The conference room sat near the top of a private government tower, not one of the public ones, not the kind tourists took pictures of, but one built for people who preferred the city to look small, its walls wide and curved, windows stretching from floor to ceiling, sunlight pouring in without asking permission.He stood near the glass when the summons went out.
Chapter 201: Two Architects.
Seth's POV The invitation arrived disguised as protocol.Not marked urgent, not flagged hostile, not even routed through any of the newly militarized channels that had begun shadowing Seth’s movements over the past weeks, it came the way institutional traps always came, polite, reasonable, wearing the language of necessity instead of threat, a request for strategic consultation from a senior oversight director whose name carried just enough historical weight to make refusal noticeable.Virek.Seth read it once, then again, not because he needed clarity, but because he wanted to appreciate the audacity, the assumption still threaded through the phrasing that this was a conversation between administrators, not adversaries, that the world was still made of offices instead of fault lines.He accepted without modification.The room they gave him was not a briefing chamber, not a council hall, not one of the sealed operational theaters buried beneath the capital, it was smaller, circular,
You may also like
Secretly Rich Son in Law
Banin SN195.6K viewsRise of Power: Return of The Pathetic Commoner
Iwaswiththestars75.2K viewsThe Billionaire Heir
Teddy131.9K viewsThe Unexpected Heir
Estherace86.1K viewsThe Emperor
Kelvin 4.2K viewsCloaked in Shadows
Healing-Pen350 viewsSupreme Legacy: Rise and Revenge
Lily Monroe5.5K viewsReign Of The Discarded Son-in-law
FunWrites289 views