"Ms. Mirja, how much do you know about the Oxenfurt family? I know it is a declining family that reappeared due to the resurgence of Stone Oxenfurt. Apart from this, do you know anything else worth mentioning?"
Xia De suddenly asked. The young maid who was looking through the account book thought for a moment:
"Stone Oxenfort often commissions us to auction antiques, most of which are cultural relics from the fallen Kingdom of Stonewell. In addition, he often purchases various precious porcelains, paintings or antiques. He doesn't care about the price at all. He will buy anything he likes."
Shade thought for a moment:
"Is this expenditure consistent with his own financial situation?"
The auction house is obliged to keep secrets for its customers, but fortunately, Shade is not an outsider of Cassandra's auction house:
"It doesn't match. Considering Stone Oxenfurt's spending, even a noble family like the Granger family can't afford it."
Miss Mirja said, obviously knowing the local situation very well. Seeing that Shade looked thoughtful, she added new information:
"Also, more than a year ago, Stone Oxenfurt came here secretly on a rainy night and asked to buy idols or similar items that could fight against evil. I was not in charge of the local area at that time, and I saw this from the records."
"Resisting evil? Did the auction house take the deal?"
"No."
The maid shook her head slightly:
"For matters that might involve trouble, we will only get involved if we have acquaintances. Stone Oxenfurt's fortune was not glorious. He was an ordinary person, not even a good person. So the other bank president who received him at the time suggested that he seek help from the Orthodox Church and gave him a silver cross for free - which was actually useless. There was no follow-up to this matter. I only saw it in the old documents after I came to the local area."
The local Cassandra Auction House, due to business reasons, has more frequent contact with Stone Oxenfurt than the Golden Dawn, so Miss Mirja knows Stone Oxenfurt better than Miss Lathers.
"So what kind of person do you think Stone Oxenfurt is?"
"He's definitely not a good person. And according to rumors, his relationship with his wife is very cold, and he rarely brings Hela Oxenfurt into the city for business. In fact, except for the wedding two years ago, most people in the city have rarely seen the current mistress of the Oxenfurt family."
"Do you know the Oxenfurt family heirloom ring, the Oxenfurt family's 'Carsenrick Third Class Battle Hero Badge', and the sapphire earrings inlaid with glass and sealed with a drop of blood?"
"Sorry, what?"
Miss Mirja asked in confusion, and Shade shook his head:
"Did you know about the discovery of gold in this area?"
"There are such rumors. Because of some things, the auction house has conducted in-depth investigations. It seems that Oxenfurt has found the gold mine in the mountains and cooperated with the bigwigs of Willendel to develop it. However, this is just a rumor, and there are still some suspicious points in it."
"It is William of Anjou."
He frowned suspiciously and looked at the photo of the old house in Oxenfurt in the file in his hand. There seemed to be more and more mysteries about Stone Oxenfurt.
It was not very smooth to find clues in the auction house, so Xia De planned to write down the suspicious records and discuss them with everyone at Miss Benanis's place in the afternoon. When looking at the auction records, you can occasionally see some very interesting auction items. It goes without saying that there are valuable antiques and oil paintings, and special rules Rhodes cards are also a business that the auction house likes to get involved in.
In addition, Shade also saw a live cat being auctioned. It was a beautiful kitten of the Rhode Island Desert Shorthair breed, with sand-like fur, blue eyes, ears that stood up and looked big like a fox, and a big tail. In the photo, it looked stupid and unintelligent.
The cat was bought by a marquise who came from Willendel specially for the price of 230 crowns, which is about 3,000 pounds.
"Look at this cat."
Shade showed Mia this photo, hoping that Mia would know what his expensive cousin looked like. Unexpectedly, Mia stretched out her claws and scratched the photo, showing a rather aggressive look.
By the time all the documents and account books were sorted out, it was already 11:30 in the morning. After working all morning, Shade stretched out on the sofa, and Miss Mirja asked Shade if he wanted to have lunch at the auction house.
"No, I... Is the auction that Princess Margaret attended over?"
He asked, so Miss Mirja sent someone to inquire and soon learned that the auction had not yet ended and that Prince William of Anjou and Princess Margaret of Anjou were not in the same box.
Five minutes later, Margaret, who was bored and waiting in the box for what she wanted to be served, heard a knock on the door of the box. Then, without her permission, her personal maid opened the door.
The blonde princess turned around in surprise and saw Shade walking in with an ugly dog in his arms:
"Where did you get this cat? Oh, it's your cat. Good morning, Shad. Come sit down! Did you come to see me on purpose? After we separated last Sunday, although I heard about your affairs from Miss Benanis, I was still worried for a while."
She hugged Xia De gently and happily pulled Xia De to sit down on the sofa.
Margaret came here today for a batch of old stone statues from the Stonemason's Guild. They were the works of a stone carving master who passed away last year and are of great collection value. Margaret wanted to use these stone statues to establish a preliminary relationship with the Stonemason's Guild and ease their prejudice against the descendants of the Anjou family, so she decided to raise the price a little:
"The estimated value of the statues is 200 crowns, and I plan to raise it to 300 crowns."
"Have you read the information I asked Miss Lathers to give you? Delarion's MI6 can also influence the Stonemasons Guild. If you need help, please feel free to ask."
"Of course, I won't be polite to you."
She smiled and hugged Xia De's neck. The goods that Her Royal Highness wanted would not appear until a while later. Before that, the enthusiastic girl wanted to test her lover's enthusiasm:
"I haven't kissed you properly since we came to Randall Valley."
She said in a scolding tone, put her hands behind her head, put up her long golden hair, and then kissed him passionately. As "lovers who can only kiss", she and Xia De can only maintain such intimacy at present.
After the witches' special training, Shade's kissing skills can finally be said to be proficient. Unfortunately, the two had just touched each other this time, and there was another knock on the door of the box:
"Your Highness Margaret, Your Highness William wants to see you about something!"
“Really.”
Margaret let go of Shad unhappily, and Shad hurriedly carried his cat towards the closet - he didn't know why there was a closet in the auction house's box.
Margaret waited until Shad hid before letting her brother in. Shad covered his cat's mouth and looked outside through the crack in the closet door. The sound was very clear.
"What's the matter?"
Margaret looked very cold. No girl would look happy if she was disturbed at this time.
The door was closed, and His Royal Highness, dressed in a black suit, walked in:
"Have you decided on the local mineral business I discussed with you last time? For thirty thousand crowns, I will give you a 20% dividend for ten years."
"What on earth are you doing? Are you so short of cash lately?"
Margaret frowned slightly:
"Also, do you have any misunderstandings about me? Although I am also doing some small business, how can I take out 30,000 kronor in cash at once? I can lend you some money for emergency, but you must tell me what you are doing? Don't use the gold mine in the mountains to fool me. I don't trust Stone Oxenfurt."
In fact, it was because Shad said that Mr. Oxenfurt was very strange, and Margaret had already established a relationship with Leicia. If the two princesses cooperated in business, they would not have to ignore industries like gold mines that required large upfront investments.
"Oxenfurt is a very capable man."
Prince William shook his head slightly, then glanced around the room before lowering his voice and saying:
"To be honest with you, I was the one who spread the rumor about the gold mine. How can a gold mine be so easy to find in the mountains? The news about the gold mine was to cover up people's attention. In fact, Ossenfurt's people discovered a silver mountain vein off the west coast. It's very close to the continental shelf, and a captain who is familiar with the sea and land can reach the island in three days. My people have gone to see it, and it's an open-air rich mine, and the estimated reserves are..."
He made a hand gesture, but Shade couldn't see it because of the angle.
"To be honest with you, I didn't come to Randall Valley City just to cut the ribbon for the shipyard. I had people spread the rumor about the gold mine in the mountains in preparation for recruiting people to develop the open-pit silver mine offshore. Margaret, my dear sister, this is a real big business, you can't imagine what I found this time. If I couldn't handle it all by myself, and you happened to be here, I wouldn't have shared the opportunity with you."
"Silver mine?"
Margaret looked at her brother suspiciously:
"Gold and silver mines, have you ever thought that Ossenfurt might be a liar?"
"Don't worry."
His Royal Highness understood his sister's suspicion:
"My people have already checked it out in person, and the island does exist. I recruited an old professor of geology in Willendel, who took his students on a ship on the pretext of a scientific expedition, and proved that the silver mine really exists. The reserves of that mine are twice as large as the largest Wolf Silver Mine in Carsonrick! We are going to get rich!"