"Sir. We have received the book." A middle-aged man presented the book to Count Leinberd.
Count Leinberd frowned and took a look at the book.
Introductory Rune Book.
Author: Noel Ardagan.
"!!!" He widened his eyes in shock when he heard the author's name. Although it would be wise to hide the author's name, Noel knew that it was impossible to escape the clash with the Supreme Devil Organization.
After all, his uncle had joined that organization and tried to kill him. So, it was better to let him know that Noel had the book.
But Noel was supposed to die, so the next person they should investigate was none other than Iadre and Rose, who brought the book.
Since they were not sure whether Iadre was Noel or not, they had to investigate him. There would be a clash with them soon, if not for the Third Prince.
Yes, the Third Prince wanted this book the whole time. So, he obviously planned to retrieve it and spread some misinformation, trying to protect Noel until he could confirm the book.
Even Christina couldn't prove the book immediately. Hence, he had to wait for a while before understanding the book.
Unfortunately, this book was fake. The Third Prince would be furious, not at Noel or Christina, but at the Count and Marquis.
After all, the books were currently in their hands. There was a possibility of them replacing the book with the fake one.
They might be able to point that suspicion to Christina, but she had an alibi. It was the same rune that she once managed to use but failed to activate. As long as she showed it to the Third Prince, she could say that she had sent the correct book since it was the book she used to learn it.
While the Third Prince hunted down the two nobles for the book, Christina would have an easy time spreading the knowledge.
Of course, she had to start from Count Leinberd and Marquis Walford's territories to make them look like they were the ones spreading it. The more they tried to lie, the angrier the Third Prince would become.
Once the knowledge spread, it would continue spreading and no one could stop it. After all, this knowledge was simply too important to be monopolized.
There was only one possibility of them containing the information, it was to have the royal family take action personally.
But this would be impossible since the royal family would have to fight against the other kingdoms. Yes, this was the reason why Noel wanted his grandfather to spread knowledge in his kingdom and others.
If they stopped the spread of knowledge in their kingdom, it would lead to their kingdom getting overwhelmed by other kingdoms in the future. In the end, no one could stop the spread and Noel couldn't be blamed for this.
After all, Noel, as the author, would become an extremely important person in everyone's eyes. Although it would lead to a series of attacks to eliminate future threats, it would also allow Noel to gain time to negotiate.
This was what Noel was after. He could protect himself during the negotiation. And with the system, by the time the negotiation ended, he would be strong enough to protect himself from any enemies.
Only five people knew about Noel's plan. Rose, Christina, Illia, Harley, and Anna. And they were overwhelmed by this genius plan.
So, Count Leinberd, who didn't know about Noel's plan, immediately fell into his trap without realizing it.
"Noel Ardagan? The son of Luke Ardagan? Impossible. Hasn't he died? Or is this book written before his death and the Demon Relief Squad was helping him to bring this book to Countess Christina?"
Count Leinberd became silent and suddenly rose from his seat. He immediately went to his treasury to look at some treasures.
Obviously, he wanted to see the equipment with Spirit Enchantment on it. He tried to match the symbol on the book with the Spirit Enchantment and realized both of them were the same, but the rune was the completed version.
He had confirmed the information and knew what he had to do.
"As expected, this kind of knowledge…" Count Leinberd fell silent. On the one hand, he could give this to Marquis Walford. It would allow him to get promoted and connected to the Supreme Devil Organization.
On the other hand, the worth of this book was simply too much. If he directly handed this to the royal family and the Supreme Devil Organization, he could gain a lot more than what the marquis promised.
His heart was split between the promise and his own greed. And as someone who had been in politics for too long, he knew that the marquis might betray him sooner or later. Even if he didn't, he could simply ask those two influences to get rid of the marquis and allow him to gain everything he had.
That was why the count came up with his own brilliant plan. He called someone to his mansion who was a master in copying someone's writing.
There were some of these people working for him since he had a lot of documents to copy.
So, he picked a random guy, someone who he could kill after all this was over.
He gave the book to him and said, "I want you to copy this book and change some details in one day. If you can do it, I will give you ten gold coins."
It was a generous amount, so his staff didn't hesitate to take the job. Since the Count was in a rush, the staff had to skip sleep and some meals in order to complete his work.
With great effort, he managed to copy the book while tweaking some of the details.
Unfortunately, instead of a great meal and ten gold coins, what he got was his own death.
Meanwhile, Count Leinberd now had two books in his hand. He hid the original and handed the fake one to the people that Marquis Walford sent him. "This is the book. I've confirmed the authenticity."