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Hobert is only now starting to look for partners for a few reasons. First, the brand recognition of "Earl's Light" light bulbs is already established, at least in Backlund.
Secondly, because light bulbs are such a novel item, major media outlets are vying to report on them, eliminating the need for Hobert to spend money on new advertising.
Many nobles and wealthy individuals in other cities are also eagerly anticipating the chance to use electric lights as soon as possible.
Thirdly, the negative publicity surrounding Longtail Island has been resolved, and Hobert isn't short on funds. Seeking cooperation at this point allows Hobert to maintain a dominant position.
The officers at the club knew that the light bulbs were making a lot of money, but they didn't know exactly how much. Today, they found out it was this much!
As of today, the light bulbs have been on sale for 11 days. Although the company received over 30,000 orders on the first day, the number of orders has gradually decreased since then.
But now, no one dares to refute Hobert's claim that "Earl's Light" is worth 3 million pounds. Shares with such good prospects are sure to have a premium.
After further understanding the situation, everyone expressed their willingness to purchase shares of "Earl's Light."
Hobert added, "There is one thing I must inform everyone: this industry is not profitable at the beginning. Although I have a massive amount of cash on hand, I need to use it to build power plants and lay electrical wires, which means I can't give dividends to everyone!"
The construction of such infrastructure is very expensive for a company; it is more appropriate to build it with the will of the state.
But expecting the Loen Kingdom to build power plants and lay electrical wires is like waiting for never. So, Hobert decided to build these supporting facilities himself.
No matter how much money he has, he will invest it all in this!
Hobert roughly calculated that the money he had on hand was enough to build a dozen large power plants, but there can't just be power plants without electrical wires!
If all the money were used to lay electrical wires, it might only be enough to completely cover two or three cities, including Backlund.
Therefore, individual power is very limited in terms of infrastructure construction.
However, Hobert believes that his purpose has basically been achieved. After all, Backlund has a population of 5 million. Even if only one-fifth of the people know about "Earl's Light" light bulbs, there are still 1 million people who can associate the light bulbs with Earl Hobert.
To advance to Sequence 3, a feedback of 100,000 people can generally meet the needs of the ritual, and 1 million people is more than enough!
Although Hobert said so, everyone could see how great the prospects of the light bulbs were, so everyone was almost scrambling to buy shares.
After roughly determining the shares to be purchased, the party ended in a warm atmosphere.
Returning to the Earl's mansion, Hobert rested for a while and used "Travel" to reach Duke Bowen's manor in the suburbs.
At this time, the manor was silent, and only one room in the huge villa was lit.
Hobert "Distorted" the distance and "took a few steps" to the corridor of the lit room on the second floor.
In the long corridor, a man in his thirties wearing a black knight's uniform stood in front of the door: "Greetings, Earl Hobert."
Hobert nodded: "Hello."
He guessed that this should be someone protecting Duke Bowen.
The man knocked on the door, and a weak voice came from inside: "Please come in."
The man politely opened the door and said to Hobert, "Please."
Hobert entered the room. By the light of the gas lamp, he saw that Duke Bowen's hair was gray and he was as thin as a rake. He seemed to be several years older than the last time they met.
He was covered with a blanket and seemed too weak to get up: "Young man, come and sit down."
"Okay." Hobert agreed, but just stood opposite Duke Bowen, staring at him for more than half a minute.
The Duke's spirit body seemed to be covered with a thin layer of black mist, and there seemed to be some black thread-like things in the black mist, tightly wrapped around the already weak spirit body.
Currently, the black mist and black threads have spread to his chest. If the entire spirit body is wrapped in black threads and covered in black mist, it would be the death knell for this Duke.
As Hobert had judged last time, this was a very typical appearance of a spirit body being entangled in a curse.
Hobert "Distorted" a bit to try, and as one of the demigods mentioned in the information, "Distorting" and "Disorder" had no effect, as if he couldn't cut off the connection between the Duke and the source of the curse.
Hobert took a deep breath and sat opposite Duke Bowen.
There were two things about this curse that Hobert couldn't figure out. The first was that, according to the information, the curse had lasted for more than a year, but it hadn't killed the Duke yet.
This was very strange. Generally, long-lasting curses are because the caster's ability is too low and they need to perform multiple rituals to curse the target to death.
But such curses are easy to solve.
The second was, what was the medium of this curse?
Unless it was a face-to-face curse, otherwise, cursing secretly in the dark definitely required a medium!
And if it was a face-to-face curse, either Duke Bowen would have already died, or he would have already found a way to resolve it.
Because that kind of curse is very aggressive, it would either take the Duke's life on the spot, or it would definitely be defended against, at least it would be noticed by those protecting Duke Bowen.
The problem now is that no one knows what the medium of the curse is!
The previous seven demigods had tried many methods, but neither cut off the connection between the curse and the source of the curse, nor found out what the medium of the curse was.
Duke Bowen knew that the young man in front of him was thinking about something, so he didn't speak, as if he was quietly waiting for his judgment.
Hobert thought for a full ten minutes before suddenly smiling and asking: "Many people should have asked this, but I still need to confirm it."
He asked, "What discomfort do you feel now?"
"Cold, weak, stiff muscles." Duke Bowen smiled helplessly: "I get sick very easily, and my organs seem to be failing. It feels like this body is becoming more and more unfamiliar to me."
Hobert nodded slightly, which was indeed in line with the reaction after being cursed.
Generally speaking, curses are mainly divided into two types. One is to curse through fate, such as making a person very unlucky, even unlucky enough to fail even when going to the toilet.
Or unlucky enough to have the fate of their loved ones also affected, watching their loved ones die one by one in front of their eyes.
The other is to curse through the spirit world. Hobert had talked about this issue with Helen a few days ago. The general theory seems to be to attack a certain internal organ's spirit body through some ties and through the spirit world.
This will cause the organs to separate from the spirit body and be exposed to the spirit world, unprotected and subject to the scouring of the spirit world.
The specific manifestation is that the attacked internal organs will quickly fail and appear to be dying from some disease.
For example, attacking the heart will look like dying from heart disease, and attacking the lungs or trachea will look like suffocating to death.
In the case of Duke Bowen's "chronic curse," the spirit body still has some protection for the internal organs, so the external manifestation is that he gets sick very easily.
"This seems to be an unsolvable problem." Duke Bowen smiled: "Young man, just do your best, there is no need to force yourself."
Hobert glanced at the Duke: "You are quite open-minded."
"The torment of illness over the past year has made me understand a lot of things." At this time, he no longer had the majesty of a Duke, but looked like an old man who was about to die and only had sighs about life left.
He said: "To be honest, I have to thank the person who cursed me for not letting me die immediately.
"In the past year, I have realized how arrogant and conceited I used to be! I am over fifty years old and have not carefully supported my son who will inherit the title.
"I also discovered that I had missed so many things that were truly precious in my life.
"After a year of preparation, I have no regrets. To me, death is just that."
The Duke smiled: "Sometimes I think that Death should come sooner and end my current pain."
Hobert really wanted to tell him that Death had fallen more than a thousand years ago.
Thinking of this, a Blink of inspiration flashed in his mind, and he smiled and said: "Sure enough, philosophers are created by pain."
Hobert got up and came to Duke Bowen and stretched out his hand: "But it is rare to see a nobleman as open-minded as you."
He looked like he admired Duke Bowen and wanted to shake hands with him.
Duke Bowen weakly stretched out his hand, also prepared to encourage Hobert a few words, but suddenly realized that the young man's grip was too strong!
"Sorry." After shaking hands a few times, a smile climbed onto Hobert's face: "I may have to pull you back from Death."
Duke Bowen looked at Hobert for a few seconds, and then said: "If there is this possibility, it is not impossible."
"Then, please have the servants send all the items from the Southern Continent here. If it is inconvenient to move them, you can take me to see them." Hobert said seriously: "If I don't find what I'm looking for here, I will have to go to other residences to look for it."
Duke Bowen nodded and asked the man standing guard outside to call the butler.
Soon, the entire manor seemed to be awakened, and the servants, with sleepy eyes, went to search for items from the Southern Continent.
These items were mostly gold jewelry, all gifts to Duke Bowen.
Hobert touched them one by one. After searching for more than twenty minutes, he suddenly looked at the door.
A servant was bringing in an exquisite cane with Southern Continent style.
Hobert dropped the jewelry in his hand and took the initiative to meet him and took the cane: "This is it!"
He asked Duke Bowen: "Do you often use this cane?"
"I used to use it often for a while." Duke Bowen recalled: "But that was probably two years ago, which doesn't match the time of the curse."
Hobert smiled: "This is not a curse at all."
He paused and added: "I have already found what I was looking for."
Duke Bowen understood and asked the butler to take the servants back. Only he and Hobert were left in the room: "Young man, can you tell me what's going on?"
"Of course." Hobert stood the cane aside: "I guess this cane should have been 'blessed' by a certain god."
Hobert spread his hands: "I don't know whether the person who gave you the cane was intentional or unintentional, but not every god's 'blessing' is good.
"For example, this cane, if I guessed correctly, you should have used Beyonder abilities while holding it. This is equivalent to your spirituality activating that 'blessing' and marking you.
"Although the connection between this cane and that god is very weak, and you no longer use this cane, your spirit body is still slightly polluted and gradually approaching the underworld.
"Because it is a pure corruption of the spirit body and it was very slight at the beginning, you didn't notice it at all until this corruption caused your body to become diseased!"
Hobert crossed his hands and pointed out a finger: "This is a very clever trap because it looks too much like a curse, whether it is the appearance of the spirit body or your diseased manifestations.
"So everyone has focused on how to block the connection of the curse, of course, without any success."
If it weren't for Mr. Azik's mark on Hobert, he wouldn't have been able to confirm this.
During the conversation just now, when Duke Bowen mentioned Death, Hobert had a Blink of inspiration and wondered if this was a curse from the underworld?
Beyonders of the "Death" pathway also have the ability to curse to an extent, but their curses are more like attacks such as "Language of the Dead," which are easy to distinguish.
But many underworld creatures also have the ability to curse, and their curses are strange and varied.
So Hobert took the initiative to shake hands with Duke Bowen and used Mr. Azik's mark to test the black mist and black threads.
As a result, his spirituality immediately felt a familiar "touch": Artificial Death!
After encountering the Feathered Serpent on the primitive island, Hobert was able to immediately distinguish the "touch" of "Artificial Death." He then immediately realized that this was a slight corruption from "Artificial Death."
Because this corruption spread too slowly, Duke Bowen did not develop the iconic symptoms such as pale yellow oily feathers.
Hobert recalled that although seven demigods had come to diagnose the Duke, none of them were demigods of the "Death" pathway.
And even if they were demigods of the "Death" pathway, without Mr. Azik's mark, they might not be able to tell that this was a "blessing" from "Artificial Death."
The remaining thing was to find the way in which Duke Bowen's spirit body was polluted. Since it was about "Artificial Death," it was most likely from the Southern Continent and an item that had been used frequently for at least some time.
According to the professional ethics of a noble butler, such a thing would most likely be in the Duke Bowen's manor, in case the Duke wanted to use it again?
As a result, a search like this really found him the cane.
Hobert couldn't explain the logic and thoughts too clearly to Duke Bowen. He could only roughly explain the ins and outs of the matter.
Duke Bowen looked at the cane, his expression changed from solemn to grief. After a long while, he said: "That was a gift from Achilles when he returned from the Southern Continent."
Hobert recalled that Duke Bowen's heir was called Achilles.
He now truly believed that Duke Bowen had not carefully cultivated his heir before he became "ill," which should have made Achilles feel very insecure.
Then Hobert recalled the list of political enemies and rivals provided by Duke Bowen, and the final result made that list seem ridiculous.
Hobert asked Duke Bowen, "Can you still maintain your previous magnanimity in the face of such a result?"
He would never have asked this before.
But now, by asking this, he seemed more like a "demon."
Duke Bowen stroked his chest for a long time before saying, "Young man, my heart can't withstand your 'pounding'."
After a long while, he took a deep breath and added, "Please help me keep this secret."
The Duke looked at the cane: "I will take it to my grave."
In other words, he didn't plan to make this public.
This was the choice that nobles were most likely to make.
"I will," Hobert smiled. "But I don't think this cane is suitable as a burial object."
He realized that his words seemed ambiguous, so he simply explained, "It may cause certain changes to your corpse."
Duke Bowen nodded: "I understand."
Then he asked, "Can you cure the corruption on me?"
Once this Duke's "illness" was cured, his heir would definitely notice something, but this could be covered up with some lies, such as only curing the "illness" but not finding the source of the "outbreak."
"I can try, but I can't guarantee it," Hobert said.
He had just imagined using Mr. Azik's mark to mobilize some of the power of the underworld to see if he could absorb the corruption into the underworld.
He could also perform corresponding rituals to pray to the underworld for power to eliminate the corruption of the spirit body.
However, the underworld was not the "Nation of Disorder" after all. Hobert was not sure that the underworld could give a response that met his needs. In case it directly sucked Duke Bowen's spirit body into the underworld and couldn't find it back, that would be interesting.
Duke Bowen seemed to have returned to his previous composure: "Please."
Hobert got up again, came to Duke Bowen's side, pulled out the thin sword hidden in the cane, held the Duke's hand with one hand, and cut open an "Underworld Gate" with the other.
The whole room suddenly became cold, and even the flames of the gas lamps turned green, which gave everything around it a layer of green light film.
Duke Bowen felt that his soul was like a piece of paper floating in the air, without support, and could fall into the cold abyss at any time.
This made the man protecting Duke Bowen immediately enter the room. He was surprised by the "door" in front of him. After Duke Bowen made a difficult gesture that he was not in danger, the man closed the door and stared at Hobert's operation.
Hobert used Mr. Azik's mark to mobilize a part of the power of the underworld, and as he intended, sucked away the black mist on Duke Bowen's spirit body.
Then, Hobert drove an evil spirit to grab the black line on Duke Bowen's spirit body.
Duke Bowen immediately felt as if his throat was distorted, his eyes turned white, and his limbs twitched involuntarily.
Soon, under Hobert's order, the evil spirit dragged the black line back to the underworld.
Duke Bowen's spirit body became pure enough again, but the slight corruption over the past year, and the torment by the underworld, made the spirit body look a little weak.
It would take a period of rest to fully recover.
Hobert checked and made sure that all the corruption had been absorbed, and then waved the thin sword again to close the "Underworld Gate."
Duke Bowen buried himself in the sofa, breathing heavily, as if a drowning man had just been rescued.
Hobert found a bottle of spirits in the wine cabinet and poured two glasses, one for Bowen, whose hands and feet were disobedient, and one for himself.
He let out a hearty "Ah~" sound, feeling like a ball of fire was burning in his stomach.
Duke Bowen also felt much better: "Just now, was that the underworld?"
The man guarding the door was slightly stunned, because the Duke's voice sounded more powerful than before.
Hobert put down his glass: "Yes. How do you feel?"
Duke Bowen moved his arm: "It feels like I've taken off heavy armor."
"It seems the problem is solved," Hobert put away the thin sword. "If there are any other problems, you can send someone to find me.
"Oh, right, I remember the Church of the Evernight Goddess has potions that can quickly restore damage to the spirit body."
"Thank you!" Duke Bowen thanked him very sincerely.
Hobert smiled slightly: "Gentlemen, goodbye!"
He slightly tipped his hat with one hand and stepped into the illusory space.
After Hobert disappeared for a few seconds, Duke Bowen asked the man guarding the door: "Am I really okay?"
"From the current point of view, your problem has indeed been solved."
"Hobert," Duke Bowen repeated the name, and then asked, "What are your impressions of him?"
"He is a very powerful Beyonder, and he has also shown a very knowledgeable side."
…
The next day, June 27th, the officers who attended the cocktail party at the club yesterday all came to Hobert's manor to sign the contract to purchase shares.
After sending off the officers, Hobert welcomed the Queen's envoy.
The Queen once again gave Hobert many rewards, but did not explain why the rewards were given, everything was self-evident.
At noon, after Hobert had lunch, he prepared for the afternoon tea party to be held in the afternoon in the study.
Suddenly, his spirituality sensed something, and he saw a figure wearing a complicated and gorgeous black dress, holding four heads in his hand, appearing in the study.
One of the heads had a letter in its mouth, and the letter fell lightly in front of Hobert.
Hobert immediately realized that this was Klein's messenger.
He was about to open the letter when he suddenly realized that the messenger was still standing in front of the desk, so he asked, "Is there anything else?"
The four heads, from left to right, each said a word, forming a sentence: "The reward for delivering the letter is… a gold coin."
Hobert then remembered that there was such a thing, which made him couldn't help but praise Klein: "So stingy!"
He's already a millionaire in Backlund, and he's still so "thrifty"?
He rummaged through the boxes for a long time, but couldn't find a single gold coin: "Will paper money work? You can go to the spirit world to exchange it for other spirit world creatures."
The messenger's four heads shook together: "No, the spirit world… has no… bank."
Hobert had no choice but to call Dophis and ask him to find a gold coin to pay the messenger, and the messenger left.
Hobert opened the letter with a not-so-beautiful mood and read it. It turned out that Klein was asking him to meet at the riverside where they had met before in the evening.
He pondered for a while, it should be to discuss the matter of sneaking into St. Samuel Cathedral.
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