The strange phenomenon in the sky continued to reappear for the next three days. While the emperor issued an edict, claiming the eyes were the effect of him using a heaven defying skill, only few believed it.
But when on the second afternoon the city guards, with shaky hands at first, began to execute directly on the streets those who claimed there was some kind of appearance of a deity, or blatantly urged people to join the Hand of God, the capital was washed with blood.
Victoria's suggestion turned out to be the correct one. The order was immediately restored, and no one dared to loudly oppose the empire, just like before.
Of course, people kept whispering at homes or on street corners when they were certain no one was listening, but the event was destined to be forgotten with time, and become a legend or a fairy tale.
In order to not risk his neck during the chaos, Lee went back to Thousand Needles only five days later. The streets were still flooded with guards, but when the eyes in the sky stopped appearing, most people went back to their regular lives, and the guards also stopped bothering every passerby.
"It's not easy to get the thing you asked for." Logan said when Lee finally arrived, "And it's very, very expensive."
Lee, obviously, expected that. He said, "Isn't the organization ready to make an investment in order to eliminate one of the big-shots?"
"It would be, but you saw what went on in Sunwell during the past days. And our funds are thin at the moment." Logan said.
Lee expected that as well. But he had an idea how to reimburse the losses the Hand of God would suffer. Orpen was planning on holding the first official horse race competition, and because of that the annual party wouldn't only be attended by the most distinguished people of the capital.
He invited every noble family, the most famous merchants, doctors and even bureaucrats. And had an idea to allow the present guests place bids, just for fun.
Minister didn't intend to make a big deal out of it – he only wanted to make sure everyone present at the event would get involved, raising his popularity, but Lee had an inkling there would be people betting their savings away.
And since this was the first public horse race in the empire's history, it would be only fitting if there was a horse racing scam as well. Lee had done quite a few scams in his first life, but none involved horses, and at some level he was even looking forward to it.
After several lives he once again felt the excitement he had long forgotten. He knew there was nothing comparable to it in the world – to take a load of money from fat, clueless snobs. And the best part was – they gave it away willingly.
"I have an idea how to compensate for your losses." Lee said, "But I guess I'll have to speak with your boss about that."
"Mhm." Logan nodded and, as if the conversation was over, sat down at a small table in the corner, but before Lee got confused, Cai walked in. It looked like all this time he was in the back, listening to the two talking.
"Tell me about your plan." He said, and also sat down.
Normally he would've never bothered with a child, but this kid had left a lasting impression on him. Lee helped the Hand of God quite a bit when they damaged the empire's finances and converted Minister Bishop at the same time.
And the incident with Helen Newman was only a couple months ago, to not speak about Lee's potential involvement in Cecil Ironfist's accident. It all forced Cai to take him seriously despite the young looks.
Lee glanced around and, seeing there were no more chairs, pulled over Logan's work bench, and also sat down.
"Were you invited to the New Year's event?" He opened with a question. Seeing Cai give a slight nod, Lee continued, "During the event there will be a horse race. I'll tell you which horse to bet on so you can compensate your losses. I will need you to get me a ginkgo extract and …, no, the ginkgo extract and the poison I asked for is all that I need you to buy for me. But to go through with the plan, I'll need few of your men to make a slight disturbance – don't worry, nothing to get killed for."
"I'll need more details." Cai said.
He had witnessed Lee's businesslike attitude before and wasn't too surprised by it, but he was not going to risk funds and lives not knowing what the exact plan was. Lee didn't hold back and honestly told everything, including the estimated chances of success.
Hearing that he was at most fifty percent certain things will go as planned, Cai wasn't too happy, but from what it looked like, the only one risking anything was Lee. In addition, he was ready to guarantee Cai would get the investment back if followed Lee's instructions.
The next day Lee received a small letter and a package from home. Apparently the grandfather passed away and left his grandson a small keepsake. Unfortunately the family was poor, and the whole Lee's inheritance consisted of a simple box, full of tobacco leaves.
Seeing their colleague grieving, the rest of the boys left Lee alone for the day, but he used the time to inspect the two sealed flasks, stored in the box's hidden department. The largest one had a green leaf drawn on it, indicating it should be the ginkgo extract, but the second one had to be the poison.
Time flew by and the New Year's event came sooner than Lee wished. He enjoyed the past month taking care of Zeus and Hera quite a bit, but the upcoming celebration meant that not only they had to part, he will have to leave the capital, maybe even for several years.
Of course, the draconian training he went through gave him many ideas on how to enhance his future practices and, if one ignored the abuse, he kind of owed Prides a lot.
Everyone – guards, servants and even Minister Orpen himself were shocked seeing the huge crowd at the entrance to his mansion.
For some reason the common folk had gathered to welcome nobles attending the party, and whenever another carriage arrived, the owner's name was called, and blushing or haughty looking man or woman climbed out, waving and smiling, or maybe feigning ignorance. But with no exception all guests were confused by the reception.
Lee stood in the forefront of the crowd and admired Cai's resourcefulness. He was expecting a bunch of people to assist his plan, but little did he know that the present couple dozen members of the Hand of the God were no less shocked. Who would've known that their encouragement to go and take a look would spread from mouth to mouth and be supported by over a thousand people.
Surprisingly though, everyone behaved orderly, not allowing the slightest disrespect. Clearly the executions performed few days ago by the city guard right on the streets left a lasting impression, and people weren't suicidal, only bored.
While commoners were having fun, nobles getting annoyed or their ego's stimulated, depending on a person, Lee was waiting for the arrival of two people. As expected, the first to arrive was general Foxson together with his son, Ian.
The moment they got out of the carriage, Lee shouted, "General! You can surely win this year!"
As agreed with Cai, this was the command his men were waiting for and, as planned, the front crowd pushed forward, inevitably shoving few people right at the guests. It was Lee's first purposeful physical encounter with superhumans and, even though he expected a quick reaction, he wasn't prepared enough.
The six or seven people that were pushed at the old general suddenly flew away as if launched by a catapult. Ian's reaction was similar, but fortunately Lee was already ducking low, aiming for his waistline.
Thus with the waive of his hand Ian smacked a bunch of unlucky bystanders, but missed Lee who barely managed to pull out Ian's sword a couple of inches and pour portion of the poison on the blade.
Afterwards everything was a blur.
Lee's guess was that Ian kicked him and few more people at the same time, but he lost consciousness for a split moment, and woke up when landing somewhere in the crowd. He heard a shout Get lost! somewhere in the distance, and barely managed to get on his feet to not get trampled to death by the chaos that broke out.
In less than twenty breaths the street was void of people, and only the arriving guests disturbed the death-still silence. They missed the cheerful reception, but few unconscious bodies at the sides indicated something out of norm happened few moments ago.
Lee managed to get to one of the Orpen estate's service entrances, but his vision swam and there was a constant buzz in his ears. He had never underestimated his opponent this much, and it almost cost him his life even though no one targeted him directly, and he was hit by a casual kick.
In addition, he lost the bottle with the rest of the poison, and it was surely broken under hundreds of boots escaping the street. Now it was literally impossible to poison Hardwood's blade even if Lee had a miraculous chance to get to it.
The only hope was that Ian Foxson would win the duel, but the chances were not in his favor. The poison would soon cover Ian's blade, and all Lee needed was for it to leave a small cut on Mark's body.
But ever since the New Year's celebration that Lee attended four years ago, Ian lost every challenge, and the score now stood at humiliating twelve to eight in Mark's favor.