"Edric, I think there is something wrong with my husband." Aunt Valeria said with a complicated expression.

  I wrinkled my brows instantly. "Did something happen?"

  "... I’m not sure, it’s just that he has been behaving strangely as of late. I suspect that he is plotting something against our Cyclebound Auction Hall."

  I fell deep into thought and closed my eyes. Aunt Valeria put on a nervous expression, but she did not interrupt me.

  "... It’s not the first time something like this happens, you know." I opened my eyes and stared at my aunt.

  "Mm." She nodded guiltily.

  Aunt Valeria’s husband is called Lock Kael. He is the second son of a lesser noble and is the director of another auction house.

  When he and Aunt Valeria married, he was already the director of the auction house. He was always proud of his job and bragged constantly about it, feeling that he was above others due to working in a famous auction house. To be honest, my mother’s family didn’t like him very much, but because my aunt insisted on marrying him, my grandparents did not oppose it.

  But when Aunt Valeria began to work in my Cyclebound Auction Hall, everything changed.

  At first, he thought that our auction hall was nothing more than us playing around, so he did not care much about it. He simply encouraged my aunt superficially and focused on his work.

  But before long, my auction hall, under the lead of my aunt, began to grow.

  In just one year, it surpassed Lock’s auction house, and in the next year, it became one of the most respectable auction houses in the capital.

  When Aunt Valeria’s husband realized that his wife’s work surpassed his by far, he began to feel jealous.

  From then, he constantly argued with her about her job. He started to say that Aunt Valeria took advantage of his connections to steal his clients and that it was because of him that my auction hall reached where it is today.

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  He even asked for compensation and claimed he owned some of our ideas. To be honest, he is the kind of person I would have killed long ago.

  But in the end, he was my aunt’s husband. I want to avoid killing him if it’s possible.

  But from my aunt’s expression, I can see that things are very bad this time.

  "Explain what happened." I ordered with a cold look. My aunt did not dare to refuse. She knows that when I’m in this mood, I stop being her nephew and become her boss.

  "I learned yesterday that his auction house became a subsidiary of the Ravelle auction house. Moreover, do you remember the VIP treatment you proposed and we were going to implement next month? Well, the Ravelle auction hall announced something like that today. To be honest, I suspect that my husband accidentally heard us speaking about it and stole the idea to sell it to the Ravelle family."

  Bang! I slammed my hand on the table. Aunt Valeria shrunk briefly when she saw my reaction. She tried to say something but sighed in the end. "I’m sorry, it’s my mistake. Even though I know how my husband is, I was not wary enough and allowed him to steal your idea."

  My expression was unsightly. I could not tolerate my aunt’s husband’s actions.

  I even told him that he could form an alliance with our auction hall before and he rejected, only to become a dog of the Ravelle family.

  Was he so jealous of my aunt? Was it possible that he was unable to endure that his wife was doing better than him?

  How petty.

  I took a deep breath to calm my emotions. I then looked at Aunt Valeria and heaved a sigh.

  "Aunt, I don’t understand why you continue living with that man."

  "... I’m sorry, Edric. But he is, in the end, my son’s father. I don’t want my son to grow up without his father. Also, Lock is not a bad person, he just is a bit jealous."

  "But he spends more of his time away! When was the last time he came home?!"

  Aunt Valeria was unable to answer my question.

  I sighed again and put an apologetic expression. I then walked towards my aunt and hugged her. "I’m sorry for shouting at you, aunt. It’s just that I’m very angry. Moreover, I don’t understand how you can continue defending him even after knowing he sold himself to the enemy of our family. I’ll be honest with you, aunt. He already crossed my bottom line."

  Aunt Valeria paled immediately. She looked at me and grabbed my arm with an expression of fear. "Edric, what are you planning?!"

  "You know my current situation, aunt. Now that the emperor already announced my exile, even the dogs of the empress think they can take a bite of me. If I don’t teach them a lesson, then they will corner our family little by little."

  Aunt Valeria’s expression turned complicated. Her eyes flashed with different emotions while she struggled to make a decision. I simply waited silently for her answer.

  Finally, she opened her mouth.