Chapter 46: Untitled

"You may go up first." Seeing that Carmine had already left, Madam Mera said, while Villac still maintained his posture of bowing in apology.

"...Yes, Madam Mera." Villac bowed once more in apology to Mera and Kellerman, then turned and headed back upstairs to his bedroom.

Sitting at the desk, Villac furrowed his brow and twirled the fountain pen in his hand, roughly calculating the timeline of when the Thomas family would likely try to eliminate him.

In his previous life, sixty-nine days had passed from the day Villac left Zwettl on July 15th to the day he was orchestrated to death on September 21st.

In this lifetime, only fifteen days had passed so far—less than a quarter of the original duration. However, because many things had already changed drastically, such a time comparison might no longer be strictly accurate, and its reference value was greatly diminished.

Therefore, if he wanted to deduce when the Thomas family would move to eliminate him, he first had to figure out why they had chosen September 21st to kill him in his previous life. Was it simply because they felt enough time had passed, or were there other hidden circumstances?

Villac closed his eyes and concentrated on recalling all the major events near the time of his murder in the previous life. During those days, almost the entirety of Leizerin was busy preparing for the Universal Exposition, and the Thomas family was no exception.

The gramophone company under the Thomas family's name would showcase its newest gramophones at the exposition, and the record company's singers would also perform at the opening ceremony to enhance international influence and broaden record sales channels.

The day after Villac died in his previous life, September 22nd, was precisely the rehearsal time for the opening ceremony of the Universal Exposition. Three days later, on September 25th, the exposition would officially open.

Meanwhile, Chris—the identity Villac had assumed—was in charge of the Thomas family's record company. He should have participated in the rehearsals and played a crucial role for the Thomas family during the exposition.

There must have been some connection between these two things.

Villac made a preliminary conjecture.

The Universal Exposition was of vital importance to the Thomas family. In his previous life, his performance had been far too poor, leading Carmine to believe that his continued involvement posed a significant risk. Coupled with the fact that staging an accidental death at that juncture could attract more attention and maximize the elimination of any suspicion toward the Thomas family, they had chosen to kill him on September 21st.

If this conjecture was correct, it meant that to erase Villac, the Thomas family needed to satisfy two conditions.

First, Villac's disguise was reaching the point where it could no longer be maintained.

Second, Villac's death could draw widespread public attention.

Before these two conditions were met, the Thomas family's attitude toward him would be to maintain the facade for as long as possible. As long as the time interval from the real Chris's death was long enough, the government would find it difficult to suspect them.

However, only half a month had passed, and Villac was already showing a tendency to trigger the first condition. If the Thomas family could not control Elizabeth, and she insisted on getting to the bottom of the situation, the first condition would be met immediately, leaving Villac with one foot already stepping into the gates of hell.

"My luck has run out..." Villac muttered to himself.

Carmine wanted to cultivate spending habits, Villac decided to splurge at the charity gala, and he happened to cross paths with Elizabeth at the charity gala.

If any of these three points had deviated even slightly, the current situation would not have been created. But Villac had struck the 'greatest of luck' with uncanny precision.

Regretting it now was completely meaningless. He could only scramble to find ways to improve the situation as much as possible, or prepare himself to respond to an even worse predicament.

Villac estimated that he would be locked up for at least another week. During this week, he probably wouldn't even be able to reach Daniel, let alone pass information outward. Therefore, for quite some time in the future, his only opportunity to send information outside would be tomorrow when he invited Colin over.

Carmine and Fletcher would not let him out at all; they would likely make a phone call from home to invite Colin directly over so Carmine could pump him for information.

Thus, Villac had two ways to get the message out.

Either find a way to reach Daniel tomorrow, or have Colin take the message out and deliver it to Daniel.

Handing it directly to Daniel was undoubtedly the safest option. If he gave it to Colin, Villac couldn't be certain whether Colin would curiously open it and take a peek out of curiosity. To eliminate unnecessary risks, Villac decided to write two versions of the message. If he could manage to contact Daniel, he would give him the detailed itinerary and situation report. If he could only contact Colin, he would give him the brief, non-confidential version.

Having considered everything thoroughly, Villac wasted no time. Taking advantage of the fact that Fletcher was still outside and had no time to trouble him, he hurried to write down the arrangements.

In the detailed arrangement, Villac wrote that Carmine had once again restricted his freedom of movement, that all subsequent planned meetings were temporarily suspended, that all members should keep as low a profile as possible, and that they should await further notice regarding everything else. As for the investigative materials he had commissioned Chloe to gather, they should be handed over to Daniel to be delivered to Villac by whatever means possible at the first opportunity.

In the brief arrangement, Villac wrote only a single sentence: 'Unable to go out due to a recurrence of an old illness, please await further news.'

By the time he finished all this, it was barely nine o'clock. For the Thomas family, tonight was another sleepless night. Unlike the time of the file theft incident, Villac had also lost all sleepiness.

Standing in front of the window in a daze for a long time, Villac sighed.

He needed to forge a trump card to save his own life in the shortest possible time. That way, even if he had a complete falling out with the Thomas family, he wouldn't fall into a position of being manipulated at will. However, that kind of open confrontation in a face-to-face clash was naturally something that should happen as late as possible.

Never mind, sleep first and conserve strength.

Villac thought to himself.

Waiting idly here was of no use anyway; he might as well get a good night's sleep, figure out a way to pass the information out tomorrow, and then brace himself to face Fletcher's wrath and wait for the Thomas family to handle the fallout.

After washing up, Villac lay down on the bed, tossing and turning for a long time before finally managing to fall asleep.

The next day, July 31st, early in the morning, a servant woke Villac up: "Master Chris, Mr. Carmine has asked you to go to the study to see him."

It must be time for him to contact Colin to come over. Unsure of how things were going on Fletcher's end, Villac nodded. "I'll go over right after I wash up."

After washing up, Villac arrived at the door of Carmine's study and knocked.

"Come in," Carmine's voice came from inside the study.

Villac pushed the door open, walked up to Carmine, and said, "Mr. Carmine."

"Sit." Carmine sat behind the desk and cut straight to the point in a flat tone. "Call Colin and tell him you want to talk about going on a trip. After he arrives, chat with him casually for a bit. When I come over, you can leave under the pretext of going to the restroom, and I will personally question him to extract information about Elizabeth."

Carmine had already finished planning, leaving Villac with no choice but to pick up the telephone on the desk and contact Colin.