Reborn as God: The strongest system

138  Abrupt changes!

Esdras didn't have to think for very long to connect the dots and understand. Not everything, but he had a good idea of what was going on now.

Yes, if he thought about what Redthorn's letter and what he just heard then things started to make sense.

An unknown group was giving out loans in large amounts to the noble houses of the eastern border, one of them being house Castyia, Robert's house.

And of course, house Varthos was chief in the eastern border. Esdras's own house, which was currently hijacked by his dear uncle.

Naturally, when one asked for loans one had to put out a collateral but his uncle couldn't take out the same loans that the other lords were getting.

Because he was not the true lord of house Varthos. He was the one in charge, effectively and in truth, however, Esdras was the lord of the house in every official capacity. And it will always be like that.

Unless, Esdras were to meet an untimely death that is.

It wasn't his uncle growing impatient, it was that he was forced to act quickly by the ultimatums of the consortium. If he was late then the opportunity when the consortium was throwing money away will be gone and he will lose out while everyone else made a fortune.

It was not hard to assume that his uncle reached a certain arrangement with house Castyia to speed things up.

Considering these things it was not hard to figure out how things came to be in the past.

Esdras was not clear about everything yet.

Why would the consortium give out these loans to these weak and poor houses, and in such amounts? It couldn't be out of the kindness of their hearts.

What about the interest rates of these massive loans?

The consortium gave this money to the starved-for-glory houses of the easter border knowing that it will ignite a war campaign into the Wildlands.

This is why these houses were buying all sorts of supplies from Marincia and hiring mercenaries from the Scattered kingdoms.

The only way to pay the large sums of gold they took was to wage war. The consortium may have even put that as one of the conditions of the loans.

Why would the eastern border houses refuse that? They have even more reason to agree. It was a great chance to expand and erase the shame of the past.

How could they not jump at this opportunity?

If his speculations were correct so far then it could be said that a mystery that troubled him since transmigrating was solved at last.

Although he was not sure of the degree of the involvement of the consortium in this plot to kill him. Were they just an unrelated third party? Or did they actively scheme against him?

If it was the former then this whole thing can be considered done with. But, if it was the later then it could prove trouble later on.

Esdras furrowed his brow as he tried to piece together the complex web of intrigue that now surrounded him. He knew that the consortium's involvement was pivotal, but he couldn't quite determine their true intentions.

Was the consortium merely an opportunistic group looking to make a profit from the desperation of the eastern border houses, or was there a more sinister motive behind their actions? And what role did they play in the plot to end his life?

He couldn't ignore the possibility that the consortium was working hand-in-hand with his uncle and House Castyia, actively scheming against him to ensure his demise. If that was the case, then he would have to tread carefully moving forward.

Esdras realized that he had stumbled upon a massive conspiracy that could have far-reaching consequences, not just for himself and his house, but for the entire region. The prospect of an all-out war campaign into the Wildlands, fueled by the consortium's loans and the ambitions of the eastern border houses, was a terrifying one.

He knew that he couldn't stand idly by and let this scheme unfold without taking action. Esdras needed to gather more information, to uncover the full extent of the consortium's involvement and to expose the truth behind their machinations.

As he contemplated his next move, Esdras felt a mixture of determination and trepidation. The stakes were incredibly high, and the path ahead was fraught with danger.

He knew one thing for sure, he must prevent house Varthos from joining the war in the Wildlands. There was no sane man who would throw away money for no reason. Certainly not a consortium with that kind of cash behind them.

Accepting the money and marching to war is a mistake. The results of the war didn't matter, he would be defeated as soon as he accepted the loan.

Esdras made up his mind to keep his identity a secret when he went to report for duty after the Rite of passage. He must not reveal himself in Kazzat unless he was completely confident.

With that being done he didn't waste any time and killed Sam and the rest of his crew. He already got everything he wanted from them, answers and negative energy.

Esdras walked out of the cave and saw Tara waiting for him.

"Hey," he said casually, "you did good today. Go on now, you can try to reach the beacon if you like your chances or you can hide here in this cave until they pick you up. What do you think?"

"Ah, eh, I better stay here…"

"Good choice, you can't do much on your own. I'll leave you the rest of the ration bags so you don't have to worry about taking any risks. I'll add you as my assistant after I pass as we discussed earlier."

His suggestion was actually a test, if Tara passed the Rite he wouldn't be able to add her as an assistant. He was trying to see if she had any unseemly thoughts.

With the tracking stone on her he would know if she tried to leave this place and he would kill her in that case.

It can be said that he didn't need much information out of her, but she still had her uses. For example against Robert later on. However, the most important reason was her dormant nymph bloodline.

Tara didn't know why her powers were growing so quickly after doing it with him but he knew why, it was because of that bloodline.

As a nymph the more she indulged in depraved acts her bloodline would awaken and when the time came, she would obtain various abilities that works otherwise unobtainable in this world.

For example, her charming ability that allowed her to control men was very powerful against ordinary men, and that was before she even became a Rank 2 being.

The most mysterious part is that such bloodlines we're not seen in this world before, obviously, this was a result of the convergence. And after asking her about her family attorneys out that no member of her family had ever possessed such an ability.

Not even her mother.

This means that this bloodline wasn't exactly restricted to physical means. According to the pharaoh, this was a 'spiritual bloodline'. Meaning that sometimes you could obtain a bloodline without actually being related to that bloodline through blood.

This was an extremely fascinating phenomena to Esdras, who was a very curious man by nature.

After separating from her for a while Esdras was alarmed, he felt that the one of the tracking stones he gave out was cut off. It wasn't Tara's, obviously.

Since this place was so big, his perception of the stones was not always very clear, however, he could faintly tell the direction and the distance between him and the tracking stones.

There was a chance that the carrier of the tracking stone moved out of his perception range completely, this was not out of the question. However, he would have been able to tell that the carrier of the tracking stone moved out of his perception range slowly.

And yet, in this case, the signal of the tracking stone disappeared suddenly, as if it was cut off without any warning.

And this tracking stone belong to Celine.

A sudden wave of panic washed over Esdras as he realized that the tracking stone signal had been cut off abruptly. His heart pounded in his chest as he tried to make sense of the situation. He knew that Celine was the one carrying this particular tracking stone, and her safety was now of the utmost concern.

Esdras quickly weighed the possibilities in his mind. Had she moved out of range, or had something more sinister occurred? The sudden disappearance of the signal was disconcerting, and he couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something was amiss.

Celine was not in the best of states right now. She displayed a concerning behavior every now and then, not to mention the frequent nightmares that she didn't want to talk about.

No, this was not the time to think too much, he had to move. Even if it turns out to be a false alarm he didn't care.

Wasting no time, he decided to follow the faint remnants of the signal in the hope of finding Celine. He didn't care about stealth anymore, using his superhuman body he dashed ahead with full speed.

He didn't care about any trees or beasts, he slashed them all down with his trusty greatsword. He might have even killed an apprentice that was unlucky to stand in his way.

But Esdras didn't care, he had no intention of slowing down. Something terrible is happening.