“Fine, do whatever comes to your mind. I won’t say anything anymore.” Clara finally relented in front of his stubbornness and decided to help him out even though she didn’t completely agree with his decision. She could only rest easy because she had made sure that Zach wasn’t doing this because of his inflated ego or delusions of grandeur otherwise she would have looked down on him.

“For how long do you think I can get the lease contract for Greenland along with the development rights of the area? Since it is an extensive area, I doubt that the government would be willing to part with it especially after I manage to develop it. But I still hope that the government can part with it for at least fifteen years. Can you help me get it then?” Zach asked sincerely because he was in need of the Windsor family’s help if he wanted to earn a chance of obtaining the Greenland Island. ．

“Even though my family is not the overlord of the city, it is still among the best of them. Therefore, the government should at least ponder upon my request if I decide to facilitate things between you and the government by acting as your agent. The years of access and the development rights would be up to negotiation. Therefore, I can only assure you that I would try my best. As to what the government decides to do, it is entirely up to them. I can only lobby for you to the best of my abilities.”

Zach didn’t push Clara either since the girl had already promised him to do everything in her power and Zach trusted her words. He had always found the girl to be extremely upright and true to her words.

The carriage took them straight to the Windsor family main estate. As soon as they got off the back of the carriage, Zach found that there seemed to be something wrong with the place. The people here were all acting overly emotional and devastated. They seemed to be grieving because the atmosphere around them all was especially stuffy.

Although this was his first time coming to the main estate of the Windsor family, even he could tell that something bad had happened.

As if to imitate the thoughts in his head, Clara looked obviously stunned at this scenario. When she had left this morning nothing seemed out of place but now that she had returned everything seemed to be in shambles.

She jerked her head in several directions as if observing and looking for answers until a servant rushed towards her from the inside. It seemed that he had just received the news of her arrival.

“Young miss, old master’s condition has worsened. Even old master Drew can’t seem to do anything for him this time.” The servant was quite old and looked like he had been with the family for a long time as he stared at Clara with fondness and pity lurking in his gaze.

Clara nodded towards the servant before rushing into her home.

Zach followed after her without asking anything. He didn’t want to disturb her at this moment.

Clara made several turns in the confusing hallways in a practiced manner. Even though she moved at a brisk pace, Zach was right behind her so he didn’t have any trouble reaching the old master’s room as well. He followed her in despite the fact that he felt like he was intruding onto her privacy.

The sight in front of him was far from what he had expected to find as his first visit to the powerful Windsor family home. There was a pale old man lying on the bed like a lifeless corpse. Had it not been for the shallow breathing and his chest heaving up and down in a rhythmic manner, Zach might have thought that the old man had already passed away.

Other than the old man, there were two other people in the room; one he was familiar with but the other one he was meeting for the first time.

The familiar figure was none other than the proud as peacock Violet whom he had met at the gates of the city when he first arrived in Byzantium city. Unlike her previous proud and mighty self, Violet’s hair was disheveled and her eyes looked slightly swollen as she continued to cry her heart out. Zach could only sympathize with her current state.

The unfamiliar old man on the other hand sat on the bedside with a sad expression on his face but he hadn’t taken the news as badly as the girls due to his old age. He had probably encountered many such situations in the past and had long since overcome his urge to cry every single time such an incident took place. Still, Zach wondered what relationship the old man had with the Windsor family. From what he knew, Clara and Violet were the only successors of the old master of the Windsor family and there was no one else to manage the family after him. Therefore, the old man was probably not immediate family to the girls.

Clara, who was previously too stunned to react after witnessing the poor condition of her father, ran towards his bedside and nudged him hesitantly. She tried to wake him up gently at first but there was no response at all. The old man was no different from an irresponsive corpse despite her attempts to wake him up.

“Why isn’t he waking up? Is father not willing to talk to me sister?” Clara was too shaken up by grief to understand reason. She cast a pleading look towards her sister hoping that Violet would plead with her father on her behalf and ask him to talk to her.

Violet looked at the sorrowful and distressed face of her little sister but there was no way for her to console her when she herself wasn’t feeling any better than Clara. She could only answer her with some more tears of her own as they rolled down leaving a wet trail down her cheeks and fell into her lap.

Seeing as her sister could not help her talk to Marico, Clara turned her head towards the old man sitting beside her father. She hoped that the old man would be willing to do the same for her but the old man could only shake his head in negative. He wanted to tell her that things had progressed far out of his control and even he couldn’t do anything for her father despite his SS rank healing magic.

Zach watched everything with sorrow gripping his heart as he felt how the most terrifying thing in the world wasn’t an impossible to solve problem or an inevitable outcome like a terminal disease; it was in fact the loss of all hope.

He believed that human beings could survive in the toughest of situations like cockroaches with just the tiniest bit of hope. The tiniest flicker of hope in their lives could drive away the darkness gripping their hearts. Only when humans lost that light would they fall into the deepest and darkest of despairs.

He witnessed the strong and reliable Clara breaking down after not a single person in the room reassured her about her father’s condition.

Clara felt her knees buckling under feet as she fell down on her knees beside her father’s bedside. Like a lifeless doll, she threw herself into the arms of her big sister in order to share a small portion of her pain with her sister who was going through the same thing as her and could understand her.

Finally in her sister’s arms, Clara broke down and began to sob like a little girl who had accidentally separated from her parents.

Zach could only watch the family drama with a serious look on his face as he didn’t want to act disrespectfully in such a situation. Initially he had come to discuss the details of the Greenland negotiations with the old master but his current condition obviously didn’t allow him to engage in such a conversation with Zach.

Zach hadn’t expected that his very first interaction with the old master of the Windsor family would be under such extraordinarily unfortunate circumstances. He could only watch from the sidelines as the family tried to overcome their grief. Every second he spent in the room made him feel increasingly uncomfortable as he neither knew what to say in such a situation nor did he know how to comfort the sisters when their father was lying unresponsive in front of them.

Although he wasn’t a complete shut in his previous life, he still spent most of his time indoors playing games. His work engagements obviously kept him estranged from such social activities. He had no past experience so he kept his mouth shut in order to keep himself from saying anything inappropriate or offensive to the family.

While Clara had already forgotten that Zach had followed her in and Violet was busy sobbing with Clara in her arms, the only one who paid any attention to Zach’s arrival was the old man sitting beside the old master of the Windsor family.

Zach didn’t know the old man who was staring at him a little cautiously but he tried not to show any signs of hostility to the old man so as to not cause any misunderstanding with the grieving family.

The old man scanned him from top to bottom vigorously and deduced that the man was probably the dark mage that Marico had spoken to him about. He was surprised to find that the genius who developed the trucks and revolutionized the transportation industry chain on his own was such a young man.