บท 82: Luna: The Cayne Family

"Little miss."

A voice called out to Luna, bringing her back to her senses at the moment.

"Oh, it's Mr. Bertol. I apologize." Luna hurriedly bowed down to the old man who stood before her.

The old man, Mr. Bertol, was a man with grey hair and a beard -a development due to his age- who served as the personal carriage driver to Luna as well as her guard. Despite his appearance, the man was actually a third-stage Guardian mage and almost the peak of the realm at that.

However, despite being a servant, Luna didn't treat him as such when they were together. Rather than calling him a servant, Mr. Bertol was more like the father she had always wanted but never got, or at least, what she presumed a loving father would be like. This was why she treated him differently and respected him a lot.

"Please don't, milady. This old servant isn't worthy of a bow." Mr. Bertol tried to stop her.

"Even though, it's still my fault for having been distracted and kept you waiting for so long." Luna said.

The old man sighed as he realized that arguing with the young girl would lead to nothing so he simply gave up and decided to change the topic.

"So who was it that had the little miss of the Cayne family staring with such an entranced look?" Mr. Bertol turned in the direction Luna was previously glancing at with a light smile on his face.

Luna blushed profusely as she immediately rushed to block his line of sight.

"It's nothing, I mean no one. Let's go."

Mr. Bertol smirked before he caught sight of a young boy stepping into a carriage.

"Oh, is that him? Well, he does look pretty impressive and worthy of the attention of the young miss." The old man smiled as he stroked his beard while staring at Asher.

"White hair...an Arnhaunt? Oh, my. The little miss sure aims high." Mr. Bertol smiled before shifting his gaze to the embarrassed Luna.

"Alright, alright. Can we go now?" Luna pouted.

"If it's the wish of the little miss."

Mr. Bertol bowed before leading Luna toward the carriage.

As they left, Luna sneaked a glance in Asher's direction but only managed to spot his carriage leaving. Within her eyes was a bit of reluctance but she hid it right after.

'I couldn't get close enough with him.' Luna sighed internally.

"Mr. Bertol, can you let me know about the current situation at home?" Luna asked after she had settled into the carriage.

Mr. Bertol, who was controlling the horses from the outside, sighed after he heard the question. Although reluctant, he did as she asked.

"The situation at the family domain has been getting worse as of late. The young master has done his best to alleviate the situation alongside the master, but it's merely a delay of what is to come; like trying to stop a serious bleeding wound with only a piece of cotton on it. I'm not privy to the family's circumstances but I doubt that they could hold on for more than 18 months at the current rate."

Luna went silent after the information and didn't say a word again. She only looked out of the window with a tear in her eyes.

The Cayne family was a Viscount-rank family, however, they were on a decline with a high risk of losing that status. The reason for this could be traced back to three years ago.

At that time, the Cayne family had got their hands on news of a mine located within their province. As was well known in the noble circles, magic crystal mines were very valuable and could change the status and rank of a family. The Suttons for example, controlled only 10% of the Oaksfield mine but were the fifth greatest noble family, excluding the royals from the ranking.

While this had to do mostly with the fact that the Oaksfield mine was the largest producer of Fera and Methan crystals, it was still undeniable that a magic crystal mine held enough value to change the status of a family.

The Cayne family did all they could to prevent the news of the mine from reaching the other families, including the ruling Count family in the area. When they approached the owner of the mine, they decided to perform a transaction and acquire the mine as a property of theirs.

In other not to cause any future problems, the head of the Cayne family chose a fair purchase over a forceful seizure and silencing the original owner, although they still utilized some threats to make sure the deal was done. However, the owner knew a bit about the value of the mine so what he had asked for was equivalent to a third of the Cayne family's wealth.

After much effort to bargain coming to nothing and with time not on their side, the Caynes decided to go ahead with the deal. They liquefied a ton of their assets to raise the cash, with the belief that the mine could help them recoup their losses and more. Once the mine was in their possession, they began operations on it, but about a week later, they realized that it was a dud; the mine was a fake.

Although the family tried to find the original owner, all traces of him seemed to have disappeared, to the point that it seemed as if his existence was a ghost. This became the greatest scam in the history of the family and even the region right after news of this leaked.

Following the leaking of the news, not only were the Caynes laughed at, but the Count family in the region became hostile towards them. This was because the scam had revealed that the Caynes had no loyalties to them. It is well known that no power would like another to grow behind them. Just like the first law of the 48 laws of power spoke, the Count family was dissatisfied by the Caynes' desire to outshine them by hiding the news of the magic crystal mine. While they didn't publicly make any move against the Cayne family, their shadow could be spotted in certain events that slowly led to the current decline of the family.

Losing a third of their wealth as well as being suppressed by the ruling Count family in the area with no allies to depend on, the Caynes slowly began losing their standing. The fact that they could still remain a viscount-ranked family even after three years, was a testament to the current talents as well as the efforts put in place. Nonetheless, the downfall of the family was inevitable and it was only a matter of time before they fell down from their current rank.

"It would take us a week to get home, so please rest up, little miss." Mr. Bertol said.

'It used to be five days.' Luna thought.

Although the old man never said the reason why, Luna was aware of the reason behind the increase in the duration. The Cayne family was unable to afford quality monster horses and they could only manage the lesser-valued ones. In fact, Luna could guess that if it wasn't for the fact that she had just survived a life-and-death situation and so, needed to be brought back home quickly, the family would have only sent high-quality regular horses instead.

'If there is a god out there, please help us.' Luna prayed in the silence of her heart.