Chapter 22: "Best Friend

Did the original owner actually have any friends? Wasn't he a massive shut-in who only stayed home and painted? If this had been the first few days after his transmigration, Kaios definitely wouldn't have met him. Friend or not, it had nothing to do with him, and his priority was to avoid unnecessary complications. However, after considering it for a moment, Kaios decided to meet this "Young Master Xiao Zhuo'an."

"Please ask him to wait in the living room. I will go see him shortly."

"Yes, My Lord."

"Sharvella, go pass the message. You, come in first," Kaios said, opening the study door. He needed to learn as much as possible about Xiao Zhuo'an's background and his relationship with the original owner.

About ten minutes later, Kaios met the man Harvey had called his "best friend" and "only friend"—Xiao Zhuo'an. The reception didn't take place in the living room; instead, they moved to the second-floor terrace.

"You look to be in pretty good spirits, Kaios!" As soon as he saw Kaios, Xiao Zhuo'an stood up and laughed. "I heard my second brother say that the Yulang City Holy Protection Palace was running a special procedural review on you. It scared the crap out of me! I quickly asked around and found out you had been in a coma for two whole days. The Holy Protection Palace even sent your special procedural review forms to the Holy City. Damn, that was pretty perilous!"

Kaios laughed. "With your sense of timing, you wouldn't even catch a hot meal at a wake."

Xiao Zhuo'an paused for a moment, then burst into loud laughter. "Kaios, I feel like you're a bit different this time! You've put on a little weight, too. Before, you were so skinny that a gust of Wind could blow you away without even using Magic."

Kaios waved his hand, gesturing for him to sit. After taking a seat himself, he casually mentioned, half-joking, that he had a very long dream during his two-day coma, and upon waking, he had forgotten a lot of things.

"Is that so? That's really great!"

"Great?"

"Yeah! Doesn't that mean you've forgotten a lot of unhappy and sad things? That's definitely great!"

"If I forgot the unhappy things, wouldn't I have forgotten the happy things along with them?"

Xiao Zhuo'an suddenly dropped his smile and looked at Kaios seriously. "Trust me, your past unhappy moments outnumbered your happy ones by more than tenfold. Trading them all in at once is more than worth it. In the past, every time I saw you, your brows were knitted into a tight knot. I've never seen you crack a joke right off the bat like you did today."

Kaios froze for a moment. However, the young master of the Xiao Family didn't dwell on the subject. Instead, he lowered his voice with a slightly sleazy smile. "I just saw that you have a female personal Guard now! And she isn't even wearing a face visor... Man, she's gorgeous! It seems now that you're a Lord, you no longer have to practice 'abstinence'? Hey, don't tell me you were trying to lose your virginity, and your body just couldn't handle it, so you passed out?"

Kaios looked at him with a beaming smile. "Careful, or I might have to silence you to keep my secrets."

Xiao Zhuo'an immediately mimed zipping his lips, putting on a "my lips are sealed" expression.

"Kaios, you really are different from before. That's good. Really good," Xiao Zhuo'an said with a chuckle. "By the way, there's a highly exclusive auction in Yulang City the day after tomorrow, and many of the top nobles in the city will be attending. Hehe, naturally, there will be plenty of unmarried noble ladies. There's also a banquet and a ball before the auction. Are you interested?"

Kaios also began to laugh. "This was your real purpose for coming here today, wasn't it?"

"Brother, you really are different now. So much sharper, haha!" Xiao Zhuo'an said. "There are some requirements to participate in this auction. You either need to put down an auction deposit or offer a recognized item of a high enough Level to sell."

"I get it. You want to borrow money," Kaios smiled.

The Xiao Family was actually more powerful and held a higher noble title than the Li Family. Their current Lord was the Two-leaf Earl Xiao Biemen. However, while Kaios was the sole heir of the Li Family, the Xiao Family's current Lord had a multitude of children—nine sons and eleven daughters in total. Xiao Zhuo'an was the sixth son.

Apart from the heir, the Lord's other children could all receive some property and Contracted Servants. But compared to the main branch, their share was naturally pitifully small. Moreover, his father, Xiao Biemen, wasn't dead yet, so these non-heir children couldn't claim their rightful inheritance just yet. They only received a small allowance each month.

To an ordinary person, this allowance was undoubtedly a substantial fortune. But for someone mingling in aristocratic circles, it was practically useless. Attempting to save up allowance money to attend that kind of auction was entirely out of the question.

Yet Xiao Zhuo'an shook his head. "Borrow what money? It's not like I actually want to buy anything; I just want to snag a qualification to attend the auction. Kaios, you've probably forgotten, but you're a great Painter. You don't need a single dime to join an auction. As long as you're willing to put up a 'Red Painting' for sale, there isn't a single auction in the Holy Protection Alliance you couldn't get into!"

"So, you want me to bring a painting and attend the auction?"

"Yeah! Any of your 'Red Paintings' will do. A single one is enough to qualify for entry. Kaios, before, because of the ban from your family's Lord... the Old Baron, you couldn't participate in any public events with women present. Now that you even have a female personal Guard at home, you should be able to attend, right? What kind of Lord has never attended a single ball or banquet?" Xiao Zhuo'an stared at him eagerly. "Of course, if you really don't want to go, you can always just authorize me as the proxy supervisor for your painting's auction."

"I'll go."

"Huh?"

"I said I'll go. We'll go together the day after tomorrow."

Receiving this promise, Xiao Zhuo'an beamed happily. He stood right up and gave Kaios a hug. "Thanks a lot, brother!"

After Xiao Zhuo'an left satisfied, Kaios took Harvey and Sharvella to his painting studio.

Harvey had mentioned that this studio was the room the original owner had spent the most time in—even more time than his bedroom. He had practically painted here every day. However, since waking up from his coma, the place Kaios frequented the most had become the study. He even spent most of his time eating his meals in there.

"When you look at these paintings, what do you feel?" Kaios asked.

"Beautiful art! But not something a lowly person of my status can understand!" Harvey said loudly.

Sharvella hesitated for a moment before saying quietly, "I feel the same way."

Kaios chuckled, though he didn't force them to give an honest evaluation.

"Harvey, do you know how many paintings I've sold in the past? Have I ever gifted any to someone else?" Kaios asked.

"I only know that My Lord once gave a piece to the Fabio Family for auction. It seems you've never gifted one to anyone else," Harvey replied.

Kaios nodded. When chatting with Xiao Zhuo'an earlier, the latter had also only known about the single painting Kaios had auctioned. Exactly why the original owner had given that painting to the Fabio Family was unclear to both Harvey and Xiao Zhuo'an. All they knew was that the painting was snapped up for 8,000 vouchers during its first auction, and when it was resold at a secondary auction, the price soared to 11,000 vouchers. It was no wonder that when Harvey first brought him to the studio, he had proudly claimed that his painting skills were renowned throughout the entire Holy Protection Alliance, and that trading one painting for an entire factory would be no problem at all.

He paced among the artworks and selected a twenty-four-inch painting, having Harvey carry it out. Later tonight, Xiao Zhuo'an would send someone over to pick it up, as it needed to be taken to the auction managers for a preliminary appraisal.

Even though Xiao Zhuo'an was the original owner's "best friend," the halo behind his head was almost entirely gray, with less than a twentieth of it showing a hint of purple. Therefore, this young master of the Xiao Family didn't actually like the original owner all that much. In fact, he might even harbor a tiny bit of disdain and annoyance toward him. But after chatting for a bit, Kaios felt that he could actually interact with this guy more often.