?"I fucking told you!" Nick shouted as he stood up from the table. "I told you that you had a fake contract!"
"You faked your version of the contract, you fucking scummy scam artist!"
Nick shouted all of this while he pointed to Vernon's face.
Vernon became increasingly agitated, barely containing his rage.
However, he was too shocked about the revelation to shout at Nick.
He was 100% certain that he had the real contract!
He had taught Wyntor to never include a death clause in a contract!
He had given Wyntor the contract!
He had received the contract from Wyntor!
Wyntor would never write such a clause!
It was idiotic!
"You faked it!" Vernon shouted as he glared at Nick with unending anger and hatred.
"Fuck off!" Nick shouted back. "You were the one that wanted to ask the city! I'm just a 'common upstart' that doesn't even know that the city has copies of the contract!"
Vernon's clenched fists had turned pure white.
Then, he glared at the two guards from Anatomy.
The two guards had neutral expressions on their faces…
Except for a couple of tiny smirks.
Naturally, they were happy to see one of Kugelblitz's owners losing to some random Veteran in a legal issue.
When Vernon saw their tiny smirks, his rage increased even more.
"You!" he shouted at them.
Then, he pointed at Nick. "This is all a scheme to give Dark Dream to Anatomy!"
"You betrayed Wyntor! You betrayed my son! You're one of Anatomy's agents!" Vernon shouted.
"Now, now, Mr. Melfion," one of the two guards from Anatomy said as he slowly walked forward with a polite smile. "Let's not throw accusations around. Let's all calm down and-"
"No, this is a conspiracy!" Vernon shouted. "I am absolutely certain that my son would never create or sign such a contract! This has to be a fake! You must have exchanged it somehow!"
"How?" Nick asked with a snort. "I'm a common upstart, and I'm just an Initial Veteran. I don't even know where these contracts are located, and even if I knew, how could I even manage to exchange them?"
Vernon narrowed his eyes even more before he glared at the two guards from Anatomy.
"You did this! You exchanged it on the way!" Vernon shouted.
Surprisingly, the two guards didn't show any reactions.
They just kept their faces neutral.
However, the other guards had uncomfortable expressions.
"Sir," one of the guards from Kugelblitz said, "they couldn't have exchanged it."
Vernon looked with frustration at the guard.
"Sir, as you know, anyone who wants access to such important documents needs the permission of the two supervising Experts during that day, and they are never from the same Manufacturer."
"All of us gathered before the safe was even opened, and we all watched the clerk and the contract very closely during the entire journey."
"Sir, there was no way that anyone could have exchanged the contract during the journey," the guard said with an uncomfortable voice.
Vernon was still clenching his fists in rage and frustration.
"Then, it must have happened beforehand!"
The guards didn't answer.
Naturally, that was just as impossible.
The safe could only be opened with the keys of the supervising Experts, and no one could get into the safe without destroying it.
Not even a Force Specter could get in there.
Additionally, destroying the safe would require the full power of a Specialist, and it would be impossible to keep the destruction of the safe a secret.
The entire upper layer would hear the explosion of the safe, and to top it all off, a loud alarm would ring out throughout the city if the safe was touched just a bit too strongly.
On top of that, there were even more security measures.
It was an undeniable fact that nobody, except for the governor, could have exchanged the contract, and not even Vernon would suspect the governor.
"Is your plot finally collapsing?" Nick asked.
"Maybe you thought that your Extractors could exchange the contract during the journey."
"Or maybe this is just another plot?"
"Maybe you want to act like you accidentally lose control and kill me in the process. Sure, it would damage your reputation, but you would recover due to your status."
Nick slowly stood up and walked closer to the guards from Anatomy.
The guards from Anatomy threw some glances at Nick, but they quickly focused on Vernon again.
The guards from Kugelblitz seemed agitated and nervous.
This might develop into something really horrible.
The thing they were most scared of was that Vernon ordered them to silence everyone in the room.
That would cause an uproar in the city.
Vernon was barely hearing Nick's words.
He was too busy trying to figure out how Nick could have exchanged the contract stored by the city.
However, no matter how much he thought about this, he simply couldn't find a way.
Not even Kugelblitz could exchange these kinds of contracts.
So, how could Nick?
The next moment, Vernon was looking at the guards from Anatomy.
Or, how could Anatomy?
Maybe a traitor?
No, that wouldn't be enough.
There were also neutral people keeping watch over these things.
To exchange such a contract would require having control over five powerful people from separate places.
While it was theoretically possible, no one would even attempt to do that unless there were billions upon billions of credits on the table.
Dark Dream was not worth enough for something like that.
"Accept the truth," Nick said from beside one of Anatomy's guards. "This is the real contract, and you faked yours!"
"I DID NOT FAKE THE CONTRACT!" Vernon shouted in absolute rage, his voice thundering throughout the room.
The guards became increasingly apprehensive.
The situation became tenser and tenser.
Nick just looked at Vernon from beside the guards from Anatomy.
He believed Vernon.
After all, Vernon's contract was real.
All the other contracts were fake.
Even the one from the city.
The contract in the city's safe had been exchanged a couple of days earlier.
Sadly, nobody knew that there were actually two people who could exchange the contract without getting noticed.
One was the governor.
The other was Julian.
And who would suspect everyone's best friend, Julian?