Just when he was about to make a big score, he ran into the toughest nut to crack.
Not only is revenge hopeless, even whether he can live out the rest of his life peacefully has become an unknown.
In an instant, he made a decision to distance himself from Viscount Gio, whose demise was imminent.
It was a pity for the generous gift he had just received, which he had not yet had a chance to open and see what it was; now it had to be returned.
"Your Excellency the Count, the incident has already happened, and blaming someone will not help.
The key issue lies with Earl Hudson. If we can get him to keep quiet, we can pretend this incident never happened.
The trouble was caused by Viscount Gio, and he should be responsible for cleaning it up.
If he can't fix this, we can turn to Viscount Rakel and ask him to mediate."
It wasn't a sudden attack of conscience, but a matter of principle, that once a bribe was received, work had to be done.