Chapter 438: A tryst with Catherine after the meeting (Part )
After the meeting, city councilors and civic elites left with either joy or sorrow. No matter what the situation was, they could no longer resist.

After all, Horn came to announce the decision to them, not to seek their opinions.

What else can the defeated say?
The meeting was over here, but Horn's schedule was not over yet.

Before the meeting, Catherine made an appointment with him to have a small one-on-one meeting.

Following Catherine, I went up to the third floor, pushed open the door that smelled of flowers, and a two-entry room came into view.

The midday sun shone through the window, shining onto the desk through the crystal glass. Wisps of wind blew in from the gaps, causing the paper pressing on the ink bottle to roll continuously.

Catherine dragged a chair over, knocked on the door and asked the maid to bring some tea. Then she nodded and smiled at Horn gracefully and said, "Can you wait a little longer? I need to wash up and change my clothes."

"Didn't you brush your teeth this morning? Why are you washing your face when you're wearing makeup?" Horn asked in confusion, "Your clothes aren't dirty, why do you need to change them?"

Catherine was choked by Horn and said with a pout: "Ladies washing and changing clothes means going to the toilet!"

Horn casually sat down on the cushioned chair and said nonchalantly, "Oh, do you need to poop or pee? No problem, I'll wait for you."

Catherine, whose face turned red, did not argue any more. She stepped heavily and slammed the door of the inner bedroom.

After Catherine left, the whole bedroom became quiet. Horn, who was sitting on the chair, was bored, so he simply stood up and looked around the room.

I have to say that the Megedi family is indeed a merchant family. The study room outside the bedroom alone is nearly 100 square meters, and this is 100 square meters without any public areas!
Not to mention the bedroom inside.

There wasn't much furniture in the room, just a long desk, three chairs, a low table, a cupboard and two bookcases, with a clean carpet underneath.

He walked to the fireplace in the corner of the room and opened the box next to the fireplace. Inside was the best silver charcoal, the kind that produced no smoke when burned.

A piece of silver-scarred charcoal one cubit long costs one dinar, and this box of charcoal is worth one gold pound.

Farthest from the fireplace were two bookshelves. Horn became interested as soon as he glanced at them and walked over to the bookshelf.

The books in the two bookshelves are neatly arranged, with twenty books on each layer, no more, no less, and five layers in total, so the two bookshelves have a total of two hundred books.

Seeing that Catherine didn't come out for a long time, Horn's reading addiction came back again.

He picked up a copy of "The Life of Charles the Great" and tucked it under his arm, reading it aloud in the sunlight.

"...I know he loves you so much, so painfully, and I also know you love him so much...hiss, this, this is the biography of Charles the Great?"

"Bang!" There was a clear sound of falling from behind Catherine's bedroom door. Amid the rapid footsteps, Catherine, with a bruise on her forehead, pushed open the door.

She was barefoot and wearing a snow-white nightgown. She didn't even have time to put on a bra as she rushed towards him wave after wave.

Seeing Catherine rushing towards him with red eyes like a dump truck, Horn was so scared that he took three steps back and dropped the book in his hand.

She pounced on the book and picked it up. With a shadow of her hands, Catherine hid the book "The Life of Charles the Great" behind her, and shouted angrily, "Didn't anyone tell you not to rummage through a lady's study?"

"I just want to find a book to kill time. If it's a sensitive personal book, I certainly won't flip through it, but the book is about the Life of Charles the Great." Horn scratched his head, pretending not to understand. "This is the first time I've seen this version. Let me take a look."

"No, you are not allowed to look at it."

"Don't be so stingy. I didn't mean it. Otherwise, change me a different book. Do you have any? Let me see."

"Don't look." Seeing that Horn was actually moving towards the bookshelf, Catherine hurriedly rolled and crawled to the bookshelf.

She opened her arms to Horn, raised her head and buttocks, and stood in front of Horn like a hen protecting her cubs. Her face was red, and she was breathing heavily like an old cow protecting its calves. "Your two hundred books, can't they all be romance novels?" Horn looked at Catherine's red face with a smile, "You are quite girly."

"Bullshit! These are all serious books."

"Then bring me one and let me see it."

"Impossible! This is my personal book and I cannot lend it to anyone!"

She stared at Horn with amber eyes, her wet eyes were full of shame and anger like an angry deer, and the blush on her cheeks had spread from her earlobes to her snow-white wrists.

Although she is thirty-one years old, Catherine has a young girl's demeanor and shyness beneath her young appearance and plump figure.

Seeing that Catherine's fever was approaching the warning limit and even weeds were sprouting from the soil of the flowerpot on the windowsill, Horn raised his hands and took a step back:
"Okay, okay, romance novels are not uncommon. Everyone has a hobby. Didn't Jeanne buy a whole box of ranger comic books and even talk in her sleep?"

"Who said it was a romance novel? You must have read it wrong."

After returning the books to their places with a complaint, Catherine stood in front of the bookshelf and took a breath for a minute before she suppressed the blood pressure rushing to her brain.

Fearing that Horn would raid the bookshelf again, she did not continue to change her clothes. Instead, she fastened the straps at the chest of her nightgown, sat down barefoot behind the desk.

Looking at Catherine's resentful eyes, Horn continued to look around as if he didn't see anything, as if he could have some aesthetic insights into this decoration.

"What was it that you said you wanted to talk to me about?" Horn was the first to ask Catherine.

Although he was prepared for what Catherine wanted to say, Horn let Catherine speak first.

Pulling out the drawer, Catherine, who had finally calmed down, took out a notebook and threw it to Horn casually:

“Thirty years ago, Rapid City was famous for its textile industry and dyes and pigments. It was only after I arrived that the banking and financial industries began to flourish.

There are now 20 banking and currency exchange firms in Rapid City, of which I own 12.

Among the remaining eight companies, five formed an alliance and are still struggling, and the other three are my allies, branches of old chambers of commerce, so I did not touch them.

According to my estimation of the five alliances, the total amount of gold pounds in circulation in the 5 banking chambers in Rapid City could reach 20."

One person and a chamber of commerce controlled three-quarters of the banking industry in Rapid City, and she even occupied half of the market herself, which basically formed a monopoly.

No wonder Catherine is said to be the actual controller of the banking industry in Rapid City. She is a big tycoon.

Crossing his legs, Horn placed the account book on his thighs, turned the page, and looked at it seriously for a while before frowning slightly and whispering unconsciously: "...The prince's hand touched the singer's chest..."

"what!"

Catherine's face suddenly turned red again. She screamed, jumped up on the spot, and threw herself over the table, with ink bottles, quills, and books falling to the ground with a clatter.

She snatched the account book from Horn's hand and held it tightly against her chest.

Catherine, with a flushed face, lowered her head with lingering fear, trying to see what book it was.

But when she opened it, she only saw rows of fine numbers and words under the cover of the account book.

Amid Catherine's increasingly dangerous gaze and increasingly rapid breathing, Horn laughed awkwardly: "It's just a little joke, don't be angry, ahem, so there are 25 gold pounds buried in the warehouse of Rapids City?"

(End of this chapter)