Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: Scenery of the Abyss
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After the simple explanation of the plan concluded,
and the fallen nobles had withdrawn,
Torsso asked the question without hiding his uneasy expression.
"......Will it be okay?"
"Yeah?"
"Isn't this crossing the customary 'line'? It won't end with just some noise."
"So what. The Empire will surely welcome us jumping into a new business anyway, right? They're really strapped these days with the Demon King's revival coming up."
"The Empire might, sure. But the 'Vault Keepers' are different."
The Empire had two 'axes of evil'.
The Great Merchant Houses, descendants of merchants,
and the Bank Houses, descendants of artisans—commonly known as the Vault Keepers.
To understand these 'Vault Keepers',
one first had to grasp the Empire's distorted capital structure.
"They're the ones profiting off the Empire's vaults during wars, aren't they?"
Capitalism and classism were so vicious and cold
that their brutality didn't usually show,
but the Empire was fundamentally a nation sustained by endless wars.
Just think about why 'heroes' were needed in the first place.
There were the demon race as a clear enemy,
and barbaric, inhuman, uncivilized nations belonging to humanity but obstructing 'humanity's unity against the demons'.
The Empire maintained its authority through 'war prestige'.
Laboring for the Empire was laboring for humanity,
and existing as a citizen of the great Empire meant being the most dignified citizen of humanity.
"A poor Empire poses no threat, but the Vault Keepers are different. They hold the currency issuance rights, after all."
And war was a money-devouring monster.
The Empire was the 'poorest' nation in the world.
In terms of its staggering debts.
Debt.
That was the entirety of the Empire's assets.
And the ones holding those bonds were the 'Vault Keepers'.
In the form of currency issuance rights.
"I'm afraid of what those vulgar scum might do."
"Well. It's breaking their rice bowl, after all."
"Don't take it lightly. Those with money can be more ruthless than those with power. It'll be practically a war. And they'll have the pretext, since their business was invaded first."
"Pretext, huh......"
Vault Keepers.
Descendants of despised families who 'touched gold', like moneylenders and goldsmiths.
The kind squeezed first whenever money was needed.
When the Empire requested massive war funds from them,
they lent the money and came up with a revolutionary idea.
The right to 'issue currency equal to the amount lent', seized from the Empire.
The Empire handed over the Vault Keepers' gold for the war,
and the Vault Keepers gained rights to 'currency issuance' for that amount.
While the Empire issued currency backed by gold,
the Vault Keepers issued currency backed by 'bonds of equal value to the gold' they lent.
In other words, money duplicated!
The moment the magic was born where the nation's wealth grew as much as its debts.
There was the minor issue of the Empire's currency credit plummeting to the abyss,
but currency credit was maintained by hegemony, not substance, to begin with.
"But the ones who first broke our rice bowl were those swindlers, right?"
The Vault Keepers lent gold without responsibility,
and the Empire squandered gold without responsibility.
The side effects were dumped on
no one other than the 'Great Merchant Houses' who earned from commerce, trade, and plantation operations.
Thus, the 'Great Merchant Houses' and 'Vault Keepers' were mortal enemies.
"The root cause is the Empire printing bonds like crazy despite being poor, but in effect, the Vault Keepers backstabbed the Great Merchant Houses. Isn't that plenty for a war pretext?"
"Whether the other nobles will buy it......"
"They will."
"Why are you so sure?"
"Who likes being in debt to usurers?"
"Ah."
Merchant families who sold goods at high prices,
and usurer families who seized money.
Both were rootless scum mad for profit,
but which side the nobles hated more was obvious.
"......So in the end, the issue boils down to 'whether we can win the war'."
"Exactly."
"Hm. Is it feasible? House Riddle's wealth won't lose in raw funds, but the financial markets are their territory. I doubt puppet fallen nobles can face those swindlers head-on."
"Why face them head-on?"
"Pardon?"
"Torsso. What's our greatest asset?"
Torsso pondered for a moment,
then wore a look of realization and admiration.
"Your Excellency."
"......"
Wow. Flattery right here?
"Not the answer I expected, but... well, not wrong either."
"So what's the right answer?"
"Slaves."
"The Great Merchant Houses are buying up Empire national bonds?"
"Yes. It's dispersed under various house names, but it looks like one house using fallen nobles' identities is leading it. The banking permits are already approved too."
"You let that happen?! Do you know how much we poured into the Imperial Assembly—"
"Count Goldenwood's influence is just too strong in the Assembly. As a man tied to a Great Merchant House by engagement, he seems to have pulled some serious strings this time."
"Damn it! After all the money we spent on lobbying, a word from some broke noble carries more weight?! Does that even make sense?!"
One man raised his voice and slammed the desk.
More than the Great Merchant Houses challenging the banking business itself,
it grated that there wasn't a single ally to back them at a time like this.
In the end, it proved that no matter how much money they threw around, no noble would side with the likes of 'Vault Keepers'.
Of course, they could buy off a few assemblymen,
but dominating the Assembly's overall opinion still hinged on noble honor and prestige.
To put it bluntly—
it pissed him off.
They were the first to beg for money when needed,
yet in the end, they were treated as literal 'Vault Keepers'.
"How should we respond?"
"We can't hand our core business to those merchant scum. Tell the debtors: the moment they deal with that bank, we recall all loans immediately, and they'll never borrow from any 'Bank House' again."
"Understood."
"Anything else, we must block their bank deposits from being usable in currency issuance and the securities exchange."
Securities exchange.
The moment that was breached, the Vault Keepers' castle would crumble like a sandcastle swept by a wave.
Because the exchange was the core
through which the Vault Keepers controlled factory owners and businessmen to maintain power.
Breached, the Vault Keepers would be reduced to mere 'usurers'.
"They're merchants anyway, so drop their credit into the abyss as much as possible. Make it so anyone trading with them can never get a loan again, ever."
"......Understood."
The subordinate bowed his head and stepped out.
Such harsh measures were impossible against the 'Great Merchant Houses' that owned every guild and plantation in the Empire,
but with orders given, it was the subordinate's job to find some way.
With the situation sorted,
the man who had been venting leaned back in his chair, looking exhausted.
"Hoo......"
In his earlier rage, slamming the desk,
the pen in his hand had snapped, spilling ink onto the floor.
And there was an existence that picked up the broken pen and meticulously cleaned the floor.
It wasn't human.
If anything, a robot vacuum.
An apt description, since something not human was doing the cleaning.
"......"
The man had no idea.
That the 'cleaning slave' was rented through a labor dispatch agency,
and that slave's owner was the head of the 'Great Merchant House' he'd just been raging about.
After all,
slaves were just objects.
As long as they functioned properly,
no one cared about an object's affiliation.
"Items sent from the rented slaves."
"Good timing."
Crumpled paper, a broken fountain pen, a shattered chair, assorted trash and waste.
Useless garbage.
Even if collected, it was just clearing trash.
Normally, that is.
And I had the ability to glean much from trash.
"I'll read them one by one and dictate, so record it."
"Understood."
I removed the glove from my right hand.
I'd been using it only on people lately, so it might be confusing,
but Karl Riddle's blessing was originally the ability to read memories lingering in objects.
In other words, I could read the memories contained in these broken items.
"Let's see. How many weaknesses do they have?"
As I read the memory in the broken fountain pen,
I smirked.
The man's angry raised voice was just too amusing.
Aah.
Planning to drop my credit into the abyss?
Then let me teach you all.
The scenery of the abyss that moneygrubbers tumble into.