Jacob Department Store (3)
As a kid back on Earth, I used to live in a villa right across from a driving-range driving range.
From the living room you could see the entire practice field.
I never understood why grown-ups swung around long sticks and struggled to hit a little ball that stayed perfectly still.
Thwack.
Whoosh.
Every single day the sound of a golf ball being struck became my background music. While I studied. While I showered. Even when I was trying to sleep.
So did that mean golf was familiar to me?
I had never once held a golf club in my hands, yet I was certain I would play it perfectly.
Just like the native Korean who had never set foot in America and believed he would suddenly understand English every time he watched American movies.
And today I finally collected that long-cherished belief.
Of course there had been a little help from lightning, but I still counted that as my own skill.
Most importantly, four sturdy legs made my lower body feel incredibly stable.
“Your skill is truly impressive. A carry of 1,300 meters is a record I’ve never heard before.”
We were in the VIP-only club house of the Molton Private Golf Club.
It was a luxurious restaurant overlooking the entire golf course.
Only members of the Molton Private Golf Club could use this space, and the view was breathtaking.
I sat across from the man in the room with the best outlook.
He was smiling warmly.
“I am Noris Molton. I run this golf course.
I hope I haven’t made your seat uncomfortable?”
His voice was clear and fresh.
Fresh like the voice of an adolescent boy before puberty.
“Oh, no. It’s fine. Actually… at your young age, you have quite the investment sense.”
I looked down at the six forks in front of me.
Which one do I use to eat salad?
By the way, I don’t intend to treat centaurs as inferior beings, do I?
The chair really is narrow…
“I was lucky. I met an excellent investment firm like Mr. Evan’s.”
He picked up the fork on the far right and began to eat the salad.
Only then did I grasp the fork on the right side of my own plate.
After all, my right arm was supposed to be the one extended over my upper body.
I asked.
“If it’s not too much trouble, could you tell me which investment firm you use?”
He wouldn’t suspect anything.
After all, my current job was financial investment specialist.
Checking out competitors was basic procedure.
By the way, where exactly did the centaur’s tail start?
“I’ve been investing on my own for a while now. After so many years, I’ve developed my own eye for investment.
And I’ve set up a separate investment department for the corporation.”
“I see. There’s nothing better than learning from direct investment, isn’t there?
By the way, do you run other corporations besides this club?”
I kept eating salad and speaking.
Now I really wanted to finish the steak in front of me, but because I had skipped one plate in between, I had no idea which fork was next.
Thanks to that, I was eating the grass like a real centaur, slowly and clumsily.
“Yes, I’m involved in several things.”
“Then I’m afraid you must be having tax problems.”
“Paying taxes is only right, isn’t it? I believe the money is being used for good.”
“True noble obligation.
Many of the people I deal with have tax worries, so I guessed that Noris-nim would feel the same.
I’m sorry for the hasty assumption.”
“No, no. Actually, if it’s tax reduction rather than tax evasion, I welcome it too.”
He gave a light smile.
He was a refined person.
He observed etiquette but never showed off.
He spoke familiarly but never forgot manners.
“Recently, various bonds aimed at tax reduction have appeared on the market. More precisely, they’re called derivative products.”
“Derivative products?”
By the way, the Gilorian Empire’s financial products are not as diverse as Earth’s.
Even simple ETFs don’t exist.
You can only invest in single stocks.
As someone who was used to all kinds of financial products on Earth, this was an ideal situation for me to make a killing.
“It’s a new product that mixes bonds with other financial products to maximize profit.
For example, it lets you buy 100 top large-cap stocks in one basket, diversify the investment to raise returns while lowering risk, and then use a portion of the profit to buy bonds from high-quality companies or government institutions.”
“So you can earn both stock profits and bond interest at the same time?”
“Exactly.
In addition, the principal is protected, and if you hold it for more than three years, you receive a 5% deduction from the total amount.”
“5%?”
“Yes, although it hasn’t been released yet, I’m only telling you this as a preliminary reference for my VIP customers.
Please don’t talk about it outside.”
He trembled with excitement.
Noris Molton would believe me.
I was currently one of only 100 AAA+ financial investment specialists in the empire, officially certified by both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Imperial Treasury Ministry.
In other words, I was a certified financial expert in the empire.
In reality, I had received temporary licenses from both organizations.
It wasn’t that I had actually obtained the real license.
We had reached a pre-arranged agreement that, for the purpose of this investigation, I could use it even if it was a fake one.
“If it’s alright with you, would you like to register me as one of Mr. Evan’s customers?”
He finally bit the hook.
Biting the hook without even reeling in the line was sloppy.
I wiped my mouth with a napkin and stood up.
“If you send me some documents, our compliance department will review them and let you know.
Especially if one of your customers has a company president who is a rival of Noris-nim, it could cause problems for both sides.”
“I understand.
By the way… are you really okay?”
“Yes?”
Noris asked cautiously.
“The chair…”
Ah!
A chair had been wedged between my legs.
Because I habitually stood up like a human, my hind leg had gotten trapped behind the chair I had placed behind me.
“Should I help you?”
Nighttime lights began to flicker on one after another across the golf field that had fallen into darkness.
When the lights came on, the field transformed into a quiet, nostalgic scene like a historic European castle.
Cent aurs were a race that truly needed a lot of consideration.
* * *
“Chief, we have the documents.
Noris Molton is the founder of Jacob Department Store.”
A few days later, Noris Molton sent over the documents.
The recipient was the office manager, Pijak.
He sent all the details of his assets and income proof, including the detailed monthly salary, special incentives, and stock options he received from Jacob Department Store.
“It’s enormous.
Just the special incentives alone pull in billions of Cram every month.”
He received regular monthly salary, special incentives, and stock options from Jacob Department Store, with dividends as the cherry on top.
In other words, he was milking astronomical amounts of money out of Jacob Department Store.
“At this rate, we could tie him to embezzlement.”
“Or breach of trust.”
Back and forth with the office manager, Pijak, and Marian.
“That’s not enough.
Victims are still being created every day.”
Large-scale disappearances of elf women, and Jacob Department Store running stock scams against a company called Ruby Lab.
We had to expose all of it.
Embezzlement and breach of trust alone were not enough.
“That’s exactly why the senior came in dressed like this.”
Marian winked with one eye and said.
“Chief, you really went out looking like that?”
“……”
“Yesterday I turned into a centaur and played golf.”
The office manager shook his head.
* * *
A few days later.
It rarely rained in the Gilorian Empire, whose climate was as dry and clear as a desert.
People enjoyed the rare rain and the brief reprieve from sunlight.
“Hmm… It’s been a while since it rained.”
I set out to work carrying a large umbrella.
Today I was a bit late.
Jacob Department Store was still crowded.
The only difference was that a sign reading [Jacob Department Store Under Interior Repair] hung in front of the entrance, surrounded by black tarps.
But the store wasn’t closed.
They had set up an outdoor canopy and were selling goods from it.
Their unique bright service was the same as ever.
“Welcome. Welcome to Jacob Department Store.”
“Do you have an umbrella?”
“Yes, sir. We have waterproof magic umbrellas.”
“How much?”
“5,000 Cram, sir.”
“I’ll take that one.”
After paying through the clerk, a woman who looked like a mage came out and sprinkled a small amount of powder on the customer’s clothes.
A faint barrier formed over them, and the raindrops bounced off.
A magic umbrella was only single-use, but it was better than an umbrella that obscured your vision.
Of course, I was still wearing a robe that hid my face from people’s eyes, so I was using a large umbrella.
People glanced at me curiously as I passed by under the umbrella.
I ignored them.
After walking for about 15 minutes, I saw the office building.
In front of it sat reporters wearing magic umbrellas that were emitting a faint glow around their bodies.
There were fewer of them than before, but it still looked difficult to pass without an interview.
I turned my body and headed straight for the secret entrance prepared by Therion.
In the corner of the courtyard, Marian was squatting.
“What are you doing?”
Marian startled.
“Oh, Chief! There’s a spirit that got rained on and collapsed here.”
On her palm lay a spirit whose characteristic light had dimmed, as if it had been struck.
“Where did the elf owner go, and why is the spirit all alone?”
Even if a spirit had made a contract with an elf, it didn’t stay attached to them.
They usually gathered in their own forests.
The general pattern was that they only appeared when the elf who had contracted with them called for help.
Yet this spirit was lying there without any strength left.
“…I’m afraid the elf who made the contract might have died.”
An elf and a spirit make a contract by staking their own souls.
Therefore, the death of the contracted party is considered a one-sided contract cancellation, causing immense damage to the spirit’s soul.
To avoid that, elves who are about to die usually cancel their contract with the spirit, with their free will.
Even so, seeing the spirit lying there without the strength to return to its forest meant the elf had died suddenly.
“It’s a fire-attribute spirit, so I’m not sure if I can help…”
Marian muttered and closed her eyes.
Warm light began to seep from her hand and cover the spirit’s body.
After trying it three times, red light began to spread across the spirit’s body.
“It looks like its spirit is a little revived.”
“Let’s take it inside first.”
“Yes.”
I lowered Therion’s spear, and a flickering light formed.
We stepped inside one by one.
* * *
“Chief, here are the documents related to Jacob.”
The spirit’s consciousness had not yet returned.
“When I dug deeper, I found that those Jacob people were running a scam using their sales structure.
The seller and consumer are the same.
The seller buys Jacob’s goods in advance and resells them to the consumer.”
It looked like they were following the typical multi-level sales method of pyramid schemes.
“Moreover, the item prices vary depending on the grade.
Member purchase, BD purchase, gold grade purchase, and so on.
Of course, non-members have completely different prices too.”
The office manager explained while showing a calculation sheet full of numbers.
In simple terms, the purchase price and selling price both changed depending on the grade.
The higher the grade, the cheaper you could buy it and sell it to regular consumers at a higher price.
That was why the price varied wildly depending on who you bought it from.
Zeni the saleswoman must have sold some of the goods she bought cheaply to Marian.
She probably wanted to become a BD like her.
“To raise your grade you need points, but they’re messing with that.
Even members can’t buy with member price unless they have a certain amount of points.
So they first stock up on goods with their own money, gather points, then buy with higher member price and sell.”
I nodded and listened to the office manager’s explanation.
“Chief, are you listening to what I’m saying right now?”
The office manager moved his body toward my fixed gaze on the spirit and asked.
“Isn’t it a tower structure?”
“Yes?”
The Gilorian Empire had no pyramids, so I had compared it to the most similar shape, a tower.
It still felt unfamiliar.
“In other words, members register consumers as their sponsored salespersons, and those salespersons register other consumers under them, inflating sales through a triangular pyramid structure.”
“I was listening.
You seemed to be thinking about something else…”
Only the topmost member at the peak of the tower could make a profit.
That was why people climbed up the tower with the desire to become a top member, bought goods with their own money, and then died clutching bad inventory.
In cases like this, there was no benefit to digging at the end of the pyramid.
You had to catch the leader.
In other words, Noris Molton.
“Has Noris Molton made any recent moves?”
“Recently he’s been buying all the Jacob Department Store bonds, interest and principal.
Of course at a price lower than market rate.”
“Preparing black money.”
“Ah… black money…”
The office manager slowly nodded and flipped through the documents.
He had reached the same conclusion as me.
“What about the stock trading status on the Ruby side?”
“Jacob has been aggressively buying.”
“Are they selling too?”
“No.
The selling is only a small amount, and mostly they’re just buying.”
I looked at the Ruby stock chart.
The graph was beautiful.
A steadily upward chart that ordinary people who knew nothing would want to invest in right now.
Noris Molton was carefully drawing a tempting chart.
“Chief… then…”
Before the office manager’s sentence finished, I had already stood up from my seat.
“Chief, are you issuing a warrant?”
“No.
It seems the spirit has regained consciousness.”
A red light began to spread from one side of the office.
Marian ran over.
She placed the spirit on her palm and sent her spirit flowing into it.
And kept whispering to the spirit.
In response, the spirit fluttered its weak wings and sent warmth toward Marian.
“Marian, is the spirit okay?”
It was a unique way of communicating that only elves and spirits could understand.
Marian, who had been concentrating on that warmth for a long time, had thick teardrops falling from her eyes.
Marian looked up with reddened eyes and spoke to us.
“It said it’s dead.”