I Became A Black Merchant In Another World-Chapter 391: Ponzi scheme (5)

Orsini paid out a 150% dividend in the first year of the stock.

As a result, all those who had invested by scraping together every bit of their soul in Marseille ended up sitting on a pile of money.

One of them was the young noble, Fior Éclaire, who had deeply rooted himself in the city.

“Hmph, owner.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Fior, clearly pointing at the most expensive-looking sword adorned with jewels in the shop, asked.

“How much is that sword?”

“It’s a luxury item crafted by a blacksmith working at the royal court, so it’s priced quite high. It will cost you 10 gold coins.”

“10 gold coins? Hmph... to think such a fine piece costs only 10 gold coins, what a bargain.”

The blacksmith failed to manage his expression in that moment.

No matter how noble the person was, 10 gold coins were not small money, and for such an expensive sword, the blacksmith had intended to initially ask for 10 gold coins but planned to offer a discount to around 6 or 7 coins.

But to hear that the sword was cheap when it was already overpriced?

‘Is this man out of his mind?’

Fior drew the sword, inspected it here and there, then sheathed it again.

“Owner, here’s 10 gold coins.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“To sell such a fine sword at such a reasonable price... you’re truly a good and conscientious merchant.”

“Such high praise is too much, I don’t know what to say.”

“May you continue to do well in your business.”

With that, Fior, after purchasing the sword, walked around whistling and smiling proudly.

Lately, he had been smiling so much that even he thought he might appear a bit crazy, but honestly, there was no helping it.

His uncle, Montblanc, had persuaded him to take out a loan on the family estate to invest in Namhae Company, and so he had gathered up every penny he had to invest...

And it turned out to be a jackpot, with a 150% stock dividend payout.

The loan from the estate was equivalent to 10 years of his family’s income, so it felt like he had received a lump sum equal to 15 years of salary all at once.

Next year, though it might not be as much, he would still receive a huge amount.

And so, his sense of money was completely distorted.

“This is all thanks to Orsini. Truly, a man to be grateful for.”

In his heart, he felt like lifting Orsini onto his shoulders, perhaps even letting him ride a horse.

Then he went to a nearby café to wait for his friend.

As he looked around, he saw many others, like himself, who had suddenly become rich, wearing extravagant clothes, almost flaunting their wealth.

It was a heartwarming sight.

Fior, too, proudly displayed his new sword on the table, showing off his wealth.

After a short wait, Fior’s friend, Carte, appeared, dressed in strikingly fancy clothes unlike before.

“Did you buy that sword? It looks pretty nice.”

“I deliberately picked a good one. If I’m to catch the eye of the young ladies, I have to have something like this, don’t I?”

“You’re just fooling yourself. It’s your face that’s the problem.”

“You bastard. Are you really that handsome?”

“I’m better looking than you. And when it comes to picking up women, swords and stuff like that are useless, you know.”

Carte opened a small jewelry box to show Fior the contents.

“Women like rings or necklaces, kid. I spent a lot of money on one to woo a lady this time, now that our family made a nice profit from the investments.”

“Ruby ring, huh? You managed to buy that.”

“Women who are obsessed with money will fall for it as soon as you give them something like this. Showing off a sword and acting tough has no effect at all.”

Only then did Fior start feeling that buying the sword might have been a waste.

It wasn’t the money spent on the sword that bothered him, but the regret that if he was going to spend that much, he should have bought something like a ruby ring instead.

“Damn it.”

“You have to spend your money smartly, like I did. Go buy a ring now, you still have plenty of cash.”

Although it hadn’t directly affected the city of Marseille yet, the rapid increase in wealth among the nobles and the rich in this city meant that inflation could hit any time.

Of course, before the inflation became too severe, the merchants, smelling the money, would start selling luxury items like ruby rings and convert the city’s money into other goods to normalize prices.

But right now, there were so many rich people who couldn’t handle the overwhelming amount of money in the city.

And then, a woman entered the café, catching the attention of both of them.

She had an appearance of 4.2 out of 5.

Although arranged marriages were the norm in the Kingdom of Lyon, given her decent attire, she didn’t seem to belong to the lowest of classes, and more than that, she was beautiful.

“Do you think she’d come around if I gave her a ring?”

“You think so?”

As the two continued their banter, the woman’s boyfriend showed up.

Even with all the money, neither of them had been able to engage in a proper romance.

News of the bubble in Marseille had also reached Fabio.

“Orsini’s really bold, huh?”

So bold that, honestly, I feel like I’m going to burn myself just watching.

I told him, “Do whatever you want, and even if you waste all 3 million gold coins, as long as you don’t embezzle or deliberately squander them, you won’t be punished...”

“Investing 150,000 gold coins, then paying out 175,000 in dividends at the next payout? Isn’t this guy a straight-up con artist?”

“You’re doing ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) an excellent job executing my plan.”

“The way things are going so smoothly, it’s honestly scary. The nobles and merchants of Marseille are all investing all the money they can muster right away. Next time we take investments, the entire wealth of Lyon will probably be pouring in.”

According to the report from Orsini, the investments were received in just one day.

No more, no less—just one day.

So, based on my expectations, it should have been around 50,000 gold coins at most.

Once again, human madness exceeded my imagination.

Ugh, this is why they say that demons lose their jobs because of people.

Of course, in my case, demons would likely consider me quite ordinary, so no demon would lose their job because of me...

‘The wisdom of the British Empire, the forbidden vision of the cults—everything is so cliché.’

“One more time, then we stop?”

“What are you talking about? We won’t stop until we’ve squeezed the economy of the Kingdom of Lyon dry. By then, our wealth will probably double at least...”

As the old saying goes, “Never draw a sword recklessly.”

Once you draw the sword, there’s no turning back.

‘But if you draw it once, you have to finish it—whether with a sword or anything else.’

So, I’ve come up with the ‘worst move’ that can destroy the Kingdom of Lyon, but I’m supposed to just stop after taking 3 million gold coins?

At the very least, I should gift them with 10 million gold coins, or give the Kingdom of Lyon the world’s first Great Depression.

That’s the right thing to do.

Confucius also said that to stop halfway is worse than not starting at all, so I must do it properly.

“Sebastian, I’m going to—”

I have no guilt about unleashing a great disaster on the Kingdom of Lyon.

I’m a noble of the Toscani Empire, the head of the Rothschild family, and the head of the trade guild.

It’s my duty to do whatever it takes for the benefit of the group I belong to.

“I’ll do whatever it takes for the Rothschild family. That’s the weight I must bear.”

“I’m worried you’re pushing yourself too hard.”

“As long as I have you, Sebastian, it’s manageable.”

If Sebastian hadn’t taken care of Raphael, who instigated the rebellion in Colmar...

If things had gone wrong, we could have gotten caught.

If he hadn’t taken on so many of the family’s tasks, I might have been buried in paperwork by now.

“Tell Orsini this: use all 3 million gold coins if you must, but keep drawing in more people. Anyone who doesn’t invest in Namhae Company should be treated like a fool. By the time we reach that point, Namhae Company will have more money than the total tax income of the Kingdom of Lyon.”

Everyone wants to make money.

You have to understand and accept that instinct in order to grow.

“When the entire Kingdom of Lyon relies on Namhae Company, we’ll pull the money out. And then we’ll escape to the New World with it.”

“It seems too risky to pull it straight into the Toscani Empire.”

“It’s very risky. If the tail gets caught, the whole plan will fall apart.”

If the Toscani Empire pulls off a national-scale scam and brings down the Kingdom of Lyon...

Who would accept that?

It would be a war far worse than the Crusades.

No matter how fiercely the Toscani Empire’s army fights for His Majesty, the Kingdom of Lyon’s army, who have lost all their money, won’t be able to win.

“We’ll secretly divert the money to the New World, and any ships that follow us, we’ll shoot them down. Then, we’ll deal with the aftermath... or do something even more fun.”