Chapter 4

The receptionist whose name I learned, Syr, led me to the VIP room where I was now waiting for the guild master.

The room as a whole was quite grand with some expensive décor like suits of armours and stone statues. Great lighting from the large windows and artificial lights, a large round table in the middle surrounded by comfortable sofas and bookshelves containing books and scrolls in the corners, All in all a great room to conduct a meeting.

The whole ordeal in the Vaults had ousted me as not only as The Overlord but had also created the misconception that I was a foreign ruler. Which while was not true was technically not false either. In a way I was a foreign ruler, I just had yet to create an Empire of my own.

"Please wait here your majesty, the Guild Master is on his way." Syr said, now acting more like a maid than a receptionist.

Despite my requests and protest she had yet to stop addressing me with 'your majesty', protocols she said. It was bad enough with my minions who were still calling me master or my liege back in the island and now even in strange lands I was being called with another pompous title.

'It's all part of being The Overlord.' Gnarl had said and while it was understandable, those titles got a bit old after hearing them so many times.

"Really it's just a title. I'm not some ruler of a foreign nation." I protested yet again.

"And yet your ship, men, wealth and your runic names state otherwise, your majesty." Syr retorted and thinking about it she did have a point.

"Or I could be just a pompous greedy merchant with too much wealth and a big ego."

"Then sadly this world is inhabited by honest hardworking and incorruptible merchants." Syr deadpanned, geeze, even some dense like Ichika would have notice the sarcasm in her voice.

I knew that I could not convince her for now and rather I focused on convincing the Guild Master, I might have better luck with him.

In the meantime Syr was attending me as if she were my personal maid.

"Were you a maid before?" I could not help but ask out loud.

"For some time yes." Syr replied, interest shinning in her eyes again. Was I really that interesting? "How did you know your majesty?"

"Your behaviour simply screams maid to me." and it was really obvious to someone who had played multiple games based on seducing maids. The developers really were not mucking around when it came to crafting the behaviour of professional maids though some really just went full fantasy and kinky types.

Now I am missing my games. I wonder what new games have been released back home.

"I don't know whether to be flattered or horrified your majesty." Syr replied, levelling me a glare.

"Ugh, just because I ogled you a bit you're thinking me as some sort of molester." I was not, I had healthy interest in the female anatomy with my main focus on the life giving breasts that carried and nurtured the dreams of mankind. "Even though I would admit that it would be a sin to not ogle you at all. Having such a perfect body with the right proportions, light grey hair and eyes matching you white supply skin and breasts that are simply perfect which makes me want to do all sort of things with it."

OK, I can see why she was being cautious with me.

"I…I really don't know if I should be flattered or smack you in the face, regardless of what diplomatic incident I cause, for the words you just said." Syr said, her face cheeks red with anger and embarrassment as she was trying to no doubt resist the urge to beat me black and blue but was restraining herself from doing so as to not cause a big incident.

Rubbing the back of my head I let loose a nervous laugh at her predicament, "I have been said to be overly honest and expressive when it comes to my passions."

"That I can see but word of advice Mr Hyoudou, please tone that down a bit or else you will not only break many maidens heart but also earn yourself the wrath of many women." Syr advised me but I doubt that I would be breaking hearts like the blond playboy of my school.

"I doubt I would be able to stop myself from showing my passions but I will thank you for your advice Syr." I replied honestly. While I knew my behaviour was not earning me any points it was part of my charm and personality, so I doubt I would be easily be able to tone it down at will. In fact I had already tone it down significantly in the past few months.

"Then I can only pray to Brimir to empower the blows of all those heartbroken maidens and enact their rightful retribution upon you." Syr said as she held her hands in a silent prayer.

"Oi! Aren't you supposed to be praying for my continued health?!" I could not help but protest.

"'Let the wicked receive their rightful punishment by the hands of their victims.'" Syr quoted "And by your attitude I like to believe my prayers are justified."

"Geez low opinion much?"

"My opinion would only be proven false if in the future you do not create a 'Royal Harem'." Syr retorted, her words were piercing my heart like a poisoned dagger.

That was simply not fair. Now while I doubt that Syr knew about my dreams to become a Harem King and was looking down on said dream, she had unknowingly hit me in my weak spot for maximum damage.

"…" really what could I say to that.

Good thing for me an attendant came in and announced that the Guild Master was coming.

The door opened revealing a familiar face to me, Bell Carnell.

Gone was the tattered brown trench coat, brown fingerless gloves, black trousers and brown boots, in their place he wore a black waist coat, black pants and a red shirt and a blue tie.

"We meet again Mr Hyoudou." Bell greeted me with the same innocent smile, the very same one that he wore as a guide.

"And here I thought you were an honest man Carnell. I now see that your greed knows no bounds as you are trying to rob me again." I could not help but send a friendly jab against the boy. Despite his status as the Guild Master, I was having trouble picturing him as anything other than a free spirited guide and adventurer.

"Who me? Never, I only take money that I have rightfully earned." Carnell said innocently tilting his head to the side.

I could not help but grin at his innocent behaviour. My, my who is the greedy merchant now?

"Then you will be glad to know that you will be earning a lot more. Let's get down to business shall we. After all they say business before pleasure"

"Wise words, your majesty, wise words." Carnell said bowing and taking his seat.

"Now before we start I am not a royal or a king or a ruler, so please drop the majesty. I am simply a magician who is trying to set up a business." I told Carnell not wanting to deal with the whole ruler thing yet, it was an exercise in Diplomacy that I did not want to deal with so early in my career as the Overlord. "The Emperor is just a title and not everyone who carriers the title of an Emperor is a ruler or king of a nation."

"So, I guess I should just treat you like a really wealthy merchant." Carnell stated.

"Yes." I confirmed, "That is what I want." Now why was Syr not reasonable like Carnell and drop the whole royalty issue. Stubborn woman, she was.

"Fair enough, that would make things much easier." Carnell said looking quite happy at my confirmation. It seems like that he was also not looking forward to deal with a foreign ruler too. "Now on to business shall we. I trust that by now you have transferred the money to your account?"

"Yes."

"Now all that is left is arranging a suitable region based on your preferences for your new business. So what are your preferences Mr Hyoudou?" Carnell asked and I realised that he was in fact asking me about my business plans and whether or not they coincided with my preferences.

"Well for starters, I am thinking of building a general store that sells a variety of products but on a bigger scale, like a small market place if you will. So I would need a large open area to construct the market. If that is not possible I would like to buy out some abandon buildings or some run down area of a town or city and convert them to shops and market." I said listing out my needs, it did not sound grand but I was going to make them grand.

Carnell seemed to be deep in thought as he went over my demands.

"Well there are quite a lot of areas I can come up with that fit your requirements though before I make some recommendations is there something you want to add?" Carnell asked.

"Well…" now that I think about it there was one thing I would need to add, "I will need to build a small air-dock to handle my airships, most of my products would be taking coming through this method."

Carnell seemed intrigued at that, "Truly, in that case I have some suitable areas where you can set up shop." Motioning to one of his attendants, Carnell ordered them to bring some maps.

The attendants worked fast as they brought the maps and spread them on the table.

Carnell then proceeded to show me the areas which would be perfect for my request. There were several areas that could serve me well. All the areas were either trade centres or budding economic centres, with great domestic and foreign trade exposure. Even Rustan was included in the list of places.

Seeing that I had deposited quite a fair amount of money, I guess that I could easily set up at least two albeit small branches in areas Carnell had listed.

One here in Rustan, which was a good way to keep in contact with the guild and it was a good trade centre with even docks in place and I guess I could build, buy or rent warehouses for my goods later on and another in some other places

"Carnell I want to buy plots of lands or buildings that are for sale in Rustan and any other place you can. I want you to use all the money I have deposited till there is nothing left and I mean every last single coin should be used. I will make additional deposits later on, so buy everything you feel is good enough and even then if there are some money left, buy some more till the vault is empty." The places were good and I was looking forward to the shops I would be building here. By giving Carnell the permission to freely spend the money I was taking a risk but it was not like I could do any better as I was unaware of suitable economic hotspots and the property values.

It was also highly unlikely that I would be able to convince others to sell their properties to me as I was a virtual unknown and did not have much reputation or prestige yet.

Carnell looked like I had told him Christmas was here, grinning he said, "Well it would take at least two months to sort everything out like contacting the owners, creating the documents and transferring ownerships of the properties and a myriad of other legal works." That sounded fair enough in fact I should say that it was quite fast too.

Is it too late to mention that the guild will take a 10% cut of the total initial deposit as fees to help set up your business?" Carnell said with a sweet smile on his face, leaving me gaping at the new information.

"Yes." I deadpanned. I should be angry at him but well I was expecting something of this sort so it was no big deal and I had deposited a large sum to counter it too, "Though I must say that you are a greedy rabbit, Carnell."

"Rabbit?!" Carnell said trembling in his seat.

Eh? Is it some sort of taboo word for him?

"Why is it always a rabbit?" Carnell said clenching his hands tightly and I now feared that he might draw blood due to his now growing anger.

"Why?! Why can't anyone find a better nickname than a rabbit?" Carnell cried, somehow teleporting to a corner and drawing circles.

"Guild Master! Control Yourself!" Syr shouted smacking Carnell in the head and dragging him back to his seat. "Forgive him Mr Hyoudou, the Guild Master has been traumatised due being nicknamed 'Rabbit' and 'White Rabbit' by almost everyone he meets." 'Even though he fits the description to a tee.' Syr added under her breath.

The handing me some documents, Syr said, "Please read and sign the documents after confirming everything is in order."

Reading over the simple documents I found that it had everything listed in it that we had discussed, so without a worry I signed the document.

"That would be all Mr Hyoudou."

With that the meeting ended and I bade them farewell and headed back to my ship and back to the island.

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Watching the strange yet powerful boy leave, Syr could not help but let loose a sigh of relief. Really she was simply not used to dealing with such high profile and powerful individuals.

How did the Guild Master even manage handle such individuals on a day to day basis without being overcome with stress? She surely could not handle such meetings at all. Guess that was why Bell Carnell was the Guild Master.

"Well that was interesting." The guild master said as he relaxed in his seat. "Unusual but interesting nonetheless."

Really that was all he had to say.

"Sir, you do know that we might have just given a foreign power an opportunity to gather Intel on Germania before invading us." Syr said, pointing out the possibility of Hyoudou being a spy for another country.

"Well if that is the case then he is the worst spy ever and his country is quite foolish to let their royals do the spying for them." Carnell replied calmly.

'Well at least he seemed to have thought about that possibility.' Syr thought,

"Or they are damn smart to have a giant distraction like him to gather attention while the others lurk in the shadows." Bell added, really with the way Issei presence had being announced, there was no way any major player in Germania won't keep an eye on him.

'Now that was a scary notion.' Syr admitted. Really all the act could really be a giant distraction.

"Still why in the world would a Royal want to be a merchant?" Syr asked, trying to understand the reason for it.

"Well personal wealth for one." Bell answered, as he also tried to think of the reason for Issei's actions. "Not all members of the royal family are treated equally and sometimes don't get wealthy fiefdoms like their siblings. So Mr Hyoudou might be trying to increase his personal wealth for that reason or he is simply dissatisfied with his current wealth and is an ambitious boy.

Or it could be that his nation while quite rich is only now opening their borders to foreign trade and Hyoudou is given the task of expanding their domestic markets. It's hard to assume anything without getting more facts and information, so for now it is better to wait and watch."

'That seems reasonable for now.' Syr admitted they really had little information to work with for now. "And his titles? They aren't something one can easily ignore, it is sure to cause some uproar among the nobility and may even seek to capture him to try and learn his secrets." Syr asked, really with titles like 'The Immortal Overlord' and 'Red Dragon Emperor' many nobles would be trying to pry the secrets of immortality of him, using any means at their disposal.

"That is something Mr Hyoudou would have to deal with himself. The Guild cannot afford to protect him from such threats and the only help we would be able to provide him would be financial aid and nothing more. This is not something the Guild would be able to survive if they tried to interfere with." Bell replied, it was a bit cold hearted of him but he had to look towards his guild first.

While immortality seemed tempting and Bell was interested in it, the explosive nature by which the titles were revealed had given it too much exposure to safely pursue. Bell did not doubt that even now some spies of the nobles would have heard it by now and by the end of the month the entirety of Halkeginia would be aware of the news about an immortal walking among them.

This was something that even the Emperor of Germania might even personally intervene in.

"All we can do for Hyoudou is our duty by providing him advisors, a place to start his business and try to keep a minimum contact with him. Associating with him at this early stage might make us targets for those who go after him."

Syr raise an eyebrow at that, what did the guild master mean by 'this early stage'? Thinking about it Syr realised what the Guild Master was planning for.

"That is quite devious of you Guild Master. By keeping minimum contact with Mr Hyoudou you would be seen as only acquaintances for now, which would not draw danger to our guild, while Mr Hyoudou would either prove himself too dangerous a target to put down or get killed. Later on if he manages to survive and prove himself. The advisor our guild would provide by then would have naturally raised the opinion of our guild in his mind after which we could start building up a more cordial relationship. A long term plan that is both safe and rewarding." Syr was truly in awe at her guild master's plan one that required little to no work on their part and yet allowed the guild to be prepared for the worst of scenarios.

"Uh, that was not my plan." Bell admitted his plan was to simply cut ties with Hyoudou and whether the storm that was sure to follow. "But yours is a better plan let's go with that. in fact I am assigning you as Hyoudou's advisor, make sure that he has a good opinion of our guild and build up a more cordial relationship with him." Yeah, with Syr as Hyoudou's advisor Bell was sure that the Guild would benefit a lot, blissfully unaware the horrified look Syr was sending his way, Bell drank his afternoon tea.

"Now that we have an advisor for Hyoudou, I better start looking into the suitable properties to buy for Hyoudou." Taking out one of the gold coins Hyoudou had given to him as his reward earlier, Bell could not help but admire it. "Really he must be a rich bastard, just one of this gold coins is worth 49 ecus and he brought thousands of it."

"What did you say Guild Master?" Syr said eyes wide at the implication of his statement. "49 ecus!"

"I said this gold coins are worth 49 ecus when I appraised them." Bell said confused at why Syr looked like she had seen the Emperor running around naked while stealing wine barrels from a local store. "I'm quite sure we could manage some few thousand of this gold coins."

"Guild Master, Mr Hyoudou did not just deposit some thousand gold coins." Syr corrected her guild master; she really was unsure how he would take the news. 5 million gold coins was already a lot of money but the new value just shot that value through the roof. Even Syr was at a loss of how they would be spending all that money. She was really unsure about how much property they could buy with that. A quarter of Germania? Half of Germania? Or Brimir forbid the whole of Germania?

'And Hyoudou wants us to spend all that money!' it was then Syr decided whether or not Hyoudou was a king or not, his wealth was truly worthy of one.

Bell was getting annoyed at being ignored he could not understand why Syr seem so shocked at hearing the value of the coin. 'Hyoudou must have deposited quite a large sum of money.'

With that thought in mind Bell asked Syr again, "So how much did Hyoudou deposited? Fifty thousand gold coins?" at which Syr shook her head.

'Now that is surprising, 50,000 is already a large sum.' So Bell went for a higher number.

"Seventy Thousand?"

"…"

"No, so a hundred thousand?" Bell asked going for a really big amount, by conversion that amount was already pushing half a million ecus, which was truly an outrageous sum of money.

"No." Syr said, the number was high but it was still so less, so very less.

Hearing Syr's reply Bell could see why Syr was horrified at the rate of conversion. So, he went higher…

"Two Hundred Thousand?"

…and higher…

"Five Hundred Thousand?"

…and higher still.

"A million gold coins?"

Great Brimir he had already reached almost a million gold coins which were worth forty-nine million ecus. Yet Syr was telling him that he had still not hit the mark!

"Just tell me how much he has deposited Syr?" Bell finally said in frustration.

"Five million gold coins, which after conversion leaves us with 245 million ecus, giving the Guild a total commission of 24,500,000 ecus, with the total balance being 221,500,000 ecus left to buy the properties." Syr drone, the number going through her mind in repeat, it was an outrageous profit for the guild and an outrageous sum of money for the guild to handle.

'And Mr Hyoudou said that he was going to deposit more, later on.' Syr thought, trying to comprehend the immense amount of wealth he had at his disposal. With such wealth he could outright buy the loyalty of almost all the mercenary companies of Halkeginia and still have immense amount of wealth at his disposal.

Bell was floored at hearing the amount, his mind trying to come up with ways to spend such a huge sum of money and he was still coming short.

'And Hyoudou said that he wanted me to buy everything till there was not a coin left in his vault.' Bell recalled that particular bit of info. 'With this much money I could outright buy out Tristan and still have enough money left to buy out the whole of Rustan and Orceanes.'

Sure he could not buy an entire nation overnight but it was the fact that he could that shocked Bell. If he limited himself to simply Germania, Bell was sure that he could easily buy out the whole of Germania barred the Capital and still have enough money to left to buy out quite a lot of estates in other countries.

Going that route Bell would simply be handing over Germania to Hyoudou which as a citizen of Germania was simply not acceptable, which meant that he would have to try to buy properties in other nations, so that Hyoudou's influence does not eclipse that of the Germanian Emperor.

The new properties would also be so large that Hyoudou himself might have trouble controlling them and would keep him busy too or he might resell them which were the best outcome possible. Though if he was able to consolidate his holdings he could get quite a lot of influence too, thus Bell had to make sure that he bought properties that had little value in the long run and come up with suitable reasons for why he had done so.

Bell really did not want to sour his relationship with such a powerful entity, least he is subjugated to his wrath.

"I really hate being a Guild Master." bell sighed rubbing his forehead to ease the phantom headache he was having. Who knew having more money than one had any idea to spend on?

He was really going to have trouble in the coming months.

Looking at Syr, he was really not sure whether he made the right decision assigning her as Hyoudou's advisor but time would tell what would happen next.

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The next few days Bell gave a formal announcement that the guild was looking to buy properties ranging from plots of lands, buildings, farms, vineyards to even estates and everything in between. This offer extended to all even the nobles of both Germania and foreign nations, shocking quite a lot of people in the process.

This offer accompanied by the rumours of an immortal magician who had visited the guild, was more than enough to stir up news in the whole continent.

Bell was not going subtle route at all, he wanted to make Halkeginia fully aware of the new player that was Issei Hyoudou. He felt that such an individual if remained hidden could cause a lot of problems in the future and it was better to give him the spotlight his station demanded of him.

By the end of the allocated months Bell had managed to buy quite a lot of properties, buying out 80% of Rustan, the grand south-western plains and forests of Gomoria and its villages, the mountain ranges of the Alpes and its villages, the port towns of Veina, Heinrich, Sovergn and Balt in the northern coasts, the cities and estates of minor nobles and merchants and the Arden Forests in the south, which when put together was almost a fifth of the whole of Germania.

But that was not all.

In Albion, he had bought the Westwood forests and the small orphanage that was deep inside it, parts of the port city of Roach and the port city of Chelsea. Bell had also bought half the western territories of Tristan and the northern parts of Gallia near the Arden Forests to top it all.

He was able to accomplish this due to the prestige his guild had and the damn good negotiators his employees had become after years of practice. He for once was wishing that he was dealt a bad deal during this time but the prestige of his guild and the negotiation skills of his employees pulled through, as they bought properties after properties from the various nobles and merchants.

In the end combined all these territories were equivalent to the territories the whole of Albion, Tristan and Romania combined. Though now Albion and Tristan were quite smaller in size now, as the nobles of those two countries had foolishly sold quite a lot of property to Issei Hyoudou.

And the vault was still not empty, with still almost 43 million ecus left.

In the two months, Issei Hyoudou had been making visits to check upon the progress of his purchase of properties but Bell got the impression that Hyoudou was not able to grasp the scope of his purchases.

Sure he was surprised when he was notified that he was now the owner of some cities and villages but even though he now owned seven cities, twenty towns and several villages, Issei Hyoudou had seemed too regarded them as quite less and after hearing the amount they cost he even said they were quite cheaper than expected.

Really just how wealthy was he that he was calling several towns and cities that cost hundreds of thousands, with even some costing millions, cheap! Though upon recalling the amount of money Issei had deposited, Bell realised that they were truly quite cheap. It was a good thing that Bell had given quite the generous sum to the owners for their properties or else if he went by the usual route of getting the cheapest price, he would have surely handed half of Halkeginia to Hyoudou on a silver platter.

Hell, he had even gotten Royal Decrees legitimising the ownership of the lands. Somehow he doubted that the Royals knew what they were handing over to the new merchant.

Still at least he had managed to get Halkeginia to focus on Issei Hyoudou for now. Most of the nobles that had sold their properties were demanding to meet Issei, some to pledge their service to him while others wanted to see if they could still retain control over their holdings, even after selling them away, idiots the lot of them.

Bell just hoped that he had not done a big mistake by helping Issei Hyoudou, but that worry was buried under the fact that there was still money to be spent and he was now at his wits end at what to buy.

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In the Royal Court of Tristan, Princess Henrietta was holding what was one of the most attended court session in recent history of Tristan.

The reason for this session being that some of the nobles had foolishly sold their properties for outrageous sums of money and in the process had sold almost Half of Tristan to a Germanian Merchant.

"Now can anyone tell me how in the name of our Founder did this happen?" Henrietta asked her voice low and calm but every noble could hear the fury hidden beneath that calm demeanour.

It was bad enough that she was to be wed to the Emperor of Germania but now having half her country being own by a 'germanian merchant' was a bit too much for her. Just because she was going to marry their Emperor did not mean they do as they wished with her country.

"Your Royal Highness," Duke Marcel, one of the only few nobles that had managed to retain most of his holdings, making him the second most powerful noble in Tristan, next to the de Vallière simply by virtue of having more the second largest holdings, spoke up.

"The Merchant Guild of Germania, a guild of great repute, had made an announcement that they were looking to buy properties both domestic and foreign and had sent missives to all major and minor noble families who were willing to sell their properties to them.

After which they began to negotiate the terms and offered large amounts of money which many minor nobles could not refuse and many major noble houses saw as good deals and began to sell their properties.

During all this they bought every piece of land that could be sold with some being worthless to many nobles due to them being useless like barren lands, marshes, plains and minor villages and holdings of little note at prices that were just too good to refuse. With minor noble houses selling their holdings that they felt were just sucking up their money and were not worth it and the Major noble families selling their holdings that were deemed just too vast for them to govern properly.

Thus before anyone knew the guild had bought out almost entire villages, towns and great tracks of lands that had remained untouched for centuries or were abandoned leading to our current situation." Duke Marcel explained, he by a stroke of luck had failed to get into contact with the guild in time to sell some of his holdings but had been too late as the guild had informed him that they were not interested in buying any new properties anymore. Something about not wanting to anger the Royalty of Tristan, which at first Marcel did not understood but was now seeing what those words meant.

Before he had cursing his luck that he failed to capitalise on such a great opportunity but after finding the scope of the purchases made by the guild and the now vastly decreased holdings of many of his rivals, he was just glad that he had missed out on such wealth.

Sure the other nobles were now vastly wealthier than him now but at least he had some sizable holdings to his name, which could not be said for most of the nobles present.

Were the nobles in questions a bit more mercantile in nature Marcel would have cursed his luck but he knew that they were mostly nobles who were simply greedy, lazy bums, with little to no knowledge about economy or business. Really some of them had even sold mines, farms and areas that were too vital for the economy of Tristan as a whole.

"So they bought small inconsequential properties giving great prices for them, incited the nobles with the lucrative deals and slowly began to buy out properties with greater values further incited the nobility which lead to us being in this position." Henrietta summed up Duke Marcel's explanation.

"Blind greedy fools the lot of you." Henrietta exploded her magic pouring out of her, creating a maelstrom around her and for the first time in their lives, the nobles feared the kind princess. "Do you even know what you have done?!" She said, her words calm and measured hiding her anger, yet her magic showed what she truly felt as it raged around her freezing her throne and creating a miniature blizzard around her.

"While most of the properties may have seemed inconsequential some of them were vital to our economy by virtue of having pre-established trade routes crossing through them, being the sources of rivers to provide water to the realm and being the centres of farms and vineyards.

By your actions now we have not only lost, many old and busy trade routes and roads, face the possibility of the rivers beings cut off robbing us of sources of water, and even risk famine due to shortages of food caused by your reckless selling of the lands. You have effectively crippled Tristan as an economic nation, effectively putting the sovereignty of Tristan in danger just to satisfy your greed."

The courtiers paled as they heard the full repercussions of their actions, now fully realising why their calm, passive and kind princess had transformed into a wrathful goddess.

"So give me one reason, one reason why I should not execute the lot of you for Treason against the Realm?" Henrietta asked the nobles, yet none dared to speak up.

They may have acted in greed but none of the nobles had foreseen such consequences and even in their hearts admitted that they had committed treason even unknowingly. Greedy they may have been but even they did not want Tristan to fall to a foreign power and their actions had left it in an extremely vulnerable state. They were now blaming themselves for not seeing what the guild had being trying to achieve.

Many were not simply waiting for their execution by the hands of their princess who in their minds had all right to strike them down where they stood.

"Now please calm down princess, while I admit that the situation is dire it is still not entirely unsalvageable." Cardinal Mazzini said, trying to placate the angry princess. He was really surprised and scared that the princess was showing such abnormal magical might worthy of any square mage worth their name. It seemed everyone had underestimated the princess who had shown that she was still a descendent of their great Founder.

Even now he could feel the cold seeping into his bones and at this rate the princess would kill almost everyone in her anger.

The winds and cold subsided as Henrietta looked to the Cardinal, her expressions stoic and calm yet her eyes were demanding explanations.

Cardinal Mazzini getting the silent command elaborated his words. "You royal highness, while the nobles have sold their properties to the guild, the same properties can be bought back using the same money that they earned, which we can confiscate and add them to the Royal treasury. Even if we failed to buy back all that was sold, the confiscated money would allow us to establish infrastructure around our remaining territories and stabilize our economy."

"You do know that is just a short term solution Cardinal Mazzini." Henrietta pointed out. "Most of our remaining territories are those that either belongs to the nobles or to the Thorne. While I have no calms freeing some of the crown lands for the endeavour, they would still not be enough and we would have to seize some of the remaining holdings of the nobility to truly turn Tristan back into an economic power."

Her reasoning was sound and pointed out the flaws in the Cardinal's plans but the Cardinal did not back down nor seemed angry at being called out on it.

"Then it will be their punishment for the crime of endangering the sovereignty of the Kingdom. Their holdings for the continued survival of Tristan, it is a choice that is plain and clear for all to see." The Cardinal replied as if he was talking about the weather, making many of the present nobles pale at the callousness the Cardinal was showing. The nobles then realised that the Cardinal was angry beyond words, so much that he was now seeing the nobility as lost cause.

With this not only their new found wealth was gone but now their holdings and very titles as nobles were in dire jeopardy.

"I would like to buy back the properties first, Cardinal and only if it results in failure are you free to implement that plan of yours, Cardinal." With that Henrietta dismissed the court, the nobles scrambling away, in a bid to get back to their estates and plan for the coming storms.

When the last of the nobles were gone, Henrietta slumped in her throne, her magic dissipating as the temperature slowly return to normal.

"Cardinal Mazzini." She asked the old Cardinal and her teacher, "Why did mother allow this? Why did she sign the decree?"

"You know why, princess, the queen still grieves for your father and no longer cares for the working of the realms and the purchases were so small and numerous in many areas that she might have missed them." The Cardinal explained, though knew that they were but hollow words.

"You know it is not true Cardinal." Henrietta said, "With this act mother has shown that she no longer cares what happens to Tristan, no longer cares that with this Tristan would be annexed by Germania and she no longer cares that she has ensured that there would be no Tristan for her descendants to inherit and be forever only exist in the pages of history.

She no longer cares, Cardinal, she no longer cares." The princess was on the verge of tears and the Cardinal knew just how much the Queens action had affected the princess. Cardinal Mazzini knew that if the Queen had willed it, she could have stopped the situation from escalating so far, yet her inactions and her decree which while normal had all but ensure that Tristan would not survive the end of the Century.

Their economy and trade routes was the only thing that allowed Tristan to bounce back from the wars with Germania and Gallia and now with those gone and weakened, Tristan could no longer recover quickly enough to defend itself from an invasion. And even if it did survive another invasion the toll would be too much to bear and collapse the remaining economy into the ground.

Cardinal Mazzini sighed, he knew just how bad it was for Tristan and the very sovereignty of Tristan was at stake.

There were some ways to protect the sovereignty of Tristan but it was not a path that he wanted the princess to tread upon, she was already in a similar position and the Cardinal knew how much she hated it. Still it was his duty to the crown that he at least should provide the princess with the option, no matter what his personal reasons maybe.

"Princess there is another path we could take." The Cardinal began, and he felt his heart contract in pain upon seeing the hope in the princess eyes.

"We ask the Vallière to sell some of their lands to the Germanian Merchant but ask them to do with the stipulation that the merchant would have to marry one of their daughters, become a noble of Tristan and swear allegiance to the throne. This would effectively not only expand the territories of Tristan but also bind the merchant and his vast wealth to the Tristan." Cardinal Mazzini said, laying down his plans before the princess. It had many flaws but the original plan was vastly different than the one he had purposed but one that was more damming to the princess and Tristan as a whole.

"You know that I can't ask them to go through with that Cardinal." Henrietta said not wanting to order the Vallière, who were a second family to her, to basically sell their daughter to a foreigner, all for the good of the realm.

"But if you did ask them in the name of the realm, they would comply." Cardinal Mazzini simply replied. He knew he was being more than cold hearted asking the princess to consider this option but in order to secure Tristan he had to ask her to do so. "Their loyalty is unquestionable, princess, and if you ask them to do so they would happily comply. And while I may sound callous, the reality is that they are already going to be wed to other nobles for further gains, at least this way the marriage they would enter would be for the betterment of the realm."

"You are being callous Cardinal. Even if I did give them the order and they complied who is to say that this decision would not break their loyalty to the crown and with the added territories they would gain, why should they follow my rule and not overthrow me and take over Tristan, after all the Vallière are still a cadet branch of the Royal Family and still legal candidates to the throne.

And this is simply not factoring in how the Germanian Merchant would act. So cardinal, what makes you think that they would not only comply but also remain loyal to me?" Henrietta asked the cardinal, she did not ask him because they were all valid reasons but she asked him why them, why the Vallière of all the nobles?

"You do know that the Vallière are and will always remain loyal to Tristan, just as well as I do, princess. They motto "Loyalty above All" are not just words but a way of life to them, which is further strengthen by Karin's Rule of Steel. They won't revolt or rebel and in time would they would turn the barbarian merchant into a Noble of Tristan."

"Careful now, your bias is showing Cardinal. The barbarian in question is also the owner of Half of Tristan too. So he might be insulted at that title."

The Cardinal simply scoffed and said "A man who makes a princess cry is nothing but a barbarian in my eyes. The fact that he is from Germania just goes to show how uncivilised their lot is."

The princess could not help but laugh at the reply even the cardinal joined her in her laughter. Both enjoying the brief moment of normalcy, knowing full well the future would be filled with great difficulty.

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"So Bell have you managed to spend all the money I gave you?" I asked the rabbit guild master, I would have thought that it would have been easy to spend such money and I was expecting to be hounded by Bell asking for more but for some reason Bell said that he still had not spent all the money and was taking his time.

"No, I still have forty three million left." Bell replied with a sigh. I had been a bit surprised at the conversion rate but Gnarl had told me that such things were to be expected.

"You really are a bad spender Bell." I could not help but retort, really even though he had told me I was the owner of several cities, towns and villages. I knew that they were quiet small in the middle ages and the medieval period and thus knew that they could not be that big in size if they cost only a few million ecus, really none of them ran into double digits which made me think that Carnell was only buying run down towns and cities. The villages I was sure while could be a regular sized one, were no more than then houses or so, with how cheap they were.

I thus did not trust him much when he said he bought me mountains and plains and forests, they must have been some small hills, a barren plot of land and a spooky forest. Bell was a merchant and I knew that I should not take what he says for face value. These were after all the guys who were the progenitors of modern businessmen and salesmen.

So I bet that he was simply running out of worthless places to buy for me. But I was not going to let him do that, I was going to get my money's worth out of it.

"Bell, I am going to tell you this, spend the left over money. I don't care how, just spend it, even if you have to buy half of Germania, or the whole of Albion and Tristan do it, buy them but spend the damn money. I want to get down and start my business already, so buy the damn properties already." Really it was already five months now and I was still stuck in the initial stage, I had thought that once I was able to take care of the initial stages and spending a month or two, I could pop back home and rest bit, go to school and worry about my homework to escape the workload of my business.

But instead I was stuck waiting for Carnell to buy the damn properties which I knew were of not much use to me. I was becoming sorely tempted to simply say screw the whole plan and go home, but due to the incident in the vaults I knew I could not just get up and disappear either.

I was really getting bored of simply training back in the island. Heck I was even able to unlock the strange red gauntlet too and had managed to learn two of its simple but OP abilities.

One was [Boost], which effectively multiplied all my basic stats by two and was stackable in nature, which gave me exponential power. The fact that it had no limits to what it could boost and could stack till infinity made it one of the most broken buff spells I had come across. I also managed to use it to increase specific stats like magical resistance, HP regen, MP regen, magical power etc. after which I found that if after some really long sessions of practice these stats could be folded into the normal boosts meaning that apart from my physical defences and strength these stats would also increase whenever I boost.

So far my normal [Boost] double my physical strength, endurance, defences, stamina and my magical stats like my MP pool, regen and overall magical power, I was thus now aiming for HP regen and magical resistance and defences.

The only downside of this skill was that it had a 10 second cooldown and so far I could only stack 13 times before it reset the values. But well due to its exponential increase in power 13 was enough for now.

The second ability of the red gauntlet was [Dragon Shot], a simple spell that fires a bolt of energy at a target. It was really that simple, but it was broken because the power of the spell depended on how much power the user could pour into the spell with having virtually no upper limit. This combined with [Boost], allowed me to blow up entire mountains in a single shot without breaking a sweat. And I had done it when I was boosted only six times when I fire that shot, that too without overloading it.

With just these two skills I knew that the gauntlet was a damn cheat item. Just who in the world design such a broken item with such broken skills!

Apart from that I had been practicing portal magic with gnarl and had somewhat been able to master [World Door] and manage to get a time ratio of 1 day = 6 days, between the two sides. While that was good progress I was still aiming for the 1 hour = 1 year conversion, only then I could say that I was proficient with the spell. Because honestly Gnarl said that a master of the spell could do a time conversion of 1 second to 10 thousand years, which was way out of my reach and a bit useless too, as it would mean long hours of boredom.

In between I had even decided which characters I would base my next two Heroic Servant minions upon.

I had chosen Nanoha as Caster because seriously friendship beams for the win.

Then I chose Chu Chulainn as Lancer, because honestly he was not only a badass and the first lancer of the fate series and he was also awesome bro.

The rest I was undecided as they were quite a lot of candidates but I was already low on resources and even with the mines I knew that I would take a huge hit to my stockpile just by creating these two minions.

Thus I really need to set up my business as soon as possible and start racking in the money and resources through it. And yet due to Carnell I was really getting stalled.

"Just do it Carnell, just spend the damn money and I'll be happy." I said, giving my goodbyes and headed back to the island.

But upon reaching the port, which had grown quite a lot, I realised I was feeling homesick, so I decided to head home for now and enjoy a few days of class.

"Gnarl, I'm heading home." I informed Artoria and Gnarl who looked quite surprised at my declaration. Changing my clothes, I opened a portal with one thought in mind.

'Kuoh I coming home.'

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AN: Before anyone starts anything, I have to say this to get out of my mind. Is this story worthy to be uploaded on Space Battles? I am a bit hesitant to upload it there as I don't think it matches the quality at all.

Also, Issei does not understand Economy AT ALL!

Now to understand what went on this chapter, some economic knowledge is needed to explain the intricacies of how really good Bell Carnell and his merchants were and how damn rich Issei is compared to Halkeginia and how much of an idiot and a fool he is to look down upon the genius of Bell Carnell and his guild.

Currently Issei is having the modern world mentality, where while million is a big amount it is not the biggest with billions and trillions lording over them.

To Issei he is thinking that an ecu is the local equivalent of yen, namely he is thinking one ecu is like one yen for the people of Halkeginia, even though he knows ecus are made of gold. He is currently under the impressions that 'Hey since this is a fantasy world gold coins must be common as hell', which while applicable to some worlds is not applicable to Halkeginia, as it still has bronze and silver coins below the gold coins, ecu.

Here in Halkeginia, a person earning 10 ecus per year is considered to be well off, with the average job mostly earning one to three ecus PER YEAR. Even nobles earning 1000 ecus per year are considered quite wealthy with the top nobles earning a max of several hundred thousand ecus but never reaching millions unless they are from a long line of nobles with very deep pockets.

Thus when Carnel says that he bought properties ranging several million ecus, he really means that they were super expensive and were one of the best properties in the market. Not to mention Carnell bought out Rustan too and several cities of that calibre which are the Halkeginia equivalent of New York, Paris and other major cities, so they are big, really big purchases.

What Carnell is saying when he bought Rustan using several million ecus, it is like he is saying he bought NY using several trillion dollars but Issei is viewing it as buying NY with several million yen, which while expensive is still cheap and thus Issei is looking down on the value of the cities as a whole.

In fact back in the day nations use to sell and buy territories that cost only several millions not hundreds of millions. Thus it is not out of the realms of possibility that Issei could buy out the entirety of Halkeginia. But he is saving his resources for his minions.

Carnell among the midst of buying these properties has also ensured that he had kept the market stable and not pushed the prices up or down, which any economist would tell you that it is a damn hard thing to do and such an influx of money should have really collapse parts of the market but Carnell managed to successfully avoid that.

Give the Rabbit a damn Golden Carrot for his effort will you.

Damn this was a long Author's Post note but I really wanted to let the readers know what went on in this chapter and what it actually entailed.

Next chapter should, Issei takes a break, meets some friends and finally starts his business and the rest of the Tristan tries to solve their crisis.