Chapter 88: Counterfeit Bills
"Excuse me, Lady Gamma! Urgent news! Oh, Lady Alpha. You're back!" Said Nu as she entered Gamma's office with a worried expression and found Alpha sitting in front of Gamma while sipping tea. She carried a folder containing detailed reports from her scouting.
"Yes. I've returned later than planned but my training with the Mist Dragon has bore fruit. Is there anything you'd like to report, Nu?" Alpha remarked on her absence.
"Let me guess. It's about Don Jon or the Snow Fox Corporation, isn't it?" Gamma tried to guess the topic of Nu's report with a frustrated face.
"Well… partially. My first report is about the MCA. I've confirmed that they've begun producing and spreading counterfeit bills of their own paper money to the market. So far the public hasn't noticed but if this kept going, the value of their own paper money will drop from oversupply." Nu reported, making Gamma gasp.
"That's dangerous. Even though their paper money is different from ours, if their paper money system collapses, trust in our own system will go down along with them! Our banks will be affected!" Exclaimed Gamma, understanding the danger of the situation from the knowledge that her lord granted her.
"So they're prepared to take us down with any means necessary, then? The Cult is getting desperate to destabilize Midgar's economy it seems." Alpha added with a calm demeanour.
"Haaah. And here I was talking about protecting them from Snow Fox Corporation the other day. I assume you've identified the factories where they produced the counterfeit bills, correct?" Gamma asked addressing Nu after sighing at the MCA's antics.
"Yes. I've identified several locations. They're here." Said Nu as she handed her folder to Alpha and Gamma, who took a glance at its contents which include a map of Midgar kingdom with locations of the factories marked by Nu.
"We shall send some squad to destroy them in order to prevent them from producing more counterfeit bills." Gamma decided. Both Nu and Alpha in agreement.
"What is your next report, Nu?" Alpha asked with a stern tone, sensing that the second news she brings is in a way more troubling than the first.
"Yes… When I was scouting one of the MCA factories… I encountered a dangerous man named John Smith."
"John Smith? I've never heard of that name. Who is he?" Gamma asked curiously.
"He claims to work for Snow Fox Corporation. When I met him, he was also scouting the MCA factory on behalf of his employer."
"From your expression, I gather that he's strong?" Alpha guessed after reading Nu's troubled expression.
"Yes. He's dangerous. He used steel wires as weapon. His control of the wires is astonishing and I almost got caught into his trap when I faced him in battle. I decided to retreat immediately because the dark battlefield is disadvantageous to me. Unfortunately that meant Snow Fox is now aware of Shadow Garden having interest in the MCA's activity." Nu replied regretfully with her head down, shameful for her inability to silence him and allowing the leaking of information to the enemy.
"Do not worry, Nu. As long as they didn't know the connection between Shadow Garden and Mitsugoshi, it is fine." Alpha remarked calmly.
"Thank you very much, Lady Alpha."
"Anything else about this John Smith fellow?" Alpha asked again.
"Nothing. Except his appearance, which I sketched in the report." Nu replied, prompting Alpha and Gamma to search the folder and found Nu's rough sketch of John Smith's appearance.
"Hmm… A peculiar appearance. I assume that he is a resident of Lawless City but he is more well-dressed than most bandits from there. It is frustrating that we have so little information about him because that means he is a danger that we cannot foresee. He could be a First Child of the Cult for all we know. With this threat looming on the horizon, I think we should enlist Charlotte's assistance. See if she can get her brother and the princesses to move for us in handling the MCA politically while we focus our attention on Snow Fox Corporation." Alpha ordered.
"And of the previous order to destroy the MCA factories, Lady Alpha?" Nu asked for clarification.
"We should still send some squad for that but they must be carefully selected and in few numbers in order to attract less attention. Also we shouldn't burn all of the factories. We need to leave some of them alone so Charlotte can use them as evidence of the MCA's activities." Alpha said.
"Very well. I shall relay your orders swiftly." Nu said as she left the room with haste.
After Nu left the room Alpha turned to Gamma and asked "What is Lord Shadow doing nowadays?"
"As far as we know he's still attending school. But sometimes he disappears, especially at night and we cannot track his whereabouts when he does." Gamma replied with concern.
"I suppose we cannot stop him from doing what he must. I shall try to talk to him again to at least convince him to rely on us more." Alpha said with sad eyes. Gamma shares the same opinion.
"In the meantime, Lady Alpha. I have a plan to make sure we survive everything the Snow Fox Corporation and the MCA throws at us!" Gamma exclaimed excitedly.
"I'm listening." Alpha said, regaining a smile after seeing her comrade's enthusiasm.
I finally got time to return to Midgar castle to act as Claude. This time I didn't take all the memories from my clone but only sorted out the useful ones before transferring them to my brain. I read the morning newspaper and saw news of Mitsugoshi launching various schemes to counter our moves such as no longer accepting MCA bills due to concerns of counterfeit bills whilst promoting the quality of Mitsugoshi bills, and bringing a Supermarket-like Membership System where they give various benefits to subscribers of Mitsugoshi Membership such as exclusive discounts for Mitsugoshi products, free trial of every new Mitsugoshi products and weekly newsletters for a monthly fee. Membership also requires Mitsugoshi Bank account so they can more easily control the finances of their customers and secure brand loyalty to all Mitsugoshi related services.
They are trying their best to survive MCA's inevitable credit collapse by securing customer loyalty and gathering as much money as they can it seems. I suppose the credit crisis will not be enough to make them go down. I need to bring them close to bankruptcy where I can sweep in to buy the company. With a good cop bad cop approach using both Claude and Don Jon as potential buyers if necessary.
And there's also news of MCA counterfeit bills being spread of course. And of course the newspaper said nobody knows who did it. Heh.
Trust in paper money is starting to go down but thanks to the aforementioned strategies, Mitsugoshi is largely unaffected for now.
I need to damage them in various other ways. I suppose it's time to organize some bank heists. And I know the right man for the job.
Suddenly a knock on the door. "Come in." The maid went to open the door after I said that.
"Good morning, brother." Now that's a voice I haven't heard in weeks. I watched as my sister entered my office room after the maid opened the door for her.
"Charl? Where have you been?" I asked her curiously.
"Busy keeping the kingdom together, the same as you. Congrats on being a monarch candidate, by the way."
"Thank you. But judging from your face, I take it that this is not a random visit." I said whilst meaning business. Her face looks a bit sad, probably from how distant we have become. I don't know exactly what happened between her and the clone that made her behave like this though. The clone's perception is not 100% reliable and thus, despite no longer being bothered by her constant nagging, I'm still concerned about her wellbeing and our relationship.
"Yes. Me and my… friends are concerned about Major Corporate Alliance being up to no good." The friends she mentioned must be nobles who are within her inner circle, her faction if you will. They have been assisting me and the princesses greatly since King Klaus' death and limiting the movements of the Thirteen Night Blades, giving us much breathing room to deal with various problems that the power vacuum caused by the king's death brought.
But I'm surprised she's taking an interest in the MCA. I must not let her interfere with my plans.
"Up to no good?" I asked her in order to carefully understand her perspective.
"You should've known already that they're spreading counterfeit bills of their own paper money."
"Why would they do that? They're the only ones losing from that."
"I don't know but we've confirmed the existence some factories producing MCA paper money which are lower in quality than the official ones which are already bad compared to Mitsugoshi's."
"Who confirmed it? Shadow Garden?"
"Yes!" She answered without hesitation. I did receive reports from John Smith that Shadow Garden also infiltrated the MCA's counterfeit bills factories.
But to think she thought of Shadow Garden highly enough to say "we" when referring to them… The friends she mentioned previously could be referring to Shadow Garden too. I need to handle this carefully. Claude is still viewed positively by Shadow Garden and I'd like to keep it that way.
"Hmm… It is indeed troubling. If they keep this up, the value of paper money will collapse and Mitsugoshi might be affected too." I remarked while observing her reaction.
"Yes indeed! You get it after all!" She said while smiling. She probably had to deal with some idiots during her time in the den of politics. I understand that. I had to deal with a lot of idiots both in the Cult and in Midgar's high society.
"Well… what do you propose we do? We can't possibly act just by using evidence gathered by an organization that's still considered a threat to our kingdom."
"They are not a threat! They want to help!"
"I know. I know. But the rest of the kingdom doesn't. Not yet anyway. Your answer?"
"We need to pressure the MCA to stop producing cheaply printed money or they have to reimburse affected parties!"
"But we first need to prove that they're responsible for that."
"Don't worry about that. I have the proof we need! I only need you to authorize some knights and investigators for me!"
Hmm… If this keeps up, Gettan's counterfeit bills plan will be thwarted. I need to send corrupt investigators to delay her as much as possible. I'll just apologize later.
Author's Note:
Gamma is making a plan to try and counter the credit collapse through brand loyalty. I figured a smart character like Gamma shouldn't be passively reacting to Claude's schemes all the time.
HundredMasks: with this side of Don Jon, and 'His' previous actions, you have established an unstable reputation, and it is damn good, you have this good and patient if not ruthless Businessman who has gone into a murderous rage that involves him slaughtering anyone who gets in his way you get an unstable villain who can go in a berserker rage, you can also go thr Jekyll and Hyde route and make a split between "Proper Businessman" and "Psychotic killer", or the simplest route of making him a werewolf, and the big brain plays involved in this chapter is good too, though I'm not really sure if it's Claude just forgetting to make their own bills or him actually foreseeing it, which is good because I like to theorize
Answer: True. I almost forgot about such perspectives. I need to write another scene with Marie later that highlights her thoughts about Don Jon's psychotic side. About Snow Fox not making their bills, for now I decided that Claude knows and intentionally didn't do it because Gettan was planning on making the counterfeit bills, though the idea that he forgot could be funny.
