A Dragon’s summoning to another world

A super long chapter filled to the brim with politics......where are my fellow intellectuals?!

Chapter 25: In Gold We Trust

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“Praise the gold, cherish the gold. Because with wealth you can gain enormous amount of power, as with power you can get enormous amount of wealth. So when I tell you to worship the gold like your life depends on it, then don’t doubt me. Because your life does.”

 

 

Devil Beezlebub, Sin of Envy

Year ???

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--POV: Laurence—

--Place: Chamberlayne Residence (Upper floor balcony)/ Time:19:47—

“Cold night, huh?” Theodore asks me as we stand on the balcony together, gazing at the stars. “Tobacco?” He then takes out a cigar from a box that is sitting on the balcony sill and hands it to me.

I take the cigar and light it with fire magic “I guess so” I don’t feel any coldness, as I always regulate my body temperature with magic.

“So what about that Stella girl you promised me you would elaborate on”

After making sure the sound barrier is in place “That girl is a succubus” I state without beating around the bush.

“Cough- cough-” He starts coughing as the smoke of the cigar suddenly leaves his lungs “Damn your straightforwardness”

I’m not one to take the long route after, all. If I want to say something, I say it.

“So why did you take her in?” He knows I’m the one who brought her, huh?

“She may prove useful, and she herself will do everything to prove it, especially since she has nowhere else to go in a continent filled with humans”

“Taking advantage of her plight? Smart thinking” He praises my actions, even if some would call it cruel, I have learnt from a young age that you should do something as long as it benefits you, no matter what it is.

“Don’t worry about people finding out about her, if I put a permanent illusion spell on her, it will never be seen through and will never come off her unless I want it to”

“There you go again, saying you’re going to do something ridiculous like it’s so easy” What? It’s just an illusion spell.

“So anyway I have something more pressing than Stella that I must converse with you on”

Realizing the seriousness in my voice, he turns towards me with furrowed eyebrows. “What is it?”

Here goes….

It’s now or never….

“I love your daughter”

….

…….

He immediately goes and leans over the balcony sill and starts coughing rapidly.

“You okay?” I ask out of concern, as I can’t have him dying before he gives me Clarissa.

 “Cough- fuck cough- I swear, you are going to give me a heart attack with your bluntness” He starts complaining like it’s my fault (how could it ever be my fault?).

After recovering from his coughing fit he turns back to me with a weird glint in his eyes “You think I don’t know? I’ve seen the way she is looking at you. I’ve never seen her genuinely smile from happiness after her mother’s death “He puts his hand on my shoulder “But the looks she is giving you, especially when she thinks you don’t notice, is that of true bliss”

“Don’t ever let go of her, okay?” He lets go of my shoulder and continues with a helpless sigh. “Because in these last few months, you have made her happier than I ever could”

“Thank you, Theodore” That was genuine praise, praise I will definitely accept.

“Daughters, huh? They will always put their lovers above their fathers. I feel like it’s in their nature or something” He scoffs lightly, as if mocking himself for even trying to make her happy. Does he have experience? Well, the first daughter did leave just like that.

However, there is something I must know. “Theodore, do you know why your daughter summoned me?”

“Ambition” he continues after a light puff of tobacco “It wasn’t any bodyguard job, do you think I, Theodore Chamberlayne, would believe such bullshit?”

“She wants to become heir” He stops what he is doing at my words, and then places both of his hands on the sill, his cigar between the index and middle finger of his right hand. “She wants something more than what she was born with, the question is, are you willing to give it to her?” While I do admire Clarissa’s ambition to become heir, I need to make sure it is attainable from her father. Otherwise, I would have to use other, less friendly means to reach the goal of Clarissa becoming heir.

“While I do love Clarissa, I have a family to look out for” he turns his head towards me as I approach the sill and lean on it, like he is doing. “If she proves herself the most worthy of her siblings, I will give her the position without hesitation” A flash of determination goes through his eyes as he looks at me.

“What do you think of her strength?” I know he is surprised by the difference, she went to the university with a certain level of power, and now she is back, with a completely different level.

“I wonder what you did to make her rise so drastically in power in such a short time?” He looks back at the sky and starts huffing and puffing the cigar.

“I didn’t do anything, other than show her the way” I also look at the beautiful sky I have gotten used to during my life. “She is the one, who did the effort, who went the extra mile, and you should be very proud of her for that” Even though it sounds like I’m ordering him, I’m sure he won’t take it that way.

“I am” He nods “Very proud to be her father, very proud” Seeing the conversation of topic, I bring another subject to the talk.

“There was an assassin posing as a maid, we also got trailed by 5 thugs that where probably just hired to trace us, with no information about their employer. All six of them are dead, by yours truly”

“I heard from Clarissa” He growls angrily “The church was always very comfy with the federalist faction, but to think they would target Clarissa and directly support the federalists was something I didn’t think they would do”

“The church has been getting in your way for a while, huh?”

“Tell me about it, they have been severely taxing the products I’m trading in, trying to make my relations difficult with McWaiser, getting in my way whenever I do anything, to be specific.” He really hates them, huh? “I recently started allocating more fertile land to farm cotton, as it is in a shortage right now, easy way to make profit. After news got out of my new plans for my agricultural shift to cotton, the high church officials decided to start pushing forward a bill to the magic order. Demanding that cotton be taxed heavier.”

They have it out for him, and we should fix that. “McWaisers, have also been targeted, as they are one of my major buyers for many products I produce, so recently they’ve been getting more distant from me, trying to placate the church into removing some taxes.”

“Those religious fuckers are trying to turn my friends against me, by promising better treatment to them if they distance themselves, and the McWaisers are buying it, slowly, but they still are.”

“Ronald, the chairman of McWaiser, can’t hold down the other members of the board. He tried to convince them that cutting relations with me will cost more than what the reduced taxes can give, but they aren’t listening. He has definitely realized by now that his company is filled with religious zealots.”

“Avalon Royalty and Grandmaster Lorenzo of the Magic Order don’t like the fact that the pope is getting very cosy with the royal blood of Adion. Some warmongering nobles even say that the pope and Adion are planning a conspiracy on us, and we must defend our borders, however, the real reason is that these nobles want a war between Adion and Avalon for political gain.”

“King Alexander Maroth Avalon is in a bit of a peace treaty with the church, they have a kind of ‘you don’t fuck with me, I don’t fuck with you’ relationship, even though the church has repeatedly denounced the Magic Order for being unjust and for practicing heresy.” He keeps spewing vulgarities as he describes the current political climate.

“And to make it worse, the warmongers are gaining more of a voice in Avalon’s politics, and with the discussion of war present in noble gatherings, the relationship between Avalon and Adion is getting even worse, with rumours that both Avalon and Adion are sending more warriors and mages to the Avalon-Adion border through mercenary guilds.”

“The Baharuth Empire to the north of us, that happen to share a border with both Adion and Avalon, are eyeing the current deteriorating relations with eyes full of greed for power. Just last week, Lorenzo and I met up for tea, and he told me how there is a chance that Adion is contacting Baharuth, for discussions of trade being the excuse, when in reality there may be an alliance forming against us.”

*BAM*

“Damn it!” He hits the bottom of his left fist against the white marble sill, relieving the stress he has been building up amidst this political mess.

“Calm down, Theodore” He needs to take control of himself to take control of the situation. “The answer to your problems is simple”

He raises an eyebrow at my bold statement.

Seeing him listening in silence, I continue. “You need a greater say in the politics of this kingdom, you need your voice to carry more weight. In that case, you will start deciding more. Let’s take it like this, when you go to those noble meetings and social gatherings, what happens when you voice your opinion?”

“The church officials start screaming heretic, and threaten to excommunicate me, with the federalists cheering them on, if they actually fall through with it though, my reputation would take a big hit as the general public will view me worse regardless of what the high nobles think, so I normally can only agree on something they agree on” I can hear the hatred in his voice, this is good, very good….

“So you need to fix them, it’s that simple” He looks at me like he doesn’t understand what I just said, so let me reword it. “This religion began in a rural area of Adion a couple of hundred years ago, yet here it is, commanding massive political and economic power. So we don’t have to destroy it, we could just change it so that massive power becomes ours.”

He nods his head, but then stops it as he starts scratching his beard. “Okay, simple enough. But how are we going to do this?”

“The church is ruled by who?”

“The pope” He responds, not understanding why I’m asking something so obvious.

“The pope is a tyrannical person who is using statues depicting gods and the religion to benefit himself. A lot of people in the church aren’t happy with this.”

“So?” He still doesn’t understand.

“So we give them an idea”

“An idea? What?”

“We give these religious zealots the idea that they don’t need the pope to worship their god. We sprout the ideology of a decentralized church, where the leader is democratically elected.”

“……sounds good. But if it’s democratic, how do we control them? It’s in the power of the people, no?”

“Not if every candidate for leader of the new church has been chosen by us” Realization forms on his face, followed by contemplation of my next words. “If every candidate has been chosen by us, no matter who they elect. The elected person will be our loyal dog, in this case, the church is ours”

“Mhm”

He nods as I continue speaking. “This is called fake freedom, the idea that the slave thinks it is free is the worst thing that can happen to them, while it is the best thing for the slave owner. Because the slave will live their entire lives thinking that every choice they make and everything they do is because they willed it, when in reality we are the ones in control.”

However, this isn’t just for the church. “There is something else however, that I need to ask you of” He turns back to the moon and tells me “go ahead”.

“How much of the gold supply do you currently control?”

He thinks about why I brought this up for a second, before responding “We own about 60% of all the gold mines in Avalon, but what is bringing this up?” So you don’t have a monopoly, huh?

“How much of the gold mines do the church control?” If I’m not mistaken, the lands owned by the church, or let’s call it like zealots call it, land of god, is in eastern Avalon.

“The church properties reign in a bit under 30%, this is records from the ministry in charge of counting and dividing the resources. The Ministry of Economic Development.”

“So, if the church goes under control, what happens?”

“Our percentage of the market share of gold would be in the high eighties (85+ in old English)”

“And what is the currency made out of?”

“35 grams of gold along with 2 grams of other components….” The gold coin that is widespread across the continent is made out of precisely those materials, and I’m going to explain why I brought it up.

“Now in times of war, what is there an abundance of?”

“Bloodshed? War supplies? Mercenaries? What is it?” He asks after I shake my head at all his guesses.

“Fear and uncertainty” I nod my head at my own cleverness, satisfied by my own brilliance. “And when there is fear and uncertainty, people will start-”

“Selling their assets!” He came to the conclusion faster than I thought he would.

“Precisely, when they start selling their assets, what are they going to want in exchange for it?”

“…g…old” He looks like he has just been enlightened, but don’t worry, I’ll give you a drop of my ever-expanding intelligence.

“And who controls 90% of the gold supplies? Yes, Chamberlayne and their new puppet religion. When you control the currency, you control the economy. The rich guys, the merchants, what are they going to do when they feel fear of the enemy in the war coming to their doorstep? They’ll liquefy all of their buildings, goods and even slaves to gold by selling it to the others….what will they do when they find out no one is buying anything, that everyone is trying to hold on to the only thing that will never lose it’s worth, the gold. They’ll get desperate, because too many people are selling, and no one is buying.”

“hehehe” He starts giggling as he probably imagines the scenario happening in his head. And I’m not going to lie, an old man giggling like a child is a weird sight, to say the least.

“They’ll lower the price so much that they will get less than a 10^th of the actual good they are selling, and who will make the money, who will rip them off their wealth right in front of their faces, yes, you Mr. Chamberlayne, the person who has a complete monopoly on the gold mines”

“Hahahaha” The giggling turns into full blown laughing. “hah…hah….hah…..I’m starting to like you a lot Laurence”

He turns to me and point at me with his index finger “You make the scenario you are talking about a reality, and you have just earned yourself a place in this family, as Clarissa’s lover” The real Theodore, being the greedy schemer that he is.

He then walks up to me and puts both of his hands on my shoulders. “You make the church ours and that will be enough proof that you definitely deserve Clarissa” He definitely likes the fact that I’m going to benefit him greatly in this. Because if we reform the church in Avalon, the church can no longer obstruct him in his diplomacy, the church will lose massive influence, and he will gain access to enormous wealth from the church’s territories. And then he will use this gold, to buy as much assets for as little as possible during times of war.

“The Chamberlayne household will start supporting and encouraging war if this goes as planned” He speaks after he has calmed down and taken his hands off my shoulders. “If this works out, we will profit greatly from the fear of our own citizens.”

“Yes, yes we will”

“Profit from fear? I like the sound of that” He turns away and makes his way towards the upstairs lounge. “You do this, and I will treat you like the son-in-law you deserve to be”

Son-in-law? Even though I’m older than not just him, but this entire kingdom, I’m the son? Well it doesn’t matter.

More importantly….

“Wait a second, Theodore” He stops in his tracks and looks back at me. “I need to discuss with you some things about a man called Ryuta Koichi, and my assumptions as well as what I know about him so far”

He nods his head as he continues walking forward. “Come sit with me, and we’ll have some tea”