“I heard that from Lord Marius himself.”
“…!?”
Jegal Hwayoung nodded his head and Bryan looked bewildered.
‘What is the black market and what does it have to do with ?’
Bryan’s gaze unknowingly went to Marius’s face, who had ntioned him.
He stroked his beard and opened his mouth.
“Hehe… I’ll explain that to you, young man.”
***
It was a few months ago.
The governnt office of Stefan, the central city of the north, was busy as usual.
It had been almost two years since the Northern War, and the place was booming with work as it was developing rapidly.
Of course, there was no need to say who was the busiest.
“Lord Marius, we have received a report on the progress of Bern’s developnt.”
“The residents of the northwestern region are asking for relief because of the cold wave that hit them.”
Marius scratched his head as he looked at the docunts.
‘Objectively speaking, there is no shortage of talent, but the land is too vast! It seems hard to avoid manpower shortage for a while.’
That’s right!
The northern territory that they had pioneered this ti was so large that it occupied a quarter of the empire’s land, and they were always suffering from a chronic lack of manpower as they tried to develop it quickly.
Marius and other bureaucrats were overwheld by the workload that was two or three tis more than that of the central governnt.
On top of that, he was the chief in charge and had to go to the capital regularly, and he also had a lot of things that Eurius had asked him to do.
‘I should be enjoying my grandchildren’s antics at this age, but what kind of hardship is this…’
“Excuse .”
Creak.
The door of his office opened again as he sighed inwardly.
“Lord Marius, I have organized the report on this month’s taxes.”
“Oh! You’ve done a great job.”
He greeted with a rare smile the young man who had earned his favor and was making a na for himself in the north. His na was Bryan.
‘If only all the newcors were as good at their work as this guy, I wouldn’t ask for more…’
At first, he thought he was just a young rookie, but he learned fast and especially ticulous for soone his age who should be full of vigor.
He recognized his calmness and ability and recently entrusted him with almost all the financial matters such as taxes, except for the final paynt.
That showed how much he trusted his competence.
‘Besides, His Highness Eurius told to use him well, so maybe I should entrust him with the secret trade with Blue Dragon Company soon?’
“Lord Marius, I’m sorry but I have so questions about this report and I think I need to report them separately.”
“Huh?”
Before he could finish his thoughts, Bryan opened his mouth with a slightly tense expression.
“Tell . What’s going on?”
“Actually, I looked over the books from the major cities in the north for the past few months and there seems to be so mistake on my part.”
“What do you an?”
He had seen all of Bryan’s reports.
Even in Marius’s eyes, who was known as the best administrator in the empire, his reports were flawless.
“Can I sit down for a mont? It would be easier to see if I do so calculations.”
“Go ahead.”
As he looked at him with a puzzled expression, Bryan sat down at the desk in his office and took out an abacus from his pocket.
Clack!
He flicked the beads at lightning speed.
“First of all, this is the customs duty of the major cities in the north, including Stefan.”
He ant the tax paid by the comrcial associations or authorized distributors in the city.
“Hmm…”
“And this is the list of Sangdans currently operating in the northern cities. They also have individual trade statents.”
Bryan said in a careful tone.
“As a result of comparing them, there was a fairly large discrepancy of five to seven percent in all cities.”
“What are you talking about? Hehe…”
Marius laughed lightly as if it was nothing.
“Isn’t there always such a discrepancy in customs books? It’s embarrassing to say, but not everything is strictly enforced in the empire.”
‘He is still young, so he has the ability but lacks flexibility.’
He knew from his experience that customs revenue was not always strictly enforced.
There were cases where he paid with goods instead of money, but suddenly their prices plumted.
And it was a shaful thing, but there were also many cases where local officials or lords took bribes and committed fraud.
But Bryan had a serious expression again.
“I have not ignored that point while doing my work for a few years, even though I am inexperienced.”
“What do you an by that?”
“The cities I gave you the list of are large, but they are new cities that have not yet received nobles as their territories. I think we should also consider the uniqueness of the north.”
“…”
Marius was not a fool.
He might have missed sothing because he had too much work to do.
After thinking for a while, he opened his mouth again.
“There is indeed sothing suspicious, but do you want to investigate it?”
“I brought it because I think I lack experience to judge. But I think it’s not sothing to overlook when the books don’t match uniformly for several months.”
“Huh…”
What Bryan ant by the uniqueness of the north was that unlike other regions, the cities were developed with ticulous planning from the beginning.
Most of the residents were people who ca in through migration, so their identities were clear.
The empire conducted regular and thorough population surveys to secure taxes, so there was almost no possibility of errors in the new cities.
‘There are no lords or local forces or rchants who can commit corruption there, right?’
Of course, there was also a possibility that the guards who guarded the gates or the lower-level officials would personally commit corruption, but Bryan’s opinion was that it was impossible to make such a hole in the books with that.
Marius’s eyes narrowed. That ant!
“Are you saying there are bastards who are making a lot of money by evading taxes in the north?”
“I can’t give you a definite answer, but I think so.”
“…”
Marius’s hand was trembling slightly.
‘How dare so trash do such insolent things on the land that His Majesty entrusted to manage!’
Bang!
He slamd his desk and got up and shouted.
“Bring all the responsible people who have been granted comrce in the northern cities!”
That’s how a storm of tax investigation seed to sweep over the north, but surprisingly, the result was bland.
A few days later.
“Did you not find the culprit?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, it seems that there is no culprit in the upper or lower classes.”
“Huh really?”
He entered the investigation with enthusiasm, but he couldn’t find the culprit even though the books were empty.
‘The upper class is not? But how can the calculation of the books be wrong?’
Marius, who was holding his head and worrying, had no choice but to visit Blue Dragon Company. It was because Eurius had instructed him to consult with them if there was any problem.
And a few weeks later.
***
Eurius opened his mouth with an interested expression.
“So you’re saying that the reason why the books are empty is related to that black market?”
“That’s right. We were able to catch the black market secretly infiltrating into the comrcial associations of the north. At that ti, we didn’t know what kind of group they were…”
According to Jegal Hwayoung’s explanation, that was the main thod of the black market.
They used the local power or upper class to secretly infiltrate their forces.
And in the case of big cities, they took over slums or black markets and gradually expanded their power.
Eurius bit his tongue. If they used comrce, it ant that the bastards called Gyodan were more widely spread across the continent than he thought.
“Tsk! Now I know why they were able to quickly reach out to the north, which hasn’t been developed for long.”
“It’s all my fault.”
“How is it your fault?”
He comforted Marius, who was smiling bitterly. It was Bryan who made the discovery, but it was Marius who wisely entrusted Blue Dragon Company with the investigation as a responsible person.
Eurius praised him for that and turned his eyes to Bryan.
“And Bryan, you did a great job this ti. I won’t forget this.”
“How can it be a rit to faithfully perform my duty? You are too kind.”
Bryan, who had an awkward expression on his face, didn’t know why Eurius praised him.
“No way. Do you know if there is any content about the country’s finances among what the players left?”
“I don’t know.”
Eurius smiled and opened his mouth again.
“There is sothing like this. It’s not that the country has no money. It’s that the country has too many thieves!”
‘Was there such a saying?’
Everyone in the hall had a question mark on their heads. Was there such a thing among the players’ words? Even Marius and Bryan, who were officials, had never heard of it, but would the emperor lie?
And Bryan, who heard that, nodded inwardly.
‘It’s a bit radical, but it’s a reasonable thing to say.’
He thought that the secret to making money that was originally not there was to prevent waste in the first place.
‘Even Lord Marius was skeptical at first, right?’
In fact, Marius laughed when he heard his report because he was obsessed with numbers to the point of being sick.
Even in his academy days, there were quite a few people who were annoyed by him.
But this case was where his ticulousness paid off.
Eurius also knew that and gave him a plausible word from the help ssage.
‘As far as I know, the secret to his rise to the position of finance minister of a country at a young age was his ticulous personality.’
He was about to beco the crown prince soon, and he praised him greatly while ntioning the players’ words.
‘I don’t really know what great rit I have done, but he knows !’
He bowed his head and Eurius looked at him with a smile and turned his eyes to Jegal Se-ga.
“So what was the result of digging up their backs?”
It was aningless to wipe out only a part of such a tightly organized organization. The first priority was to find their base and kill that strange bastard called the archbishop.
“I think we need a little more clue.”
At this mont, Jegal Hwayoung had a slightly deflated expression. He had to send back two of the best players in Sega to the east, but he had no significant results in the information sector.
“Hmm?”
But Eurius didn’t complain about that report.
Rather, he made an unexpected suggestion.
“Then can you predict the approximate location?”
“It’s certain that there is none in the north and central parts of the empire. The traces we found were cut off at the capital. They definitely cut off their tails there.”
‘As expected!’
He smiled inwardly and said.
“Then, if we can find their traces in the south of the empire, the ti to find their base will be shortened considerably?”
“…!?”
This ant that he knew that clue, so Jegal Hwayoung answered confidently.
“If it’s certain that they have their base in the south, I think I can show you results within a month!”
Eurius smiled.
“That’s good. Actually, I have one more person to call who has that information.”
Druruk.
At the sa ti, the door of the secret room opened again.
The person who had Eurius’s ‘clue’ ca in.
“Who is this?”
The person who ca in was an old man with white hair. He knelt down as soon as he ca in and looked at Eurius.
“Thank you for protecting His Highness’s honor.”
“I just kept my condition with you. It’s been a long ti, Victor!”
He trembled all over with an indescribable expression.
In fact, no matter how much he had done for him, how could he forgive him for attacking the palace with treason?
But Eurius not only fulfilled his condition that he thought was impossible, but also gave him honor.
It was not unreasonable for him to shake with emotion.
Finally, all the people Eurius had captured gathered.
Nuada, who beca his strong ally in the north!
Jegal Se-ga, who had information, strategy, and force in the east!
Marius and Bryan, who would be his brains in politics, administration, and military, and Devan!
Beatrice and Kains, who were the best talents of the royal guard!
And finally Victor, who was originally his force but finally ca into his arms!
They were all outstanding talents and Eurius thought that this was enough to hit the black market even though Jegal Se-ga’s power was greatly reduced.
“Then everyone is here now, so I’ll explain this eting to those who don’t know.”
He still had many mysteries he didn’t know, but one thing was clear: his real fight was just beginning.
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