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Ting-
As Oliver opened the door of the restaurant, a bell rang to welco him.
He hadn't noticed before, but even after moving the restaurant, they were still using the old bell.
It was… comforting, for so inexplicable reason.
"Welco, Mr. Dave. We apologize for troubling you at this late hour."
Despite the late hour, Al greeted him courteously, showing no signs of fatigue.
It was remarkable how consistent he remained, even though they had known each other for quite so ti.
"No, it's fine. Mr. Forrest wouldn't call out for no reason… By the way, are you okay, Mr. Al? I know you work during the day as well?"
"Thank you for your concern. But I'm fine, you don't need to worry. My salary has gone up, and I'm getting extra pay. I'm also receiving a lot of tips."
Al tapped his front pocket.
"……Is it a joke?"
"About half."
Al responded with a smile, to which Oliver nodded.
After finishing their casual greetings, Al naturally gestured for him to follow.
"May I show you the way? The guest is waiting for you."
"Ah, yes, let's go right away."
"Thank you. Please follow ."
Under Al's guidance, Oliver passed through the first and second-floor halls and followed him to the private room at the back. Along the way, a familiar emotion ca into view.
"But… may I ask who the guest is?"
"It's Mr. Paul Carver from the city's internal affairs departnt."
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
Al whispered cautiously, but his words were not a lie.
Upon entering the inner private room, which was more elegantly decorated than the first and second floors, he found Paul Carver, a city official.
It was Paul Carver, a city official, whom he had dealt with in the past during the cleanup of the contaminated zone and a task outside the city.
"Thank you for coming."
Carver, who was eating a at pie at a table covered with a white tablecloth, greeted Oliver when he saw him.
Despite the late hour, he was eating a at pie, and Forrest, who was sitting next to him, was drinking coffee and greeted Oliver.
"I'm sorry for calling you so late."
"No, it's fine. I wouldn't have co if I couldn't. You don't need to worry about it."
Forrest nodded his head and suggested he take a seat opposite Carver.
Oliver did as he was told.
"Nice to see you again, Mr. Carver. I hope you've been well."
At his greeting, Carver raised an eyebrow.
"I've been busy as always, but I've been doing well…… Thank you for welcoming . Usually, when solvers see us, they would be busy frowning."
"Really? Why is that?"
Oliver asked out of genuine curiosity, to which Forrest replied.
"Usually, when a city official cos, it's to hand over a difficult task."
It was a bit rude, but Carver didn't deny it. In fact, he was even more explicit.
"Yes, that's right. The city typically seeks you out to handle botherso and dirty tasks like cleaning up contaminated zone…… or perhaps, to handle sothing even more filthy and dangerous."
His attitude was brazen but straightforward. Seeing this Oliver asked, "Did you co today for the sa reason?"
"Yes. And it's closer to the latter."
If it's the latter, it's a dirtier and more dangerous thing… Sohow, it seed like sothing that could not be refused when considering Carver's words and emotional state.
It wasn't particularly surprising since the city usually sought compulsory cooperation.
"May I ask, what is going on?"
"Of course."
Carver put down his half-eaten at pie and took out so docunts from the bag next to him and passed them to Oliver.
On the moderately thick bundle of docunts was stamped .
"Have you heard about ABC Investnt Company, Mr. Dave?"
"Yes. It's the investnt company set up by businessman Mr. Shamus, the operator of the leaf loan, and female investors from Landa like rtle Vernu, Daisy Mulligan, and Jordan Debiki, right?"
"Correct. Do you know the size of the company?"
"Um, I'm not exactly sure. I just know they've amassed investnts in the billions."
"You're a bit behind. They have already reached into the trillions."
Oliver, who wasn't easily surprised normally, was taken aback upon hearing the word ‘trillion'.
Even Oliver who had been earning quite a bit of money recently could not fathom this amount.
‘How many hundreds of millions do you need to make a trillion?'
Oliver tried to understand the number in trillions by comparing it with the largest unit he could comprehend.
In Landa, there were countless people who never got to handle money in the hundreds of millions in their lifeti, but a trillion was a number that only ca about when there were 10,000 hundred million.
It was, to say the least, a shocking number.
"You're not saying anything."
"Ah… I'm sorry. I just didn't know what to say."
"That's a normal reaction. Trillion is a unit of money that really shouldn't co up in normal circumstances. Even if you put it in a low-interest bank, at least 10 billion would be made in interest in a year."
"It seems like a number with no sense of reality."
"It's a normal reaction, so don't think it's strange."
"But how did ABC gather this money? I saw the news only a while ago, and not that much ti has passed, has it?"
Oliver asked sincerely. It was questionable whether money could be gathered in such a short ti.
"Have you ever heard the saying that there's so much money in Landa that it's overflowing?"
"Yes."
"It's possible if you scoop up all that overflowing money."
It wasn't easy, but the city official Carver explained it right away.
The important thing was publicity and dazzle.
"Publicity and dazzle?"
"Yes, as soon as Shamus established ABC, he used shows and money to get all the newspapers to cover ABC, thus benefiting from enormous advertising effects. Who set it up, who invested in it."
"Yes, I know that. But if it's true, there's no problem, right? …Or are the articles fake?"
"That would be nice, but no. All the contents of the articles are true. The investors, the investnt money, the profits… Thanks to that, in less than a week after its establishnt, over a thousand people deposited their money. The social status varied as well. It ranged from ordinary workers, self-employed, professionals, businesspeople, and even banking institutions."
"That's amazing… But can you gather a trillion just because a thousand people have increased?"
"After that, one by one, prominent tycoons deposited their money, and each ti, citizens flocked in like ants to deposit their money. Currently, the number has far exceeded 10,000. If you wish, you can check the docunts."
Following the instructions, Oliver checked the docunts.
The pages Carver referred to had investnt records such as dates, number of investors, and investnt money neatly organized.
As Carver said, people invested at regular intervals, and each ti, the number of people increased exponentially.
It was much like a snowball rolling down a hill.
"Not only people from Landa, but they are also receiving investnts from the outside. They're using agents to collect money from not only nearby small towns but also from the capital of the kingdom and even as far as Northland."
Oliver flipped through the docunts again. As Carver had said, the flow of investnt into Shamus's company was neatly recorded. It was like a ticulously woven spider web.
Little by little, Oliver started to understand how such an unrealistic number was collected.
‘Even so, it's unrealistic.'
Flipping through the pages rapidly, Oliver asked a question.
"… The investigation is very thorough. But I don't quite understand the point of this story. Why are you telling about ABC Investnt Company?"
"Because the job I want to assign to you is to uncover the truth behind this absurd company."
"…? Why do you say it's absurd?"
"Because it literally makes no sense."
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
City official Paul Carver asserted and explained the reason why.
Soon, Oliver found out that his words weren't baseless.
Carver took out a pen and paper and wrote down an estimate of how much investnt ABC could gather in the future right in front of Oliver.
Given the speed at which he wrote the numbers, it was clear that he had done this calculation multiple tis already.
"If things go as they are now, ABC will collect even more investnt than it has now. At least twice as much, up to ten tis."
"… Ten tis? That would be 10 trillion?"
Faced with the absurd amount, Oliver was understandably shocked. In contrast, Carver remained calm.
"Yes, human greed and madness are like that…. But, no matter how much money Landa has, it will eventually run out. The investnt will start to decrease gradually."
Carver drew a gradually flattening graph on the white paper.
"However, the investnt money that ABC must pay back will increase exponentially. They seem not to be worried about this as they've diversified their investnt products, but in the end, it's only a matter of ti. They will reach an unmanageable level."
Carver drew another graph on the white paper, showing an exponential increase.
The two graphs showed a huge gap and imbalance, implying a trendous disaster. It was enough to even fluster Oliver.
"No matter what variables are given, there will co a ti when they can't pay the money. Even if they are given the maximum benefit of the doubt."
"I don't understand, ABC is an investnt company, shouldn't they payback from their investnt profits? I've heard that ABC never fails in its investnts."
"Whenever the word ‘never' cos out in investnt, it is definitely a scam."
Carver asserted once again. Considering his emotional state, it wasn't just a baseless claim.
"I may not exactly know what the world tree is, but I understand enough that it's nonsense to claim never to fail in an investnt market filled with human greed and madness. Even the greatest sages have a famous story of a major failure in investnt. That's reality and history… Don't tell , Mr. Dave, you believe such nonsense?"
"I find it hard to believe, but I refrain from jumping to conclusions as there might be individuals with capabilities beyond my comprehension."
"……."
Faced with Oliver's response, Carver was speechless, his emotions reflecting his disbelief.
Amidst the silence, Oliver spoke up. There was sothing that had been bothering him for a while.
"I have a question."
"What is it?"
"If it's that suspicious, shouldn't the city conduct its own investigation instead of hiring a solver like ?"
"You're absolutely right. I have nothing to say against that. Your point is valid, Mr. Dave, but we aren't in a position to do that, hence I brought it to you."
Oliver once again sensed a sense of alarm from Carver's words.
"I don't quite understand what you're saying."
"Before coming here, several people had already raised suspicions about Shamus's business. Not just mathematicians, but also economists, even from the Moirai school."
The Moirai school was a school of Magic Tower that specialized in the world tree.
Though it had a shorter history and scale compared to the schools of Life and Spatial Magic, it's potential and growth rate made it one of the strongest schools even within the Tower.
"But why doesn't the city conduct the investigation?"
"The city cannot conduct a proper investigation because of the city officials and council mbers who protect Shamus. Even within the limits of what we can do, we have tried our best to investigate, but we found nothing. Particularly, the issue with the world tree isn't sothing that the city can judge."
"I see…"
"Thanks to this, most of the investigations ended up going nowhere, providing an excuse for the city officials and council mbers who received money from Shamus to protect him. To make matters worse, the citizens are giving more money to Shamus."
"Isn't it fine to let it be since investnt is a personal choice?"
Oliver, who valued personal will, asked this question.
If they earn money from the investnt, it would be a joyous occasion. Even if they lost, it wouldn't be bad as it was their own decision.
However, Carver only shook his head.
"I'm a city official. I can't just ignore the blatant scam happening in front of ."
"……."
"…That's the superficial reason, and the scale of the scam is too large. If we let this scale continue, the very existence of Landa will be in danger."
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