Sisi placed down the letter in her hand and lied back on her bed. She waved the letter around, imitating a white bird flying. She rolled around on her bed out of joy. Then, she slipped the letter under her pillow and kissed her pillow.
A lady-in-waiting watching on had no clue what happened to Queen Sisi. Concerned, she asked, "Your Majesty?"
"Oh, don't worry about , hehehe. It's just that I don't know what happened with Little Doggy. I just know that I understand him. He's not the type who can handle loneliness and depression. He'll definitely walk into my trap, and he's already begun putting in the work. The harder he tries, the closer he will be in contact with . I don't need to lift a finger now. All I need to do is wait for Little Doggy to return to ! It's good news, isn't it? Isn't it?"
"It is," answered the lady-in-waiting, in spite of not knowing if that was the correct answer or not.
Smiling from ear to ear, Queen Sisi rolled over and muttered to herself, "Little Doggy would never imagine that everything he's now doing is sending himself to . My plans have never failed. This ti, I'll definitely have Little Doggy! And, this ti, it'll be forever. I've already set everything up, but he's still in the dark. Little Doggy only amounts to so much. Little Doggy will be mine."
***
I didn't dally for long. I went straight to the city. The front of the grandiose bank was still as packed as last ti. There were still a fair number of dwarves. However, I doubted Francis would co again. If he dared to co again, I'd have him crawl out, if even that. I didn't have Veirya this ti, so if I wanted, I could even con him of his briefs.
Lots of people were busy with jobs. I waited for a while before soone finally approached . It wasn't the sa person as last ti, but he, too, had bags under his eyes that were so dark that he looked as though he'd drop dead at any mont. He put down a book and opened it. He then sighed, "Let us begin, then. Mister, may I ask what business you are here for?"
"I want to take out a loan with collateral."
"That will not be an issue. Please tell what you will be using as collateral, how much you plan to loan, for how long and how you would like to repay it. We have annual and monthly repaynt plans."
By the sounds of it, he must've dealt with countless similar cases and, consequently, was well-trained in dealing with them. This ti, though, I wanted to use sothing different as collateral, naly shares to the coal. I bought the shares for a thousand gold coins. Logically, I should be able to loan one-thousand gold coins for it, but the challenges were him and the bank, in the sense that do they have interest and hope in coal.
Not everyone believed in coal yet as I said. To add, steam engines had yet to be promoted. As such, the question was whether or not these people would feel that coal was worth fifty thousand gold coins. If they didn't think so, they wouldn't evaluate my shares to be worth one thousand gold coins, consequently aning no loan for .
"My collateral is sothing called shares, which is twenty percent of the coal at the mine on the mountain in the North. I bought the shares with one thousand gold coins, so I hope to loan one thousand gold coins. I will receive a bonus from it annually, which I will use to repay the interest of my loan."
"Is that right?" Evidently uneducated, he flipped through his book and scratched his head. He muttered to himself, "A mine? There are minerals on the mountain now? I don't know How much is it? Erm"
He stood up and gave a small bow: "Sorry, Mister. I truly do not know how much the mineral is worth. I need to ask my superiors. Oh, right, do you know who the mine belongs to?"
"Edward from the imperial capital. I believe that you will understand once you send soone to the imperial capital to inquire. While I am here, let introduce myself. My surna is strange by your standards. It's Lin. My na is Lin Dongqing. I know my na is weird. Even so, I hope you can pronounce it correctly. That will help you figure things out in the imperial capital."
"Y-you are Mister Lin?! Y-you are Mr. Lin? Umm, umm I apologise for being impolite, Sir. I never t you. I have only heard of your na. I have never t you I did not recognise you"
"Oh, really?" I asked with a smile. Curious, I asked, "How did you hear of here? In any case, you've realised what sort of person I man, right? Do you understand the value of the mineral in my possession now?"
"Yes. I have heard of you. However, businessn do not speak very kindly of you. I rember our leader said that, if you were to co and ask for a loan with collateral, then we needed to be extra attentive with what you use as collateral. After all, it is not your first ti tricking soone. You took off with the money used to reinstate Queen Sisi and have not repaid it."
" How are you even able to keep your job here when you're horrendous with words? Also, haven't I already reinstated Queen Sisi? I didn't waste that money."
Things turned sowhat awkward I admit, I deceved a number of people, but I had a reason every ti! Plus, that sum they gave was to reinstate Queen Sisi. She's already returned to her throne, so I didn't waste it, technically speaking. All I did was take the spare amount. That said, nobody said I couldn't take the sum.
"Regardless, I hope you can wait for a bit. We will look more into your loan request. We have never heard of a mine; therefore, we do not know the value of the mine. We need to investigate it. Edward and your reputations are not particularly good among businesses. In saying that, Edward's reputation is worse. We question if his mine is as much as claid."
I nodded. I could understand the concern toward Edward. He sold his wife and daughter for money. It's only right for them to suspect the value of his mine when he went that far for business. While the mineral exists, whether or not it can be traded is another big problem in itself.
By the sounds of things, I wasn't going to get my money today. I needed to wait for the bank to get back to . I, therefore, got to my feet and gave the worker a smile: "Let's do this: I know that you'll look into it carefully, so I also know that I won't be getting any money today or even days. So accordingly, I don't plan to wait here for nothing. I hope you can do a favour and send the one thousand gold coins to Veirya's estate in the North if you confirm it to be worth that much."
"Are you going back?" questioned the worker. "Understood. We will do as per your request. We will look into the value of the mine, but you must bear in mind that our perception of a mine may be different to yours. There is a high likelihood that we do not evaluate it to be so valuable. If you want to take out a loan, you might not be able to loan one-thousand gold coins."
"I understand, but I'm sure you'll believe ."
The reason for my confidence was that I was certain that Sisi would assist . Rather, their investigation would provide with the necessary ti for my letter to reach Sisi. Given that Sisi loved , she'd go to great lengths to promote steam engines. Once they gain popularity, coal, which powers the steam engines, would be priceless. That being the case, fifty thousand gold coins wasn't a lot.
There was enough coal ready to allow investors to earn back their investnts. Fifty thousand gold coins was a sum that was enough to purchase half of the imperial capital. That wasn't a steep price for the steam engines that were able to change the entire world.
All I needed to do was await Sisi's command. I also needed for my letter to reach her. Everybody needed ti, except I needed it more.
Backing was Sisi. With power in my hands, it was obviously easy to acquire money. I was sure that my plan was fail proof unless Sisi betrayed . The chances of her betrayed were zero, though. She'd help even if it was in the na of repaying her debt for my help.
I exited the bank. I was the one getting a loan, yet Edward looked more nervous than I did. I had no idea why. Edward was never one to care about people
"I failed. The bank needs to see if your mine is worth one thousand gold coins before they loan it to , aning I haven't received the sum yet. I can go ahead once they're done investigating, nonetheless. They'll be sending it to my place. Please go and make arrangents for to et all the shareholders. Anywhere will be fine."
"All right. I will go and make the preparations. Wait for my letter. You might have to make a trip to the imperial capital."
"Fine by ."
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