Infinite Reincarnation – Arthur Hurt - Chapter 128



Only Noblemtl

Episode 128

24-Family

“Tea, wouldn’t it be better to accept the offer to protect everyone?”

Amelia asked. Arthur smiled and patted the girl’s head.

“It would be easy to hand you over. But then my soul would surely be defiled.”

The regret that a choice that was not honest with oneself brought about was soon painful.

In Arthur’s experience, at crossroads, he was able to be more honest with himself about the difficult path than the easy one. That’s why the road to hell is paved with good intentions. To say that it’s paved with good intentions means that it’s easy to choose.

Arthur, who has infinite life after death, did not want to inflict such pain on himself, even though he did not know whether there was an afterlife or not.

“That goes for you too, Cho-reng. It’s not for you. It’s for ourselves.”

Did Arthur’s words sound comforting? Tears welled up in the girl’s eyes and flowed down. When Arthur silently hugged her, the girl buried her face in Arthur’s chest and burst into tears.

The girl who had been crying for a long time fell down. Even though she had wiped away her tears and snot, the girl was still shy and lowered her head to avoid Arthur’s gaze, and Arthur placed his hand on her head and spoke.

“Don’t worry too much. There are plenty of ways to make him behave.”

If he couldn’t give up his desires until the end… … I was willing to make him fall into eternal sleep. If he couldn’t raise his body, then holding on to his desires until the end would be useless.

The girl nodded at Arthur’s resolute words.

***

The period of deliberation was long, and it took Arthur ten days to get a reply from Countess Tzak after she had proposed the currency business.

“See you again.”

Viscount Cato Zeltny came to fetch Arthur. It seemed that he was going to see the queen rather than the king himself. Of course, it was safer that way for security reasons. It was rare for the king to meet with a quasi-nobleman alone, so it was bound to attract attention.

“How have you been?”

Arthur greeted them and climbed into the carriage where Cato was sitting.

As the carriage started off with the clatter of horse hooves, Kato opened his mouth.

“I heard you’ve been having a headache lately?”

“There must be one or two headaches.”

Arthur tried to shake off the doubt, but somehow he felt like he knew what he was talking about. Sure enough, Cato blurted out a name.

“Baron Kshan.”

“It’s a headache, after all. I can’t tell the difference between public and private life.”

Cato laughed as if he found Arthur’s words amusing.

“You speak as if you were a commoner. To a noble, public and private life are one and the same. If you are a noble by name, you should realize that.”

It was difficult to understand the distinction between public and private life for the aristocrats, who were born with privilege. This was because they lived a life in which every word and action was analyzed and interpreted to have political meaning.

And this tendency was stronger among those at the center of power.

But to Arthur, it was a laughable sound.

“What political significance is there in lusting after a young girl?”

“I have this taste. If you want to have a political marriage with our family, bring a young girl. Isn’t that what it means? Just like you hinted that if you need to get your wife a lady’s title without getting a divorce, you can join hands with the neutral or noble faction.”

Arthur burst out laughing in disbelief.

“Is that how the nobles interpret it?”

“People really live in such a complicated world, don’t they?”

Kato replied with a smile. He himself hated such complexities and chose to escape to the world of Trouble, but eventually, after going around and around, he ended up adapting well to the aristocratic society.

Kato is probably not the only one like that. Groups have certain tendencies, and if you can’t adapt to those tendencies, you will be ostracized, eliminated, and eventually disappear.

Even if you don’t like the tendencies of a group, it may be the fate of weak humans to have no choice but to adapt in order to survive.

Kato, who had been laughing, coughed a few times and then changed the subject.

“By the way… … Do you know anything about the author named Sangswart?”

“Why, lawyer?”

“Why, there are things like you like and things you dislike.”

Kato’s intentions were clear. He wanted to exploit his rival’s weakness and get rid of her from Madame Zeltny’s side.

Arthur doesn’t want to get involved in other people’s love lives, but he still gives her a hard time about it, considering the trouble she went through to get him.

“Your Majesty, Viscount Zeltni. Obsessive men are unattractive.”

That wasn’t a wrong statement. The charm of obsessive men only exists in novels.

No, even in a novel, to give plausibility to the idea that an obsessive man is attractive, you need to attach a bunch of attributes like a peerless handsome man, a capable man, and a pure and innocent man, but what kind of conditions would be necessary in reality?

And to Arthur, it would be hard to say that Viscount Cato Zeltny was not handsome, but he did not seem to be the type of obsessive male protagonist you see in romance novels. Rather, his manly attitude seemed to diminish his good looks.

Kato jumped at Arthur’s remark.

“Obsessed! Absolutely not!”

“Then why are you so obsessed with Madame Zeltney?”

“… … Well… … Because she was the first woman I felt true love for.”

“… … Don’t say that to me. Tell it to Madame Zeltney.”

“That’s because I can’t do it!”

Arthur sighed and turned his head. What is he doing at his age? He couldn’t help but look at him because he was so pitiful.

Kato persistently talked to Arthur, trying to dig up his personal weaknesses against his rival, Sangswart. When on earth had he developed such an intimate intimacy with Arthur that he was acting so friendly?

Arthur was dumbfounded and maintained his stance of not interfering in other people’s love affairs until the carriage stopped.

Kato sighed and said, having gained nothing while the carriage stopped.

“You’re going too far.”

Who the hell is that to say something like that? I thought I had somehow managed to marry Mrs. Zeltney. What on earth did she see in that man that made her marry him?

Anyway, Arthur followed Cato’s instructions and arrived at the garden where he had met the queen. The scenery was different because it was a different season, but the queen’s elegant and dignified posture was exactly the same as before.

Arthur set an example.

“How have you been?”

“Yes. How about the Hurt Junjak?”

“I am living comfortably thanks to His Majesty the King’s grace.”

“It doesn’t seem like that’s what you asked for?”

A word from the Queen. Baron Kshan, who was after Amelia, was a noble who was classified as a royalist.

But Arthur responded calmly.

“Isn’t that a common occurrence?”

The same goes for his older sister Jenny. Didn’t the village chief pressure his father Jonathan to choose Jenny as his daughter-in-law?

The abuse of power by the strong to get what they want from the weak has been something that will never disappear as long as humans exist. It was a guess that political marriages were always for the sake of a win-win for both parties. There must have been cases where people accepted political marriages because they could not resist the pressure.

The queen asked.

“It seems like your request isn’t all that urgent?”

“If it doesn’t work out, then there’s nothing we can do, right?”

Arthur did not show any obsession with the queen’s questions.

If you think of it as a weakness, you can try to catch it and use it as a leash. Originally, you need a leash to control a hunting dog. Baron Kshan, who was loyal to the royal family, could be a great leash to control the hunting dog Arthur, but for Arthur, having a headache like Baron Kshan continue was a risk in itself.

The queen observed Arthur’s expression with narrow eyes as he responded, then said:

“It won’t be difficult to stop Baron Kshan. But before that, shouldn’t we first consider how valuable the business you proposed is?”

“Okay, then, can I explain the paper money business to you?”

As the queen nodded, Arthur brought up the details he had not been able to convey through Countess Tzaq.

Anyone who has studied a little can easily estimate what benefits can be gained by circulating paper money and credit money.

Well, distributing and managing it well was a completely different matter, but Arthur didn’t want to bring up the troublesome issue and fan the flames of negative perceptions about the business.

Isn’t the original business briefing a place to preach a hopeful future rather than the possibility of business failure? Investors should be able to see through the risks themselves.

And what the queen probably wants to hear now is not the risks, but the clear benefits that can be gained by conducting a paper currency business.

So Arthur explained the necessity of starting a business in the current situation from a political perspective.

“I know that the nobles who support His Majesty the King are nobles who grew up through the industrial reforms of the previous king. Their influence is based on commerce and industry. Naturally, wouldn’t using paper money help them and gain greater support?”

“You’re saying such an obvious thing.”

The queen responded calmly.

Here Arthur slightly provokes the queen.

“Isn’t this a natural thing now that the war is over?”

Then the queen’s eyes turned fierce as she looked at Arthur, and Arthur quickly bent down gently.

“Please forgive me. I did not mean to offend Your Majesty the Queen.”

Facts may hurt, but what can you do? You have to be in pain to see reality.

“Please continue.”

Fortunately, the queen wanted to continue listening to Arthur’s story, so he continued his explanation.

“Commerce and industry will continue to develop. However, there are limits to the development of commerce and industry with physical currencies such as gold and silver. This is because exchange value is not preserved.”

The most fatal flaw of physical currencies such as gold and silver was that it was difficult to provide sufficient money supply when the overall wealth of society increased, and a decrease in the money supply meant that the value of the money increased.

This was a fatal problem, as the value of currency had to be constant.

As the value of money increases, people save money in anticipation of a rise in the value of the currency, so consumption decreases. From an industrial perspective, this is a recession in consumption, and the incentive to produce goods decreases as the value of goods relative to money decreases.

And as a result, the productivity of the entire society decreases. This was fatal for the Kingdom of Skara, where national power was growing thanks to industrialization.

“It will be too late to deal with it then. We must prepare now. That is why the royal family monopolized gold and silver, and instead, we needed to issue paper currency.”

Are you hoarding money to suck the honey of deflation? Yeah, just print it and that’s it.

“And the gold and silver stored can be used to circulate more currency. That alone will be a great help in the development of commerce and industry, and can bring about the support of the aristocrats of the commerce and industry.”

Arthur did not explain the core part of the power to issue currency, which would have great influence on those who had amassed wealth through currency. He had no intention of revealing such core information to someone who was not even a comrade.

“Hoo.”

Could that be why the queen’s interest was not so serious? She acknowledged the need for paper currency, but she did not think it was urgent.

So there was a prepared logic.

“And this will weaken the power of the landed aristocracy.”

“How?”

“As the overall wealth of society increases due to the development of commerce and industry, the profits from this will be used to buy food. As they can buy it at a cheaper price, the power of the landowners and aristocrats will weaken.”

“Do you think the landowners will just sit by and watch that happen?”