Infinite Reincarnation – Arthur Hurt - Chapter 141



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Infinite Reincarnation – Arthur Hurt Chapter 141

26-Noble

Arthur did not immediately ask Bishop Kratang if he knew Father Macron. They were brothers, one a bishop and the other a priest from a remote village… It was hard to be optimistic about their relationship.

“Then, let us begin the briefing.”

Jarani began the briefing in a nervous voice.

The bank explained to the bishops and priests was not much different from the previous explanation, but it was differentiated by the explanation of the various conveniences that the church would gain by investing in the bank.

First, they emphasized the advantages of dealing with bad debts and simply holding shares in the bank, thereby avoiding direct money play and preventing damage to the reputation of the church.

But Bishop Kratang asked with an expression that made it difficult to read his intentions.

“But isn’t investing ultimately about making money with money?”

“Uh… … So… … .”

Jaran was slightly embarrassed.

While preparing for this briefing session with Arthur, Jaran, who had been informed that the church considered unearned profits to be sinful, quickly checked the briefing script when the bishop questioned the investment itself. Arthur’s response plan was written in case the other party put forward a cause rather than a profit.

But is it because it is dark in the evening, or because my eyes are dim due to my age, or because I am nervous in front of such a great person as a bishop?

I vaguely remember it, but I couldn’t see the item clearly.

Then Arthur whispered quietly next to me.

‘Page 13.’

Aha! Zarran nodded quickly and checked the page Arthur had mentioned, then said to the bishop.

“It’s not about making money. It’s about curbing the greed of other banks.”

This was the role of the church bank that Arthur had come up with: to encourage competition among banks by limiting interest rates to a reasonable level.

In the market of loan sharking, competition depended on who could lend at a lower interest rate without losing.

However, such competitions rarely flowed into chicken games. Chicken games are typical high-risk, high-reward games. As the game was repeated, it generally tended to converge on collusion, which was less risky than chicken games.

But if private banks start colluding like that, it could lead to a situation where they join hands and try to exert influence over the central bank.

That is why we had to think of ways to induce sustainable competition, even if it was only later, and that is when the church came into being.

“As long as the church operates the bank for the purpose of relief, it will be able to restrain other private banks from being greedy and tormenting people with excessive interest rates.”

“… …Is that His Majesty’s thoughts?”

Bishop Kratang narrowed his eyes and asked Jaran. Jaran was shocked. In some ways, it could have led to the misunderstanding that the king was trying to use the power of the church.

However, if it were not the king’s idea, it could be misunderstood as an abuse of authority or disregard for the church.

When Jarani was swallowing dry saliva without finding a breakthrough, Arthur stepped forward.

“Your Excellency, may I say something?”

“… … Yes, Your Majesty Arthur Hurt.”

Arthur opened his mouth with Bishop Kratang’s permission.

“I can assure you that His Majesty the King has absolutely no intention whatsoever of this matter.”

“Really?”

“Rather, he was embarrassed by the church’s involvement in worldly affairs.”

Bishop Kratang’s eyes narrowed at Arthur’s words. The priests standing behind him also looked hostile.

Arthur continued talking, seemingly unaware of the change in atmosphere, even as the cold sweat soaked his back as he grew up in the tense atmosphere.

“I am also a devout believer, so I can understand the church’s position. It is clear that the rise of banking has caused the secular customs to turn away from faith by pursuing only profit. That is why I prepared this place. It is a means for the church to restrain the secular customs from becoming greedy.”

Bishop Kratang, who had been staring blankly at Arthur’s face, opened his mouth.

“So you should do the same thing as those worldly crowds?”

“A shepherd herding his flock with greed may seem the same as a shepherd herding his flock with compassion and kindness, but aren’t they actually two completely different things?”

“… … This is what is said in Chapter 2, Verse 3 of the Book of Genesis.”

The bishop’s expression relaxed somewhat. Arthur’s words quoting the Bible were proof that Arthur was a devout believer, and it was also a passage that he could relate to.

Here Arthur went one step further.

“Even if it is profit without labor, wouldn’t it be okay if it is used well? I believe that if it is a church, even if it is a sinful profit that was created without labor, it will be used for God and the church members.”

After Arthur finished speaking, the bishop remained silent for a long time. This could be interpreted as a sign that Arthur’s persuasion was working.

No matter how good the words and intentions are, if the other person is very cautious, they will only see the negative aspects.

The aesthetic of persuasion is not to stand on the opposite side of the other person and pull them towards you, but to stand in the same place as the other person and point with your finger to show that there is another way.

First of all, wouldn’t it be easier to persuade if you create an emotional and emotional solidarity with the other party to view this logic positively? Well, if they are a wallflower who says they will go somewhere else even if you point a finger at them in the same place, then there’s nothing you can do about it.

But Bishop Kratang was not that kind of a wallflower.

“Hmm. I don’t think this is something we can decide right now.”

“Okay, I see. Do you have any further questions?”

Bishop Kratang asked Arthur. Most of the questions were practical, such as hiring a manager to handle the banking business, evaluating church assets, and exchanging damaged scalons. Judging from that, Bishop Kratang himself seemed to be positive about the church’s investment in banking.

When Bishop Kratang asked him a question, Arthur this time, instead of answering himself, he poked Jaran in the ribs to get him to answer.

Arthur himself decided that it would be better for him to remain as Jaran’s attendant, while Jaran would stand out as the face of this business, or rather, the person in charge.

The man who had been stabbed in the side like that stepped forward and continued answering Bishop Kratang’s questions, but he kept glancing at Arthur as if he was checking his reaction.

Arthur sighed silently at that sight.

Even if it’s in front of a bishop, wouldn’t people look at Arthur rather than Zara, even if they’re just looking at him to confirm, saying, ‘Is the logic I just explained correct?’

If he had told her outright not to do that, it would have been an act of really driving home the fact that Arthur was the real deal and that she was the face of the madam, so Arthur just smiled humbly, looked down, and pretended not to know.

I feel sorry for those who are having a hard time, but I promise that from now on, if something like this happens, I will be the one giving them private tutoring to really put the relevant knowledge and logic into their heads.

Anyway, the secret business briefing with the church ended on a positive note.

As Zarran and Arthur were about to leave after greeting the bishop and priests, the bishop followed them out alone and spoke to Arthur.

“Baron Arthur Hurt.”

“Yes, Bishop.”

“How are you, Father Macron?”

Hmm. So you had a relationship with Father Macron?

But asking Arthur that meant doing some background research on Arthur.

Why did he do background checks? It was clear that he wasn’t trying to check if his granddaughter was a good candidate for a son-in-law. Arthur was wary, but he played the role of a devout believer in front of the bishop.

“Yes. We often write letters to ask how you are doing. I… … But how do you know Father Macron?”

“He’s my cousin.”

“Ah! I see!”

Arthur pretended to be very surprised, and Bishop Kratang laughed and said.

“I hope to see you again later.”

At those words, Arthur decided that as soon as he returned, he should send a letter to Father Macron asking about Bishop Kratang.

* * *

A few days after the briefing, Arthur heard from Countess Tzak that the church had decided to establish a bank and was asking for someone to work on it.

Arthur relayed the matter to Jaran and Samuel, and Samuel complained that the work had piled up again.

However, Jaran was relieved. If the church had deliberately interfered, things would not have been easy, but fortunately, things worked out well.

From Arthur’s perspective, it could be said that it was a crisis that could easily be turned into an opportunity.

What they want is a bowl of rice. If we have the ability to fill that bowl, wouldn’t it be easy to solve?

Ultimately, the church was greedy for banking, but was concerned about the loss of reputation it might suffer.

However, if the church did not establish and operate the bank directly, but remained a simple investor and had church members with close ties to the church operate the bank on behalf of the church, such problems could have been solved.

Since there would be competition over interest rates to secure borrowers for the time being anyway, the church had the advantage of being able to openly claim that it was suppressing the greed to extract wealth without labor and interest.

But the church’s declaration of involvement in the banking industry as a whole must have been a great shock.

Investors who had invested in bourgeois banks immediately visited Zarn due to concerns about returns.

And Jaran reassured them that the church bank would take care of lending to the common people, so they should not worry too much. The church’s purpose was simply to help the struggling common people.

The man who sent them back with such reassurance was amazed at Arthur’s wisdom.

If you think about it a little more deeply, you will realize that there is no guarantee that it will turn out that way, but if the person you grew up with talks as if he or she has already thought about it, will you just let it go for now?

And later, when the market flows differently than expected, the business will have already started and you will be entangled in contracts and will not be able to withdraw the investment money at will.

From then on, you can just watch the situation and give the protesting investors a piece of candy called dividends?

Thus, he used the time he earned to his advantage and was finally able to open two banks: the St. Scala Bank, a bank invested by the bourgeoisie, and the Maronite Bank, which was established with church capital.

As soon as the two banks opened, merchants who needed scalons and businessmen who needed funds to run their factories smoothly rushed to them. The threshold was not low enough to be open to ordinary people. Even the Maron Bank was like that.

Banking is said to be a large-scale loan business, but as always, when the scale exceeds a critical point, its nature changes.

If a bank recognized by the country were to smash a debtor’s pot with a club to collect his debt, public sentiment would immediately fall, and the king would not allow such a situation.

First of all, since most of the people employed by the bank were from such large-scale businesses, the most urgent task was to get rid of such thuggish loan sharks. Fortunately, it was not a difficult problem. This was because most of the people employed were from office jobs rather than field jobs.

All they needed was time to figure out who they could lend to and what the criteria for bad debt assessment would be, and to adapt to the practicalities of the loan review process.

In order to do so, it was best to first gain experience by lending to those with solid credit. There was a reason why, in the early days of the bank, it mainly lends to businessmen with a lot of assets and good earnings, and the same was true of the Maron Bank, which was financed by the church.

Arthur nodded in agreement after checking the long line in front of the bank. It was also an indicator of how well Scalon had settled in, so he could tell that things were going according to plan.

But it seemed a little lacking in terms of customer convenience. They just made those precious customers line up outside? Were they just ordinary people? No. They were rich people.

Arthur turned to head home, intending to tell Samuel and Jaran that they should introduce a waiting room and numbering system for them.

But then strangers appeared in front of him.

“Are you Arthur Hurt, Baron?”