Infinite Reincarnation – Arthur Hurt - Chapter 90



Only Noblemtl

Infinite Reincarnation – Arthur Hurt Chapter 90

19-The Age of Discord

The public, who were ignorant of anything, would be proud of the agitation that claimed victory by expanding the territory a little and saying, “Ah! We won!”, but those with even a little information knew that this was not the case.

To put it mildly, it was a victory that brought only pain. To put it bluntly, it was a war that brought only loss.

The resulting blame game and the resulting confusion surrounding the cleanup could have had a significant impact on the Count Tzak family, who were at the center of power.

“Is there really any need to get close to someone who might get struck by lightning?”

“Wow. Arthur is thinking like that.”

“Oh, what I just said is a secret. Please don’t tell the Countess.”

Madame Zeltny nodded. It was also a warning to avoid getting entangled with the capital’s politics for the time being.

It wasn’t just Madame Zeltney who warned Arthur not to get caught up in the whirlpool of politics.

He also gave attention to his business partners, Jarana and Samuel, as well as Cho-Reng. They were all people who seemed to have connections with the nobility.

They all nodded in agreement with Arthur’s warning. As members of the Mato Company, Jaran and Samuel had to pay more attention to Arthur’s warning. The Mato Company was the one most likely to be involved in the future conflict between nobles.

Arthur remained in seclusion after that, except to go to work.

I often went to the salon to maintain a slim network of connections, but I cut back on other things. As for the total care service, I gave up on it, handing over the know-how to those who had been brought in by Anania Youngae when she was successful in her diet.

Arthur had arranged his work so that he had nothing to do other than his main job as a craftsman and going to the office of the Tsuraz Craft Guild. However, it cannot be said that he had a lot of free time.

“Oh my! Are you trying to steal my money again?!”

“What should I do if Garua Trading Company asks for a 10% discount on the purchase price?”

“Stop talking nonsense! Then you’ll really lose!”

Due to the rising prices and economic downturn caused by the war, everyday life like war was already the new normal.

“Mr. Arthur! Welcome!”

“What’s going on this time?”

The office of the Tsurard Craft Guild’s capital branch has benefited greatly from Arthur’s becoming a celebrity in the salon.

Arthur’s connections and experience have been of great help in solving various problems that the office faces.

Holden answered Arthur’s question with a dark expression.

“There was a retailer who stole the goods a while ago.”

“You disappeared?”

“yes.”

“That’s why I told you not to do any credit transactions these days because things are so chaotic, right?”

“But Mr. Jenikov has never taken a bite before.”

Holden complained with a look of resentment, but Arthur remained indifferent.

“Don’t trust people, trust the situation.”

Even a scholar who goes hungry for three days will be able to climb over someone else’s wall.

Few people can maintain their usual behavior in the face of dire circumstances. It is not only humans but also all living creatures that display their usual behavior in normal situations and their extreme behavior in extreme situations.

In these tough economic times, is it really true that the business partner’s situation is all right? After all, Arthur had warned him in advance, and it was Holden who didn’t listen to his warning, so who can we blame?

Nevertheless, Arthur said this.

“I’ll look into it first.”

He was also a member of the guild in name.

After leaving the office, he first stopped by a store run by a man named Jeni Cobb to find out what was going on.

I asked around and they said that they invested in war bonds while in debt, but the returns were not good and they failed?

He believed in the victory of his country without any doubt and went all out. Should I call him a true patriot? He was more of a debtor who had fed shit to his fellow citizens.

The war bonds that Arthur had purchased also fell by half in market value. Since it was not known when the country would repay the principal and interest, the price of bonds that had lost their credibility had no choice but to plummet.

Arthur, since I bought it with my spare money for insurance purposes and not to make money, there is no need to rush, but those who believed the king’s words, went into debt, and bet a large sum of money on the victory of the Kingdom of Skara, like the merchant Jenikov who disappeared this time, must have all bled.

But doesn’t that mean we shouldn’t pass on the damage to others?

The evil thing about the retailer named Jeni Cobb was that he used his previous credit to make several of his business partners suffer for his own survival. Holden was just one of them.

Arthur clicked his tongue and considered whether he should go find JeniCobb. The money Holden had taken wasn’t a big blow to the guild. It just hurt Holden’s performance evaluation.

Arthur, who asked the merchants near Jeni Cobb’s shop to confirm the situation, was thinking of telling Holden to just accept the reprimand from his superiors. How could Arthur, even if he was determined, catch a bastard who ran away in the middle of the night with his family?

As he was walking back down the shopping street, Arthur noticed a store he had never seen before. The sign on the store read, “Recruitment Office,” and the sign at the entrance read, “We accept money that has been stolen.”

Arthur went into the office just in case.

“Come in, huh?”

“hello.”

As he went inside, a familiar face appeared to greet Arthur, then tilted his head when he recognized his face.

“Uh. So. Brother!”

“I told you to call me boss! If we don’t want to be treated like back-alley thugs, huh?”

The man who appeared at the sound of his subordinate’s call was delighted to see Arthur.

“Haha! Nice to meet you, Arthur!”

“It’s been a while, Mr. Tritso.”

He was none other than the big brother of Amelia’s dangerous back-alley friends who took care of her alcoholic father.

Arthur opened his mouth.

“You even opened a store… It looks like your business is going well.”

“Hahaha! It’s all thanks to you, Arthur! I got a good idea for a business opportunity from the job you asked me to do.”

Even in this era, there were people who lent money and then failed to repay it. Of course, the church said that lending money and charging interest was an act of the devil, but this was not something that could be heard by those who had already tasted industrialization and capitalism.

And more than anything, it was the church that was famous for usury. There were many churches that lent money and took away farmland, so they kept making excuses that it was okay because it was land, not money.

The reason why intellectuals point fingers at the church for being corrupt is precisely because of this corrupt duplicity of the church.

Anyway, when debts and receivables arise like this, bad debts due to defaults are bound to arise, and even if the debt collectors collect harshly, there are bound to be some receivables that have limits. I mean, bad debts that you can’t really get anything for even if you cut open the stomach.

However, Tritso created a miracle by purchasing bad debts that were no different from scraps of paper at a dirt-cheap price and creating a creative economy that made profits.

The hint came, of course, from Arthur’s request. Even something that has nothing to eat can turn into something to eat if you think about it carefully.

Thanks to this change in thinking, Tritso’s organization has come to light. It legally purchases bonds and collects them.

Arthur suddenly had a question about Tritso’s boast.

‘Is debt collection really being done legally?’

If debt collection is done legally, wouldn’t there be enough profit? But I didn’t think about asking about that. The way the world works is that if you throw away ethics and morals, there are endless ways to make money. So there was no need to tense up the atmosphere by asking a question that would not yield anything.

Arthur asked when Trisso’s boasting was over.

“Then will you also look for people?”

“It depends on who you are and how long it takes.”

“There’s a guy named Jeni Cobb.”

Arthur reported that a man named JeniCorp had run away after stealing money from several people.

“Oh~ There is such a person.”

“The circumstances are unfortunate, but shouldn’t we somehow take responsibility for the investment failure?”

No one threatened you with a knife to buy war bonds. If you invested recklessly to satisfy your greed, shouldn’t you be held responsible for that greed?

Holden also had a family to support. If his performance evaluation was flawed and he didn’t receive a performance bonus or his salary was cut, wouldn’t that be a painful loss?

“How much money did that guy eat?”

“We estimate our losses to be around 50 silver coins. I’m not sure how much we lost in total. It would probably be around a few gold coins.”

“Oh my, you ate a lot. But did you just run away with the money?”

“I understand that they only took food and other liquid goods and sold the rest cheaply wholesale.”

So, if they caught him, there might be a lot of Tsuraz Craft Guild products left. The product that Jenicob had stolen money from was the Tsuraz Craft Guild’s best-selling pocket watch.

Tritso said a word.

“That’s vicious.”

It’s funny to say that a former back-alley mafia and current debt collector are evil, but from a capitalist perspective, Tritso was the defender of capitalism, and the con artist JeniCobb was the evil criminal.

“Twenty-five silver coins.”

Arthur nodded without saying anything at Tritso’s sudden remark. He was so calm that Tritso was embarrassed.

“You’re not even going to bargain?”

“It’s a job where you send people out to catch someone who has decided to do something. Considering the risk and the hardship involved, I think it’s a reasonable cost.”

“That’s half of the money I lost.”

“I can get back half of the money I owe. And I don’t plan on paying it alone.”

“aha!”

Tritso was impressed. Arthur was saying that he would gather those who had been harmed by the man named JeniCorp and pay the bribe.

“As expected, you’re so smart. I can see why you’re famous.”

Arthur heard a story that he couldn’t just let pass.

“Am I famous?”

“Of course. The swindler of the Mato Company, the vanguard of the Tsuraz Craft Guild, the owner of the insight that first discovered addiction to sweets, a genius craftsman and excellent composer, the man that all the ladies of the salon want to have a one-night stand with. Wow, I’m so jealous.”

“Do you go to the salon too, Mr. Tritso?”

Trisso answered Arthur’s question with a bitter smile.

“Where is the host who would give an invitation to a guy like me?”

“Then where… … .”

“At the pub.”

“Are you talking about at a bar?”

“Yeah. There are a lot of people who come to the pub after playing at the salon to play cards.”

The salon had to maintain a certain level of dignity, so it could not host a full-scale gambling event. What kind of disgrace is this for a noble host to open a gambling house?

So, those who liked to gamble headed to casinos and bars. Casinos were strictly illegal, but they could not disappear thanks to bribery and the indifference of government officials.

And one of the positive functions of these casinos was the contact between classes and the circulation of wealth.

Gambling was enjoyed by both the nobility and commoners, and the money that the nobility and bourgeoisie lost in the gambling houses flowed to the poor, feeding many of them. Well, even if most of them were gangsters, thugs, and gamblers.

So it was not strange that the rumors going around the salon would spread to the pub as well. The same was true of the rumors about Arthur, a famous person at the salon.

Besides, are the commoners praised by the wealthy and nobles who frequent the salons really ordinary commoners?

Isn’t he someone who came up from the countryside and became successful on his own through his own abilities, even though he wasn’t from the bourgeoisie?

The fame and life story of such a man was an object of jealousy, admiration, and curiosity for the lower classes, and this was the driving force behind the spread of Arthur’s name in pubs.