Meanwhile, in an inconspicuous wooden building in the middle of nowhere.
Jordan was standing at the head of a long table around which all of the leaders of the families who had congregated to profit from the King of Lanthanor"s plans were sitting.
They all had smiles on their faces, as he had just finished a recap of everything they had done so far, which included reports about how the implementation was going well, and that the projected profits would soon be obtained.
Of course, they were all false figures that he had fabricated in order to have them pump in more money, but there was no way that they could know that as he had hidden it very, very well.
Besides, there was no occupation in Angaria where designated people would check records and make sure that everything was recorded correctly. Typically, the butlers of various families had this duty, and although some of them were skilled, it didn"t even come close to be worthy of comparing with Jordan, who had single-handedly run a humongous business in the background all by using accurate bookkeeping skills that had helped him in minimizing losses for a long time.
He had put those skill to full use here, so he was very confident.
With the first step proceeding well, he got a very serious expression on his face as he prepared to deploy the next one of his plan.
Seeing Jordan like so, those in the room quieted down, knowing that this "brilliant" man must"ve come up with something else.
They fully trusted him, both because of the incredible results he had shown so far, and because his expertise was known throughout the business world, at least to those who were high enough on the chain to know of his existence.
On seeing that he had gotten all of their attention, Jordan nodded at his a.s.sistant who activated a display trinket on the wall behind him.
On it, was a huge pyramid divided into levels.
If Daneel was here, and if he was seeing this figure, he would definitely have remarked about how fortunate it was that this scheme hadn"t been thought of by others, or at least recorded in the books in the long history of this continent.
As everyone looked at the figure with puzzled expressions on their faces, Jordan said, "Now, let me announce a way in which all of you people can grow even richer. Have you ever wondered how you could leverage the immense number of people you have under you to considerably increase your earnings? Well, this is the perfect way to do just that."
These words didn"t do much to dispel the doubts in the minds of those present, but it did raise their expectations, as they leaned forward and waited to see what Jordan would say next.
After taking a pause for dramatic effect, he continued, saying "It"s simple. What has always been the biggest headache for you all after a specific good has been manufactured?"
This question didn"t need long to be answered.
The one who spoke was the leader of a family who supplied trinket materials to various Kingdoms. It was a thriving business, and this man had used many nefarious methods to control as many mines as possible so that he could monopolize the market. Although he hadn"t succeeded perfectly, he was still the sole supplier for a major part of the continent.
Frowning, he said, "Of course, sales. And transporting the goods to the customers. It"s never enough to just make things. These days, with compet.i.tion popping up everywhere, it"s getting harder and harder to entice people to buy from us."
This made Jordan raise his eyebrows with surprised joy. He couldn"t have expected that the perfect answer that he wished for would come right after he asked the question.
Well, it could also be taken as a sign of just how enticing this plan would be as soon as it was explained.
Hence, tightening his hand into a fist, Jordan nodded firmly and said, "Well said. I think I"m right when I say that this is something that most of you face, except for a fortunate few who have methods to circ.u.mvent this?."
This made almost everyone in the room nod, except for those select few whom we had mentioned.
These few… were those who dealt in illegal operations such as a.s.sa.s.sinations, information dealing, and smuggling.
Indeed, there were families which specialized in things like these, too, and although they faced a lot of compet.i.tion from the Hidden Kill Sect, they still flourished as not everyone could afford the high rates of that sect.
They operated on quant.i.ty, not quality, so their profits were still supposed to be hefty.
Jordan didn"t care too much about these people, as they weren"t the target of this plan at all.
Thankfully, those whom he was targeting had completely been captivated by his words, and were waiting again for him to continue.
Already realizing that it would be a much greater hit than he had thought, Jordan smiled slightly, which was a rare thing for him, and said, "Well, what if I told you that I can make sure that you won"t have to handle those problems? All you have to do is buy the products, or make them, and the rest can be handed off to someone else. A lot of "someones", in fact."
What was he talking about? Was he perhaps saying that he was setting up an organisation which would specialise in distribution and sales?
That question did come in many many people"s minds, but they couldn"t have expected what he would say next.
"It"s simple, everyone. All you have to do is the opposite of what you"ve been doing all these years. I think I"m also right when I say that you"ve all worked very, very had to make sure that those under you have no chance of selling products by themselves and keeping everything they earn?"
As he saw the nods once again, he prepared to reel them in, as he had just dangled the bait, which they had all bitten.
As he gestured at his a.s.sistant, the image on the display trinket changed to show the same pyramid, but now, at the top level of the pyramid, various names of the families who were gathered here were present, below which the names of subordinate families were also being shown.
Below that was a level simply t.i.tled as "Merchants", and finally, in the last level, "Customers" was written in bold letters.
With another gesture, arrows formed which ran between the bottom level at the top level, while various numbers also started to appear, that increased exponentially with each level, before finally reaching a huge amount as they approached the topmost level and disappeared right near the names of the largest families.
That image of those numbers disappearing was like the sound of money in their years, and as each of the leaders present started studying those numbers along with their butlers who were standing beside them, they realised that over time, the amount they would earn seem to be limitless.
Finally, one woman spoke out, asking "What is this?"
Jordan had been waiting for just that. Without flouris.h.i.+ng too much, as that wasn"t his style, he answered in a simple tone, but it carried such weight because of the silence of the room that all of the words hammered into the ears of all those present, who represented a large magnitude of the wealth in the entire continent.
"Like I said before, it is simple, so let me explain using an example. Let us take you, ma"am, leader of the Savlagan family. Your primary business is the sale of convenience trinkets, right?"
"Yes," the woman simply said, unable to contain her confusion.
"Well then, consider this. As the Savlagan family, you have the smaller Kijon family under you. What you simply do is this - from me, you buy a large number of network trinkets. You"ve already seen the craze for these trinkets - you can be rest a.s.sured that they will never go out of fas.h.i.+on, because we can be sure that the King of Lanthanor will keep innovating in this area and inventing ways to keep the people occupied. After that, at a higher price, you sell these to the family under you, and to others, with the stipulation that whenever they make a sale, they give a percentage of their profit to you, as they are only able to do that in the first place because of your grace. They will be happy to accept, as they"ve never gotten such an opportunity before. Then, the magic begins. You give them the idea that instead of going forward and enduring difficulties to sell by themselves, they should find smaller merchants with whom they can do the same thing - sell at a higher price, with the agreement that a percentage would be given, and of that percentage, you take a percentage. If you"ve been wondering, that is how your profits increase with each level that this goes to, as the number of people who are in the scheme grow. And then, the merchants can be left alone to sell by themselves, but instead of that, I suggest this - the merchants should also sell at a higher price to citizens, with the same agreement, and I don"t need to repeat that a percentage of that percentage will reach you as it goes up the chain. Many times, a lot of citizens wish to enter the merchantry business, but they can"t because they cannot obtain a supply of goods. With that solved, they will happily use all of their savings to buy up as much as possible as all they will need to earn a lot of profits is to make sure that they sell, sell and sell. That"s it! As you can see the figures here, with each level of the chain that increases, your profits, as you are at the top, will rise the highest, as at each level, it all compounds to grow to a huge number. Everyone, I can proudly say that this is the best plan that I"ve ever seen in my life. Thus, I do not wish to be the only one to enjoy it, as I knew that it would all be copied by you anyway if I went forward with it. Now, I will give you all the projected numbers, so you can study them in depth before making a decision. Whether you choose this and become more prosperous than you can ever imagine, or if you act cautiously and see others surpa.s.s you in just a few years, it is up to you. I"ll be waiting."
Leaving those last powerful words, Jordan simply marched out of the room, and as soon as he closed the door, he heard a loud buzz of conversation begin, which made him allow himself another smirk as he confirmed that they had definitely fallen for it, hook line and sinker.
After all, how could they guess that this was the most devastating scheme possible?
Happily thinking to himself that he would be the final winner, he proceeded to his room, all while being watched from elsewhere.
…
Daneel and Faxul had just gotten back to the Palace after not speaking for a while due to the revelation of the meaning behind that number.
For the life of them, they couldn"t imagine how anyone could be with that many women, especially when considering that both of them were Kings who had never had any progress in that direction.
Daneel"s reasons were clear, and as for the case of Faxul, he knew that there must be a lot of reasons, too, as the guy was constantly having to handle one thing or another with no time to spend for himself. Besides, the customs of the Black Raven Kingdom were also that just like with Black Ravens, mates were sacred, so harems were frowned upon, which was another way in which this Kingdom was unique.
All they could do now was wait for that Empire Spirit to give his answer, so they were free for the time being, which led Daneel to ask what Faxul had heard from the old Black Raven at the end of the Baptism.
He had already just checked on the eavesdropping trinkets he had placed on that guy who was in charge of those whom he called "pirates" in his head, and he was quite happy to see that the pyramid scheme of Earth had fully made its entry into this continent.
Of course, he hadn"t done this without placing certain measures in place so that it wouldn"t cause as much desperation, and even death, as it had back on earth.
The objective was to completely squeeze these rich families dry so that he could use that money for the betterment of this continent, all while making sure that those at the bottom levels would not be the ones most adversely affected when things went south.
The news that it had all gone down smoothly was something to rejoice about. So, as the both of them sat down in his quarters and opened a bottle of wine just like they had done so many years ago when things were much simpler, Daneel had a smile on his face as he asked Faxul the question that was bothering him.
Faxul repeated the old man"s statement word for word, which led to even more questions arising, but before Daneel could think about them, his gaze fell upon the beating Dragon Heart in the middle of the room.
As for the reason behind this common sight captivating him like so, it was simple and could be explained with a single word - "bloodline".
Leaving Faxul hanging, Daneel directly asked the owner of the Heart.
"Drakos? So, about that bloodline…do you think you could give me one by somehow using this huge beating heart of yours?"