On seeing off the loan sharks who had hopeful expressions on their faces, Daneel smiled before going back to his chambers.
Although idealistic notions were all well and good, at the end of the day, business came down to numbers.
Daneel had promised them that the gold and/Ether they would send over would safely be returned with interest if he was informed 6 months prior. The interest rate was set at 5%, after he had haggled it down from 10.
The deciding factor had been that of safety.
Both the war that had been won at the border and the display of top-tier power and talent by the King of Lanthanor were signs that this was a Kingdom that wouldn"t go down any time soon. Besides, it had existed for centuries with very few instances where its existence had been threatened.
Thus, given a choice between given multiple loans which had a degree of risk in them and giving one loan which was as safe as it could be, it was quite clear which was more appealing.
In fact, Daneel had gotten this idea from the debt system on the Earth.
Although this was a very deep and intriguing topic that he had decided to study and a.n.a.lyze at a later date, there was a simple takeaway which he had applied here.
The safest loan was the best loan.
Here safety could mean multiple things. In the case of the Earth, individuals and corporations were almost always ready to give loans to the United States, both due to the stability of the Dollar as a currency(as this was the currency with which the loan would be repaid) and the record that the country had of not defaulting on its debts. Hence, having the power to receive loans with almost no interest due to these factors, the US took as much as it could, not caring about the fact that it was going more and more into debt.
This was because of the fact that even if it was in debt, that money which was taken as a loan that had to be repaid in a set period of time could be doubled or even tripled before that point came by making smart investments.
To make it simpler to understand, it could be parallelized to the scenario of a school.
In the school, there were a set of bullies who stole or took the lunch money of kids in the morning itself, before lunchtime.
Agitated by this fact, the kids decided to pool all their lunch money in the morning with the school clerk, who would definitely be able to keep it safe. All he needed to do was to give it back by lunchtime.
Being astute, after taking the money in the morning, this clerk went to a market and bought all the items required for making snacks like biscuits.
After making them at his home, the clerk came back to the school and sold the biscuits during the snacks break to either those who didn"t need to fear the bullies or even the bullies themselves.
After keeping the tidy profit, the clerk simply gave back the original money he had been given for safekeeping to the kids during the lunch break.
In this scenario, the US was the clerk, the bullied children were the organizations, individuals and countries who feared economic fluctuations, loan defaulters(or other factors) and the bullies were these fears.
Daneel"s goal was to build an organization which could be trusted like the clerk by Angaria.
As the famous saying went, "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step."
Hence, his first step had been to take a step back to personally swear an oath that the a.s.sets would be returned in whatever form they wished.
As the individual with the top-most talent in the entire Central Continent, his word was as good as gold notwithstanding the fact that there was also an oath on top.
All these things had finally managed to convince the loan sharks who were usually very strict with their money.
Almost each and every one of them had pledged over half of their a.s.sets, as the rest were not in liquid form to be moved.
[Achievement Unlocked: Banker
Banker: By using the knowledge from your previous life, you have embarked on a mission to build a bank that can bank for them all. Congratulations on becoming a banker!
5000 EXP awarded.]
At this moment, Daneel did not know whether to smile for earning precious EXP or to cry for being called a name that was used as a curse by many from his home planet.
Regardless, the treasury that had been empty for so long would finally be refilled with 10 Million Gold Lans worst of a.s.sets that he could use to further his goals.
After entering the Energized Training Chamber and taking a seat to continue his training, Daneel started to make plans for the scheme he had in his mind for helping people like Helena and the little girl whose embarra.s.sed and cute expression still brought a smile to his face.
Yet, the hands that were going to be plunged into the red solution were stopped in their tracks when he casually asked the system to show him his statistics.
...…..
At the same time, on the grounds of the Royal Palace of the Black Raven Kingdom.
As two men watched on from the sidelines, a woman and a raven could be seen standing opposite each other on an open field in one of the sparring grounds in the Palace.
Unlike the raven which Elanev had fought against in the Battle Royale which had been bulky, this one was lithe.
Its agile body looked like it had been built for speed, unlike the other whose only goal was to destroy opponents by using its overwhelming penetrating power.
Hence, although it did not look as big, it was very long, with the length from the tail to its head being at least 3 feet.
It was only when the raven opened its wings did it become clear that this was a bird which was actually much larger than it looked.
With a combined length of over 6 feet, a single flap of the wings allowed the raven to directly fly up and catch an air current which it used to drift higher and higher.
As for the woman, on seeing the raven take to the skies, she only raised her hand to make 4 ice p.r.i.c.ks appear in the air in front of her.
After a few seconds during which she scanned the skies, the woman"s eyes sharpened as she realized that the attack was coming from behind her. Although she had been turning around frequently to check everywhere, it seemed that her opponent had chosen the perfect time.
Indeed, the raven swooped down silently with its wings aloft, like an a.s.sa.s.sin who was hiding in the shadows.
By the time she shot the first ice p.r.i.c.k, the raven was already only a few seconds away from penetrating her neck with its sharp beak.
With a simple sway, this ice p.r.i.c.k and the one that had been shot after it missed, making it look as if the woman would have no choice but to be impaled.
Yet, after a second, it became clear that she had only held them back for a final attack.
At the last moment before the raven"s beak collided with the woman"s neck, the last two ice p.r.i.c.ks attacked from below, accurately striking their target and disappearing as if they had entered deep inside the raven.
As for its beak, it made its impact on the neck of the woman who gasped before clutching her neck and flying backward.
Both crumpled to the ground, while claps rang out from one of the men who had been watching the entire thing.
Yet, the man who accompanied him said something in a lazy tone which made the woman who had fallen on the ground glare at him as if she wanted to kill him.
"Meh. I could have killed it in the first try."
Hearing this, the man beside him who was bald with a handlebar mustache got an exasperated expression on his face before saying, "Sir, it"s a spar! The goal is to understand each other so that they can fight better later on!"
Indeed, both the raven and the woman stood up ma.s.saging the spots where they had been slightly injured.
The ice p.r.i.c.ks had been blunt, and the woman had been wearing a special trinket which produced a barrier that protected the neck area.
As for the raven, its beak had also been blunted by using rolled cloth.
Still unimpressed, Elenav, who had entered the Palace on making bold and blasphemous claims that there was nothing special about Black Ravens, shrugged before saying, "Still. I see no advantage whatsoever. Either match me up against a top-tier fighter of yours at my level that I can"t defeat, or let me bond with a Raven to find out what"s so special about it! Or you can simply admit that I"m right….."