Occupation of Ophilis Hall (8)
Favor or trust is accompanied by a corresponding reason.
The reason why Slog, one of the six great merchants of the Elte Chamber, joined Lortel is because he is in a position to aim for the position of the next chairman.
The reason why Seaton, the head of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, joined Lortel’s plan with a smile is because he believes that the internal rift in the Elte Chamber will bring a new wind to the power structure of the commercial city of Oldeck.
The reason why Sharo, the receptionist at Elte Chamber of Commerce, is being mean to Lortel is because he is hoping that Lortel might accidentally reveal valuable information.
The reason why Cardan, a store worker, is particularly generous in front of Lortel is because Lortel often gives him tips.
The reason Tini, the pet bird raised at the academy, clings to Lortel is because the feed Lortel provides is of the highest quality.
Every favor comes with a reason, like a tag. At least that’s the case in Lortel’s world.
In most cases, if you can clearly see the reason, you can see the other person’s intentions and psychology at a glance.
There is no family related by blood, no lovers who promised to love each other, and no close friends who have been together for a long time. A person who shows favor to Lortel without reason cannot possibly exist in the world, so paradoxically, he can maintain a cynical attitude toward all human relationships.
“I don’t think I have time to explain in detail. Anyway, Ellis betrayed you, right?”
Even though I knew that, I trusted Ellis. What a stupid and stupid mistake.
The attitude of life that did not completely trust anyone becomes meaningless.
One person who comes to mind is Yenica Palover.
She grew up receiving a lot of favor and love, and she herself is a princess in a storybook who approaches the world with only favor and love. Looking at her passionate eyes looking at Ed Ross Taylor… I can’t help but be convinced that this is indeed the love of a beautiful girl who has not been stained by Sefa’s stains.
If you saw something like that, you shouldn’t have forgotten how gloomy and dirty you were.
I should not have been intoxicated by the romantic scenery of Sylvania Academy and made the illusion that I, too, could become such a romantic and beautiful person.
“I saw Shenny making contact with Elte. Shenny was a maid loyal to Ellis, I guess?”
Ed Rosstaylor says as he runs ahead through the first floor hallway.
“Still, neither Ellis nor Elte will report your movements to the academy. Even the Golden King Elte himself will not want to find out that this incident has a connection with the Elte Company.”
There are five people that Lortel bribed for this occupation of Ofilis Hall.
Head maid Ellis, twin maids Shenny/Kelly, Willaine, representative of inferior students, and Ed, a fallen nobleman.
Ellis and Shenny Kelly went over to Elte.
Willaine also wants to join Elte, but he will not join Lortel.
And Ed also had to be persuaded by Elte.
Suddenly the steps stopped. Ed, who was running ahead, looked back with a puzzled look on his face and quickly narrowed his eyes.
People complain about what they are doing when they don’t have time.
Lortel finally came to his senses, smiled like a fox, and said something that even he couldn’t understand why he was saying.
“I’m sorry, Senior Ed. Right now, I can’t guarantee whether I can give you the 20 gold coins I promised. As you can see, the current situation is unstable.”
My heart feels sticky after being stabbed in the back by Ellis, asking me why I betrayed him once or twice.
Lortel had no choice but to admit it. He is now mentally and physically weak.
Otherwise, there is no way you would do such a stupid thing.
I don’t know why, but Ed Rothtaylor sided with Lortel instead of siding with Elte.
In that case, it would be best to read his intentions, see through them, and think of taking advantage of him.
However, like an idiot, he keeps making confessions like this.
What kind of idiotic behavior is this? It’s like confessing to your allies that there is no reason for them to be on your side.
“Who asked you? You’re so busy, what are you doing standing there blankly?”
However, Ed doesn’t show any concern as he shrugs off Lortel’s words.
“If you get caught by Elte now, your life will be over. No matter what you plan to do later, you will have to run away first.”
Ed, standing across the hallway and scolding him, is covered in blood.
He probably ended up in this situation while guarding the first floor of the Ofilis building as requested by Lortel.
Nevertheless, he does not even express his hard work. It’s almost like I’m grumbling that I’ve had such a hard time.
“Or are there any other sharp measures?”
“…”
“If it is possible, let’s do as you wish.”
There is not even a trace of doubt in his tone as he coolly says that he will join Lortel’s will.
In fact, this man is even convinced that he will follow Lortel’s opinion and give his hand.
As I have said time and time again, favor and trust are always accompanied by appropriate reasons.
However, there appears to be no reason for this man’s favor and trust.
No matter how rational and reasonable you think about it, this man should have given in to Elte’s appeasement. If you ask 100 people, all 100 of them would do that.
If you can’t see the reason, you shouldn’t believe it. If you carelessly share your true feelings when you haven’t completely figured out the other person yet, you might end up in trouble.
Wasn’t it just now that I trusted Ellis and ended up like this? You can’t repeat the same mistake again, right?
However, the mouth begins to move on its own. An inner voice shouts at me to stop, but I feel so devastated that I can’t let go of the last straw.
What flows out of his mouth is the entire story of the internal circumstances of the Elte Company and the power struggle within the company.
“…There is a plan to manipulate the market price that was being planned by the head office of the company. It was probably planned by my father.”
“Explain.”
“After the large-scale subjugation of the monster tribe in the Eastern Mountains last summer, the market price for janggu plummeted. After purchasing all the remaining janggi items and monopolizing them, internal transactions were repeated…” “It’s a transaction. You can
explain it briefly. .”
Ed coolly cut off the explanation.
Centering around the punitive force station, they monopolize the equipment sold in the area and then buy and sell the items in the market repeatedly.
The key point is that it is insider trading.
Merchants who were secretly purchased, centered around Elte Trading Company, repeatedly made transactions among themselves.
Assuming that three merchants called ABC are buying, A sells the equipment to B for 1 gold coin, B sells it to C for 2 gold coins, C sells it to A again for 3 gold coins, and so on, gradually raising the market price.
In the end, gold coins and jewelry were just spinning around in the hands of Elte Company, but their prices were steadily rising.
In that way, the frothy market price is maintained until the next monster tribe subjugation when demand rises. Then, you can sell the janggu items at ridiculous profits.
It may seem like it makes sense to manipulate market prices through such arbitrary collusion, but it was surprisingly a classic tactic. However, it is simply unrealistic because it requires a huge amount of capital.
“For that plan, my father borrowed bonds from the Duke of Oldogar and the Count of Ofer. However, by the time the maturity date arrived, the plan to subdue the monster tribe had been pushed back, so urgent funds were needed.”
“The solution was the wise man’s seal?”
“yes.”
There wasn’t much explanation, but Ed understood very quickly. It was as if I had learned something in advance.
“My father… said he had found someone who would buy the wise man’s seal at a high price as long as he got his hands on it… and instructed me to go to Sylvania as a student and find a way to steal the wise man’s seal.”
“Okay, I understand. There’s no need to explain after that.”
“Huh? This is fine?”
Ed grabbed Lortel’s wrist. He said it was a waste of time to stay still and walked out again across the hallway.
“After that, there’s no point in talking about it in detail. The scale of the Occupation of Ophilis Building was brought up in order to put the academic finances in a corner, and then the negotiations for the purchase of the wise man’s seal would become more realistic, so we used that as bait to pull Elte out of the head office of the Chamber of Commerce. “I guess they were thinking of selling the janggu at the head office.”
Although he only talks about the main points as he strides forward, the story penetrates to its essence. The speed of understanding the situation is unusual.
Lortel looked at Ed with blank eyes, but Ed didn’t seem to care.
In the end, the core of market manipulation through clear transactions is mutual trust.
ABC An act of artificially inflating the market price by exchanging money and goods between three merchants.
However, it is a structure that cannot be established if even one of the three ABC members defects in the middle. The structure is such that when the market price rises moderately, they first empty out all their inventory and disappear into hiding, leaving only the remaining two to suffer.
ABC was cited as an example, but if you think about the size of the trading association and the market, there must be dozens of mid-level or higher merchants involved.
Over the past six months, about a third of them have been sold, so if you get the timing right, you can induce a plunge in the market price through a large-scale sale of janggu.
Since the price has been artificially bubbled, it is not difficult to cause the price to plummet. It is difficult for prices to go up, but once you start selling properties competitively, the rate at which they fall is instantaneous.
For Elte Trading Co., which has a lot of equipment, the price drop will be recorded as a huge loss.
If you look at it from a very broad perspective, it will only be a reduction in the amount of surplus, but in the short term, a huge amount of deficit will be recorded in the upper management’s ledger.
What matters is right now. Macroscopic pictures that cannot be seen are not very important.
Elte’s position, which has been shrinking due to various losses, will be fatally wounded by this loss.
In addition, if charges of minor ledger manipulation or liability for losses are added, this cannot be a sufficient justification for his removal from office.
How could all these pictures be drawn in Ed Rothtaylor’s head just by saying those words?
No matter how much your head spins, there is a limit to a person’s agility. There is no way that all of these pictures could be drawn with just Lortel’s brief explanation.
“Then there is only one thing for you to do.”
But Ed’s words still hit the point.
“All you have to do is somehow send a message to the head office of the company telling them to sell the janggu right now, right?”
Basically, if you want to sell the company’s internal assets on that scale, you need the approval of the company’s shareholders.
However, when the head of the company is away, the approval rights are inherited by an elder among the six great merchants under him in order to expedite business processing.
Slog, one of the six great merchants of the Elte Company. An old fox who participated in Lortel’s plan after being promised the position of next leader.
If they put their stamp of approval on the sale of equipment as if it were everyday life with a nonchalant face… the responsibility would sadly fall on Elte.
Even if an enraged Elte tries to punish Slog, it is his defeat at the point when the justification for his dismissal has already been established.
Originally, all of this planning should have happened during the ‘Sage’s Battle for Seal’ event.
An enraged Elte screams and calls out Lortel’s name, but the event ends with Lortel showing a faint smile beneath his robe in a corner of the shaking carriage.
After that, Act 2 ends with the chase and destruction of Professor Glast, who stole the seal and fled to the secret laboratory. In fact, this is the main event and is larger in scale.
“If you go to my room, you will find Jeon Seo-gu. He is a contact person who is directly connected to my inner circle at the head office of the company.”
“If you blow up that Jeon Seo-gu and hide well until the sales plan is implemented at the head office of the company, you will win.”
“However, my father is probably expecting it to some extent. He is planning to capture me within the night and make me reveal the whole plan and the traitor within me.”
You never know what might happen if you leave your seat carelessly. Even though Elte knew this, he ran all the way to Sylvania. Because I can’t figure out who among my henchmen is an ally and who is an enemy.
It may have been carried out on a minimal scale without informing anyone, but even so, news reached the Chamber’s ears in an instant.
We bet everything on each other. This chase is the final battle that determines the joys and sorrows of father and daughter.
“You could go out the back door, go around the outside wall, and go through your window.”
“I was going to say that too.”
“Yes, I can communicate well.”
We really communicate well. It’s a smooth exchange of opinions, as if it were heavily lubricated.
They are quick to understand, proactive in coordinating opinions, strong in crises, and not swayed by emotions.
Lortel swallowed dry saliva as he watched Ed running down the hallway, dragging his wrist.
The back door of Ofilis Hall is visible. Although it is not as flashy as the main gate, the luxuriously carved patterns and pictures represent the class of the building.
“Listen carefully, Lortel. There is nothing good about your location being discovered right now. You need to hide in your hiding place as unseen as possible.”
“I have a villa that I purchased separately in the Mine region. If only I could take a carriage all the way there…”
“If I were Elte, I would have people waiting on both bridges leading to the outside of Aken Island. “I guess.”
Ed was correct.
The driver who pulls Lortel’s carriage is a trustworthy man, but the carriage’s appearance is still gorgeous in its own way.
If you cross the bridge openly, you will definitely be followed.
“Talk to the coachman who will be waiting in the living quarters and send only the empty carriages out of Aken Island. Then, instruct him to abandon the carriages in an appropriate area and run away. Then, he will make the mistake of thinking that you are outside of Aken Island.”
“Then I…?”
“There is a cabin I built in the northern forest. I will only have to last three days there.”
It is dark under the lamp. If it were a forest right next to Sylvania, you wouldn’t think it would be here.
“I’ll go to your room and send your Jeon Seo-gu away. All I have to do is write a message that says, ‘Sell it right now,’ and the other complicated matters will be handled by the head office of the company, right?”
“…yes that’s right.”
There is no waste whatsoever in Ed’s movements and work, as if he were a fellow merchant who has been working with him for a long time.
When I look at Ed, who adapts to me and solves problems as if he were my own, I get the feeling that it might actually be okay to trust and leave everything to him.
Even though I know that such a romantic relationship cannot be established, my already devastated heart whispers in my ear once again.
Maybe it will really work this time.
As I have said repeatedly, obsession is not a feeling that arises from flowers on a distant cliff.
It blooms from a breathtaking lack that seems almost reachable but cannot be reached.
“…”
Ed tried to open the back door, looked out through the crack in the door, and then quietly closed the door again.
“Listen carefully, Lortel. There is someone guarding the back door.”
In a low voice, Ed quickly explained the situation.
“There is no benefit in revealing your location or movements. I will go outside, deal with it, and then run towards your room. In the meantime, you will watch closely, and when there is no one in sight, run towards the living room. Do you understand?”
Lortel nodded with difficulty, but Ed narrowed his eyebrows as if he was dissatisfied and scolded Lortel.
“Are you sure you’re coming to your senses? Why are you so absent-minded, unlike you?”
“Yes, yes… I understand.”
Ed grabbed Lortel’s shoulders and pulled Lortel’s body into the wall next to him. Lortel was startled and his pupils trembled for a moment, but if you think about it closely, he just pushed Lortel into an unseen place outside the door.
“Once you get to the northern forest, there will be no room for chase. After that, it’s up to you.”
After saying that, Ed opened the back door and bent down to go out.
“Senior Ed.”
Only after reflexively calling that name did Lortel realize that he was embarrassed.
I couldn’t bear it without asking.
“Why on earth are you helping me like this…?”
Every favor has a good reason. By detecting the reason, you can usually see the person’s psychology and behavioral principles at a glance.
However, after asking the truth directly… even making a mistake that even a novice who had just become a merchant would not make… Lortel kept those words out of his mouth.
This is because it does not make sense through common sense. No matter what anyone says, from Ed Rosstaylor’s point of view, it was the right decision to stick with Elte.
No matter what you look at, whether it’s financial gain, odds of winning, or influence, Lortel is inferior in the current situation.
Even if you think about it in terms of good and evil, Lortel is a bad person and can never be good.
Nonetheless, Ed stuck to Lortel’s side.
Ed frowned for a moment as if he was thinking about what to answer to Lortel’s question.
“…Just? I somehow feel like it should be like that?”
After saying that in an evasive tone… I kicked out the back door.
-Shoot
, thump, thump.
The sound of pouring rain came through the open door, and sounds like explosions caused by battle were heard throughout the Ofilis building.
It seemed like the noise was caused by the battle between maid head Ellis and Taily and her group that was taking place on the 5th floor.
-Thump thump thump
The noise caused by the intense battle will mark the final battle of Ofilis Pavilion. Lortel sensed that Tailley and his party would win. No matter how much of a maid she is at Ofilis Hall, if Tailly starts using the swordsmanship technique, her strength will start to wane.
Lortel remained still for a long time as he was pushed against the wall.
I can’t see Ed Rothtaylor’s true intentions. It is clear that there must be a reason for all favors and trust, but I cannot see his reason.
He has no financial gain, no ideological background, and is not just a person swayed by emotions. So then, what other reason can there be?
– ‘Have you been tempted by the child’s beautiful appearance?’
Suddenly, my spine felt hot due to Elte’s questioning. But soon, I start shaking my head. As mentioned above, Ed Ross-Taylor is not the type of person to act based on emotions.
In the first place, didn’t Ed Rosstaylor always have Yenica Palover attached to him?
However, the identity of the sense of discomfort felt was due to the fact that the two were not in a romantic relationship.
Yenica’s passionate gaze as she looks at Ed is sure to make one realize his identity right away. But… most likely, that affection only goes one way.
– Thump thump thump
Lortel stood against the background of the sounds of battle spreading through the Ofilis Hall, then slid down the wall and sat down. It’s already hard because I’m running so hard, but I’m so mentally cornered that my legs start to lose strength.
I sit down in the corner of the hallway and stare into space for a long time.
just. I helped because I wanted to help.
Why on earth does that one sentence linger in my chest and make my breathing difficult?
The strange feeling that suddenly arises is that the building is not shaking.
If the sound of battle at this level is spreading throughout the Ofilis building, shouldn’t there be vibrations or debris from the building flying around?
However, Lortel realized the true nature of his sense of discomfort when he saw the peaceful sight outside the window of the rain falling.
– Boom boom boom.
It’s an unbelievable fact, but this sound was Lortel’s own heartbeat.
*
-Ofilis Hall with rain falling .
The rain has become quite thin, making you think that it will stop soon.
On the top floor, the final battle between Tailly and the maid Jean Ellis will take place.
On the first floor, Ziggs and Yenika will be showing off their skills as they block Elte.
A back door away from such a dazzling battle. Through the dark night air, I see a maid standing in the rain.
Since when did I stand there? He stands still and prepares to capture fugitives for his loyal lord Ellis, preventing anyone from leaving through the back door.
Her rain-soaked maid uniform is completely stuck to her, and her light purple hair is loose and tangled.
If you look at the figure slowly turning back, you will see that it is Sheny, one of the twin maids who, as the boss of the 3rd floor, should have blocked Taily’s path. She quietly raises her head and makes eye contact with me.
“I didn’t expect Master Ed to show up there, but it’s surprising.”
After guiding Elte, she immediately blocked the back door and blocked Lortel’s escape route.
Without erasing her usual cold expression, Shenny took out her rapier.
Unfortunately, I know Shenny’s abilities and patterns extremely well. She is even the type of boss who can only demonstrate her full abilities when she works together with her younger sister Kelly. Only when she is separated can she show less than half of her abilities.
Is it a bit bland for the final hurdle?
I confronted Shenny in the rain.
Now this painful occupation situation has come to an end.
