Chapter 55 - Volume 4 (2/2)
“You spineless, disloyal lot. It was pointless being merciful to you all until now.”
The four chuckled at Isaac’s comment.
“Now! Let’s hear what the current situation is.”
Isaac clapped twice to change the mood of the meeting.
“I’m too stupid to understand everything that had happened, so explain to me what our dear Emperor told us.”
“I think the simplest answer is that he won’t be picking sides in this incident.”
“Hm?”
Isaac tilted his head.
“Although Isaac sunbae holds the t.i.tle of the Lord’s Representative, your true occupation is the Administrator of New Port City.”
“So?”
“The position of Mayor is most definitely a higher position than that of the Administrator. It is the Mayor who determines the city’s projects. The problem here is the t.i.tle you hold as the Lord’s Representative.”
“It just means that I’m the highest official right?”
Kalden shook his head in rejection.
“No.”
“No?”
“The administrator follows the mayor’s orders, and the mayor follows the Lord’s orders. But an Overseer could intervene on the work of the Lord. That would mean…”
“The hierarchy is going to be a mess.”
It was like a double snake ouroboros, where their ranks encroached on each others’ authority. It wasn’t a problem if their decisions were unified, but if not, it was going to get very complicated. Although it was the Emperor’s will, there were many who wished for Isaac’s failure, especially Count Milros, whose faction practically owned the Personnel Office. They could send over someone who would challenge Isaac at every decision.
PR Note: An ouroboros describes a serpent/snake eating its own tail, the silhouette of which creates an infinity symbol. In this context, a more appropriate simile would be the double ouroboros because the Mayor and Isaac are separate ent.i.ties. In a double ouroboros, two snakes eat at each others’ tails. They are beings who openly contest and devour the others’ authority to enhance their own. Because of their constant conflict, there is no apparent progress.
“But there’s something more important.”
“Speak.”
Cordnell seemed to calculate something in his head with a serious face before continuing.
“The Emperor declared that a company of knights be deployed into the city, one who will follow only the Mayor’s orders.”
“What about it?”
“As you know, the police work of New Port City had been done by Mr. Rizzly and the North Bears. But this was only for Ceta District. The rest of the districts were policed by the syndicates. But with the Mayor and the knights deployed as the police, it will be impossible to run the city as we have done until now.”
“Ah! Of course.”
Isaac finally understood the gravity of the situation, and his eyes turned to the syndicate bosses, who were sitting in brooding silence. There was no way this company of knights following the Emperor’s word would be an ordinary one, and their loyalty to the Emperor was going to make it impossible to bribe them.
“What’s even more important is that they will only follow the Mayor’s orders.”
“I get it. It means they’ll meddle at every corner.”
Cordnell shook his head.
“No. Although unlikely, even if the Mayor were to join hands with you, Sir Isaac, they will not overlook any illegal activity since they are under the Emperor’s orders.”
“Hm, does that mean the syndicate boss’ heads are in trouble?”
The syndicate boss’ faces went pale.
“Don’t worry about that, Cordnell.”
“What?”
“Buy all of the other districts in New Port City with my wealth.”
“What?”
Cordnell looked surprised at the baffling order.
“W, what do you mean by that?”
“I will own all the districts other than Ceta District. It will then become my property, or is it fiefdom at this point? Then there is no room for the government to intervene in my administration. We can just use the clause prohibiting the invasion of private property. Plus, no matter what the police do, the court ruling will be entirely dependent on me. Make sure you guys run the districts so it remains silent. I won’t stop all the nitty-gritty crimes, but if it’s a major one, then even I can’t do anything. So make sure to do your jobs quietly so it won’t leak.”
The syndicate bosses sighed with relief. Now that Isaac held the lifelines to their lives, they had no choice but to stay loyal to him until the end.
Cordnell realized the meaning behind Isaac’s words – what he meant by ‘keeping things silent.’ His face paled but quickly spoke when he realized there was another problem.
“Where do we have money to do such a thing? If we calculate the costs for reconstruction, reimburs.e.m.e.nt, and the funds for this new acquisition project, we’d be scratching the bottom of the barrel to find funds!”
Even if New Port City’s real estate prices were the lowest of the low, it was still the size of a small city. Just buying it all was one problem, but the houses all had different owners. Meeting them one by one to form contracts was bound to spread rumors, and some would begin to have funny ideas and start setting ludicrous prices for their land.
It all sounded so simple when Isaac simply gave the order, but it was up to Cordnell to administer and manage the entire situation.
“Do we not have money?”
“What’s the point even if we do have money? Because of your stupidly generous policies, it all disappears before we can even touch it.”
“What happened to all that money I had?”
Cordnell sighed when Isaac complained.
“We spent about 2.4 million Giga purchasing the barricade and other miscellaneous goods for the provincial war.”
“We’ve spent that much?”
“Yes. We had to evacuate the refugees and provide them with a residential area along with food and water, but the biggest waste of money was dismantling the s.h.i.+ps we bought to create the barricades. Plus, we’ve bought so many offensive magical tools that one of our warehouses is full of it. We bought those tools at 1.5 times the market price, so reselling it will still result in a loss.”
Isaac folded his arms and began to think after hearing Cordnell’s lamentation.
“So when are this Mayor and the police force arriving here?”
“Thankfully, it seems we have time until next year. By then, we need to have sorted out any questionable work that could trip us up.”
“We don’t know who will be the Mayor yet?”
“I’ve asked for some favors from the Seven Merchant Guilds, but it seems there is fierce compet.i.tion.”
“Understandable. It is an order from the Emperor after all.”
The act of following the orders of an Emperor was going to be pa.s.sed down family lines as the most glorious accomplishment. Many factions would fight for a place in not just the Mayor position but for spots in the police force. It was obvious that it would take a long time to create.
“Then we can ignore the Mayor and police force for now and just sort out the money problem. Man, don’t I have a lot of money?”
“As I’ve said before, yes you do have money. But you are spending more than you are earning.”
“Does that mean I have to start a new business to make money?”
“Eek! As I’ve said already, we don’t have the money! You just told us to buy out the remaining districts! How can we start a new business when we don’t even know how much it’ll cost to buy out the districts? We would be in troubling times even if we saved everything we had right now!”
Cordnell shouted out when Isaac spoke of a new business. Everything he had been doing until now never ended with just a small expenditure.
“Don’t worry about that, we’ve already got some free money on us.”
“What? Free money?”
“There’s the money the three from Port City wasted on their gamble.”
“Wasn’t the provincial war gamble nulled?”
“Why’s it nulled? It was a draw.”
“What? How can there be a draw in war! And even if Port City were to admit the result, they’d never back off! They just lost all of their money, so they’d definitely send a complaint to the Department of Law, and if Port City wins, we’ll need to both pay back their money and reimburse them for the legal battle! We may end up losing more money because of our own greed!”
Isaac stretched out his index finger and moved it side to side.
“Tsk tsk tsk. You’re a little slow on this. All we have to do is declare a draw. It won’t be us fighting against Port City but someone else.”
“What?”
Cordnell asked back with a dumbfounded face, and Isaac spoke with a smile.
“Contact the Marquis. Offer them a declaration of a draw for the provincial war and to split the gambling bets 50:50. They are the ones more shorthanded on money, not us. I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to accept. The Marquis has a faction within the government too, so even Port City will be powerless against them.”
“…”
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