A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 456 The Alchemist Returns

Lucas had a fight at home and ended up homeless. He wanted to go to a beer hall, but he really didn't have a single penny left.

The newspaper he had read before leaving get off work became his lifeline. Lucas took the page with the job posting and found a private room at a restaurant by following the address on it.

The waiter told him to wait a moment, and then a portly man slammed the door shut as he left, his face flushed. This made him even more anxious.

Upon entering, Lucas found a stylishly dressed young man sitting at a tea table, handsome but somewhat effeminate. Lucas was somewhat disappointed. He had hoped that if the interviewee were Rorschach, he could try to get closer to him. Now, how could he bring up the topic and tell the interviewer that he had met Rorschach once before?

"I'm Valentin, nice to meet you." He extended his hand to shake Lucas's, then gestured for him to sit down. "I think you saw the man from earlier? Don't misunderstand, he wasn't the interviewee. Mr. Lucas, welcome. Don't you have a resume?"

Lucas was momentarily speechless, then came up with a good excuse: "I came over as soon as I saw your recruitment ad, see, I can't stand being in the guild for even a day!"

Varen accepted this claim, but he only asked Lucas to prove that he worked in the Magic Guild and had been an apprentice at the Arcane Tower.

After Lucas showed him his work badge and the fading apprentice insignia, Valente immediately asked him to sign a letter of intent requiring Lucas to resign from his position in the guild within five days:

"You will now receive an advance of three months' salary, totaling forty-two Golden Eagle Coins. However, if you cannot resign from your current position within this period, you will need to pay double the penalty."

When the heavy leather bag arrived, Lucas knew he had lost the ability to refuse. His face flushed, just like the man who had stormed out of the private room before him, but it was proof of his joy and excitement: "This is too generous, sir! I can hardly believe it. Don't you want to investigate further? For example, let me prove that I am a spellcaster."

"No." The young man revealed a long-lost frivolous attitude, shrugging nonchalantly: "I don't know anything about magic! I'm just going through the motions. If there are no problems, I hope you can start work as soon as possible. It's right next to the Munik Baldorom Chamber of Commerce office. The detailed address is in the contract."

"Don't we have to relocate to the special economic zone for work?" Lucas was overjoyed again.

"No need, at least not for the time being." Varon came to Munik not only to retrieve the heartbroken magic guild employees and to contact the apprentices of the Arcane Tower, but also for another mission.

Valois had a long-standing annuity system dating back to the Kingdom period, while the Empire went a step further, establishing the earliest personal pension and labor insurance system on the continent of Ferroron through the Imperial Council.

Although the initial intention was good, Bain obviously had its own special circumstances—developed industry associations are more humane than cold commercial insurance companies. They do not need much annuity or insurance. Guild members enjoy mutual help like a fraternity. The workshop master will promise to leave a generous pension for the master craftsmen, ensuring that they can live a decent life in their old age.

At least when the Tam River Alliance was still thriving, the guilds were like this, "affectionate" towards each other.

As for this year's market, even the strongest guild on earth—the Magic Guild—is cutting salaries, and other workshops are having an even worse time. People have suddenly realized that workshop owners are also running out of money!

In keeping with the times, a financial company called "Bain Stability Insurance" opened in Munich, Nuremberg, and Würzburg, employing many university students looking to earn extra money to sell annuities and accident insurance.

"Uncle, I'm a student at Munich University of Technology, currently working part-time. May I bother you for a moment? Have you heard of 'Bain Stability Insurance'? This insurance..."

The script was very standard, all coming from a mysterious figure.

Its opening even became a source of amusement for ordinary people: everyone was running out of money for food today and tomorrow, and this so-called insurance company still wanted to take money out of everyone's pockets?

Logically, insurance companies are also part of the financial industry. If they want to encroach on someone's territory, even if it's personal insurance that nobody buys these days, they should at least ask the industry giants for their approval. But they actually agreed, because they launched a groundbreaking product to the banks.

"You mean insuring our loans?" The managers of Grove Bank, one of the three giants of the banking association, had never heard of such a bizarre move before.

Varan flashed a handsome smile, exuding confidence: "This is our product. Pay us the premiums, and if the loan cannot be recovered, we will bear the loss and pay you the insurance money."

This is unbelievable! There are still such suckers! Doesn't this mean that all lending and investment can transfer risk? Although the premium is a bit high, it is completely acceptable given that banks are currently plagued by bad debts.

While Grove Bank's managers were still studying the terms, the manager of another giant, Baldi Bank, laughed, because he couldn't believe such a good thing could come from nowhere.

Varan looked completely innocent: "Please trust our capabilities. First of all, our registered capital of 110,000 Golden Eagle Coins has been certified by the city hall, and we will never abscond during bankruptcy liquidation. In addition, our company also holds 5% of the original shares of Kempson Steel Plant."

Andrei, who was accompanying him, took out a piece of parchment. It could be very ordinary, but it had Rorschach's secret mark on it.

"The only requirement is that after the incident, the claims be transferred to our trading company, and we be allowed to put them on the market for re-trading. The detailed plan is in the document." Valen released the prepared blue book, "Initiative for the Development of the Asset-Backed Securities Market."

A package sale? This was even more intriguing for the bankers, as their unrecoverable investments and loans were piling up, threatening the banks' normal operations. If they could be resold, anyone who bought them could get some breathing room. Moreover, judging from the contents of the parchment and the secret markings, the identity of the backers behind this company was becoming increasingly clear.

Things are bound to go wrong when they're at their best, but the managers all thought of their bosses behind the scenes and unanimously suspended the meeting.

The telegram traveled from Munik to the Arcane Tower, and the reply from the Arcane Tower was just one word: "Okay."

Thus, a product that the general public could not understand at all was born: mortgage-backed securities.

Almost simultaneously with the product's launch, news suddenly arrived from the Special Economic Zone that, due to production capacity constraints, the zone would release military supply orders from the Kingdom of Bain, with details under negotiation with the City Hall. Even the brewing guild, which was originally not supposed to get a share, suddenly received news that it needed a large quantity of aged wine to be distilled into alcohol to meet military supplies.

The royal family was unclear about the reasons, but it seemed to alleviate the recession. So, at the urging of the banking association, King Albert borrowed money from the three major banks to purchase a large number of new winter uniforms for the army from the wool and textile guild.

The market seemed to be improving again for a while, but the city hall had very strict requirements. In order to ensure quality and quantity, workshops had to reach a certain scale in order to receive transferred orders.

Some workshop owners gritted their teeth and decided to go to the bank again. They were surprised to find that the loan officers, who used to be so stern-faced, were now all smiles, readily approving any loan. Before, getting a loan was a matter of begging and pleading!

As the workshops recovered, a clever person discovered that the mortgage-backed securities that had been previously involved in the loans were rising steadily. The reason was simple: the securities were discounted when they were packaged as bad loans. Now that the workshops were doing well and the old debts were being paid off, the securities were generating considerable returns.

Hmm? It just so happens that everyone has some spare money right now. The citizens' money is earned, and the workshops' money is borrowed, but it's all money, so it doesn't matter.

(End of this chapter)