Lords go left, Emperors go right

Aosta also implemented a reward mechanism for reporting and exposing. Anyone who exchanges a large amount of national or continental currency and then trades privately with merchants from other countries or continents to earn the exchange difference will be permanently disqualified from doing business in the Blom Treasury. Lord Aosta does not rule out using secret means to punish him.

The policy has been formulated, but it cannot completely rule out those who have the idea of ​​speculation and profiteering. The situation will be much better after the Aosta plan and Brown Coin gain widespread recognition. After all, after many dark businessmen accept and recognize Brown Coin, an invisible financial order will emerge.

When this new model gradually develops and becomes an unspoken rule, those speculative heretics will be jointly resisted by all parties. At that time, Osta will not even need to take action himself, because someone will help him clean up these rule breakers.

Of course, to achieve that effect, Aosta needs to strengthen publicity and influence in this area, and also recruit relevant financial talents. At present, talents with such economic acumen and management ability are mainly distributed in the northern continent of the human race, where the capital economy is developed and there are many experts in this field.

The only problem is that it is difficult to recruit talents from the Northern Continent. If Osta had not been able to hook up with him by chance, there would be almost no intersection or communication between Osta and Miss Lanis, a wealthy and powerful figure in the Northern Continent.

"Mr. Maxim, these boxes contain 100 billion browns (three million gold coins), all newly issued special banknotes. The interest rate is %, and the term is one year."

"You can choose to pay in installments or in one lump sum. The interest rate for a one-time payment is 120%, and the interest rate for installments is 100%. Mr. Maxim, you are the first customer to take out a loan, so you still have to get relevant discounts."

"Thank you for your support, Your Highness Aosta. I choose to settle the payment in installments. I sincerely believe that with your talent, if you become a businessman, you will definitely become a wealthy person."

"I opened the Blom Vault just out of interest. I don't need to compliment you. Maxim, you should open it quickly! I'm still waiting to collect the interest."

"No problem, Your Highness Aosta, I will prepare for the voyage right away."

In the VIP room of the Blom Vault, "Smiling Fat Man" Maxim successfully obtained a loan from Aosta, and he still trusted Aosta. After Maxim took the special black suitcase from the beautiful housekeepers, he just opened it and took a quick look, and left without counting the amount.

The thickness of a bundle of banknotes is uniform. After tapping a bundle, you can compare the thickness of each bundle to know whether it is enough. The special black briefcase in Maxim's hand is filled with a full 30 billion Brown coins, which perfectly demonstrates the advantage of banknotes over currency.

Without those rare and expensive magic storage items, carrying 30 billion banknotes is obviously much easier than carrying 3 million gold coins. The Brown Coins in the box are the latest version of the currency issued by the Blom Treasury. The Brown Coins with a face value of 10,000 are marked with a platinum rose pattern and can be exchanged for one gold coin at a time.

Osta had a rough idea of ​​how many banknotes the Blom Treasury had issued, and had been secretly controlling the number of banknotes issued, trying to keep the circulation from exceeding the amount of physical currency stored in the Blom Treasury. Otherwise, the Brown Coin would depreciate, which would have a serious impact.

Although the issuance and manufacturing rights of Brown Coins are in the hands of the Blom Treasury, it is not possible to issue as many as you want. As a time traveler, Osta has a certain amount of financial knowledge and knows about inflation.

The high-interest loan to Maxim was also a risky investment for Aosta. The fat man's business was a gray business, one of the shady industries that could go wrong at any time.

The Blom Vault had previously received a total of more than 10 million gold coins worth of jewelry from Miss Lanis, so it was no problem to lend 3 million gold coins to Maxim. The monthly interest was considerable, and the principal could be recovered in half a year.

The Blom Vault was opened by Osta, with the prince in charge behind the scenes, and it was opened in his territory. Normally, no one would be so reckless as to come here to cause trouble. If there was a run on the bank, it was unlikely that the depositors would line up to withdraw all their savings in a short period of time.

In case of such an emergency, Osta can use his power to limit the daily withdrawal or currency exchange quota of depositors in the Blom Treasury. In the code of the Obelix Empire, there is a blank in the financial aspect. Osta can play freely and operate at will without worrying about violating the imperial code and being gossiped about.

"Your Highness Aosta, I seemed to see a familiar figure just now. The fat man who ran fast looks a bit like the famous slave trader in the southern continent, Smiling Fat Maxim."

"Lenice, you are very observant. I don't know much about the merchants in the southern continent, and I don't know anyone like Maxim."

"Really? I may have seen it wrong. By the way, Your Highness Aosta, let's carefully plan the proportion of the share of the cost of the airport! I have a new idea. We can find more partners."

As soon as Osta sent away the "smiling fat man" Maxim, he met Miss Lenise. Lenise had also been here at the Blom Vault before. After saving up her expensive jewelry dowry, she was still wandering around and staying here. Lenise was very interested in the operating model of the Blom Vault, so she kept observing it here with her beautiful housekeeper Mary.

Osta directly denied knowing Maxim. There was a serious conflict between the slave traders in the southern continent and the orthodox merchants in the northern continent. They had always despised each other. Miss Lanis's savings of tens of millions of gold coins were, to some extent, a disguised form of financing for the Blom Vault. She was currently the largest shareholder of the Blom Vault.

Miss Lanis made it clear that when she returned to the Northern Continent, she would also attract her best friend who was of similar family background to come and save money. Therefore, Osta was very friendly to the big lady of the money sponsor. He was afraid that his interaction with Maxim would affect the relationship between the two parties, so he chose to keep the relevant matters secret and pretended not to know the fat man.

Lenis gave Osta a new suggestion that the airport could be built without him having to pay for it. At that time, Lenis would bring a large number of her best friends over, and she could allow them to invest in addition to saving money, and share the funds together, which would be considered as a share.

After weighing the pros and cons, Osta readily agreed to the suggestion. He didn't need to pay, just provide the technology. He could also establish a cooperative relationship with the new nobles of the northern continent. The girlfriends brought by Lanis were all as wealthy as her. There was no harm for Osta to deepen his friendship with the rich ladies or rich girls in the same circle.

The cooperation project between Aosta and Lenis for the construction of the airport is mutually beneficial and each side gets what it needs. Lenis has sufficient financial resources to complete the independent sponsorship and pulls her bestie to share the burden, mainly to drag others into the water.

If there are dissenting voices from the Northern Continent and they challenge Lanis's cooperation with the royal family of the Western Continent, there will be more people standing on her side. As vested interests, those best friends will form a united front with Lanis, and the pressure she faces will not be so great.

In her contacts and exchanges with Osta, Lanis unknowingly took sides. Under the subtle influence, she herself had not yet noticed and realized that she was gradually tied to the same camp as Osta.

"Your Highness Aosta, if you can add some of the tourist and entertainment facilities you just mentioned, my besties and friends will be very happy. When the time comes, I will bring them here to inspect and invest in the airport project, and they will be much more generous."

"Lenice, that's no problem. I'll arrange for someone to build it right away, and it will definitely be done before they visit."

"Your Highness Aosta, I'll leave it to you. If you don't have enough funds, you can always come to me."

Chapter 116: Special Dinner Hosted by the Lord's Mansion

In the coastal area of ​​Bloomfield Territory, in the important port city of St. Louis, Lord Osta discussed with Miss Lanis about the construction of the airport and saw them off in person, watching the Euphnic Chamber of Commerce's super airship fleet set off with agricultural products.

Lanis planned to transport this batch of high-quality potatoes to other areas of the northern continent for trading. As a legal business, the profit would definitely not be as fast as Maxim's slave trade, and the profit could not be compared with the gray business.

Lanis herself was not short of money, and expanding her business was just her interest, and the field she was good at was not agricultural product trade. However, this did not affect her cooperation with Osta. Later, Osta learned that the purpose of the young lady purchasing agricultural products from him was not to make money.

Lanis was just trying to vent her anger by engaging in a price war with her business rival in the agricultural product market of the Northern Continent. Whether she made money or not was another matter, but if she could dampen the enthusiasm of her competitors, she would be able to prove her own strength. For Lanis, even if she made money, the thinking of rich people was always unpredictable.

After finishing all this, Osta returned to his luxurious lord's mansion and prepared to trade with "Black Rose" Avril. The two parties originally agreed to trade at the Blom Vault. However, considering that the name of the Black Beast Mercenary Group is too eye-catching, and Avril's "Golden Eyes" are easy to attract attention.

After careful consideration, Aosta and Avril discussed and decided to temporarily change the trading location and time. They changed the location to Aosta's luxurious lord's mansion and chose the time after dusk.

Avril will carry the eight special goods to the luxurious lord's mansion in Aosta. At that time, Aosta will immediately pay Avril 16 billion browns (1.6 million gold coins).

"Lord Osta, we have tightened security around here, and we haven't found any suspicious people yet. I don't think the elves will find this place so quickly. Avril's anti-tracking method is still good enough."

"Lord Osta, Princess Audrey has gone to check on Miss Reina and the others' infection status. Sophia is with her and should not disturb your transaction."

"That's good. After the deal is done, we have to go visit that little girl Mavis! This time... it won't be so easy to let her slip away. If that little girl doesn't join us, then..."

"Lord Osta, your expression could easily scare a little girl, so please control yourself!"

Osta's attendants, the exclusive combat maids Chris and Yulia, both wore classic Gothic maid outfits and wore exclusive armbands on their right arms that symbolized the identity of head maids. The two head maids reported the latest situation to Osta, and after hearing that his sister, the "Emerald Princess" Audrey, had no time, Osta secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Osta did not want his sister Audrey to know that he bought special goods for the time being, in order to maintain his upright image as a brother. In addition to the "Emerald Princess" Audrey, Osta also had three older sisters and two younger sisters in the royal family of the Obelisk Empire, so he could not reveal his gentlemanly interests too early.

If Audrey knew about this and leaked a little information to the other royal sisters in advance, it would be difficult for Osta to fool these sisters in the future. If they didn't even come to visit Osta's territory, Bloomfield, it would undoubtedly be a huge and irreparable loss for Osta, so they had to act with caution.

The lights of the Port of St. Louis were still bright in the evening. Currently, the most prosperous area in the entire Bloomfield Territory was the coastal Port of St. Louis. The merchant ships and cargo ships moored at the dock showed no signs of stopping.

Taking advantage of the impact of the super hurricane Queen Anna and Princess Vichy's landing attack, Aosta took the opportunity to promote a wave of paper money Brown Dollars. Many merchants had a much better impression of the Port of St. Louis. They were optimistic about the future development prospects of this port town and determined it as the preferred port of call for their fleets when they came to the Central Continent to do business.

Aosta was in his luxurious mansion. He came to the large open-air balcony on the third floor of the villa. A high-standard and sumptuous banquet was set up here to entertain the visiting "Black Rose" Avril. After completing the special goods transaction with her, he would discuss cooperation matters by the way.

The Black Beast Mercenaries had been destroyed, and Avril herself had no intention of restoring the Black Beast Mercenaries and rebuilding the organization. Osta wanted to take the opportunity to recruit this talent. The future development of the Port of St. Louis, since Osta began to cooperate with the "Smiling Fat Man" Maxim, would inevitably involve some gray or even black industries.

After Maxim, many dark businessmen saw Maxim's success and would definitely follow suit to seek cooperation. Aosta only cared about making money, and except for some issues of principle, he would not refuse any of these dark businessmen.

Now, Osta lacks talents who are proficient in gray and black businesses. "Black Rose" Avril just meets these stringent recruitment conditions, so Osta has the idea of ​​hiring Avril for a long time and asking her to help him manage the gray and black businesses involving foreign countries in his territory.

The head maids Chris and Yulia, along with the maids from the lord's mansion, were setting up the banquet hall. It was unclear whether they really didn't know or whether the two head maids had arranged it on purpose.

The venue was set up for a couple's date. There were only two seats, two chairs facing each other. The venue was decorated with roses and wild roses. Roses of different colors were arranged in a certain proportion throughout the venue.

The original venue decoration was only roses, but perhaps considering Avril's nickname "Black Rose", Chris and the others temporarily changed the venue decoration and added roses. The two flowers have many colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, the perfect rainbow colors, and black and white.

The entire venue was decorated with more than nine colors of flowers, which was enough to show the sincerity and hospitality of the banquet organizers. Osta did not reject Chris's arrangement of the venue in the end. It was rare to have such a beautiful venue, and it would be good to have a more romantic area. It would be a waste to change it temporarily.

At the appointed time, "Black Rose" Avril arrived as promised, still wearing the strange robe. She could wear many beautiful clothes, but it might be because of her professional habit that she always wore this robe to keep in combat mode at all times.

"Lord Aosta... Your Highness, I never knew you really know how to enjoy life. The things have been delivered, and the carriage is downstairs."

"Avril, here are your 16 billion browns (1.6 million gold coins), tap it gently."

"Your Highness Aosta, you don't want to inspect the goods? You just paid for it. Aren't you afraid that it's a scam or that the goods have been swapped?"

"That's not necessary, Avril. I'm always very accurate in judging people... and girls. If there's really a problem, just think of it as being cheated once!"

"Your Highness Aosta, I dare not lie to you. Those around you are not easy to fool."

Avril looked at the open black suitcase in front of her, which had neatly arranged several bundles of Brown currency, all of which were the latest 10,000 Browns with platinum rose pattern banknotes. Avril gladly accepted Osta's trust, and did not count the banknotes in front of Osta, but closed the suitcase directly.

"Your Highness Aosta, I'd better go with you to check out the goods later! Maybe no one here can speak Elvish, so I still need to explain some things to you in detail. I didn't have time to talk too much when Maxim was here."

"Okay, Avril, on such a beautiful day, would you please have the honor of having dinner with me, a poor lord who has been sent abroad?"

"Your Highness Osta, you are such a joker. I have never seen a human lord who came to the Central Continent and lived as carefree as you."

"Avril, the Central Continent is indeed underdeveloped and cannot compare to the Empire. However, since we are here, there is nothing to complain about. We still have to go on with our lives."

Osta used a joking tone to liven up the atmosphere. After seeing the layout of the banquet venue, Avril felt a little uncomfortable at first. After all, the layout and atmosphere of the venue were almost the same as those of a date place.

However, the other party's hospitality was hard to refuse. Avril could not resist Osta's enthusiastic invitation. She finally walked to the seat in front of Osta and sat down, facing Osta. Osta was dressed more formally this time, wearing a gorgeous black suit, and behaved very gentlemanly.

After Avril sat down in front of him, she looked a little shy, showing a rare expression of a little girl. Osta had thought she would be aloof, but he didn't expect to see another side of her. He was secretly happy for a moment, but on the surface he still tried to keep a serious look to hide his gentleman side.

Avril had never attended such a banquet before. When she was in the Black Beast Mercenary Group, she was always on missions outside and it was almost impossible for her to appear in such an occasion. Avril's meeting with Osta was the first time, and she had no dating experience before.

After the guests arrived, the banquet officially began. This dinner for two people looked a bit luxurious. Two head maids stood next to Osta and Evelyn respectively. The head maid next to Osta was Chris, the beautiful girl with silver hair and silver eyes. She was wearing a white Gothic maid outfit and was on standby there.

The head maid beside Avril is Yulia, a beautiful girl wearing a black Gothic maid outfit. She has black hair like Avril, and her eyes are beautiful pure black. Avril's left eye is emerald green, and the right eye is "golden". The difference between her beautiful eyes and Yulia's is obvious.

In addition to being on standby, Yulia was actually helping Osta secretly keep an eye on Eve. Although Osta did not say it explicitly, if Eve suddenly wanted to escape, Yulia would act without hesitation and directly control her.

In addition to the two head maids, the other beautiful maids in the Aosta mansion were serving around the banquet, wearing the same Gothic maid outfits, constantly serving food to the tables, delivering a variety of delicious dishes, desserts, fruits and drinks. If there were no requests, the maids would stand at the designated positions and wait.

From the balcony, you can see the beautiful night view of St. Louis, which is still brightly lit under the night sky. The musicians and prostitutes of the lord's mansion are performing to liven up the atmosphere. Osta didn't pay much attention to the beautiful singing and graceful dancing, and automatically ignored them as the background, focusing all his attention on Avril in front of him.

Osta had always been curious about Marv's pointed ears. No matter how you looked at them, they were one of the characteristics of the elves, a standard feature of the elves. If Marv didn't take the initiative to explain, Osta would not ask or delve into it because of his gentlemanly attitude. Osta was not sure whether Marv was willing to tell the secret involved. Before it was clear, he would not ask questions randomly, for fear of affecting the goodwill between the two parties.

"What's the matter, Your Highness Aosta? If you have any questions, please ask directly!"

"Avril, can you tell me about your past? To be honest, I want to hire you as the director of Blom Vault's foreign-related projects, which means the person in charge. Salary issues can be discussed. Before hiring, I want to know more about you."

"Your Highness Aosta, your way of hiring is a bit overbearing! You're not sure if the other person will accept it. Besides, after knowing my past dark history, will you still hire me?"

"Avril, I just want to know about your past, nothing else. If you accept the offer, in addition to the high commission, my territory will provide you with lifelong political asylum. No matter what you did before, it will all be written off here, and you can start all over again."

"Avril, this is my promise. It will remain valid as long as the employment relationship exists."

"Your Highness Aosta, it is not good to pry into a girl's secrets. However, this time is an exception."

The employment conditions proposed by Osta moved the "Black Rose" Avril. The commission was not important, but the political asylum was very tempting to her.

If she accepted the offer, she would be able to save herself from a lot of unnecessary troubles in the future. As long as she was in the Bloomfield Territory, she could enjoy a peaceful life again. This might be the best destination for Avril, who had been traveling around for years and was somewhat disgusted with the life of the Black Beast Mercenary Group.

The expression on Avril's face became much more relaxed. Of course, she didn't make a clear statement so quickly. This was a negotiation skill and a necessary means. Even if the expression had given the answer, she couldn't let it go so quickly, otherwise she would look cheap.

Thinking of this, Avril picked up the tall crystal wine glass in front of her, put it to her lips and tasted a few sips gracefully. She then put down the wine glass and began to tell Osta about her past. Osta gave Chris a look, and Chris quickly understood what he meant. She immediately gestured to the maids around to leave temporarily and avoid him.

Wait until Osta feels it's appropriate, or until Avril finishes talking before returning to serve. After all, since it involves a dark history, the fewer people who know about it, the better. The rest of the maids and musicians all left the banquet venue tactfully and waited downstairs.

In the blink of an eye, only Osta, Avril, Chris, and Yulia were left on the large open-air balcony on the third floor. After seeing that there were no outsiders, Avril's expression finally relaxed completely. Those who stayed should be their own people.

"Your Highness Osta, you may have guessed it. I... I have blood ties and origins with the elves. However, I was just an orphan who was abandoned and discriminated against. If you really want to be picky, I should be considered a half-elf."

"Avril, don't worry. I don't have any prejudice on racial issues. I can accept you no matter who you are. I don't care what you did in the past."

"Your Highness Aosta, thank you for your understanding. Don't worry, I'm not that bad."

Chapter 117: The Unknown Secret of Black Rose

Among the four alien continents, the Emerald (Elf) Continent, located in the southeast, has always been the most peaceful continent among the alien continents. Compared with the constant disputes in other alien continents, the elves living in the Emerald Continent have lived a peaceful life all year round.

The races living on the Emerald Continent are mainly the elves and fairies. The elves and fairies have many branches, and if you really break them down, they are very different. The human race doesn't know much about this, and the elves and fairies don't want the human race to know too much about themselves.

Therefore, regardless of the type of human race, they are all referred to as a general term. They will not specifically distinguish which branch of the elves and fairies the other party belongs to. The four major races of elves, fairies, dwarves, and tree people are the main inhabitants of the Verdant Continent. Among them, the elves have the largest population, followed by the fairies.

The origin and background of "Black Rose" Avril, her bloodline is related to the two largest branches of the elves, the moon elves and the forest elves. Osta had seen these two elves before in the hidden cargo hold of the super cargo ship "Paradise" owned by the slave trader "Smiling Fat Man" Maxim. The special cargo was these two elves.

The hair color of these two elves is obviously different, the moon elves have beautiful long straight golden hair, while the forest elves have naturally loose dark brown hair. The eye color of the two is not uniform. The color of the elves' eyes is related to their own magical elemental attributes, and the eye color represents the magical attributes of the elves.

As the two most populous branches of the elves, forest elves and moon elves have different magic skills, and different eye colors can appear in the same family. Other branches of the elves are relatively unified, and the magic element attributes of the entire family are consistent, and the hair color is exactly the same as the eye color.

Avril was a half-blood elf born accidentally when the moon elf princess and the forest elf prince eloped. In the elves, blood purity is more important. Unlike most other races, many hybrid offspring of other races are stronger, but there are a few exceptions such as the elves, where the strength becomes weaker after hybridization, and the combat effectiveness is not as good as that of pure blood.

Later, after eloping for a while, Avril's parents were found by the elders of both tribes and forced to return to their respective elf tribes. Because of her mixed blood, Avril has always been despised by her fellow tribesmen.

Although everyone kept silent, they still bullied her secretly. Especially the royal families of the moon elves and forest elves, they hated this mixed-blood royal family and thought that her appearance would damage the reputation of the royal family. Since she was a child, Marceline has been pushed back and forth by the royal families of the forest elves and moon elves. They were unwilling to take the responsibility of raising her. There was no other way, Marceline could only become independent early and could only rely on herself.

Marceline's biological parents, because they were the heirs to the next Elf King or Queen, were under pressure from the elders of the tribe and did not dare to meet Marceline before the succession. They were afraid that if this shameful matter got out, it would affect the succession to the throne. Regardless of whether it was out of helplessness or necessity, Marceline had never seen her biological parents again except when she was just born.

As time went by, Marv's disappointment with her biological parents grew day by day, and the last remaining feelings and fantasies gradually disappeared, and the family affection no longer existed. Originally, Marv could have lived a peaceful life, and living a plain life was also a good choice. The beautiful natural environment of the Jade Continent would not be a big problem if she lived alone. However, fate did not seem to let this half-blood elf with a poor background go, forcing her into a desperate situation and having to make a dark choice.

When Marceline's biological parents, the moon elf princess and the forest elf prince, were about to inherit the throne, the elders of the two tribes decided to kill Marceline in order to prevent her existence from being known to outsiders and giving them a pretext or handle. They were afraid that she would have a bad influence on the reputation of the elven royal family.

They acted without telling Avril's parents. Avril's parents may have known about it in advance, but they had no way to intervene and just let the Elders take action against their first child.

The elves still have to save face. If one of their own people kills another, it will have a bad impact if it is discovered. It is unknown how the two elders contacted each other and hired the human bounty hunter group "Black Scorpion" to complete this dirty work.

After accepting the commission, the "Black Scorpion" hunter group attacked Avril, who lived alone in a simple thatched hut at the seaside of the Jade Continent based on the information provided by the Council of Elders. Avril was not good at fighting at that time, and was not at all the hand of these experienced bounty hunters.

Of course, Avril was unwilling to bow to fate. Taking advantage of the Black Scorpion Hunters' carelessness, she rushed out of the encirclement and was hit in the right eye by an arrow shot by a Black Scorpion Hunters archer at the seaside, and fell into the sea on the spot.

The archer of the Black Scorpion Hunter Group had poison on his arrows. After Avril fell into the sea, she was not poisoned to death, but swam to the shore with her strong will.

Marceline was pushed into a hidden cave by the waves, where she found the remains of a prehistoric civilization, the remains of a forgotten strange civilization, and the forbidden artifact "Golden Eye" sealed there.

The origin of the "Golden Eye" is not simple. It is a forbidden artifact. The forbidden artifact was obtained by the traversers who traveled to this plane as villains from special villain channels. As a forbidden artifact, the cost of using it is very heavy. The user basically has to hurt himself to use the forbidden artifact.

The villain who used the "Golden Eye" was eventually killed in the civil war between the good and bad travelers during the demise of prehistoric civilization. After defeating three good travelers in a row, he was defeated due to lack of energy. The "Golden Eye", the weapon of the villain, also fell into the hands of the winner. At that time, the civil war between the travelers had become increasingly intense, and it was time for the final decisive battle.

The decent travelers originally wanted to destroy the forbidden artifact, but in order to rush to participate in the final decisive battle, destroying the forbidden artifact itself would take a lot of time. In order not to waste time, the winning decent travelers chose to temporarily seal the "Golden Eye" in this relic, and come back to deal with it after the final battle and victory.

As a result, the decent time traveler never returned, and like most of the time travelers who participated in the decisive battle, he died together with his opponent. This forbidden artifact was forgotten here for many years until Avril accidentally broke in.

This relic is the civilization created by the villain who traveled through time. It retains a lot of heretical secrets, represented by gears. At that time, Avril was already in a state of being attacked by poison all over her body, and she persisted with the last bit of her will to survive.