Rose Empire

After the disastrous defeat at Dorucocha, Giovanni Draghi, the former famous general of Bataan, completely lost his spirit. Whenever Viscount Lanwan was involved, he would react violently like a madman. For example, regarding the issue of the gold exchange this time, the other elders, including Lester, thought it was just a trivial matter. If Viscount Lanwan wanted to open a store, then he could open a store.

However, Giovanni Draghi loudly cried out at the meeting of the Senate that Viscount Lanwan was insidious and cunning, and must have evil intentions in opening a store. Everyone should resolutely refuse, otherwise Bataan would be in danger.

It's really funny. What's so dangerous about a currency exchange store? Could there be thousands of knights hiding in the store?

This was not the first time that Giovanni Draghi had behaved like a clown, and the elders and citizens of Bataan were increasingly disappointed with him. If it weren't for the fact that the Draghi family was also considered an old and powerful family in Bataan with a deep foundation, Giovanni would have lost his status as an elder long ago.

"How can Viscount Lanwan be considered a businessman? She is a noble. We can use this as an excuse to refuse her from doing business!"

Giovanni wanted to argue. It wasn't that he saw through the killer moves hidden behind every move Charlotte made. He just subconsciously felt that it was safer to stay away from Charlotte.

Although the Battle of Dorrucocha had been over for some time, Giovanni still had people light all the lights and torches before going to bed at night to illuminate the manor inside and outside, as if as long as there was a little darkness, the elusive Lanwan army would rush out from the darkness.

Snapped!

Elder Leicester finally couldn't stand Giovanni's chattering anymore. He slammed the table, stood up, stared into Giovanni's eyes, and said angrily: "Giovanni, I have explained many times that we need to have a good relationship with Viscount Lanwan now! Do you know what it means to have a good relationship!"

Giovanni opened his mouth, but Elder Leicester did not give him a chance to speak. He pointed to the north and continued, "The last of our citizen soldiers have been conscripted by Fidi. Now Viscount Lanwan's knights are stationed in Dorucocha. If they launch an attack, what can we do to resist? Are you willing to take your guards and slaves and die on the city wall for the city-state?"

Although the Aiye Alliance city-states complained about Feidi's re-recruitment, they also understood that the lips and teeth are cold. For the other city-states of the Aiye Alliance, Feidi city-state is not even the lips, it is the heart and pillar of the entire alliance. If Feidi falls, the entire Aiye Alliance will fall apart in an instant, and no one can resist the Delmers' advance.

Who among the city-states of the Aiye Alliance, who are used to being free and undisciplined, would be willing to be ruled by the harsh, tyrannical, and massacre-prone Delmers? Although the Fiends like to put on airs and always feel superior, at least they will not massacre in the city-states of their allies, and rarely interfere in the internal affairs of the allied city-states.

Therefore, even though they were reluctant in their hearts, the last citizen soldiers of the city-states of the Aiye Alliance were still slowly gathering towards Feidi.

The city-state of Badan had just suffered a crushing defeat and a group of soldiers had been conscripted. Now the entire city-state could really be said to have been squeezed out of its system.

Facing the interrogative gaze of Elder Leicester, Giovanni shrank his neck. If it were in the past, he would have answered without hesitation that he was willing to die for the city-state. However, the tragic battle of Dorucocha completely destroyed Giovanni's courage, and he didn't even say a polite word for a while.

Elder Leicester looked at Giovanni with even more disappointment. He sat down and continued to deal with the work at hand without looking at Giovanni again.

Giovanni, who was left aside, left the Council of Elders awkwardly and took a carriage out of the city to return to his estate.

The carriage passed through the streets of the city. As far as Giovanni could see, most of the shops were deserted. This sign was actually very abnormal, but most of the elders, including Giovanni, did not feel how serious the problem was. Because this world had not yet established macroeconomic theory and had never experienced an economic crisis, although it was disappointing that the shops could not sell their goods, it was difficult to link it with the survival of a country or city-state.

Suddenly, there was a noisy sound. Giovanni looked through the carriage window and saw a large crowd of people gathered in front of a shop, which stood out in this deserted street.

Giovanni couldn't help but purse his lips, because that shop was the new money exchange opened by Viscount Lanwan.

An impulse deep in his heart told Giovanni that he should leave immediately, but when the carriage passed the door of the money exchange, Giovanni finally couldn't help but say to the coachman: "Stop for a moment."

The Draghi family has many fields and manors outside the city, and they produce a lot of wine every year. The Sokya Peninsula is mountainous and hilly, not suitable for producing food, but suitable for growing grapes for winemaking. The city-state of Bataan is famous for its winemaking. Although the Draghi family's wine is not the top-quality wine in Bataan, it can still sell for a lot of money every year because of the reputation of Bataan wine. Therefore, the Giovanni family's vault also has a considerable amount of dirhams.

Although Giovanni was extremely wary of Charlotte, he had to admit that the gold exchange founded by Viscount Lanwan did have some tricks. He wanted to know how valuable Dier was, and the most convenient way was to go to the door of the gold exchange to take a look.

With the help of the guards, Giovanni pushed through the crowd and came to the door of the money exchange. After entering, Giovanni saw that the money exchange counter was divided into two parts. One counter was on the east side, with a wooden sign in front of it that read "Deposits and Loans", and the other was on the west side, with a wooden sign in front of it that read "Currency Exchange".

There was almost no one at the east counter, but the west counter was packed with people.

Giovanni squeezed to the west counter without hesitation. There was indeed a bulletin board hanging on the wall behind the counter. On the bulletin board, "Today's Exchange Rate" was written in large letters in white powder. Below "Today's Exchange Rate" was the exchange rate of various currencies.

Giovanni saw at a glance that the exchange rate of fuso to dir had become 1:3.4. He clenched his fists and shouted in his heart, "Beautiful!"

Those dirs in your own vault have become more valuable!

Seeing a speculative "dir merchant" in front of the counter exchanging a few fusos for dirs, Giovanni couldn't help but want to exchange a few as well. Unfortunately, Bataan was not like Umbratu. It was not close to the Oran Empire, and the main currency used in daily life in the city-state was dir. So Giovanni didn't carry any fusos with him - of course, Bataan also had its own currency, but that money was hardly used by anyone.

However, Giovanni did not feel much regret, after all, his vault was not short of just a few dirhams.

After secretly celebrating, Giovanni was about to leave the money exchange, but before he walked out of the door, his eyes couldn't help but fall on the counter on the east side. He stared at the "Loan" sign for a while, and suddenly an idea popped up in his mind. Giovanni's heart skipped a beat, and then he quickly shook his head.

This is the shop of that terrible Viscount Lanwan. If you want to get a bargain here, you must be dead! Giovanni!

Giovanni gave himself a warning and then walked out the door.

However, after taking a few steps, Giovanni retreated again. His desire to get rich overwhelmed his fear of Charlotte.

Giovanni came to the loan counter.

"Hello, is there anything I can help you with?" the clerk at the counter asked with a smile.

"Well," Giovanni asked, nodding, "I need to pick up some money."

The clerk was about to ask Giovanni how much he wanted to borrow, but Giovanni raised his hand again and said, "No, I need to ask a few questions first."

"Excuse me," the clerk said politely.

"If I borrow a fusso, must I give it back a fusso?" asked Giovanni.

"No," the clerk shook his head and pointed to the interest rate table on the wall, saying, "We do charge interest, but the interest rate is very low, much more favorable than the market..."

"I know," interrupted Giovanni, "but what I meant was that if I borrowed Fuso, I could only return it with Fuso?"

"Of course." This time the clerk nodded.

"If you borrow a dir, you can only return it in dir, not in fuso?" Giovanni asked again.

"Well," the clerk looked at Giovanni with some confusion and asked, "Sir, what do you want to do?"

Giovanni was startled by the question, and almost felt that his trick was exposed, so he said quickly: "Nothing, nothing, then I will borrow a hundred fros first and try."

"Okay, how long do you need it for?"

"Borrow it for a month."

The hundred fusos were soon delivered into Giovanni's hands.

Giovanni held the heavy purse in his hand, his heart pounding. He had indeed discovered a huge loophole in Viscount Lanwan's gold exchange - customers could borrow fusos from the gold exchange, then exchange them for dirs, and then wait for the dirs to appreciate before exchanging them for fusos. Wouldn't he be able to make a lot of money from the price difference for nothing?

For example, if you borrow one fros from a money exchange when the exchange rate is 1:4, and exchange it for four dirs, when the exchange rate floats to 1:2, you can exchange four dirs for two fros, repay the loan with one fros, and earn one fros in addition!

This is simply getting something for nothing!

Giovanni was extremely excited. On the one hand, it was because he had discovered a way to make money. On the other hand, it was because he could defeat Viscount Lanwan once more on another battlefield.

Sure enough, in business, Viscount Lanwan is still not as good as himself whose ancestors have been doing business for generations! Giovanni thought complacently, and the carriage soon returned to the manor where he lived.

His wife looked at Giovanni, who had gone out in a daze and returned in high spirits, and asked curiously, "Why are you so happy?"

"Of course it's a good thing." Giovanni smiled happily, handed the purse in his hand to his wife, and pointed outside the door and asked, "Whose carriage is that outside? Are there any guests coming?"

"Well." The wife took the purse and said, "There is a guest who claims to be your old friend. I don't know him, but he doesn't look like an ordinary person, so I asked the servant to take him to the reception room."

"You did the right thing. I'll go see who he is." Giovanni said approvingly. He knew that most of the citizens and elders in the city-state had opinions about him, so he would not dare to neglect any visitor who took the initiative to come to his door.

Arriving at the reception room, Giovanni pushed the door open and saw a strange blond man leisurely drinking tea.

Seeing Giovanni come in, the blond man immediately stood up and saluted, saying, "Nice to meet you, General Giovanni Draghi."

"Excuse me, who are you?" Giovanni was very confused. He didn't know this person, and after Dorucocha's defeat, no one in Bataan called him general anymore.

"My name is Richard," Robin Mancini said with a smile, holding Giovanni's right hand. "It doesn't matter if you don't know me. I'm sure you will recognize it."

Robin Mancini pulled out a small object and stuffed it into Giovanni's right hand.

Giovanni opened his right hand curiously, his pupils dilated immediately. The small object was a brooch with the Melefield family coat of arms made of enamel on it.

Giovanni was so scared that he took several steps back. "You are Viscount Lanwan's man! What did Viscount Lanwan send you to do? Do you want to assassinate me? Don't be delusional. Even if it's Viscount Lanwan, I won't surrender!"

The guards behind Giovanni immediately stood between Giovanni and Robin, as if they were facing a formidable enemy.

Robin Mancini was amused by Giovanni's reaction. He didn't expect that this famous general of Bataan was so afraid of his Lord Viscount. He quickly spread his hands and said, "How is it possible? Bataan and Viscount Lanwan are now friends who have signed the Economic Cooperation Agreement. Why would the Lord Viscount send an assassin to kill you for no reason? I don't have any weapons on me. You can ask your men to search me."

Giovanni saw that Robin Mancini did not look like someone who was here to assassinate him, but he did not dare to have anyone search the body of the envoy sent by Viscount Lanwan, so he had to ask Robin Mancini through the guards: "Then why did Viscount Lanwan send you here?"

Robin Mancini pointed at the guard in front of him with a strange expression and said, "Are you sure you want to say this in front of so many people?"

"Yes!" Giovanni nodded with certainty. "Let's put it this way. These are my trusted confidants."

"Well," Robin Mancini shook his head helplessly, "Viscount Lanwan sent me to borrow money from you."

"Borrow money from me?" Giovanni pointed at his nose. He had just borrowed money from Viscount Lanwan's money exchange, and Viscount Lanwan's people came directly to his house to borrow money?

PS: Thank you all for your monthly ticket blade recommendation votes, thank you very much!

PS2: Thank you Yukinoshita Saki Kanade, Kawawa Sakurako, Mochi Ryota, Xuefeng will bless everyone, and Helawei Watermelon for correcting the previous errors. qun①6⑧二①7⑦一榴

Volume 154: Chapter 141 Chapter A War Without Gunfire (Part )

"Why did Viscount Lanwan ask me to borrow money? Isn't it enough that she has squeezed enough money from our city-state with the despicable Economic Cooperation Agreement?"

Giovanni Draghi wanted to denounce Robin Mancini in an indignant tone, but he felt guilty and timid when he got to the point, and his momentum could not be maintained to the end.

"I, I think it's already a lot..."

"There are two main reasons why the Viscount wants to borrow money from you..." Robin Mancini paused, feeling that it was a bit awkward to talk to Giovanni through so many guards, and couldn't help asking, "Won't you invite me to sit down and talk?"

Giovanni stared at Robin for a moment before gesturing for Robin to sit down.

However, even after sitting down, Giovanni's guards still stood solemnly beside Giovanni. Robin Mancini smiled helplessly and continued:

"The first reason is that the exchange houses in Batan and Carmela are doing very well, but the money in the exchange houses has to be transferred from Viscount Lanwan. Every month, the exchange house in Batan has to transport the fusos it has exchanged back to the headquarters to exchange for enough dir to transport here. This is very inconvenient, so we want to borrow some dir from you to at least help the exchange house in Batan get through the first month."

Robin Mancini's words were half true and half false. The inconvenience of currency transfer was indeed a difficulty that the gold exchange had to face, but it was not the main difficulty. The main difficulty was that the gold exchange had now opened up the exchange of dir, but Charlotte had limited dir in hand, so she had to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. Otherwise, facing the huge enthusiasm of the city-states to exchange dir, the gold exchange would not be able to sustain for long. Borrowing money from others as much as possible was a way to increase revenue.

"Heh..." Giovanni Draghi sneered, "The price of the dire changes every day. I just came back from the gold exchange opened by Viscount Lanwan. The exchange rate between Fuso and dire has risen to 1:3.4. Why should I lend you the dire?"

"You just came back from the money exchange? That's easy," Robin Mancini laughed. "Did you see that the money exchange has a deposit service?"

"Deposit?" Giovanni recalled some things and it seemed that this was indeed the case, so he nodded.

"You just need to open a deposit account at the exchange and deposit your dirhams into the account. During the deposit period, the exchange will pay you interest every month. When you need to use dirhams, you can withdraw them at any time. Of course, if the amount is large, you need to inform the exchange in advance so that they have time to prepare." said Robin Mancini.

Giovanni's first reaction was "Is there such a good thing?", but after thinking about it carefully, he found that this is still borrowing money. It seems that the repayment time is a little more flexible, but the amount is huge, and the exchange house needs time to "prepare" in advance. Who knows whether the preparation time is three days, five days, or thirty days or fifty days?

Refuse! You must refuse!

Giovanni had already made up his mind, but he still asked casually, "What's the second reason?"

Robin Mancini glanced at the guards on both sides, but still felt it was a bit inappropriate: "Are you sure you want to say it in front of them?"

"Of course," Giovanni said impatiently, "I've already said that they are my most trusted subordinates!"

The guards on both sides couldn't help but raise their chins and look at Robin Mancini proudly.

"Well then," since Giovanni was so determined, Robin had no choice but to say, "Viscount Lanwan plans to take over Bataan within one to two months, and would like to invite you to be his insider."

Bang.

Giovanni smashed the cup in his hand, not even noticing that the tea had soaked his clothes. He stared at Robin Mancini in shock: "What?"

Giovanni's guards pressed the hilts of the swords at their waists.

After a while, Giovanni came back to his senses, pointed at Robin Mancini and said with gritted teeth: "Viscount Lanwan actually has such a wolfish ambition!"

Robin Mancini smiled and said, "I heard that Elder Giovanni has accused the Viscount of plotting against Badan more than once in the Council of Elders. Why are you so surprised when the time comes?"

Giovanni opened his mouth. Apparently, talking big in front of the elders was one thing, but actually facing it was another.

In fact, even though the Sokya city-state was defeated in the war with Viscount Lanwan and lost the two cities of Ambratu and Dorukocha in succession, most Sokya people just thought that Charlotte was a brutal bandit and did not think that Viscount Lanwan really wanted to annex the entire Sokya Peninsula. The farther the city-state was from the Oran Empire, the more likely it would have such an idea. After all, the Oran Empire and the Sokya Peninsula had coexisted peacefully for a thousand years.

Bataan was far from the border of the Orlan Empire. Giovanni shouted that Charlotte was despicable and greedy every day, and he was mostly looking for excuses for his defeat and hiding his cowardice. To be honest, he felt that Viscount Lanwan wanted to annex Bataan, maybe a little, but definitely not much.

"The ink of the peace treaty between Viscount Lanwan and us has not even dried yet, and he's already planning to start another war?" Giovanni felt humiliated as he looked at Robin's sneering expression.

"Isn't this natural?" Robin Mancini spread his hands and said, "The last of the Aiye Alliance's troops have been summoned to Feidi. Now there are only a few patrols in Bataan City that are searching for thieves. It is extremely empty. How could the Viscount miss such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?"

"Since Viscount Lanwan is planning to invade our city-state, you still dare to speak nonsense here. Aren't you afraid that I will kill you?" Giovanni said gritting his teeth.

The guards around had already drawn their swords, waiting for Giovanni's order to hack Robin Mancini to death.

Robin Mancini still smiled easily. He crossed his legs and drank a sip of tea. "Since I'm here, I have naturally considered the possibility of being killed by you. But Mr. Giovanni, what's the point of killing me? I'm just the most incompetent knight under Viscount Lanwan. I'm not good at either wisdom or swordsmanship. Killing me can't change the fact that Viscount Lanwan can easily defeat Bataan. Mr. Giovanni, what you need to consider now is, after being incorporated into the rule of Viscount Lanwan, how should the people of Bataan deal with themselves? How should you deal with yourself?"

Giovanni was silent.

"I have been in Bataan for a while. It is indeed pleasant to live in this beautiful and prosperous city-state, but I also hear some harsh voices from time to time. For example, Giovanni Draghi's incompetence led to the disastrous defeat of Dorucocha, and Giovanni Draghi is no longer suitable to be an elder." Robin Mancini gradually put away his smile and lowered his voice. "Mr. Giovanni, the facts have proved that your political career in this city-state may be coming to an end. My arrival may not be an opportunity for you."

Giovanni still didn't speak, but his fists gradually clenched.

"If you were one of the first people to serve the Viscount, you might be able to become a dictator of a city-state like Mr. Jonathan Hackman."

After Robin Mancini said this last sentence, he said no more and just waited silently for Giovanni's response.

Giovanni lowered his head and remained silent.

The room was eerily quiet for a moment.

I don't know how much time passed, but suddenly Giovanni called out, "Reva."

"Sir." One of the most capable-looking guards looked at Giovanni.

Giovanni raised his right hand and made a gesture of interlacing his middle finger and index finger.

The guard named Leiva understood, glanced around, and then suddenly stabbed his sword into the waist of his companion next to him.

"Ah..." The guard who was suddenly stabbed let out a scream.