NOVEL WEB Chapter 13
“Haha, Fabio. You’re like the goose that lays golden eggs for our Visconti family.”
Looking at how I’m being treated right now, there’s no sign of the frustration from when our caravan was robbed of over 12 tons of steel.
Considering the profits we’ve made, losing just 12 tons of steel isn’t a huge problem from a financial perspective.
Is this fool really laughing even after tarnishing the Duke’s authority?
This means the Duke has already resolved this issue.
“I’m ashamed.”
“You’re not backing down.”
“Denying the results of my actions would only demean your grace, my Duke, wouldn’t it?”
I’m not the only one who benefited from this steel factory issue.
The Duke gained a tidy 20% cut as well.
He must have secured massive political gains by manipulating the nobles with the steel.
“At your age, to accurately grasp the value of what you’ve done. Truly, a clever one, aren’t you? With this much, you should be able to knock the bishop down a peg in the church court. I guess words alone can’t compete with you?”
A servant should not be more capable than his master.
The truth is, when receiving such praise, one shouldn’t accept it too frankly with a ‘Yes, that’s true.’ It just makes you look arrogant.
Even if I’m more capable than the Duke, I must always bow my head, and acknowledge that I’m not as good as the Duke.
That way, I won’t be suspected.
“Deus has aided me, and thanks to that fool Christian babbling nonsense, I was able to counter him. How could I possibly outmatch the Duke in words?”
The Duke licked his lips upon hearing my words.
Please, not like this. I wish a handsome man wouldn’t act this way.
“Let’s keep the chit-chat to this much. Steward, bring it over.”
The steward standing behind the Duke handed me a sheet of paper.
A contract plastered with all kinds of embellishments and vows to the gods.
The longer these things are, the weightier the document usually is.
But what’s important now isn’t that; the most crucial content was all packed into that one line.
‘To pay 99,373 pounds, which is 80% of the steel sale for 124,217 pounds.’
“That’s almost 10,000 gold coins.”
Once you start managing a business, or even just handling financial accounting within a company, you’ll inevitably deal with amounts that could make your head spin.
Now that I’m actually receiving this vast sum of money, I’m left dumbfounded.
I finally understand why those cartoon characters bleed from their noses when they hit big bucks.
This is even more exhilarating than that.
“You’re truly rich now. From now on, you might earn double, no, triple this amount.”
“Thank you, my Duke.”
“This is the rightful price of the contract we made. Is there really a need for thanks? By the way, aren’t you curious?”
“Curious about what?”
The Duke wore a wicked grin.
“How I dealt with those blacksmith guild scoundrels.”
Just as I expected, he didn’t call me over because he knew how to handle these nuisances.
After all, would someone who can’t even make such judgments be able to represent hundreds of marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons?
“How did you do it?”
“The blacksmith guild hired bandits to ambush our caravan. Knowing this would happen, I deployed an elite unit for protection…”
Unlike when he first saw me, the Duke grit his teeth.
I could hear his grinding teeth loud and clear.
“It seems the master of the blacksmith guild spent a bit too much, hiring a band of bandits that included several knights. Otherwise, our escorts wouldn’t have been taken down so easily.”
Barons and viscounts must always have territories to accompany their titles.
However, a knightly title is just recognized as noble, and being a knight doesn’t guarantee a stable living.
In fact, if you randomly gather 100 knights, about half of them are unemployed.
Romantically termed ‘wandering knights’, but in reality, they are more like gambling addicts.
Friends who aim to win tournaments, take other people’s armors, and get employed as knights in some noble family after winning.
These guys, when life doesn’t go their way, pack up their armor and join the bandits, sometimes even being specially enlisted as officers.
“A bandit group with former knights is practically the same as mercenaries.”
In fact, among mercenary groups, there are plenty who play bandits during peacetime and then transform into mercenaries when war breaks out.
The romance of mercenaries? Not in our Toscan Empire.
“Well, just looking at the situation, it’s pretty obvious that those blacksmiths are from Florence. They directly warned their superior, Duke Sforza. If they keep pushing their luck, they’ll draw swords and fight. After that, as long as proper escorts were attached, our caravans weren’t plundered anymore. That’s half the problem solved.”
It’s like successfully fixing the barn after losing the cow; only half the problem is resolved.
“If it were my preference, I’d want to wipe out the blacksmith guild scoundrels myself. But selling steel without going through the Florence or any other regional blacksmith guild would violate imperial decree, wouldn’t it?”
For someone like the Duke, it wouldn’t mean death just for breaking the law unless he committed treason.
However, he would face tremendous political influence and a massive loss of wealth.
Just how severe would the anticipated damage be, for a Duke to know who the enemy is yet still being unable to outright kill them for the sake of his honor?
“That’s correct.”
“So this is the best course of action.”
Certainly, the Duke can’t swing his sword against the blacksmith guild.
However, if we twist our thinking a little, we could’ve taken some form of revenge.
While he might not be able to uproot the entire guild, there’s a way to eliminate those high-ranking individuals who instigated this.
“My Duke, do you wish to strengthen ties with the royal family?”
“To suppress Sforza, it’s natural to get closer to the royal family.”
The Visconti Duke couldn’t crush the blacksmith guild because if he retaliated, he’d be angering the Emperor due to breaking imperial law.
And that anger would result in tremendous political and financial loss.
So let’s turn that around.
In the end, even if he breaks imperial law, as long as he keeps the Emperor in good spirits, it will all smooth over, right?
In 21st century Korea, the law is generally upheld. But in the medieval legal system, if a high-ranking person wants to kill someone, the judge just pretends to abide by law and that’s that.
“Supply steel to the royal family at a cheap price. Around 80% of the price you supply to the market.”
“Wouldn’t that be a loss for you?”
To the Duke, enhancing ‘political influence’ is far more important than the income from the steel.
So, if he can increase his political influence, he’d consider this amount a mere loss.
No, even in the most extreme case, if he just breaks even, it wouldn’t bother him at all.
In contrast, for me, money is way more important than political influence, so this would be quite a big loss.
“I’m a vassal of your grace. I can’t let my greed make you miss out on a lucrative opportunity. One must think long-term, right?”
My passionate loyalty towards the Duke was evident, yet he still didn’t look fully satisfied.
Having dealt with people through carrots and sticks all his life, he likely doubted my intention to willingly give up the carrot after only knowing me for a few months. I couldn’t deny that it was unfair.
“I want to live long and prosper. What’s the point of living in luxury for a short time, only to die miserably?”
I’m still in the process of accumulating wealth and social status, which is why I’m postponing marriage.
It’s about time I’d earn the label ‘bachelor’ among the nobles.
“In exchange for supplying steel to the royal family at a low price, obtain the right to sell steel without going through the blacksmith guild.”
The Duke didn’t seem fully on board with my suggestion.
“If I swing my sword at the blacksmith guild, it’s likely that other guilds would unite and refuse to supply goods to our faction.”
A noble stomping on a guild without justification?
If that happens, as the Duke said, all guilds might band together to refuse selling anything to that noble family.
In other words, it would bring the entire market to a halt.
If such an event were to occur, that family would face ruin.
“If we acquire the Emperor’s permission, no one would be able to object to whatever you do with the blacksmith guild, my Duke. Those who dared to plunder a merchant under your protection wouldn’t dare to speak.”
Since we have the justification, they would be unable to unite against us.
“If we gain that permission, the Florence blacksmith guild will definitely fall into your hands. Then, it won’t matter if you sell weapons or armor to the Sforza family at a higher price.”
The Florence blacksmith guild is also the head of all blacksmith guilds existing in the Toscan Empire.
Still, just having this title does not grant practical dominance, so I can’t make unreasonable demands based solely on that.
But if I shake things up with this legalized steel resource…?
“I could raise the price of armor I sell to Sforza by around 1.2 times.”
Considering the volume and quantity they’ll buy, they would likely go nuts over this.
“While I may lose a little profit, the rest will be compensated by you, right?”
Only then did the Duke finally smile.
A wicked smile that showed his true nature.
“Let’s do it right away. And once this matter is concluded, I’ll grant you a special reward.”
“It would be an honor.”
“I trust you can handle taking over the blacksmith guild with ease.”