Pope Augustus

Faol's lengthy, impassioned speech left Augustus completely bewildered, full of questions about many things he said, but he still managed to grasp Faol's general meaning.

Faol intended to secretly intervene to weaken the Borgia Family, disrupt their economy, exacerbate internal problems, and then seize the opportunity to acquire the Rome Newspaper.

However, this idea seemed dangerous no matter how he looked at it. It was clear that going through such a big circle was still an attack on the Borgia Family.

In essence, it was no different from directly confiscating the Borgia Family's assets, just a slightly gentler method.

But was it really possible to utterly destroy someone without them discovering your involvement?

If the Borgia Family were so easy to bully, how could they have stood firm in the Italian region for so many years?

If the Borgia Family traced the mastermind back to Faol, what kind of retaliatory actions might they take?

In an already balanced market, how easy would it be to interfere, and what kind of chain reactions would it cause?

Would the Borgia Family, as hoped, see their internal conflicts increase rather than decrease when facing an external enemy?

All these questions needed to be considered, but unfortunately, the answers were unknowable before the actual implementation of the plan.

"Faol, how confident are you that this will succeed?" Augustus asked, frowning.

"At least eighty percent," Faol said confidently.

"And have you clearly considered the consequences of the other twenty percent?"

"If there are problems, I will bear the consequences alone. Since this operation is entirely under my personal name, it will not be directly linked to you. If circumstances demand, you can simply remove me."

"What nonsense are you saying! How could I possibly remove you under pressure from the Borgia Family? At worst, we'll bring this matter into the open, break ties with the Borgias, and figure something out together. Faol, no matter what, I would never betray a friend to save myself."

It was necessary to distance himself on trivial matters, but he absolutely could not lose Faol. These words contained nine parts sincerity and one part pretense.

Faol was clearly moved, but his greater concern was: "Then, my plan…"

Looking at Faol's determined gaze, Augustus also gained a bit more confidence.

"Alright, I agree to your plan. Feel free to state any requirements, and I will fully support you. But you must remember, in this matter, you can never be too careful."

"Good! I'll get to it now." Having received approval, Faol enthusiastically began to act.

The information collected about the Borgia Family was already comprehensive enough. The first step began: acquiring properties under the names of Borgia Family members, including land, fields, and workshops, through intermediaries in multiple industries and regions.

Faol had an extremely keen eye for economics. In a very short time, he accurately determined which industries held immense potential and which were highly susceptible to external influences.

Because the prices offered were attractive enough, and the people sent for acquisition appeared unrelated, and Borgia Family members lacked necessary connections, this action did not attract the attention of the Borgia Family.

The family members who sold their properties were even pleased with themselves for getting a good price for their assets and having money to spend on lavish entertainment, unaware that disaster was imminent.

The entire process didn't take much effort, but it cost a significant amount of money. Having just completed the first step, Faol had already taken over two hundred thousand ducats (ducat gold coins: 0.997 gold content, weighing 3.56 grams) from the Pope.

The expenditure was astonishing, but Augustus did not question it much. Augustus understood the principle of "if you trust someone, use them; if you don't, don't." Since he trusted Faol, he let him work freely; asking too many questions would be of no benefit. Moreover, this money was not wasted but existed in another form.

Soon, the layout was complete, and hostile actions against the Borgia Family were about to begin. Beneath the calm surface, a war without smoke was brewing.

Under Faol's series of deployments and arrangements, everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion. Some family members quickly realized that the prices of raw materials for their workshop products were being deliberately raised; their previously balanced competitors seemed to have become a hundred times stronger overnight, making them difficult to resist; and a huge amount of capital, highly hostile to them, had appeared from nowhere.

There were exceptions, of course; some Borgia Family members were completely unaffected. Some were powerful and difficult to shake, while others were deliberately spared by Faol.

Of course, the line of Gaspard, which directly controlled the Rome Newspaper, could not be spared, no matter how powerful they were. It simply meant spending more money, even resorting to gathering thugs to cause destruction and inciting workers and farmers to strike and cause trouble.

Hesitation in the face of decisive action only leads to greater trouble. No one immediately thinks of sacrificing a pawn to save the king when faced with a crisis. They continuously invested funds to cope with the crisis, only to find it was a bottomless pit, sinking deeper and deeper. Some family members who were already not doing very well simply couldn't hold on.

Initially, those unwitting family members thought they had offended someone with a powerful backer who was retaliating against them.

After all, most Borgia Family members had offended many people in the past, but they couldn't rack their brains enough to figure out who it was. The people sent out to gather information, despite clear leads, all came back empty-handed, making them curse angrily.

When they finally communicated with each other and discovered that many family members were being targeted almost simultaneously, they realized: the opponent's goal was the entire Borgia Family.

Realizing the problem, the Borgia Family immediately called an emergency family meeting. In the dim candlelight, the attendees displayed various expressions: some were frowning with worry, some looked relaxed, some showed schadenfreude, and some were calculating something.

"I presume everyone is aware of the recent situation. It's clear that someone is targeting our Borgia Family. What are your thoughts on this?" Once everyone was present, an elder sitting in the main seat spoke first.

"Does that even need asking? It must be some short-sighted fool who offended someone, dragging our family down with them!" a family member who was almost bankrupt from losses said angrily.

"What a joke! Who has our Borgia Family ever feared? Some people are simply incompetent; they can't even withstand a small storm and still have the nerve to blame others?" a young man said proudly.

"Who are you calling incompetent? Dare to say that again? Everyone here has been targeted more or less, yet your family is completely unaffected. I have every reason to suspect you of disregarding family honor, betraying family interests, and colluding with external enemies!"

"Silence," the elder in the main seat interjected, "I called you here to solve problems, not to argue. If anyone else wants to argue, get out!"

"Why should we listen to you? If I'm not mistaken, your family can barely protect itself, can it? If you want help, you should act like someone asking for help. If you're willing to hand over the territory of Valencia, I can reluctantly help you through this difficult time," an elder of similar age said sarcastically.

"With an external enemy upon us, can you only think of personal gain?" the elder in the main seat retorted angrily.

"External enemy? Where? Those are your enemies, what do they have to do with me?"

...

Thus, the meeting, which was originally intended to solve problems, not only failed to produce any solutions due to conflicts of interest and old grudges but also greatly deepened the conflicts among family members. Some members who had not suffered much loss even began to covet the ancestral properties of other members.