Chapter 129. To Stand on One's Own (1)
“Chieftain!”
Seeing Drogan trudging back with the axe shouldered, the warriors waiting for him ran out in a single breath.
“Are you alright?”
Although he always spoke roughly, Drogan was respected by all dwarves.
Everyone here was worried about Drogan who entered the unknown passage alone.
“……Seal this place.”
Drogan ordered the warriors with a very tired face.
“Do not let anyone enter. I order in the name of the Chieftain.”
Seeing Drogan speaking with a serious appearance unlike usual, the dwarves had no choice but to just nod.
Drogan turned around and looked at the passage he had entered.
There, the shining legacy left by ancestors slept.
Along with fear regarding the disaster to be in the future.
Drogan saw it, felt it, and understood it.
“Until it is time.”
Therefore, he decided to wait quietly.
The door of steel opened and now was the time to wait for the flow.
***
Blanc held the paper Ulrich handed over in the illusion and put it into his bosom carefully.
“Let’s go.”
He picked up the seed placed on the altar and told the group.
“Screeech.”
The young Phoenix landed on Blanc’s shoulder coming down from the altar.
Perlman, seeing Blanc coming down harboring two legends, could know that he achieved another accomplishment.
“Did you achieve what you aimed for?”
Blanc coming down the altar looked at Perlman and answered.
“Isn't there still one left?”
Perlman realized what Blanc meant and answered smiling.
“We will proceed with the verification of the account after going up to the bank head’s office.”
In the first account, Ulrich had left a promissory note corresponding to 10,000 Gold for Blanc.
Blanc raised soldiers and defeated three Barons through that money and could eventually reclaim Norington.
However, money is bound to disappear eventually.
Since Blanc burned gold coins ceaselessly, eventually Norington’s vault was becoming empty.
“I ask you.”
The gold coins remaining in the second account would give great help to Blanc and Norington.
The group returned to the Iron Bank riding the Magic Elevator.
“I-It would have been really nice if there was something like this when we went down to Brotswav.”
Although it was Rakshar’s word that spat out inadvertently, the aftermath it brought was big.
“……If you didn't go down riding this, just what did you ride down?”
Seeing Perlman raising his glasses and expressing doubt, the group was feeling something was wrong.
“We went down riding a mine cart. That very shaking and dangerous thing.”
Simon stepped forward quickly and spoke of the situation back then.
Even Simon who went blind was sick of the feeling of the mine cart sinking toward the endless underground.
“Strange. Surely there is a direct elevator connecting the Iron Bank and Brotswav…….”
“Are there perhaps conditions required to ride it? Like humans aren't allowed?”
Blanc asked Perlman, feeling a question rising from deep inside his chest.
Hoping it wasn't what he thought.
However, the words coming out of Perlman’s mouth betrayed Blanc’s expectation.
“It isn't that there are no conditions but…… Count Blanc is a Golden Grade client of the Iron Bank, so you have sufficient qualification.”
As Perlman’s words ended, a long silence continued in the Magic Elevator.
“Hold him.”
At Blanc’s heavy single word, knights bowed their heads and answered.
“Yes.”
***
“Wait, we have something to talk about.”
Demon-breaking Knights and Sten waiting for the Blanc group in the VIP room.
Simon, Rakshar, and Jerome, who burst in there, quickly surrounded Sten and called him out outside.
Leaving behind Sten following the knights with a bewildered expression, Blanc entered the bank head’s office following Perlman.
“Still, he is the Chieftain’s son so…….”
Perlman fiddled with his glasses as if troubled and said to Blanc.
“Rather, it turned out well. Through this opportunity, the distance between my knights and Sten will be able to narrow.”
Seeing Blanc not giving a definite answer while deflecting Perlman’s words slightly, Perlman was convinced he possessed the attitude worthy of a noble.
“Then I will check.”
While Perlman tapped magic circles to check the gold coins deposited in the second account, Blanc sat deep in the chair and thought of Norington and the financial officer Bonas.
‘It’s a relief.’
Blanc, who heard Bonas’ rebuke that wasn't a rebuke, intended to put out the fire on his foot first through these gold coins and create various profit businesses through connection with dwarves simultaneously.
Because as Bonas said, he couldn't rely on the legacy Ulrich left forever.
‘Once I pass just this time…….’
However, reality is something that doesn't always go as thought.
“Count.”
“Yes.”
Numerous plans floated in Blanc’s head, but the wall of reality was cruel.
“……It is 500 Gold.”
“……How much?”
Blanc uncrossed his legs and asked Perlman in return.
Perlman was also flustered by the fact that only 500 Gold came out from the symbolic place called the second account.
“……It is 500 Gold. It is certain.”
Blanc and Perlman’s silence continued in the bank head’s office for a long time.
“……500 Gold.”
Blanc pressed his eyelids with both hands.
He also thought money in the second account might be less than 10,000 Gold, but he didn't imagine there would be only 500 Gold.
“Precisely it is 513 Gold, 221 Silver, 13 Copper.”
“What did you say?”
Blanc made a face of disbelief hearing the deposited money containing even units of copper.
“Although I do not know who made this account…… seeing that units of copper are shoved in.”
Perlman raised his glasses and spoke his guess.
“It seems he put in all the money he had…… emptying even the money in his pocket.”
“……Haa.”
Blanc couldn't hide the emotion surging up listening to Perlman’s words.
Didn't he hear what Ulrich went through meeting him in the illusion?
How big of a money 10,000 Gold was.
That money was huge enough to hire soldiers to reclaim a territory and establish the foundation of that territory.
Ulrich, trapped in the past, would have established the Iron Bank solely with his own power and gathered that money to hand it to him.
And for Beronion who relatively wouldn't need money, he emptied all money remaining to him and put it into the second account.
“I am a terrible guy…….”
Blanc felt shame at himself who was disappointed at the money of 500 Gold and couldn't dare lift his head, just looking at the ground.
The money of 500 Gold was the price of Ulrich’s blood and existence.
“……Will you withdraw?”
Blanc nodded quietly at Perlman’s words.
The note with Ulrich’s message put in his bosom seemed to prick his chest stingingly.
“……Now I must stand up on my own.”
Although Perlman couldn't fully understand what Blanc said, he could know roughly that he made a big resolution.
“Understood. I will withdraw the money in the account as per the Count’s request.”
Perlman withdrew money in the account following Blanc’s request.
Blanc’s eyes looking at him shone strangely.
A situation where he could no longer expect financial help from things Ulrich left.
But Norington’s vault was still empty and there were many businesses to proceed with.
It was a situation where he had to put out the fire on his foot somehow.
“……Excuse me, Sir Perlman.”
“Please speak.”
Blanc, calling Perlman carefully, felt the time came to use everything he had now.
“I must get a loan.”
“……Pardon?”
Perlman flustered at Blanc’s words continuing without context.
“I need urgent money. Am I not a Golden Grade client of the Iron Bank? Would there be advantageous conditions when getting a loan?”
Perlman looked at Blanc quietly.
“Of course.”
Perlman, adjusting his glasses, rummaged through desk drawers to take out various documents and began to measure Blanc’s credit rating tapping magic circles.
At Perlman’s strangely forceful appearance, Blanc felt as if he was shrinking for some reason.
He who fought countless Void and Evil.
“It will take a moment.”
“I will wait.”
Although Perlman was cool-headed enough to hear that golden blood flowed instead of blood, he was giving maximum consideration since it was Blanc who opened the first and second accounts.
“Please look at this in the meantime. It is a new ranking table not yet announced.”
Seeing Blanc’s face stiff strangely, Perlman smiled and said.
“As an outsider not related to the Iron Bank, Count Blanc is the first to see it.”
Blanc received the paper Perlman handed over.
At the very top of that paper, the title ‘100 Families Trusted by the Iron Bank’ was written.
***
“Ah damn it--!”
Along with rough swear words, a crunching sound was heard inside the office.
Count Lacie’s retainers hearing that sound felt like they wanted to block their ears rather.
“Does this make sense!”
Count Lacie grabbing and throwing whatever caught in his hands.
Since things caught in his hands were mostly empty liquor bottles, sounds of something breaking echoed loudly inside the office.
“Huff- Huff-.”
Although he made a mess until his stamina ran out, perhaps anger didn't subside fully, red energy lingered in Count Lacie’s eyes.
“Even these Iron Bank bastard dogs ignore me…….”
At the end of his gaze, a sheet of crumpled messy paper lay on the desk.
Count Lacie, finding a new liquor bottle in the cabinet and opening the lid, drank from the bottle without even thinking of pouring alcohol into a glass and unfolded the crumpled paper again.
“Count Lacie Family 96th…….”
Count Lacie thought the ranking might rise since he became the head of the Southern Union, but rather it dropped ten steps.
“Count Cadmus Family 87th.”
That his ranking dropped ten steps meant new families entered above him.
Even if his ranking dropping was acceptable, Blanc being above him was a questionable part.
“Just what is that kid doing?”
Since the Iron Bank proceeded with work in a cold and verified method, the story that the Cadmus family which barely reclaimed territory just now was in a place higher than him was practically the same as the fact that Blanc was plotting something without him knowing.
It wasn't just the Cadmus family.
“Count Neudorf Family 76th.”
The Meritorious Noble families of the Kingdom of Felix who couldn't enter the Iron Bank’s rankings until now.
However, there were two families that entered the rankings uniquely.
“So you managed to secure a territory, clumsy as it was…”
Neudorf Family of the Golden Balance.
“Count Tolome Family…….”
The glorious family that produced the 17th Saintess simultaneously gained territory.
“……23rd.”
It was the Tolome Family, the lion raising a sword.
Count Lacie crumpled the paper once again after checking Tolome’s ranking.
Honor is important in the world of nobles, and the surest way to raise honor is to prove through the sword.
However, although being the same Count family, the Lacie family didn't receive as much recognition as Tolome.
The reason was that they didn't produce knights representing the era.
Although Count Lacie had an inferiority complex toward Tolome for such reasons, he took comfort in the fact that Tolome was a Meritorious Noble family without a territory, but now he couldn't be compensated for the inferiority complex by anything.
“This dog-like old lion bastard-!”
Influence on central power, influence on the Order, toughness of possessed soldiers.
And now even the existence of a territory.
The Lacie family could now surpass Tolome with nothing.
“It cannot go on like this…… Like this…….”
Red veins were rising in the eyes of Count Lacie grabbing the paper roughly.